Tag: Variable Player Powers

Aquatica

| OTSG Staff

Aquatica is a deep, but easy to learn family engine builder about underwater kingdoms.

In the game you will become one of the mighty ocean kings, struggling to bring glory to his realm. To win the game, you need to capture and buy locations, recruit new characters, and complete goals; each of these actions gives you victory points at the end of the game. To do so, you need to play cards from your hand (each with a unique set of actions) and combine them. Don’t think it’s simple! With a good strategy during your turn, you can take up to ten actions in a row.

You will encounter plenty of mysterious ocean creatures and take them to your hand. With their help you will explore the unknown locations and raise found resources from the ocean depths to your kingdom. Mechanically this is represented with the help of three-layered player board and the unique mechanism of card-rising.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.30

Forbidden Island

| OTSG Staff

Dare to discover Forbidden Island! Join a team of fearless adventurers on a do-or-die mission to capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of this perilous paradise. Your team will have to work together and make some pulse-pounding maneuvers, as the island will sink beneath every step! Race to collect the treasures and make a triumphant escape before you are swallowed into the watery abyss!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.74

Downforce

| OTSG Staff

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:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.73

Dodos Riding Dinos

| OTSG Staff

Advance with blue or red cards and solve their whacky effects. Some will test your dexterity against your rivals by throwing bananas, flicking dodo eggs or making meteors fall.

Red cards are extra powerful but if too many players pick them during the same round, their effects will be ignored. Green cards allow the Dodo to react at any time.

Damage your rivals so they discard cards, with no cards in hand their Dodos will retrocede as a penalty and draw some cards.

At the end of each round, the Dodo in the lead advances an extra space while the rest gets to draw a card.

The fastest Dodo and Dino will be saved from extinction!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dexterity
  • Dice Rolling
  • Flicking
  • Racing
  • Roll / Spin and Move
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.65

Dance Card! Freshman Year

| OTSG Staff

Dance Card! is a family friendly strategy game, set during a high school Homecoming dance! All of the players take on the roles of students and have the objective of dancing with each of their personal dance partners to win the game. The contemporary setting, vibrant art style, and unique theme is designed to appeal to younger players, those new to the tabletop hobby, and parents who want a game to help their kids transition into the world of hobby gaming. Despite being a gateway game, Dance Card! also provides plenty of challenge and replay value for more experienced players as well.

The most important aspect of Dance Card! is its cast. Rather than include generic students, each of the 32 playable characters in Dance Card are completely unique, with their own style and personal abilities. To better reflect the real, contemporary world that high school students live in today, the cast of Dance Card is designed to be inclusive and representative of many different cultures, orientations, and dress styles.

Game Mechanics:

  • Race
  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Team-Based Game
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.75

Ca$h ‘n Guns

| OTSG Staff

In an abandoned warehouse a gangster band is splitting its loot, but they can’t agree on the split! It’s time to let the guns talk and soon everyone is aiming at everyone. The richest surviving gangster wins the game!

Ca$h ‘n Guns helps you relive the best scenes of your favorite gangster movies. The goal is to have more money than anyone else after eight rounds while still being alive.

Each round, one player is the Boss, and he controls the pace of play. First, loot cards are revealed on the table to show what’s up for grabs. Next, players load their guns by secretly selecting either a “Bang!” or a “Click! Click!” card from their hand. The Boss counts to three, and on “Three” each player points his foam gun at someone else; due to his status, the Boss can tell one player who’s pointing a gun at him that he needs to point it in another direction. After a pause to observe threats and measure the seriousness in an opponent’s eyes, the Boss counts to three again and anyone who doesn’t want to risk getting shot can chicken out and remove themselves from the round.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Negotiation
  • Take That
  • Open Drafting
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 8 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.25

Best Treehouse Ever: Forest of Fun

| OTSG Staff

It’s time to build another treehouse!

In the new stand alone sequel to the Golden Geek Nominated Best Treehouse Ever (Best Card Game, Best Family Game, 2015), Best Treehouse Ever: Forest of Fun, players compete to build their best treehouse, outfitting their treehouse with cool rooms, and creating fun habitats for their favorite furry and feathered friends, while also making sure that their tree doesn’t tip over and that their rooms are more impressive than all of their friends’ rooms at the end of the game.

In addition, our treehouse builders have leveled up their experience by visiting new locations in the forest that provide special abilities to help them in their new build.

Building takes place over three weeks/rounds, and in each round, players use card drafting and spatial reasoning to add five new rooms to their treehouse. Players must pay attention to the other treehouses being built since they take turns determining which types of rooms score for everyone at the end of each round.

At the end of the third week, the winner is the player with the best treehouse ever!

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

7 Wonders Architects 🔵

| OTSG Staff

In 7 Wonders: Architects, 2-7 players race to become a leader of the ancient world by completing an architectural wonder that will last through the ages.

Players receive an unconstructed wonder at the beginning of the game and must collect resources to build their society, develop military might to navigate conflicts, oversee resource management, research science improvements, and collect civil victory points as they race to leave their mark on world history.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 7 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.40