Trick-taking

Dearest Player, you have been invited, at the behest of your titled host, to make your debut during the 1851 social season of Victorian London.

Apistocracy is a 2-4 player game featuring worker placement, as well as a trick-taking game based on Whist. Each player has a season host with a unique ability. The hosts provide influence to open the first doors of the season, but players must make connections, thus building influence, to gain invitations to the most coveted events. Over the course of four weeks, players climb to the top of the social beehive to become Queen Victoria's favorite, commission painting sets in the gallery to become the artist's muse, make valuable connections in the ballroom to become the favored guest, learn secrets in the tea room, and curate their hand for the final whist game in the parlor. The player with the most Victoria points at the end of the season is named the "season's favorite" and wins.

The game offers players nuanced action selection, with opportunities for strategic decision making. Do you spend your resources to move up the beehive? Do you dance in the ballroom to gain a valuable card for your player mat? Do you commission your portrait and complete your painting set? Regardless of your choice, the main goal is to have fun! If you happen to create a buzz and become the season's favorite in the process, then bravo! If you do not achieve the coveted title, you need not give up — there's always next season!

Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard is a co-operative trick-taking game for two players that's a standalone spin-off of Jekyll vs. Hyde.

You're Dr. Jekyll, the kind doctor and valuable friend — but you're also the infamous Mr. Hyde, who is hunted by Scotland Yard for the many misdeeds committed in the City of London. Your objective is to maintain the balance in the duality of your personality, while staying ahead of Scotland Yard's investigation.

This is a story-based game in which you have to achieve the objectives of every chapter of the story to complete the game.

Your inner superhero is ready to emerge, one chapter at a time. Reveal your backstory, gather gadgets and allies, develop a grudge against your archenemy, and unleash an ultimate ability as you transform. Use a combination of brains, love, speed, and strength to craft your origin story.

Origin Story is a 1-5 player competitive tableau-building, trick-taking game played over 5 rounds. Each round represents a chapter in your development and grants a new card to add to your player mat. Charge your cards and use their abilities to score more points than your opponents.

—description from the publisher

In Mino Dice, first released as Skull King: Das Würfelspiel, players try to predict the result of dice battles, and whoever predicts most accurately will come out the winner of the contest.

The game includes seven types of dice: minotaurs, griffins, mermaids, and four types of number dice. The game lasts 6-8 hands depending on the number of players, and in each round each player draws a number of dice from the bag equal to the current hand, e.g., five dice for the fifth hand, then places them behind their screen, keeping these dice a secret from all. After getting their dice, each player simultaneously bids the number of tricks they think they'll claim during the round by putting out fingers on their hand. Record these bids on the scoresheet.

The first player in a hand chooses a die from behind their screen, then rolls it in public. If they roll a number die, each other player must roll a number die of this color, if possible; otherwise they roll a die of their choice. Alternatively, a player can always roll a minotaur, griffin, or mermaid die. After each player has rolled, see who has the highest die and claims this trick. A rolled flag is a 0 and cannot win the trick. The minotaur beats the griffin, which beats the mermaid, which beats the minotaur — and all of these special characters beat numbers. If no one rolls a special character, the highest number rolled wins the trick, with a tie being broken in favor of whoever rolled later. The player who wins the trick collects the dice in front of their screen, then chooses a die from their collection to start the next trick.

After all the tricks have been claimed, players score points. If you made your bid exactly, score 20 points per trick bid; if you missed your bid, lose 10 points for each trick your bid was off, whether higher or lower. If you bid zero tricks and make it, score 10 points for each trick in the hand; if you miss a 0 bid, lose 10 points for each trick in the hand regardless of how many tricks you made. If you made your bid and captured a minotaur with a mermaid without also capturing a flag, score 50 bonus points; similarly, if you capture a griffin with a minotaur without capturing a flag, score 30 bonus points.

Whoever has the highest total score after the last hand is complete wins.

In Fishing, you try to catch as many tricks as possible over eight rounds, with each card you catch being worth 1 point. You then use your caught cards for the next round — and if you didn't catch enough tricks to fill your hand, you'll draw fresh cards from the ocean stack, which will introduce new cards for you fishers to fight over.

In more detail, at the start of each round, you have 8-13 cards in hand, depending on the player count and the round. In the first round, the cards go from 1-10 in four colors. Standard trick-taking rules apply, with players needing to follow the color led and the highest card of the led suit winning the trick.

New cards come into play from the ocean stack in waves, with higher-value cards in the four colors, a green trump suit from 1-16, 0 cards that let you snag a card from the trick, and special-powered buoy cards that can always be played into a trick regardless of what you have in hand. With buoys, you can steal the lead or determine which color must lead the next trick, force players to pass cards or lose points; you can even steal all other cards in a trick, ideally netting yourself huge fish for use next round.

At the end of each round, score 1 point for each card you caught. Whoever lands the most points after eight rounds wins.