posts page

Summoner Wars

| T3d-1978
Summoner Wars

Summoner Wars

Summoner Wars puts you in the role of a powerful summoner in control of a unique army, dedicated to taking control of the war-torn planet of Itharia. Display your tactical prowess by summoning units to your gates, outmaneuvering your opponent, and cutting down the enemy summoner to claim victory. Be wary though! The enemy will take advantage of every opportunity they find to destroy you and your army.

Countless units, a wide variety of spells and abilities, and the option to build your own decks, all make for a game sure to entertain, play after play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 40 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.48

Sudoku Board

| T3d-1978
Sudoku Board

Sudoku Board

In this variation of a game based on the Sudoku puzzle, a “host” (referee) sets up the board with the initial Sudoku puzzle (using one of the 162 puzzles supplied, broken into Easy, Medium, and Hard groups, or by using others found on the web site whose URL is provided in the instructions) by laying the numbered tiles on the blank Sudoku layout board. Players (or teams) take turns adding one tile (and only one tile) to the board.

Points are scored for correct placement based on the number of the tile laid (placing a “6” gets the player 6 points). Points are lost for misplayed tiles (placing a “6” incorrectly costs the player 6 points). A misplayed tile is removed from the board.

Bonus points are won or lost for correctly/incorrectly completing a row or column (5 points each) or a 3×3 block (15 points) or the whole puzzle (20 points).

Repeat until each player has had a turn being “host”, and the player with the most cumulative points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Pattern Building
  • Puzzle Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Succulent

| T3d-1978
Succulent

Succulent

Your succulent garden is amazing! Through thoughtful selection, delicate pruning, and tireless care, you’ve earned a reputation as a master horticulturist. In Succulent, you compete against your peers for lucrative and prestigious projects that will cement your place as the community’s premier succulent gardener.

The game is played over a series of turns during which players collect succulent cuttings from their gardens along with water crystals and use them to complete projects which grant various benefits, including earning points. Most victory points at the end of the game wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.21

Sub Terra

| T3d-1978
Sub Terra

Sub Terra

A 1-6 player cooperative game of terrifying cave escape. Players take the role of amateur cavers attempting to escape an unexplored network of subterranean tunnels, before the lights flicker out or the darker things beneath the Earth catch up to them…

In Sub Terra players spend their turn exploring and revealing the tunnel system around them, attempting to survive the various perils of the cave, from floods and cave ins to gas leaks and scree. Players each have a role which gives them specialist abilities, such as an Engineer with dynamite to blast a new route or a Scout to find a route more easily.

New tiles are placed from a randomised stack of cave features, which determines whether you’ll be hit with a dead end or a range of new options.

At the end of each turn, players face the reality of their situation, with a hazard card drawn to determine what danger causes them damage or cuts off their way out of the horror below.

These cards are finite, and when they run out, your torches flicker and the air feels tight, and your chance of survival diminishes quickly.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Push Your Luck
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.14

Stuffed Fables

| T3d-1978
Stuffed Fables

Stuffed Fables

Stuffed Fables is an unusual adventure game in which players take on the roles of brave stuffies seeking to save the child they love from a scheming, evil mastermind. Make daring melee attacks, leap across conveyor belts, or even steer a racing wagon down a peril-filled hill. The game delivers a thrilling narrative driven by player choices. Players explore a world of wonder and danger, unlocking curious discoveries. The chapters of Stuffed Fables explore the many milestones of a child’s life, creating a memorable tale ideal for families, as well as groups of adults who haven’t forgotten their childlike sense of wonder.

Stuffed Fables is the first “AdventureBook Game”, a new product line from Plaid Hat Games in which all of the action takes place in the unique storybook — a book that acts as your rules reference, story guide, and game board, all in one! Each adventure in the game takes place over several pages of the immersive AdventureBook. The book opens flat onto the table to reveal a colorful map or other illustration central to playing the game, with choices, story, and special rules on the opposite page.

On their turn, a player draws five dice from the bag. The colors of the dice drawn determine the types of actions and options available to the player. White dice can re-stuff stuffies injured in battle. Red dice perform melee attacks while green dice perform ranged attacks. Yellow dice search while blue dice are used for special actions and purple dice can be used as any color. Most dice can always find a strategic use, including moving, using items, or contributing to group tasks. Players can store dice for later, combine dice for stronger actions, or use them one-at-a-time for multiple activations. As turns go by, black dice are also drawn, and after enough appear, minions emerge or attack, and the dice bag is reset!

Players can encourage each other by sharing dice or their precious stuffing. In addition to fighting minions, each page of the storybook offers numerous points of interest, charming characters to interact or trade with, as well as many unusual challenges. And each page is but one chapter that folds into a branching, overarching story with a multitude of items and a special discovery deck full of surprises.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Role Playing
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.43

Studies in Sorcery

| T3d-1978
Studies in Sorcery

Studies in Sorcery

Studies in Sorcery is an engine building and drafting game in which players are trying to complete projects in Alchemy, Reanimation, and more to finally complete their thesis statement and graduate from the Academy of the Dark Arts.

Each field of study at the Academy of Dark Arts is different and requires different skills. Alchemy takes time but can grant you abilities instantly. Reanimation requires just the right ingredients if you want to really impress the professors and can help you build future projects even faster. Sorcery takes work, but can grant you new abilities depending on the phase of the moon.

On their turn, players can choose to scavenge for ingredients or to go get more projects to work on. At the end of each round, players can commit their ingredients to projects and hopefully finish a project so they can reap the rewards of a job well done.

The game ends after four semesters have passed and players present their projects for review. Choose your thesis and fields of study wisely and even you can get your degree in darkness!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Stratego

| T3d-1978
Stratego

Stratego

The gameboard is your battlefield. You have an army of men at your disposal and six bombs. Your mission–protect your flag and capture your opponent’s flag.

Secretly place your men, bombs, and flag on the gameboard with these objectives in mind. But remember your opponent is doing the same thing, so you must plan a defense as well as an offense.

Once the armies are in place, advance your men. When you’re one space away from an enemy, attack. You and your opponent declare ranks. The lower-ranking man is captured and out of play.

You control your pieces and risk your men in battles where the strength of your enemy is unknown. The suspense builds as your men move deeper into enemy territory. Move with caution and courage. The next piece you attack could be a bomb. And when attacked, it could “blast” your man off the board and out of play.

The first to capture an enemy flag is the winner!

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Bluffing
  • Deduction
  • Grid Movement
  • Memory

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Stranger Things

| T3d-1978
Stranger Things

Stranger Things

Stranger Things: Upside Down is a board game based on the Stranger Things television series.

Hawkins, Indiana seems like an average town. However, underneath the exterior lurks a secret. The Hawkins National Laboratory has been doing experiments that have unleashed the horrors of the Upside Down. It’s up to the kids in the town to save it.

In Stranger Things: Upside Down, players take on the role of the kids of Hawkins who are trying to stop the operatives of the Hawkins National Laboratory and the evils from the Upside Down. Players must work together to clear stacks of tokens before time runs out. The game offers two seasons of play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative

Game Specifications:

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

Stone Age

| T3d-1978
Stone Age

Stone Age

The “Stone Age” times were hard indeed. In their roles as hunters, collectors, farmers, and tool makers, our ancestors worked with their legs and backs straining against wooden plows in the stony earth. Of course, progress did not stop with the wooden plow. People always searched for better tools and more productive plants to make their work more effective.

In Stone Age, the players live in this time, just as our ancestors did. They collect wood, break stone and wash their gold from the river. They trade freely, expand their village and so achieve new levels of civilization. With a balance of luck and planning, the players compete for food in this pre-historic time.

Players use up to ten tribe members each in three phases. In the first phase, players place their men in regions of the board that they think will benefit them, including the hunt, the trading center, or the quarry. In the second phase, the starting player activates each of their staffed areas in whatever sequence they choose, followed in turn by the other players. In the third phase, players must have enough food available to feed their populations, or they face losing resources or points.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.47

Stockpile

| T3d-1978
Stockpile

Stockpile

Stockpile is an economic board game that combines the traditional stockholding strategy of buy low, sell high with several additional mechanisms to create a fast-paced, engaging and interactive experience.

In Stockpile, players act as stock market investors at the end of the 20th century hoping to strike it rich, and the investor with the most money at the end of the game is the winner. Stockpile centers on the idea that nobody knows everything about the stock market, but everyone does know something. In the game, this philosophy manifests in two ways: insider information and the stockpile.

First, players are given insider information each round. This information dictates how a stock’s value will change at the end of the round. By privately learning if a stock is going to move up or down, each player has a chance to act ahead of the market by buying or selling at the right time.

Second, players purchase their stocks by bidding on piles of cards called stockpiles. These stockpiles will contain a mixture of face-up and face-down cards placed by other players in the game. In this way, nobody will know all of the cards in the stockpiles. Not all cards are good either. Trading fees can poison the piles by making players pay more than they bid. By putting stocks and other cards up for auction, Stockpile catalyzes player interaction, especially when potential profits from insider information are on the line.

Both of these mechanisms are combined with some stock market elements to make players consider multiple factors when selling a stock. Do you hold onto a stock in hopes of catching a lucrative stock split or do you sell now to avoid the potential company bankruptcy? Can you hold onto your stock until the end of the game to become the majority shareholder, or do you need the liquidity of cash now for future bidding? Do you risk it all by investing heavily into one company, or do you mitigate your risk by diversifying your portfolio?

In the end, everyone knows something about the stock market, so it all comes down to strategy execution. Will you be able to navigate the movements of the stock market with certainty? Or will your investments go under from poor predictions?

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Economic
  • Open Drafting
  • Stock Holding

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.11