Auction/Bidding

Talented Urban planners and architects rival each other to construct luxury, elegant buildings of glass and steel, defying the laws of balance. Who will eventually impose their style to leave an indelible trail in the history of the city? The answer is in your hands!

The players are urban planners in quest of prestige. Over the course of the game, players will try to construct their buildings in the best locations. As soon as a player has placed all of their buildings, the game ends. The player with the most prestige is the winner.

Each turn a player will pick a space on the board and place one of their buildings (bidding markers) into the space, with the bidding number shown. Each following player can then either pass or raise the bid by placing a higher numbered building into an adjacent space. The eventual winner of the bid flips his building number side down and all losing bids are returned to players. A new round commences.

Spaces on the board are differentiated by Metro spaces, which are worth points and reward the player with the most at game end; archaeological sites, which are worth minus points and penalize the player who most recently built on one; and fashionable locations, which are just worth extra points. In addition, each player has up to two hidden agendas that they are secretly trying to achieve, such as trying to surround water fountains or occupy both sides of bridges.

From the back of the box:

Venice, the 1400's. You are a young merchant trying to make your name in this legendary port of vibrant commerce. Trade in spices, silks, gems, iron, and grain can bring great wealth... if you can bend the market to your will. Buy goods as they enter the city docks and sell them to the tradesmen who need them. Increase your profits by buying shares of the shops that use the goods in which you trade. Gain gold and prestige by fulfilling the orders of the Guild Hall craftsmen.

But Venice is a city of fickle demands and mercurial politics. Spend your ducats wisely and look for help from powerful people such as the Guildmaster, the Harbormaster, the Tax Collector... or perhaps a Thief. Even the humble Gondolieri have powerful connections in Venice. In the end, the most important thing to remember is the simple rule of commerce... buy low and sell high! Only those with the most gold and the highest prestige can truly become... Masters of Venice!

In Master Builder, the players are builders in a small town (represented by 3D cardboard buildings). They try to acquire building contracts, which they then attempt to complete.

The contracts are gained by bidding on them. After that, the buildings must be constructed using workers. Each worker has his own specialty, and you'll need several different workers to complete a building.
Initially, players hire these workers to complete the buildings. Later, these workers can leave them, sometimes because they have been lured away by other players.

Master Builder is #4 in the Valley Games Modern Line.

An auction game where income and resources are automatically gained at the beginning of each turn. Then the money is used to bid on more resources, then the resources can either be used (along with money) to build cities, or "displayed" to qualifying for "roles" (like political appointments) which gain influence/VP-graft plus a special power such as income boost, resource boost, VP-boost, or resource re-display.

Building a city gains the player VP but also gives VP to the opponent(s) with matching role/graft color.

The board does triple duty, containing the scoring track, a map of some part of Italy, and staging area for the "role" tiles.

German Stategy meets American Fantasy!

Hunting Party has simple, yet elegant, mechanics that come together to create deep, interactive gameplay. In Hunting Party, players race to kill the Dark Agents and solve the prophecy by building the destined party from 36 unique Hunters. Players will hire hunters by bidding with shares of the King's Bounty. These hunters will give players the skills they need to hunt, and the abilities to make a difference. With your share of the bounty, you can buy items that will increase your party's skills, abilities, or even level up your hunters into champions.

Hunting Party is psychologically intense in the bidding of hunters, misleading of the prophecy, and in making deals of both cooperation and aggression. Players must balance the utilization of their shares and gold while planning carefully how they will use their hunters' abilities and their items to create opportunities and combos. However, the main challenge of Hunting Party is the use of Multiple Build Paths. Players are repeatedly asked,

How do you want to play?

Do you want to build a large party, a cheap party, a party of champions, a diversified party, or a specific one?

Do you want to focus on ability combinations, killing Dark Agents, or attacking other players?

Do you want to hoard gold, hoard items, or solve the Prophecy?

It's all in how you want to play!

Each game, you'll start off with a different Hero, a variable game board, and a different prophecy to solve, ensuring that you'll never play the same game twice.

Online Play

VASSAL (real-time or PBEM)