Hand Management

Res Arcana Duo is both an expansion for Res Arcana (with 35% more cards) and a standalone, two-player game that can be later combined with Res Arcana and its other expansions Lux et Tenebrae and Perlae Imperii.

Gameplay is the same as in the original game: Life, Death, Elan, Calm, and Gold are the essences that fuel the art of magic. Choose your mage, gather essences, craft unique artifacts, and use them to summon dragons, acquire places of power, and achieve victory!

Res Arcana Duo features a new drafting method designed for just two players and a tight set of 16 artifacts. Unlike the base game, it has no attacks, which some couples may prefer.

A game typically lasts 4-6 rounds. In each round, players do these steps:

Collect essences: performs any Collect abilities, and may take essences from components.
Do actions, 1 per turn, clockwise from the First Player, until all players have passed:
place an artifact
claim a monument or Place of Power
discard a card for 1 Gold or any 2 other essences
use a power on a straightened component
pass: exchange magic items and draw 1 card. If you are first to pass, take the First Player token.

Check victory (10+ VPs).

If no one has won: straighten all turned components and begin the next round.

You are a marine researcher seeking to find and observe an array of aquatic life in the colorful Sunlight Zone, ghostly Twilight Zone, and pitch-black Midnight Zone of the world's seas and oceans. In Finspan, the fish you discover over four weeks will generate a series of benefits as you dive deeper into the ocean.

Each dive site specializes in a key aspect of expanding your research:

Grow your collection of fish.
Discover freshly laid eggs.
Hatch eggs into young and consolidate young to form schools.

The winner is the player with the most points gained from fish, eggs, young, schools, and achievements.

—description from the publisher

"Two players battle for control over the lush life-sustaining sanctuaries of the desert. By cleverly playing and grouping animal cards, players can show their strength, unlock powers, and use palm tree tokens to alter values. Do you have what it takes to survive in the Desperate Oasis? I don't."

Desperate Oasis is a small but mighty "lane-battling" card game where you will play Animal Cards on your side (and sometimes your opponent's side) of a row of Oasis Cards in an attempt to win them. Special spatial rules pull similar animals together, allowing for manipulation of card positions. Each animal has a special power that can be triggered to alter the outcome of each duel, some only being revealed at the end of the round.

—description from the designer

Astronauts love floating in space, but not all by themselves. Tether them together so they don't drift through the galaxy alone.

Each card in Tether has a two-digit number in the top corner, and when you rotate the card 180 degrees, the number in the opposite corner has the same two digits, but the positions are swapped. For instance the card with a 68 in one corner has 86 in the opposite corner. Opponents sit across the table from each other, which means that when you play a card each player sees a different number.

You can connect astronauts together if they have consecutive numbers. One player (or team) connects astronauts together horizontally on the table and the other connects them vertically. Since each side sees a different number and connects in a different direction, but is playing with the same astronauts, you have an asymmetric puzzle with a lot of interaction between players.

—description from the designer

Illimat has the style and flavor of a classic card game with a dynamic twist. As you play, you combine cards and collect them, trying to gather more than your opponents. But hidden Luminaries and changing seasons can alter your plans. Featuring a cloth board, metal tokens, and illustrations by Carson Ellis.

Illimat supports two to four players and a single round takes approximately fifteen minutes. The cloth board is divided into four fields, and the box the game comes in is also a component of the game: it sits in the center of the board and sets the seasons for each field, which affects the actions that can be performed in each field. Turning the box and changing the seasons is a critical part of the strategy of the game.

Illimat has been playtested with devoted gamers and people who haven't played a game in years. The result is a game that's easy to learn, dynamic, and just a little bit addictive.

—description from the publisher