Spring time in Japan means the return of the rhinoceros beetles — "Kabutomushi", which is Japanese for "helmet bug" — and their athletic contests of dominance. Out in the wild, you can find them butting heads trying to show off their strength and impress their insect friends with their wrestling skills. This is the origin of the phenomenal World Insect Wrestling Championship. In Kabuto Sumo, you are one of the contending beetles that is battling for supremacy in the ring and your place in the pantheon of legendary wrestlers. The gameplay of Kabuto Sumo resembles the coin-pusher arcade games in which you strategically drop quarters and anxiously anticipate coins cascading off the platform. This game features a similar experience, with you trying to strategically slide pieces onto the board and push the other players out of the ring. It's an exciting combination of dexterity, strategy, and luck.

Read more less

The year is 1947 and you are a member of the thriving movie-making industry of Hollywood. However, it is suspected that there are communists hiding among your small production studio slipping “un-Patriotic” messages, themes, props, and lines into your movies! Will you be able to find all the communists before your studio is shut down? Or will you be suspected yourself and banned from the industry? In the game each player will secretly be a Patriot, Communist, or Rising Star. Each round every player will have a unique Job to perform (such as the Screenwriter, Gaffer, Director, Actor, Editor, etc). These jobs will affect what kind of movie is getting made that round, what cards are in players’ hands, and who will receive special information. Players can choose to skip their jobs to instead re-roll any two of the dice in the game. At the end of each round the players with stars showing on their dice will get to add a card into the movie. The added cards will be shuffled, one will be removed, and the rest will be revealed. The team with the majority of revealed symbols (including the symbols on that round’s movie poster) wins the round! Indicate the winning team for the round by placing that team’s matching film-strip over the movie poster. The first team to win 4 rounds wins the game! The Rising Star plays both sides by trying to make the game go to 7 rounds and making the 7th round a tie. Hollywood 1947 is a social deduction game. You must never show your cards or loyalty to anyone, but you may say whatever you’d like about the cards you put into a movie, or about your true allegiance. Open discussion about which cards were added into a movie is encouraged. However, if you are a Communist or the Rising Star, lying will often help you accomplish your goals since the majority of players will be Patriots. That’s a wrap. Most players get the hang of the game after only a few minutes. So let’s go make some movies, but be careful who you trust! Hollywood 1947 is the 5th standalone game in the Dark Cities Series by Facade Games. Previous games in the series include Salem 1692, Tortuga 1667, Deadwood 1876, and Bristol 1350.

Read more less

Accuse and defend your fellow townsfolk as you hunt down the witches of Salem. Act fast, before conspiracy turns you against your own. The year is 1692, and it is a perilous time to live in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. One wrong step, or one misplaced accusation, and you could be the next witch to hang. "Salem" takes players into this perilous world and lets them re-live the tension, politics, and religious extremism that still has people talking about it 300 years later. The game is packaged in a faux book box that closes magnetically. The game, disguised as a worn out leather book, can easily hide on your bookshelf and masquerade as an antique. Players can play as prominent villagers from the old Salem town, and even read their bios in the instruction manual. The servant girl Mary Warren, pastor Samuel Parris, farmer John Proctor, storyteller Tituba, and beggar Sarah Good are some of the 12 characters featured in the game. Players, each acting as one of these unique characters, are given 3-5 Tryal cards (depending on the number of players). These Tryal cards reveal the true identity of each player, "Witch" or "Not a Witch." During gameplay, players gather cards that they use to accuse, or defend, other players. Deciding who to trust is key to survival, since you can never play a card on yourself. When you suspect someone to be a witch, you can begin accusing them with red accusation cards. When enough accusations have been placed on one of the players, the player who lays the final accusation chooses one of that player's Tryal cards to reveal. Once all "Witch" Tryal cards have been found, the villagers of Salem win. Players can also use green and blue cards such as "Alibi", "Stocks", "Matchmaker", "Asylum", and "Scapegoat" to help or hurt their allies or enemies. As players draw cards, they will eventually draw black cards that take immediate effect. One black card, "Night", forces all players to close their eyes while the Witches choose someone to eliminate and the Constable chooses someone to potentially save. The other black card, "Conspiracy," forces all players to take a face-down Tryal card from the player to their left. Killing witches quickly is essential, otherwise "Conspiracy" may soon have the whole town turned evil. Before long, accusations will be flying, and screams of "She's a WITCH!" will wake the neighbours. Will you be the hero who purges your town of witches, or will you be wrongly accused and hung for witchcraft? Or perhaps you will be a witch yourself, escape conviction, and bring Salem to the ground. Volume 1 in the Dark Cities Series by Facade Games

Read more less

In Colt Express, you play a bandit robbing a train at the same time as other bandits, and your goal is to become the richest outlaw of the Old West. The game consists of five rounds, and each round has two phases: Phase 1: Schemin' Each player plays 2-5 action cards on a common pile, with the cards being face up or face down depending on the type of the round. Instead of playing a card, a player can draw three cards from her deck. Phase 2: Stealin' The action cards are carried out in the order they were played, with a player's best laid plans possibly not panning out due to mistakes and oversights! The game takes place in a 3D train in which the bandits can move from one car to another, run on the roof, punch the other bandits, shoot them, rob the passengers, or draw the Marshal out of position. The train has as many cars as the number of players, and each car is seeded with gems, bags of loot or suitcases at the start of play. Each player starts a round with six cards in hand, with each card showing one of these actions. At the start of a round, a round card is revealed, showing how many cards will be played; whether they'll be played face up or face down, or individually or in pairs; and what action will occur at the end of the round (e.g., all bandits on top of the train move to the engine). You can pick up loot, gems or suitcases only by playing a "steal" card when you're in a train car that holds one of these items — but since everyone is planning to get these goods, you'll need to move, punch and shoot to get others out of your way. You can punch someone only in the same car as you, and when you do, the other bandit drops one of the goods he's collected and is knocked into an adjacent car. Each player's character has a special power, such as starting the round with an extra card, playing your first card face down, or pocketing a bag of loot when you punch someone instead of letting it hit the ground. You can shoot someone in an adjacent car or (if you're running on top of the train) anyone in sight, and when you do, you give that player one of your six bullet cards; that card gets shuffled in the opponent's deck, possibly giving her a dead card in hand on a future turn and forcing her to draw instead of playing something. If the Marshal ends up in the same car as you, likely due to other bandits luring him through the train, he'll be happy to give you a bullet, too. At the end of the game, whoever fired the most bullets receives a $1,000 braggart bonus, and whoever bagged the richest haul wins!

Read more less

The KLASK game board is shaped like a ball field with two deep holes functioning as goals in each end of the field. In the middle of the field, three white magnetic pieces serve as "obstacles" – do NOT attract them to your own gaming piece! Your gaming piece is a black magnet. You control it by holding a large magnet under the board. This magnet is connected to a small magnet placed on the field. The purpose of the game is to push the small, red ball around on the field with your magnet/gaming piece, shoot the ball past the obstacles and your opponent and into the goal hole (Klask). It’s so much fun when your opponent suddenly is covered in white obstacles or you drop your gaming piece into the goal – something which might happen if you get a little too eager! Place the game board on a table between the two players. Place the three white magnetic pieces on the white fields on the board. Put two coins in each point slot next to the "0". Each player has a black magnetic gaming piece in two parts. Place the short (thin) part on top of the board and the long (thick) part under the board in such a way, so the two parts “catch” each other. Place the ball in the corner start field. Steer it with the black gaming pieces. The youngest player starts the game. You score a point if: The ball ends in your opponent's hole and stays in the hole. Two or all of the three white magnetic pieces stick to your opponent's gaming piece. The opponent accidentally pulls their gaming piece into their own goal hole. If the opponent loses their gaming piece. Each time you get a point, you must move your coin one point forward in the point slot. The player who first reaches the KLASK field wins. During the game: If one of the white magnetic pieces sticks to a gaming piece, the game continues; if two of the white magnetic pieces stick to one gaming piece, the opponent gets one point. If the ball falls over the edges of the board, you must place the ball in the corner start field in the half from which the ball fell. If one or more white magnetic pieces fall over the edges of the board, the game continues. Each time a player scores a point, you must put the white magnetic pieces back on the white fields on the board, and the player who did not score a point places the ball in their corner start field.

Read more less

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!

Read more less

Another tasty game from your friends at Joking Hazard.Welcome hot dog fans! You have gathered today to construct the beefiest hot dog in a game equal parts skill and luck, HODDOG!Race to build the longest Hoddog before the last ketchup card SPLATS to win!This game contains 78 Hoddog cards, 5 ketchup SPLAT cards and 1 rulebook.—description from the publisher

Read more less

As with Dixit: Quest, Dixit 3 is an expansion for Dixit with 84 new cards that feature fantastic and surrealistic artwork. These cards can be used with the components of the base game to provide more variety or used to play the Dixit game on their own. (Dixit 3 includes no scoring board or tokens, so you'd need to track such things and create your own voting tokens.)As for the game play in Dixit, each round one player takes on the role of Storyteller, choosing one card from his hand, then telling a story, singing a ditty or otherwise doing something that in his opinion is associated with the played card. Each other player then chooses one card in her own hand and gives it to the Storyteller in secret. These cards are shuffled and revealed, then players vote on which card was played by the Storyteller. If no one or everyone votes for the Storyteller, then he receives no points; if he received some votes but not all the votes, he scores based on the number of votes received. Each player who submitted a correct vote or who received a vote on her card submission also scores. After a certain number of rounds, the player with the most points wins.Similar to: Dixit: Journey – In the U.S. and Australia, the cards included in Dixit 3 will be packaged into a standalone game titled Dixit: Journey and not sold as an expansion.

Read more less