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.

Cosmoctopus

| T3d-1978

In Cosmoctopus, you take on the role of a devotee guiding the great Cosmoctopus through the Inky Realm. Your goal is to gather resources, obtain powerful relics, scriptures, hallucinations, and constellations to create powerful combinations and gather the most sacred of item – the great tentacle. The first to eight tentacles will gain the Great Inky One’s favor and be declared the most dedicated follower. 

The turns in Cosmoctopus are simple, the fun and strategy lie in building your engine to best maximize your turns and take advantage of your hand of cards. Cosmoctopus is also an incredibly versatile game, allowing you to easily altar the difficulty along with optional cooperative and solo modes!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Cooperative Game
  • Hand Management
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Race
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.21

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:

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

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.24

Colonists, the

| T3d-1978

In The Colonists, a.k.a. Die Kolonisten, each player is a mayor of a village and must develop their environment to gain room for new farmers, craftsmen, and citizens. The main goal of the game is full employment, so players must create new jobs, educate the people, and build new houses to increase their population. But resources are limited, and their storage leads to problems that players must deal with, while also not forgetting to upgrade their buildings. Players select actions by moving their mayor on a central board.

The Colonists is designed in different levels and scenarios, and even includes something akin to a tutorial, with the playing time varying between 30 minutes (for beginners) and 180 minutes (experts).

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • 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 1.76

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

CATastrophe: A Game of 9 Lives

| T3d-1978

Catastrophe is a game as spontaneous and unexpected as cats themselves.

Players start with 9 lives. Your goal is to survive the chaotic mayhem. The last cat standing is crowned champion! Power Cats will help guide you to victory with unique abilities. But, be careful, it’s no catwalk!

One second, you’re slapping down attack and curiosity cards, the next you’re rolling a die and playing fun catastrophic mini-games to determine your destiny. However, magical Yarn Balls may alter your fate. You are eliminated when you lose all of your lives. Beware of the villain, the Grim Reapurr, who is plotting your untimely demise and attempting to be the sole victor!

This is an all-out claws out kind of game with only one victor and many catfights! Will your strategy be to play with caution… or wild abandon… Either way, you’re in for a treat.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Cat Packs

| T3d-1978

Cat Packs is a fast-paced card game mixed with tile-laying in which you’ll cleverly put together the cat gang of your most whimsical dreams! The game includes over one hundred unique illustrated cats by artist Liselotte Eriksson.

On each turn, players draft a new cat from the alley and use resources to play out cards from their hand to add to their cat pack. All cats have different requirements and benefits, but not all cats fit well together, so players must carefully consider their positions. The goal of the game is to earn the most “catshine”, which players receive by collecting sets of five cat types, surrounding certain cards with other cards, matching corners of four cards together in a catshine symbol, or winning the power struggle taking place after each round!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00