Category: Ω Board Games

Rear Window

| T3d-1978
Rear Window

Rear Window

Experience Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece film Rear Window in a game of deduction and suspense. Carefully observe strange clues and ominous patterns in the things going on in the apartments across the way. There are parties, knives, a saw, bickering, laughing, music…and a mysterious trunk. Do you detect a murder? Or is the secret, private world of the neighbors planting frightening ideas in your mind?

In Rear Window, one player takes the role of director Alfred Hitchcock — the “Master of Suspense” — and communicates via building windows clues and signs for the other players without ever uttering a word, ideally giving them enough to go on that they can figure out who the murderer is — or whether a murder even took place.

If a murderer is out there, you need to nail down all eight attributes of that person by the end of four rounds without them catching on to what you see and know.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.57

Rabbit Rally

| T3d-1978
Rabbit Rally

Rabbit Rally

The rabbits in Rüben Rallye all want to reach the carrot patch, but to do so, they need to cross the river first — and to do that, they need to make use of planks and stones lying nearby.

In the game, all the rabbits start on a platform, and the carrots await on another platform that players set some distance away. On a turn, a player rolls a color die, picks up the cardboard “plank” of that color, places a wooden “stone” some distance away from where their rabbit is located, then tries to place the plank so that their rabbit will be able to move onto the stone. If the player succeeds, the rabbit moves; if they misjudged where to place the stone, the rabbit stays where it is.

By repeating this process, the rabbits move down the “stream” to where the carrots are located, with the first player to reach a carrot winning the game. Additional carrots are included so that players can compete for second and third place.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.33

Qwirkle

| T3d-1978
Qwirkle

Qwirkle

The abstract game of Qwirkle consists of 108 wooden blocks with six different shapes in six different colors. There is no board, players simply use an available flat surface.

Players begin the game with six blocks. The start player places blocks of a single matching attribute (color or shape but not both) on the table. Thereafter, a player adds blocks adjacent to at least one previously played block. The blocks must all be played in a line and match, without duplicates, either the color or shape of the previous block.

Players score one point for each block played plus all blocks adjacent. It is possible for a block to score in more than one direction. If a player completes a line containing all six shapes or colors, an additional six points are scored. The player then refills their hand to six blocks.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Hand Management
  • Pattern Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.62

Quest

| T3d-1978
Quest

Quest

In Quest, all will show their true colors as Good and Evil struggle for the future of civilization. Hidden amongst King Arthur’s loyal servants are Mordred’s unscrupulous minions. These forces of Evil are few in number, but if they go unknown, they can sabotage Arthur’s great quests.

Players are secretly dealt roles that determine if their allegiance is to Good or to Evil. Then, players debate, reason, and lie as they decide who to send on Quests—knowing that if just one minion of Mordred joins, the Quest could fail. Quest includes 25 different characters and many different ways to play the base game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Deduction
  • Hidden Roles
  • Memory
  • Negotiation
  • Party Game
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 10 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Quacks & Co

| T3d-1978
Quacks & Co

Quacks & Co

It’s race day in Quedlinburg, and with the right combination of food and luck, you will ride your mount to victory and claim the golden cauldron.

Mit Quacks & Co. nach Quedlinburg features similar gameplay to The Quacks of Quedlinburg, with each player building their own bag of tokens over the course of play, then drawing those tokens to try to further themselves to victory.

Each player starts the game with their mount at the start of the racetrack and a bag that contains four dream tokens, a yellow 1 token, two red 1 tokens, and a red 2 token. On a turn, you draw a token from your bag, then place it on your animal board. If you draw a colored token, place the token on your animal board, advance your animal on the track as many spaces as the number on the token, then carry out the effect of that color: red tokens earn you 1-3 rubies, yellow tokens let you roll a die for a random bonus, green tokens let you take another turn or return a drawn token to your bag, and blue chips let you move extra or upgrade a token.

If you draw a dream token, place it on one of the clouds on your animal board. After you draw and place a third dream token, use all the rubies on your board to buy new tokens — no two being the same color, mind you — then place these new tokens and all previously drawn tokens in your bag. Keep taking turns until someone reaches the end of the track and wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Bag Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.30

Project L

| T3d-1978
Project L

Project L

Build pieces, develop an engine, perfect your strategy, and win the game!

Project L is a fast-paced, tile-matching brain burner with triple-layer 3D puzzles and lovely acrylic pieces. Challenge your friends to a game of simple design but intricate gameplay that makes a lasting impression!

The core of the game lies in using your pieces to complete puzzles. Starting with just two basic pieces, you use three actions every turn to develop a powerful engine. With more pieces of various types, you can efficiently complete even the most difficult puzzles. The puzzles you complete award you points or new pieces to further fuel your engine. Can you outsmart your opponents?

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Action Points
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.52

Potion Explosion

| T3d-1978
Potion Explosion

Potion Explosion

Dear students, it’s time for the final exams of the Potions class! The rules are always the same: Take an ingredient marble from the dispenser and watch the others fall. If you connect marbles of the same color, they explode and you can take them, too! Complete your potions using the marbles you collect, and drink them to unleash their magical power. Remember, though, that to win the Student of the Year award, being quick won’t be enough: you’ll also need to brew the most valuable potions in Potion Explosion!

Game Mechanics:

  • Pattern Recognition
  • Puzzle
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.76

Port Royal: Big Box

| T3d-1978
Port Royal: Big Box

Port Royal: Big Box

The merchant players in Port Royal, which won the Austrian Game Designers Competition under the title Händler der Karibik, are trying to earn as much as they can out of the Caribbean Sea, but if they set their goals too high, they might take home nothing for the day.

The 120-card deck depicts a coin on the back of each card — with players earning and paying coins throughout the game — and different items on the card fronts. On a turn, a player can first draw as many cards as he likes, one at a time from the deck, placing them in the harbor (an area near the deck). Each card shows one of the following:

  • Person, who stays in a face-up row next to deck.
  • Ship, which the player can attack immediately if he has enough swords on his people cards, after which the ship is discarded; otherwise, the ship stays in the harbor.
  • Expedition, which remains above the harbor until a player fulfills it by discarding people who have the items required for the expedition.
  • Tax Increase, which forces everyone with twelve or more coins to discard half their money, after which the card is discarded.

If the player draws a ship with the same name as a ship already in the harbor, he’s spent too much time dilly-dallying and his turn ends (after using the ship to attack, if possible), with all the cards in the harbor being discarded. Otherwise, the player can stop whenever he likes, then use/acquire one card if three or fewer ships are in the harbor, two cards if four ships are present, and three cards if five ships are present. Players rob ships, collecting the number of coins shown on them, then discarding the card, while they hire people, paying the number of coins depicted. After the active player takes his 1-3 cards, each other player may pay the active player one coin in order to take one card in the same way.

When one player has at least twelve influence points — which are on both people and expedition cards — the game is played to the end of the round, giving everyone the same number of turns, then the player with the most influence points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Move Through Deck
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 50 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.67

Planted

| T3d-1978
Planted

Planted

In this game of nature & nurture, make your house beautiful by caring for your very own collection of houseplants! In this easy-to-learn board game, collect your favorite plants and they try to feed them every round with the right combination of light, water, and plant food.

Planted features 42 varieties of popular and exotic houseplants, each with their own requirements to grow. Discover various planting tools and decorations to help you raise beautiful, thriving plants, and score bonus points. The player, or plant parent, that ends up scoring the most points from growing their plants is declared the game’s biggest green thumb – and winner!

Some features:

  • Easy to learn mechanics for all ages strategy
  • Collect resource tokens to care for your nursery (water drop, sun chip, plant food, etc.)
  • Features 42 popular and various plant varieties for all levels of plant parents including the fiddle leaf fig, philodendron, ZZ plant, monstera, croton, and more!
  • Created by famed game designer Phil Walker-Harding

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.61

Planet

| T3d-1978
Planet

Planet

The spark of life is about to jump from your hands to spread out in the world. Deploy your mountain ranges and your deserts, spread out your oceans and your glaciers. Handle wisely your continents to form environments suitable for the apparition of animal life and maybe you’ll manage to create the most densely populated planet!

In Planet, each player receives a planet core without anything on it. Each turn, players choose a tile with mountain/ice/forest/desert on it and place it on the planet. Then the player who fulfills the most conditions for the appearance of certain animals gains its card.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.57