Card Game

Arboretum is a strategy card game for 2-4 players, aged 10 and up, that combines set collection, tile-laying and hand management while playing in about 25 minutes. Players try to have the most points at the end of the game by creating beautiful garden paths for their visitors.

The deck has 80 cards in ten different colors, with each color featuring a different species of tree; each color has cards numbered 1 through 8, and the number of colors used depends on the number of players. Players start with a hand of seven cards. On each turn, a player draws two cards (from the deck or one or more of the discard piles), lays a card on the table as part of her arboretum, then discards a card to her personal discard pile.

When the deck is exhausted, players compare the cards that remain in their hands to determine who can score each color. For each color, the player with the highest value of cards in hand of that color scores for a path of trees in her arboretum that begins and ends with that color; a path is a orthogonally adjacent chain of cards with increasing values. For each card in a path that scores, the player earns one point; if the path consists solely of trees of the color being scored, the player scores two points per card. If a player doesn't have the most value for a color, she scores zero points for a path that begins and ends with that color. Whoever has the most points wins.

Tichu took much of its rules and mechanics from Zheng Fen. It is a partnership climbing card game, and the object of play is to rid yourself of your hand, preferably while scoring points in the process.

The deck is a standard 52-card pack with four special cards added: dog, phoenix, dragon and Mah Jong (1). When it's your turn, you may either beat the current top card combination — single card, pair of cards, sequence of pairs, full house, etc. — or pass. If play passes all the way back to the player who laid the top cards, he wins the trick, clears the cards, and can lead the next one. The card led determines the only combination of cards that can be played on that trick, so if a single card is led, then only single cards are played; if a straight of seven cards is led, then only straights of seven cards can be played, etc.

The last player out in a round gives all the cards he won to the player who exited first, and the last player's unplayed cards are handed to the opposite team. Fives, tens and Kings are worth 5, 10 and 10 points, with each hand worth one hundred points without bonuses — but the bonuses are what drive the game. At the start of a round, each player can call "Tichu" prior to her playing any card. This indicates that she thinks that she can empty her hand first this round; if she does so, her team scores 100 points, and if not, it loses 100 points. Cards are dealt at the start of a round in a group of eight and a group of six; a player can call "Grand Tichu" after looking at only her first eight cards for a ±200 point bonus. If both players on a team exit a round prior to either player on the opposite team, then no points are scored for cards and the winning team earns 200 points (with Tichu/Grand Tichu bonuses and penalties being applied as normal).

The first team to 1,000 points wins.

From the publisher's website:

The familiar fun race to yell "UNO!" comes with wild, new choices! While playing the color and numbers matching game, you're faced with a decision: draw extra cards or take a dare! Dare cards come in 3 categories: Family, Show-Off and Daredevil, with 16 dares on each card. You may end up talking like a pirate until your next turn, or standing on one foot, or even showing your best dance moves! There is even a blank card to make up your own dares! What will you risk - drawing more cards or doing something wild? Find out when you play this new version of the classic UNO game - if you DARE! And don't forget to yell "UNO!", even if you have to do it like a pirate, matey! Comes with instructions and 112 playing cards. Ages 7 and older.

Description from the publisher:

In the future, robots battle it out to the amusement of humans, and in DiceBot MegaFun players are the robots who must reach into the junkyard to grab dice displaying various parts and place them on their robot sheet. Each player places six parts dice onto their sheet: five in the body area and one in the head.

Then players simultaneously choose weapon cards to play, which require the parts retrieved from the junkyard. Each weapon card has a cost in parts to pay as well as speed, direction of fire and damage, and an occasional special text ability. Some weapon cards include uzis, lasers, rifles, bombs, jammers, viruses, blue shells, shields, etc. Be the first robot to win three combats!

For advanced play, each player is given a special ability activated by kill points, which are acquired by dealing the final blows to robots in combat.

The theme of the game is an eating contest in a Taiwanese Snackbar.

"In this competition you will eat more than you can imagine as your competitors continually challenge you to shove even more in. Play your cards cleverly or the servers will serve you food until you fall from your seat. Let the competitors be the ones to fill up until they drop and the snack bar throne will be yours!"

The players add "dish"-cards or special cards to a common "order"-pile until one of them can´t (or won´t) add any more cards. Then that player has to "eat" the whole order by drawing the appropriate amount of cards from a draw pile. If he draws one (or more) of the "No More!"-cards, he accrues negative points and the round ends.
The played cards are then set aside and new "No More"-cards are shuffled into the (now smaller) draw pile, making for an ever more tense experience as the contest goes into the later stages.
When one player has collected 3 negative points the game ends and the player with the smallest amount of negative points wins the game.