Tag: Open Drafting

Games with Open Drafting mechanics allow players to choose new resources from a shared pool. The pool of resources is public, meaning all players will see available options.

Deadwood 1876

| T3d-1978

There’s gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and you’ve come to find (or steal) your share. You’re staying at one of the three major establishments in Deadwood where you and your associates are working together to steal some of the gold-filled safes floating around town. But you suspect that the “friends” you’re working with are secretly plotting to keep all the gold for themselves. Will you be ready to turn on them before they shoot you in the back?

In Deadwood 1876, you use cards from your hand to try to win Safes from other players. Safes contain Badges, Gold, or Showdown Guns. Near the end of the game, players with Badges get extra turns. After the final turn, the team with the most Gold will advance to the Final Showdown. There, teammates will have to fight each other to the death using Showdown Guns. The last person alive is the winner!

The game is a balance between teamwork and selfishness. If a player uses all of their best cards to hunt down Gold for their team, they’ll be defenseless to fight against their teammates if they go to the Final Showdown. But if a player only goes after Guns and saves all of their best cards, their team might not have enough Gold to actually reach the Final Showdown. If someone on your team doesn’t seem to be pulling their weight, they might be plotting to steal your gold after using you to get to the Finals! There may come a point where you need to gather Showdown Guns instead of Gold, or attack, mislead, frame, abandon, or banish your own teammates.

Deadwood 1876, volume 3 in the “Dark Cities” series from Facade Games, can have 2-9 players. Learn in 20 minutes, play in 20-40 minutes.

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Team-Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 9 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.90

DC Deck Building Game: Justice League Dark

| T3d-1978

ARE YOU READY TO GO DARK?
This entry in the DC Deck-Building Game series puts you in the supernatural shoes of the DC team that steps in when challenges arise that are too mystical for regular Super Heroes. Become a member of the Justice League Dark as you Seal the threats of magical Super-Villains and Transform your cards into more powerful forms!

Standalone game, but compatible with other games in DC Deck-Building Game series.

KEY FEATURES
Based on Justice League Dark comics, with original cover art by Ryan Benjamin
Play as Justice League Dark members like Wonder Woman, John Constantine, Zatanna, and Doctor Fate
Transform cards have the ability to change into other cards!
Seal your cards away to add to your score at the end of the game
New Weakness cards have a built-in way to get rid of them… if you are willing to pay the cost!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Anxiety Attack!

| T3d-1978

Play cards to move opponents closer to the Anxiety Spiral and yourself closer to safety.

Each turn, players play cards from their hand:

  • Trigger Cards are numbered 1-7 and move characters ahead toward the Anxiety Spiral.
  • Defuse Cards are numbered 1-3 and move characters back toward the Oasis. Play either card type on any player, including yourself. Playing one of these cards completes the player’s turn unless they want to play an Instant card.
  • Instant Cards can be played at any time according to the function on the card. Play them quickly before another card is played or a player moves.

If a player lands exactly on a space with an arrow, move to the space indicated. Landing on the same space as another player bumps the player who was there first ahead one space. Use Trigger and Defuse cards strategically to find safer routes for yourself and move opponents faster!

Red and Orange split paths may have certain advantages and disadvantages, choose wisely!

Landing on a Panic Room or Retreat space for the first time sends a player to a safe haven. For the next round, that player may not play nor can they be played on. After their next turn they are sent out according to the arrow, where they will be vulnerable to play. If all opponents are in safe havens a remaining player MUST play a card on themself.

The first player to be sent to the Anxiety Spiral loses. But they are not out of the game because misery LOVES company! The losing player may now move one space in either direction EVERY TIME a card is played. If the losing player lands on the same space as a remaining player, the remaining player is sent directly to the Anxiety Spiral and then begins to go after other players in the same fashion until there is only one active player.

The last person to be sent to the Anxiety Spiral is the winner!

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Comic Hunters

| T3d-1978

You have spent years of your life cultivating the perfect comic book collection – your favorite heroes, villains, and storylines all together at last. Well, except for some very special, very rare comic books. In Comic Hunters, you are seeking to fill in these holes, hunting down Number 1 issues, First Appearance issues, New Visual issues, Special Edition issues, and Memorable Clashes issues across four different locations. You’ll only have three rounds to collect, moving up on various tracks for specific heroes depending on the type of Comic Book you acquired. But don’t forget! You aren’t the only one with your eyes on these priceless books, so you have to plan carefully and make sure you get your hands on what really matters. Happy collecting!

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction
  • Closed Drafting
  • Open Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.23

Colonists, the

| T3d-1978

You and your opponents will take on the role of mayors of different villages forming in a newly established colony. The goal is to have the highest level of employment, and as mayor you’ll have to create jobs, educate your people, and strategically use your limited resources to expand your city and sow the seeds for greatness in the future.

Game Mechanics:

  •  Area Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Solo/Solitaire
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 360 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.06

Codex Naturalis

| T3d-1978

In Codex Naturalis, you are competing with your opponents to create the best manuscript of living species in primary forests. You’ll do this by placing down cards, overlapping them to assemble an overall manuscript, providing yourself with resources or points! You’ll have to plan carefully to maximize your points, and you’ll have to be willing to make sacrifices to get the best possible outcome.

Game Mechanics:

  •  Hand Management
  • Layering
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.74

Civolution

| T3d-1978

Hello, student beings! The cosmic faculty of the Technical Academy of Creation is delighted to welcome you to your Civolution, the final exam in Civilization Design!

For this occasion, we prepared a humanoid scenario on an isolated continent. Here, each of you holds the rank of a local deity which is closely linked to its very own civilization and must lead it to success over the other civilizations. Your developmental possibilities are endless and reach from cultural and technical progress to evolutional adaptations. For example, what would you consider more beneficial to your tribes: inventing the wheel or growing wings? Demonstrate your ability to operate your civilization console and show us how well you can adjust to changeable environmental conditions and mild creational chaos.

When the exam ceases after four eras, whoever managed to gather the most success points will not only pass the exam but will become a full member of the Technical Academy of Creation and garner the opportunity to be promoted to the next instance.

Civolution is a medium heavy to heavy euro-style game that utilizes a dice selection mechanism to trigger actions on a tech tree-like structure. As you figure out how to best use your dice and put your unique cards into play, tons of strategies and paths to victory emerge, though each time you play, you will only explore a fraction of the possibilities that the game’s system and many cards provide.

Game Mechanics:

  • Events
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Tech Trees / Tech Tracks
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.22

Circus Flohcati

| T3d-1978

In Circus Flohcati, players collect acts from the flea circus to score points, with the game containing ten types (colors) of acts, with acts being valued from 0-7 points.

On a turn, you can choose one of the face-up cards on the table and add that to your hand or flip the top card from the deck and add it to the cards on display. If you flip an action card, you must take that action — often stealing a card from an opponent — then your turn ends. If you flip a card of the same color as any face-up card, then you instead discard the newly revealed card and your turn ends with you getting nothing. Otherwise, you again face the same options: Collect a face-up card or reveal a new card.

If on your turn you have three cards of the same value in hand, you can play this trio on the table for a guaranteed 10 points. The game ends either when someone reveals that they have all ten acts in hand or when the deck has been exhausted. You score only for the highest-valued act of each color, so either avoid taking duplicate colors or ditch them in trios. If you have all ten acts in hand, score a 10-point “gala show” bonus. Whoever has the highest score wins.

Editions of Circus Flohcati bear a player count of either 2-5 or 3-5, but they don’t differ in the rules or nature of the components.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.23

Chomp

| T3d-1978

The era of the dinosaurs is here! Your goal in Chomp is to form herds of dinos and make sure they are all fed. Herbivores and carnivores both need food sources, but if the carnies are not properly fed, they don’t mind chomping an herbie to fill their bellies!

Gameplay involves dual rows of goal tiles and dino tiles, and each turn players select one tile to add to their personal arrangement. Goal tiles stay off to the side for endgame scoring, and dino tiles are arranged in front of each player. Dino tiles include three sizes each of herbivores and carnivores. Each tile must overlap previous ones, either on top of a quarter tile, half tile, or even a whole tile, ensuring that any covered dinos are completely hidden.

Adjacent dinos of the same species form herds, which will eat together if connected to a single food source — or die together if they are unfed, adjacent to a tar pit, or next to an otherwise unfed carnivore!

At the end of the game, each living and fed dino scores 1-3 points depending on its size, and the player with the highest score wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.56

Challengers! Beach Cup

| T3d-1978

Challengers! Beach Cup is an interactive deck-management game for 1-8 players that plays in about 45 minutes independent of player count. With the tournament gameplay style, you meet another opponent every round.

In the Deck Phase, you choose new members and add them to your deck, which might consist of a wizard, alien, cat, gangster and kraken. Dozens of distinct characters with more than forty effects create a unique experience every game. Choose from seven different sets and discover new strategies and synergies every game.

In the Match Phase, stay in possession of the flag to win the trophy of that round. Try to get the most fans and trophies over the course of seven rounds to be able to qualify for the final. If you can best your opponent in the final, you win!

Challengers! Beach Cup contains a 16-card “Trainers” expansion that gives each player a unique power. Some give you bonuses when defending, some when you’re on the offensive, and others can extend your bench or even let you rearrange your deck.

Challengers! Beach Cup is a standalone game that can also be mixed with Challengers! to create new set combinations and new experiences.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.15