Card Game

Theme:
"In the untamed wild, villains lurk in wait, terrors haunt dark lairs, tradesfolk seek riches, and heroes come to prove their valor." As the mayor of a frontier town, you stand in the center, eyeing the roads for talent and trouble. Will you take on challenges or hire help, develop your town or command its heroes? Your strategies, risks, and fortune can transform your village into a thriving city or forgotten ruins.

Overview:
Villagers and Villains is a card game with over 100 unique cards. The game is played over several rounds. Each round has 6 distinct Phases. During each Phase, all players (Mayors) have a chance to take specific actions. The Mayor who builds the most successful village wins.

Game play:
Villagers and Villains is a building game. In the 1st phase players recruit cards from a common pool neutral to all players. 4 classes of cards could appear in the pool: Challenges, citizens, buildings, and heroes. Each card has different game play applications and different effects on end scoring. In the 2nd phase each player has a chance to defend their town from challenges. In the 3rd phase challenges loot towns left unprotected. The 4th phase is when each town earns money. In the 5th phase money can be spent to expand a town by hiring heroes and citizens or creating buildings. The final phase resets the board for a new round of phases. The starting player changes and rounds continue until a town reaches a fixed size. At that time the game is scored.

Goal:
In the end each town is scored based on a variety of facets and features. Players have to assess which facet will score the most points as the game is played--and circumstances dictate.

Features:
The game ships with a basic and advanced version for experienced and novice gamers and special 2-player game rules. In the advanced game players gain access to the king's favor, special card powers, and pairing options for final scoring. In addition, the home site offers a variety of rules variations for added game play. While chance plays a part in the game (via a die-roll for certain elements) choices in recruiting, and how to use town's abilities and resources play a large role.

The game includes:
100 different playing cards (challenges, citizens, heroes, buildings)
10 starting cards (5 citizens, 5 angry mobs)
5 player aid cards
a die
1 kings favor token
1 start marker
1 score pad
2 punch-out sheets of gold coin tokens
rules sheet.

Description from the publisher:

The king has called for a lavish feast and tourney, the likes of which have not been seen in the Seven Kingdoms since the days of Aegon the Conquerer. What's more, the king has declared that at this feast, he will choose his new Hand — and you have a chance of rising to this lofty position. Of course, you're not the only one with eyes set on becoming the power behind the Iron Throne. In A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King, you need to scheme and backstab to outwit your opponents, and you need the help of Varys, the Master of Whispers, to do it.

Hand of the King is a fast-paced card game of conspiracies and sudden twists of fate for two to four players, challenging each of you to gain the most support among the twisted intrigues of the King’s Landing court. Each turn, you send Varys to do your bidding, moving through the court and inciting iconic characters from A Song of Ice and Fire to support your cause. With the help of some companions and crafty alliances with other players, you just might rise to become the king's new Hand!

In more detail, players move Varys in orthogonal lines in a 6x6 grid, stopping it on a character token, then collecting that token and any other character from that House that you passed over. Possess as many characters from a House as someone else, and you claim the banner from that person. Collect the final character from a House, and you immediately use the power of one of six companions; since the game contains fourteen companions, the mix of powers will differ each game.

JAB is a skill-centric strategic boxing card game. In JAB, you get direct control over your boxer's fists, providing an experience as close as possible to real boxing without getting punched in the face. JAB is played in real-time, meaning there are no turns.

Winning the game

To win the game, get a knockout by throwing staggering haymakers at your opponent until he eats canvas, or strategically win more rounds than your opponent by impressing the judges with your beautiful technique.

How is JAB different?

JAB attempts to innovate the real-time genre by challenging a player to be constantly making decisions, rather than simply recognizing patterns or performing calculations. The game also measures your ability to calmly manage your focus in a chaotic situation.

Inis is a game deeply rooted in Celtic history and lore in which players win by being elected King of the Island (Inis). Players can try to achieve one of three different victory conditions:

Leadership: Be the leader — i.e., have more clan figures than any other player — of territories containing at least six opponents' clans.
Land: Have your clans present in at least six different territories.
Religion: Have your clans present in territories that collectively contain at least six shrines.

Over the course of the game, players also earn deeds, typically chanted by bards or engraved by master crafters, that reduce by one the magic total of six for any condition. While one victory condition is enough to claim the title of King, a game of experienced players usually has a tight balance of power, emphasizing the leadership of the capital of the island.

At the start of each round, players draft a hand of four action cards (with 13 action cards for three players and 17 for four players) during the Assembly. Action cards not played at the end of one season are not held for the next. Players also have access to leader cards for the territories that allow it and where they were elected leader during the assembly. Each Assembly reallocates those cards. Finally, they collect "epic tales" cards that depict the deeds of the ancient Irish gods and heroes, like Cuchulainn, the Dagda, Lugh and many others. These will be kept and used to inspire the clans and achieve extraordinary feats...under the right circumstances. The cards provide a variety of actions: adding clans, moving clans, building/exploring, and special actions.

Careful drafting, hand management, bluffing (especially once players understand the importance of passing their turn), good timing, and a precise understanding of the balance of power are the keys to victory. After a discovery game you'll be ready for a full and epic game, where an undisputed will be king by the Assembly for his merit and wisdom.

While Inis has "dudes" that are "on a map", it's a beginner's mistake to play this as a battle game because eliminating other clans reduces your chances of scoring a Leadership victory condition. Peace among different clans, with or without a clear territory leader, is the usual outcome of a clan's movement. Battles will occur, of course, as the Celtic clans can be unruly and a good player will listen to his clan's people (i.e., his hand of cards). That battle aspect is reflected in the clan's miniatures representing warriors. Woodsmen, shepherds and traders complete the set of twelve minis for each player; these occupations have no impact on the game, but give it flavor.

Stellar Conflict is a fast-paced space combat game with real-time elements set in the Among the Stars Universe.

In this game, which reimplements the James Ernest and Tom Jolly design Light Speed, players take over the role of an alien race taking part on a space battle. Each player has his/her own fleet and based on the size of the battle, he/she chooses which ships will be deployed for combat (deployment phase). Each race has its own power and abilities which grants it different advantages in combat.

After both players have deployed their forces in this time-limited real-time phase, the combat phase begins.

The Combat Phase lasts a random number of Rounds based on which ships have been deployed on the battlefield. Each Round, different ships fire their weapons and perform their abilities trying to destroy enemy ships and/or complete objectives.

Stellar Conflict offers a more advanced, deeper alternative to Light Speed. Each race has its own fleet of different ships and abilities guaranteed to offer lots of replayability.