Hardback is a deck-building word game, a prequel to Paperback. As an aspiring 19th-century novelist, you work to pen your next masterpiece, earning prestige along the way. Specialize your deck in certain genres to exploit card combinations, and press your luck to draw extra cards — but make sure you can still string a word together!Players build a deck of letters with various powers and race to 60 fame points to win. Some of the features: No wilds in your deck - any card can be wild. Push your luck for more cards with the Ink system. Match genre colors to gain bonus abilities on your cards. New "Timeless Classic" letter cards stay in play until an opponent uses them.In addition to the competitive race mode for 2-5 players, the base game includes several variant rules, including Literary Awards, Adverts, Player Powers, and Events; and a co-op mode for 1-4 players, in which players join forces against one of four simulated opponents, each of which is proficient in a different deck genre.

Read more less

An international colony ship has left an exhausted Earth, headed for a distant planet in the Epsilon Eridani system. Thirteen generations will be born on this vessel before it reaches its destination, each generation a steward of the hopes and ideals of the human species. For six generations, everything has gone as planned....Now, just as a new command team takes control of the ship, a terrible mystery emerges that will threaten the entire mission. The commanders of Gen7 are about to discover that everything is not as it seems, and the fate of the human species will hang on the choices they make.In the tradition of the award-winning Dead of Winter, Gen7: A Crossroads Game is a grand narrative game with multiple possibilities. The choices players make as they play will alter the direction of the story. Gen7 will constantly challenge its players with a variety of unique situations that force them to make difficult moral decisions. Will you compromise your integrity to ensure the safety of your crew? Will you value their lives over the safety of the mission?—description from the publisher

Read more less

Flow is a cooperative game where players work together to connect four animal spaces to the boat tile in the center of the board by drawing and playing tiles. If players run out of tiles they and the animals have not been connected to the boat, they all lose. On top of that the game uses a timer, and each time it runs out, players roll two dice that tell them where the giant wave strikes and washes away tiles already placed. Do you have what it takes to save the animals?—description from the publisher

Read more less

Flamme Rouge: Grand Tour introduces multi-stage campaigns, varying from short 3-stage Tours all the way up to full 21-stage Grand Tours.In addition to the campaign mode, this expansion also includes new track tiles, special stages and specialist riders that allow you to customize your decks.Each of these additions can be used both in single-stage races and in the campaign mode.

Read more less

Hollywood is calling! By chance, you have ended up in one of the largest film studios in the dream factory. The shooting for the new Christmas blockbuster should actually be in full swing here — but the set is dark and deserted. Where's the film crew? And why hasn't the movie star shown up yet? Something is wrong here!Exit: The Game – Advent Calendar: The Missing Hollywood Star is an Exit game and a 24-part adventure story in one. To unravel the mystery of the vacant studio lot, you must open a little calendar door every day. Behind each, you will find a new puzzle, the solution of which will help you to move onto the next room. Only if you follow the clues and solve all 24 puzzles will you find the missing star...

Read more less

Everdell’s bustling city Newleaf has just opened its first train station, and many new critters and big ideas are rolling in. Newleaf introduces brand new critters, constructions, and exciting events to draw Visitor cards to your blossoming city! It also features the Train Station Board, resource-delivering Train Cars, travel-worthy Tickets, and Reservation Tokens!—description from the publisher

Read more less

Dorfromantik - Sakura is the stand-alone successor to the Spiel des Jahres 2023 Dorfromantik - The Board Game.Dorfromantik - Sakura takes the players into the idyllic landscape of Japan with many new challenges. Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom, which comes into the game as a new element. In addition, there are now more than 40 achievements from 6 boxes to unlock.These and other surprises await the players in Dorfromantik - Sakura.

Read more less

Cosmic Encounter 42nd Anniversary Edition welcomes new players to the game of infinite possibilities with a freshly revised rulebook and a beautifully illustrated Quick-start Guide that captures the nostalgia of the original game and makes it easy for anyone to learn. The Quick-start Guide’s comic book style throws readers back to the 1970s, providing vital insight into the core rules of the game while embracing the fun of a cosmic conquest filled with wacky aliens and outrageous abilities. What's more, with the beautiful translucent ship pieces (as shown above), spreading your colonies across the galaxy has never been more stylish!A newly discovered species joins the classic line-up of aliens. You can, of course, play as old favorites such as Mite or Remora, or you can try your hand at leading the ruthless Demon to victory. Previously only released at Cosmic Con, this species was exiled from their original galaxy for unprincipled opportunism. Now they seek cosmic vengeance, using their power to possess other players’ hands to bolster their own strength and sap others’ will to win.In addition to this monstrous newcomer, Cosmic Encounter 42nd Anniversary Edition offers you new ways to customize your games with the introduction of Cosmic Combo cards. These carefully assembled cards offer a list of alien species with a brief description of their powers to create themed matchups and explore different types of games. You may find yourself among some Big Time Clubbers or Cellar Dwellers, that can be integrated into three, four, or five-player games. Every card spins a new challenge, and with these new options for customization, no two games are ever the same.

Read more less

What are these strange symbols on the map? They are code for locations where spies must contact secret agents!Two rival spymasters know the agent in each location. They deliver coded messages telling their field operatives where to go for clandestine meetings. Operatives must be clever. A decoding mistake could lead to an unpleasant encounter with an enemy agent – or worse, with the assassin! Both teams race to contact all their agents, but only one team can win.Codenames: Pictures differs from the original Codenames in that the agents are no longer represented by a single word, but by an image that contains multiple elements.

Read more less

In Citadels, players take on new roles each round to represent characters they hire in order to help them acquire gold and erect buildings. The game ends at the close of a round in which a player erects their eighth building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins.Players start the game with a number of building cards in their hand; buildings come in five colors, with the purple buildings typically having a special ability and the other colored buildings providing a benefit when you play particular characters. At the start of each round, the player who was king the previous round discards one of the eight character cards at random, chooses one, then passes the cards to the next player, etc. until each player has secretly chosen a character. Each character has a special ability, and the usefulness of any character depends upon your situation, and that of your opponents. The characters then carry out their actions in numerical order: the assassin eliminating another character for the round, the thief stealing all gold from another character, the wizard swapping building cards with another player, the warlord optionally destroys a building in play, and so on.On a turn, a player earns two or more gold (or draws two building cards then discards one), then optionally constructs one building (or up to three if playing the architect this round). Buildings cost gold equal to the number of symbols on them, and each building is worth a certain number of points. In addition to points from buildings, at the end of the game a player scores bonus points for having eight buildings or buildings of all five colors.The 2016 edition of Citadels includes twenty-seven characters — eight from the original Citadels, ten from the Dark City expansion, and nine new ones — along with thirty unique building districts, and the rulebook includes six preset lists of characters and districts beyond the starter list, each crafted to encourage a different style and intensity of gameplay.

Read more less