Science Fiction

Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game

Description from the publisher:

With a grinding of gears and some uneasy rumbling, Aperture Laboratories has resumed testing! Your team of test subjects has entered the Lab and is ready to perform all sorts of important, dignified, and dangerous testing procedures...all in the pursuit of cake! It's a fun and funny fast-paced fight to the finish — and by finish, we mean your team probably died.

The Lab is an ever-changing conveyor belt of death and dismemberment. But SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS must be at the forefront of the mind of every good test subject. In Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game, a game of constantly shifting area control and cardplay by the creators of the Portal and Portal 2 video games, players move and Portal their test subjects to various chambers in the lab. At the end of each player's turn, one of the chambers on the end of the lab gives way, plunging all test subjects on it into oblivion. But should your test subjects have numbered greater than all others in the falling chamber, they earn you some wonderful parting gifts, which can include cake.

Yet these moist slices of industrial-grade cake must be stored in the lab where they are at risk of falling into said oblivion. Not to mention that your jealous opponents can pick up your cake and move it closer to that precipice. He who has acquired the most cake when a team has lost its last test subject wins. Do you risk gathering cake early for a quick win? Or do you bide your time and wait until you can protect it better? Win the game and prove the cake was no lie.

Risk 2210 A.D.

Risk 2210 A.D. is yet another entry in the long series of Risk variants. Set in the not-so-distant future, battles are now fought by machines of destruction, known as MODs, for short. Human commanders still lead these mechanized troops, but these commanders each have special powers and abilities. These come into play via the use of Command cards, which add a new dimension to the game. Now the battle is not just for the continents, but the sea and moon are also battlegrounds.

Although much has been added, the basic flavor of the game is still Risk. One welcome change is the institution of a five-turn game limit, which allows the game to play to completion in about three hours. Further, players must also factor in economics in the form of energy. This energy is used to purchase command cards, bid for turn order, and hire new commanders. There is much more strategy and planning involved in this new version, but it should still appeal to the classic Risk fans.

Re-implements:

Risk

PBL Robots

Pro Bionics League Robots (PBL ROBOTS) is a card & dice rolling game for two players (variant rules for multiplayer, expansions to support multi-player and other game variations are also in the works) who draft and build decks to build up (upgrade) a super powered robot while blasting apart their opponent's robot. Once you blow off all 4 limbs (head, left arm, right arm, legs) of the opposing robot, you win the game. A unique stacking mechanic makes building your robot visually appealing and functions as an important part of the gameplay. Attacks and defenses are determined by die rolls. Years of playtesting with multiple teams across the country (Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota) has developed the game into a highly competitive format that is appealing for hardcore gamers and still very fun for the casual gamer. Rule variations support new players and tournament rules for more hardcore players.

Ruse

A murder has been committed in the Victorian steampunk city of St. Sebastian. You have made the short list of police suspects and the only way to retain your freedom is to prove that one of the others on the list is in fact the murderous culprit.

Players take turns making Accusations against the other players by placing Method, Motive, or Opportunity cards in front of them or providing Alibis against the Accusations made against them by other players. You must remember what has been played and craft your Accusations well to pin the murder on another player.

Ruse uses cards with specialized suits and amazing steampunk artwork to tell the story of murder and mayhem under the gaslights of St. Sebastian.

As a bonus, the deck may also be used to play all of your favorite traditional card games.

Code of Nine

The world is in ruin. Humankind is but a distant memory, and only now have you awoken. You are an automaton in possession of several fragments that once held the will of the human race. The other fragments lie in the hands of your fellow automatons. You must investigate and piece together these fragments so that you alone may fulfill the final will of humanity.

Code of Nine — first released as Old World And Code Of Nine or OWACON — is a card-based board game in which the goal is to puzzle together long-gone memories. Players battle for victory points (VPs), but what will generate VPs is decided by eight so-called memory cards that are dealt at the start of the game, with each player getting to look at only two of these.

Each round, players choose actions that gain certain items such as coins, books, statues or legacies, or perhaps to peek at the other players' memory cards.

After five rounds, the score is calculated, and whoever has the most points wins.