Dice Rolling

HeroQuest is Milton Bradley's approach to a Dungeons & Dragons-style adventure game. One player acts as game master, revealing the maze-like dungeon piecemeal as the players wander. Up to four other players take on a character (wizard, elf, dwarf, or barbarian) and venture forth into dungeons on fantasy quests. Plastic miniatures and 3-D furniture make this game very approachable. Expansions were also released for this system.

The HeroQuest series consists of the main game and a number of expansions.

This game was made in cooperation with Games Workshop who designed the miniatures and helped in many of the production details including background world and art in the rule book and scenario book.

Additional material which is generally missed since it is not technically an expansion was published in the HeroQuest: Adventure Design Kit which did feature one more Heroquest adventure: A Plague of Zombies.

Order of the Gilded Compass is a dice assignment game for 2-5 players. In this game, each player takes on the role of a treasure hunter seeking invitation to join the most prestigious of archaeological secret societies. Players scour the globe to unearth fantastic and valuable artifacts. By assigning their archaeologist dice to the right locations at the right time, players acquire treasure maps and specialists to follow them, dive for sunken treasure, acquire rare finds at the auction house, and even enlist the help of the Illuminati. The player who has the most treasure at the end of the game earns an invitation to The Order of the Gilded Compass and wins.

Order of the Gilded Compass uses a variable set-up in order to create fresh and interesting game play experiences. Each game has five locations in play to which players may assign their dice for various kinds of treasures and bonuses, and the game includes nine different buildings to allow for many unique combinations.

Princes of the Renaissance is set in Renaissance Italy. Each player takes on the role of one of the minor Condottiere princes, such as the Gonzagas or d'Estes. Then there are the big five major cities: Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome, and Naples. These are not controlled by individual players, but players will gain 'interests' in them as the game progresses. Each city has six tiles, most of which represent a famous character such as Lucrezia Borgia or Lorenzo Medici. Each tile has its own special properties that are linked to the character on the tile. Thus Cesare Borgia will help you to become more treacherous, while a Venetian merchant will increase your income. These tiles are also worth victory points, depending on the status of the city at the end of the game.

A city's status will change as a result of war. When two cities fight, they will each need a Condottiere to fight for them. Players bid, using influence points, to decide who will represent each city. The outcome of the war will depend on a little luck and the size of each player's army. Each player also gets paid for fighting, no matter what the outcome of the war is. Thus players can turn influence into gold, which in turn can be used to buy more City tiles.

No game on the Italian Renaissance would be complete without an element of treachery. Players can be openly treacherous by buying Treachery tiles, which will allow them to do nasty things like steal influence, bribe troops, or knock players out of an auction. However, the game allows players to be devious in other ways, that still remain legal. Making sure that a war goes the way you want it to is an important part of the game, and it is not always the player with the best army who ends up fighting. Want a city to lose, well become Condottiere for them and make sure you have a really bad army, or use Treachery tiles to bribe your own troops not to fight. At some point some player will become the Pope, which means he can form a Holy League (i.e. join one side in a battle). Want to make sure the Pope is on the 'right' side, well why not bribe him? What players negotiate over is up to them. The game does not force negotiation and works perfectly well without it, but it remains an avenue for players to explore.

DESCRIPTION: Players take on hidden roles competing for influence in this ingenious tip of the hat to Liar's Dice.

GENERAL INFO: A bluffing game with dice for 2-6 players that plays in less than 30 minutes.

THEME: It is 1492, the church is without a pope. With the shadows to thank, the Borgia family is at the peak of their power. In a week the Cardinals will gather for the Conclave. With your reputation you could never win the seat, but you may be able to control who does!

HOOK: It's like Coup meets Liar's Dice! A quick and glorious game of lies and deceit! Richly thematic and completely immersive.

WINNING CONDITION: Having secretly controlled the Cardinal who has the most influence at the end of the game.

MECHANICS: Players are randomly given an identity at the beginning of the game. It is imperative that they keep their identity secret from the other players. These identities represent the Cardinal who they want to gain the most influence.

6 cards representing Cardinals, are randomly placed in an ascending ladder-like line up. A Cardinals position on this ladder determines how much, if any, influence they will gain at the end of the turn.

Using dice and bluffing in a similar fashion to Liar's Dice, players will be able to manipulate a Cardinal's position on the ladder; or manipulate how much influence they have; or even accuse another player of the Cardinal they are controlling.

At the end of the game, if another player has accurately paired you with a Rumor Card, one that matches your secret identity, you lose; regardless of how much influence you may have acquired for your Cardinal.

Description from the publisher:

"For once, Zeus, Greek god of thunder and sky, is in high spirits. Hence, he decides to offer a generous gift to a worthy mortal and invite him, or her, to his realm, to Olympus. To determine a sufficient candidate, Zeus hosts a competition for his entertainment. Twelve legendary tasks are imposed upon the fearless participants: to erect graceful statues, to raise awe-inspiring sanctuaries, to offer capacious offerings, and to slay the most fearsome monsters. The first participant to master all the posed assignments wins the favor of the father of the gods himself.

Indubitably, you will not pass up this golden opportunity, so you clear your ship and rally your crew to follow on the trails of legendary Odysseus through the dangerous waters of the Aegean. But how could you find the righteous path onward? There is but one who can help you. Visit the mysterious oracle of Delphi and let her answers guide your ways.

In Stefan Feld's new game The Oracle of Delphi, the player's ships travel across a large variable game board of hexagonal tiles showing islands and the surrounding waters. Each player aims to reach certain islands to perform the twelve tasks given by Zeus: e.g., to collect offerings of different colors and to deliver them to corresponding temples, or to slay monsters of a specific type (and color), all of which can be discovered on the islands.

In order to execute these color-dependent actions, you are given three colored dice each turn, the so-called "oracle dice". Rolling the dice (at the start of the turn) is equivalent to consulting the oracle, whereas the results represent her answers. The answers determine which actions you will be able to take, but you will always have three actions per turn. However, a slight divergence from your fate is often possible.

In addition to the oracle, you can request support from the gods and you can acquire favor tokens, companions, and other special abilities that will help you win the race against other competitors.

Differently equipped ships and the variable set-up of the game board will offer new challenging and interesting strategic and tactical decisions with every new game of The Oracle of Delphi that you play.