Category: Beginner Games

Gardlings

| OTSG Staff

Cleverly build your garden. Harvest gems and enrich your seed bag with new, amazing creatures so your next garden can grow even more abundant. Combine the unique abilities of your creatures, and be the first to acquire the victory trophy.

Each round in Gardlings, all players simultaneously build their garden in front of themselves. You do this by drawing and placing tiles from your bag. You may stop drawing tiles at any time because if you draw too many gnomes, they will steal gems from you. At the end of the round, use any gems you matched in your garden to buy a new tile, then return all of your tiles to your bag to prepare for the next round. Each tile features potential ways to match gems, as well as a creature with a special ability. Your garden will grow larger and better each round, and the puzzle of placing tiles will become increasingly complex.

The goal of the game is to match enough gems to buy the victory tile.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.47

Fountains

| OTSG Staff

Welcome to the elegant city of Florimelle, where a grand beautification effort has begun. In Fountains, you’ll become a master Fountaineer tasked with transforming Florimelle’s gardens and plazas by creating the most magnificent Fountain the world has ever seen!

Fountains is a take-and-make game in which each player starts with a round fountain that features a spout and room for four features.

On a turn, move one of the tokens 1-3 spaces clockwise around the central board, skipping occupied spaces, to land on an empty space. You then take the top tile next to this token and add it to your board. You can expand out or up or both, but you want to ensure that you have a spout at your highest level and water flowing through all of your lower levels or else you’ll have dead zones that won’t score. If you stop next to the tiny oval features instead of a tile stack, choose one of these features and add it to an empty space in your fountain.

When someone lands on the green, blue, or white space with the matching colored token, everyone scores for the linked item: lilypads, separate pools linked by constant water flow, and fish. (Fish come in three types, and the player who scores fish chooses which color scores.) For each item, you score 1, 2, 3, etc. points if the item is on the first, second, third, etc. level.

When a player hits a point threshold, players then score for all three colors once again, as well as endgame bonuses such as 2 points per coin icon and 4 points for a set of fish in the three colors.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.18

Forbidden Jungle

| OTSG Staff

In Forbidden Jungle, your team has crash-landed on a mysterious jungle planet, and you need to work together to survive. Search the ruins of an abandoned outpost for an elusive escape portal, all while fending off an ever-growing horde of venomous creatures and an escalating chain of collapsing locations. Shift tiles to power up the portal and live to see another day!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.10

For a Crown

| OTSG Staff

Coming from noble families, you are ready to do anything to accede to the throne…except that the competition between the pretenders is fierce!

For a Crown is a single-deck, deck-building game. Players recruit new characters, such as mercenaries, then place these cards within a sleeve of their own color. All cards — individual player cards and common event cards — are shuffled into a single deck, which is then drawn card by card, with the relevant player resolving the effect of their card when it’s revealed.

After four rounds, the player with the most rubies wins.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.40

Fit to Print

| OTSG Staff

Fit to Print is a puzzly tile-laying game about breaking news, designed by Peter McPherson and set in a charming woodland world created by Ian O’Toole!

Thistleville is the world’s most bustling little town — it’s a challenge to keep up with everything going on, from who took home first prize for their baked goods at the community fair to who has been digging in Mrs. Brambleberry’s carrot patch.

As an editor at one of the local newspapers, your job is to tell their stories!

The front page is due in just a few hours and you have no time for perfection. Grab the big stories before the other papers get a chance, and make sure you get the right photos too. A newspaper is a business, so the money has to come from somewhere — don’t forget the ads! After you’ve picked out a combination of stories, photos, and ads, it’s time to lay out the front page. Did you take enough tiles to fill the paper, but not so many that things have to be cut? Over the course of three hectic days, your skills will be tested as you compete to be the most newsworthy editor!

Fit To Print is a tile-laying game for the whole family. Players simultaneously collect newspaper tiles, stacking them on their desks until they think they have what they need to make the perfect front page. Then, they will yell “Layout!” and begin to lay out the page by carefully considering the placement of centerpieces, articles, photographs, and advertisements. When everything is just right, they yell “Print” to be the first off the press and gain their choice of centerpiece for the next round! This hectic spatial puzzle features over 100 unique newspaper tiles, 6 characters with their own special abilities, as well as 3 decks of Breaking News cards — so that each and every time you play you will be solving a new puzzle!

If real-time games aren’t your style, Fit to Print has a number of alternative modes to satisfy every type of puzzle gamer. In Slo-Mode players take turns drafting tiles from a shared market and arranging them on their front pages. In Puzzle Mode, take a specific set of tiles and piece together the highest-scoring arrangements. Whether you enjoy relaxing solo puzzles on your own, or frenetic action for up to 6 players, you will have a blast helping the critters of Thistleville tell their stories!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.12

Finspan

| OTSG Staff

You are a marine researcher seeking to find and observe an array of aquatic life in the colorful Sunlight Zone, ghostly Twilight Zone, and pitch-black Midnight Zone of the world’s seas and oceans. In Finspan, the fish you discover over four weeks will generate a series of benefits as you dive deeper into the ocean.

Each dive site specializes in a key aspect of expanding your research:

  • Grow your collection of fish.
  • Discover freshly laid eggs.
  • Hatch eggs into young and consolidate young to form schools.

The winner is the player with the most points gained from fish, eggs, young, schools, and achievements.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.33

Finca

| OTSG Staff

The gameboard of Finca shows the mediterranean island of Mallorca. Players try to crop and deliver the fruits of Mallorca (such as oranges, lemons, almonds, grapes etc.) by means of moving workers on a traditional windmill. Object of the game is to distribute your crop as effectively as possible in order to deliver faster than your opponents.

From the Box: Mallorca, Island of the Wind. A place of golden beaches and a light-blue sea. The almond harvest is at hand, in addition, juicy oranges, lemons, and figs are ready to be picked and taken to the market. Olive trees bewitch the country with their curled branches and sumptuous vineyards invite passers-by to walk among their warm earth. In the midst of this landscape, your centuries-old natural stone farmhouse provides a home and supports your large windmill: your FINCA.
Listen to the wind, which propels your windmill! Then take in the course of the yearly harvest the sweetest and most valuable fruits from the land. Load them on your old donkey cart and travel around the island, selling them everywhere. If you manage this quickly, you will soon be the richest farmer on the island.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.07

Fairy Ring

| OTSG Staff

A ray of moonlight shines in the clearing. The fairies wake up and stretch their wings. Mushrooms pop up from the ground, forming a circle. The first fireflies start to land. Magic is returning to the forest, and now it’s time to prepare for winter…

In Fairy Ring, you want to create a mushroom village to house the fairies in the clearing. Guide your fairy carefully, from village to village, through the fairy ring to gather as much mana as possible. You have two seasons to develop your village before winter begins. Each decision counts towards winning the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.80

Evolution: Another World

| OTSG Staff

We know a great deal about the evolution on Earth (and we hope that Evolution: New World helped you with that too). It’s an exciting story of various creatures acquiring defensive & offensive traits to adapt to the ever-changing environment. What we don’t know is if there might be other worlds where completely different creatures dwell. Will the same laws of evolution apply there too? It’s time to find out!

Evolution: Another World is a card game in a beloved Evolution: the Origin of Species series. In the game, you create animals and give them traits, so they survive and thrive in the chaotic world of wondrous creatures. The goal of the game is to give your creatures enough energy to transmute and transcend their state of existence. The first player to transmute three creatures wins the game.

This is a fast-paced, easy-to-learn game with a solo mode included in the core game. Mechanically, it is inspired by Evolution: New World, but trades some complexity for more dynamic and light gameplay.

This game is Family-friendly because animals can’t die or be eaten by predators. Competition is peaceful, but you can attack other players’ creatures to gain energy. This game has a straightforward win condition: you don’t need to count VP at the end of the game. Transmute 3 of your creatures and you win the game!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Ethnos: 2nd Edition

| OTSG Staff

In the faraway land of Ethnos, a new Age is dawning. The ashes of the old Age have left the Six Regions empty, and the twelve Clans scattered to the winds. Now is the time for a clever leader to unite them into a powerful alliance, skillfully using the unique talents of each Clan to control the Regions.
Do you have the wit and the wisdom to become the next Emperor of Ethnos and usher in a Golden Age?

Unite the Clans to Control Ethnos

What was old has been made new again. The land of Ethnos has been rendered empty and a new Age is beginning. Someone must take up the mantle of Emperor. Will it be you?

In Ethnos 2nd Edition, players must take control of the various clans of Ethnos, gathering members and unleashing them into the six regions. Each clan has different special abilities, and depending on who you choose to lead your groups, different strategies can be employed. 2nd Edition includes updated rules and rules for Solo mode.

  • STRATEGIC AREA CONTROL GAME — In Ethnos 2nd Edition, players gather members of various clans and compete for control of six regions, utilizing each clan’s unique abilities to dominate the land.
  • UNIQUE CLAN ABILITIES — Each clan in Ethnos offers distinct powers, adding deep strategy and diverse playstyles as you choose which clan leaders will guide your groups to victory.
  • COMPETITIVE OR SOLO PLAY — Whether you’re challenging friends or conquering regions solo, Ethnos 2nd Edition provides endless strategic opportunities for players of all experience levels.
  • FOR 1-6 PLAYERS — Perfect for game nights or solo sessions, Ethnos 2nd Edition is designed for 1-6 players, offering dynamic and exciting gameplay for ages 14 and up.
  • UPDATED RULES & SOLO MODE — The 2nd Edition features updated rules for streamlined gameplay and introduces a new solo mode, allowing players to enjoy the game on their own.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.42