deduction

In the quiet village of Ravenswood Bluff, ‌a demon walks amongst you...

During a hellish thunderstorm, on the stroke of midnight, there echoes a bone-chilling scream. The townsfolk rush to investigate and find the town storyteller murdered, their body impaled on the hands of the clocktower, blood dripping onto the cobblestones below. A Demon is on the loose, murdering by night and disguised in human form by day. Some have scraps of information. Others have abilities that fight the evil or protect the innocent. But the Demon and its evil minions are spreading lies to confuse and breed suspicion. Will the good townsfolk put the puzzle together in time to execute the true demon and save themselves? Or will evil overrun this once peaceful village?

Blood on the Clocktower is a bluffing game enjoyed by 5 to 20 players on opposing teams of Good and Evil, overseen by a Storyteller player who conducts the action and makes crucial decisions. The goal of the game is to successfully deduce and execute the demons before they outnumber the townfolk.

During a 'day' phase players socialize openly and whisper privately to trade knowledge or spread lies, culminating in a player's execution if a majority suspects them of being Evil. Of a 'night' time, players close their eyes and are woken one at a time by the Storyteller to gather information, spread mischief, or kill.

The Storyteller uses the game's intricate playing pieces to guide each game, leaving others free to play without a table or board. Players stay in the thick of the action to the very end even if their characters are killed, haunting Ravenswood Bluff as ghosts trying to win from beyond the grave.

If you arrive late to a game, you can enter after it's started as a powerful Traveller character with unusual talents and questionable allegiances. Each character comes with their own special ability and no two players in a game are ever the same character.

Gotham City’s most heinous Super-Villains have descended upon the city, all determined to rule the metropolis once and for all. Most of them are in it to corrupt the city and gain points, while The Joker sends Gotham City further and further into anarchy with each passing round, slightly altering the way the game is played.

You are secretly one of these Super-Villains, filling character wallets with Corruption Cards worth positive or negative corruption points. Throughout the game, players can eliminate wallets from the game, sending the caught Super-Villain to Arkham Asylum. Each round, The Joker will cause anarchy and change the rules for the next round! At the end of the 7 round game, everyone will score bonuses for any players they eliminated, and, if not eliminated themselves, will reveal their Super-Villain identity and add any corruption points contained in their Super-Villain’s wallet.

—description from the publisher

In the Palm of Your Hand is a new team-based game from first-time designer Timothée Decroix! Help your grandparent relive their memories using 11 different 3D objects and over 100 beautifully-illustrated cards!

One player (grandchild) must “mime” memories depicted on cards by using objects in the palm of another player (grandparent), whose eyes are shut.

The grandchild draws 2 random cards from their hand, secretly looks at them, then uses any of the 11 3D objects included in the box to mime the memories in the grandparent's palm.

Cards are added (by the opposing team and from the deck) until there are 8 cards total. The grandparent then opens their eyes and must find the 2 correct memories out of the 8 cards on the table!

The game ends once everyone has had a chance to be the grandparent!

Decorum is a cooperative, hidden information game where you and your partner share the same objective: decorate your home in a way that makes you both happy. The problem is, different things make each of you happy and nobody says exactly what they need. Can you find a happy compromise, or is it time to move out?!

-Play through 30 unique scenarios, each introducing new twists and challenges.
-Keep your conditions a secret, they say how you want the house decorated.
-Add, remove, and swap objects or repaint rooms to make the house look just right… for you.
-Respond with “Love it”, “Hate it”, or “Fine with it” to work together toward a perfectly decorated home.
-There is a solution for each scenario, the trick is figuring it out in time.

At its heart, Décorum is a pretty straightforward logic puzzle. There are a small number of ways to arrange the internal pieces that meet all the requirements listed on the player’s rule sheets simultaneously. The twist of Décorum is that it’s also a hidden information game. No player has all of the rules. While playing, the players will have to watch their partner’s moves just as carefully as they’re planning their own. Even more crucially, they’ll have to communicate why they’re making the moves they’re making–using the very limited means we’ve provided them.

Décorum might be about solving a puzzle, but it’s really a game about communication and compromise. The real challenge isn’t just solving the problem with the limited information you and your players have; it’s dealing with the frustrations that will inevitably occur when your partner does something that messes up your plan. In order to be successful in Décorum, there will come a point where both players will have to let go of their initial strategy for how they were going to finish the board and start paying attention to what their partner is doing instead. By introducing and providing an incentive to resolve conflict, Décorum mechanically encourages (or even requires) a positive form of compromise.

Each player draws a "Scenario" card that lists a set of criteria of what types of décor a room must have or cannot have. For example "No room may contain a lamp" or "Every room must contain a wall hanging". Players keep their criteria secret.

The play surface is a board displaying various rooms in a house. Each room has multiple items that can potentially be placed in the room. Players take turns placing, moving, or removing colored tokens on the board, where each token represents an item of home décor. Each token placed may conform with, or violate, the other players' criteria. After each token is placed, other players may state they like the item of décor, as placed, or they do not like the item of décor, as placed. Further discussion or explanation is not allowed.

The game ends when all players' criteria are satisfied.

Acid? Dangerous? Annoying? A car saleswoman! Edible? Quick? Flexible? Captain America — or an ostrich?

In Platypus, players co-operate to gradually eliminate bad words in order to find and identify the "platypus" through their adjective cards. To set up, eight common words or proper names — the "platypus" cards — are placed face up in front of all the players. The guides know the card that the explorers must guess, and to help the explorers, they give clues in the form of adjective cards that best define the platypus for them. Each guide has a hand of four clue cards, and after each new clue, the explorers must eliminate one or two cards that they think don't match what's being defined by the clues. If the explorers eliminate the platypus, then everyone loses; if they succeed four times, however, then the platypus will stand alone and everyone wins.