SU&SD Recommends 13 - Shut Up & Sit Down

A Tale of Pirates

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.

Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. Players will take on the role of a wandering adventurer with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this dark corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process, they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make.

This is a game with a persistent and changing world that is ideally played over many game sessions. After a scenario, players will make decisions on what to do, which will determine how the story continues, kind of like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Playing through a scenario is a cooperative affair where players will fight against automated monsters using an innovative card system to determine the order of play and what a player does on their turn.

Each turn, a player chooses two cards to play out of their hand. The number on the top card determines their initiative for the round. Each card also has a top and bottom power, and when it is a player’s turn in the initiative order, they determine whether to use the top power of one card and the bottom power of the other, or vice-versa. Players must be careful, though, because over time they will permanently lose cards from their hands. If they take too long to clear a dungeon, they may end up exhausted and be forced to retreat.

Introduced by the Moors, azulejos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

The first official Star Trek RPG in more than a decade. Star Trek Adventures uses the Modiphius 2d20 game system (Mutant Chronicles, Infinity, Conan, John Carter of Mars) designed by Jay Little (Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, X-Wing Miniatures Game). Modiphius is also sculpting an accompanying Star Trek miniature figure line, the first to be produced in seventeen years. Resin and metal 32mm-scale hobby figures will feature classic Star Trek characters and crews, boarding parties, and away teams. Geomorphic tile maps of burning Federation ships, mysterious colonies and embattled Klingon cruisers will set the scene for dramatic new voyages in the Final Frontier.

The world almost ended 71 years ago…

The plague came out of nowhere and ravaged the world. Most died within a week. Nothing could stop it. The world did its best. It wasn’t good enough.

For three generations, we, the last fragments of humanity have lived on the seas, on floating stations called “havens.” Far from the plague, we are able to provide supplies to the mainland to keep them (and us) from succumbing completely.

We’ve managed to keep a network of the largest known cities in the world alive. Things have been tough the past few years. Cities far away from the havens have fallen off our grid…

Tomorrow, a small group of us head out into what’s left of the world. We don’t know what we’ll find.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is an epic cooperative game for 2 to 4 players. Unlike most other games, this one is working against you. What’s more, some of the actions you take in Pandemic Legacy will carry over to future games. No two worlds will ever be alike!

Flip Ships is a cooperative dexterity game in which players take on the roles of brave pilots defending their planet from an onslaught of firepower. Flip your ships to take out the encroaching enemies and to take down the powerful mother ship before it’s too late.

“It was an ambush. That’s the only way to describe it. The mother ship appeared out of nowhere, creating a massive shadow over the city. Within seconds, wave after wave of fighters poured out of it, filling the sky.”

“We’re launching the ships we have ready, but they aren’t much. Our pilots must fight bravely to defend the planet while we ready the rest of the fleet. Explosions fill the sky, and we’ve taken some hits, but we won’t give up. Will you?”

It’s about getting what you want.

Unknown Armies presents magick as it might exist in a world informed by crime fiction and secret histories, as twisting wrinkles in reality created by greater and greater risk, sacrifice, and obsession. As a player, you are confronted by the consequences of your character’s actions, and challenged by the implicit threat of a world shaped by the will of those who want something more than you do.

It’s about being relentlessly, hopelessly human.

Rhino Hero is back on the job! And this time not only does the wobbly skyscraper need to be climbed, but there will also be fierce battles between the four superheroes Rhino Hero, Giraffe Boy, Big E. and Batguin. Who will win the battles and not let themselves be bothered by the mean, hanging spider monkeys?

The streets of Duskwall are haunted. By vengeful ghosts and cruel demons. By the masked spirit wardens and their lightning-hooks. By sharp-eyed inspectors and their gossiping crows. By the alluring hawkers of vice and pleasure. By thieves and killers and scoundrels like you— the Blades in the Dark.

The noble elite grow ever richer from the profits of their leviathan-hunting fleets and electroplasm refineries. The Bluecoats of the constabulary crack skulls and line their pockets with graft. The powerful crime syndicates leech coin from every business, brothel, drug den, and gambling house. And then there’s your crew of scoundrels: all the way down at the bottom rung. Can you make it to the top? What are you willing to do to get there? There’s only one way to find out…

A Tale of Pirates

Hive

Gloomhaven

Azul

Star Trek Adventures

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

Flip Ships

Unknown Armies (3rd edition)

Rhino Hero: Super Battle

Blades in the Dark

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