Mensa Select

A light card game where players gain status by going out first.

The 80-card commercial deck contains cards ranked from 12 to 1, along with two Jesters. Each card bears a number, which is not only its rank, but also tells you how many of that card exist in the deck. In other words, there are twelve 12s, eleven 11s, four 4s and a single card ranked 1. The lower the number, the better the rank.

The deck is dealt out to all players and the object is to get rid of your cards as fast as possible. The hand begins with one person playing one or more card to the center of the table. The cards played must all be of the same rank (although Jesters are wild, and may be played with any other cards). Each player in turn must now either play the same number of cards of a better rank, or pass. Play continues around the table until everyone has passed; at that point, the cards are cleared and whoever played the last set of cards leads the next round. After everyone has gone out, the players are ranked. For example, the person who first got rid of all his cards becomes The Great Dalmuti. Players change seat position to represent the new hierarchy and begin another round. The Great Dalmuti is generally played for many rounds.

Similar to:

Dilbert: Corporate Shuffle
Pyramid Card
Scum: The Food Chain Game
Deathtrap Dungeon: Card Game

Zendo is a game of inductive logic in which one player, the Master, creates a rule that the rest of the players, as Students, try to figure out by building and studying configurations of the game pieces. The first student to correctly guess the rule wins.

Inspired by Eleusis, Zendo uses Looney Pyramids but was released as a standalone game in July 2003. In 2017, a version of Zendo was released that had only one size of pyramid but added blocks and wedges. It also includes an optional system of cards for generating the Master's rule, useful for novice players who are not yet comfortable making their own rules.

Released both in a large edition, and as Selection #11 of The Games Collection by Pin International.

Capture three islands in a row, by controlling three points in a row on each. A strategic, move-and-place game with shifting strategies, that increases in complexity until one player wins. There is a minimum of 9 moves each, and a maximum of 24 moves for each player.

2003 Mensa Select

Letter Tycoon is the word game for 2-5 capitalists!

In the game, players take turns forming a word using a seven-card hand and a three-card community card pool, scoring money and stock rewards based on their word. Players may use their earned money to buy one letter "patent" in the word they make. In the future, whenever another player uses one of your owned letters on their turn, you earn money from the bank. Letters that are used less frequently have special abilities, increasing their power.

When enough of the alphabet has been claimed, players finish the current turn, then score all money, stock and letter patents owned. Create the most valuable empire and you can become the letter tycoon!

Each player starts the party game Curses! by drawing one Curse card and placing it face-up on the table. What? Curses? How can this be a party?! Ah, but these Curses are fun, not malicious, something along the lines of "You can't bend your elbows" or "You must declare eternal love to anyone who rings the bell during this game".

After that, each turn in Curses! the active player takes two actions in this order:

Draw a Challenge card. This card presents you with an action you must perform – a role to act out, a story to tell, an opinion to explain.
Draw a Curse card and give it to another player. "You, bark like a dog whenever the player on your right reads a card!"

So where's the game? You must obey the Curses placed upon you at all times – and if someone notices that you're not barking or declaring eternal love or doing whatever else it is you're supposed to be doing, then that player rings the central bell and reveals you for a louse and a nogoodnik. As a penalty, you must turn the Curse card you violated face down. And while you might think that lifting a Curse is good, break three Curses and you're out of the game. Eventually only one person will remain, and this Curse-loving looney wins the game!