Category: Beginner Games

DC Deck-Building Game: Justice League Dark

| OTSG Staff

ARE YOU READY TO GO DARK?
This entry in the DC Deck-Building Game series puts you in the supernatural shoes of the DC team that steps in when challenges arise that are too mystical for regular Super Heroes. Become a member of the Justice League Dark as you Seal the threats of magical Super-Villains and Transform your cards into more powerful forms!

Standalone game, but compatible with other games in DC Deck-Building Game series.

KEY FEATURES
Based on Justice League Dark comics, with original cover art by Ryan Benjamin
Play as Justice League Dark members like Wonder Woman, John Constantine, Zatanna, and Doctor Fate
Transform cards have the ability to change into other cards!
Seal your cards away to add to your score at the end of the game
New Weakness cards have a built-in way to get rid of them… if you are willing to pay the cost!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Botanicus

| OTSG Staff

How about creating your own botanical garden? As an aristocrat in the late 19th century, you have bought land, hired a gardener and set out to find the best plants there are.

As you know, the visitors are very picky about the plants they want to see, so your job is not only to acquire the plants, but also to sort them according to the visitors’ preferences.

In Botanicus, you compete for the best action-spots in a unique selection mechanism, and then make the most of the options available to you. You have to collect new plants, take care of them, water them and keep an eye on the gardener. Last but not least, you have to collect some money along the way to pay for all this.
In the end, what counts is how many visitors you satisfy and how beautiful your garden is. Will you be able to outdo the gardens of your competitors?

Game Mechanics:

  • Modular Board
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40

Coffee Rush

| OTSG Staff

A cup of coffee sure is relaxing — for the customer. For the coffee shop, however, orders tend to pile up during peak hours, and it is no different today at Coffee Rush. Your goal: Complete customer orders to increase your ratings and be recognized as the best barista!

In more detail, each player moves on the ingredient board to collect the ingredients that they need to fulfill orders — and fulfilling orders boosts your rating. Orders that are not fulfilled in time become penalties, which subtract from your rating. If a player has fulfilled three orders, they may activate an upgrade that lets them acquire ingredients more easily.

The game ends once all order cards have run out or after a barista collects their fifth penalty card. The player with the highest rating wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Grid Movement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.82

Broom Service

| OTSG Staff

Score the most victory points by delivering potions via Broom Service throughout the magical realm.

Broom Service is a card-based game that combines luck and skill and balances timely bluffing with clever hand management.

Remake of award-winning Witch’s Brew:

  • New theme! Now with 3 types of roles: witches, druids, and gatherers.
  • Drizzelda, the weather fairy, helps chase away the bad weather.
  • New illustrations and game pieces.
  • Same style of play, and by the same game designer as Witch’s Brew.
  • New version also includes a 2-player version.

The game is played over 7 rounds, with 4 turns per round. Each round, players simultaneously select 4 of their 10 role cards, and then they take turns playing one role at a time. Each role has a brave action and a cowardly action; the brave action is stronger, but riskier, as another player could steal the action from you later; the cowardly action is safer, but not as robust. How well can you bluff your opponents?

Use the gatherer roles to collect ingredients to make potions, the witch roles to zoom around on your broom to different areas, and the witch or druid roles to deliver the potions, collecting victory points as you go. Chase away lightning clouds with the help of the weather fairy, and keep an eye on the event cards that change game play, one event per round.

The winner is the player with the most victory points after all 7 rounds are complete and end-of-game bonus points have been awarded.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Pick-up and Deliver
  • Set Collection
  • Variable Phase Order

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.39

Cosmoctopus

| OTSG Staff

In Cosmoctopus, you take on the role of a devotee guiding the great Cosmoctopus through the Inky Realm. Your goal is to gather resources, obtain powerful relics, scriptures, hallucinations, and constellations to create powerful combinations and gather the most sacred of item – the great tentacle. The first to eight tentacles will gain the Great Inky One’s favor and be declared the most dedicated follower. 

The turns in Cosmoctopus are simple, the fun and strategy lie in building your engine to best maximize your turns and take advantage of your hand of cards. Cosmoctopus is also an incredibly versatile game, allowing you to easily altar the difficulty along with optional cooperative and solo modes!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Cooperative Game
  • Hand Management
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Race
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.21

Comic Hunters

| OTSG Staff

You have spent years of your life cultivating the perfect comic book collection – your favorite heroes, villains, and storylines all together at last. Well, except for some very special, very rare comic books. In Comic Hunters, you are seeking to fill in these holes, hunting down Number 1 issues, First Appearance issues, New Visual issues, Special Edition issues, and Memorable Clashes issues across four different locations. You’ll only have three rounds to collect, moving up on various tracks for specific heroes depending on the type of Comic Book you acquired. But don’t forget! You aren’t the only one with your eyes on these priceless books, so you have to plan carefully and make sure you get your hands on what really matters. Happy collecting!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.24

Colt Express

| OTSG Staff

It is July 11th, 1899, in Folsom, New Mexico. The Union Pacific Express has just departed, full of precious jewels, wallets, and suitcases – right into the trap set by you, one of many bandits ready to rob these citizens blind! A bandits life isn’t easy sailing, though. You’ll have to compete with other bandits to get the biggest score, not even to mention avoiding the Marshall and navigating the 3D train.

Colt Express takes place over 5 rounds, with two phases each round. In phase 1, “Schemin'”, you and your fellow bandits will prepare your actions a play cards to form a deck. Then, in phase 2, “Stealin'”, all the action cards are carried out as you and your fellow bandits wreak havoc on the train. Avoid bullets, and hope that no one else ruins your plans.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Memory
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Colossal Cat in the Box

| OTSG Staff

Cat in the Box is a trick taking game where your suit is every color all at once – until you observe it. Players are dealt a hand of cards with no suit but different numbers, and over the course of the game they will claim various suits to best meet their bid. But be warned! Because of the nebulous nature of the cards, a paradox can form at any time! The player who causes the paradox will lose points, while everyone else will get the opportunity to score based off of their completed tricks and any patterns they made on the research board. 

Colossal Cat in the Box is a supersized version of Cat in the Box!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Predictive Bid
  • Trick Taking

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Clue Escape: The World’s Fair Board Game

| OTSG Staff

ESCAPE THE FAIR, SOLVE THE MYSTERY: Who murdered a brilliant scientist at the World’s Fair? Escape the Fair and catch a killer in the Clue Escape: The World’s Fair game! It offers the intrigue of classic Clue in an innovative escape room game
DECODE THRILLING PUZZLES: In this 6th Clue Escape game, the infamous cast returns in a fresh murder mystery! Players work together to solve it by cracking puzzles that offer new clues. Find hints in the World’s Fair brochure
EXPLORE THE EXHIBIT HALLS: Solve puzzles to unlock new areas of the Fair and uncover details. The dynamic board builds and changes throughout the game

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative Game
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Clue Escape: Treachery at Tudor Mansion

| OTSG Staff

It’s the classic clue game – in an escape room board game! You and your acquaintances have all been invited to Tudor Mansion for dinner by Boddy Black, who dramatically dies after he threatens to blackmail all of you. Now you must discover who killed him where and with what, and escape the mansion before it’s too late.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative Game
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.40