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.

Dune: Imperium – Uprising

| T3d-1978

In Dune: Imperium Uprising, you want to continue to balance military might with political intrigue, wielding new tools in pursuit of victory. Spies will shore up your plans, vital contracts will expand your resources, or you can learn the ways of the Fremen and ride mighty sandworms into battle!

Dune: Imperium Uprising is a standalone spinoff to Dune: Imperium that expands on that game’s blend of deck-building and worker placement, while introducing a new six-player mode that pits two teams against one other in the biggest struggle yet.

The Dune: Imperium expansions Rise of Ix and Immortality work with Uprising, as do almost all of the cards from the base game, and elements of Uprising can be used with Dune: Imperium.

The choices are yours. The Imperium awaits!

Game Mechanics:

  • Automatic Resource Growth
  • Card Play Conflict
  • Resolution
  • Contracts
  • Deck, Bag, and Pool
  • Building
  • Delayed Purchase
  • Force Commitment
  • Increase Value of Unchosen Resources
  • Multi-Use Cards
  • Open Drafting
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Team-Based Game
  • Turn Order: Progressive
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.50

Dragon Farkle

| T3d-1978

Gather your courage! The long-enjoyed peace of Yon has been disrupted by a ferocious and mean-spirited dragon — he’s terrorizing the locals and eating their livestock without their permission! Fortunately, a few wannabe heroes (that’s you!) have risen to the challenge of slaying the beast. Get yourself a brave companion, gather a powerful army, and enter the Dragon’s Keep for cheese and country in Dragon Farkle!

To play, you gather an army of loyal soldiers or steal them from your opponents, hire suspicious-looking companions and gain allegedly useful items (most of which aren’t even cursed), then fight that dragon you’ve heard so much about — or don’t, if you hate winning…

Game Mechanics:

  • Mechanisms
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Re-rolling and Locking
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Dominion: Rising Sun

| T3d-1978

We journey now to the islands to the east – or west, depending on where you are relative to them. Here your title is Emperor. They tell you you’re just a figurehead, though you can still order whatever breakfast you want. They may be right; you did get that breakfast. Your ceremonial sword and armor are made of paper. The samurai never let you into their tea parties, and the ninjas are always tying your shoelaces together. And the epic poem they wrote about you is only 17 syllables long. Rice has been adopted as currency, and no-one seems to even be trying to get your face onto the grains. But when you wake up each morning and look out over the land, life doesn’t seem so bad. Now, what’s for breakfast?

This is the 16th expansion to Dominion.

It has 300 cards, with 25 new Kingdom card piles. There are Shadow cards that leap out from your deck, and Prophecies that will someday happen and change everything. Debt and Events return.

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Delayed Purchase
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Doctor Who: The Card Game

| T3d-1978

Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans – The list of threats is endless and no place in the universe is ever truly safe from danger, but there is one man who has made it his mission to defend the defenseless, help the helpless, and save everyone he can: a mysterious stranger, a force of nature who has seen his own planet die, a madman with a box.

In Doctor Who: The Card Game, players act as the Doctor and his companions to defend specific locations while sending the Doctor’s enemies to conquer locations your opponents are trying to protect. Each player starts the game with one location, and cards in the deck consist of attackers, defenders, locations and support cards. To start a turn, you draw two cards, pick up any cards banked from a previous turn, and take the three cards passed to you earlier by the player on your left. You play or bank cards until you have only three in hand, then pass those to the player on your right and end your turn.

Attackers target specific locations and earn points for the player wielding them if they’re in play at the end of the game. Defenders try to remove attackers so that the location owner scores points for protecting the location. Support cards provide different abilities, such as enlarging your bank or providing time points (which can be used to draw additional cards). Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Majority / Influence
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Secret Unit Deployment
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.97

Djinn

| T3d-1978

Once your ancestors found or created a source of magic – the exact knowledge of its origin, as far as you know, has long been lost. A small community has developed around the source, which seeks to protect this place and keep it as secret as possible.

Unfortunately, some magical beings — half corporeal, half ethereal — have now tracked down this source. These beings of dubious character, which you call “Djinn”, have appeared in various places of the city to dispute your access to the source. You are young members of the Magic Guild, and to prove your abilities, you are tasked with capturing the Djinn so that they can do no harm. You can control them permanently only if you catch them in special Djinn bottles. To seal these bottles, you also need corks made from the bark of a tree near the magic source.

Whichever of you succeeds best in protecting your small town will be accepted into the inner circle of the Magic Guild and will soon be allowed to learn even more secrets…

In Djinn, you take turns moving across a map that shows thirteen locations. These locations are linked to actions where you can get the resources you need and catch the Djinn that are in six locations. In those locations you can do things like receive bottles and corks, collect magical power, buy magical items, hire mages to accompany you, discover secret passages, and more.

In each round, you can reach only one of two or three of the locations, so you must plan carefully to have all the resources you need in time to catch the Djinn. The game ends when all six “Boss Djinn” have been captured and removed from the map, then you score points for all captured Djinn.

-description from developer

Game Mechanics:

  • End Game Bonuses
  • Grid Movement
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.92

Divinity Derby

| T3d-1978

Zeus has invited a bunch of divine friends, including a couple of new ones, from all around the Multiverse for a little get-together on Mount Olympus…and you are one of them! After a few rounds of ambrosia, soon the racing and betting begins, with the Olympic “All-father” as the ultimate judge.

Divinity Derby is a fun and fast betting and racing game for 3 to 6 players, with a clever “shared hand” card mechanism. Players, as god-like beings betting on the race of six flying creatures, share a cardholder with each neighbor, and every turn they play one card from each shared card holder. Are you able to guess what your neighbor’s intentions and secret bets are and make the best use of the shared knowledge to win your bets?

With beautiful components, colorful art, and simple but engaging gameplay, Divinity Derby is suitable for players of all ages and skill levels.

Game Mechanics:

  • Betting and Bluffing
  • Neighbor Scope
  • Open Drafting
  • Track Movement
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.91

Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write

| T3d-1978

Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write is a roll-and-write version of the critically-acclaimed game Dinosaur Island.

Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write is a unique game in which players draft dice and then use those drafted dice as workers in a worker placement phase. Then, a fun polyomino puzzle ensues as you try and fit all your attractions and Dinosaurs into your park while buildings roads and routes to the exits for bonus points. At the end of the game, have more victory points than your opponents to win!

Game Mechanics:

  • Connections
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Coverage
  • Network and Route Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Paper-and-Pencil
  • Worker Placement with Dice Workers

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.84

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