Auction / Bidding

Princes of the Renaissance is set in Renaissance Italy. Each player takes on the role of one of the minor Condottiere princes, such as the Gonzagas or d'Estes. Then there are the big five major cities: Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome, and Naples. These are not controlled by individual players, but players will gain 'interests' in them as the game progresses. Each city has six tiles, most of which represent a famous character such as Lucrezia Borgia or Lorenzo Medici. Each tile has its own special properties that are linked to the character on the tile. Thus Cesare Borgia will help you to become more treacherous, while a Venetian merchant will increase your income. These tiles are also worth victory points, depending on the status of the city at the end of the game.

A city's status will change as a result of war. When two cities fight, they will each need a Condottiere to fight for them. Players bid, using influence points, to decide who will represent each city. The outcome of the war will depend on a little luck and the size of each player's army. Each player also gets paid for fighting, no matter what the outcome of the war is. Thus players can turn influence into gold, which in turn can be used to buy more City tiles.

No game on the Italian Renaissance would be complete without an element of treachery. Players can be openly treacherous by buying Treachery tiles, which will allow them to do nasty things like steal influence, bribe troops, or knock players out of an auction. However, the game allows players to be devious in other ways, that still remain legal. Making sure that a war goes the way you want it to is an important part of the game, and it is not always the player with the best army who ends up fighting. Want a city to lose, well become Condottiere for them and make sure you have a really bad army, or use Treachery tiles to bribe your own troops not to fight. At some point some player will become the Pope, which means he can form a Holy League (i.e. join one side in a battle). Want to make sure the Pope is on the 'right' side, well why not bribe him? What players negotiate over is up to them. The game does not force negotiation and works perfectly well without it, but it remains an avenue for players to explore.

The night is still, cloudless and dark. An oasis of interstellar magic lies beyond the stratosphere: countless stars, burning comets, planets, ivory moons, nebulae and perhaps even a beastly black hole or two. It's all up there for the finding. At the Royal Hinterland Observatory, endless elaborate sky formations are within reach of discovery—but you have to lay claim before your fellow astronomers nab the glory for themselves. StarFall is a clever game of wits, bidding and quick thinking in which the aim is to obtain the most impressive portfolio of cosmic curiosities.

You hold in your hands the Stones of Fate. Before you, hidden from your view, are the cards that will determine your destiny. Armed with your skill, memory, and a bit of luck, you move your stones and trigger powers in the cards. You will bring fortune for yourself and tragedy to your foes.

In the game Stones of Fate, you have three actions from which to choose:

Peek at a card
Move a stone
Flip a card

Use these actions wisely to strategically position your stones and flip the cards to activate them at just the right time and you can win the card and the points that come with it. Take advantage of special effects on cards that are triggered when you win or flip to give yourself and advantage or to thwart your opponents' plans.

Pyramid Arcade is a compilation of 22 games that can be played with "Looney Pyramids" and assorted other components. Looney Pyramids are colored pyramids in three sizes that can nest together.

The plan for Pyramid Arcade is to focus on games that can be played with three or fewer trees of each color, and include ten colors of pyramids (ninety in all). Pyramid Arcade will also include numerous boards, nine dice, and a rulebook explaining all the games.

The individual games are:

Black Ice
Color Wheel
Give or Take
Hijinks (aka Pink Hijinks)
Homeworlds
IceDice
IceTowers
Launchpad 23
Looney Ludo (aka Martian Coasters)
Lunar Invaders
Martian Chess
Petal Battle
Petri Dish
Powerhouse
Pharaoh
Pyramid Shambo
Treehouse
Twin Win
Verticality
Volcano (aka Fiesta Caldera)
World War 5
Zark City

Lotus is a beautiful game that grows into a unique work of art every time you play.

Clear your head and take in the quiet strength of the Lotus garden. It takes skillful care and nurturing to grow these flowers to their full potential, but once picked, they provide their owner with wisdom. Beware, for there are others who will do anything they can to get their hands on these mystical flowers. You'll need to enlist the help of creatures native to this land to take control of the Lotus garden and achieve true enlightenment.