Card Drafting

Excavation Earth

A century from now all that remains of Earth is the detritus that humanity left behind. The races of a neighboring solar system have a penchant for artifacts left behind by extinct races. In Excavation Earth, you lead one of these races of alien explorers on their quest to excavate rare human artifacts and curate the ultimate art collection to sell off.

Excavation Earth is divided into three rounds, each of which starts with players drafting a hand of multi-use cards that will be used to perform actions. Players then take quick turns playing actions that allow them to move their explorers around the world map, excavate for artifacts, and deploy traders to bazaars and influencers to affect prices and wheel and deal on the black market.

The artifacts you dig up can be either sold to the bazaars housed on one of the aliens' ships that landed on Earth or added to a collection that will be sold off as a coherent art collection to museums back home. Excavation Earth ends after three rounds and the player who makes the most money during the game wins.

Excavation Earth includes a solo mode by Nick Shaw and Dávid Turczi.

—description from the publisher

That's a Wrap

Congratulations! You and a group of other movie directors have been hired by a major film studio on a five-year contract. All you have to do is make one movie a year, simple right? By the end of the contract, only the director with the most of the prestigious Oskie awards will get an extension, so watch out for your competition.

That’s a Wrap is played over four rounds, each one represented the cycle of a movie’s production. As directors, the players build the movie from scratch, first choosing a genre after seeing the list of actors and scripts available for purchase. Each genre, actor, and script have different values that reflect their ability to make money and win awards, with some cards being more specialized in either field. After players choose their genres, they purchase scripts and hire actors via bidding. Before any movies can be released, they have to go through a bit of studio meddling; each player plays a card that may help their movie or hinder others’. If a certain movie is a passion project, a player may elect to keep their film from being meddled with once per game. After movies are shot and finished, they go to market, where each movie makes some amount of profit. However, the season isn’t over until the Oskies are awarded. The highest box office film takes home the Audience Choice award, and the more artistically inclined ones can vie for three different awards, including for screenplay, performance, and director. Each director will go through this cycle four times, making a different film each time, and progressively getting access to more impressive genres, higher quality scripts, and A-List actors. At the end of the game, the director with the most Oskies wins!

—user summary

The Batman Who Laughs Rising

From the Dark Night Metal comic series, the evil hybrid of Batman and Joker — The Batman Who Laughs — is determined to unleash the Dark Knights and Barbatos on Prime.

In The Batman Who Laughs Rising, a passage from the Dark Multiverse has allowed the most dangerous evildoers to infiltrate Gotham City, and these Dark Knights alongside their menacing leader are eager to do their worst to the city.

Players roll dice and work together to save the multiverse, starting with one of four starting heroes — Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, or Batman — and recruiting allies such as Harley Quinn, The Flash, and Cyborg, whose skills can complete objectives or help recover what is lost to darkness. Take out villainous versions of Batman such as The Merciless, The Dawnbreaker, The Murder Machine, and more before facing off with the psychotic Joker-ized antagonist himself, who's represented by a custom-sculpted, full-color figure who commands a fistful of chained Evil Robins!

Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef

Welcome Heroes! Many magnificent contestants have signed up for the tournament but only a handful will be chosen to join the the Tidal Blades, the elite guards of our island realm. To succeed in the Tournament and be chosen as a Tidal Blade, you must compete in Challenges held in the 3 Arenas, rise to the top of the Champion’s Board, and protect the realm from the ever increasing threat of the Monsters from the mysterious Fold.

It has been fifteen years since the Great Battle; 15 years since the Arcanists from the Citadel of Time made their terrible choice and created the Fold; 15 years since the last assemblage of Tidal Blades. The Arcanists folded space and time to stop the onslaught of creatures from the depths, but now new Monsters have appeared, the hard-earned days of peace are coming to a close and the islands need protection. A tournament has been called, the Arenas are ready, the inhabitants of all the islands are gathering, and young heroes from across the realm are showing up to compete to be named a Tidal Blade: Hero of the Reef.

In Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef, each player takes the role of a young hero competing to be named a Tidal Blade. The tournament takes place over 5 Days and Nights. By gathering the needed resources, signing up to compete in Challenges and timing your arrival at different islands you can make the most of your Hero’s turns and rise in the ranks of the contestants.

Each day you will send your hero to take actions on the different Locations and to undertake Challenges. Each action will gain you the resource or effect listed on the action space as well as the Location bonus. At the Arenas you may then attempt a Challenge that matches your Location, and at the Fold you may battle a monster. Completing Challenges and fighting monsters will advance your character in the four traits of Focus, Spirit, Resilience and Synergy.

Each Tidal Blade will be judged at the end of the 5 rounds based on the Challenges they have completed, the level of each of their Traits, their standing on the Champions Board, and the monsters they have fought.

Ankh'or

Ankh'or is a quick-playing resource management game in which each player on their turn either collects three types of tokens (with an ankh being a supplemental resource) or buys a tile from a marketplace and adds this tile to their structure, trying to connect tiles of the same color or bearing the same scarab while doing so. By spending an ankh, you can shift tiles in the marketplace and change the cost and type of goods needed to purchase them.

Each player's structure will have at most thirteen tiles, so don't wait too long to start building!