Fantasy Flight Silver Line Games

Game description from the publisher:

It is 1926, and the museum's extensive collection of exotic curios and occult artifacts poses a threat to the barriers between our world and the elder evils lurking between dimensions. Gates to the beyond begin to leak open, and terrifying creatures of increasing strength steal through them. Animals, the mad, and those of more susceptible minds are driven to desperation by the supernatural forces the portals unleash. Only a handful of investigators race against time to locate the eldritch symbols necessary to seal the portals forever. Only they can stop the Ancient One beyond from finding its way to Earth and reducing humanity to cinders.

Elder Sign is a fast-paced, cooperative dice game of supernatural intrigue for one to eight players by Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson, the designers of Arkham Horror. Players take the roles of investigators racing against time to stave off the imminent return of the Ancient One. Armed with tools, allies, and occult knowledge, investigators must put their sanity and stamina to the test as they adventure to locate Elder Signs, the eldritch symbols used to seal away the Ancient Ones and win the game.

To locate Elder Signs, investigators must successfully endure Adventures within the museum and its environs. A countdown mechanism makes an Ancient One appear if the investigators are not quick enough. The investigators must then battle the Ancient One. A clever and thematic dice mechanism pits their exploration against monsters and the sheer difficulty of staying sane and healthy, all within the standard game duration of one to two hours.

The old dragon Drakon has captured a brave band of adventurers who have sneaked into her lair to steal her gold. But rather than eat them immediately, Drakon has decided to make it a game: Greed shall set one of the adventurers free. She sends the frightened adventurers into her magical, mad vaulted chambers, and the first one to collect ten gold from Drakon’s maze gets to go free. The rest get to be lunch.

Each turn, players must choose one of two options: (1) place a tile from their hand onto the board, expanding the dungeon; or (2) move their Hero to an adjacent tile. Many of the dungeon tiles have an icon that allows players entering that space to take a special action (for example, taking a piece of gold from the dragon's hoard, stealing gold from another player, or destroying a tile that is already in play).

This is the third edition of Drakon, and includes the following updates:

plastic miniatures are used for the heroes and the Drakon
new tiles are larger (measuring 2.5 by 2.5 inches) and have all new artwork
tiles include a combination of rooms from Drakon (second edition) and Drakon Expansion 1
new rules, variants, and player aids are provided
each gold piece now has a value between 1 and 3

In the basic game, the first player to earn 10 gold wins the game. Some variants provide different winning conditions.

Game last between 20 and 60 minutes.

Colossal Arena/ Titan: the Arena is a strategic card game for 2 to 5 players with one of the best themes of any designer board game around: you play, not as combatants, but as spectators, cheering and betting on the melee ongoing in a fantasy arena/Colosseum in which eight pitting eight fantasy creatures are pitted against each other in battle!

Each round, one of the creatures will die. To decide which unlucky soul will be the victim, players put numbered power cards in front of the creatures, with the lowest one going to the graveyard. The jockeying for position and strategic diplomacy in playing the numbered power cards can be intense - but what makes this game even more interesting is that players the players' bets throughout the game which will sometimes allow them to use a creature's special power in battle!

The winner at the end of the game is bettor who's raked in the most winnings - just another day in the life of a fantasy monster gambler.

Titan: The Arena is actually a reworking of a Reiner Knizia game called Grand National Derby, but Avalon Hill's remake was quite significant from a gameplay standpoint.

The Titan: The Arena printing is often confused with its namesake, Titan. But other than the fact that they both use fantasy creatures as a general theme, there is very little that is similar between the two.

Reimplemented by: Galaxy: The Dark Ages

Online Play

Ludoholic (no longer available)

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 her eighth building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins.

Players start 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 expansion Citadels: The Dark City was initially released as a separate item, but the second edition of the game from Hans im Glück (packaged in a tin box) and the third edition from Fantasy Flight Games included this expansion. With Dark City, Citadels supports a maximum of eight players.

Original edition, titled Revolution, is set in French Revolution era Paris. Royalists and Jacobins fight for superiority in the 25 city districts, which are represented by the game board. The two players alternatively place one of their counters in order to control that space. When a player puts one of his number counters on the board, he projects influence onto the neighboring spaces in that row and column, and onto the space the counter itself is on. The amount of the influence corresponds to the number on the counter. Whoever controls all three of the buildings or controls eleven city districts has won the game.

Later reprinted as Atlanteon in which mighty undersea warriors fight to control the capital of the Sunken Kingdoms. One player controls the vicious Marauders, who are trying to capture the city, while the other player controls the heroic Guardians, who are trying to defend their home.