Fantasy

Will you surpass your teachers' knowledge and grow up to become the best alchemists in the land? Let's find out! It's time to grab your potion ingredients, sharpen your deduction skills, and get mixing!

Little Alchemists is a family-friendly deduction game that's designed to grow with the curious minds of young players. The game starts with simple concepts and mechanisms; you'll start by gathering and combining ingredients for brewing potions to sell. However, as you collect keys by achieving your potion-making goals, you'll unlock new chapters that gradually add more components, mechanisms, and complexity to the experience.

Not sure how to make potions? No sweat! Potion craft takes mere seconds with the free Little Alchemists companion app. To make a potion, players select two ingredient tiles, then scan them using the companion app loaded onto a tablet or smartphone. This reveals the combined result and lets players acquire and mark the corresponding potion knowledge on their secret player board.

With each potion you make, you'll begin to discover the secrets that lie at the heart of alchemy. Players will have to use clever deductions to figure out the arcane properties of each ingredient, then they can use that knowledge to their advantage throughout the game!

Over the course of seven chapters that unlock over multiple playthroughs, players will learn and master many new facets of the alchemy trade, preparing them for what's to come. Each chapter is designed as a replayable experience that expands on the previous chapter, with new layers of game mechanisms that add more subtle depth and complexity over time. Also, fully exploring the world of Little Alchemists will introduce you to many of the concepts from and better prepare you for the original Alchemists game.

—description from the publisher

As Allied forces fight the enemy on Europe's war-torn beaches, another battle begins in a child's bedroom in Brooklyn when the nightmarish Boogeyman snatches a boy and takes him to the realm of the Dark. The child's playthings, led by the toy soldier known as the Colonel, band together to stage a daring rescue. On their perilous mission, they will confront the boy's bitter and forgotten toys, as well as betrayal in their own ranks.

In The Stuff of Legend, each player takes on the role of one of the boy's loyal toys, each with their own unique abilities. Players work co-operatively, scouring the Dark in search of the Boy before the Boogeyman can escape with him. Players beware, through the course of the game your allegiance may change, and at any point one of your fellow players could be secretly working against you for the wicked Boogeyman.

—description from the publisher

In the magical land of Navoria, new and strange continents have emerged from the sea. The council of Navoria has decreed that the new continents must be explored, and you and a handful of other intrepid adventurers have answered the call... the stage is set for the adventure of a lifetime in Explorers of Navoria!

In Explorers of Navoria, you'll take action tokens from the bag and use them to draft Adventure cards into your tableau.

Adventure cards help you explore Navoria, build settlements in the newly emerged continents, craft supplies and items, and collaborate with the different races of Navoria.

Some of the Adventure cards give instant benefits, boosting your powers; some give ongoing abilities, engine-building in your tableau; and all of them increase your reputation with different races of Navoria, unlocking end-game bonuses through set-collection.

After drafting Adventure cards, you'll use the same tokens you drafted from the bag to visit locations on the mainland of Navoria in a worker placement phase. Worker placement locations reduce in power after each token is placed so you'll want to visit each location first to get the best benefits!

From the Spine of the World Mountains to the bustling fishing villages of Earthquake Fish Bay flows a river where fortunes can be made and lowly traders can brush shoulders with Rokugan's elite. Will your clan become the dominant force along this River of Gold?

In River of Gold, players take on the role of river merchants allied with legendary samurai clans, each vying to exploit the river to earn wealth, glory, and wisdom. Will you invest in developing ports, markets, shrines, and more along the banks of the busy river? Or will you rely upon sailing the river of gold, growing your wealth and influence through delivery contracts, visiting the nobility, and garnering a bit of divine favor during tough times?

River of Gold features a stunning embossed metallic gold game board illustrated by master fantasy cartographer Francesca Baerald. In addition to looking beautiful, the gameplay is fast and clever, with minimal downtime and a playtime of just one hour. Fans of Eurogames will enjoy this mid-weight game, and with easy-to-learn, intuitive rules, you’ll be able to get River of Gold to your table quickly.

—description from the designer

Runemasters is a co-operative tower-defense game in which 1-4 players work together as Runemasters whose sworn duty is to protect the Temple of Mankind against the forces of evil.

Each turn, new monsters (cards) spawn on the board and advance towards the temple. On their turn, Runemasters roll four unique dice and combine their results in various ways to attack enemies, move around the temple, prevent monsters from advancing, use their individual powers, or trigger powerful one-time effects.

Evil forces are relentless and will keep coming until dawn arrives. Werewolves, warriors, skeleton archers, trolls — all have their unique abilities, and you need to adapt constantly to new threats if you want to have a chance to survive until dawn. Runemasters have their own abilities, too, some particularly efficient at eliminating enemies while others focus on healing and protecting their teammates.

The game ends in victory if Runemasters successfully protect the temple until dawn (a special card placed among the final four cards of the deck) or in defeat if the Runemasters are killed or the temple destroyed.

-description from designer