Category: Small Games

Camel Up: The Card Game

| T3d-1978

Camel Up The Card Game brings a new way to enjoy the camel race with a racing deck! While keeping the same excitement as the board game, the card game experience gives the players a little bit more insight and control on the race. Don’t forget about the crazy camel!

One of them has been added and adapted exclusively in this new edition to make the unpredictable even more unpredictable!

Game Mechanics:

  •  Betting
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Café

| T3d-1978

During the reign of King John V, Portugal was a major European power. From Brazil, the king ordered Sergeant Melo Palheta to travel to French Guiana to formally establish the Utrecht Treaty of 1713 and to secretly bring coffee seeds to Brazil. The Sergeant was successful and by 1800 Brazil was one of the largest coffee producers in the world.

In the early 20th century, coffee from Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola and Timor is largely appreciated in Portugal and inspires the appearance of prestige coffee shops in emblematic locations that attract the elite. Through dedication, hard work and skill, the Portuguese 20th century witnesses the birth of one of the biggest coffee industries in the world.

In Café, 1 to 4 players represent coffee companies that from plantation, drying, roasting and distribution try to create and control the best supply chain of coffee.

Game Mechanics:

  • Layering
  • Melding and Splaying
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.05

Cactus Town

| T3d-1978

Cactus Town is an asymmetric action programming game for 2 to 4 players (1-5 with the Lone Ranger Expansion). A highly interactive game of fast paced chase & escape.

Sleepy little Cactus Town is going to see some action: you can put yourself the Sheriff’s badge, join a group of dangerous bandits, seek ransom as a bounty hunter or even use the power of seduction being an avenging Can Can dancer. Each party has its own objectives and its own special actions, making this a perfect gateway game for asymmetric gameplay. With playing time of 10-15 minutes per player, you can swap and play various parties each session.

Players program their actions with 3 out of 4 action cards each turn. Sounds easy enough, right? But careful, actions alternate between players and action cards are programmed in reverse order, meaning the last card programmed comes up first. Mastering this is a real challenge. Can you out-think your opponents, guess their moves and get in your own. Or will you out-think yourself and create some hilarious chaos?

Each player’s characters move through a 5×5 building-card grid, which is set up randomly face down each game. The game includes an advanced version with building effects and several variants, giving you even more replay value.

Are you ready for a duel? Will you plunder for gold? Are you in the mood to dance a Can Can? Going to steal a horse, are you? A lot of things are going to happen in Cactus Town, create your own cinematic Western story!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Queue
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.93

Boss Monster: The Dungeon Building Card Game

| T3d-1978

Inspired by a love of classic video games, Boss Monster: The Dungeon Building Card Game pits 2-4 players in a competition to build the ultimate side-scrolling dungeon. Players compete to lure and destroy hapless adventurers, racing to outbid one another to see who can build the most enticing, treasure-filled dungeon. The goal of Boss Monster is to be the first Boss to amass ten Souls, which are gained when a Hero is lured and defeated — but a player can lose if his Boss takes five Wounds from Heroes who survive his dungeon.

Playing Boss Monster requires you to juggle two competing priorities: the need to lure Heroes at a faster rate than your opponents, and the need to kill those Heroes before they reach your Boss. Players can build one room per turn, each with its own damage and treasure value. More attractive rooms tend to deal less damage, so a Boss who is too greedy can become inundated with deadly Heroes.

Players interact with each other by building rooms and playing Spells. Because different Heroes seek different treasure types, and rooms are built simultaneously (played face down, then revealed), this means that every “build phase” is a bidding war. Spells are instant-speed effects that can give players advantages or disrupt opponents.

As a standalone card game with 155 cards, Boss Monster contains everything that 2-4 players need to play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.85

Bigfoot vs. Yeti

| T3d-1978

A battle is brewing between the undisputed king of the cryptids Bigfoot and his stone cold cousin the Yeti, who is sick of playing second fiddle.

In Bigfoot vs. Yeti, you are an up and coming cryptozoologist mounting expeditions in the hopes of proving the existence of unknown creatures such as Bigfoot, Yeti, The Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil or Extraterrestrials. Your ultimate goal is to gain fame and fortune by being the first cryptozoologist credited with the actual discovery of a new species, making you world famous. Somehow you have landed yourself smack dab in the middle of feud between Bigfoot and Yeti so it’s time to choose your side as it will help shape the fate of your research and ultimately your success!

During each turn in the game, players draw from either the Unknown (deck) or from the top of Tabloids (discard pile). Each player mounts or joins expeditions for the various cryptids in the hope of reaching ten or more points in play. If ten or greater points is achieved that expedition would be considered to have found enough proof for science to take notice, thereby doubling that expedition’s score. Also during each turn a single Action card may be played which can do things like strengthen the value of an expedition in play, retrieve cards from the Tabloids or manipulate other facets of the game. Each cryptid has an ability that will help you in some way and is triggered when you play them. At the end of a round, cards in the Tabloids that match expeditions in play discredit that expedition. The game also has a shutout rule involving Extraterrestrials that, if achieved, prevents all other players from scoring that round.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

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

Biblios: Quill and Parchment

| T3d-1978

A “roll and write” version of the popular Biblios.

The life of a monastic scribe is not easy. Every day you spend long hours in the monastery copying books, praying, and performing tasks. Through hard work and prayer, earn the abbot’s trust and display your dedication to the pious life.

The object of the game is to score the most piety points. The game consists of 8 days (i.e., rounds). In the first 4 days, players simultaneously roll their own dice (that show various book types, abbot influence and travel points) and may do so up to 3 times. After each roll, the players have 3 options: (1) to keep the dice as shown, (2) to reroll exactly one die or (3) to roll all the dice.

Most of the dice are resource dice showing books monks are copying, but there are also abbot influence dice (abbot influences is accrued in the first half, but spent in the second half of the game), and a travel die (allowing a player’s novice to go out into towns to do good works and find more books).

In the last 4 rounds, players use their abbot influence to bid for a priority of tasks.

This is a rare (if not unique) “roll + write” game that includes auctions and, unlike many roll + write game; it is highly interactive.

After 8 days, the game ends and the players calculate scores. As in the original Biblios, the relative value of books changes during the game, so players are unsure of which books will be most valuable until the end of the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.08

Bears and the Bees, The

| T3d-1978

Come join the Hive! Compete to link honeycomb shaped cards to the growing hive. The more sides you match, the greater the payoff. Special cards help earn extra plays and deliver stings to your rivals. Just be careful to avoid those pesky honey-grubbin’ bears!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Pattern Building
  • Take That
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.27

Battle of the Boy Bands

| T3d-1978

In Battle of the Boy Bands, 3 to 5 players take on the roles of producers in the pop music industry and must build boy bands to compete in special events. The player with the most points at the end of six rounds wins.

During each round, players try to win the event in play by building the boy band that will earn the most points according to the special event rules. Equipping perk cards from the “Breaking News” deck to boys can give them extra points. Players can sabotage each others’ boy bands by playing attack cards from the “Breaking News” deck against them, but watch out! Players can also protect their precious boys with defend cards!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game

| T3d-1978

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game takes all the excitement of Baseball Highlights: 2045 and turns it into a thrilling dice game! Score the most runs by drafting the best dice and stringing together powerful combos! Slowly set up the base runners with singles, and then hit a grand slam, or steal bases to sneak your runners home! The rolls of the dice make each round a whole new ball game. Everyone gets to play even when it’s not their turn, so the strategic thinking never ends! Dust off home plate, get out your leather glove, and PLAY BALL!

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game is played with a set of 9 Play dice, 6 Power dice, 1 Pitcher’s die, a game board, and a game sheet for each player.

Each round the active player will roll the Play dice and any Power dice they have unlocked to place them each of the matching 6 board areas. Then, the active player will select one of these 6 areas and will use the dice from that area to cross off boxes in the matching track on their player game sheet. Once they are done, the inactive players select 1 die from 2 different areas to cross off 2 boxes in the matching tracks on their game sheets.

Marking off boxes in the 6 tracks (and the bonus Clutch Hits track) will place new runners on base and advance your existing runners for singles, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, and stolen bases. Each time you advance a base runner to home, you will score 1 run. The player who scores the most runs by the end of the game wins. But be careful, the result on the Pitcher’s die may remove some of your base runners before they can score!

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game is for 1 to 4 players ages 8 and up. Average game length is 20 minutes with mostly simultaneous play.

Contents: 1 Game Board, 25 Sheet Baseball Scorepad, 16 Custom Dice, 1 Rulebook, 16 Wooden Markers

-description from publisher

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game is Game #26 in the Gryphon Bookshelf Series of Games.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Paper-and-Pencil
  • Solo / Solitaire Game

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society Game

| T3d-1978

Develop your bond with your very own pet tea dragon in this adorable cozy deck builder. Treat your dragons to fun toys and items, and build memories with them throughout the four seasons. 

This game is a stand-alone, but can be combined with the Tea Dragon Society Card Game to expand gameplay to five players*, or to just mix in some autumn tea dragons with the base game!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4* Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.44