Tag: Deck Building

Deck Building is a mechanic where players build a deck of resources that is randomly drawn and used for future turns.

Floating World

| T3d-1978
Floating World

Floating World

Set in feudal Japan, Philosophia: Floating World is a deck-building game which can be played either in turn-taking or fully simultaneous mode. You can build majestic pagodas and Shinto shrines, learn ancient eastern wisdom, explore the world, or fight ancient monsters — or all of the above. This is a sandbox-style game, and how you play is up to you!

In Floating World, you play as one of six unique characters from Edo Japan, each with a unique power and a mysterious secret. The game plays simultaneously over three phases that repeat until one player has gained a victory condition. All phases occur simultaneously, and they are:

  1. The Draw Phase: Draw six cards from your deck, then pass them to another player. They take these cards, discard one of their choice, then separate the remaining five cards into two piles, one containing two cards and one containing three. You do the same for another player, then take your two piles, discarding one of them and playing the other.
  2. The Collect Phase: Collect items and bonuses indicated on the cards in your hand. You may also pay time tokens to perform extra actions in the next phase.
  3. The Action Phase: Simultaneously take actions based on your cards in hand and those that you chose in the collect phase. Disputes caused by the simultaneous nature of these actions are resolved using the influence track, where the player at the top of the track chooses the outcome; choosing in your own interest, however, drops you to the bottom of the track.

Rounds continue in this way until a player gains any of the seven victory conditions available, such as collecting all four ganbaru tokens or discovering another player’s secret location and achieving any two of the ganbaru tokens.

Philosophia: Floating World contains over 200 tarot-sized cards and 12 intricate miniatures and is filled with beautiful Ukiyo-e style Japanese art, all digitally remastered to regain the original vibrance of the era. Welcome to the Floating World!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Managment
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.20

Firefly: Misbehavin

| T3d-1978
Firefly: Misbehavin

Firefly: Misbehavin

Someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill ’em right back!

In Firefly: Misbehavin’, players get to control different factions of the Firefly ‘Verse, from the criminal enterprises of Badger or Niska, to the self-righteous Alliance, and even Serenity as Mal attempts to find a crew and keep flyin’.

This deck-building card game gives each player a unique starting deck of cards, as well as access to characters, items, and locations in the Core, Border, and Rim. Compete to control your own corner of the ‘Verse, or play through different episodes with a wide variety of objectives.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.33

Feudalia

| T3d-1978
Feudalia

Feudalia

After an everlasting period of wars, it’s finally time to collect the spoils. The King has named the feudal lords who will bring glory and prosperity to the conquered lands. To that end, the nobles will have to hire workers and master craftsmen to make their feuds grow as well as helping in the construction of a glorious cathedral, a symbol of the King’s proximity to God.

Feudalia is a deck-building and resource management game for 1-4 players, who will take the roles of the feudal lords of the new lands. Each player will rule three feuds, and all the vassals living in them, who will work those lands to improve their territories, all of it while trumping your opponent’s progress with military incursions into their territories. But the King wants his share too, and the tax collector will appear frequently, taking part of the resources stored by the players.

The goal of the game is to be the first player to earn 10 points. Players earn points by building, either developing their own feuds or helping in the different phases of the construction of the cathedral. During a turn, each player plays their vassals from their hand to gather money and resources, to further invest in new workers or new buildings. Resources can be saved, but be careful! the tax collector will show at your door when you least expect him, and he’ll take half your resources from each feud.

Manage your vassals wisely, hire the best master craftsmen, spend your resources in the cathedral before the tax collector arrives, and become the most prosperous feudal lord in Feudalia!

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Civilization
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Negotiation
  • Open Drafting
  • Trading
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.11

Familiar Tales

| T3d-1978
Familiar Tales

Familiar Tales

Familiar Tales is a co-operative, deck-building, fantasy adventure for 1-4 players. It’s an exciting narrative game in which players take on the roles of a wizard’s familiars, entrusted with saving and raising a displaced princess. They must keep her safe from the evil forces that would see her dead, but when it comes to children, it is not enough to merely survive! The familiars know that every choice they make will affect the young one in their care. If they are victorious and the throne is reclaimed, what kind of woman will sit upon it?

Players will explore a massive world through the pages of a fantastical story book filled with branching paths and memorable characters. Fight off enemies, and explore the many nooks and crannies of an enchanted world. Experience a professionally narrated, fully scored, decade-spanning fantasy epic. Easily downloadable for both Mac and Windows, this browser-based app is required to play Familiar Tales. Think of it as an automated game master and storyteller! The app also features a digital, searchable rulebook.

An innovative card play system allows players to level up their familiars by building and customizing their skill decks. Players will use their skill cards to perform all manner of exciting actions throughout their campaign.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Narrative Choice

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.75

Eschaton

| T3d-1978
Eschaton

Eschaton

In the game of Eschaton, players seek to lead the most favored cult in the final days before Armageddon. As the world crumbles, the Dark One will favor only a single unholy mass to be his Chosen in the vastness of eternity following the cataclysm. All others will be obliterated by his depraved will. Through bloodshed on the field of battle, divination of the unholiest arcana, and initiation of powerful cultists, you will build your cult and earn your rightful place.

Eschaton is a strategy game driven by a deck-building mechanic. All players begin with the same basic cult (deck) and an equal presence on the realm map. As the game progresses, each player utilizes the evil Influence of their existing Cultist cards to initiate new Cultists into their deck as they seek to earn the most Points of Favor from the Dark One. These Cultists carry different specialties: some are masters at arms, others strong wielders of arcane magics, and others provide even greater Influence to recruit stronger members.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.80

Endless Winter

| T3d-1978
Endless Winter

Endless Winter

Designed by Stan Kordonskiy (Dice Hospital, Rurik, Lock Up), developed by Jonny Pac (Coloma, Sierra West, Lions of Lydia), solo mode by Drake Villareal (Solani, Spook Manor), and illustrated by The Mico (Raiders of the North Sea, Paladins of the West Kingdom, Valeria), Endless Winter: Paleoamericans takes place in North America, around 10,000 BCE. Players guide the development of their tribes across several generations—from nomadic hunter-gatherers to prosperous tribal societies. Over the course of the game, tribes migrate and settle new lands, establish cultural traditions, hunt paleolithic megafauna, and build everlasting megalithic structures.

Endless Winter is a euro-style game that combines worker placement and deck building in an innovative way. Each round, players send their tribe members to various action spaces, and pay for the actions by playing cards and spending resources. Tribe cards grant additional labor, while Culture cards provide a variety of unique effects. As an alternative, cards can be saved for an end-of-round Eclipse phase, where they are simultaneously revealed to determine the new player order, and trigger various bonus actions.

The game features a novel blend of interwoven systems and mechanisms, such as multi-use cards, area influence, tile placement, and set collection. Plus, there are many viable paths to victory. After four brisk rounds, scores are tallied, and the tribe with the most points wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.22

Dune Imperium

| T3d-1978
Dune Imperium

Dune Imperium

Dune: Imperium is a game that finds inspiration in elements and characters from the Dune legacy, both the new film from Legendary Pictures and the seminal literary series from Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson.

As a leader of one of the Great Houses of the Landsraad, raise your banner and marshal your forces and spies. War is coming, and at the center of the conflict is Arrakis – Dune, the desert planet.

Dune: Imperium uses deck-building to add a hidden-information angle to traditional worker placement.

You start with a unique leader card, as well as a deck identical to those of your opponents. As you acquire cards and build your deck, your choices will define your strengths and weaknesses. Cards allow you to send your Agents to certain spaces on the game board, so how your deck evolves affects your strategy. You might become more powerful militarily, able to deploy more troops than your opponents. Or you might acquire cards that give you an edge with the four political factions represented in the game: the Emperor, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, and the Fremen.

Unlike many deck-building games, you don’t play your entire hand in one turn. Instead, you draw a hand of cards at the start of every round and alternate with other players, taking one Agent turn at a time (playing one card to send one of your Agents to the game board). When it’s your turn and you have no more Agents to place, you’ll take a Reveal turn, revealing the rest of your cards, which will provide Persuasion and Swords. Persuasion is used to acquire more cards, and Swords help your troops fight for the current round’s rewards as shown on the revealed Conflict card.

Defeat your rivals in combat, shrewdly navigate the political factions, and acquire precious cards. The Spice must flow to lead your House to victory!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Take That
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Dominion: Renaissance

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Renaissance

Dominion: Renaissance

It’s a momentous time. Art has been revolutionized by the invention of “perspective,” and also of “funding.” A picture used to be worth a dozen or so words; these new ones are more like a hundred. Oil paintings have gotten so realistic that you’ve hired an artist to do a portrait of you each morning, so you can make sure your hair is good. Busts have gotten better too; no more stopping at the shoulders, they go all the way to the ground. Science and medicine have advanced; there’s no more superstition, now they know the perfect number of leeches to apply for each ailment. You have a clock accurate to within an hour, and a calendar accurate to within a week. Your physician heals himself, and your barber cuts his own hair. This is truly a golden age.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.62

Dominion: Nocturne

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Nocturne

Dominion: Nocturne

You’ve always been a night person; lately you’ve even considered becoming a vampire. There are a lot of advantages: you don’t age; you don’t have to see yourself in mirrors anymore; if someone asks you to do something, you can just turn into a bat, and then say, sorry, I’m a bat. There are probably some downsides though. You always think of the statue in the town square that came to life and now works as the tavern barmaid. The pedestal came to life too, so she has to hop around. The village blacksmith turns into a wolf whenever there’s a full moon; when there’s a crescent moon, he turns into a chihuahua. That’s how this stuff goes sometimes. Still, when you breathe in the night air, you feel ready for anything.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.05

Dominion: Menagerie

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Menagerie

Dominion: Menagerie

Dominion, that’s what you’re trying to achieve. This time with animals! They each have a lesson to teach, whether it’s how to spit really far or what kind of grass tastes the best. It’s a lot to keep track of, but you’re like an elephant: you remember everything. And you’re afraid of mice. You’ve taken up riding. Horses are intimidating; they say you can lead a horse to water, but you haven’t managed it, so you’re working your way up, starting with dogs. So far so good; the dog hasn’t bucked you off yet. Your menagerie got off to a poor start, with just a goat, two rats, and the advisor who suggested starting a menagerie. You couldn’t get that fox you wanted, but it was probably bad anyway. Now you’ve got some camels, which are just as useless for sewing as you’d been warned, and a turtle that can hold its breath for longer than anyone can stay interested. Soon the animal kingdom will be yours.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.80