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.

Project L

Project L

Project L

Build pieces, develop an engine, perfect your strategy, and win the game!

Project L is a fast-paced, tile-matching brain burner with triple-layer 3D puzzles and lovely acrylic pieces. Challenge your friends to a game of simple design but intricate gameplay that makes a lasting impression!

The core of the game lies in using your pieces to complete puzzles. Starting with just two basic pieces, you use three actions every turn to develop a powerful engine. With more pieces of various types, you can efficiently complete even the most difficult puzzles. The puzzles you complete award you points or new pieces to further fuel your engine. Can you outsmart your opponents?

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Action Points
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.52

Port Royal: Big Box

Port Royal: Big Box

Port Royal: Big Box

The merchant players in Port Royal, which won the Austrian Game Designers Competition under the title Händler der Karibik, are trying to earn as much as they can out of the Caribbean Sea, but if they set their goals too high, they might take home nothing for the day.

The 120-card deck depicts a coin on the back of each card — with players earning and paying coins throughout the game — and different items on the card fronts. On a turn, a player can first draw as many cards as he likes, one at a time from the deck, placing them in the harbor (an area near the deck). Each card shows one of the following:

  • Person, who stays in a face-up row next to deck.
  • Ship, which the player can attack immediately if he has enough swords on his people cards, after which the ship is discarded; otherwise, the ship stays in the harbor.
  • Expedition, which remains above the harbor until a player fulfills it by discarding people who have the items required for the expedition.
  • Tax Increase, which forces everyone with twelve or more coins to discard half their money, after which the card is discarded.

If the player draws a ship with the same name as a ship already in the harbor, he’s spent too much time dilly-dallying and his turn ends (after using the ship to attack, if possible), with all the cards in the harbor being discarded. Otherwise, the player can stop whenever he likes, then use/acquire one card if three or fewer ships are in the harbor, two cards if four ships are present, and three cards if five ships are present. Players rob ships, collecting the number of coins shown on them, then discarding the card, while they hire people, paying the number of coins depicted. After the active player takes his 1-3 cards, each other player may pay the active player one coin in order to take one card in the same way.

When one player has at least twelve influence points — which are on both people and expedition cards — the game is played to the end of the round, giving everyone the same number of turns, then the player with the most influence points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Move Through Deck
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 50 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.67

Planet

Planet

Planet

The spark of life is about to jump from your hands to spread out in the world. Deploy your mountain ranges and your deserts, spread out your oceans and your glaciers. Handle wisely your continents to form environments suitable for the apparition of animal life and maybe you’ll manage to create the most densely populated planet!

In Planet, each player receives a planet core without anything on it. Each turn, players choose a tile with mountain/ice/forest/desert on it and place it on the planet. Then the player who fulfills the most conditions for the appearance of certain animals gains its card.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.57

Mountains out of Molehills

Mountains out of Molehills

Mountains out of Molehills

Moles have traveled from all over to compete in the annual Mountain Maker tournament. In this light strategy game, competitors show their skill based on how high they can pile their Molehills, and by how many Mountains they control. The Mole that can build and control the most Mountains out of Molehills over 6 rounds will be declared the “Top Tunneler” and win the game. Features a two-level game board and full-color acrylic standees for each Mole!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Grid Movement
  • Open Drafting
  • Programmed Movement
  • Puzzle

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Meeple Circus

Meeple Circus

Meeple Circus

You have only one goal in Meeple Circus: Entertain the audience. The competition is tough, but you can create the most amazing circus by proposing incredible acts! Acrobats, horses, and many accessories are at your disposal. Be sure to undertake a good rehearsal, then with your remarkable dexterity, you can give them the show of their lifetime. Once the circus music starts, all eyes will be upon you!

In short, Meeple Circus is a dexterity game in which you do what all gamers do when setting up a game: Pile up your meeples!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dexterity
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.45

Kohaku

Kohaku

Kohaku

Kohaku is a peaceful koi-pond-building, tile-laying game. Each turn, players will draft both a Koi and Feature tile from the central pond board to place into their personal koi pond.

Score points by surrounding flowers with koi containing matching colors, placing frogs next to koi tiles that have dragonflies, and ensuring that baby koi have a safe place to hide by placing them near rocks.

Butterflies score based on line of sight, so make sure to line them up with similar-colored koi. Turtles and statues bring a sense of balance to your pond and score points more easily, but sometimes aren’t as valuable as some of the other features.

You must carefully plan the placement of your tiles, because once they are in your pond, they can’t be moved! With no restrictions on the shape of your pond, you can build a unique layout to maximize your koi pond’s appeal.

After there are no koi tiles available to refill the central pond board, the game ends. Players will total the points scored by each feature in their pond. The player with the most points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Open Drafting
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.70

King of Tokyo: Monster Box

King of Tokyo: Monster Box

King of Tokyo: Monster Box

The fight for dominating the city of Tokyo has never been so competitive! This explosive Monster Box is filled with fun and adrenaline! Get King of Tokyo and all of its indispensable Power Up! and Halloween expansions for hours and hours of smashes. Use your Monster’s Evolution Cards to get even more special properties, and dress them up for even more fun! The Monster Box also comes with a brand new version of Gigazaur, exclusive cards and a new dice tray, some much needed bonuses to destroy Tokyo in style!
With the Monster Box awesome content, smash like never before!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.40

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition is a collector’s edition [limited edition: 100 000 copies in 12 languages] of King of Tokyo, with the fight taking place in an alternative and darker world in which the struggle for control of Tokyo has never been so fierce…and wicked!

This edition includes deluxe components (such as an embossed box and lightning-bolt-shaped energy) and all-new art by Paul Mafayon. The game is based on the classic KoT rules, with the addition of a new mechanism exclusive to this edition to offer a fresh gaming experience.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.65

DC Deck-Building Game: Multiverse Box

  • Deck Building
The DC Deck-Building Game: Multiverse Box is a storage solution for one box to house every DC Deck-Building Game card, featuring customizable trays, spacers, and a Crossover Pack of brand new cards! These new cards allow for each previous DC Deck-Building Game to be used together in one game.

Games included are: 
 
DC Deck-Building Game: Injustice: Gods Among Us
DC Deck-Building Game: Rebirth
DC Deck-Building Game: Rivals – Shazam! vs. Black Adam
DC Deck-Building Game: Rivals – The Flash vs. Reverse Flash

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.75

In the Footsteps of Darwin

In the Footsteps of Darwin

In the Footsteps of Darwin

Twenty years after his expedition around the world, Charles Darwin is writing On the Origins of Species. He wants to gather new information about animal life, particularly about continents he hardly explored. Who other than young naturalists, eager for discovery, could help the renowned scholar finish writing his most famous work?

In In the Footsteps of Darwin, players are junior naturalists who have just arrived aboard the Beagle to help Charles Darwin finish his book On the Origin of Species. During this journey, you will study animals, carry out cartographic surveys, publish your findings, and develop theories. Starting with the naturalist controlling the Darwin token, naturalists take turns in clockwise order, performing these two steps in order:

  • Study an animal or take inspiration from a character: Choose one of the three tiles facing the Beagle and place it onto your naturalist’s notebook. It may be either an animal to study or a character from the Beagle’s previous journey who will inspire you. Gain the bonuses depicted or any additional scoring bonuses triggered by the tile’s placement.
  • Voyage of the Beagle: After placing a tile on your notebook, move the Beagle as many spaces forward as the distance between the Beagle and the tile you just selected (1-3 spaces), then draw a new tile to replace the empty space on the journey board.

Your goal is to score more points than your opponents to determine who contributed the most to On the Origin of Species.

Game Mechanics:

  • Grid Coverage
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Rondel
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.54