Category: Small Games

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

God Save The King MISSING

| OTSG Staff

God Save the King thrusts players into the center of the conflict between warring kingdoms. The crown is threatened; the duty to take up arms falls to every living subject, whether knight, marshal, captain, footman, squire or cup-bearer. Even the Queen, herself may be called upon to give her life, in order that the King may be spared.

“God Save the King” is an abstract strategy game that can be played using a standard deck of 52 playing cards. However, the talented Inna Kozak has illustrated a custom deck of cards featuring thematically-rich characters, where every card is a unique face card.

Simple to learn, but with layers of complexity, players must use induction, deduction, and deception, in an attempt to seize the rival King(s) while protecting their own.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 0 Players
  • 5 – 15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Gloom

| OTSG Staff

The world of Gloom is a sad and benighted place. The sky is gray, the tea is cold, and a new tragedy lies around every corner. Debt, disease, heartache, and packs of rabid flesh-eating mice—just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, they do. But some say that one’s reward in the afterlife is based on the misery endured in life. If so, there may yet be hope—if not in this world, then in the peace that lies beyond.

In the Gloom card game, you assume control of the fate of an eccentric family of misfits and misanthropes. The goal of the game is sad, but simple: you want your characters to suffer the greatest tragedies possible before passing on to the well-deserved respite of death. You’ll play horrible mishaps like Pursued by Poodles or Mocked by Midgets on your own characters to lower their Self-Worth scores, while trying to cheer your opponents’ characters with marriages and other happy occasions that pile on positive points. The player with the lowest total Family Value wins.

Printed on transparent plastic cards, Gloom features an innovative design by noted RPG author Keith Baker. Multiple modifier cards can be played on top of the same character card; since the cards are transparent, elements from previously played modifier cards either show through or are obscured by those played above them. You’ll immediately and easily know the worth of every character, no matter how many modifiers they have. You’ve got to see (through) this game to believe it!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.63

Gladius

| OTSG Staff

In Gladius, play as cunning Roman spectators trying to make the most money by betting on gladiators competing in the gladiatorial games. Through the skillful use of underhanded tactics, players can help and hinder teams to alter the outcome of each battle. Can you outwit your opponents to turn a profit, or will you be left empty-handed?

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.71

Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends

| OTSG Staff

In the standalone card game Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends, you build your realm, one card at a time, as you collect heroes, quests, monsters, and more! Each card is unique, and scores points based on the other cards in your hand. You start with seven cards, and each turn, you draw a new card from the deck or discard area, then discard one card from your hand, always trying to improve your realm. Whoever’s realm scores the most points wins.

Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends takes the classic Fantasy Realms formula and adds new twists to match its theme. In addition to combining the right suits and attribute tags, you will:

  • Send cards to the afterlife, costing precious points but unlocking powerful abilities
  • Complete quests with unique card combinations
  • Vanquish legendary monsters with the right heroes

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Ghosts Galore

| OTSG Staff

In Ghosts Galore you’re helping monsters to build a fun ghost train in an abandoned mineshaft. Every monster want’s the track tiles laid their way – so YOU have to keep them calm, coordinate and optimize their track. Over the course of 8 rounds, each player builds a unique track on their 3×3 playground for the ghost train.

This family friendly tile placement game comes with a unique drafting mechanism and is quick to play while offering various strategies​: Will you stick with your drafted tile or go for a bold move which brings you even more scares?

After only 8 rounds, all tracks are set and the project is done. Sounds easy? Well, only the master who lines up the best scares, wins!

Ghosts Galore is another addition to the Lookout GreenLine, manufactured 100% eco-friendly.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.38

Gift of Tulips

| OTSG Staff

In Gift of Tulips, tulip enthusiasts explore Amsterdam’s tulip festival to build colorful bouquets, give tulips to others (scoring points in the process), and manipulate the value of the market.

The deck includes tulips of four colors, with values 2-4. Lay out four festival cards based on the player count, with these cards showing the number of points scored for giving away tulips, keeping tulips, and having a majority of certain colors at the end of the game. Draw two cards of different colors, and place them under the festival cards in first and second place based on their value. Deal two cards to each player; keep one card face up in front of you and add the other face down to the “secret festival” pile.

On a turn, draw a card from the deck and KEEP/GIVE/ADD it, then draw a second card and take one of the actions you didn’t just take. The actions:

  • KEEP: Place the card face up in front of you, scoring points for it if that color is currently ranked third or fourth in the festival.
  • GIVE: Give the card to another player, who places it face up in front of themselves; you score “giving” points based on the current ranking of that color in the festival, plus points equal to the value of that tulip.
  • ADD: Place the card face down in the secret festival or add it face up to the festival, altering the ranking of colors if needed so that the color with the highest sum is first, etc.

When the deck runs out, shuffle the cards in the secret festival, then draw five at random and add them face up to the festival, adjusting the ranking as needed. (If fewer than five cards are in the secret festival, add all of these cards to the festival.) For the three highest ranked colors in the festival, whoever has the most and secondmost cards in these colors scores points as listed on the festival cards; in games with five and six players, the player with the thirdmost cards of a color also scores points. In case of a tie for card count, the tied player with the higher value of a color wins that tie. Whoever has the most points wins.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.77

Ghosts Love Candy Too

| OTSG Staff

It’s a little-known fact that ghosts love to eat candy. But they can only eat it one night a year…Halloween! On that night, the ghosts travel through the neighborhood looking for delicious candy. Using their best scare tactics, ghosts will haunt the costumed kiddos to steal their sweet sweet candy. But they have to be careful not to scare them away. Ghosts just want a candy delight, not to cause them a fright.

This new edition expands upon the original version with more kids (100 total!), a new “junk” set of treats that you do not want to collect (like toothbrushes, rocks, ketchup packets, pennies, etc.) and new ghosts.

Playing the game is easy. Select one of your ghost cards to bid for turn order. Then resolve by choosing a kid to haunt, taking their candy then using their unique ability. Treats score at the end of the game based on your ghosts specific preferences.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Gathering of the Wicked

| OTSG Staff

Imagine a dark and desolate realm, filled only with chaos and misfortune, where only the truly evil and most powerful villains can survive and thrive. In a world where everyone is wicked, is there anyone you can really trust?

In Gathering of the Wicked, based on Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow, you play as a Disney villain such as Maleficent, Hades, or Captain Hook who is gathering in a dark realm with various henchmen. There, two teams fight for control, alternating between day and night phases. Each night, the villains wake up one by one and use their unique abilities to chase their objectives. Each day, the gathering debates and tries to unmask the traitors amongst them, but since no one knows which team other players are on, trusting each other will be tricky, and bluffing will be their best route to dominance within their new surroundings.

While each role is known by the other players, every character also has a “secret alignment” that determines their objective — making it even trickier to know who to trust!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 6 – 12 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.67