Hand Management

The year is 1667 and you are a pirate sailing the waters of the Caribbean. A Spanish Galleon floats nearby, and you’ve talked your crewmates into working together to steal all of its treasure. What you haven’t told your fellow pirates is that you have no intentions on sharing the treasure once you have it. Your crewmates have told you that they share your loyalty and that they’ll help you maroon the greedy pirates on your ship to the rocky island of Tortuga. But you’ve seen your friends’ loaded pistols and heard their whisperings of a mutiny. You know that nobody can be trusted.

Tortuga is all about the interactions you have with the other players. In some cases, such as when you and your shipmates are attacking the Spanish Galleon, you need to rely on your enemies in order to succeed. In the very next turn, however, your shipmates might stab you in the back with a mutiny in order to keep all the treasure for themselves.

Since nobody holds a "hand" of cards, this game is also about knowledge and communication regarding the community Event cards. Unless you are in desperation mode, it is not wise to reveal Event cards at random. Almost half of the Event cards can hurt your team drastically. It's often in your best interest to use an action to view the cards first, or to rely on the knowledge of a trusted ally. Knowing where harmful Event cards are located allows you to force an enemy to reveal those cards and suffer the consequences. The most successful players are the ones who are able to discern who is on their team and then share vital information with them at opportune moments.

Vote cards also play a key role in the game. Each Vote card has three sections - one each for Attacks, Mutinies, and Brawls. Players must put themselves in the best position to use their Vote cards, since their hand of Vote cards may not always be ideal based on their pawn location. For example, sometimes it may be worth putting in Water, causing an attack to fail, in order to save a Crossbones card for when you want to Mutiny against your captain.

For 2-9 Players. 20-40 minutes. Ages 12+.

Description from the publisher:

You and your wicked companions have spent the day pillaging the countryside and "dealing" with meddlesome adventurers. It's about time you kicked back with a pint at the evil equivalent of The Red Dragon Inn — The Black Dragon Depths, a nefarious tavern hidden deep in the catacombs below Greyport. No more heroes this time. Now you get to play as the bad guys!

The Red Dragon Inn 6: Villains is a standalone expansion to The Red Dragon Inn series of games. In this game, you and up to three of your friends play as evil villains celebrating the defeat of your archenemies at a wild fantasy party. You gamble, brawl, and drink the night away as you compete to be the last villain standing at the end of the night.

Century: Spice Road is the first in a series of games that explores the history of each century with spice-trading as the theme for the first installment. In Century: Spice Road, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed silk road to deliver spices to the far reaches of the continent for fame and glory. Each turn, players perform one of four actions:

Establish a trade route (by taking a market card)
Make a trade or harvest spices (by playing a card from hand)
Fulfill a demand (by meeting a victory point card's requirements and claiming it)
Rest (by taking back into your hand all of the cards you've played)

The last round is triggered once a player has claimed their fifth victory point card, then whoever has the most victory points wins.

Roots is a game of inventing words. Players combine Prefix and Suffix cards to create new words, competing for the best connection to a Subject card. Whoever delivers the best explanation for their word captures that Subject card, gaining a potential piece of their secret Win condition. But stay sharp: players can manipulate each other's progress with various Power cards, undermining opponents while advancing themselves. The result is narrative warfare in which the most creative, best spoken, and craftiest thrive.

Our intrepid adventurers have sailed on a journey, finding the hidden cave of a mythic monster. There are so many strange things there! The Captain allows the crew to search through the place and bring back to him what they have found, but by bluffing the Captain, they will try to keep the best part of the loot for themselves...

In Oh Captain!, an asymmetric game of changing roles, an adventurer must offer the loot cards they draw to the Captain, telling the Captain something about what the cards contain but not necessarily speaking truthfully. Indeed, some cursed objects can't be spoken of at all by the adventurers.

The Captain, who is safe from being attacked by objects, decides whether the crew member can keep the loot or not, and if the Captain turns down the offer, the crew member can decide to use an object against another adventurer. The latter player can overcome this by calling out a lie, winning or losing a coin based on who is right. The role of the Captain can be claimed by any adventurer who is richer than the Captain, and in the end the richest adventurer wins the game.