In the game Reef, players take on the role of the reef itself, alternating turns in which they carefully select the colors and patterns in which to grow and expand — the more beautiful the reef, the more points they score!
Reef is suited for players aged 8 and up. While it could take thousands of years for a coral reef to grow, a game of Reef should take only 30-45 minutes.
Tichu took much of its rules and mechanics from Zheng Fen. It is a partnership climbing card game, and the object of play is to rid yourself of your hand, preferably while scoring points in the process.
The deck is a standard 52-card pack with four special cards added: dog, phoenix, dragon and Mah Jong (1). When it's your turn, you may either beat the current top card combination — single card, pair of cards, sequence of pairs, full house, etc. — or pass. If play passes all the way back to the player who laid the top cards, he wins the trick, clears the cards, and can lead the next one. The card led determines the only combination of cards that can be played on that trick, so if a single card is led, then only single cards are played; if a straight of seven cards is led, then only straights of seven cards can be played, etc.
The last player out in a round gives all the cards he won to the player who exited first, and the last player's unplayed cards are handed to the opposite team. Fives, tens and Kings are worth 5, 10 and 10 points, with each hand worth one hundred points without bonuses — but the bonuses are what drive the game. At the start of a round, each player can call "Tichu" prior to her playing any card. This indicates that she thinks that she can empty her hand first this round; if she does so, her team scores 100 points, and if not, it loses 100 points. Cards are dealt at the start of a round in a group of eight and a group of six; a player can call "Grand Tichu" after looking at only her first eight cards for a ±200 point bonus. If both players on a team exit a round prior to either player on the opposite team, then no points are scored for cards and the winning team earns 200 points (with Tichu/Grand Tichu bonuses and penalties being applied as normal).
The first team to 1,000 points wins.
The theme of the game is an eating contest in a Taiwanese Snackbar.
"In this competition you will eat more than you can imagine as your competitors continually challenge you to shove even more in. Play your cards cleverly or the servers will serve you food until you fall from your seat. Let the competitors be the ones to fill up until they drop and the snack bar throne will be yours!"
The players add "dish"-cards or special cards to a common "order"-pile until one of them can´t (or won´t) add any more cards. Then that player has to "eat" the whole order by drawing the appropriate amount of cards from a draw pile. If he draws one (or more) of the "No More!"-cards, he accrues negative points and the round ends.
The played cards are then set aside and new "No More"-cards are shuffled into the (now smaller) draw pile, making for an ever more tense experience as the contest goes into the later stages.
When one player has collected 3 negative points the game ends and the player with the smallest amount of negative points wins the game.
Gods and Goddesses are mercurial beings, given to jealousy and treachery, but they can also possess compassion and valor.
Who among the pantheon can win enough glory among their believers, so that their story of mythic victory can be passed down through the generations?
They Who Were 8 is a game for 2-4 players where each player serves two Gods, seeking to praise them for their Glory, and trying to avoid stories of their Infamy.
The game can be played in two different ways:
• Titanomachy:
A game for 2-4 players trying to achieve an individual victory.
• Pantheon:
A partnership game for 4 players, played in two teams of 2.
In both of these games, the players take actions that represent a bard’s retelling of the ancient story of They Who Were 8. They may also call upon the powers of their Gods to control the narrative and establish their version of the saga as the one told for eternity.
Note: They Who Were 8 was inspired by a cycle of poems by Todd Sanders written in 1999. The poems are fragments of a larger ancient saga, lost to time.
Amun-Re: The Card Game is a card-based version of Amun-Re, and the auction at the heart of that game is still present in this design, with the results of those auctions driving the rest of the action.
In more detail, Amun-Re: The Card Game lasts three rounds, with three auctions in each round, followed by other actions, then a scoring. Each player starts the game with money cards valued 0-8, and at the start of the game, everyone chooses money cards that sum to 14 (with the 0 being included) and lays those cards face up on the table. Province cards equal to the number of players are revealed, and players take turns bidding on provinces by placing exactly one money card next to one province, outbidding an opponent if someone else has already bid there; if you're outbid, you take back your money card, then bid again on your next turn. Eventually everyone will have bid on separate provinces, after which you discard the non-0 bids, then lay out new province cards and run through two more rounds of bidding.
Province cards show different numbers of pyramids, ankhs, and fields, with a caravan possibly being visible as well. Whoever has the most ankhs visible is Pharaoh, going first in each action with ties broken from the Pharaoh going clockwise.
After three rounds of auctions, players will have some amount of money (possibly only the 0) still in hand. Everyone simultaneously makes an offering of gold, and the sum of the offerings determines how much the Nile floods, which determines how much money players will earn from fields. If the sum is 10 or less, players with caravans receive 10 gold per caravan. Whoever offers the most gold receives three pyramids to place on their province cards, with others receiving two and one pyramids.
In player order, players determine their income level, then spend gold to build pyramids on their cards (distributing them as equally as possible), then they take money cards into their hand to account for any income not spent. They then score points for sets of pyramids, for having nine or more fields, and for having the most ankhs.
The second and third rounds of the game play out similarly, except that when you claim cards following the auction, you place these province cards on top of your previous province cards so that only the imprinted and acquired pyramids are visible. Everything else is buried in the sands. You score again at the end of each of these rounds, then the player with the most points wins.