exploration

Near and Far

Four wanderers search for the Last Ruin, a city that legends say contains an artifact that will grant the greatest desires of the heart. A lost love, redemption, acceptance, a family rejoined-- these are the fires that fuel the wanderers' journeys, but can they overcome their own greed and inner demons on the way?

In Near and Far, you and up to three friends explore many different maps in a search for the Last Ruin, recruiting adventurers, hunting for treasure, and competing to be the most storied traveler. You must collect food and equipment at town for long journeys to mysterious locales, making sure not to forget enough weapons to fight off bandits, living statues, and rusty robots! Sometimes in your travels you'll run into something unique and one of your friends will read what happens to you from a book of stories, giving you a choice of how to react, creating a new and memorable tale each time you play.

Near and Far is a sequel to Above and Below and includes a book of encounters. This time players read over ten game sessions to reach the end of the story. Each chapter is played on a completely new map with unique art and adventures.

Answer the call of the ruins and begin your journey.

Lost Expedition

Legendary explorer Percy Fawcett marched deep into the Amazon in search of El Dorado. He was never seen again. Your team has gone in search of him, but now you hope to escape the jungle with the greatest treasure of all: your life.

Make the best of your food, your ammunition, and your health in The Lost Expedition as you plunge deep into the jungle. Choose your path carefully to ensure you're ready for the pitfalls that may occur. Play solo or cooperatively to survive the expedition, or play in teams to see which group can escape the jungle first.

Errata:
In the 'head-to-head' rules, the diagram shows more cards than can legally be played. The rules-as-written are correct.

Magic Maze

Description from the publisher:

After being stripped of all their possessions, a mage, a warrior, an elf, and a dwarf are forced to go rob the local Magic Maze shopping mall for all the equipment necessary for their next adventure. They agree to map out the labyrinth in its entirety first, then find each individual’s favorite store, and then locate the exit. In order to evade the surveillance of the guards who eyed their arrival suspiciously, all four will pull off their heists simultaneously, then dash to the exit. That's the plan anyway…but can they pull it off?

Magic Maze is a real-time, cooperative game. Each player can control any hero in order to make that hero perform a very specific action, to which the other players do not have access: Move north, explore a new area, ride an escalator… All this requires rigorous cooperation between the players in order to succeed at moving the heroes prudently. However, you are allowed to communicate only for short periods during the game; the rest of the time, you must play without giving any visual or audio cues to each other. If all of the heroes succeed in leaving the shopping mall in the limited time allotted for the game, each having stolen a very specific item, then everyone wins together.

At the start of the game, you have only three minutes in which to take actions. Hourglass spaces you encounter along the way give you more time. If the sand timer ever completely runs out, all players lose the game: Your loitering has aroused suspicion, and the mall security guards nab you!

Stuff and Nonsense

Stuff and Nonsense is "the Inevitable Aftermath of Professor Elemental's Imaginary Polar Expedition", an adventure game about never leaving London. The players move about the city, collecting artifacts and stories, and then return to the Adventurer's Club to tell made-up stories of adventure. This game plays something like a board game, though the board is made entirely of cards. The mechanics revolve around collecting sets of cards, while trying to avoid meeting Professor Elemental, and deciding which destinations to pretend to return from. The cards are filled with humorous text and whimsical illustrations by Harold Fay.

Unlock! The Elite

The Elite is a twenty-card mini adventure for Unlock!, the card-driven escape room game from Space Cowboys! At the beginning of the adventure, you and your friends find yourself locked in a hotel room with a mystery. You’ll need all of your wits and your logic if you’re going to escape before time runs out.

The Elite can either be accessed via print and play files on the Unlock! website (you can link to this page in the weblinks section), or via a produced version.

It also requires a free companion app to play. The link to this app can also be found in the weblinks section.