Tag: Hand Management

Hand Management is a game mechanic in which players are rewarded for playing cards in a specific order. This mechanic often encourages players to hold cards for later turns.

Unspeakable Words

| T3d-1978
Unspeakable Words

Unspeakable Words

Decode the ancient secrets of R’lyeh by forming words with the letters you find in this sanity-sapping letter game. The more angles that appear in the words, the greater their mystical value, but beware! For each word that is created, you must roll a sanity check against its value to see if the word’s power drives you mad!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck
  • Word Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.32

Tsuro of the Seas

| T3d-1978
Tsuro of the Seas

Tsuro of the Seas

The basic game play of Tsuro of the Seas resembles that of Tom McMurchie’s Tsuro: Players each have a ship that they want to sail — that is, keep on the game board — as long as possible. Whoever stays on the board the longest wins the game.

Each turn players add “wake” tiles to the 7×7 game board; each tile has two “wake connections” on each edge, and as the tiles are placed on the board, they create a connected network of paths. If a wake is placed in front of a ship, that ship then sails to the end of the wake. If the ship goes off the board, that player is out of the game.

What’s new in Tsuro of the Seas are daikaiju tiles, representing sea monsters and other creatures of the deep. Notably, daikaiju can move: each tile has five arrows, four for moving in each of the cardinal directions and another one for rotation. On the active player’s turn, he rolls two six-sided dice; on a sum of 6, 7, or 8, the daikaiju will move, while on any other sum they’ll stay in place. To determine which direction the daikaiju tiles move, the player then makes a second roll, this time with a single die. On 1-5 in the second roll, each daikaiju moves according to its matching arrow. On a 6 in the second roll, a new daikaiju tile is added to the board.

If a daikaiju tile hits a wake tile, a ship, or another daikaiju tile, the object hit is removed from the game. Another way to be ousted! The more daikaiju tiles on the game board, the faster players will find themselves trying to breathe water…

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Player Elimination
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.43

Tsuro

| T3d-1978
Tsuro

Tsuro

A beautiful and beautifully simple game of laying a tile before your own token to continue its path on each turn. The goal is to keep your token on the board longer than anyone else’s, but as the board fills up this becomes harder because there are fewer empty spaces left… and another player’s tile may also extend your own path in a direction you’d rather not go. Easy to introduce to new players, Tsuro lasts a mere 15 minutes and actually does work for any number from 2 to 8.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Player Elimination
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 15 – 20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.23

Ticket to Ride: Poland

| T3d-1978
Ticket to Ride: Poland

Ticket to Ride: Poland

From the sea to the Tatras, as wide as Poland is long, there are beautiful areas just waiting to be discovered. Do you want to observe the bison in the shadow of the Bialowieza Forest? Or maybe you prefer to take a walk through the charming streets of Wroclaw?

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.56

Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train

| T3d-1978
Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train

Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train

Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train takes the gameplay of the Ticket to Ride series and scales it down for a younger audience.

In general, players collect parade float cards, claim routes on the map, and try to connect locations such as the Mad Scientist’s Lab, the Gingerbread House, and the Lonely Barn that are shown on their tickets. In more detail, the game board shows a map of a city with certain locations being connected by colored paths. Each player starts with four colored parade float cards in hand and two tickets; each ticket shows two locations, and you’re trying to connect those two locations with a contiguous path of your trains in order to complete the ticket.

On a turn, you either draw two parade float cards from the deck or discard parade float cards to claim a route between two locations by placing your ghost trains on it; for this latter option, you must discard cards matching the color and number of spaces on that route (e.g., two yellow cards for a yellow route that’s two spaces long). If you connect the two locations shown on a ticket with a path of your trains, reveal the ticket, place it face up in front of you, then draw a new ticket. (If you can’t connect locations on either ticket because the paths are blocked, you can take your entire turn to discard those tickets and draw two new ones.)

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Ticket to Ride: Germany

| T3d-1978
Ticket to Ride: Germany

Ticket to Ride: Germany

Ticket to Ride: Germany is a standalone game in the Ticket to Ride series. Over the course of the game, players collect cards in order to then claim routes on the game board between two cities. Ideally the players create a network of routes that connect the cities showing on their secret ticket cards. Players score points both for claiming routes and for completing tickets, with incomplete tickets counting against a player’s score.

In addition to scoring points for tickets, whenever a player places a route on the board, they claim a passenger from the two cities that form the endpoints for that route (assuming that the passengers have not already been claimed). At the end of the game, whoever has the most passengers of each of the six colors scores 20 points for that color; whoever has the secondmost passengers in a color scores 10 points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.76

Sushi Go Party!

| T3d-1978
Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go Party! expands Sushi Go! with a party platter of mega maki, super sashimi, and endless edamame. You still earn points by picking winning sushi combos, but now you can customize each game by choosing à la carte from a menu of more than twenty delectable dishes. What’s more, up to eight players can join in on the sushi-feast. Let the good times roll!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Party Game
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.30

Stop Thief!

| T3d-1978
Stop Thief!

Stop Thief!

An alert pops up on your smartphone: A crime has just been committed! Grab your investigator’s license and your keen powers of deduction and hunt down the suspect. But watch out because you’re not the only private eye on the hunt, and only one of you can slap the cuffs on the suspect and claim the reward. Get enough reward money, and you can finally leave this rat race behind and retire to a sunny tropical beach in the Caribbean.

Stop Thief is a family game of logical deduction for 2-4 players. An invisible suspect commits a crime. Only the sounds they make give them away. Listen to the clues and figure out where they are hiding. Play cards from your unique deck to move around the board, sneak through a window, or even get a private tip. Once you have the suspect pinned down, swoop in and make the arrest.

The obvious first step in this restoration was taking the electronic device and turning it into an app. Doing that allows for better sound quality and a more dynamic platform for different modes of play. Next step was ditching the roll-and-move mechanism and, in general, stripping out some of the luck and adding in a healthy dose of strategy. By replacing the dice with decks of movement cards, it also allows asymmetrical decks, which increases the fun and replayability. Game effects were also added to the suspect cards to further spice things up.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction
  • Hand Management
  • Hidden Movement
  • Memory
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.53

Station Master

| T3d-1978
Station Master

Station Master

Station Master is a train-themed card game for 2-6 players. In the game, players are working at the station, attaching railcars to Locomotives and boarding passengers on trains, trying to score the most Efficiency Points to win!

We have restored this timeless train game, creating stunning all-new artwork based on classic locomotives, railcars, and railroad history. In addition, the rules have been refined and streamlined for modern audiences, as well as adding in upgrades and new material to create the greatest possible Station Master experience!

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 50 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Sheriff of Nottingham

| T3d-1978
Sheriff of Nottingham

Sheriff of Nottingham

Prince John is coming to Nottingham! Players, in the role of merchants, see this as an opportunity to make quick profits by selling goods in the bustling city during the Prince’s visit. However, players must first get their goods through the city gate, which is under the watch of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Should you play it safe with legal goods and make a profit, or risk it all by sneaking in illicit goods? Be mindful, though, as the Sheriff always has his eyes out for liars and tricksters and if he catches one, he very well may confiscate those goods for himself!

In Sheriff of Nottingham, players will not only be able to experience Nottingham as a merchant of the city, but each turn one player will step into the shoes of the Sheriff himself. Players declare goods they wish to bring into the city, goods that are secretly stored in their burlap sack. The Sheriff must then determine who gets into the city with their goods, who gets inspected, and who may have their goods confiscated!

Do you have what it takes to be seen as an honest merchant? Will you make a deal with the Sheriff to let you in? Or will you persuade the Sheriff to target another player while you quietly slip by the gate? Declare your goods, negotiate deals, and be on the lookout for the Sheriff of Nottingham!

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Bribery
  • Hand Management
  • Negotiation
  • Open Drafting
  • Party Game
  • Role Playing
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.80