Card Drafting

On the Island of Nowhere Atoll, terrifying (but utterly harmless) beasts reside. Can you wrangle the best sets of monsters, nurture them by collecting their favorite foods, and present the most horrifying group of monsters ever seen on the Island? Do so and you may just be named the new Island Protector...

In Isle of Monsters, a set collection, resource-gathering family game, 2-5 players take the role of monster wranglers attempting to gather the scariest team of monsters they can find in order to compete in the local Scare Faire. Getting screams from the audience gets you acclaim, as does scaring the monsters owned by other players.

Each round, players claim monsters and attempt to feed them their favorite foods to get the beasts ready for the Scare Faire. Each monster that's fully fed by the end of a round goes into that player's hand and participates in the Scare Faire.

Once every player is finished claiming and feeding monsters, a Scare Faire is held. Each player chooses a single color of monster to play from their hand along with as many cards of that color as they wish. Once every player has chosen, the played cards are revealed simultaneously and the player with the highest scare total from their monsters gets three scream points. Players can also get bonus points for scaring other players' monsters or from having more monsters in hand than any other player.

Play continues until there are no more monsters available to replenish the monster decks on the island. The player with the most scream points is declared the victor and Island Protector!

What would your house look like? Would you rather have a huge bedroom with an elegant canopy bed or a spacious living room with a grand piano? You are going to play a part of designers who will plan a house and add more and more rooms to it.

Dream Home is a family game about building and furnishing your new house. Over twelve rounds, players collect pairs of cards consisting of a room card and an accessory card (roof, helper, furnishing or tool) and place them on their personal boards, creating their dream homes.

At the end of the game, all players’ houses are finished and fully furnished. Players compare their houses, counting points for functionality, good design, quality of roof and furnishing. The player with the nicest and most comfortable house wins.

Inis is a game deeply rooted in Celtic history and lore in which players win by being elected King of the Island (Inis). Players can try to achieve one of three different victory conditions:

Leadership: Be the leader — i.e., have more clan figures than any other player — of territories containing at least six opponents' clans.
Land: Have your clans present in at least six different territories.
Religion: Have your clans present in territories that collectively contain at least six shrines.

Over the course of the game, players also earn deeds, typically chanted by bards or engraved by master crafters, that reduce by one the magic total of six for any condition. While one victory condition is enough to claim the title of King, a game of experienced players usually has a tight balance of power, emphasizing the leadership of the capital of the island.

At the start of each round, players draft a hand of four action cards (with 13 action cards for three players and 17 for four players) during the Assembly. Action cards not played at the end of one season are not held for the next. Players also have access to leader cards for the territories that allow it and where they were elected leader during the assembly. Each Assembly reallocates those cards. Finally, they collect "epic tales" cards that depict the deeds of the ancient Irish gods and heroes, like Cuchulainn, the Dagda, Lugh and many others. These will be kept and used to inspire the clans and achieve extraordinary feats...under the right circumstances. The cards provide a variety of actions: adding clans, moving clans, building/exploring, and special actions.

Careful drafting, hand management, bluffing (especially once players understand the importance of passing their turn), good timing, and a precise understanding of the balance of power are the keys to victory. After a discovery game you'll be ready for a full and epic game, where an undisputed will be king by the Assembly for his merit and wisdom.

While Inis has "dudes" that are "on a map", it's a beginner's mistake to play this as a battle game because eliminating other clans reduces your chances of scoring a Leadership victory condition. Peace among different clans, with or without a clear territory leader, is the usual outcome of a clan's movement. Battles will occur, of course, as the Celtic clans can be unruly and a good player will listen to his clan's people (i.e., his hand of cards). That battle aspect is reflected in the clan's miniatures representing warriors. Woodsmen, shepherds and traders complete the set of twelve minis for each player; these occupations have no impact on the game, but give it flavor.

Prophecy (originally released as Proroctví) is a Talisman-style game by Czech designer Vladimír Chvátil. The players represent fantasy characters on a path through a land full of adventure with the goal of grabbing ancient artifacts from the claws of demons guarding the surrounding astral realms.

Instead of rolling dice to move around the game board, players in Prophecy use a variety of means of transport. The game includes an experience system and loads of skills and spells that your character can learn. A large number of monsters that you can meet and fight also await you, as do random events that will keep taxing your abilities because after you cast a spell or lose a fight, your strength or willpower declines until it is recharged by healing.

Whoever holds four of the five hidden artifacts wins the game and becomes the next king of the land.

Expanded by:

Prophecy: Dragon Realm (2003)
Prophecy: Water Realm (2006)

Described by Tom Vasel as "an engine-building type game that plays very quickly... in the Splendor category", Arcane Academy is the first collaboration between Eric Lang and Kevin Wilson.

Challenge rival students to become the best in class in Arcane Academy, an innovative board game of tile-linking, wizardry for 2-4 players that pits young spellcasters against one another in a duel for honor and prestige. Forge potent magic items and wield wickedly powerful elemental energies to outthink and outmaneuver your opponents in this elegantly simple and quick-to-learn board game that will appeal to families and experienced players alike!

Arcane Academy is based on the critically acclaimed, all-ages comic series Finding Gossamyr, which is set in a fantasy world in which math is the language of magic. It features game design by industry superstars Eric M. Lang (A Game of Thrones, Star Wars: The Card Game, Quarriors) and Kevin Wilson (Descent, Arkham Horror and Android) in their first-ever design collaboration!