New to Games? 22 - Shut Up & Sit Down

PitchCar

This game entry refers to two nearly identical games which are not compatible with one another. Ages 6 and up. PitchCar and Carabande are dexterity games where large, wooden, puzzle-like pieces are used to construct a race track that looks very similar to a slot car track when finished. But instead of using electrons, players use finger-flicks to send small pucks around the track, a la Carrom. PitchCar is produced by Ferti. It currently has five expansions which add “tight” curves, crossroads, small jumps, long straightaways, 45-degree curves, and curved bottlenecks. PitchCar apparently also has two editions, where the first edition has the black laminate on the top and bottom of the track pieces, where the second edition only has the laminate on the top of the track pieces. In the BGG photo gallery, PitchCar has red rails.

You are head of a family in an Italian city-state, a city run by a weak and corrupt court. You need to manipulate, bluff and bribe your way to power. Your object is to destroy the influence of all the other families, forcing them into exile. Only one family will survive…

In Coup, you want to be the last player with influence in the game, with influence being represented by face-down character cards in your playing area. Each player starts the game with two coins and two influence – i.e., two face-down character cards; the fifteen card deck consists of three copies of five different characters, each with a unique set of powers.

When you take one of the character actions – whether actively on your turn, or defensively in response to someone else’s action – that character’s action automatically succeeds unless an opponent challenges you. In this case, if you can’t reveal the appropriate character, you lose an influence, turning one of your characters face-up. Face-up characters cannot be used, and if both of your characters are face-up, you’re out of the game.

If you do have the character in question, you reveal it, the opponent loses an influence, then you shuffle that character into the deck and draw a new one, perhaps getting the same character again and perhaps not. The last player to still have influence – that is, a face-down character – wins the game!

No moderator, no elimination, ten-minute games.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fast game for 3-10 players in which everyone gets a role: One of the dastardly Werewolves, the tricky Troublemaker, the helpful Seer, or one of a dozen different characters, each with a special ability. In the course of a single morning, your village will decide who is a werewolf…because all it takes is lynching one werewolf to win!

Because One Night Ultimate Werewolf is so fast, fun, and engaging, you’ll want to play it again and again, and no two games are ever the same.

Europe, 1347. A disaster is about to strike. The Black Death reaches Europe, and during the next 4 – 5 years, the population of Europe will be halved. The players settle in the various regions of Europe, while the plague spreads throughout all of the continent. The players gain help from the various classes of the middle ages: The Peasants provide population growth, the wise Monks keep the rats away, the rich Merchants flee when the plague approaches, the warfare conducted by the Knights spreads the plague to new areas, the Witches control the spread through magic and witchcraft, whereas the Kings avoid the plague by staying in their fortified palaces. But the plague does not make any distinction: When the rats arrive, no one can feel safe. When the plague withdraws and the game ends, the player with the highest surviving population wins.

Oss is a skill game based on jacks, with players trying to perform certain tricks in between tossing their jack into the air and catching it.

Composure, dexterity, tricks… Several tribes decide to fight to determine who’s the best, their Big Chief!

In Relic Runners, each player takes on the role of a character keen to exploit and acquire relics that have been unearthed in a long lost part of the jungle. Each would-be archaeologist has a colorful past — retired university professor, former army captain, etc. — and wants to be the first to get their hands on the precious loot to earn the most victory points.

Players must navigate a series of paths in order to visit temples. The archaeologists are restricted in their movement by their access to rations, but thankfully they can place markers on paths to allow them to travel for free in future turns. The players also have a toolkit that can be upgraded in three particular ways to break the rules in some way or offer them an advantage as they move around.

Each time a player visits a temple, he takes a token. Initially the temples offer up victory points or some form of in-game bonus. When the final token is taken, a relic is placed there to be collected. The players earn large victory points for collecting relics of different types (set collection) and players can also earn bonus points for creating long routes and traveling along these to collect relics.

Two Rooms and a Boom from Tuesday Knight Games (http://www.tuesdayknightgames.com/tworoomsandaboom) – a social deduction/hidden role party game for six or more players – there are two teams: the Red Team and the Blue Team. The Blue Team has a President. The Red Team has a Bomber. Players are equally distributed between two rooms (i.e., separate playing areas). The game consists of five timed rounds. At the end of each round, some players will be swapped into opposing rooms. If the Red Team’s Bomber is in the same room as the President at the end of the game, then the Red Team wins; otherwise the Blue Team wins. Lying encouraged.

Get ready to enter the poor and dreary Whitechapel district in London 1888 – the scene of the mysterious Jack the Ripper murders – with its crowded and smelly alleys, hawkers, shouting merchants, dirty children covered in rags who run through the crowd and beg for money, and prostitutes – called “the wretched” – on every street corner.

The board game Letters from Whitechapel, which plays in 90-150 minutes, takes the players right there. One player plays Jack the Ripper, and his goal is to take five victims before being caught. The other players are police detectives who must cooperate to catch Jack the Ripper before the end of the game. The game board represents the Whitechapel area at the time of Jack the Ripper and is marked with 199 numbered circles linked together by dotted lines. During play, Jack the Ripper, the Policemen, and the Wretched are moved along the dotted lines that represent Whitechapel’s streets. Jack the Ripper moves stealthily between numbered circles, while policemen move on their patrols between crossings, and the Wretched wander alone between the numbered circles.

Your quiet little 16th century village has suddenly become infested with some very unfriendly werewolves…can you and the other villagers find them before they devour everyone?

Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition is the ultimate party game for anywhere from 5 to 68 players of all ages. Each player has an agenda: as a villager, hunt down the werewolves; as a werewolf, convince the other villagers that you’re innocent, while secretly dining on those same villagers each night. Dozens of special roles are available to help both the villagers and the werewolves achieve their goals while thwarting their opponents.

Toc Toc is a fun, fast-paced game of dexterity that many have described as a “Reverse Jenga”. With over 10,000 copies sold in Korea, this hit game is now taking the US by storm! Play from 2-7 players as you become a woodman (or woman) trying to take down some bark (+1 point each) without knocking off the center pieces (-5 points each).

You get 2 chops with the axe each turn and the game continues until all the bark is gone!

PitchCar

Coup

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Rattus

Oss

Relic Runners

Two Rooms and a Boom

Letters from Whitechapel

Ultimate Werewolf

Toc Toc Woodman

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