Tag: Push Your Luck

In games with a Push Your Luck mechanic, players must decide when to settle on existing resource gains for a turn, or risk those gains for further rewards.

Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl

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Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl

Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl

Zona is an adventure board game designed for 1-4 players. To win the game, player must reach the sarcophagus of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant before other players. The sarcophagus opens only when player had previously collected 2 Secrets from underground facilities known as Secret Locations. Players must hurry because there is a time limit to the game. When the Final Emission strikes, everything is lost…

GAMEPLAY
Each turn players take 2 Actions (move, explore, combat etc.) and then everyone read an Event Card which contains text for short adventure. At the end of turn, a News Card is drawn by the first player and resolved by him.

MOOD
This board game emphasizes the aspect of survival. Zone depicted on the playing board is an extremely hazardous and isolated area with very limited access to functional equipment and supplies. Players must remember to frequently repair their Items and buy new ones. It is also crucial to rest to reduce Fatigue and heal Damage.

STALKERS
Each player takes role of 1 Scavenger from the 10 included in the game. Each Scavenger has their own Special Skill, set of basic Skills and starting equipment. Values of stats such as Awareness, Agility or Intellect determine how good they are in avoiding dangers and traps, fighting mutants or gathering Artifacts from anomalies. The story of Scavenger explains his/herPersonal Goal – the reason for arriving to the Zone. Differences between Scavengers makes playing each one of them completely unique.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Dice Rolling
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.76

Wonderlands War

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Wonderlands War

Wonderlands War

The Looking Glass has shattered, madness is being drained from the inhabitants, and war has come to Wonderland. Alice, Mad Hatter, Red Queen, Jabberwock, and Cheshire Cat must gather all that they can while playing nice at the Hatter’s Tea Party before going to battle!

In Wonderland’s War, 2-5 players take the role as a faction leader who has been invited to the Hatter’s tea party. Drink tea and eat cake as you move around the table drafting cards to gather your forces, build your towers, upgrade your leader, and recruit Wonderlandians to your cause — but one must be careful as shards of the Looking Glass are spread throughout Wonderland. Once all the plates are empty, the Tea Party is over and war begins. Use the forces you gathered to battle your enemies in familiar locations, but make sure not to draw your Madness chips or your supporters will abandon your cause and you will be out of the fight. Can you muster enough strength to win the battle, or will you just try to complete Quests instead by meeting the right conditions such as gaining region bonuses and set collection throughout the game?

After all the battles have been fought, a truce is called and everyone meets back at the tea party to plot their moves for the next fight. After three rounds, the faction with the most points will be crowned as the new leader of Wonderland!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 125 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.84

Tapestry

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Tapestry

Tapestry

Tapestry is a two-hour game for 1-5 players designed by Jamey Stegmaier.

Create the civilization with the most storied history, starting at the beginning of humankind and reaching into the future. The paths you choose will vary greatly from real-world events or people — your civilization is unique!

In Tapestry, you start from nothing and advance on any of the four advancement tracks (science, technology, exploration, and military) to earn progressively better benefits. You can focus on a specific track or take a more balanced approach. You will also improve your income, build your capital city, leverage your asymmetric abilities, earn victory points, and gain tapestry cards that will tell the story of your civilization.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Tableau Building
  • Take That
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.91

Sorcerer

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Sorcerer

Sorcerer

Sorcerer: A Strategy Card Game is set in what the company describes as a grim, gaslamp lit world full of fantastic, mythical creatures and sorcery. Designed for two to four players, the game pits two ancient beings of great power against one another to determine which of their lineage are strongest. The players use sorcery to conjure minions, cast spells, and wield enchanted items to reach the game’s goal of conquering three battlefields.

The game uses a simple resource system of “energy” that is determined randomly by a dice-roll at the beginning of each round, to make sure no round is the same. However, the outcome being the same for both players, the game balance stays even. This energy is then used in the Action Phase for conjuring minions from your hand on any of three battlefields, casting possessions that can improve your minion’s traits and abilities; or sorcery cards with various direct effects. Also as an action you can add more energy to your Energy Pool, draw more cards, move minions to another battlefield etc. The choice is yours, it is just about your pure skill to handle the battle preparation!

In the Battle Phase players roll amount of custom dice equal to each minion’s attack trait with possible outcome of miss, hit, double hit or critical hit for each die, and place damage counters on the respective minions or directly to the Battlefield. A unique system of Omen tokens then allows to adjust this outcome by re-rolling the dice, before distributing the damage among opponent’s minions and battlefield.

The combination of usual mechanics like story driven deck building, push your luck or dice-rolling; and a unique system of influencing the outcome of the battle, provides a perfect balance between strategy and random elements (even you still have the possibility to influence the outcome). Dividing the round to the Action Phase and Battle Phase then creates a very pleasant and natural flow of the hardcore game play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.90

Sleeping Gods

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Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods

“Are the stars unfamiliar here?” she asked, and the sky grew suddenly dark, the star’s patterns alien and exotic. “This is the Wandering Sea. The gods have brought you here, and you must wake them if you wish to return home.”

In Sleeping Gods, you and up to 3 friends become Captain Sofi Odessa and her crew, lost in a strange world in 1929 on your steamship, the Manticore. You must work together to survive, exploring exotic islands, meeting new characters, and seeking out the totems of the gods so that you can return home.

Sleeping Gods is a campaign game. Each session can last as long as you want. When you are ready to take a break, you mark your progress on a journey log sheet, making it easy to return to the same place in the game the next time you play. You can play solo or with friends throughout your campaign. It’s easy to swap players in and out at will. Your goal is to find at least fourteen totems hidden throughout the world. Like reading a book, you’ll complete this journey one or two hours at a time, discovering new lands, stories, and challenges along the way.

Sleeping Gods is an atlas game. Each page of the atlas represents only a small portion of the world you can explore. When you reach the edge of a page and you want to continue in the same direction, you simply turn to a new page and sail onward.

Sleeping Gods is a storybook game. Each new location holds wild adventure, hidden treasures, and vivid characters. Your choices affect the characters and the plot of the game, and may help or hinder your chances of getting home!

Welcome to a vast world. Your journey starts now.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Narrative Choice
  • Push Your Luck
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 1,200 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.19

Posthuman Saga

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Posthuman Saga

Posthuman Saga

You are a survivor in a near-future Europe that has collapsed under the weight of its own political errors, in the wake of a bloody class-war fueled by genetic modifications. In Posthuman, you journeyed to the last bastion of organized human society in the area: The Fortress. A year down the line, you have become an active part of that society and honed the skills you need to fulfill your role there, but the mutants are gaining ground…

Posthuman Saga is a standalone survival game in the Posthuman universe. You play a seasoned member of the Fortress’ militia, sent out beyond the defensive perimeter to explore and hopefully reconnect with outposts the Fortress has lost touch with, while searching for scavengable sites along the way. You have to forge across a crumbled land where resources are spare and mutants roam the ruined mansions and forests alike.

Like the initial Posthuman, this is a sandbox-style survival journey, but the game system in Posthuman Saga differs from that of the first game in the series. Players win by completing various objectives that suit different characters and playing styles. It has an emphasis on tactical choices on two levels: the journey expressed through an innovative modular tile map puzzle and the individual story and combat encounters. The latter are fast, card-based affairs involving tough choices with future consequences. Posthuman Saga boasts over one hundred, finely crafted story scenes with a simple, push-your-luck mechanism that supplements the emergent narrative afforded by the game. Mutation is a way of life in the Posthuman world, and it can have its advantages, but it can easily get out of control…

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Pattern Building
  • Push Your Luck
  • Role Playing
  • Storytelling
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.10

Nemo’s War

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Nemo’s War

Nemo’s War

Set in year 1870, you set sail in this amazing electric-powered submarine, assuming the role and motive of Captain Nemo as you travel across the seas on missions of science, exploration, anti-Imperialism, and War!

With this supercharged second edition of Nemo’s War, prepare yourself for the adventure of a lifetime!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Control
  • Area Movement
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Push Your Luck
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.20

Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game

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It is the late 1930s, and the world is in turmoil. Humanity is on the brink of war as imperialist nations in the Far East and Europe work aggressively to expand their domination. The Nazis have taken control of Germany and now spread darkness across the globe in their hunt for powerful occult artifacts that can give them the upper hand in the days to come. But the spirit of adventure and freedom won’t be stamped out so easily.

Heroic adventurers from around the world answer the call, racing against time to hunt down ancient artifacts, explore deadly temples, and fight back the powers of darkness from engulfing the world in flames. It is a race of good versus evil, and only a cunning and agile explorer can claim the ultimate prize of… Fortune and Glory!

Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game is a fast-paced game of high adventure, vile villains, edge-of-your-seat danger, and cliffhanger pulp movie action. Players take on the role of a treasure hunter, traveling the globe in search of ancient artifacts and fending off danger and villains at every turn in a quest for the ultimate reward of fortune and glory!

Featuring a beautifully rendered adventure map of the world as the game board, eight pulp adventure heroes to choose from (such as Jake Zane the Flying Ace, Li Mei Chen the Night Club Singer and Martial Artist, or Dr. Zhukov Master of Science), an army of ruthless villains and thugs (including the Chicago Mob and the dreaded occult-hunting Nazis), ancient Mayan temples to explore with a zeppelin hovering overhead, a wealth of coins to horde as heroes collect fortune and glory throughout the game, and a unique mechanism of dangers to overcome and the classic cliffhanger moments of suspense that can result. Fortune and Glory is designed to create a pulp serial cinematic feel as the story and game unfold.

So strap on your adventure boots and goggles, fire up the engines on the seaplane, and grab some extra ammo for your revolver…the Nazis already have a head start and in this race for fortune and glory, and there’s no prize for second place!

Features:

  • Designed for strong Competitive and Cooperative play as players race against one another or work together to overcome a Vile Organization bent on world domination through powerful occult artifacts.
  • Photographic artwork for Immersive Pulp Adventure movie action.
  • Thirty-nine highly detailed plastic 28mm miniatures including Heroes, Villains, Enemy Soldiers, Mayan Temples, and a Zeppelin air ship.
  • Comes with an original cd soundtrack to creep its way into the players’ subconscious and raise tension and excitement.
  • No two games are ever the same! Many Heroes, villains to fight, game cards, and dynamically generated artifacts to hunt for offer limitless combinations.
  • Expandable design allows for many expansions and strong web support to create a loyal fan base/community.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • 90 – 240 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.87

Dead of Winter

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“Crossroads” is a game series from Plaid Hat Games that tests a group of survivors’ ability to work together and stay alive while facing crises and challenges from both outside and inside. Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game, the first title in this series, puts 2-5 players in a small, weakened colony of survivors in a world in which most of humanity is either dead or diseased, flesh-craving monsters. Each player leads a faction of survivors, with dozens of different characters in the game.

Dead of Winter is a meta-cooperative psychological survival game. This means players are working together toward one common victory condition, but for each individual player to achieve victory, they must also complete their personal secret objective, which could relate to a psychological tick that’s fairly harmless to most others in the colony, a dangerous obsession that could put the main objective at risk, a desire for sabotage of the main mission, or (worst of all) vengeance against the colony! Games could end with all players winning, some winning and some losing, or all players losing. Work toward the group’s goal, but don’t get walked all over by a loudmouth who’s looking out only for their own interests!

Dead of Winter is an experience that can be accomplished only through the medium of tabletop games, a story-centric game about surviving through a harsh winter in an apocalyptic world. The survivors are all dealing with their own psychological imperatives, but must still find a way to work together to fight off outside threats, resolve crises, find food and supplies, and keep the colony’s morale up.

Dead of Winter has players making frequent, difficult, heavily-thematic, wildly-varying decisions that often have them deciding between what’s best for the colony and what’s best for themselves. The rulebook also includes a fully co-operative variant in which all players work toward the group objective with no personal goals.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Push Your Luck
  • Scenario / Mission / Campaign Game
  • Semi-Cooperative Game
  • Storytelling
  • Trading
  • Traitor Game
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.01

Cult of the Deep

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You are a cultist, trying to establish your faction’s rise to power. Fight over rituals and mythical monsters as you seek victory and control of the cult.

Roles

Each player is given a role that will remain hidden throughout the game, except the High Priest. This role will determine your win condition:

  • High Priest – Root out corruption in the cult. Kill all Cabalists, the Heretic, and survive.
  • Cabalists – Seek to take control of the cult. Kill the High Priest.
  • Faithful – Protect the High Priest from threats to their power. Kill all Cabalists, the Heretic, and the High Priest must survive.
  • Heretic – Burn the whole cult to the ground. Kill the entire cult, yourself included if necessary.

Extra abilities

Each player will also be given a:

  • Character card that determines their starting health, special ability, and a power symbol that provides an additional way to gain life from the dice.
  • Secret sigil card, which gives each cultist a once per game power, will also be given to each player.

Mechanics

A player will take a turn by first rolling their dice up to 3 times. They then decide where to commit their dice: to rituals to gain altar effects to temporarily empower themselves, finish a ritual in order to gain its powerful effects permanently, stab other cultists, gain life, or give life to other cultists.

If a player is killed, they are not eliminated. Instead, they become a wraith. They will roll dice on their turn still, just less. They cannot commit dice like normal but instead haunt the dice of enemies and allies by giving, replacing, or discarding dice.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bribery
  • Deduction
  • Hidden Roles
  • Push Your Luck
  • Re-rolling and Locking
  • Team-Based Game
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 8 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.71