Category: Small Games

Antiques Ghost Show

“Ah yes, this is a very interesting piece! Notice the fine craftsmanship, and that you can barely hear the otherworldly wailing emanating from it.”

You and up to 3 opponents are rival antiques dealers, each of whom received an invitation to a manor home filled to the brim with very old and valuable collectibles. But when you arrive, you quickly realize that each and every item in the house has one thing in common: they are hopelessly haunted!

Bringing these terrifying treasures back to your warehouse seems like a ghastly idea, but having just a few might raise your profile. Perhaps you can even convince some wealthy collectors to take some of the macabre museum pieces off your hands…
Your goal is to escape the manor with the least haunted set of loot… that is, if you escape at all!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 15 – 20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Catan: On the Road

CATAN: On the Road builds on well-known CATAN mechanics with a fresh variation. Gameplay is driven by a deck of 120 cards. Players gather resources by drawing cards, construct developments from a common set of available choices, and negotiate trades either with the bank or with fellow players. Trading plays an even larger role in this version: any player who trades while it is not their turn is rewarded with an extra resource card.

How to Play:

– Collect and trade for the resource cards you need to build.
– Expand your region, recruit knights, and upgrade your settlements for victory points.
– Be the first player to reach 7 victory points to win the game.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 4 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.75

For Sale Autorama

For Sale Autorama is a quick, fun game about buying and selling vehicles: cars, motorcycles, RVs, semi-trucks, etc. During the game’s three distinct phases, players first bid to hire advisors, with those advisors then assisting them in the other two phases of the game, when the players purchase several vehicles, then attempt to sell them for the greatest profit possible.

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.79

Dark Pact

To win the deck-building game Dark Pact, you need to complete one of the game’s thirteen Dark Pacts, each of which has a unique winning condition.

To set up, each player has a deck of ten cards, with cards being either actions, treasures, or multipliers. Players take turns clockwise until someone achieves a Dark Pact: “Keeper” Dark Pacts can stay in play, and if you ever meet their condition based on the cards you have in play, you win; “Instant” Dark Pacts are played as an action, and if you meet their condition based on the cards you have in hand, you win. (Alternatively, if the deck runs out, the player with the highest sum of Insight minus Curses wins.)

On a turn, you play one action from your hand, and an action might let you play additional actions; draw cards; gain cards from the supply; exile cards; and so on. Some cards attack opponents, and they can reveal a react card in response. Played cards stay in your play area.

Next, you can buy cards, first playing treasures from your hand to gain coins. (Action cards played earlier might also have coins on them.) You can purchase cards from the ten-card supply, as well as one card from your grimoire, which starts with three specific cards and to which you can add other cards during play.

You can modify an action or a treasure by playing x2 and x3 multipliers at the same time. Multipliers affect all numerals on the action or treasure, whether for coins, curses, draws, actions, etc.

To end your turn, clean up, first carrying out “clean up” effects on played cards, then discarding all played cards (except those that can remain in play, such as some Dark Pacts) and cards from your hand that you don’t want. If necessary, draw to fill your hand to five cards.

Dark Pact includes solitaire rules in which you compete against a bot that tries to win in one of three ways.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~50 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.63

Impendium

Immediately following the events of Nova Lux, you will take up the mantle of building the universe anew. Civil unrest and fear have caused factions among the star colonies to subvert the federation. As it works to ignite new stars and forge galaxies which can once again perpetuate life, your factions will position for power and prosperity in the new Galactic Order. But creation comes with a cost. As the inhabitants of your universe not only defy but reverse the natural law of Entropy, the Void takes notice.

On your turn you will move around the universe, undertake assignments from the federation to construct new stars or battle harbingers of the void, build star colonies to generate resources, and recruit new factions to enhance your abilities and expand your influence.

Once a player control enough of the newly constructed universe, they win!

Impendium is the stand alone successor to Nova Lux. The faction cards from Nova Lux can be used with Impendium.

-description from designer

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

I Made You a Mixtape

It’s the early 90s. Baggy jeans and flannel shirts reign supreme, and the unmistakable sound of dial-up internet fills the air. Dan DiLisio, the coolest kid in your neighborhood, is heading off to University, and is letting you and your school friends raid his beloved music collection before he goes.

In return he’s asked you to make him a mixtape for his road trip up to college. To make things more interesting he’s said that the kid who makes the best tape will win his Quantum Leap poster signed by Scott Bakula.

Man, you really want that poster…

“I Made You a Mixtape” is a I-split-you-choose card game where you will be competing with the other players to make the best compilation possible out of an album collection. Your tape will be judged on how well it’s themed, how the tracks flow with each other, and the balance of lengths between side A and side B.

-description from designer

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.31

Hunt the Ravager

A vengeful samurai has risen from beyond the grave, seeking the ruin of the Empress that betrayed him. In search of three imperial treasures, the spirit ravages all in his wake. Now the Empress must call upon her three most trusted hunters to locate the Ravager before he exacts his vendetta.

Hunt the Ravager is an asymmetric, card-driven game of hidden movement where 2-4 players will each take turns as the Ravager or the hunters seeking him. The Ravager will score points for destroying the land and successfully returning treasures to his hidden lair. The hunters will need to quickly locate the Ravager to protect the treasures and minimize the ruin to the Empress’ lands.
Hunt the Ravager

– Hidden movement, card based, asymmetric game for 2-4 players with a feudal Japan theme.
– Beautifully presented with artwork from the acclaimed Andrew Bosley.
– Modular game board and point based rather than binary victory conditions, makes each game played completely unique!

Game Specifications:

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

Human Punishment: Social Deduction 2.0

Human Punishment is a combination of social deduction, social experiment, and party game for 4-16 players. Each player takes on the role of a human, a machine, or an outlaw in a distant future. Players must investigate others to figure out who is on their side, grab one of the four different weapons, and eliminate the enemies. Stay focused because hidden enemies may be on your team! Find your team, trust no one!

The traitor mechanism in Human Punishment transforms the table into a social experiment…

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 16 Players
  • 15 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.57

Hot Lead

Lead the undercover investigation against five criminal groups to gather enough evidence to convict them. However, if you investigate too aggressively, the criminals will smell a rat and go dark!

In each round of Hot Lead, criminal cards are displayed in a column equal to the number of players. Players then make their bid by simultaneously revealing an investigator card from their hand. The highest investigator bid takes the criminal card closest to the deck, the second highest takes the second closest, and so on. These cards are worth points equal to their face value (0-5).

Gather enough evidence on one criminal organization to convict them when the game concludes after ten rounds; in game terms, by having exactly three of a suit, you earn 10 bonus points. Ten bonus points are also awarded to those who acquire criminal cards of all five suits. If you investigate too aggressively and grab the fourth card of a suit, those criminals will sense a rat and you’ll scare them underground, thereby losing all of those cards. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

—description from publisher

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.25