Tag: Variable Player Powers

Dungeon!

In many ways “Dungeon!” is similar to Dungeons & Dragons, although much simplified and transformed into a board game. Players explore a dungeon that is divided into levels of increasing difficulty, fighting monsters for valuable treasure. As players venture deeper into the dungeon, the monsters become more difficult and the treasure more valuable. Several character classes each have slightly different fighting abilities – most notably the wizard, who can cast spells. Combat is simulated using dice; players roll the dice to attack a monster, and if unsuccessful, the dice are rolled to determine the effect of the monster’s counter-attack.

The winner is the first player to bring a certain amount of treasure back to the Dungeon’s entrance.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Critical Hits and Failures
  • Dice Rolling
  • Events
  • Grid Movement
  • Role Playing
  • Simulation
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.55

Dungeon Mayhem

In the action-packed Dungeons & Dragons card game Dungeon Mayhem, you win by being the last adventurer standing.

Play as one of four brave, quirky characters — barbarian, paladin, rogue, or wizard — battling it out in a dungeon full of treasure! With magic missiles flinging, dual daggers slinging, and spiked shields dinging, it’s up to you to prove your adventurer has the guts to bring home the glory!

Illustrations created by Kyle Ferrin in the four decks of cards represent Sutha the Skullcrusher (barbarian), Azzan the Mystic (wizard), Lia the Radiant (paladin), and Oriax the Clever (rogue). Pick one of these characters and play their mighty power cards such as Azzan’s Vampiric Touch to swap hit points with an opponent or Sutha’s Whirling Axes to heal yourself while dealing crushing damage to the rest of the party.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Income
  • Player Elimination
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 10 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.16

Dune: Imperium – Uprising

In Dune: Imperium Uprising, you want to continue to balance military might with political intrigue, wielding new tools in pursuit of victory. Spies will shore up your plans, vital contracts will expand your resources, or you can learn the ways of the Fremen and ride mighty sandworms into battle!

Dune: Imperium Uprising is a standalone spinoff to Dune: Imperium that expands on that game’s blend of deck-building and worker placement, while introducing a new six-player mode that pits two teams against one other in the biggest struggle yet.

The Dune: Imperium expansions Rise of Ix and Immortality work with Uprising, as do almost all of the cards from the base game, and elements of Uprising can be used with Dune: Imperium.

The choices are yours. The Imperium awaits!

Game Mechanics:

  • Automatic Resource Growth
  • Card Play Conflict
  • Resolution
  • Contracts
  • Deck, Bag, and Pool
  • Building
  • Delayed Purchase
  • Force Commitment
  • Increase Value of Unchosen Resources
  • Multi-Use Cards
  • Open Drafting
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Team-Based Game
  • Turn Order: Progressive
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.50

Dragon Farkle

Gather your courage! The long-enjoyed peace of Yon has been disrupted by a ferocious and mean-spirited dragon — he’s terrorizing the locals and eating their livestock without their permission! Fortunately, a few wannabe heroes (that’s you!) have risen to the challenge of slaying the beast. Get yourself a brave companion, gather a powerful army, and enter the Dragon’s Keep for cheese and country in Dragon Farkle!

To play, you gather an army of loyal soldiers or steal them from your opponents, hire suspicious-looking companions and gain allegedly useful items (most of which aren’t even cursed), then fight that dragon you’ve heard so much about — or don’t, if you hate winning…

Game Mechanics:

  • Mechanisms
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Re-rolling and Locking
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game

Castle Ravenloft Boardgame by Bill Slavicsek, Mike Mearls and Peter Lee
The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner – and you are invited!
Evil lurks in the towers and dungeons of Castle Ravenloft, and only heroes of exceptional bravery can survive the horrors within. Designed for 1-5 players, this boardgame features multiple scenarios, challenging quests, and cooperative gameplay.

Each player selects a hero; a ranger, rogue, warrior, cleric, or wizard. On their turn, each player can explore further into the dungeon (turn over new tiles), move through the already explored parts of the dungeon, and fight monsters. When a new dungeon tile is revealed, there is typically an encounter of some sort, and new monsters to fight are added. Slain monsters reward the players with treasure, and experience points, allowing them to level up and increase their skills during play. Players must cooperate to stay alive, slay the monsters, and achieve the goal of their quest. Each scenario has a different goal – from retrieving a relic, to slaying a vampire lord.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative Game
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Modular Board
  • Role Playing
  • Scenario / Mission / Campaign Game
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Djinn

Once your ancestors found or created a source of magic – the exact knowledge of its origin, as far as you know, has long been lost. A small community has developed around the source, which seeks to protect this place and keep it as secret as possible.

Unfortunately, some magical beings — half corporeal, half ethereal — have now tracked down this source. These beings of dubious character, which you call “Djinn”, have appeared in various places of the city to dispute your access to the source. You are young members of the Magic Guild, and to prove your abilities, you are tasked with capturing the Djinn so that they can do no harm. You can control them permanently only if you catch them in special Djinn bottles. To seal these bottles, you also need corks made from the bark of a tree near the magic source.

Whichever of you succeeds best in protecting your small town will be accepted into the inner circle of the Magic Guild and will soon be allowed to learn even more secrets…

In Djinn, you take turns moving across a map that shows thirteen locations. These locations are linked to actions where you can get the resources you need and catch the Djinn that are in six locations. In those locations you can do things like receive bottles and corks, collect magical power, buy magical items, hire mages to accompany you, discover secret passages, and more.

In each round, you can reach only one of two or three of the locations, so you must plan carefully to have all the resources you need in time to catch the Djinn. The game ends when all six “Boss Djinn” have been captured and removed from the map, then you score points for all captured Djinn.

-description from developer

Game Mechanics:

  • End Game Bonuses
  • Grid Movement
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.92

Divinity Derby

Zeus has invited a bunch of divine friends, including a couple of new ones, from all around the Multiverse for a little get-together on Mount Olympus…and you are one of them! After a few rounds of ambrosia, soon the racing and betting begins, with the Olympic “All-father” as the ultimate judge.

Divinity Derby is a fun and fast betting and racing game for 3 to 6 players, with a clever “shared hand” card mechanism. Players, as god-like beings betting on the race of six flying creatures, share a cardholder with each neighbor, and every turn they play one card from each shared card holder. Are you able to guess what your neighbor’s intentions and secret bets are and make the best use of the shared knowledge to win your bets?

With beautiful components, colorful art, and simple but engaging gameplay, Divinity Derby is suitable for players of all ages and skill levels.

Game Mechanics:

  • Betting and Bluffing
  • Neighbor Scope
  • Open Drafting
  • Track Movement
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.91

DC Forever

In the deck-building game DC Forever, you pick two iconic characters pulled from the pages of DC Comics to form your own squad of heroes or rogues. These characters have unique powers that form the starting cards of your deck, along with basic resource cards.

During play, you recruit new characters to your team, each with unique decks and gameplay, and choose which of their cards to add to support your strategy as the game progresses. Heroes and rogues will clash at classic DC Comics locations from the shadowy alleyways of Gotham City to the subaquatic depths of Atlantis.

Rogues want to achieve their master plan by completing five schemes, but they’ll be equally happy to knock out all of the heroes since no one will remain to oppose them. For their part, the heroes want to either capture all of the rogues or place thirty citizens in sanctuary; you may not be able to stop the schemes, but if people are safe, then you’ll still call this a victory.

DC Forever features eighteen playable characters and hundreds of cards from which to choose during play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.20

Critter Kitchen

In Critter Kitchen, you are a proud restaurant owner determined to set yourself apart during Restaurant Week at Bistro Bay! You’ll do this by completing various ingredient-related challenges over the course of the week and hopefully impressing the celebrity critics with a grand meal at the end of the week. However, you can’t be everywhere at once, meaning you’ll have to rely on your chefs to gather as many ingredients (and rumors!) as they can throughout Bistro Bay. Each round players will simultaneously and secretly decide where to send their workers, and deciding who goes where. Some chefs are fast but can only carry one item, whereas others are slower but can carry much more! Wow the critics and establish yourself as the best restauranter in this adorable game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.45

Crafting the Cosmos

Welcome to Crafting the Cosmos, where you get to construct your very own universe! Each player’s turn is split into two phases: the Energy Phase and the Craft Phase, followed by a collective End Phase. During the Energy Phase, players will move their energy token around the board to gather resources, which they will then use in the Craft Phase to construct their own galaxy. You can create stars, nebulas, and even life to maximize your points and create the best universe!

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Map Addition
  • Tile Placement
  • Track Movement
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.93