SU&SD Recommends 25 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Letters from Whitechapel

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.

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!

The railways of today are amazing things and bullet trains, freight trains and more keep entire countries running. From transporting the populace to carrying essential materials, trains play an integral part in a nation’s power and economic development.

You will start with a small set of cards, but by building a more effective deck throughout the game, you will be able to place stations and lay rails over the maps of Osaka or Tokyo. Gain enough points from your railways and you will ultimately manage the most powerful railroads in modern Japan!

This English edition of Trains, designed by Hisashi Hayashi, features updated graphics, artwork, and streamlined card abilities. With extensive replay value, Trains is one game you won’t want to leave the station without!

You are a team of adventurers – trapped in a cursed temple. Together you must activate the magic gems in the temple chambers in order to banish the curse.

Look out for one another. Some tasks can be accomplished only as a team – and you have only 10 minutes before the temple collapses!

Escape is a cooperative real-time game, that is not played in rounds. Instead, each player rolls as quickly and as often as he can with his five dice.

The dice determine your fate:

Discover the different temple chambers by rolling the correct dice combinations. Take care, though, because if you fall under the spell of the Black Mask, you‘ll need the help of the Golden Mask and your team-mates in order to keep moving!

Act together:

If several adventurers are together in one chamber, you‘ll activate more magic gems faster!

Two modules make Escape even more exciting: The modules “Curses” and “Treasures“ make gameplay even more varied. The treasures aid you whereas the curses make escape more difficult. After all, an adventurer who is unable to talk or who must roll his dice with one hand stuck on top of his head will have a tough time working with his team!

The 10-minute soundtrack enhances the exciting atmosphere of the temple adventure!

In this collaboration between Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc, players must buy the favor of the gods in their race to be the first player to build two cities in the Ancient Greek island group known as the Cyclades.

Victory requires respect for all the gods – players cannot afford to sacrifice to only one god, but must pay homage to each of five gods in turn. Each turn, the players bid for the favors of the gods, as only one player can have the favor of each god per turn – and each player is also limited to the favor of a single god per turn.

Mobilize your fingers for the ultimate six-sided skirmish! Field an army of cubes and then place them strategically on the board. Each cube has special powers: Strikers and Skulks are strong on the attack, while Grunts are better for defense. Once your cubes are in position, sound the trumpets and let the flicking begin! Try to knock your opponent’s king off the board, aiming carefully not to get caught behind enemy lines. Triumph in your quest and crown yourself the Cube King!

We love finding games that are easy to teach, different every time you play and challenging to master. Brothers Oliver and Gary Sibthorpe created just that type of mix with Cube Quest – a game that perfectly meshes strategy with skill. You can tell that they put many hours into perfecting this balance evidence by the unique group of cubes included within. Be sure to experiment with different mixes of cubes as well as formations. Send us pictures of your favorite formations, along with stories of thrilling moves and victories!

When “unmasked”- who will you be?

Attend a Masquerade of the renaissance and try to discover the identity of your opponents. Who is telling the truth? Who is bluffing? Reveal the truth all while hiding your own true identity!

The goal of the game is for players to gain the most gold pieces that they will amass either by telling the truth, or alternatively, bluffing. Players each receive a Character card, that they will switch, or not, with their opponents throughout the game play. At each turn, players have the option to either announce who there are, and therefore are able to activate the power of that Character, as long as none of the other players challenge them; to secretly look at their card; or to swap their card with another player.

In Tales of the Arabian Nights, you are the hero or heroine in a story of adventure and wonder just like those told by Scheherazade to her spellbound sultan! You will travel the land seeking your own destiny and fortune. You will learn stories and gain wisdom to share with others. Will you be the first to fulfill your destiny? The next Tale is yours to tell! There is, of course, a winner in Tales of the Arabian Nights, but the point of the game is less to see who wins and more to enjoy the unfolding and telling of a great story!

In this new edition of the groundbreaking storytelling game, you enter the lands of the Arabian Nights alongside Sindbad, Ali Baba, and the other legendary heroes of the tales. Travel the world encountering imprisoned princesses, powerful ‘efreets, evil viziers, and such marvels as the Magnetic Mountain and the fabled Elephant’s Graveyard.

Choose your actions carefully and the skills you possess will reward you: become beloved, wealthy, mighty – even become sultan of a great land. Choose foolishly, however, and become a beggar, or be cursed with a beast’s form or become insane from terror! YOU will bring to life the stories of the inestimable Book of Tales in this vastly replayable board game with over 2002 tales that will challenge, amuse, astound and spellbind you for years to come.

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.

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!

Terra Mystica is a strategy game with a simple game principle and very little luck involved: You govern one of 14 factions trying to transform the landscape on the game board in your favor in order to build your structures. On the one hand, proximity to other players limits your options for further expansion, on the other hand though, it provides some benefits during the game This conflict is the source of Terra Mystica’s appeal.

Structures may be upgraded to provide even more resources, like workers, priests, money, and power . Build temples to gain more influence in the four cults of fire, earth, water, and air . Build your stronghold to activate your group’s special ability. Expand and build new dwellings to have a lot of workers at hand. Or make sure to have a constant flow of money by building trading houses.

The 14 artfully designed factions, each having unique special abilities, as well as the exchangeable bonus cards allow for a large number of possible game plays that constantly keep this game entertaining!

With the kind support of Uwe Rosenberg during the development of the game mechanisms.

Including an English rulebook and no language dependent game components.

Letters from Whitechapel

Toc Toc Woodman

Trains

Escape: The Curse of the Temple

Cyclades

Cube Quest

Mascarade

Tales of the Arabian Nights

Pandemic

Terra Mystica

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