Negotiation

Alcatraz: The Scapegoat

Alcatraz: The Scapegoat is a game about conflicted loyalties. On one hand, the players work together to bust out of the famous prison; on the other hand they all know that one of them will be left behind as the scapegoat.

Alcatraz is a peculiar game because while it is cooperative in some aspects, with players needing to work together to complete tasks, the game has loads of negative interaction as one player will always be the scapegoat. You don't want to be that guy. You don't "go all in," you don't always keep your promises, and you don't do "what's best for the group." Instead, you do everything you can to become indispensable, and "everything" is literal here – even if it means stealing from, betraying, and blackmailing other players.

In order to escape from Alcatraz, the players need to complete six parts of a plan. Each part is a "pick-up and deliver" task requiring specific items obtained in different parts of the prison. Once each part of the plan is completed, every player but the scapegoat moves a little closer to escaping, with the scapegoat being voted on each round by all the players – most likely the player who contributed the least to completing that particular task, but you never know. Thus, you could say that Alcatraz is a cooperative game – but with a twist.

The map of the prison constituting the play area is generated randomly each game, providing high replayability. Alcatraz is designed for 3-4 players, and due to its theme and complex gameplay is best suited for mature players.

Disaster Looms!

The Earth is probably doomed, and rumors and speculation run rampant. Newspaper headlines from across the globe stir the populace to desperation:

"MELTING POLAR ICE CAPS" "RISING SEA LEVELS" "POLLUTION!" "OVERPOPULATION!" "NUCLEAR WINTER?" "RAVENOUS BLACK STAR GOATS?" "WILL METEORS STRIKE YOUR CHILDREN?" "DISASTER LOOMS!"

The race to escape Earth has begun! With the world's nations in decline, powerful corporations now stand as humanity's last hope. Take the reins of one such corporation, as CEO, and venture out into space. With your mission in hand; build ships, collect resources, research technologies, survive the dangers of space exploration, and, while ticket sales hold steady, preserve the human race. Remember to stay a step ahead of competing corporations, which can use slick marketing campaigns and 10 cent tchotchkes to buy the loyalty of the people you just saved from certain doom!

Players are rewarded points for sticking to the mission and building colonies, and saving colonists. As you are a CEO you are also rewarded points for filling the Corporate treasury, and building the company's value proposition by retaining rights to the best technologies. Game play is fast, and exciting. Events, and the vast variety of hazards that space has to offer will keep you on your toes, and your underlings busy on the paperwork for decades to come!

The game is played in 5 phases: Research, Fleet, Management, Revenue, and finally First Player Turn Auction. All players will complete each phase, in turn order, before proceeding to the next phase. This helps to keep the game moving, and keeps players engaged. In Research phase players can pay to research, or choose to license another players tech. In the Fleet phase players get one action with each ship they own. The Management phase is when players build new ships, special tech items, and sell technology to the public domain. The Revenue phase is when players collect their hard earned resources, including a small stipend from their home office on Earth. And finally, the turn auction phase is a bidding war for who goes first. Not that important at the start of the game, but monumental for the end.

Perfect Heist

"The Perfect Heist" is a cooperative/competitive board game based on the heist movie genre. It is designed to capture the excitement of pulling together a handpicked crew of professionals and loose cannons to pull off epic heists. To win, you must convince your friends — those gunmen, con men, getaway drivers, and grizzled vets who are "getting too old for this" — to join your crew and take on increasingly more difficult jobs ranging from boosting cars to nicking top secret documents and biological weapons.

But even as you need their expertise to chase the big scores and make a name for yourself, don't think for a second they're doing you any favors. They are trying to win, too. And they may double-cross you any chance they get to steal the loot for themselves and leave you for dead.

Ultimately, the player with the most notoriety wins. You accrue notoriety points from heists, by successfully completing hidden agendas, and more. But, you need to hustle for it. A clever player could win by only pulling off 2 jobs, so long as they hustled other players for a better cut of each job's notoriety. Likewise, a player could pull off 15 jobs and yet still lose if they made bad deals with other players.

Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire

The first expansion for Twilight Imperium (Third Edition) features four new races that are unseen in previous editions, more balanced Strategy cards, more belligerent Objective cards, several new surprises for neutral planets, two more sets of plastic units, rules (with more than a dozen new optional variants), and enough additional systems for a fourth ring around Mecatol Rex. Now its 3-8 players. If you played TI3 and had some ideas for potential improvements, they are probably incorporated in Shattered Empire.

Catan: Seafarers - 5-6 Player Extension

Now five to six players can sail into the uncharted and explore and settle the mysterious islands near Catan! The 5-6 Player Expansion for The Seafarers of Catan allows you to add 1-2 more opponents without sacrificing ease of play. Try one of ten new exciting scenarios! Designed for 5-6 players, it adds even more drama to the award-winning game of seafaring, exploration, and trade.

Belongs to the Catan Series.
This game requires The Settlers of Catan, The Settlers of Catan 5/6 player extension,and the Seafarers 3-4 expansion (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/325/catan-seafarers) to play. Ideally, using the same publisher and edition of the game.