Closed Drafting

In Let's Go! To Japan, you are a traveler planning, then experiencing your own dream vacation to Japan.

The game consists of thirteen rounds in which players draw activity cards illustrated by Japan-based artists and strategically place them in different days in their week-long itinerary. These can't-miss tourist attractions will have you bouncing between Tokyo and Kyoto as you try to puzzle out the optimal activities to maximize your experience while balancing your resources. The game ends with a final round in which you ultimately go on your planned trip, activating each of your cards in order along the way.

The player who collects the most points by the end of their trip wins!

-description from designer

Great adventure, fame, and untold riches — all this is waiting for the Black Hole Buccaneers. In the game, the players' task is to collect ancient collectibles from the orbit of black holes, objects dumped there hundreds of years ago as mankind's chosen place for the final disposal of garbage. Among the 99 cards in the game are artifacts and relics that have powerful effects, as well as toys that are not particularly valuable in the year 2642, but that are in great demand by other species. In exchange, these species offer their help in escaping the black holes into which players will be drawn when the collected space debris exceeds their threshold for release. The player who best manages to master the dangers of outer space after three rounds of the drafting game and collects the most valuable items will win.

Black Hole Buccaneers is a fast-playing drafting game which not only offers new situations and a lot of interaction with other players, but also difficult decisions due to various card effects. In each round, everyone at the table plays one card and passes the remaining cards to their neighbor. Whoever can escape the black hole in the scoring phase of a round gets to score their collected items and thus comes a little closer to victory.

-description from publisher

It's a wild frontier out there in Wild Tiled West, and only the canniest critters will have what it takes to claim it!

Draft tiles to build new towns across the prairie and help your settlement grow. Defend your citizens from no-good-rotten outlaws. Strike it rich in the mines, or risk it all at the card table!

The West is wilder than ever! And it'll take clever strategy and a bit of luck to come out on top! Saddle up and ride off into the Wild Tiled West!

Fit to Print is a puzzly tile-laying game about breaking news, designed by Peter McPherson and set in a charming woodland world created by Ian O’Toole!

Thistleville is the world’s most bustling little town — it’s a challenge to keep up with everything going on, from who took home first prize for their baked goods at the community fair to who has been digging in Mrs. Brambleberry’s carrot patch.

As an editor at one of the local newspapers, your job is to tell their stories!

The front page is due in just a few hours and you have no time for perfection. Grab the big stories before the other papers get a chance, and make sure you get the right photos too. A newspaper is a business, so the money has to come from somewhere — don’t forget the ads! After you’ve picked out a combination of stories, photos, and ads, it’s time to lay out the front page. Did you take enough tiles to fill the paper, but not so many that things have to be cut? Over the course of three hectic days, your skills will be tested as you compete to be the most newsworthy editor!

Fit To Print is a tile-laying game for the whole family. Players simultaneously collect newspaper tiles, stacking them on their desks until they think they have what they need to make the perfect front page. Then, they will yell “Layout!” and begin to lay out the page by carefully considering the placement of centerpieces, articles, photographs, and advertisements. When everything is just right, they yell “Print” to be the first off the press and gain their choice of centerpiece for the next round! This hectic spatial puzzle features over 100 unique newspaper tiles, 6 characters with their own special abilities, as well as 3 decks of Breaking News cards — so that each and every time you play you will be solving a new puzzle!

If real-time games aren’t your style, Fit to Print has a number of alternative modes to satisfy every type of puzzle gamer. In Slo-Mode players take turns drafting tiles from a shared market and arranging them on their front pages. In Puzzle Mode, take a specific set of tiles and piece together the highest-scoring arrangements. Whether you enjoy relaxing solo puzzles on your own, or frenetic action for up to 6 players, you will have a blast helping the critters of Thistleville tell their stories!

—description from the publisher

I, Dr. Schism, being of sinister mind and not-bad body, leave one bequest to my underlings. The gift of petty conflict!

In Bequest, players will strategically split Dr. Schism’s fortune with their villainous neighbors! Each player draws five Asset cards, and splits them into two piles for the player on your right, who will choose one to keep, leaving you the other, while you do the same with the piles split by the player on your left. Once everyone has chosen, you’ll collect your spoils, and soon another round will begin, this time going in the other direction!

With a variety of different Asset types to collect, you’ll be keeping a close eye on your neighbors to figure out what they’re looking for, and how badly they need it. You’ll collect matching gadgets for exponentially increasing $ values, Hideouts for set $ values, and try to avoid ending up with Evidence, which count as -$3 each once you have three or more. Global Influence earns you $10 or $20 provided you have more than your neighbors, and Schemes provide unique scoring conditions based on the rest of your collection.

One Asset type is Keys to Dr. Schism’s vault, each with a spot in the drafting order for Special Asset cards, which include the Schemes, and powerful versions of the other card types. Will you pick the smaller pile with a Key, and a chance to claim Dr. Schism’s $5 Space Station hideout? Or play it safe with a Bunker and two power cores?

Bequest packs a ton of strategy into what looks like simple decisions. Will you be clever enough to walk away with the lion’s share of Dr. Schism’s estate, and become the next great supervillain?

—description from the publisher