Hand Management

In an age when poetry and the arts reigned supreme, the nights of Kyoto were filled with romance. Gentlemen of the Imperial court, ordinary clerks and functionaries by day, went out at night to meet their secret lovers in furtive trysts. Writing by the light of the moon, each tried to craft the finest and most moving poetry in the form of the Tanka, a short verse composed of only five lines. The best poems evoked the scene, the season, and represented the depth of the courtier's knowledge of the fashionable themes at court. By far, the most successful such lover was a fictional one named Hikaru Genji, the Shining Prince. Genji was, for the ladies of the court, the symbol of the perfect lover. For the men of the court, he was the perfect example to emulate.
In GENJI, players take the roles of courtiers out to woo fair princesses. Players score points for writing the finest poetry, or winning the most hearts. But beware: other courtiers will be waiting in the wings to steal those hearts away! Take your brush in hand, and set out on the night streets of Kyoto. The romance of the height of the Heian Period awaits you in GENJI.

Home Page: http://www.zmangames.com/cardgames/genji.htm

From BoardgameNews.com:

"Players in Genji try to learn from the historical figure of Genji and woo the ladies of the Imperial Court with their poetry. Twelve ladies, each bearing a symbol of one of the four seasons as well as one of three fashions – melancholy, nature, romance – are laid out in a circle, with a fashion card chosen at random to show players what type of poetry is in style.

"In each of the four seasons, each player will travel from his “home” – a lady chosen at the start of the game that bears his marker – around the circle in either direction. A player moves 1-3 spaces each turn, then either studies new material (discards poetry cards and draws new ones) or woos the lady he is currently visiting. If he has no rivals who have previously presented her with poems, he can present her with a poem on one or two cards. “Each poem card has the top or the bottom of a classic Tanka poem (5 lines, 5,7,5,7,7 syllables each, respectively),” says Kirk. “A poem can be considered either a top, a bottom, or a match of the two cards.”

"If another player has already presented a poem, then he can either complete the poem (assuming only a single card was played) or challenge it (by playing a poem card that increases the beauty of the poem, thus revealing the other player for the poser he is). In the latter case, you discard your contribution and the matching half, then add the remaining half poem to your hand to be used later.
...
"The round ends once a player returns home and makes a final study or woo action. Players then score points if they have the most poems on the board for that season, have presented the most beautiful poem of the season, or pitched woo at the home of another player. Yes, being a scoundrel can pay off."

This game is set on the 3-dimensional bridge where the epic struggle between Balrog and Gandalf takes place.

Each player has their own set of cards. Each card has 4 markers on each side, indicating the card's strength. There are also some cards with a special action.

There are four rounds per game, with the winner of each duel moving up the bridge.

Whoever ends up highest after the fourth and final round is the winner.

Lord of the Rings - The Duel is part of the Kosmos two-player series.

Lost Cities is a card game in the Kosmos two-player series. The game consists of a single deck of cards of rank 2–10 in 5 different colors with 3 special "handshakes" ("HS" in scoring examples below) in each suit. There is also a board which functions only to hold and organize discarded cards and is largely superfluous. Games last around 15 minutes. This is generally considered a good "couples" game and is often recommended for people with non-gamer partners.

The object the game is to gain points by mounting profitable archaeological expeditions to the different sites represented by the 5 colors. On a player's turn they must always first play one card, either to an expedition or by discarding it to the appropriate discard pile, and then draw one card. There is a separate discard pile for each color and a player may draw the top card of any discard pile or the top card of the deck. Cards played to expeditions must be in ascending order but they need not be consecutive. Handshakes are considered lower than a 2 and represent investments in an expedition. Thus, if you play a red 4, you may play any other red card higher than a 4 on a future turn but may no longer play a handshake, the 2, or the 3.

The game continues in this fashion with players alternating turns until the final card is taken from the draw pile. The rest of the cards in hand are then discarded and players score their expeditions. Each expedition that has at least one card played into it must be scored. Cards played into an expedition are worth their rank in points, and handshakes count as a multiplier against your final total. Expeditions start at a value of -20 so you must play at least 20 points of cards into an expedition in order to make a profit. If you are left with a negative value and have a handshake, the multiplier still applies. A 20-point bonus is awarded to every expedition with at least 8 cards played into it. The player with the most points wins the game, but it is typical to play 3 matches and add your score from each to see who wins.

Scoring example 1: an expedition has a 2,3,7,8,10 for a total of 30. This expedition is worth 10 total points: 30 minus the initial -20.

Scoring example 2: an expedition has 2 HS, and 4,5,6,7,8,10 for a total of 40. This expedition is worth 80 total points: 40 points for cards, minus the initial 20, ×3 for the 2 multipliers, plus the 20-pt bonus for playing 8+ cards.

Scoring example 3: an expedition has 1 HS, and 4,6,7 for a total of 17. This expedition is worth -6 total points: 17 minus initial 20, ×2 for the multiplier.

Time to film the latest western being produced at Deadwood Studios, makers of terrible western movies. All the special roles are up for grabs: "Man falling off roof", "Crying woman", "Stagecoach driver", "Dead man", and more. Yes, they're all available, and if you're good enough – that is, if you progress up through the "hack" levels represented by the number on your character's die – you may even get to play that complicated character part "Rear-end of Horse"!

In Deadwood Studios USA (originally published as Deadwood), players wander across the backlot each day, looking for acting jobs. Your actor is a six-sided die, and the number on top represents your status. (These dice are never rolled; they just show your status.) After you take a role in the movie, you can roll a die and try to "act", or you can "rehearse" to improve your odds. As you work, you'll earn money and fame, and you can trade those things at the casting office for higher status, which brings you the ability to take better-paying roles.

At the end of the game, you add up your money, fame, and status points, and the player with the highest score is the best actor at Deadwood Studios!

The greatest sorcerers of the kingdom have gathered at the heart of the Argos forest, where the legendary tournament of the 12 seasons is taking place. At the end of the three year competition, the new archmage of the kingdom of Xidit will be chosen from among the competitors. Take your place, wizard! Equip your ancestral magical items, summon your most faithful familiars to your side and be ready to face the challenge!

Seasons is a tactical game of cards and dice which takes place in two phases:

The first phase "Prelude" consists of a card draft: the goal during this phase will be to establish own 9-card deck for the main part of the game and with it the strategy.

Once the Prelude is complete, each player must separate his 9 cards into 3 packs of 3 cards. He will begin the second phase of the game with his first pack of three cards, then gradually as the game progresses, he will receive the other two packets of three cards.

Next comes the Tournament: at the beginning of each round a player will roll the seasons dice (dice = number of players +1).

These cubes offer a variety of actions to the players:
- Increase your gauge (maximum number of cards you may have placed on the table and in play)
- Harvesting energy (water, earth, fire, air) to pay the cost of power cards
- Crystallizing the energy (during the current season) to collect crystals. Crystals serve both as a resource to pay for some cards, but also as victory points in the end.
- Draw new cards

Each player can choose only one die per turn. The die not chosen by anyone determines how many fields the "time track" would move forward.
In addition, all the dice are different depending on the season. For example, there are not the same energies to a particular season. Throughout the game, players will therefore have to adapt to these changes - also the "exchange rates" of energy to crystals vary during seasons - the energy not present on the dice in any given season is also the best paid during the season.

At the end of the game, the crystals are summed with victory points granted by the cards (minus some penalties, where applicable). The highest score wins.