Hand Management

The Mind is more than just a game. It's an experiment, a journey, a team experience in which you can't exchange information, yet will become one to defeat all the levels of the game.

In more detail, the deck contains cards numbered 1-100, and during the game you try to complete 12, 10, or 8 levels of play with 2, 3, or 4 players. In a level, each player receives a hand of cards equal to the number of the level: one card in level 1, two cards in level 2, etc. Collectively you must play these cards into the center of the table on a single discard pile in ascending order but you cannot communicate with one another in any way as to which cards you hold. You simply stare into one another's eyes, and when you feel the time is right, you play your lowest card. If no one holds a card lower than what you played, great, the game continues! If someone did, all players discard face up all cards lower than what you played, and you lose one life.

You start the game with a number of lives equal to the number of players. Lose all your lives, and you lose the game. You start with one shuriken as well, and if everyone wants to use a shuriken, each player discards their lowest card face up, giving everyone information and getting you closer to completing the level. As you complete levels, you might receive a reward of a shuriken or an extra life. Complete all the levels, and you win!

For an extra challenge, play The Mind in extreme mode with all played cards going onto the stack face down. You don't look at the cards played until the end of a level, losing lives at that time for cards played out of order.

In the words of its designer, Consentacle is:

a cooperative card game for two players;

that represents consensual sexual encounter between a curious human and a tentacled alien;

where the players have to figure out how to build trust and do sexual things with each other, even if they can’t communicate easily.

User summary:
Partners try to build card combinations via simultaneous plays. "Trust" and "Satisfaction" are the currency and victory points of Consentacle, which are earned and/or lost based on card combinations.

The Red Queen looms large over Wonderland, with many monsters and other frightful things at her command. Alice and her friends must do their best to ward off the Red Queen's influence and restore peace.

In Wonderland, you choose to play as either Alice or the Red Queen. Place your cards carefully to control areas of Wonderland while taking advantage of your magic items. Once all the cards have been placed, the magic items modify the value of adjacent cards. Score the final board based on the arrangement of the cards. The player with the most points wins!

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 6 – France & Old West includes a double-sided game board that features France on one side and the western half of the United States on the other.

In the France half of this expansion, 2-5 players collect train cards and claim routes in order to complete tickets in hand, but most of the tracks on the board aren't colored! Each time that you draw cards, you must take a colored tile that's 2-5 train cars long and place that tile on an empty track bed. Once you've done this, any player can claim that route by discarding the appropriately colored cards from hand, as in any other Ticket to Ride game. (Single-length routes are already colored, and the map contains a number of gray-colored ferry routes.)

Multiple track beds on the game board overlap, and once a tile has placed on the board, any track beds crossed by this tile are off-limits and nothing can be built on them. At the end of the game, players score their tickets, with bonuses being awarded for longest continuous route and most tickets completed.

In the Old West half of the expansion, 2-6 players start the game by choosing (in reverse player order) a starting location for one of their three city pieces. The first route that a player claims must have this city as one of the route's two endpoints, and each subsequent route claimed must connect to that player's existing network.

After claiming a route, a player can place one of their remaining cities on either end of that route by discarding a matching pair of train cards. Only one city marker can be in each city. Whenever a player builds a route that connects to a city owned by another player, the owner of the city claims the points for the route, not the player placing the trains. If both endpoints of the route have cities, then the owner of each city scores these points. Whoever completes the most tickets in this expansion scores 15 bonus points.

As a variant, you can play Old West with Alvin the Alien. No player can start the game in Roswell, and the first player who builds a route into Roswell scores 10 points, then places the Alvin marker in any city that they control. The next player to connect to this city scores 10 points, then moves Alvin as before. Whoever controls Alvin at the end of the game scores 10 bonus points.

The throne to the Kingdom of Aurum lies unclaimed. Six great houses vie for control of the land in an ongoing dispute of title, territory, and birthright. Embroiled in conflict, the lords and ladies lock eyes on the crown as they fight to contend with a great plague that has now turned upon the people, ravaging the kingdom for which they war.

In Cutthroat Kingdoms, you take on the role of a leading lord or lady of one of the six eminent Houses in the Kingdom of Aurum — a grim fantasy world fraught with danger, intrigue, and plague. You must use your armies to claim territories, gather wealth, recruit hirelings, and hire mercenaries as you pursue your nefarious plots and jockey for power. Political intrigue and assassinations abound, and powerful strategic alliances are offset by bloody conflicts. Most importantly, will you strive for domination alone, or tie your fortunes to another house through a well-placed political marriage?

Cutthroat Kingdoms is a competitive game that features marriage-alliance team mechanisms in which strategic planning and decisive military moves can swing the course of the Kingdom. Changing territories and events make each game unique. Open negotiation, deal-making, and tabletalk are all encouraged — nay, necessary to win!