New to Games? 10 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Welcome To…

As an architect in Welcome To…, you want to build the best new town in the United States of the 1950’s by adding resources to a pool, hiring employees, and more.

Welcome To… plays like a roll-and-write dice game in which you mark results on a score-sheet…but without dice. Instead you flip cards from 3 piles to make 3 different action sets everyone chooses from. Player’s will get to choose a house number and a corresponding action. You use the number to fill in a house on your street in numerical order. Then you take the action to increase the point value of estates you’re building or score points at the end for building parks and pools. Players also have the option of taking actions to alter or duplicate their house numbers. And everyone is racing to be the first to complete public goals. There’s lots to do and many paths to becoming the best suburban architect in Welcome To!

Because of the communal actions, game play is simultaneous and thus supports large groups of players. With many varying strategies and completely randomized action sets, no two games will feel the same!

Century: Spice Road is the first in a series of games that explores the history of each century with spice-trading as the theme for the first installment. In Century: Spice Road, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed silk road to deliver spices to the far reaches of the continent for fame and glory. Each turn, players perform one of four actions:

Establish a trade route (by taking a market card)
Make a trade or harvest spices (by playing a card from hand)
Fulfill a demand (by meeting a victory point card’s requirements and claiming it)
Rest (by taking back into your hand all of the cards you’ve played)

The last round is triggered once a player has claimed their fifth victory point card, then whoever has the most victory points wins.

Bargain Quest is a game of adventure and capitalism for 2-4 players. Players will take the role of shopkeepers in an adventuring town plagued by monsters. Players must draft items and then secretly choose which items to place in their windows to attract wealthy heroes to their shops.

Once all heroes have been equipped, they battle against monstrous threats, earning money and adding prestige to whichever item shop they most recently visited. Throughout the game players will encounter new heroes and monsters while upgrading their shops and hiring employees. Once the third monster is defeated the player who has earned the most gold and prestige is the winner.

After being stripped of all their possessions, a mage, a warrior, an elf, and a dwarf are forced to go rob the local Magic Maze shopping mall for all the equipment necessary for their next adventure. They agree to map out the labyrinth in its entirety first, then find each individual’s favorite store, and then locate the exit. In order to evade the surveillance of the guards who eyed their arrival suspiciously, all four will pull off their heists simultaneously, then dash to the exit. That’s the plan anyway…but can they pull it off?

Magic Maze is a real-time, cooperative game. Each player can control any hero in order to make that hero perform a very specific action, to which the other players do not have access: Move north, explore a new area, ride an escalator… All this requires rigorous cooperation between the players in order to succeed at moving the heroes prudently. However, you are allowed to communicate only for short periods during the game; the rest of the time, you must play without giving any visual or audio cues to each other. If all of the heroes succeed in leaving the shopping mall in the limited time allotted for the game, each having stolen a very specific item, then everyone wins together.

At the start of the game, you have only three minutes in which to take actions. Hourglass spaces you encounter along the way give you more time. If the sand timer ever completely runs out, all players lose the game: Your loitering has aroused suspicion, and the mall security guards nab you!

You are a collector of rare and valuable books in a thriving gnomish village. Recently, the Mayor and Village Council have announced an opening for a Grand Librarian: a prestigious (and lucrative) position they intend to award to the most qualified villager.

To outshine your competition, you need to expand your personal library by sending your trusty assistants out into the village to find the most impressive tomes. Sources for the finest books are scarce, so you need to beat your opponents to them when they pop up.

Fog of Love is a game for two players. You will create and play two vivid characters who meet, fall in love and face the challenge of making an unusual relationship work.

Playing Fog of Love is like being in a romantic comedy: roller-coaster rides, awkward situations, lots of laughs and plenty of difficult compromises to make.

Much as in a real relationship, goals might be at odds. You can try to change, keep being relentless or even secretly decide to be a Heartbreaker. It’s your choice.

The happily ever after won’t be certain, but whatever way your zigzag romance unfolds, you’ll always end up with a story full of surprises – guaranteed to raise a smile!

Fugitive is a two-player card game set in the world of Burgle Bros. One player is a fugitive trying to make it out of town while being pursued by an unstoppable agent. The fugitive plays cards face down to the table trying to work their way to a goal, while the agent must guess those cards to uncover them. If all the cards are face up, the fugitive is caught.

The Fox in the Forest is a trick-taking game for two players. Aside from the normal ranked- and suited-cards used to win tricks, fairy characters such as the Fox and the Witch have special abilities that let you change the trump suit, lead even after you lose a trick, and more.

You score points by winning more tricks than your opponent, but don’t get greedy! Win too many tricks, and you will fall like the villain in so many fairy tales…

Put on your captain’s hat and navigate the 3D pirate ship using sand timers in this unique real-time cooperative game.

As a member of an adventurous pirate crew, your goal is to be crowned Admiral of the Black, the most feared pirate ship in the Caribbean. To earn this title, you must complete dangerous scenarios in the shortest possible time frame. The most innovative element of the game is that the player uses their own 30-second sand timer as a character to be placed on the ship to perform actions. Each time a player places their own sand timer, they have to wait for the sand to run out to be able to perform the action needed. Each hole in the ship represents an area where you can perform a specific action: turning the ship, loading cannons, shooting enemy ships, repairing damage, and so forth…

Hive is a highly addictive strategic game for two players that is not restricted by a board and can be played anywhere on any flat surface. Hive is made up of twenty two pieces, eleven black and eleven white, resembling a variety of creatures each with a unique way of moving. With no setting up to do, the game begins when the first piece is placed down. As the subsequent pieces are placed this forms a pattern that becomes the playing surface (the pieces themselves become the board). Unlike other such games, the pieces are never eliminated and not all have to be played. The object of the game is to totally surround your opponent’s queen, while at the same time trying to block your opponent from doing likewise to your queen. The player to totally surround his opponent’s queen wins the game.

Welcome To…

Century: Spice Road

Bargain Quest

Magic Maze

Ex Libris

Fog of Love

Fugitive

The Fox in the Forest

A Tale of Pirates

Hive

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