Category: New Games

Hot Streak

| OTSG Staff

Hot Streak is a game for hard luck gamblers who love to bet on and scream at the racers, who in this case happen to be mascots who may (or may not) keep running in the right direction.

At the start of the game, set up the racing deck with one card for each mascot and a number of random cards based on the player count. Reveal these cards to all players, after which players draft a betting ticket from those on display, then in reverse order draft a second bet. For each bet, you can play it safe — or flip it to the risky side, which might pay out more – or cost you money if you lose. After betting, each player chooses one of three cards in their hand to secretly add to the racing deck.

Shuffle the deck, burn three cards, then reveal cards one by one from the deck, moving the mascots along the track, with them sometimes swerving into another lane and knocking over another racer, sometimes turning around, sometimes all moving at once, and sometimes just going backwards! If a racer runs off the track or would be knocked over while already fallen, they’re disqualified. If needed, shuffle all cards in the deck, burn three cards again, and keep racing until all four spots on the box podium are filled. Pay out bets based on these results.

For races #2-3, first deal each player a random card from the deck, then place bets again, then have each player contribute a card from their hand to the deck. After race #3, everyone tallies their money.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.22

Grand Central Skyport

| OTSG Staff

In Grand Central Skyport, you want to efficiently operate your airship station and attract the most prestigious tycoons to your city. During the game, you attract new airships to your skyport, and each airship has a color and an initial slotting movement. Try to maneuver your airships to group them by color so that they stack to score increasingly more points. Unfortunately, with each new ship entering your station, its movement will trigger the rearranging of previously placed airships, so ideally you can race other skyport owners around a central rondel to choose the incoming airships that are best for you.

Drafting tycoons to your skyport will bring unique advantages in manipulating your docked airships, as well as additional scoring opportunities at the end of the game.

Do you have the operational skills to handle the airships arriving at your station as efficiently as possible? If so, you may very well crown yours the grand central skyport.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Graft

| OTSG Staff

Graft is a card-drafting game in which 3-5 players race to collect sets of valuable goods and ship them back to Zenith.

Players simultaneously draft and play cards into their cargo manifest. Push your luck and chain combos of cards for high scores! But beware the cargo restrictions on some cards that limit what additional goods you can play – you’ll bust if your next hand has no valid option.

Ship your cargo to score points and claim bonus badges for specific sets of goods. Prepare additional groups of cards until the deck runs out. The player with the most points is recognized as the best pioneer by Zenith.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Castle Nightingale

| OTSG Staff

Castle Nightingale looms out of the night, both intimidating and full of promise. Three ninjas have slipped inside, searching for the fabled treasure hidden within…yet a vigilant samurai patrols the halls, watching and listening for intruders.

Two players face off in Castle Nightingale, with the ninja player trying to steal five relics before the samurai player can capture the three ninja thieves. The castle is comprised of an inaccessible garden surrounded by four double-sided floor boards, each showing two secret passage spaces and areas in five colors.

Each turn, the ninja and samurai each choose one of three action cards in hand, with the samurai also choosing a nightingale tile not used on the previous turn. The ninja player resolves their action, then moves across the floor, marking each space of their movement with a footstep token. If they step on a colored space matching the samurai’s hidden nightingale tile, the ninja stands revealed; otherwise, next turn the ninja can treat any of their footsteps as their starting space.

If the ninja picks up a vase, the samurai can still recover it on their turn by either closing the final secret passage or landing on the ninja’s space…as long as the ninja has been revealed that turn. While the ninja moves space to space, the samurai treats each colored area as a single space, allowing them to move quickly within the castle.

Each player has specialized one-shot equipment they can use at any time, starting with one item and gaining more as they play certain cards. Each player has ten cards that they’ll cycle through until either the samurai has captured all three ninja or the ninja have stolen five of the six relics hidden in the eight vases.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.25

Aquatica: Duellum

| OTSG Staff

Aquatica in a duel format: deeper, meaner and more intense.

Choose a Turtle King or a Squid Queen and improve your underwater realm by playing action cards and assembling locations on three-layered boards. After decades of turbulent times, it is time to unite the underwater world under the fin or tentacle of a single ruler!



New layer of depth is brought to the game by the dynamic market on a vortex board.



Be careful! The game can end not only when all players achieve their goals but also based on who is the fastest to collect the crowns. Tension is added by the tug of war mechanic.

Also, mantas will finally have the company of equally charming squids and turtles.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 2 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Cathedral

| OTSG Staff

In Cathedral, each player has a set of pieces of a different color. The pieces are in the shapes of buildings, covering from one to five square units. The first player takes the single neutral Cathedral piece and places it onto the board. Players then alternate placing one of their buildings onto the board until neither player can place another building. Players capture territory by surrounding areas that are occupied by at most one opponent or neutral building. A captured piece is removed and captured territory becomes off-limits to the opponent. The player with the fewest ‘square units’ of buildings that can’t be placed wins.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.79

Armageddon

| OTSG Staff

In a post-apocalyptic world, players try to rebuild society. Using the debris, they build new towns for the remaining survivors to live in — but these friendly folks aren’t the only ones still out there. Marauders want to pillage your town and see it burn. Scavenge what you can and build new structures to help you defend against the marauder threat. While you can get more things done in town when you house more survivors there, they all have to have a space to sleep or they might turn against you and join the marauders.

Armageddon is a strategy game that offers many tactical choices and different strategies to claim victory.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.96