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.

Red Rising

| T3d-1978
Red Rising

Red Rising

Enter the futuristic universe of Red Rising, based on the book series by Pierce Brown featuring a dystopian society divided into fourteen castes. You represent a house attempting to rise to power as you piece together an assortment of followers (represented by your hand of cards). Will you break the chains of the Society or embrace the dominance of the Golds?

Red Rising is a hand-management, combo-building game for 1-6 players (45-60 minute playing time). You start with a hand of 5 cards, and on your turn you will deploy 1 of those cards to a location on the board, activating that card’s deploy benefit. You will then gain the top card from another location (face up) or the deck (face down), gaining that location’s benefit and adding the card to your hand as you enhance your end-game point total. If at any point you’re really happy with your hand, you can instead use your turn to reveal a card from the top of the deck and place it on a location to gain that location’s benefit.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.27

Railroad Rivals

| T3d-1978
Railroad Rivals

Railroad Rivals

While playing Railroad Rivals, you connect cities via one of the twelve great railroads that stretched across the United States, while simultaneously building your stock portfolio. You then use those railroads to make deliveries that drive up the price of your stocks. At the end of the game, the player who has run the most profitable railroad while also owning the most valuable stocks becomes the greatest of all of the railroad rivals!

In more detail, Railroad Rivals is a tile-drafting and -laying game in which you build a railroad empire that stretches across America…and across your table. Each turn you draft one new city tile and one new railroad stock tile. You then lay one of your city tiles next to a city tile that is already on the table to create a link between the two cities. The matching edges must both have the same railroad on them. Each newly laid city gets one or more randomly drawn colored cubes placed on it that represent the goods that can be delivered from that city. After all players have laid their city tile, you deliver one goods cube using one of that city’s railroad links. This gives you points and raises the value of that railroad stock.

At the end of the game, your score is the total of all of the points that you received from deliveries, from other players using your railroad links, and from the value of all of your railroad stock tiles.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Open Drafting
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.07

The Quest for El Dorado: Golden Temples Adventure

| T3d-1978
The Quest for El Dorado: Golden Temples Adventure

The Quest for El Dorado: Golden Temples Adventure

In The Quest for El Dorado: The Golden Temples, which can be played as a standalone game or combined with 2017’s The Quest for El Dorado, players have now reached the legendary city of gold and they have started to explore it. What will they find there?

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.88

The Quest for El Dorado

| T3d-1978
The Quest for El Dorado

The Quest for El Dorado

In The Quest for El Dorado, players take the roles of expedition leaders who have embarked on a search for the legendary land of gold in the dense jungles of South America. Each player assembles and equips their own team, hiring various helpers from the scout to the scientist to the aborigine. All of them have one goal in mind: Reaching the golden border first and winning all of the riches for themselves. Whoever chooses the best tactics will be rewarded!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.93

Queendomino

| T3d-1978
Queendomino

Queendomino

Build up the most prestigious kingdom by claiming wheat fields, forests, lakes, grazing grounds, marshes, and mountains. Your knights will bring you riches in the form of coins — and if you make sure to expand the towns on your lands, you will make new buildings appear, giving you opportunities for new strategies. You may win the Queen’s favors … but always be aware of the dragon!

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.06

Quarriors! Qultimate Quedition

| T3d-1978
Quarriors! Qultimate Quedition

Quarriors! Qultimate Quedition

In Quarriors!, each player plays as a Quarrior competing for glory in the eyes of Quiana, the Empress of Quaridia. Each player starts with an identical set of twelve dice in their dice bag. At the start of the game, creature and spell dice (dubbed “quarry”) are dealt at random to form “the Wilds” in the center of the table. As play progresses, players roll their dice to attempt to summon creatures, cast spells, and harness the magical power of Quiddity (the in-game resource) to capture quarry from the Wilds to add to their repertoire and into their dice bag. Players draw and roll six dice a turn from their bag, meaning that controlling bag composition is key to victory.

Quarriors! is a fast-paced game in which players must strategically balance their choices each turn. Do you use your Quiddity to summon creatures in the hopes of scoring glory, or should you spend it all to capture more powerful quarry from the Wilds? Players must outmaneuver their opponents through strategic spell use, the acquisition of powerful quarry, and ultimately, by striking down opposing creatures in combat. If your creatures survive until your next turn, you will score glory points and move closer to victory!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.25

The Pursuit of Happiness

| T3d-1978
The Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness

We all have one common desire: the desire for happiness. As we build our life, taking steps towards the pursuit of happiness, we come closer to the realization that happiness lies in the pursuit.

The Pursuit of Happiness is a game in which you take a character from birth and you live the life you always wanted. Using a worker-placement mechanism with time as your workers, you take on projects, you get jobs, you buy items, you establish relationships, you raise families. The possibilities are endless as you live the life you have always wanted.

How much will you be able to achieve in just one lifetime during The Pursuit of Happiness?

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Open Drafting
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Photograph

| T3d-1978
Photograph

Photograph

Time to walk about town and take some pictures! It’s the 1960s in Japan, and you have a half-size camera that lets you take half-size vertical pictures. Let’s see whether you can put together good shots…

In Photograph!, you’re trying to organize pictures on your roll so that they appear in the right order. Each player has a hand of cards, and on a turn, you’ll add 1-3 cards to the front of your hand (without changing their order), move one card in your hand closer to the front, then discard as many cards from the back of your hand as the number of cards that you added. When the sunset card comes out, you can take no more pictures, and everyone scores for what’s on their camera.

The cards all have numbers and colors on them, and you try to line them up in hand to score the most points possible.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.07

Papillon

| T3d-1978
Papillon

Papillon

A butterfly garden requires vision and a caring hand. Spring has arrived, and the world is in bloom. As your garden grows, caterpillars will congregate and morph into beautiful butterflies eager for nectar.

Papillon is a tile-drafting, tableau-building, and area majority game for 2-4 players. Over 8 rounds, you will bid for flower tiles to build your garden, attract butterflies to flowers with valuable nectar, and of course, every garden looks better with a gnome. Collect the most nectar at the end of the game and you’ll win!

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Area Control
  • Auction/Bidding
  • Open Drafting
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.06

Overboss

| T3d-1978
Overboss

Overboss

In Overboss, rival Boss Monsters emerge from their dungeons to conquer the Overworld. Each turn, players draft and place terrain tiles and monster tokens. Their goal: to craft the map with the greatest Power and become the ultimate Overboss!

Designed by Aaron Mesburne and Kevin Russ (Calico), this fast-paced game combines drafting, set collection, and puzzly tile laying. It’s set in the retro-inspired pixel art world of Brotherwise Games’ best-selling Boss Monster, but this is an entirely new experience.

Build your map by drafting Forests, Swamps, Caves, Camps, Graveyards, Dungeon Entrances and other landscapes. Each terrain type has a different point value, and some increase in Power as you acquire larger sets. Players must balance optimal placement, set values, and disrupt their opponents’ sets. You’ll also need to manage monsters, which award points when grouped together or placed on matching terrain.

The game includes everything needed for up to 5 players: over 120 terrain tiles, over 100 monster tokens, 5 double-sided player boards, a scorepad, and more.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Puzzle
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.03