Co-operative Play

Obstgarten: Das Memospiel

Publisher website: "Watch out! The cheeky raven wants to snatch lots of tidbits. Try to save all the fruit by turning over fruit tiles that match the color on the die. The aim of the game is to collect the fruit before the raven snatches everything. A co-operative memory game for 2-4 players ages 3 to 99. Includes a competitive variation."

A co-operative memory game in which players collect fruit
before the raven can take it. Fruit tiles lie face-down on a path. Each turn you roll a die and try to find the two tokens that match the color on the die. If you roll the raven symbol, it hops one space down the path, eating whatever it lands on. Save more fruit than the raven eats, and you win.

First Orchard

Haba's classic Orchard for the smallest ones. The rules are adjusted to their age and the game material is especially designed for a small childs' hand. The beautiful and handy wooden pieces are also very suitable for free play and fostering better motor skills.

A co-operative game for 1 - 4 players, Ages 2 and up

Orchard

Obstgarten is a cooperative game for two or more players aged 3 and up. Only a quick harvesting of the trees carrying crunchy cherries, juicy apples, sweet pears and marvellous plums prevents the snitching of fruits by the impudent and insatiable raven. All players work together to harvest the fruits.

Mysterium

In the 1920s, Mr. MacDowell, a gifted astrologist, immediately detected a supernatural being upon entering his new house in Scotland. He gathered eminent mediums of his time for an extraordinary séance, and they have seven hours to contact the ghost and investigate any clues that it can provide to unlock an old mystery.

Unable to talk, the amnesic ghost communicates with the mediums through visions, which are represented in the game by illustrated cards. The mediums must decipher the images to help the ghost remember how he was murdered: Who did the crime? Where did it take place? Which weapon caused the death? The more the mediums cooperate and guess well, the easier it is to catch the right culprit.

In Mysterium, a reworking of the game system present in Tajemnicze Domostwo, one player takes the role of ghost while everyone else represents a medium. To solve the crime, the ghost must first recall (with the aid of the mediums) all of the suspects present on the night of the murder. A number of suspect, location and murder weapon cards are placed on the table, and the ghost randomly assigns one of each of these in secret to a medium.

Each hour (i.e., game turn), the ghost hands one or more vision cards face up to each medium, refilling their hand to seven each time they share vision cards. These vision cards present dreamlike images to the mediums, with each medium first needing to deduce which suspect corresponds to the vision cards received. Once the ghost has handed cards to the final medium, they start a two-minute sandtimer. Once a medium has placed their token on a suspect, they may also place clairvoyancy tokens on the guesses made by other mediums to show whether they agree or disagree with those guesses.

After time runs out, the ghost reveals to each medium whether the guesses were correct or not. Mediums who guessed correctly move on to guess the location of the crime (and then the murder weapon), while those who didn't keep their vision cards and receive new ones next hour corresponding to the same suspect. Once a medium has correctly guessed the suspect, location and weapon, they move their token to the epilogue board and receive one clairvoyancy point for each hour remaining on the clock. They can still use their remaining clairvoyancy tokens to score additional points.

If one or more mediums fail to identify their proper suspect, location and weapon before the end of the seventh hour, then the ghost has failed and dissipates, leaving the mystery unsolved. If, however, they have all succeeded, then the ghost has recovered enough of its memory to identify the culprit.

Mediums then group their suspect, location and weapon cards on the table and place a number by each group. The ghost then selects one group, places the matching culprit number face down on the epilogue board, picks three vision cards — one for the suspect, one for the location, and one for the weapon — then shuffles these cards. Players who have achieved few clairvoyancy points flip over one vision card at random, then secretly vote on which suspect they think is guilty; players with more points then flip over a second vision card and vote; then those with the most points see the final card and vote.

If a majority of the mediums have identified the proper suspect, with ties being broken by the vote of the most clairvoyant medium, then the killer has been identified and the ghost can now rest peacefully. If not, well, perhaps you can try again...

Dead Panic

The zombie apocalypse has begun, and you and your friends take on the roles of various characters who are all working to survive.

In Dead Panic, each player takes on the role of one of eight unique characters, which have special abilities. Players work together to survive in a remote cabin, at the center of the board, against waves of the undead that close in from the edges of the board. If the players can hold out, survivors bring pieces of the radio needed to call for rescue. Once rescue arrives, it's up to each player to leave the safety of the cabin and make it out alive!

To fight the zombies, players use cabin cards, some of which are weapons that help players attack zombies at a distance or in hand-to-hand combat. If characters take too many injuries during combat, they die and return to the game as a zombie with customized rules as a member of the undead! Other cabin cards are items, which give the players various benefits and a better chance at survival. The supply of items and weapons is limited, however. Once the cabin deck is exhausted, it is not reshuffled. A separate deck of cards, called event cards, allow the zombies to have their turn. This deck not only brings a variety of zombies into play but each card also has a special effect when drawn.

Can you survive Dead Panic?