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.

Challengers!

| OTSG Staff

Challengers! 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. 75 distinct characters with more than 40 exciting effects create a unique experience every game. Choose from six different sets and discover new strategies and synergies every game.

In the Match Phase, stay in flag possession 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!

(If you think that all sounds a lot like a board game adaption of a digital Autobattler, we are proud to tell you that this is the first of its kind!)

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.81

Cascadia

| OTSG Staff

Cascadia is a puzzly tile-laying and token-drafting game featuring the habitats and wildlife of the Pacific Northwest.

In the game, you take turns building out your own terrain area and populating it with wildlife. You start with three hexagonal habitat tiles (with the five types of habitat in the game), and on a turn you choose a new habitat tile that’s paired with a wildlife token, then place that tile next to your other ones and place the wildlife token on an appropriate habitat. (Each tile depicts 1-3 types of wildlife from the five types in the game, and you can place at most one tile on a habitat.) Four tiles are on display, with each tile being paired at random with a wildlife token, so you must make the best of what’s available — unless you have a nature token to spend so that you can pick your choice of each item.

Ideally you can place habitat tiles to create matching terrain that reduces fragmentation and creates wildlife corridors, mostly because you score for the largest area of each type of habitat at game’s end, with a bonus if your group is larger than each other player’s. At the same time, you want to place wildlife tokens so that you can maximize the number of points scored by them, with the wildlife goals being determined at random by one of the four scoring cards for each type of wildlife. Maybe hawks want to be separate from other hawks, while foxes want lots of different animals surrounding them and bears want to be in pairs. Can you make it happen?

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Tile Placement
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.85

The Captain Is Dead

| OTSG Staff
The Captain Is Dead

The Captain Is Dead

Imagine that you are one of the crew in your favorite science fiction TV show. Now imagine that in the last 10 minutes of the show things have gone so badly that the captain is dead and you and the surviving members of your crew have to pull together and save the day yourselves!

The Captain Is Dead is a co-op game for 2 to 7 players. All you have to do is get the ship’s engines (aka “Jump Core”) back online and you win, but because there is a hostile alien ship trying to destroy you, that is easier said than done.

You have an impressive star ship full of useful systems that will help you fend off the aliens, and get the Jump Core back online. Each system gives you an advantage while it remains online. The assault from the hostile alien ship tends to keep knocking those systems offline however. So you need to balance your time between keeping the ships system’s online, fending off the alien threat, and completing your objective.

Each member of your crew has special abilities and skills. You need to work as a group to maximize the potential of each role. If someone tries to be a hero, you’ll all die.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 7 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.39

Call to Adventure: Epic Origins

| OTSG Staff

In this hero-crafting card game, 1-4 players compete to earn the highest Destiny score while cooperating to defeat the Adversary. Like the original Call To Adventure, Epic Origins is a tableau-building game where players draft cards, cast runes, and overcome challenges to score victory points.

For players familiar with Call To Adventure game system, Epic Origins introduces a high fantasy theme inspired by classic dungeon-crawling RPGs. The new Heritage card type provides options like Elf, Halfling, and Dwarf. Class cards allow you to invest Experience to “level up” your character. High fantasy themes and challenges can be found throughout the game’s 150+ unique cards.

This game also features overhauled Solo and Co-Op play. Double-sided Adversaries provide an evolving challenge: face a lower-level Adversary at the end of Act II, then the Final Adversary at the end of Act III. In Campaign Mode, players can unlock new cards by defeating each new Adversary. The game incorporates more rewards for cooperative play while still incentivizing individual achievement.

While points decide the winner of the game, Call To Adventure encourages storytelling at the end of the game. Epic Origins also includes a guide for converting your final tableau into a 5th Edition D&D character.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Role Playing
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.38

Calico

| OTSG Staff

Calico is a puzzly tile-laying game of quilts and cats.

In Calico, players compete to sew the coziest quilt as they collect and place patches of different colors and patterns. Each quilt has a particular pattern that must be followed, and players are also trying to create color and pattern combinations that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also able to attract the cuddliest cats!

Turns are simple. Select a single patch tile from your hand and sew it into your quilt, then draw another patch into your hand from the three available. If you are able to create a color group, you may sew a button onto your quilt. If you are able to create a pattern combination that is attractive to any of the cats, it will come over and curl up on your quilt! At the end of the game, you score points for buttons, cats, and how well you were able to complete your unique quilt pattern.

Game Mechanics:

  • Grid Coverage
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.19

Bushido

| OTSG Staff

Bushido is a game of dueling martial artists, testing their training against one another. One shall prevail and prove their techniques superior. The other will return to studying until they are strong enough to win.

Players begin with a card draft which represent the training of their fighters.

After training players play a series of round wherein they play technique cards from their hands, or change their guards, in order to create a pool of combat dice which they hope to use to strike their opponent or defend their attacks.

In this game damage escalates quickly so players must be able to block, evade, and strike simultaneously to try and keep the momentum of the encounter in their favor.

The game ends when one warrior has bested the other.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Brew

| OTSG Staff

Bring balance back to the forest!

Time is broken and shattered. The seasons all exist at once, and day and night have no real cycle — they rotate at the whim of the forest. This enchanted land has been driven into chaos and it’s up to you, the cunning mystics of the forest, to tame extraordinary woodland creatures and use your magic to bring back balance.

In Brew, players must choose how to use element dice, either to take back control of as many seasons as possible in an area-control game or to procure goods at the local village in a worker-placement game. Recruiting woodland creatures and brewing potions can help offset chance die-rolls or create an engine to help you tame the lands.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Majority / Influence
  • Open Drafting
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40

The Bloody Inn

| OTSG Staff
The Bloody Inn

The Bloody Inn

France 1831: In a remote corner of Ardèche, the little village of Peyrebeille sees numerous travelers pass through. A family of greedy rural farmers is determined to make its fortune and has devised a diabolical stratagem to achieve this goal: Invest in an inn so they can rob traveling guests, getting rich without arousing the suspicions of the police! Whether or not their plan will work out, one thing is certain: Not every guest will leave this inn alive.

The Bloody Inn is a card game in which you play one member of a family of greedy, murderous innkeepers. At the start of each round, cards are placed face up to fill the inn with guests. Each card carries a cost representing how many cards a player must discard from her hand in order to take an action related to that card. Certain guests have an affinity for particular actions, so those cards return to a player’s hand after being discarded. Cards also show how much money, in francs, each guest possesses. A round has two phases in which players take one action each, in turn order. Players choose one of the following actions:

  • bribe a guest into becoming an accomplice (take a card from the inn to their hand)
  • build an annex (move a card from their hand to their player area; it now represents a structure under which a victim may be buried)
  • kill a guest (move a card from the inn to their player area, awaiting burial)
  • bury a victim (place an unburied victim card under an annex card and take the money from the victim’s pockets)
  • launder money (players may only have a certain amount of cash on hand; excess must be converted to 10F checks by the local notary)

At the end of the round, if any room of the inn contains one of the police, then they conduct an investigation; if a player has any unburied victims, then he must pay 10F per victim to the local gravedigger to hurriedly — and quietly — bury the bodies! Lastly in the round, any cards (accomplices) in each player’s hand must be paid 1F each. After the guest deck has been depleted the second time, players take a final round, then tally their francs. The player with the most money wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Tableau Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.37

The Big Score

| OTSG Staff
The Big Score

The Big Score

The vault at Centennial City Bank is currently rumored to be holding a record amount of cash, precious diamonds, ancient artifacts, and highly-sensitive digital information. As the boss of one of the city’s most notorious crime organizations, robbing that vault for all it’s worth is constantly on your mind. There’s only one problem—this job is too big for just your crew alone. You’re going to need help from some of your biggest rival crime bosses if you want to succeed. You’ll need to join forces on a series of smaller jobs in order to acquire the skills and resources you’ll need to pull off the biggest heist the city has ever seen—but watch your back! Once you and your new partners in crime are inside the bank vault, it’ll be every boss for himself. If you manage to safely escape the scene with more loot than your rivals, you’ll be revered as the city’s most notorious crime boss. Hire your crew, plan the heist, and get ready for the big score!

The Big Score is a competitive game for 1-6 players that plays in 30-60 minutes. The game is structured into two distinct halves.

In the first half of the game, players use card drafting to carefully choose which specialists to add to their crew. They secretly decide how to assign them to various small heists throughout the city, and they need to pick just the right moment to send in their most skilled expert to ensure a job’s success! If these plans go well, players steal a variety of loot: cold hard cash, diamonds that escalate in value as more are gained, artifacts that are profitable for the player with the largest collection, and hard drives full of information that become lucrative only if hacked with a digital key.

In the second half of the game, individual player abilities come into play as the players attempt the mother of all heists—the big score. Players risk being busted by the cops as they steal even more loot in an exciting, press-your-luck grand finale inside the vault at Centennial City Bank!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Baseball Highlights: 2045

| OTSG Staff

American baseball was on its last legs as a spectator sport. Football had become the predominant national pastime — that is until the year 2032, the year baseball decided to revolutionize the game and regain the throne!

Starting in 2032, baseball games were shortened to six innings. Pitchers were encouraged to have bionic arm implants to improve their pitching. These cyborgs, or ‘Borgs as they’re affectionately known, were immediately popular and soon ruled the league. In 2041, robotic players were introduced to get more offense back into the game. These robots were similar to designated hitters in that they were used only to bat and did not field. However, recent reports indicate fielding ‘Bots are on the way.

Now in 2045, human players are still in the game and known as Naturals. They are the best fielders by far but are sorely challenged when it comes to hitting and pitching. Some Naturals have learned to hit by swinging before the pitcher starts his windup, which gives them a chance to hit the ball. Although it’s hard for a Natural to get into the league, those who do are popular. Many Naturals have named themselves after the great players of pre-2032 baseball by taking a first and last name borrowed from different star players of the past. The fans love them, and their presence on the team ensures good revenue!

The stage is now set! The fans are energized and root fanatically for their new favorites, be they ‘Bots, ‘Borgs or Naturals!

Baseball Highlights: 2045 is like watching TV highlights of early 21st-century baseball games, with the gameplay being full of theme with no outs or innings and without bogging down in a play-by-play baseball simulation. In this quick and interactive game, two players build their teams as they play, combining both strategy (building your team) and tactics (playing the game) without any of the downtime. During each “mini-game”, each player alternates playing six cards to simulate a full game’s highlights. The mini-game includes defensive and offensive actions, and your single card play may include elements of defensive and/or offensive plays. Do you try to thwart your opponent’s pending hits, put up strong offensive action of your own, or use your better players to do both? Players buy new free agents after each mini-game to improve their roster, and the team who wins the most mini-games in the series is the champ!

Game Specifications:

  • 1, 2, or 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.20