Open Drafting

Tabannusi: Builders of Ur

Set in ancient Mesopotamia, a cradle of civilization, at a time when the location of Ur was a coastal region, players work to build the Great City of Ur, expand its districts, and establish themselves as powerful builders.

Tabannusi: Builders of Ur features a stunning board showing the city of Ur divided into 5 regions, each tied to a specific color die. There are 3 building districts, 1 temple district, and 1 port district.

Each turn, your worker will activate one of these districts. When activating a district, you must first take a die from the district. This die matches the color of the district and serves two functions:

1) The die itself becomes a resource of its color.
2) The value of the die determines which district your worker will activate on the following turn.

Through various actions you will be able to expand your influence in the various districts, expanding construction sites and turning them into buildings to score valuable victory points. But you will also exert your influence in the temple district in order to earn the king's favor. In the port district you can obtain ships with important abilities and for scoring victory points.

You must spend your actions wisely and always make sure that you keep an eye on the general timing of the game. The moment a district is emptied of dice, a scoring will occur.

—description from publisher

The Siege of Runedar

Since time immemorial, the mines of Runedar have supplied gold to generations of dwarves. Today, only a handful of them remain, guarding the fortress surrounding the entrance to the old, depleted mine... or so it was thought. This group of dwarves have been fortunate enough to accidently stumble upon a new vein of the purest gold and have managed to extract a small treasure. Unfortunately, just as they were about to set off to the safety of the nearest stronghold, they discover that the old fortress of Runedar is surrounded by orcs who are willing to do anything to get their hands on the precious metal. Now, the dwarves not only need to defend the fortress, they also must dig a tunnel under the mountain to escape and get their hard-earned gold to safety.

The Siege of Runedar is a co-operative game for 1-4 players who take on the role of dwarves charged with defending the walls of Runedar and the treasure they keep within. They will have to face orcs, goblins, and trolls, fighting in hand-to-hand combat against those who manage to get past the walls and shooting from a distance at those who try to enter. A deck-building system allows players to upgrade their weapons and tools as they must hold off the raiders long enough to build a tunnel to escape the terrible siege they have been subjected to and get the treasure to safety.

—description from the publisher

Endogenesis

You and your companions are cosmic spirits in an alien, infant universe. Seeking more, you opened breaches to other realms, setting lose a pandora's box of chaos, knowledge and wonder across your reality. These new experiences confer upon each of you new emotions and varying abilities, blessing you with individualism...while cursing you with differences. Before long, you all turn on each other, descending into a battle royale that will not stop until one finally ascends to godhood.

Endogenesis is a competitive arena-styled card game. Collect skills from the Realm of Knowledge to customize your character with different powers, and upgrade them with shards that you can earn by defeating your enemies. Also joining the fray are vicious monsters from the Realm of Chaos. The most powerful of these are called Legendaries; killing them rewards its slayer with a prism. Be the first to collect three prisms and you win!

—description from the designer

Food Fight

Out of the frying pan, and into the line of fire!

In Food Fight, your favorite foods have gone to war. Draft glorious food warriors into your army and march them onto battlefields from Watermelonloo to Spaghettis-burg! Battle morning, noon, and night across three meals. Food mascots lord over the mealtime chaos, searching for a new champion – but who will reign supreme? The most cunning, the most savage, the most delicious?!

Food Fight uses a new card-drafting mechanism that allows players to build meals that work well together and allows for powerful combo plays.

Dog Lover

In Dog Lover, you fetch cards, collect bones, and gather food for your lovable dogs. You rescue them from the shelter, train them on new tricks, and cherish their unique traits. The player who takes care of their beloved dogs best will score the most victory points and win!

In more detail, you start the game with a random dog card — which come in small, medium, and big sizes — as well as a random "special trick" card. Shuffle the game cards, then lay out the top nine cards in a 3x3 grid. Next to that, lay out three dog trick cards in an adjacent column and three rescued dogs in another column. The player farthest from the start player places the watch dog token next to one of the rows or columns, then the game is ready to play.

On a turn, choose one of your trick cards, rotating it as you desire, then collect cards from the 3x3 grid that match the pattern on the trick card, e.g., common polyomino shapes. You can take at most one card in the row or column under the protection of the watch dog. You can play and tuck cards both before and after you collect cards from the grid. What do you do with what you collect?

Dog cards sit in front of you immediately. Good boy!
Food cards are exchanged for one of the four types of food.
Adoption cards go in your hand, and you can exchange two for a rescued dog, which comes with a special power or endgame bonus.
Favorite Things cards are dog toys that are more valuable when you collect them in sets.
Training cards can be tucked under a dog for bonus points, or you can exchange several of them to gain a new trick, which gives you more card-grabbing options each turn.
Walk cards are worth bonus points when tucked under a dog.
Bone cards give you a bonus for fed dogs if you collect enough of them.
Trait cards give an ongoing power and an endgame bonus, but you must attach it to a dog the turn you claim it; otherwise, you must usually discard multiple cards.

When the "End Game" card appears in the deck, you complete the round so that each player has the same number of turns, then you tally points. Each dog has a food requirement. If you meet that requirement, the dog and all its traits and tucked cards will be worth points. However, if you don't give the dog the right type and amount of food, you score -2 points for that dog and ignore all tucked cards that would otherwise give you points (Don't let your dogs go hungry!). The player who scores the most points is the ultimate dog lover!