Science Fiction

Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia

UPDATE July 1, 2014: 16 of the original recruit cards have been updated and revised for the second edition of Euphoria, due out in Europe in October/November. Those recruit cards are included for free in every copy of our Treasure Chest and will be available for purchase through the BGG store in December. A PnP of those updated recruit cards will be available here: http://stonemaiergames.com/print-play-euphoria/

You find yourself in a dystopian cityscape with a few workers at your disposal to make your mark on the world. Like most people in dystopian fiction, your workers are oblivious to their situation. This world is all they've ever known, and you may use them at your whim.

The world as we know it has ended, and in its place the city of Euphoria has risen. Believing that a new world order is needed to prevent another apocalypse, the Euphorian elite erect high walls around their golden city and promote intellectual equality above all else. Gone are personal freedoms; gone is knowledge of the past. All that matters is the future.

The Euphorians aren’t alone. Outside the city are those who experienced the apocalypse firsthand—they have the memories and scars to prove it. These Wastelanders have cobbled together a society of historians and farmers among the forgotten scrap yards of the past.

There is more to the world than the surface of the earth. Deep underground lies the hidden city of Subterra, occupied by miners, mechanics, and revolutionaries. By keeping their workers in the dark, they’ve patched together a network of pipes and sewers, of steam and gears, of hidden passages and secret stairways.

In Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, you lead a team of workers (dice) and recruits (cards) to claim ownership of the dystopian world. You will generate commodities, dig tunnels to infiltrate opposing areas, construct markets, collect artifacts, strengthen allegiances, and fulfill secret agendas.

Euphoria is a worker-placement game in which dice are your workers. The number on each die represents a worker's knowledge—that is, his level of awareness that he's in a dystopia. Worker knowledge enables various bonuses and impacts player interaction. If the collective knowledge of all of your available workers gets too high, one of them might desert you. You also have two elite recruit cards at your disposal; one has pledged allegiance to you, but the other needs some convincing. You can reveal and use the reticent recruit by reaching certain milestones in the game... or by letting other players unwittingly reach those milestones for you.

Your path to victory is paved with the sweat of your workers, the strength of your allegiances, and the tunnels you dig to infiltrate other areas of the world, but the destination is a land grab in the form of area control. You accomplish this by constructing markets that impose harsh restrictions of personal freedoms upon other players, changing the face of the game and opening new paths to victory. You can also focus on gathering artifacts from the old world, objects of leisure that are extremely rare in this utilitarian society. The dystopian elite covet these artifacts—especially matching pairs—and are willing to give you tracts of land in exchange for them.

Four distinct societies, each of them waiting for you to rewrite history. What are you willing to sacrifice to build a better dystopia?

This game is protected due to fragile packaging and requires having a Membership to play. See Game Associate for details.

Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension

In Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension, players command spaceships that have been pulled through a black hole, transporting them into a different dimension. With each ship lacking fuel to get home, each player must collect basic elements from surrounding asteroids, using the gravity of the dimension and what little resources they have in order to reach the warp gate that will take them home. But in this dimension, moving ships will travel towards the nearest object, which is usually another ship, and when those objects are moving either forward or backward, reaching the warp gate isn't always easy. Time is running out to save your crew and your ship! As a grim reminder of the cost of failing to escape, the frozen hulks of dead spacecraft litter the escape route – but with careful cardplay, you can slingshot past these derelict craft and be the first to escape from the Gravwell!

This easy-to-learn game uses 26 alphabetized cards to determine movement order and thrust; most cards move your ship towards the nearest object, but a few move you away from it. Players will draft fuel cards in each round – picking up three pairs of two cards, with only the top card of each pile being visible – giving you some information as to which moves you can expect from the other spaceships. During a round, each player will play all of his fuel cards in the order of his choosing. During each phase of a round, each player will choose one card, then all cards are revealed and resolved in alphabetical order. When your opponents move in ways you didn't expect, you won't always be heading in the direction you thought you would! Each player holds an "Emergency Stop" card that he may tactically play only once per round to avoid such a situation.

Whoever first reaches the warp gate wins, but if no one has escaped after six rounds, then the player who is closest to the gate wins.

Risk: Star Wars – The Clone Wars Edition

A year has passed since the start of the Clone Wars on Geonosis. The Galactic Republic has since become engulfed with all-out warfare against the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The effects of this galaxy-wide struggle have been felt in every facet of the Republic. Take command of the Republic "Clone Trooper" Army or lead the Separatists in their universal conquest to topple the Old Republic as a players wage war on numerous planetary battlegrounds in the galaxy's most unforgettable conflict in the exciting Risk variant.

Eminent Domain: Escalation

Welcome back, Emperor. The time for unchecked expansion is over. Warmongers raise their flags over weaker empires, while civilized planets take shelter behind peace treaties. Brace yourself for rising tensions in this next chapter of Eminent Domain: Escalation!

This expansion for Eminent Domain, which cannot be played without the base game, puts the following new tools at the Emperor's disposal:

New meaning to the larger-sized ships in Eminent Domain.
Additional Role cards to support a fifth player.
Additional technologies, each with an alternate cost in addition to their normal Research cost.
A new category of technology ("Diverse"), requiring one planet of each type to research.
Optional scenarios for asymmetric starting positions and technologies for each player.

Eminent Domain

Survey the galaxy to expand your civilization – will you colonize nearby planets, or take them over by force? Harvest resources for trade, and do research to improve your technology. Build the best civilization and win the game!

Eminent Domain is a civilization-building game in which your civilization's abilities are based on a deck of Role cards. At the beginning of the game each player has the same deck of cards, with just two cards for each Role in it. Every turn you must choose a Role to execute (and like Glory to Rome or Puerto Rico, your opponents will get a chance to follow suit), and in doing so you will add one of those Role cards to your deck. When executing a Role, you can boost its effect by playing cards out of your hand matching the Role you have chosen. For example, the more you Research, the better you get at Researching (because you'll have more Research cards in your deck).