Trick-taking

Your inner superhero is ready to emerge, one chapter at a time. Reveal your backstory, gather gadgets and allies, develop a grudge against your archenemy, and unleash an ultimate ability as you transform. Use a combination of brains, love, speed, and strength to craft your origin story.

Origin Story is a 1-5 player competitive tableau-building, trick-taking game played over 5 rounds. Each round represents a chapter in your development and grants a new card to add to your player mat. Charge your cards and use their abilities to score more points than your opponents.

—description from the publisher

In Mino Dice, first released as Skull King: Das Würfelspiel, players try to predict the result of dice battles, and whoever predicts most accurately will come out the winner of the contest.

The game includes seven types of dice: minotaurs, griffins, mermaids, and four types of number dice. The game lasts 6-8 hands depending on the number of players, and in each round each player draws a number of dice from the bag equal to the current hand, e.g., five dice for the fifth hand, then places them behind their screen, keeping these dice a secret from all. After getting their dice, each player simultaneously bids the number of tricks they think they'll claim during the round by putting out fingers on their hand. Record these bids on the scoresheet.

The first player in a hand chooses a die from behind their screen, then rolls it in public. If they roll a number die, each other player must roll a number die of this color, if possible; otherwise they roll a die of their choice. Alternatively, a player can always roll a minotaur, griffin, or mermaid die. After each player has rolled, see who has the highest die and claims this trick. A rolled flag is a 0 and cannot win the trick. The minotaur beats the griffin, which beats the mermaid, which beats the minotaur — and all of these special characters beat numbers. If no one rolls a special character, the highest number rolled wins the trick, with a tie being broken in favor of whoever rolled later. The player who wins the trick collects the dice in front of their screen, then chooses a die from their collection to start the next trick.

After all the tricks have been claimed, players score points. If you made your bid exactly, score 20 points per trick bid; if you missed your bid, lose 10 points for each trick your bid was off, whether higher or lower. If you bid zero tricks and make it, score 10 points for each trick in the hand; if you miss a 0 bid, lose 10 points for each trick in the hand regardless of how many tricks you made. If you made your bid and captured a minotaur with a mermaid without also capturing a flag, score 50 bonus points; similarly, if you capture a griffin with a minotaur without capturing a flag, score 30 bonus points.

Whoever has the highest total score after the last hand is complete wins.

In Fishing, you try to catch as many tricks as possible over eight rounds, with each card you catch being worth 1 point. You then use your caught cards for the next round — and if you didn't catch enough tricks to fill your hand, you'll draw fresh cards from the ocean stack, which will introduce new cards for you fishers to fight over.

In more detail, at the start of each round, you have 8-13 cards in hand, depending on the player count and the round. In the first round, the cards go from 1-10 in four colors. Standard trick-taking rules apply, with players needing to follow the color led and the highest card of the led suit winning the trick.

New cards come into play from the ocean stack in waves, with higher-value cards in the four colors, a green trump suit from 1-16, 0 cards that let you snag a card from the trick, and special-powered buoy cards that can always be played into a trick regardless of what you have in hand. With buoys, you can steal the lead or determine which color must lead the next trick, force players to pass cards or lose points; you can even steal all other cards in a trick, ideally netting yourself huge fish for use next round.

At the end of each round, score 1 point for each card you caught. Whoever lands the most points after eight rounds wins.

Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and many other legendary princesses are celebrating a five-day party. The prince charmings of the land, who have not been invited, have infiltrated the ball to propose marriage. As an independent princess, you have to avoid marriage proposals and remain single. Avoid the most proposals and become the Rebel Princess!

Rebel Princess takes place over five rounds, representing the five days of a party, and each round has a special rule that makes each game totally different. The general mechanisms are those of trick-taking games, in which each player plays a numbered card into each trick, following one of the four suits in the game. The player with the highest number of the suit that started the trick takes all the cards of that trick — but that's not necessarily good as players want to avoid taking cards with prince charmings, who each bring one marriage proposal, aside from the enchanted frog who brings five proposals. The player with the fewest marriage proposals after five rounds wins.

Importantly, each player assumes the role of a different princess and has a special ability that they can use once per round.

Compared to the original edition, Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition features:

Two new Princesses and six new Round cards
Princess cards upgraded to thick punchboard tiles
Round cards upgraded to Tarot-sized cards with rules text on each card
Balance tweaks to existing rules, rounds, and princesses
A new "Rebel of the Ball" mechanism to allow players to catch up if they are falling too far behind

It's the classic card game you've always loved...since right now. Partner with a friend, or deal yourself in with a hand of cards in four blazing colors, plus one that's wildfire. Win the most tricks and take the most flame tokens to win.

Fuego is played over a series of rounds in which you play tricks. Clever card play and well-timed strikes will win you a trick and let you take flame tokens from opponents. Extinguish your opponent by taking all of their flame tokens or have the most flame tokens at the end of the round to win. The first player or team to win two rounds wins the game!

High cards win you tricks, but low cards earn you points. Wildfire cards fan the flames to make the trick en fuego. Strike a match by playing a same-valued card to blow out your opponents' chances. Turn up the heat with caliente cards that offer new challenges and mix up the gameplay.

—description from the publisher