Dice Rolling

That flaming column was spouting volcanically. The combustion does not lay warmth, but only the clamminess of death and corruption. – The Festival, H.P. Lovecraft, 1923

In the unimaginable darkness of Kingsport, silent wanderers are called to a profane celebration. Their goal: to invoke unthinkable horrors! A dread terror that is not of this world or any other — but rather from the spaces between the stars — demands your submission. Meanwhile, unwary investigators vainly attempt to halt this appalling chapter in the dark history of Arkham.

As the high priest of one of these shadowy cults, you must dominate the city. You will invoke cosmic creatures and unholy gods to receive their "gifts", but you must take care to preserve your sanity and thwart the investigators who seek to stop you. This time, you are the bad guys. Why settle for the lesser evil?

Kingsport Festival, a game of bizarre cults set in the terrifying world of Howard Philips Lovecraft, lasts 12 rounds, each divided into six phases. All Cultists roll their dice and the one that rolled the lowest sum will play first and so on, then (in turn order) each one may invoke an Elder
God by using one or more of his dice, where the sum of their values is exactly equal to the number of the Elder God, or pass. Once all the dice are placed or players have passed, in ascending order, the Elder Gods give their gifts to the Cultists who invoked them: the Cultists may have to
lose Sanity points to receive the rewards. After Cultists have taken their dice back, in turn order each one may place his disk on one Building that is connected to another one he has already marked (starting from the House). To do so, he must pay the Domain resources required.

In turns marked with a blue marker on the Calendar, a Raid takes place: first the Event card and then
the Investigator card is revealed. Each Cultist calculates his Strength by adding up any modifiers he has due to Spells, Buildings, and other game effects (such as Events, Scenarios, etc.). If his strength is greater, the Cultist receives rewards; if is less, he suffers the penalty.

The game ends after the twelfth round is played. If the Scenario has a Festival card, it is revealed and its effects resolved at this time.
The Cultist who has the most Cult points is the winner.

There's always something happening in the city that never sleeps. Maybe it's the lights, maybe it's the energy, or maybe it's the giant monsters trying to demolish the place!

King of New York is a standalone game from designer Richard Garfield that keeps the core ideas of King of Tokyo while introducing new ways to play. As in KoT, your goal is to be the first monster to collect 20 victory points (VPs) or to be the last monster standing. On your turn, you roll six dice up to three times, then carry out the actions on those dice. Claws cause damage to other monsters, hearts heal damage to yourself, and energy is stored up so that you can purchase power cards that provide unique effects not available to anyone else.

What's new in King of New York is that you can now try to become a star in the big city; more specifically, you can achieve "Fame", which nets you VPs, but superstar status is fleeting, so enjoy your time in the spotlight.

The game board for King of New York is larger than in KoT with each monster occupying a district in the city and everyone trying to shine in Manhattan. When you attack, you can displace a monster in another district, whether to escape military forces or to find new smashing opportunities. Yes, smashing because you can now destroy buildings and get bonuses for doing so, but the more destruction you cause, the more intense the military response.

The monsters from King of New York can be used in KoT and vice versa, but the power cards are specific to this game.

There's hustle and bustle at Istanbul's grand bazaar as merchants and their assistants rush through the narrow alleys in their attempt to be more successful than their competitors. Everything must be well organized: wheelbarrows must be filled with goods at the warehouses, then swiftly transported by the assistants to various destinations. Your goal? Be the first merchant to collect a certain number of rubies.

In Istanbul, you lead a group of one merchant and four assistants through 16 locations in the bazaar. At each such location, you can carry out a specific action. The challenge, though, is that to take an action, you must move your merchant and an assistant there, then leave the assistant behind (to handle all the details while you focus on larger matters). If you want to use that assistant again later, your merchant must return to that location to pick him up. Thus, you must plan ahead carefully to avoid being left with no assistants and thus unable to do anything...

In more detail, on a turn you move your merchant and his retinue of assistants one or two steps through the bazaar, either leave an assistant at that location or collect an assistant left earlier, then perform the action. If you meet other merchants or certain individuals at the location, you might be able to take a small extra action. Possible actions include:

Paying to increase your wheelbarrow capacity, which starts the game with a capacity of only two for each good.
Filling your wheelbarrow with a specified good to its limit.
Acquiring a special ability, and the earlier you come, the easier they are to collect.
Buying rubies or trading goods for rubies.
Selling special combinations of goods to make the money you need to do everything else.

When a merchant has collected five rubies in his wheelbarrow, players complete that round, then the game ends. If this player is the only one who's reached this goal, he wins immediately; otherwise ties are broken by money in hand.

Goblins, Inc. is a corporation dedicated to building unstoppable giant doomsday robots, and it's looking for a new Boss. Do you have what it takes?

Team up with your greed-driven fellow goblins and build the ultimate doomsday robot. Meet other teams in epic battles and blow them up, but always remember, only one goblin can win because there is no "G" in team work!

The game plays over two rounds in which you partner up with each of your fellow players to try to build the ultimate giant doomsday robot – but the other players don't know which hidden agendas you must complete to impress the Boss! During the four phases of the round, the teams take turns designing, building and piloting their robots in order to destroy the other team and get one step closer to becoming the next Boss of Goblins, Inc.

Each player represents the leadership of a 17th century Scottish clan looking to expand its territory and its wealth. The success of your clan depends on your ability to make the correct decision at the opportune time, be it by establishing a new pasture for your livestock, growing grain for the production of whisky, selling your goods on the various markets, or investing in the cultivation of special places such as lochs and castles.

Glen More offers a unique turn mechanism. Players take territory tiles from a rondell. Picking a tile has not only influence on the actions you get by the surrounding tiles in your territory, it also determines when you'll have your next turn (and how many turns you will have in the game). But having a lot of turns is not always the best strategy for a successful chieftain.

Glen More is 6 in the Alea medium box series, and is rated a 4 on the alea complexity level.

Note: This game is available by request only and requires having a membership to play.
See game associate for details.