Adventure

Space pirates are battling for honor, glory and wealth! Join them in their exploration of the universe and their quest for victory. Players will explore, challenge each others, and engage in short-term or long-term alliances, but there will be battles and mighty spaceships involved. In Metal Adventures, you'll use cards to explore, enhance your ship and your crew, and live up to bold challenges. There will be negotiations, battle tactics, and the uncertainty and risk that really make a pirate's life.

During the game, each player uses a fancy four-wheeled astrolabe to track their power (which can be improved via equipment), damage (which reduces power), glory (which is how players win), and the "judgement of pirates" (which affects glory).

On a turn, a player either rests (gaining money and repairing their ship) or else travels (paying to do so), battles (either starships, planets or opponents), and optionally takes the "tour of pirates", visiting one of the ten planets in the game and taken the action available there. Each player holds two trophy cards, and when they meet the conditions on one of them, they can reveal it to earn credits, glory or both. They can gain support (single-use cards) and equipment (providing power adjustments and possibly other special abilities), keeping at most four of these improvement cards at a time.

Players can negotiate alliances and trade anything but glory, and while they must keep their word for immediate exchanges and actions, they can break promises or alliances in later turns, although doing so requires them to suffer the "judgement of pirates", thereby affecting their glory count. Collect four such points, and they can no longer ally with other players or give or receive assistance.

When a player has nine or more glory points or the space deck contains two or fewer cards, the game ends and whoever has the most glory wins.

The players are adventurers seeking gold in an abandoned mine. Each ventures into the mine equipped with a lantern (with a limited amount of oil). The outer ring of hexes can be searched for additional equipment (torches, oil to refuel the lamp, mushrooms...) whilst the inner hexes are where the gold is to be found. First player to bring back six gold nuggets wins. Or,if all adventurers are killed, the player whose spider has scored the most kills wins...
Finding gold isn't as easy as it seems; the richest hexes (smack in the mine's center, of course) only yield gold on a 4+ (on a d6); using the lantern gives a +1.
Where it gets really fun is with the mine's other denizens: each player controls, in addition to his adventurer, a spider that hops from rock column to rock column (the pivot points where hexes meet; the board is 3D so this works really well) spinning webs --little cardboard barriers that slide into place between rock pillars. Adventurers "attack" the webs when they try to step through and could stay tangled (the adventurer pieces are slotted so they can be put on top of the web they're stuck in). Whilst thus caught, spiders can try to bite them --four bites and you're eliminated! The lantern is very useful in such a case as its light scares the spiders away.
The spiders can co-operate to build stronger webs, and it isn't unusual for one spider to strengthen the web an adventurer is caught in so another spider has a better chance of biting him.
All in all, a very enjoyable game. Works best with the full set of six players.

Doom and Bloom SURVIVAL! is a board game for 2-4 players. It takes place in a post-pandemic world where there are few survivors. Your mission is to have your character accumulate supplies like food, fuel, weapons, and medical kits, as well as scout locations that may serve as a haven in which to start over.

You start off in once-peaceful center city, now controlled by raiders out to get what you have. There are plenty of resources out there, but you have to get to them and survive various encounters and attacks to reach towns that have potential as safe havens. You’ll have to plan your route to include spots that have the assets you’ll need to stockpile. Some of these spots are controlled by raiders, and you’ll have to survive attacks to gain the items you need.

Once you’ve scouted locations, you’ll have to return to center city for your family and more supplies. You then pick a location as your final destination. If you can get there with the required supplies and survivors before anyone else, you win the game.

The game dynamic revolves around the management of assets while you are traveling to your destinations. You'll be tempted to use them to gain an edge in an encounter, but you have to stockpile them to be able to win the game. Different gameplay styles and a unique route traveled in each game, coupled with game-changing Bonus cards, make Doom and Bloom SURVIVAL! a fun and challenging game. It is easy to learn but has multiple levels of complexity. Originally tailored to survival enthusiasts that wanted a real survival scenario (no zombies), gametesting has shown us that the game has appeal to all gamers.

Website: http://survivalboardgame.com/

'Tis the dawn of the 19th century; an age of science, superstition, and witchcraft. Howling fills the night as a full moon rises over the small, secluded village of Shadowbrook. Gruesome murders have become a daily occurrence and terror haunts the streets at night. An evil creature has taken up residence here and the countryside is engulfed by a tide of darkness.

But all is not lost… not yet.

A small group of heroic individuals, with the courage and strength to fight, have arrived in town. Some just passing through while others have come with a purpose; but all will be put to the test as they race to save this cursed town from falling into darkness. It will take a cunning mind and strength of spirit to determine who is friend and who is foe… to solve the mysteries and hunt the beast to its lair. But the secrets of Shadowbrook run deep. Gossip and rumors run rampant and these few Heroes may soon discover that they are outsiders here and this town is already so rotten from within there is little left to save.

"A Touch of Evil, The Supernatural Game" is a fast-paced game of fiendish creatures, dashing Heroes, and high-adventure.
Each player takes on the role of a unique monster-hunting Hero, racing against time to stop the forces of darkness from claiming another foothold in the world of man. Only by investigating the town and building your Hero’s strength can you hope to hunt down the Supernatural Villain to his Lair and defeat him in an epic Showdown. Players can race Competitively to be the first to defeat the Villain and save the town, or they can work together Cooperatively to defeat a much stronger Villain.

Featuring a gameboard map of Shadowbrook and its surrounding countryside, eight Heroes to choose from, and four different Supernatural Villains to hunt; each with its own host of unique Minions and powers to drastically change the game. A Touch of Evil is designed to create an adventurous cinematic feel as the story and game unfolds.

So grab up your Wooden Stake, stuff some shot in that Musket, and hold onto your Tri-corn Hat; no one is safe from the creatures of the night and no one can be trusted…for inside everyone lies A Touch of Evil.

Home Page: http://www.flyingfrog.net/atouchofevil/

Redevelopment of Lost Cities, first published with altered rules as Keltis, and then published by Rio Grande as Lost Cities: The Board Game with Knizia's original rules and theme.

Reiner Knizia: "The original version that we developed is exactly what Jay [Tummelson, owner of Rio Grande Games] has now published [LCBG]"

Primary differences between Lost Cities: The Board Game and Keltis:

1. In LCBG you play 3 rounds, scoring at the end of all 3 for the monuments you collect. (Normal scoring occurs each round.) In Keltis, you only play 1 round, and score everything each round. This is not just a rule difference, as the scoring is different for the monuments/stones based on the number collected.

2. In Keltis, you may play your cards in either order, descending, high to low, or ascending, low to high. In LCBG, you must play in ascending order.

Note: the rules for LCBG have the Keltis rules as variants, and have the board elements necessary for #1 above. Keltis does not have the rules nor board elements to play LCBG.

Kosmos (Keltis publisher) changed the card play to ascending and descending order to lower the luck level and add balance to the game.
Kosmos changed the theme to fit in with other Kosmos abstract game series.

There are more differences, which are non-substantive. Lost Cities: The Board Game has a different-looking board, tiles and figures (meeples) to connect with its predecessor. Card-play in descending order is an optional variant in this edition. The numbers have been multiplied by 5 to strengthen the relation to the card game, and instead of a scoring track you collect your points as golden coins.

From the Keltis entry:

Players play cards to move their playing pieces along stone paths. There are cards with 5 different colors/symbols, each corresponding to one path; in addition, each card shows a number (0-10, twice each). In each color, each player can play his cards either ascending or descending. Like Lost Cities, it's better to concentrate on a few paths, since the last spaces grants high points, but ending early gives negative ones.

The player in turn plays one card (out of a hand of 8), or discards one. He moves the corresponding playing piece on the path. Many of the spaces have a token that grants some bonus - either direct points (counted on the scoring track), an extra move on a path, or wish stones that are needed at game end to avoid negative points.

The game ends when a total of 5 playing pieces have reached the 7th space (or more) on their paths. Now, scoring happens:

Pieces which only moved 1-3 steps give negative points (-4, -3, -2).
Pieces with 4+ steps grant points (1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10).
One piece of each player is higher and scores double.
Fewer than two wish stones grants negative points (-3 / -4)
5+ wish stones yield a bonus of 10 points.
All this is added to the points scored during the game