variable player powers

Lander is coming to Kickstarter March 3, 2020 but why wait until then to try it? We've sent demo copies to over 130 cafes and FLGS around the world so you can go into your 'local' shop and #PlayBeforeYouPledge. You can see a list/map of all our PBYP partners here: https://www.landerthegame.com/play-before-you-pledge.

Lander is a 2-4 player, space-themed strategy game that emphasises area control (resource collection), tableau building (crew development) and set collection (missions). You and your friends will assume the roles of corporations, competing to prepare Kaimas-2 (the first planet outside of our solar system capable of supporting human life) for a large-scale colonization effort. The corporation that contributes the most will become the market leader going forward!

The game includes three distinct game styles with the following victory conditions:
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Basic Simulation – the first player to reach 7 Mission Stars wins.
Early Arrival – the last year is triggered when a player reaches 10 Mission Stars. The player with the most stars at the end of that year wins.
Planned Arrival – the player with the most Mission Stars after 5 years wins.

To earn Mission Stars, you must expand your resource base and develop your crew with specific combinations of traits and classes. Unlike many euro style games where players focus on their own playing area and can only affect each other indirectly, Lander enables players to directly impact each other's strategies through various game mechanics, such as take that and variable player powers.

At it's core, Lander is a game of options. On any given turn, you'll have many potential directions to go in, which gives you a lot of flexibility in how you plan your strategy. It also enables you to pivot when something unanticipated happens (e.g. acid rain reduces the colony's food production, a rival corporation relocates one of your structures, the mission you were working towards gets completed just before you can grab it!). This means that no matter how bleak things may seem, there's almost always a way back in!

Unique leadership abilities and action cards can be used to pull back your opponents or further your own interests, while event cards will force you to make difficult choices that can impact yourself or the entire colony. Lander is like life. You will experience highs and lows and be faced with a series of challenges that will force you to solve problems and pivot your strategy. It's not meant to be easy (think Matt Damon in the Martian). You are self-interested corporations, struggling to survive on a foreign planet - don't be surprised if the planetary conditions change or your colleagues put something toxic in your soup.

While some orders in the game are commonly used across game styles and player counts, others are more situational. For example, negotiation provides a novel framework for trading resources and cards between corporations with the use of a timer and collateral. Typically, a 2-player game won't see any negotiation, but it can become very common in a 3 or 4-player game, especially if one player starts to pull away. Observations are often used sparingly in the first couple years, but can become quite strategic in later years, as you study your opponents' actions and try to time your moves just right.

Lander is a game that often requires a few plays for you to really start appreciating its depth. As you get familiar with the mechanics and cards, you'll start to see there is a game within a game, whereby the study of your opponents' actions is crucial for developing your own strategy. Similar to poker, players can study their opponents' hands, crew and orders to predict what they might be trying do. The interplay between reading your opponents, using your observations, bluffing and playing your action cards becomes the game within the game. Knowing how and when to employ these different tactics is of course, up to you to master...

Your story begins here!

—description from the publisher

The official Binding of Isaac multiplayer card game, about sacrifice, betrayal and hoarding.

2-4 players take turns playing loot cards and using items to kill monsters that yield more items, loot, and sometimes souls. The first player to end their turn with 4 souls is the winner. Cooperation, barter, and betrayal is encouraged.

—description from the publisher

Many centuries ago, legendary smiths forged the Crown of Command, a magical artefact of immense power. Whoever wears the Crown of Command will hold power over all of the land.

Decades ago, a powerful wizard sealed the Crown of Command behind the Portal of Power to prevent evil forces from obtaining it. Only those who possess one of the legendary Talismans may pass through this Portal to reach the Crown. Over the years, five of the Talismans have disappeared. Enemy forces now seek to find them in order to seize the Crown of Command for themselves. Brave heroes that you are, you have banded together to go on a quest to retrieve all five Talismans and thereby stop the evil power behind these enemy forces from ruling the world. This task won't be easy as finding each Talisman is an epic adventure in itself. However, if you work together using everyone's abilities and helping one another when you can, you will surely succeed.

In Talisman: Legendary Tales, the players must work together as an adventure party to recover the five legendary Talismans that have been lost. During each adventure, the party endeavors to recover one of the lost Talismans. The adventures must be played in order. You may repeat adventures, and you may play one or more adventures in a game session.

Over the course of this story, you will travel across a wondrous land and have exciting adventures in which you must make important decisions and defend yourself against cruel enemies. As an adventure party, you succeed in each adventure once you have completed the final task and have recovered the Talisman. Be careful: You have only a limited amount of time!

—description from the publisher

Who do you trust? If you sit on the Iron Throne, the wisest answer is "no one".

Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker is a game of deception and social deduction. One player assumes the role of King (or Queen), while the others represent the great Lords and Ladies of the Houses of Westeros. Some are loyalists who want order in the realm, others are conspirators who seek to undermine the throne, and all of them have a secret agenda of their own. Who is truly loyal, and who is simply hungry for power, honor, and coin? It's up to the King to figure it out before it's too late.

In more detail, the game lasts seven rounds. In each round, players reveal a number of mission cards, each of which has an associated influence type: crowns, ravens, or swords. Each noble plays influence cards face down to one or more missions and places their House Sigil at the mission where they played the most cards. Then each mission is resolved by shuffling the influence cards there and tallying up successes and failures. If a mission succeeds, Order is generated; otherwise Chaos is generated. Nobles earn rewards (coin, honor, power) based on whether the mission with their House Sigil succeeded or failed.

The King can play decree cards during the game to grant favor to nobles who seem loyal, or cast suspicion on suspected conspirators. Decree cards award Order if the King was correct and Chaos if the King was wrong.

At the end of the game, if Order exceeds Chaos, the King wins and any loyalists who achieved their personal ambitions win. If Chaos has the edge, then any conspirators who achieved their personal ambitions win.

In Dungeon Rush, players are adventurers rushing through a perilous dungeon to root out evil, earning coins and improving their abilities along the way. After three levels (with three rounds of monsters in each level) they face the Dungeon Lord and the Dragon.

Each player has two heroes, one for their right hand and one for their left. Players simultaneously reveal two dungeon cards each and quickly put their hands on the cards they want their heroes to fight. If you win, you claim the card as loot or equipment that increases the abilities of your hero. Equipment cards are placed partly under your hero card, with the ability symbol sticking out. This way the four different types of abilities — Melee, Ranged, Magic and Stealth — are built up in one direction each, out from your hero.

For particularly strong monsters, your heroes can combine their power by hitting the monster with both your hands.