Tag: I Cut You Choose

I Made You a Mixtape

| OTSG Staff

It’s the early 90s. Baggy jeans and flannel shirts reign supreme, and the unmistakable sound of dial-up internet fills the air. Dan DiLisio, the coolest kid in your neighborhood, is heading off to University, and is letting you and your school friends raid his beloved music collection before he goes.

In return he’s asked you to make him a mixtape for his road trip up to college. To make things more interesting he’s said that the kid who makes the best tape will win his Quantum Leap poster signed by Scott Bakula.

Man, you really want that poster…

“I Made You a Mixtape” is a I-split-you-choose card game where you will be competing with the other players to make the best compilation possible out of an album collection. Your tape will be judged on how well it’s themed, how the tracks flow with each other, and the balance of lengths between side A and side B.

-description from designer

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.31

Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road

| OTSG Staff

“Yoko… What lies ahead for us?” asked her friend Tomoyo.
Yoko stared out into the sea, calm and serene. “Today we are just maiko. But one day, we will complete our training and become known as geisha.”
“Yes, artists of the highest order. But then what?”
“Okaasan said that one day, perhaps some of us may be lucky to inherit the teahouse… if fortune favors us and our hard work.”

Welcome back to Hanamikoji! In Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road is a two-player based on “Hanamikoji” with a new Geisha movement and roundel system added to the game design to make the strategy more diversified. It’s competitive strategy game full of implicit intentions, veiled messages, and hidden actions, players represent rival but friendly patrons supporting Yoko, Tomoyo, and others along their journey from apprentice (maiko) to full geisha (artist) and perhaps even the owner (okaasan) of their own establishment.

To do so, players help their favored geisha advance and build prestige through performing their art at different teahouses. Geisha start as apprentices (maiko) but become full geisha and score prestige points after accruing the necessary patronage to return to their original teahouse (ochaya) for the graduation ceremony (erikae). Some geisha may continue their path further and eventually inherit the teahouse (upon a second return) to become the new okaasan, recognized with more prestige points.

At the end of the game, the player who provides the most support to each geisha is recognized. The player who has supported the most prestigious group of geisha wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.18

Great Split, the

| OTSG Staff

In The Great Split, you draft cards to collect riches such as gems, gold, artwork, and tomes, adding them to your collection to make it the most prestigious of all!

You start each round by splitting your cards into two groups, then you pass your wallet to the player on your left — but only one group of cards will be given back to you. You split, they choose! Don’t despair, though, because while your opponent is looking at your split, you also receive a similar offer from the player on your right, so choose wisely. When your hand is complete, play your cards to add all those riches to your collection.

Each type of riches awards you prestige points in different ways, so maintain a balanced collection of gems, keep an eye on the value of the art market as it evolves, and pile up priceless tomes. Depending on how each player builds their collection, different riches will take on a different value for each of them. Show off your best haggling skills in crafting your split, and create the perfect offer to push your opponent to take what you want them to take…leaving you with the tastiest loot!

Be prepared for when the mid-game scorings are triggered. Manage your gold reserves sensibly to get additional riches, and make your collection just right!

—description from publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 7 Players
  • 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.06