Humor

Martian Dice

Your mission, Martians, is to swoop down on the pathetic denizens of the primitive planet Earth and scoop up as many of the inhabitants as you can manage. We are interested in samples of the chicken, cow, and human populations so that we can determine which of them is actually in charge. The Earthlings might manage to put up a feeble defense, but surely nothing that a small taste of your death rays can't handle. Make Mars proud – be the first Martian to fill your abduction quota!

In Martian Dice, you roll thirteen custom dice in an effort to set aside ("abduct") humans, chickens, and cows. With each roll, you must first set aside any tanks, representing the human military coming to fend off your alien invasion, then you may choose one type of die to set aside as well — one type of earthlings to abduct, or death rays to combat the military. At the end of your turn, if you have at least as many death rays as tanks, then you may abduct the earthlings you've been setting aside. You can't pick any type of Earthling twice in one turn, but if you manage to abduct at least one of each, you'll score a bonus!

With each roll you will ask yourself, do you feel lucky?

Bears vs Babies

Bears vs Babies is a card game in which you build handsome, incredible monsters who go to war with horrible, awful babies.

The shared deck of cards consists of bear parts (and other monster parts) and baby cards. When you draw a part, you use it to build a monster for yourself; when you draw a baby, it goes in the center of the table. When babies are provoked, they attack, and anyone who has fewer monster parts than the number of attacking babies loses their monster; everyone with more parts than babies defeats this infantile army and scores.

Paranoia: The Uncooperative Board Game

Attention Citizen: Welcome to Alpha Complex, the perfect (and in no way dystopian) city run by the benevolent and infallible Computer!

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Paranoia, Modiphius has announced that it will be releasing a highly replayable game of sci-fi slapstick one-upmanship for 2-6 players. Paranoia: The Uncooperative Board Game will leave you and your friends in stitches – both figuratively and literally!

Each player controls a Troubleshooter, tasked with carrying out the Computer’s orders in the hope of being promoted through the spectrum of Clearance Levels, and hopefully attaining the rank of Ultraviolet.

Alpha Complex is a dangerous place, full of mutants, secret societies, and other troublemakers. It’s quite likely that Troubleshooters will die. (It’s also quite likely that they will, in fact, be mutants, members of secret societies, and troublemakers.) When a Troubleshooter dies, high-tech rapid cloning procedures ensure that they can get back to work almost instantly. Clones are limited though, so don’t be too frivolous...

Sometimes, the only way to get ahead (or, indeed, get anywhere at all) is to bend the strict rules of Alpha Complex... but watch your back. If anyone witnesses your (justifiable?) acts of despicable treason, and lets the Computer know... things might not go so well for you. Especially if the roving GuardBots have anything to do with it.

Best of luck, and remember: the Computer is your friend! Trust the Computer!

—description from the publisher

I'm Kind of a Big Dill

A hilarious party game where you describe traits like your thirst for revenge, bedside manner, and ability to cut your own hair, but with a catch: You also draw a secret token that tells you how much you have to exaggerate your abilities, making them sound better or worse than you are in reality.

After they hear your description, everyone else guesses the number on your secret token. They score based on how close they guess to its actual value. But you only score if some — but not all — of the others guess correctly.

Are you kind of a Big Dill? Make sure everyone knows!

-description from designer

Trolls and Princesses

Trolls are not big and stupid, as many would have you believe. Not long ago they lived among us and they used their cunning magic to look like us humans.
They lived with their cattle in the mountains. Their caves were beautiful and luxurious with a lot of silver, gold, gems, and a table full of delicious food. In Sweden, there is an expression for this “Rich as a troll”.
Trolls were not evil if you didn’t treat them badly, they could even be helpful to those who treated them well. But they often played tricks on humans. Their magic power (trollkraft) could distort the vision of humans so the troll looked like a human, an animal, a log, and a stone and even become invisible. But they also had some weaknesses. They couldn’t stand the sounds of church bells or steel, not to mention the sight of sun.

Trolls & Princesses is a “worker movement” game. You play as one of four troll clans and to get the mountains king’s favour, you try to impress him. The players get favour (in the form of victory points) when they do what trolls usually do: swap changelings, “hire” humans, tear down church bells, kidnap princesses, build their cave, and use troll magic. To succeed, the players must collect resources and move around their trolls to do different actions. The player with the most victory points at the end can crown himself the ultimate troll clan leader.

—description from publisher