Negotiation

Lander is coming to Kickstarter March 3, 2020 but why wait until then to try it? We've sent demo copies to over 130 cafes and FLGS around the world so you can go into your 'local' shop and #PlayBeforeYouPledge. You can see a list/map of all our PBYP partners here: https://www.landerthegame.com/play-before-you-pledge.

Lander is a 2-4 player, space-themed strategy game that emphasises area control (resource collection), tableau building (crew development) and set collection (missions). You and your friends will assume the roles of corporations, competing to prepare Kaimas-2 (the first planet outside of our solar system capable of supporting human life) for a large-scale colonization effort. The corporation that contributes the most will become the market leader going forward!

The game includes three distinct game styles with the following victory conditions:
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Basic Simulation – the first player to reach 7 Mission Stars wins.
Early Arrival – the last year is triggered when a player reaches 10 Mission Stars. The player with the most stars at the end of that year wins.
Planned Arrival – the player with the most Mission Stars after 5 years wins.

To earn Mission Stars, you must expand your resource base and develop your crew with specific combinations of traits and classes. Unlike many euro style games where players focus on their own playing area and can only affect each other indirectly, Lander enables players to directly impact each other's strategies through various game mechanics, such as take that and variable player powers.

At it's core, Lander is a game of options. On any given turn, you'll have many potential directions to go in, which gives you a lot of flexibility in how you plan your strategy. It also enables you to pivot when something unanticipated happens (e.g. acid rain reduces the colony's food production, a rival corporation relocates one of your structures, the mission you were working towards gets completed just before you can grab it!). This means that no matter how bleak things may seem, there's almost always a way back in!

Unique leadership abilities and action cards can be used to pull back your opponents or further your own interests, while event cards will force you to make difficult choices that can impact yourself or the entire colony. Lander is like life. You will experience highs and lows and be faced with a series of challenges that will force you to solve problems and pivot your strategy. It's not meant to be easy (think Matt Damon in the Martian). You are self-interested corporations, struggling to survive on a foreign planet - don't be surprised if the planetary conditions change or your colleagues put something toxic in your soup.

While some orders in the game are commonly used across game styles and player counts, others are more situational. For example, negotiation provides a novel framework for trading resources and cards between corporations with the use of a timer and collateral. Typically, a 2-player game won't see any negotiation, but it can become very common in a 3 or 4-player game, especially if one player starts to pull away. Observations are often used sparingly in the first couple years, but can become quite strategic in later years, as you study your opponents' actions and try to time your moves just right.

Lander is a game that often requires a few plays for you to really start appreciating its depth. As you get familiar with the mechanics and cards, you'll start to see there is a game within a game, whereby the study of your opponents' actions is crucial for developing your own strategy. Similar to poker, players can study their opponents' hands, crew and orders to predict what they might be trying do. The interplay between reading your opponents, using your observations, bluffing and playing your action cards becomes the game within the game. Knowing how and when to employ these different tactics is of course, up to you to master...

Your story begins here!

—description from the publisher

Join the Gatewatch or pledge your loyalty to Nicol Bolas in Ravnica: Inquisition, a social-deduction game set on the Magic: The Gathering plane of Ravnica. Each player takes on the role of a representative of a Ravnican guild that is either loyal to the Gatewatch or an Agent of Bolas.

The Gatewatch loyalists are tasked with discovering who the Agents of Bolas are, while the Agents simply need to survive in order to further the schemes of Nicol Bolas.

Players will elect leaders for each of the five colors, but only players whose guilds’ color pairs contains the color may be voted for. Each color leader has a special power they can use to further their goals, and players must be careful when voting, as Nicol Bolas’s influence may grow. Once all the color leaders have been elected, a vote is held to eliminate one player. Once the dust has settled, players will reveal their roles, and if the Agents of Bolas were eliminated, the Gatewatch wins.

—description from the publisher

Captain Marvel: Secret Skrulls is a hidden identity game in which players take on the roles of their favorite characters, including Captain Marvel herself, to defend Earth in an intergalactic war against shape-shifting Skrulls in disguise. Players must decide whom to trust, defend their alliance, and restore the planet's virtue.

The gameplay in Captain Marvel: Secret Skrulls is based on the hidden identity game BANG!

—description from the publisher

Among Thieves is a game of deception and greed. You will work together to extort information from higher level employees of the largest corporations in the world. However, no one can be trusted. Win by having the most money, but be careful – the player with the least honor is eliminated.

Each round one player is the Heistmaster. They will choose who to take on the heist with them. All of the players can offer whatever they want to go on the heist. The Heistmaster can accept whatever deal they want, but no promises are binding.

Once the team has been chosen, the players will simultaneously choose whether to be honorable or dishonorable. If every chooses honorable, you will flip over one card for each player. Each player on the heist will gain ISK equal to the total shown. If one or more players chose dishonorable, you will flip one card for each honorable player, but only the dishonorable player(s) will gain ISK. They will gain ISK equal to twice the total shown.
Finally, if anyone chose dishonorable, all the dishonorable players will lose 1 honor and all the honorable players will gain 1 honor.

Will you share the ill-gotten gains of your exploits or will you backstab your partners in crime and keep the money for yourself?

—description from the publisher

It is 13th century Italy. Trade is flourishing between the city-states and the Levant. Venice, Florence, and Genoa are all bursting with wealth. However, each city-state is also plagued with a weak national army, leaving them defenseless against invasion from their envious neighbors. Enter the Condottiere.
As veteran English soldiers returned from the Crusades, Italy found itself with an influx of desperate and capable men. These hired swords were contracted to fight for individual city-states by an agreement known as a condotta. The most elite of these men were the mercenary leaders known as the Condottiere.

The object of Condottiere is to acquire four connected provinces in renaissance Italy. To do this players auction off different provinces on the board and bid on these provinces with a hand of cards representing mercenaries, seasons, scarecrows, and political figures. However, unlike standard auctions in which only the highest bidder loses their bid, in Condottiere every player loses their bid. Players are, in effect, bidding the number of troops they are willing to lose in order to win a province. However, several special effect cards shake the contests up and keep the players guessing.