BOARD GAMES ZINE by natachadejesusc

Board Games Zine

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INDEX PARTY GAMES

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CO-OPERATIVE

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FAMILY & STRATEGY

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CRANIUM (1998) DESCRIPTION

Cranium bills itself as the “whole-brain” game. It’s a party game that borrows from a host of other popular party games of recent times. Players have to successfully complete activities in each of four sections to win: In - Creative Cat : A player must clue a word to his or her teammates by drawing it, sculpting it in clay, or drawing it with his or her eyes closed. - Data Head : A variety of trivia questions. - Word Worm : Players unscramble words, spell challenging words, guess definitions, identify words with letters left out, or spell words backwords. - Star Performer : players must whistle a song, impersonate a celebrity, or act out a clue. Cranium has elements similar to those of Pictionary, Charades, Trivial Pursuit, Celebrities, Huggermugger, Claymania, etc.

Comments:

4–16 Players Playing Time: 60 Min Age: 13+

PARTY

“Lots of fun with the right group, but the mechanics are weak.“ “Lots of fun with adults and kids older than 7. Works great for the first time it’s played, but I’m not sure it will hold up for multiple plays with the same people.“ “Opened, played only once. Game is complete, kept in A/C environment, no pets.” “A decent party game, but after a number of plays it begins to wear thin. It’s easy for one team to run away with a good streak of favorable cards and lucky die rolls, while other teams languish on the same space for turns on end. With rules tweaks this could be alleviated somewhat.”

Designer: Whit Alexander, Richard Tait Artist: Gary Baseman Publisher: Cranium, Inc., danspil, Giochi Preziosi, Hasbro, Jumbo

GAMES

SABOTEUR (2004) DESCRIPTION Players take on the role of dwarves. As miners, they are in a mine, hunting for gold. Suddenly, a pick axe swings down and shatters the mine lamp. The saboteur has struck. But which of the players are saboteurs? Will you find the gold, or will the fiendish actions of the saboteurs lead them to it first? After three rounds, the player with the most gold is the winner. With the help of Dwarf Cards, the players are assigned their role: either miner or saboteur. The roles are kept secret- they are only revealed at the end of the round.The Start Card and the three Goal Cards are placed onto the table, each seven cards away from the start and one card between each Goal Card. The Goal Cards are placed face-down. The gold is on one of the Goal Cards, but nobody knows which. Players have cards in hand. On a playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s turn, he must do one of three things: place a Path Card into the mine, play an Action Card in front of a player, or pass. The Path Cards form paths leading to the Goal Cards. Path Cards must be played next to a already-played Path Card. All paths on the Path Card must match those on the alre66

ady-played cards, and Path Cards may not be played sideways.

P A

The miners are trying to build an uninterrupted path from the Start Card to a Goal Card, while the saboteurs are trying to prevent this. They shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t try and be too obvious about it, however, lest they be immediately discovered.Action Cards can be placed in front of any player, including oneself. Action Cards let the players help or hinder one another, as well as obtain information about the Goal Cards. Once a player places a Path Card that reaches the gold, the round is over. The miners have won and receive cards with gold pieces as their reward.

R T Y

The round is also over if the gold could not be reached. In that case, the saboteurs have won and receive the gold pieces. Once the Gold Cards have been distributed, the next round begins. The game is over at the end of the third round, with the player with the most gold pieces being the winner.

3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;10 Players Playing Time: 30 Min Age: 8+

G A M E S 77

DIXIT (2008) DESCRIPTION One player is the storyteller for the turn and looks at the images on the 6 cards in her hand. From one of these, she makes up a sentence and says it out loud (without showing the card to the other players). Each other player selects the card in their hands which best matches the sentence and gives the selected card to the storyteller, without showing it to the others.

PARTY

The storyteller shuffles her card with all the received cards. All pictures are shown face up and every player has to bet upon which picture was the storytellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. If nobody or everybody finds the correct card, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer score 3. Players score 1 point for every vote for their own card. The game ends when the deck is empty or if a player scores 30 points. In either case, the player with the most points wins the game.

3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;6 Players Playing Time: 30 Min Age: 6+

The base game and all expansions have 84 cards each. 8

GAMES

Morapiaf Nordic Games GmbH Paladium Games Rebel Swan Panasia Co., Ltd.

Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira Artist: Marie Cardouat Publisher: Libellud ADC Blackfire Entertainment Asmodee Asterion Press Galápagos Jogos Gém Klub Kft. hobbity.eu Hobby Japan KADABRA Kaissa Chess & Games Korea Boardgames co., Ltd. Lautapelit.fi

COMMENTS “This is a mind reading game finding out which one was the card the current player picked. The illustration on each card looks like telling us some sort of mystic and curious stories. It is great fun to see how people interpret the same illustration in different ways but yet sometimes they think the exactly the same thing. This is a great family game that can be played by any one for any occasion.” 9

CARDS AGAINTS HUMANITY (2009)

DESCRIPTION

“A party game for horrible people.” Play begins with a judge, known as the “Card Czar”, choosing a black question or fill-in-the-blank card from the top of the deck and showing it to all players. Each player holds a hand of ten white answer cards at the beginning of each round, and passes a card (sometimes two) to the Card Czar, face-down, representing their answer to the question on the card. The card czar determines which answer card(s) are funniest in the context of the question or fill-in-the-blank card. The player who submitted the chosen card(s) is given the question card to represent an “Awesome Point”, and then the player to the left of the new Card Czar becomes the new Czar for the next round. Play continues until the players agree to stop, at which point the player with the most Awesome Points is the winner. This, so far, sounds like the popular and fairly inoffensive Apples to Apples. While the games are similar, the sense of humor required is very different. The game encourages players to poke fun at practically every awkward or taboo 10

subject including race, religion, gender, poverty, torture, alcoholism, drugs, sex (oh yes), abortion, child abuse, celebrities, and those everyday little annoyances like “Expecting a burp and vomiting on the floor”.

P A R T Y

In addition, there are a few extra rules. First, some question cards are “Pick 2” or cards, which require each participant to submit two cards in sequence to complete their answer. Second, a gambling component also exists. If a question is played which a player believes they have two possible winning answers for, they may bet an Awesome Point to play a single second answer. If the player who gambled wins, they retain the wagered point, but if they lose, the player who contributed the winning answer takes both points.

4–30 Players Playing Time: 30 Min Age: 17+

G A M E S 11

KING OF TOKYO (2011) DESCRIPTION In King of Tokyo, you play mutant monsters, gigantic robots, and strange aliens—all of whom are destroying Tokyo and whacking each other in order to become the one and only King of Tokyo. At the start of each turn, you roll six dice, which show the following six symbols: 1, 2, or 3 Victory Points, Energy, Heal, and Attack. Over three successive throws, choose whether to keep or discard each die in order to win victory points, gain energy, restore health, or attack other players into understanding that Tokyo is YOUR territory. The fiercest player will occupy Tokyo, and earn extra victory points, but that player can’t heal and must face all the other monsters alone! Top this off with special cards purchased with energy that have a permanent or temporary effect, such as the growing of a second head which grants you an additional die, body armor, nova death ray, and more.... and it’s one of the most explosive games of the year! In order to win the game, one must either destroy Tokyo by accumulating 20 victory points, or be the only surviving monster once the fighting has ended.

2–6 Players Playing Time: 30 Min Age: 8+ 12

Designer Richard Garfield Artists Gabriel Butik Romain Gaschet Igor Polouchine Benjamin Raynal Jean-Baptiste Reynaud Jonathan Silvertre RĂŠgis Torres Anthony Wolff Publishers IELLO Bergsala Enigma Bureau De Juegos Delta Vision Publishing Devir 13

ARKHAM HORROR (2005) DESCRIPTION The year is 1926, and it is the height of the Roaring Twenties. Flappers dance till dawn in smoke-filled speakeasies drinking alcohol supplied by rum runners and the mob. It’s a celebration to end all celebrations in the aftermath of the war to end all wars. Yet a dark shadow grows in the city of Arkham. Alien entities known as Ancient Ones lurk in the emptiness

choose from 16 Investigators and take to the streets of Arkham. Before the game, one of the eight Ancient Ones is chosen and it’s up to the Investigators to prevent it from breaking into our world. During the course of the game, players will upgrade their characters by acquiring skills, allies, items, weapons, and spells. It’s up to the players to clean out the streets of Arkham by fighting many different types of monsters, but their main goal is to close portals to other dimensions that are opening up around town. With too many portals open the Ancient One awakens and the players only have one last chance to save the world. Defeat the Ancient One in combat!

1–8 Players Playing Time: 120-360 Min Age: 12+

beyond space and time, writhing at the gates between worlds. These gates have begun to open and must be closed before the Ancient Ones make our world their ruined domination. Only a handful of investigators stand against the Arkham Horror. Will they Prevail? Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure game themed around H.P Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Players

Designer: Richard Launius, Kevin Wilson Artist: Anders Finér, Rafał Hrynkiewicz, Hennin g Ludvigsen, Patrick McEvoy Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games ADC Blackfire Entertainment Arclight Delta Vision Publishing Edge Entertainment Galakta Heidelberger Spieleverlag Hobby World Korea Boardgames co., Ltd. Nexus 14 14

CO-O

OPERATIVE

COMMENTS “Recent Salvation Army find!! Loooooong Game! Explore Arkham for Clues and Weapons to defeat monsters from other worlds. “ “SERIOUS TRADE OFFERS ONLY! Broken Token insert and custom storage. All expansions mixed together with base game. Box will be heavy/expensive shipping.” “Excellent condition, played only 2-3 times by adults in a non-smoking household”

PANDEMIC (2008) DESCRIPTION In Pandemic, several virulent diseases have broken out simultaneously all over the world! The players are disease-fighting specialists whose mission is to treat disease hotspots while researching cures for each of four plagues before they get out of hand. The game board depicts several major population centers on Earth. On each turn, a player can use up to four actions to travel between cities, treat infected populaces, discover a cure, or build a research station. A deck of cards provides the players with these abilities, but sprinkled throughout this deck are Epidemic! cards that accelerate and intensify the diseases’ activity. A second, separate deck of cards controls the “normal” spread of the infections.

CO-O

Taking a unique role within the team, players must plan their strategy to mesh with their specialists’ strengths in order to conquer the diseases. For example, the Operations Expert can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases and which allow for greater mobility between cities; the Scientist needs only four cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal five—but the diseases are spreading quickly and time is running out. If one or more diseases spreads beyond recovery or if too much time elapses, the players all lose. If they cure the four diseases, they all win! The 2013 edition of Pandemic includes two new characters—the Contingency Planner and the Quarantine Specialist—not available in earlier editions of the game.

2–4 Players Playing Time: 45 Min Age: 8+ Designer: Matt Leacock Artist: Josh Cappel, Christian Hanisch, Régis Moulun, Chris Quilliams, Tom Thiel Publisher: Z-Man Games Albi Asterion Press Brain Games Devir Filosofia Éditions Gém Klub Kft. Hobby Japan HomoLudicus Jolly Thinkers Kaissa Chess & Games Korea Boardgames co., Ltd.

OPERATIVE

THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2011) DESCRIPTION The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a cooperative adventure game in which the players attempt to complete a scenario, each with three heroes of their choice and a deck of allies, events and attachments to support them. Each round, players send their heroes and allies to quest or to fight with enemies that engage them. However, as the heroes and allies exhaust after questing, defending, or attacking, the players’ options are typically insufficient to deal with everything at once. Therefore, players need to determine whether it is more urgent to quest and make progress in the scenario while the enemy forces gain power, or to take down enemies while making no progress, not knowing what will come next. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is the base game of a Living Card Game for which new adventure packs are released monthly. The base game contains three scenarios, twelve famous characters from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (including Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Denethor and Eowyn), and four pre-cons18

tructed player decks. Players can either use one of these decks or construct their own deck to increase their chances to be succesful in the more challenging scenarios. The monthly adventure packs contain a new scenario, a new hero, and new player cards to be used in their deck. The base game is for 1-2 players, but with an additional base game the scenarios can be played with up to four players. Although this game is set in Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the scenarios do not represent scenes from the books, but rather take place in the seventeen years from Bilbo’s 111th birthday until Frodo’s departure from the Shire.

CO-O The scenarios from saga-expansions do represent scenes from the books. Saga-expansions will form the Campaign Mode so that you can play all the saga quests that deal with the trilogy (+ Hobbit) together in one marathon campaign.

Designer Nate French Artist Even Mehl Amundsen, Erfian Asafat, Tiziano Baracchi, Ryan Barger Publisher Fantasy Flight Games ADC Blackfire Entertainment Edge Entertainment Galakta Galápagos Jogos Game Harbor Heidelberger Spieleverlag Stratelibri

OPERATIVE

COMMENTS “I played it 54 times including numerous solo plays. That says something no? So thematic, so much diversity. Love the deckbuilding even more than the game itself.”

1–2 Players 60 Min Playing Time Age: 13+

“Agree with average score on BGG for this game” “Absolutely amazing artwork. Has a lot of replay-ability and love the theme. But it may be too complicated to play with less experienced players in CCG or LCG.”

CO-O

ROBINSON CRUSOE (2012) DESCRIPTION

and put it into practice. Debate, discuss, and work on the best plan you all can make.

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is a game created by Ignacy Trzewiczek, the author of Stronghold. This time Trzewiczek takes the players to a deserted island, where they'll play the parts of shipwreck survivors confronted by an extraordinary adventure. They'll be faced with the challenges of building a shelter, finding food, fighting wild beasts, and protecting themselves from weather changes. Building walls around their homes, animal domestication, constructing weapons and tools from what they find and much more awaits them on the island. The players decide in which direction the game will unfold and – after several in-game weeks of hard work – how their settlement will look. Will they manage to discover the secret of the island in the

OPERATIVE

Search for treasures. Discover mysteries. Follow goals of six different, engaging scenarios. Start by building a big pile of wood and setting it on fire to call for help, and then start new adventures. Become an exorcist on cursed Island. Become a treasure hunter on Volcano Island. Become a rescue team for a young lady who’s stuck on rock island… Designer Ignacy Trzewiczek Artist Tomasz Bentkowski, Mateusz Bielski, Vincent Dutrait, Jerzy Ferdyn Publisher Portal Games

1–4 Players Playing Time: 60–120 Min Age: 14+

meantime? Will they find a pirate treasure, or an abandoned village? Will they discover an underground city or a cursed temple at the bottom of a volcano? Answers to these questions lie in hundreds of event cards and hundreds of object and structure cards that can be used during the game... Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is an epic game from Portal. You will build a shelter, palisade, weapons, you will create tools like axes, knives, sacks, you will do everything you can to… to survive. You will have to find food, fight wild beasts, protect yourself from weather changes… Take the role of one of four characters from the ship crew (cook, carpenter, explorer or soldier) and face the adventure. Use your determination skills to help your team mates, discuss with them your plan 21

RISK (1959) DESCRIPTION Possibly the most popular, mass market war game. The goal is conquest of the world. Each playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s turn consists of: - gaining reinforcements through number of territories held, control of every territory on each continent, and turning sets of bonus cards. - Attacking other players using a simple combat rule of comparing the highest dice rolled for each side. Players may attack as often as desired. If one enemy territory is successfully taken, the player is awarded with a bonus card. - Moving a group of armies to another adjacent territory. Designer Albert Lamorisse, Michael I. Levin Artist (Uncredited) Publisher (Unknown), Alga, Barnes & Noble, Borras Plana S.A.

2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;6 Players Playing Time: 120 MIN Age: 10+

F A M I L Y & S T R A T E G Y

3–4 Players 60–120 Min Playing Time Age: 10+

Designer Klaus Teuber Artist Volkan Baga, Tanja Donner, Pete Fenlon, Jason Hawkins Publisher KOSMOS

FAMILY & S

CATAN (1995) DESCRIPTION In Catan (formerly The Settlers of Catan), players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources (cards)—wood, grain, brick, sheep, or stone—to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game. Setup includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each showing a resource or the desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some of which contain ports of exchange. Number disks, which will correspond to die rolls (two 6-sided dice are used), are placed on each resource tile. Each player is given two settlements (think: houses) and roads (sticks) which are, in turn, placed on intersections and borders of the resource tiles. Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which hex tiles their last-placed house is adjacent to. A robber pawn is placed on the desert tile.

STRATEGY

A turn consists of possibly playing a development card, rolling the dice, everyone (perhaps) collecting resource cards based on the roll and position of houses (or upgraded cities—think: hotels) unless a 7 is rolled, turning in resource cards (if possible and desired) for improvements, trading 25

cards at a port, and trading resource cards with other players. If a 7 is rolled, the active player moves the robber to a new hex tile and steals resource cards from other players who have built structures adjacent to that tile. Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the longest road and the largest army (from some of the development cards), and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held in secret), he announces his total and claims the win. Catan has won multiple awards and is one of the most popular games in recent history due to its amazing ability to appeal to experienced gamers as well as those new to the hobby.Die Siedler von Catan was originally published by KOSMOS and has gone through multiple editions. It was licensed by Mayfair and has undergone four editions as The Settlers of Catan. In 2015, it was formally renamed Catan to better represent itself as the core and base game of the Catan series. It has been re-published in two travel editions, portable edition and compact edition, as a special gallery edition (replaced in 2009 with a family edition), as an anniversary wooden edition, as a deluxe 3D collector’s edition, in the basic Simply Catan, as a beginner version, and with an entirely new theme in Japan and Asia as Settlers of Catan: Rockman Edition. Numerous spin-offs and expansions have also been made for the game.

LOVE LETTER (2012) DESCRIPTION All of the eligible young men (and many of the not-so-young) seek to woo the princess of Tempest. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, and you must rely on others to take your romantic letters to her. Will yours reach her first? Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck for 2–4 players. Your goal is to get your love letter into Princess Annette’s hands while deflecting the letters from competing suitors. From a deck with only sixteen cards, each player starts with only one card in hand; one card is removed from play. On a turn, you draw one card, and play one card, trying to expose others and knock them from the game. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long, however, and your letter may be tossed in the fire! Designer Seiji Kanai Artist Andrew Hepworth, Jeff Himmelman, John Kovalic, Robb Miller Publisher Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)

2–4 Players 20 Min Playing Time 26

F A M I L Y & S T R A T E G Y 27

TOKAIDO (2012)

FAMILY & ST

DESCRIPTION In Tokaido, each player is a traveler crossing the “East sea road”, one of the most magnificent roads of Japan. While traveling, you will meet people, taste fine meals, collect beautiful items, discover great panoramas, and visit temples and wild places but at the end of the day, when everyone has arrived at the end of the road you’ll have to be the most initiated traveler – which means that you’ll have to be the one who discovered the most interesting and varied things. The potential action spaces in Tokaido are laid out on a linear track, with players advancing down this track to take actions. The player who is currently last on the track takes a turn by advancing forward on the track to their desired action and taking that action. So, players must choose whether to advance slowly in order to get more turns, or to travel more rapidly to beat other players to their desired action spaces.

The action spaces allow a variety of actions that will score in different, but roughly equal, ways. Some action spaces allow players to collect money, while others offer players a way to spend that money to acquire points. Other action spaces allow players to engage in various set collections that score points for assembling those sets. Some action spaces simply award players points for stopping on them, or give the player a randomly determined action from all of the other types. All of the actions in Tokaido are very simple, and combined with a unique graphic design, Tokaido offers players a peaceful zen mood in its play.

Designer Antoine Bauza Artist Xavier Gueniffey Durin Publisher Funforge

2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;5 Players 45 Min Playing Time Age: 8+

TRATEGY

MASCARADE (2013) DESCRIPTION Players in Mascarade start with six coins and a randomly dealt character card. Characters stay face up just long enough for players to more or less memorize them, then are turned face down. Your goal is to be the first player to hold 13 coins, and while you start nearly halfway to that goal, you can go down just as surely as you can go up! On a turn you take one of three actions: 1) Announce your character: Claim the power of a certain character and take the associated action. You don’t have to have that character card in front of you to take this action, but if someone else says that they’re that character and reveals the card to prove it, that player takes the action instead while you lose one coin to the tribunal. 2) Swap cards or not: Take another player’s character card along with yours, place them under the table, shuffle them around a bit, then give one card back to the other player while keeping one for yourself. You (presumably) know whether you changed characters and can have some idea of who you are now, but that other player might be in the dark. 3) Secretly look at your character: Look at your character card to make sure of who you are. Play continues until one player obtains 13 coins and wins! Mascarade includes more character cards than the number of players, so not all characters will be used in each game. The rules suggest that you use certain characters in your first games, but once you know the game, you can try many other distributions. The first edition of Mascarade contains 13 characters. The beggar (woman) has no special ability. Bruno Faidutti says on his blog: “...she has no ability so far. I always like to find blank cards in a game, for which I can imagine my own effects. Here, the card is not blank – it has a picture and a name, but you can devise its effect, and I’m sure there’ll be some prize for the best idea.”

F A M I L Y & S T R A T E G Y

Designer Bruno Faidutti Artist Jérémy Masson Publisher Repos Production

2–13 Players 30 Min Playing Time Age: 10+