Category: Ω Board Games

Paper Dungeons

| T3d-1978
Paper Dungeons

Paper Dungeons

Prepare your adventurers for a challenging dungeon exploration in Paper Dungeons, a roll-and-write game that seeks to reproduce the feel of a dungeon-crawler.

In the game, you control a classic group of medieval adventurers: warrior, wizard, cleric, and rogue. In each of the nine rounds, you select three of the six rolled dice and use these results to raise the level of your characters, produce magic items, obtain healing potions, and explore the dungeon to face challenges and collect treasure. You’ll also find three large monsters waiting in the dungeon, and you can fight them for glory.

In the end, whoever collects the most glory wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.13

Pandemic: 10th Anniversary Edition

| T3d-1978
Pandemic: 10th Anniversary Edition

Pandemic: 10th Anniversary Edition

In Pandemic, several virulent diseases have broken out simultaneously all over the world! The players are disease-fighting specialists whose mission is to treat disease hotspots while researching cures for each of four plagues before they get out of hand.

The game board depicts several major population centers on Earth. On each turn, a player can use up to four actions to travel between cities, treat infected populaces, discover a cure, or build a research station. A deck of cards provides the players with these abilities, but sprinkled throughout this deck are Epidemic! cards that accelerate and intensify the diseases’ activity. A second, separate deck of cards controls the “normal” spread of the infections.

Taking a unique role within the team, players must plan their strategy to mesh with their specialists’ strengths in order to conquer the diseases. For example, the Operations Expert can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases and which allow for greater mobility between cities; the Scientist needs only four cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal five—but the diseases are spreading quickly and time is running out. If one or more diseases spreads beyond recovery or if too much time elapses, the players all lose. If they cure the four diseases, they all win!

The 2013 edition of Pandemic includes two new characters—the Contingency Planner and the Quarantine Specialist—not available in earlier editions of the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.41

Pan Am

| T3d-1978
Pan Am

Pan Am

In Pan Am, players compete with Pan American Airways and others to build an air-travel empire. Outbid rivals for lucrative landing rights, buy planes with longer range to reach the far corners of the world, and use insider connections to advance your interests. As you bump up against the ever-growing Pan Am, you can sell your routes to the company to earn a tidy profit, with you then using that money to invest in other growth or to purchase Pan Am stock for what’s sure to be a big payout down the road.

Pan Am is a game of global strategy that spans four decades of industry-changing historic events.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Economic
  • Stock Holding
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.46

Paint the Roses

| T3d-1978

Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is a 2-5 player cooperative logic deduction game that automatically adapts to your skill during play.

Set in the puzzling world of Alice in Wonderland, you and your friends are the newly appointed Royal Gardeners. You are working together to finish the palace grounds according to the whims of the Queen of Hearts. Use strategy, logic, and teamwork to finish the garden whilst staying one step ahead of the Queen, otherwise, the last thing you hear will be, “Off With Their Heads!”.

The Queen’s whims are shared via cards, secret instructions each player is given into how the garden should be arranged. Her whims are always changing, so as soon as you solve one, a new one is in your hand.

Every turn, together as a team you must guess at least one of these secret whim cards. You can’t say what your card shows, but by carefully placing a new shrub tile into the garden (taken from those available in the Greenhouse) you are able to reveal clues, tokens that will show any matches between the arrangement in the garden and the secret whims each player holds in their hands.

Although you can’t discuss your own secret whim card, you can openly discuss other players’. Share your theories at the table and then make a guess. Correctly guessing a whim will move you forward on the score track, but the Queen is always following, and her speed automatically adjusts based on your current score. Guess incorrectly and the Queen moves twice as fast, her axe ever closer to your neck.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction
  • Limited Communication
  • Pattern Recognition
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 50 – 70 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.48

Overboss

| T3d-1978
Overboss

Overboss

In Overboss, rival Boss Monsters emerge from their dungeons to conquer the Overworld. Each turn, players draft and place terrain tiles and monster tokens. Their goal: to craft the map with the greatest Power and become the ultimate Overboss!

Designed by Aaron Mesburne and Kevin Russ (Calico), this fast-paced game combines drafting, set collection, and puzzly tile laying. It’s set in the retro-inspired pixel art world of Brotherwise Games’ best-selling Boss Monster, but this is an entirely new experience.

Build your map by drafting Forests, Swamps, Caves, Camps, Graveyards, Dungeon Entrances and other landscapes. Each terrain type has a different point value, and some increase in Power as you acquire larger sets. Players must balance optimal placement, set values, and disrupt their opponents’ sets. You’ll also need to manage monsters, which award points when grouped together or placed on matching terrain.

The game includes everything needed for up to 5 players: over 120 terrain tiles, over 100 monster tokens, 5 double-sided player boards, a scorepad, and more.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Puzzle
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.03

Orichalcum

| T3d-1978
Orichalcum

Orichalcum

Orichalque is a tense and fast-pace strategy game – similar to a short 4X. Each player has their own Island board to explore and develop. On each turn, they choose a set of one Exploration tile and one Action : recruit hoplites, produce precious orichalcum (a legendary metal from Greek mythology), construct buildings granting powerful bonuses, or try to get rid of Monsters infesting your island (and preventing you to build new building).

To prevail, you will need to erect majestic temples, forge orichalcum tokens or win the favors of titans (by creating areas of their favorite landscapes. The first to get to 5 victory points while clearing their Island of all Monsters wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Drafting
  • Dice Rolling
  • Racing
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.57

Order of the Gilded Compass

| T3d-1978
Order of the Gilded Compass

Order of the Gilded Compass

Order of the Gilded Compass is a dice assignment game for 2-5 players. In this game, each player takes on the role of a treasure hunter seeking invitation to join the most prestigious of archaeological secret societies. Players scour the globe to unearth fantastic and valuable artifacts. By assigning their archaeologist dice to the right locations at the right time, players acquire treasure maps and specialists to follow them, dive for sunken treasure, acquire rare finds at the auction house, and even enlist the help of the Illuminati. The player who has the most treasure at the end of the game earns an invitation to The Order of the Gilded Compass and wins.

Order of the Gilded Compass uses a variable set-up in order to create fresh and interesting game play experiences. Each game has five locations in play to which players may assign their dice for various kinds of treasures and bonuses, and the game includes nine different buildings to allow for many unique combinations.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.23

On the Underground London/Berlin

| T3d-1978
On the Underground London/Berlin

On the Underground London/Berlin

The London Underground is the world’s first underground passenger railway, having opened in 1863. Its 11 lines move about 5 million passengers a day to 270 stations, along 400 km (250 mi) of track.

The massive network of London Underground stations makes up one of the most complex transportation systems in the world, and On the Underground challenges you to develop it. Build the most successful lines, connect them to landmarks, and attract passenger traffic!

Gameplay Overview

 

In On the Underground, the players build the Underground lines in London or the U-Bahn lines in Berlin. Each player controls 2-4 different lines, depending on the number of players.

On each turn, four destination cards are available, corresponding to stations on the map. You can take up to four actions; an action is either building track by placing one of your track tokens on the board or taking a branch token. A player may use two branch tokens to branch out of an existing line (whereas normally lines can be extended only at the endpoints).

After each player’s turn, a passenger token is moved along players’ lines, avoiding walking as much as possible, to reach one or two destinations determined at the beginning of the turn. The destination cards corresponding to the visited stations are then replaced by new ones, then the next player takes their turn.

Players score points in two ways:

  • By building track and connecting their lines to various types of stations, by building a circular line (in London), or at the end of the game if they have collected tiles from specific landmark stations (in Berlin).
  • By having the passenger use their lines when moving.

After all destination cards have been drawn and all players have taken the same number of turns, the game ends.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Network Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.35

On the Rocks

| T3d-1978
On the Rocks

On the Rocks

Welcome to “On The Rocks” cocktail lounge, where the city’s best mixologists expertly prepare cocktails that the patrons are craving.

In this competitive bartending game, players complete cocktails for money and additional tips. But beware of rival mixologists removing and spilling ingredients from your cocktails.

Players will select 3 or 4 cocktail recipes to prepare and serve in each of the three rounds. Roll the dice to draft your ingredient marbles from the shaker bag. Place the marbles in the centralized mixing area jiggers one at a time clockwise, then select one bowl. Fill up your cocktails with those ingredients, collecting a tip card for every completed drink.

The first player to complete all three rounds of orders will proclaim “Last Call.” Players score their completed drinks and tips earned, with an additional tip for completing all orders. Whomever has the most money wins!

On the Rocks is a marble drafting, cocktail recipe fulfillment game for 1-4 players. It is NOT a drinking game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Oltree

| T3d-1978
Oltree

Oltree

Once upon a time, the Empire was locked in a merciless war against the Witch-King, who was the high priest of the Father-of-all-Monsters. The Empire was victorious, but at the cost of its unity and, in the end, its very existence. After an era of imperial peace, the land was plunged into a dark age, filled with fragmented domains, ceaseless quarrels, malevolent religions, ruin, and sorrow. However, there was one imperial tradition that did not disappear. From within their fortresses and strongholds, the Rangers tirelessly pursue their mission of watching over the inhabitants of the former Empire, explore the wilderness, unite communities, fight monsters, and recover the Emperor’s treasures so that one day, hope may be born anew. Now it’s your turn to join the ranks of these brave Rangers! Oltréé!*
*Oltree! The Rangers’ rallying cry


In this cooperative game, players are brave Rangers who assist the people of a satrapy – an administrative province – that their hierarchy has put them in charge of. They must rebuild a Fortress to ensure the safety and tranquility of the inhabitants.

Rangers are given an Assignment at the start of the game. These are the tasks that have been assigned to them by their hierarchy. Completing them will be the best way to win the game.

This assignment would be easy to carry out if external events did not get in the Rangers’ way. A story, called the Chronicle, will unfold throughout the game, adding new situations that the Rangers will have to deal with.

Along the way, the Rangers will experience Incidents, short scenes in which they will be able to win fame for themselves (or not). They will also have to assist the communities of the Satrapy when Problems cause them danger, and they must face all kinds of unforeseen Events.

If they can stay the course, while keeping the Prestige and Defense of the Fortress intact, they will reach the final chapter of the Chronicle and can end the tale. For a happy ending, they must complete their Assignment to the best of their ability.

In this box you will find the following independent Chronicles (they don’t form an overarching campaign):

  • Open Doors (short)
  • In the Shadow of the Dragon (long)
  • Underground threat (long)
  • Damsel not in Distress (long)
  • A Rebel Problem (long)
  • Things were better before (long)

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.39