deduction

Décorum

Decorum is a cooperative, hidden information game where you and your partner share the same objective: decorate your home in a way that makes you both happy. The problem is, different things make each of you happy and nobody says exactly what they need. Can you find a happy compromise, or is it time to move out?!

-Play through 30 unique scenarios, each introducing new twists and challenges.
-Keep your conditions a secret, they say how you want the house decorated.
-Add, remove, and swap objects or repaint rooms to make the house look just right… for you.
-Respond with “Love it”, “Hate it”, or “Fine with it” to work together toward a perfectly decorated home.
-There is a solution for each scenario, the trick is figuring it out in time.

At its heart, Décorum is a pretty straightforward logic puzzle. There are a small number of ways to arrange the internal pieces that meet all the requirements listed on the player’s rule sheets simultaneously. The twist of Décorum is that it’s also a hidden information game. No player has all of the rules. While playing, the players will have to watch their partner’s moves just as carefully as they’re planning their own. Even more crucially, they’ll have to communicate why they’re making the moves they’re making–using the very limited means we’ve provided them.

Décorum might be about solving a puzzle, but it’s really a game about communication and compromise. The real challenge isn’t just solving the problem with the limited information you and your players have; it’s dealing with the frustrations that will inevitably occur when your partner does something that messes up your plan. In order to be successful in Décorum, there will come a point where both players will have to let go of their initial strategy for how they were going to finish the board and start paying attention to what their partner is doing instead. By introducing and providing an incentive to resolve conflict, Décorum mechanically encourages (or even requires) a positive form of compromise.

Each player draws a "Scenario" card that lists a set of criteria of what types of décor a room must have or cannot have. For example "No room may contain a lamp" or "Every room must contain a wall hanging". Players keep their criteria secret.

The play surface is a board displaying various rooms in a house. Each room has multiple items that can potentially be placed in the room. Players take turns placing, moving, or removing colored tokens on the board, where each token represents an item of home décor. Each token placed may conform with, or violate, the other players' criteria. After each token is placed, other players may state they like the item of décor, as placed, or they do not like the item of décor, as placed. Further discussion or explanation is not allowed.

The game ends when all players' criteria are satisfied.

Platypus

Acid? Dangerous? Annoying? A car saleswoman! Edible? Quick? Flexible? Captain America — or an ostrich?

In Platypus, players co-operate to gradually eliminate bad words in order to find and identify the "platypus" through their adjective cards. To set up, eight common words or proper names — the "platypus" cards — are placed face up in front of all the players. The guides know the card that the explorers must guess, and to help the explorers, they give clues in the form of adjective cards that best define the platypus for them. Each guide has a hand of four clue cards, and after each new clue, the explorers must eliminate one or two cards that they think don't match what's being defined by the clues. If the explorers eliminate the platypus, then everyone loses; if they succeed four times, however, then the platypus will stand alone and everyone wins.

Inspector Mouse: The Great Escape

The convicts are planning a jailbreak! Inspector Mouse is on their trail, but he needs the detective skills of the players to figure out who was the last crook in the cell with the escape tunnel. If the players are able to correctly identify the criminal that triggered the alarm, they’ll have foiled the escape attempt. The player who stops the most escapes wins.

—description from the publisher

Save Patient Zero

A new pathology has just appeared! Patient Zero has been identified, and it's up to you to find the antidote as soon as possible to save the patient and humanity!

Save Patient Zero pits two labs against each other. Each lab employs one or two scientists (i.e., players), while another player plays a lab computer named Savvy. The labs compete to identify an antidote of three molecules, with the labs typically sharing no information with one another; whichever lab finds the antidote first wins.

The general idea of the game is to use lab tools in the best sequence possible to identify the three molecules out of 25 that make up the antidote. (These 25 molecules are arranged in a 5x5 grid on each lab's worksheet.) At the start of the game, Savvy looks at the top three molecule cards in that deck, then sets them aside. These are the molecules the labs must identify. On a turn, each lab submits a tool card to Savvy to show what they want to do in the round, and whichever lab submits first takes its action first in that round. Actions include:

Samply: Draw three sample cards from your lab's deck, and give them to Savvy. Each sample card depicts five molecules, and Savvy will identify which of them show at least one molecule used in the antidote.
Mikroskopo: Choose two cards from your lab's deck, and give them to Savvy, who will treat them like the cards in "Samply".
Dedukto: Receive five molecule cards from Savvy. You (but not the other lab) now know these molecules are not in the antidote.
Centrofugo: Place your centrifuge on your lab worksheet so that it points to four molecules. Savvy then indicates whether any of these molecules are in the antidote.
Scanpad: Place a cardboard device on your worksheet to highlight six molecules in a 2x3 grid. Savvy then indicates how many molecules highlighted (0-3) are part of the antidote.
Spionado: Savvy takes two lab cards from the opposing lab that do not have any molecules in the antidote on them, then shows them to you.
Antidote: Circle three molecules on your worksheet. If all three are in the antidote, you win! If not, Savvy will indicate how many of the circled molecules are in the antidote.

Each lab has a limited number of actions in its deck — eighteen total, with three Samply, two Dedukto, one Scanpad, two Antidote, etc. — so use them wisely, especially the Antidote because if you fail to identify the correct three molecules a second time, then your lab loses the game automatically.

To play Save Patient Zero as a two-player game, each lab draws three molecule cards from the deck, and the opposing lab must identify these three molecules before you can identify the three molecules they drew. Each lab takes the role of Savvy for the opposing lab.

The Neverland Rescue

Neverland is in peril! Captain Hook and their men have kidnapped the inhabitants of this beloved island! It's up to Peter Pan (with the help of Tink and the Darling Children, of course!) to find and save their friends. Who will win in this battle for control of the Land Where You Never Grow Up?

The Neverland Rescue is an asymmetrical 2-player game in which opponents take on the role of either our hero Peter Pan, or the treacherous Captain Hook. Hook will gather clues and deploy their dastardly henchmen to determine the final 5 hideouts of Peter Pan and their companions, while Peter will attempt to rescue their captured friends, keep them safe, and save the land they loves. Throughout the battle, players will feel the pull of their belief in Fairies, which could just as well lead them to victory in Neverland!

To join the rescue, just head to the second star to the right, and straight on til morning!