Pairs is a “New Classic Pub Game” designed by James Ernest and Paul Peterson. You can play with 2 to 8 players, the rules are very simple, and each game takes about 5 minutes.
Pairs is a press-your-luck game. Each round, players take turns deciding whether to take a card or fold. Folding gets you some points, but catching a pair could get you a lot more points (and points are bad.) The first player to reach a target score loses the game.
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In the Old West, sly snake oil salesmen had the special talent of getting even the most skeptical customer to buy the most dubious product. In Snake Oil, that’s exactly what the players get to do! One player draws a card and becomes the Customer while the other players each select two Word Cards from their hands to create a product to pitch to the Customer. Laughter erupts as each player attempts to persuade the Customer that their item is the best! The Customer picks their favorite item and that player is awarded the Customer Card. The player with the most Customer Cards wins!
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Dobble (called Spot It! in North America) is truly amazing. There is always one, and only one, matching symbol between any two cards! A sharp eye and quick reflexes is all it takes to play the 5 quick party games in this grab-n-go tin. The fast action and brilliant game mechanics will have you hooked. Quick to learn, fun for all ages, and including up to 8 players, Dobble is the best matching card game to use as an ice breaker.
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Splendor is a fast-paced and addictive game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops — all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you’re wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige.
On your turn, you may (1) collect chips (gems), or (2) buy and build a card, or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card — in order to make sure you get it, or, why not, your opponents don’t get it — you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round, but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip, which you can use as any gem.
All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game, you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do.
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Welcome to the city of Machi Koro, the Japanese card game that is sweeping the world!
Armed only with your trusty die and a dream, you must grow the sleepy town of Machi Koro into the largest city in the region. You will need to collect income from developments, build public works, and steal from your neighbors coffers (just make sure they aren’t doing the same to you)!
They say you can’t build Rome in a day, but Machi Koro will be built in under 30 minutes!
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Submerge yourself into the bustling life on Catan – be the prince or princess of Catan and decide on the fate of its settlers. In addition to settlements, roads, and cities, you also construct the buildings where your subjects work, hire heroes that make your opponents’ lives as gamers difficult, and build ships to boost your trade.
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In the year 2097, the entire Earth was enveloped in a cataclysmic shift in climate, plunging the globe into another ice age. Nearly 90% of the world’s population was eliminated, driving the survivors to band together into loose communities and tribes.
In Arctic Scavengers, you are the leader of a small tribe of survivors. Resources, tools, medicine, and mercenaries are all in scarce supply. You and your tribe are pitted against up to four other tribes in a fight for survival. Build up your tribe, skirmish against other players head-to-head, or even bluff your way to victory.
The player with the largest tribe at the end of the game is declared the winner!
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Skull is the quintessence of bluffing, a game in which everything is played in the players’ heads. Each player plays a face-down card, then each player in turn adds one more card – until someone feels safe enough to state that he can turn a number of cards face up and get only roses. Other players can then overbid him, saying they can turn even more cards face up. The highest bidder must then turn that number of cards face up, starting with his own. If he shows only roses, he wins; if he reveals a skull, he loses, placing one of his cards out of play. Two successful challenges wins the game.
Skull & Roses is not a game of luck; it’s a game of poker face and meeting eyes.
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Can you keep calm while bids are rising? Experience the exhilaration of real life auctions!
In Going, Going, GONE!, players try to win items by bidding on five simultaneous auctions while the Auctioneer counts down from 10 to 1! Players bid on these five simultaneous auctions by physically dropping their wooden cubes (known as “Bucks”) into any or all of the five transparent Auction Cups, each of which represents an auction for one or two Item Cards.
At the end of the countdown, the Auctioneer says “GONE!” and quickly places the Auction Paddle over the five Auction Cups to close the auctions. The player who has the most Bucks in each Auction Cup wins that auction and takes the Item Cards for that auction. Collections of items may be sold throughout the game for more Bucks, or players can keep building their collections to sell them at the end of the game. The player with the most Bucks at the end of the game wins!
Going, Going, GONE! is a simple-to-learn, exciting and unique game for players of all skill levels! It is ideal for playing in public spaces. Since the players control the pacing of the game and the variants used, the game adapts to the playing style of the players.
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Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends is a game played by masters of magic. Two to four summoners encounter each other in the Tash-Kalar arena, either in teams or each on his own, and prove their skill and strategy in a short but intense battle. By clever deployment of their minions, they create magic patterns for summoning powerful beings, and then use those to destroy their opponent’s forces or to prepare patterns for the ultimate legendary beings.
The game includes three different factions (but two copies of one of them), each with a unique deck of beings to summon. There is also a deck of legendary creatures. Players take turns placing their common pieces on the board, and if they succeed in creating the pattern depicted on one of the cards in hand, they may play it. When played, the card summons a specific being and allows the player to perform an effect described on the card.
Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends offers two game modes. In the standard mode you score points for fulfilling various tasks set by the Arena Masters: controlling certain points or areas of the arena, destroying a number of enemy pieces in a single turn, performing a certain combination of summonings, etc.
In the other mode of play, your only goal is to entertain the crowd. You do that by primarily destroying your opponents.
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