Tag: Racing

Games with Racing mechanics reward players for being the first to reach a certain destination.

Santorini

Santorini

Santorini

Santorini is a re-imagining of the purely abstract 2004 edition. Since its original inception over 30 years ago, Santorini has been continually developed, enhanced and refined by designer Gordon Hamilton.

Santorini is an accessible strategy game, simple enough for an elementary school classroom while aiming to provide gameplay depth and content for hardcore gamers to explore, The rules are simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:

1. Move – move one of your builders into a neighboring space. You may move your Builder Pawn on the same level, step-up one level, or step down any number of levels.

2. Build – Then construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level, place a dome instead, removing that space from play.

Winning the game – If either of your builders reaches the third level, you win.

Variable player powers – Santorini features variable player powers layered over an otherwise abstract game, with 40 thematic god and hero powers that fundamentally change the way the game is played.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Grid Movement
  • Racing
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.73

Quacks & Co

Quacks & Co

Quacks & Co

It’s race day in Quedlinburg, and with the right combination of food and luck, you will ride your mount to victory and claim the golden cauldron.

Mit Quacks & Co. nach Quedlinburg features similar gameplay to The Quacks of Quedlinburg, with each player building their own bag of tokens over the course of play, then drawing those tokens to try to further themselves to victory.

Each player starts the game with their mount at the start of the racetrack and a bag that contains four dream tokens, a yellow 1 token, two red 1 tokens, and a red 2 token. On a turn, you draw a token from your bag, then place it on your animal board. If you draw a colored token, place the token on your animal board, advance your animal on the track as many spaces as the number on the token, then carry out the effect of that color: red tokens earn you 1-3 rubies, yellow tokens let you roll a die for a random bonus, green tokens let you take another turn or return a drawn token to your bag, and blue chips let you move extra or upgrade a token.

If you draw a dream token, place it on one of the clouds on your animal board. After you draw and place a third dream token, use all the rubies on your board to buy new tokens — no two being the same color, mind you — then place these new tokens and all previously drawn tokens in your bag. Keep taking turns until someone reaches the end of the track and wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Bag Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.30

Parcheesi: Vintage Game Collection

Parcheesi: Vintage Game Collection

Parcheesi: Vintage Game Collection

Pachisi, the national game of India, dates back to 4 AD and remains popular today. Each player has a set of pawns that start in his or her corner of the board. The goal is to move the pawns around the board to the “home” section. Movement is controlled by dice. All players move around the same board, so they may capture each others pawns. Captured pawns are returned to their player’s corner and must start their journey over. The winner is the first player to move all pawns “home”.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Racing
  • Take That
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.20

Monza

Monza

Monza

Monza is a car race game for children. Players roll six dice on their turn, and move their car according to the colors shown on the dice. The dice are identical, each having six different colors, one on each side. The board is a three-lane race track. Monza encourages tactical thinking as well as color recognition. The game states it is for children 5 and older, but 3-4 year olds can join in the fun as well.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~10 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.06

Merry Madness

Merry Madness

Merry Madness

Filled to his grin with more spirit than ever, Jack had a plan to spread spooky cheer by delivering handmade toys to Christmas Town! But hijinks topped the list for his fellow Halloween Town helpers, and before too long, Jack, Sally, Zero, the Mayor, and Lock, Shock & Barrel’s spirited assembling gets out of hand, turning their gift-making into Merry Madness!

Act fast to help make Christmas out of the mayhem and gather all the flying Zombie Ducks, Vampire Teddys, and more into Sandy Claws’ Christmas Bag. Roll the dice, fling the toys, and be the first with three Ghoulish Gift Scoring Tokens to win a ride in Sandy’s sleigh to Christmas Town!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Racing
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Jumanji

Jumanji

Jumanji

The Game That Pursues You! Stalking lions, charging rhinos, lunging, snapping crocodiles, and more. In the wild world of Jumanji, they’re only a dice roll away.

Choose your pawn and set out on a deadly journey. Decode rhyming card messages that could spell disaster! Roll 8-sided dice together to rescue a fellow player in danger! Fail to escape, and the jungle could swallow you whole! The only way out is to finish the game. Only then will the terrors of the jungle disappear…

The game is based on the movie of the same name.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica

After a long career in piracy, Captain Henry Morgan skillfully gets appointed to be Governor of Jamaica, with the explicit order to cleanse the Caribbean of pirates and buccaneers! Instead, he invites all of his former “colleagues” to join him in his retirement, to enjoy the fruits of their looting with impunity. Each year, in remembrance of the “good old days,” Morgan organizes the Great Challenge, a race around the island, and at its end, the Captain with the most gold is declared Grand Winner.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.65

Full Throttle!

Full Throttle!

Full Throttle!

The wild moped riders are ready to race with their souped-up mopeds! Knowing that neither your courage nor your health insurance lets you take part in such a dangerous race, you and your friends instead choose the safe way to enjoy these races and start betting on the mopeds.

While the six mopeds race three times around the racetrack, trying to avoid getting stuck behind other mopeds or at the choke points, you assess the situation round by round and bet on your favorite mopeds. Who will finally win, place, or show?

In Full Throttle!, no one controls the mopeds, with them racing around the track in a “self-controlled” manner. Each round, reveal racing cards and move the mopeds around the track. Then draft the racing cards to be used as your hidden bets. The undrafted cards are reused for future movement of the mopeds. Choose your bets carefully because the cards you choose will make those mopeds go slower.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Closed Drafting
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.20

Flamme Rouge

Flamme Rouge

Flamme Rouge

The excitement in the air is electric as the leaders round the last corner and head for the finish line. Each team has used cunning and skill to position their sprinter for this moment, but only one has done enough to pull off the win!

Will your team lead from the front and risk exhaustion? Should you play it safe in the middle of the pack? Could you surprise everyone by striking from the back? Can you time your move perfectly?

Anyone can race, few become champions!

Flamme Rouge is a fast-paced, tactical bicycle racing game where each player controls a team of two riders: a Rouleur and a Sprinteur. The players’ goal is to be the first to cross the finish line with one of their riders. Players move their riders forward by drawing and playing cards from that riders specific deck, depleting it as they go. Use slipstreams to avoid exhaustion and position your team for a well timed sprint for the win.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Programmed Movement
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.69

Downforce

Downforce

Downforce

High-stakes bidding on million-dollar race cars. Frantic bets placed in secret even as the cars race around the track. And to the victor, the biggest purse of all. But in the world of motor racing, the margin between victory and defeat can be a single moment: a steep banked turn, tires screaming and spitting out smoke, and the downforce, pressing you down in your seat and keeping you on the track as you make your move inside to pull ahead.

Downforce is a card-driven bidding, racing, and betting game for 2-6 players based on Top Race, the award-winning design by the legendary Wolfgang Kramer. Players first bid to own the six cars in the race, then they play cards from their hand to speed them around the track. However, most cards will also move their opponents’ cars. So figuring out just the right time to play a card is the key to victory. Along the way, players make secret bets on who they think will win the race. Whoever has the most money from their prize money, winning bets, and remaining bank wins.

This is a game whose design needed no attention. Years of play and multiple versions have honed it to near perfection. On the contrary, one of the design challenges was figuring which of the many rules modules to incorporate to create the most fun version. Downforce also adds variable player powers to improve replayability. But mostly, it improves the look of the game to make it gorgeous and easy to play. Special attention was paid to the colors, the layout of the cards, the design of the cars, the details on the board, and more.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Hand Management
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.74