Category: General Games

Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein 🟡

| T3d-1978

It’s been twenty years since Victor Frankenstein died on a ship in the arctic, but his vengeful creature lives on, as does Robert Walton, the sea captain who vowed to kill the fiend before mercy stayed his hand. It’s now 1819, and a sinister darkness descends upon the city of Paris. A mysterious benefactor of gigantic stature has emerged in the scientific community, never showing his face, claiming to possess the late Frankenstein’s research. He sponsors a grand competition, offering an even grander prize: unlocking the mystery of mortality!

Renowned scientists from around the world come to take part: some drawn to solve this eternal riddle, others coerced against their will. But a certain captain comes as well, one deeply suspicious of the secretive patron, hoping to finally fulfill his vow.

Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein is a competitive game of strategic monster building for 2-4 players, inspired by Mary Shelley’s classic novel of gothic horror. In the game, the creature demands your help to accomplish what his own creator would not: to bring to life an abomination like itself, a companion to end its miserable solitude. Through worker placement and careful management of decomposing resources, you’ll gather materials from the cemeteries and morgues around the city, conduct valuable research at the Academy of Science, hire less-than-reputable associates, and toil away in your lab — all in an effort to assemble a new form of life and infuse it with a “spark of being”. Do well, and the creature may reward you during one of its surprise visits; do poorly, and you may come to regret not putting forth more effort. Narrative elements come into play throughout the game, guided by your decisions, leading to potentially unsavory outcomes.

The game ends when you succeed in bringing your creation to life or when the Captain kills the creature, whichever happens first. Then the player with the most points fulfills Frankenstein’s dark legacy, becoming his heir, for good or ill…

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Narrative Choice
  • Set Collection
  • Storytelling
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.25

Few and Cursed, the

| T3d-1978

The Few and Cursed is a deck-building adventure game based on the Comic Series of the same name. It takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth where most of the water on the planet has been gone for seventy years.

Even though what was left of mankind found a way to adapt using water, the most valuable asset on the planet, as currency, survival turned the world into a wicked wasteland where it’s either kill or be killed. And evil not only endured, it won.

People turned to dark arts, old tales of mischief and curses to survive. Death is everywhere. But for every darkness there is light – and among the few and cursed are those willing to fight to bring balance to the land: the Curse Chasers.

In the game, players take on the role of a “Curse Chaser” looking to make a name for themselves by searching for supernatural artifacts, completing jobs, or bounty hunting. Players traverse the desert of the Pacific Ocean as they improvise and acquire new cards for their deck on their quest for fame or infamy.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.59

Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates

| T3d-1978

While playing Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates, you become a pirate captain sailing three ships through the Caribbean in search of rich merchants to plunder and friendly ports in which to trade your booty for riches.

In more detail, you have one ship on each of the three “tracks”, i.e., pathways through the Caribbean Sea. On each turn, you play three cards from your hand to move your ships. Your cards have a basic movement number, and often a secondary action. You may use one or the other to move your ships down the track or gain special advantages.

Each of the three tracks winds through the Caribbean islands toward your ultimate goal: the Spanish Treasure Galleon at Trinidad. Along the way, there will be detours that lead to merchant ships that may be plundered, and towns that may be visited to cash in your plunder for treasure. Plundering merchant ships and visiting towns also allows you to recruit more crewmen (cards) for your crew (deck). The better your deck is, the faster that your ships are able to move, so deciding when to take detours for plunder and recruiting and when to sail on toward your ultimate goal is an important decision that every pirate captain must make.

The first pirate captain to reach the Treasure Galleon at the end of any track ends the game. Each pirate ship scores points based on what place they finished on each track, as well as for the treasures earned by selling plunder. The richest captain goes down in history as the Pirate King!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Racing
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.29

Ethnos: 1st Edition

| T3d-1978

In Ethnos, players call upon the support of giants, merfolk, halflings, minotaurs, and other fantasy tribes to help them gain control of the land. After three ages of play, whoever has collected the most glory wins!

In more detail, the land of Ethnos contains twelve tribes of fantasy creatures, and in each game you choose six of them (five in a 2/3-player game), then create a deck with only the creatures in those tribes. The cards come in six colors, which match the six regions of Ethnos. Place three glory tokens in each region at random, arranging them from low to high.

Each player starts the game with one card in hand, then 4-12 cards (double the number of players) are placed face up on the table. On a turn, a player either recruits an ally or plays a band of allies. In the former case, you take a face-up card (without replacing it from the deck) or the top card of the deck and add it to your hand. In the latter case, you choose a set of cards in your hand that match either in tribe or in color, play them in front of you on the table, then discard all other cards in hand. You then place one token in the region that matches the color of the top card just played, and you use the power of the tribe member on the top card just played.

At the end of the first age, whoever has the most tokens in a region scores the glory shown on the first token. After the second age, the players with the most and second most tokens score glory equal to the values shown on the first and second tokens respectively. Players score similarly after the third age, then whoever has the most glory wins. (Games with two and three players last only two ages.)

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.04

Ecos: First Continent

| T3d-1978

What if the formation of Earth had gone differently?

In Ecos: First Continent, players are forces of nature molding the planet, but with competing visions of its grandeur. You have the chance to create a part of the world, similar but different to the one we know. Which landscapes, habitats, and species thrive will be up to you.

Gameplay in Ecos is simultaneous. Each round, one player reveals element tokens from the element bag, giving all players the opportunity to complete a card from their tableau and shape the continent to their own purpose. Elements that cannot be used can be converted into energy cubes or additional cards in hand or they can be added to your tableau to give you greater options as the game evolves.

Mountain ranges, jungle, rivers, seas, islands and savanna, each with their own fauna, all lie within the scope of the players’ options.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bingo
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.60

Dog Park

| T3d-1978

Welcome to Dog Park, a mid-weight, competitive set-collection and point-to-point movement game in which players take on the role of dog walkers who recruit, walk, and care for their dogs over four rounds. Each round is split into four phases:

  1. Recruitment Phase: Players compete in two rounds of offers to add dogs to their kennels. Offers are made with players’ reputation (victory points), so must be placed wisely.
  2. Selection Phase: Players decide which dogs to place on their lead to walk this round.
  3. Walking Phase: Players journey through the dog park with their fellow walkers, collecting resources, earning reputation, and interacting with other walkers.
  4. Home Time Phase: Players earn reputation for their walked dogs, and lose reputation for any unwalked dogs in their kennel.

Players must choose their routes and dogs carefully to earn the best reputation and prove they are the most accomplished walker of them all. At the end of the game, the player with the most reputation wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 80 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.16

Dinner in Paris

| T3d-1978

The restaurant industry in Paris is buzzing after the inauguration of a new pedestrian square in a very popular district for Parisians and tourists from all around the globe. It is a golden opportunity for you, restaurant owners, to open one of the addresses that will contribute to the culinary diversity and the reputation of the French capital. However, there isn’t space for everyone and your opponents could throw a wrench in your gears!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Majority / Influence
  • Contracts
  • Hand Management
  • Income
  • Race
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.16

Dice Realms

| T3d-1978

In Dice Realms, players vie to improve and expand their Medieval realms, while contending with Fate. Realms are represented by customizable dice with faces that can be popped out and upgraded for better ones.

Each game is different as during setup, players draw five tiles (from a bag of 35) to determine which extra die faces will be available beyond the five standard lines of faces: lands (victory points), farming (grain), commerce (coins), settlements (defense), and progress (upgrades). Each player begins with two identical dice and can gain more dice during play, in addition to upgrading their starting dice.

Play is mostly simultaneous. To begin, players roll their dice, with one player rolling the Fate die, which affects all players.

If Winter appears on the Fate die, players must pay 1 grain for each die they own or take a -2 point “misery” chip for each grain they lack. Players may then re-roll one die for free and use any re-roll or “set-a-die” tokens (that allow you to choose the die face result) that they have previously invested in for further control.

Players then resolve any attacks showing, starting with the Fate die and then clockwise, with each player’s attack affecting all their rivals. Each shield showing on your dice lets you ignore one attack. Successful attacks can cost players grain, the use of a die for a turn, or even the loss of a die face (which can be later rebuilt).

Players collect any victory points (VPs), grain, and coins shown on their die faces. Coins are used to acquire upgrades, purchase re-roll and set-a-die tokens, repair destroyed die faces, or buy a new die — which also costs 2 grain — expanding their realm. At most 1 coin can be saved in your treasury from round to round.

Upgrades are the heart of the game. Players receive upgrades from upgrade symbols showing or by spending coins. Die faces have 1, 2, or 4 dots on them. To change from a 1 to a 4 in the same color — such as from a yellow face collecting 2 grain to the 4-dot version that collects 4 grain and 2 coins — costs three upgrades, whereas changing from one face to a different color face at the same level costs just one upgrade.

Using upgrades, crossgrades, and the “free reroll” each turn, players can craft their dice to specialize them and dramatically “tilt” the probability that a desired face is rolled. Of course, players will want different things at different times: upgrades to get going; coins to expand their realms; food if a string of harsh winters are rolled; defense against that pesky Robber on the Fate die; VP chips to race for victory; or whatever die face is the key to winning a particular setup.

If during a round any player needs to use a 10 VP token, a -10 misery token, or a 10 grain token (because all of the smaller value tokens have been used), then the game ends after finishing that round; otherwise, the player with the Fate die passes it clockwise to the next player and a new round begins.

When the game ends, players tally their points earned, both from VP chips and improved die faces, with 2-dot faces being worth 1 VP and 4-dot faces being worth 2 VP. Whoever has the most VPs wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Re-rolling and Locking
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40

Dice Miner

| T3d-1978

The Dwarves once lived beneath three mighty mountains. After centuries of war they defeated their age-old enemies the Dragons. Moving to the surface, the Dwarves built magnificent cities and won renown for their heartening beer.

But the Dragons have returned. Now, the Dwarves must remember their roots, clear old tunnels, and return to ancient caverns while fighting their primeval foes.

In each of three rounds, custom dice are rolled onto the mountain. You are a Dwarf hero, drafting dice for your hoard. Scores are tallied after each round before you re-roll your dice and the mountain is refilled.

Ultimately, Dice Miner is a game about drafting the dice you covet, adding them to your hoard, and pushing your luck to build massive combos and score as many points as you can.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.66

Diabolik: Heists and Investigations

| T3d-1978

In Diabolik: Heists and Investigations, players will experience in first person the “impossible thefts” that are told every month in the comic books, both from the side of Diabolik and Eva Kant, and from Inspector Ginko and the police.

The mechanics are that of hidden movement, but with the exception that when discovered, the criminals will be forced to flee on the main board, visible to all cops. Thanks to the cards, every turn offers different situations.

The Criminals will have to complete two heists out of the three available to win the game and to do so they will have to move hidden in the shadows, leaving traces of their path that the Police will have to find to ruin the plans of the Criminals.

The Police will have the hard job of investigating the traces of Diabolik and Eva, but they are not alone, in fact they will have the opportunity to call four total Police Officers to help, to keep every corner of the city under observation. To win the game, the cops will have to raise the Danger Level to the maximum on the Danger Track. Usually, solving a Clue increases the Danger Level by 1 point, but that’s not the only way to do it. On the other hand, if Eva or DIabolik complete a Heist, the Danger Luevel is lowered.

In their turn, each player can perform a maximum of 3 individual actions. The only exception is for drawing, discarding or playing cards, which is a repeatable action.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Contracts
  • Deduction
  • Roles with Asymmetric Information
  • Targeted Clues
  • Team-Based Game
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.25