Hand Management

First Ascent is a rock climbing-themed strategic board game. The goal in this medium weight, competitive game is to gain the most points by climbing the best route up the mountain and becoming the most skilled climber! Each player assumes the role of a unique asymmetric character, and throughout the game they will be building their route up the mountain, managing resources, achieving objectives, and increasing their efficiency by accumulating skills and gear! This game is for 2-5 players and takes 45-90 minutes to play.

Gameplay overview:
In First Ascent, the goal is to gain the most points by creating the best route! Points are gained in four ways:
1) Climbing pitches — use your climbing skills, gear, water, and psych to pay the requirements to move on to a tile "climb the pitch". Draw a climbing card and resolve the events that may involve resource management, board manipulation, or selfish vs altruistic decisions. Each tile is worth 1-5 points with higher point value tiles requiring more resources.

2) Objectives — achieve shared and personal objectives that relate to the path of your route. Plan carefully and manage resources to execute the path that will contribute towards achieving your objectives.

3) Technique bonuses — the climbing skills and gear cards contain symbols representing climbing techniques of precision, power, balance, and pain tolerance. Match three technique symbols on the cards you play to climb a tile and earn +2 bonus points. These can add up significantly, so choose your resources wisely.

4) Summit — reaching the top of the mountain is great, but climbing is about the journey. Gain +1 summit bonus point for reaching a peak.

If you don't have the required resources to climb, you can "risk it" by rolling the risk dice to climb a tile for one less resource. You may get away with a check mark and succeed without consequence, roll minus two cards and give them to another player, or roll minus one card and one psych which you give to another player. As long as you have the assets to lose, you will climb the tile, but at a price.

When you begin to ascend the mountain start in any tile on the first row. Next climb to any adjacent tile and leave your rope behind to mark the route you've climbed. Two climbers can not occupy the same tile, except for a summit, so you may compete with other climbers on the mountain for the prime locations.

As you climb the mountain you will practice your skills and become a more efficient climber. The engine building component of this game grants you an "earned asset" after you play four cards of a specific skill type or gear. These tokens stay on your climber asset board and count towards fulfilling the required assets of future tiles.

This isn't a race to the top, its about creating a strategic route that will reward your cunning and planning. The game ends when a player has used all seven rope lengths and climbed their eighth tile.

Do you have what it takes to create the greatest First Ascent?

Every ecosystem is a complex combination of living organisms and the environment. Even a small change in any element affects the entire system, but balance is usually restored quickly. However, sometimes a random event leads to the butterfly effect – an unpredictable cascade of changes that can completely transform the whole biosphere.

Evolution: New World – Kickstarter Box includes The Butterfly Effect expansion and all additional exclusive and limited content from the crowdfunding campaign.

In the box, you’ll find:

New Evolution and Area cards (including Exclusive Promo cards, alt-art cards and foil cards). Add more gameplay depth and create dynamic survival strategies for your animals.
The Solo mode. In the Alien World scenario you will fight 1 on 1 against the merciless Dominator and insatiable Devastator for supremacy or create your own monsters to compete with.
Additional tokens. With the expansion, up to 6 players can enjoy Evolution together.
Butterfly Effect scenario. Start a chain reaction of random events that affect the game’s course and change the evolutionary process.
Exclusive non-gameplay components (sticker pack, metal pin).

—description from the publisher

Challengers! is an interactive deck-management game for 1-8 players that plays in about 45 minutes independent of player count. With the tournament gameplay style, you meet another opponent every round.

In the Deck Phase, you choose new members and add them to your deck, which might consist of a wizard, alien, cat, gangster and kraken. 75 distinct characters with more than 40 exciting effects create a unique experience every game. Choose from six different sets and discover new strategies and synergies every game.

In the Match Phase, stay in flag possession to win the trophy of that round. Try to get the most fans and trophies over the course of seven rounds to be able to qualify for the final. If you can best your opponent in the final, you win Challengers!

(If you think that all sounds a lot like a board game adaption of a digital Autobattler, we are proud to tell you that this is the first of its kind!)

—description from the publisher

Autobahn is an economic strategy game about the building of the German motorway system over three periods of time spanning from the end of World War II to the present day.

At the end of the second period (in 1990), the Unification opens up opportunities to further extend the network into the eastern part of the country.

As a director within the BundesAutobahn Organisation, you are responsible for managing and developing the German Federal Highway System.

​Aside from building roads, you’ll also be responsible for facilitating the transport of goods to neighbouring countries and constructing petrol stations to benefit from this new traffic.

As you contribute to the development of the network, you gain seats at the administration boards of each highway, and they will increase your budget at the start of each period.

Over the course of the game, your board members will eventually advance to more prestigious seats within the Bundesautobahn building, which instead will provide victory points at the end of the game.

Plan ahead to optimize your efficiency: Each contribution you make builds your reputation and gains you access to new departments and scoring opportunities that better align with your chosen path to victory.

​The cards in your hand allows you to take actions on one of the 7 main Autobahns.
You’ll need to plan carefully and time your actions perfectly if you want to make the most of your hand before you need to collect your cards back.

—description from the publisher

The Red Dragon Inn 5: The Character Trove is a fast-paced, light-hearted card game for two or more players. You and your increasingly mighty party of adventuring companions have spent all day slogging through the dungeon, killing monsters and taking their stuff. Now you’re back in town, healed up, cleaned up, and ready to party at the Red Dragon Inn. Drink, gamble, and roughhouse with your friends. But don’t forget to keep an eye on your gold. If you run out, you’ll have to spend the night in the stables. Oh… and try not to get too beaten up or too drunk. If you black out, your friends will continue the party without you… after they loot your body for gold, of course! The last conscious adventurer with gold wins the game!

The Red Dragon Inn 5: The Character Trove is a standalone game for 2-4 players. It expands on "The Red Dragon Inn" family of box sets and single-character expansions called Allies. You can mix and match characters from any of these sets, letting you build the party composition of your choice! Each of the box sets includes four unique characters, a drink deck, gold pieces, and all the parts for 2-4 players to play right out of the box. Each of the Allies expansions includes a character deck as well as gold pieces and bits so you can add another character to a box set (thus making a 2-4 player collection playable by 2-5 players).

Sera the Fleetfooted: Sera is a stealthy rogue whose speed and agility allow her to take down roomfuls of bad guys before they even know what’s happening. The dungeon’s beefiest monsters are no match for her flying daggers! She didn’t get so skilled by slacking off, though. Even while she’s partying, she continues training to make sure she’s always at the top of her game.

The Good: She hones her skills by sparring with her friends.
The Bad: Sometimes she does this without warning them first…

Lizwick the Collector: Lizwick is a consummate problem solver with an unrivaled collection of gear. Her wondrous Bag of Holding contains rare and peculiar items of all descriptions. She is always on the lookout for the next amazing whatchamacallit to add to her collection. Lizwick has gotten The Party out of many a jam with the clever application of the wrong tool at the right time.

The Good: Lizwick’s collection is the envy of academies, guilds and hoarders alike!
The Bad: …and they’d like their stuff back.

Joran the Trickster: Joran’s penchant for pranks earned him a student “sabbatical” from the Mage’s Collegium. Fortunately, Zot saw some potential in the boy, and decided to take him adventuring for some valuable field experience. The young mage’s humor has proven to be mostly harmless to his new friends. He puts his clever brain to good use by pulling fast ones on the bad guys.

The Good: Joran’s talent for misdirection makes him the perfect weapon against enemy spell-casters.
The Bad: It also makes him the perfect weapon against his friends’ gold, their sobriety, their patience…

Zakhan the Drunken Master: Zakhan’s father is a solemn elven noble and a guru of meditative martial combat techniques. His mother was a rowdy barbarian warchief with a penchant for throwing wild parties. This unique heritage has allowed Zakhan to hone a seemingly reckless hybrid fighting style of his own. His opponents who underestimate his “drunken” martial arts do so at their own peril!

The Good: Zakhan’s drunken fighting techniques make him a formidable foe.
The Bad: Sometimes he’s actually just drunk.

But wait, there's more! The Red Dragon Inn 5: The Character Trove is also a massive storage solution for all previous sets (with room for more). You get a massive storage box plus dividers, new play mats for all previously released characters, updated tokens and more! Check it out:

6 Unique Decks (4 40-card Character Decks, 1 18-card Item Deck, 1 30-card Drink Deck)
29 Character-specific Player Mats (with replacements for all previous sets!)
35 Cardboard Deck Dividers
1 Cardboard Chi Marker
4 Glass Fortitude Markers
4 Glass Alcohol Content Markers
9 Remastered Cardboard Fortitude Markers
9 Remastered Cardboard Alcohol Content Markers
55 Remastered Gold Coin Tokens
9 New Platinum Coin Tokens
10 Foam Spacer Blocks
2 Cloth Drawstring Bags
Ziptop Baggies
Rules for playing The Red Dragon Inn