Tag: Cooperative

Cooperative games are games in which all players work towards the completion of a shared objective.

Victoriana

Victoriana

Victoriana

Somewhere in the heart of 19th century London, shadowy forces are hatching a dire conspiracy. Queen Victoria has enlisted the aid of exceptional individuals to investigate the impending plot and save her realm from its calamitous consequences.

Victoriana is a cooperative game for 1-4 players. Players move throughout London marshaling and managing resources, investigating leads, and thwarting the agents of an unknown mastermind before time runs out.

Players take the role of investigators that have influence within different realms of British society (politics, science, occult, and the underworld). The conspiracy’s three elements (mastermind, plot, and locale) are represented by cards and tokens selected in secret before the game begins. Leads relating to the conspiracy are represented by facedown cards tied to notable London locations. Players move their figures throughout the city, revealing lead cards, expending their investigator’s influence tokens to acquire those leads, and deciding how to apply them toward the conspiracy’s hidden aspects.

Time is not on their side. Mismanaging the clock or their influence tokens causes leads to go cold, traumatizing investigators and bringing the conspiracy closer to its dreadful realization. Worse, as the investigators come closer to the truth, the mastermind dispatches agents to stymie their movements, disrupt their efforts (by forcing them to discard influence tokens), and assassinate them (by causing trauma).

Identifying the elements of the conspiracy leads the players to a climactic confrontation. If the precise combination of influence is accrued and the investigators assemble at the correct locale, the queen is saved and the British Empire preserved; however, if too many leads go cold, Big Ben strikes midnight, or the investigators are too traumatized, a dire fate awaits.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.67

Vendetta

Vendetta

Vendetta

Vendetta is a cooperative deductive murder mystery game where players must solve puzzles, follow clues and make decisions to solve a case. They do this using the included deck of cards, 12 hidden realistic clue documents, and the Internet. Through a choose-your-own-adventure mechanism, players make decisions that influence the course of the game and lead to solving the case in the end. One by one, they enter different realistically designed locations and encounter the various suspects. Then they choose from 3 different ways to deal with the situation and receive points based on their decisions. Complex puzzles and escape room elements must be solved in order to progress further in the case.

Thematically, the game moves in the environment of the mafia in today’s New york. As a member of the mafia you have to uncover the mole in your own ranks who caused the death of the eldest son of the godfather. It’s up to you whether you act morally or use other methods to make your victims talk.

The game is closely intertwined with the real world, and players have to keep using traditional apps like Google Maps or Wikipedia to gather information. Writing emails, detiallated web pages and cell phone calls are also part of the immersive gaming experience.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Deduction
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 180 – 300 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Vagrantsong

Vagrantsong

Vagrantsong

You trainhop aboard the Silver Ferryman, chasin’ a dream or runnin’ from the past. What you find is a welcomin’ hand – white glove, stretched skin… and a fiddle player in the distance, playin’ a tune that’s awfully inviting. Makes you never wanna leave.

In Vagrantsong, a cooperative and story-driven boss battler, you will take on the role of a Vagrant trapped on a supernatural ghost train. Face off against ghosts lingering on the train (called Haints), adjust your playstyle with Skills and Junk acquired along the way, and uncover the secrets of the Silver Ferryman in this spooky and challenging adventure.

In each of the 20+ Scenarios in Vagrantsong’s campaign, players will take turns spending their 3 Coins to take actions, such as: moving around the train board, investigating the unknown, and rummaging for items that might help them get out of a tight spot. Additionally, players can spend their Coins on more exclusive actions to remind a Haint of their lost Humanity, all in the hopes of freeing the spirit from the ghost train’s bone-chilling grip, and winning the Scenario in the process. But be careful! Each Haint has their own bag of tricks and gameplay mechanics. They will stop at nothing to make sure that the players lose all of their Humanity and stay aboard forever.

After each Scenario, players will have a moment to rest, allowing them the opportunity to change out their Skill and Junk cards, heal their Vagrant, and prepare for their next encounter aboard the Silver Ferryman.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Narrative Choice
  • Role Playing
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.08

The Undercity: An Iron Kingdoms Adventure Board Game

The Undercity: An Iron Kingdoms Adventure Board Game

The Undercity: An Iron Kingdoms Adventure Board Game

The Undercity puts a spin on the classic dungeon crawl adventure, setting it within the vast underground labyrinth of one of the Iron Kingdoms’ most famous cities.

This board game for two to four players comes with a seven-adventure campaign. The players play one to four characters from the Iron Kingdoms universe as they try to weed out a nefarious evil that has been lurking in the Undercity of Corvis.

All players will be playing on the same team and the game requires no game master. The players work together defeating enemies, achieving objectives, and gaining experience that can be used to give new skills to their characters that can be used in subsequent adventures in the campaign.

The game will come with almost 40 different miniatures with 16 different sculpts. The four heroes are Milo Boggs (the alchemist), Canice Gormleigh (the gun mage), Gardek Stonebrow (a trollkin warrior), and Pog (a gobber mechanic) that controls a light warjack named Doorstop.

Each character has a starting stat sheet, but players can purchase character ability cards with XP gained from the adventure to enhance and customize their characters.

Combat is based on rolling dice against opposing attributes. Players will be able to use feats and abilities to give boosts to these dice rolls, similar in many ways to other games based in the Iron Kingdoms.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Role Playing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.83

Tokyo Sidekick

Tokyo Sidekick

Tokyo Sidekick

Tokyo Sidekick is a cooperative game for 2-4 players that draws inspiration from superhero comics and Japanese pop culture. Each player controls a hero and sidekick, complete with their own unique backstories and special abilities. Together, you must save Tokyo by fighting increasingly powerful villains as crime spreads across the city. As you play, you’ll unlock new items and stronger abilities while leveling up your characters. But if crime reaches dangerous levels, you take too much damage, or you can’t defeat the final boss, Tokyo will be plunged into chaos.

Can you defeat your adversaries in time to save the city?

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.67

The Thing: The Boardgame

The Thing: The Boardgame

The Thing: The Boardgame

The Thing is a game that mixes different mechanisms to create an experience that is as faithful as possible to that of the original film. It is a “hidden role” game, in which one player is initially the Thing and the others players are humans. The purpose of the Thing is to infect others, to prevent the survivors from escaping from the base (which can happen three different ways), or to try to escape with them by behaving as a human.

In addition to these elements, players also have to manage Outpost 31. On the map are the same rooms as seen in the film, and each of these rooms allows players to perform a different action. Human players have to feed themselves and keep the boiler and the generator on to avoid being in the cold and dark. The Thing will try to sabotage these places to make life difficult for humans…or not, trying to camouflage itself among the humans and infect them when the perfect opportunity presents itself.

The goal of the game designers was to bring the same personal emotions and paranoia that the protagonists of the film experienced to the gaming table.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Hidden Roles

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.89

Tales from the Loop

Tales from the Loop

Tales from the Loop

In the Tales From the Loop – The Board Game, you take the roles of local kids and play cooperatively to investigate whatever phenomena that threaten the islands (or perhaps just the local video store), and hopefully stop them. Each day starts at school, but as soon as the bell rings you can use whatever time you have before dinner and homework to go exploring! Player actions are integrated, meaning there’s no downtime as you wait for others taking their turn. It also makes cooperating with your fellow players dynamic as you can react to things that happen in a turn and don’t have to plan it all out from the start.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Narrative Choice

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 90 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.33

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley

A cooperative board game of farming and friendship based on the Stardew Valley video game by Eric Barone. Work together with your fellow farmers to save the Valley from the nefarious JojaMart Corporation! To do this, you’ll need to farm, fish, friend and find all kinds of different resources to fulfill your Grandpa’s Goals and restore the Community Center. Collect all kinds of items, raise animals, and explore the Mine. Gain powerful upgrades and skills and as the seasons pass see if you’re able to protect the magic of Stardew Valley!

The goal of the game is to complete Grandpa’s Goals and restore the Community Center, which requires you to gather different types of resources represented by tiles. You have a fixed amount of turns to accomplish this. This is driven by the Season Deck of 20 cards, one of which is drawn each turn to trigger certain events. Cooperatively the players decide each turn where they will focus their individual actions and place their pawn in that part of the Valley. Using their actions, they visit specific locations, trying to gather resources to complete their collective goals. Actions include things like: watering crops, trying to catch fish, rolling dice to explore the mines, and many more. When the Season Deck is exhausted, the game ends.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 200 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.76

Spectre

Spectre

Spectre

In SPECTRE: The Board Game, you take on the role of one of the many iconic villains from the James Bond film franchise, competing with one another to become Number One of the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion, a.k.a., SPECTRE.

Are you simply in the game to acquire gold bullion, or are your aspirations more philosophical, safe in the knowledge that the world would be better off with you running it? Each villain has their own plot inspired by films such as Dr. No (1962) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971) driving them along the path to becoming SPECTRE’s Number One. No matter how hard you try, though, 007 is always there, waiting to disrupt your plans and reveal your secrets.

SPECTRE: The Board Game features iconic weapons, locations, and characters from the James Bond films. You will be able to assemble devices, spy on your opponents, blackmail your rivals in order to build your own criminal empire, and strategically deploy your agents around the globe to infiltrate key installations. You need to work behind the scenes to develop your nefarious plots and become 007’s biggest threat, so grab your Persian cat and call your favorite henchman as you prepare your newest monologue — it’s time to get down to business and start building that moon base and world-destroying megalaser!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Auction/Bidding
  • Cooperative
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.67

Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods

“Are the stars unfamiliar here?” she asked, and the sky grew suddenly dark, the star’s patterns alien and exotic. “This is the Wandering Sea. The gods have brought you here, and you must wake them if you wish to return home.”

In Sleeping Gods, you and up to 3 friends become Captain Sofi Odessa and her crew, lost in a strange world in 1929 on your steamship, the Manticore. You must work together to survive, exploring exotic islands, meeting new characters, and seeking out the totems of the gods so that you can return home.

Sleeping Gods is a campaign game. Each session can last as long as you want. When you are ready to take a break, you mark your progress on a journey log sheet, making it easy to return to the same place in the game the next time you play. You can play solo or with friends throughout your campaign. It’s easy to swap players in and out at will. Your goal is to find at least fourteen totems hidden throughout the world. Like reading a book, you’ll complete this journey one or two hours at a time, discovering new lands, stories, and challenges along the way.

Sleeping Gods is an atlas game. Each page of the atlas represents only a small portion of the world you can explore. When you reach the edge of a page and you want to continue in the same direction, you simply turn to a new page and sail onward.

Sleeping Gods is a storybook game. Each new location holds wild adventure, hidden treasures, and vivid characters. Your choices affect the characters and the plot of the game, and may help or hinder your chances of getting home!

Welcome to a vast world. Your journey starts now.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Narrative Choice
  • Push Your Luck
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 1,200 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.19