Paper-and-Pencil

The Number

Smarter than you think, easier than you expect!
This little Japanese game doesn’t fit into any single category. You don’t realize how rich The Number is while playing.

The Number is an expert mix of mechanics: Bluffing, Risk-taking, but also Guessing (a mechanic that involves anticipating your opponent’s next moves and adapting your strategy accordingly). It takes 5 minutes to learn, but you won’t have it all figured out yet!

Choose, check and resolve!
How to play?

A game of The Number plays over 2 rounds of 5 turns each during which everyone plays simultaneously.

1- Choose

Each turn, everyone secretly writes a number from 000 to 999 on their boards, then reveals them at the same time.

2- Check

Line up the numbers from biggest to smallest (top to bottom) and check if your number is approved (it doesn’t share digits with any of the numbers below it) or eliminated (it has at least one digit in common with any of the numbers below it).

3- Resolve

If your number is approved, gain as many points as the first digit of your number. Then, you must cross off the digits you used in your number from your board. You will not be able to use them for the rest of the round.

Rolling Realms

In the early days of the coronavirus, a time of self-isolation for many people, Jamey decided to create an infinitely scaling roll-and-write game to teach and play with people around the world via Facebook Live.

In Rolling Realms, players compete to earn the most stars in a series of minigames over 3 rounds. This is a roll-and-write game, meaning that players will write on the game components using dry-erase markers.

Each turn, one player rolls 2 dice, and all players use the dice results on their realm cards to generate resources and earn stars. After 3 rounds, the player with the most stars wins!

—description from the publisher

Retrograde

Retrograde is a real-time roll-and-write inspired by classic 80s arcade games.

Evil Astrodroids are invading earth. Grab the joystick and blast as many as you can. Can you get the high score?

Each round, roll your dice as fast as you can. Race to roll combos shown on the target cards, claim the best card, and spend your dice to put the ‘Droids on your sheet out of commission. Be fast, or an opponent might beat you to the card you want. If you're the last player without a card, you can only reroll 2 more times before you're stuck with what you rolled.

Depending on the card you choose, you'll collect Coins and power-ups. Blast entire columns of 'Droids to destroy bosses for bonus points. Blast rows of 'Droids to unlock the power-ups you collect.

—description from the publisher

Retrograde

Retrograde is a real-time roll-and-write inspired by classic 80s arcade games.

Evil Astrodroids are invading earth. Grab the joystick and blast as many as you can. Can you get the high score?

Each round, roll your dice as fast as you can. Race to roll combos shown on the target cards, claim the best card, and spend your dice to put the ‘Droids on your sheet out of commission. Be fast, or an opponent might beat you to the card you want. If you're the last player without a card, you can only reroll 2 more times before you're stuck with what you rolled.

Depending on the card you choose, you'll collect Coins and power-ups. Blast entire columns of 'Droids to destroy bosses for bonus points. Blast rows of 'Droids to unlock the power-ups you collect.

—description from the publisher

Astra

You and your fellow players are eager and curious astronomers, determined to explore and understand the constellations of the mysterious night sky. You are willing to assist each other and share your discoveries, but in the end, only one of you will become famous enough to be remembered throughout history.

Astra is a clever mix of tactics and strategy, with a streamlined and intuitive rule set that makes it easy to pick up and quick to play. A game of Astra consists of continuous player turns until a certain number of Constellation cards are taken, when, after an endgame scoring, the player with the most Fame points wins.

On your player turn, you may choose to either Observe or Rest.

The Observe action allows you to spend Stardust to discover stars on the Constellation cards using your dry erase marker. You may only mark stars in a straight continuous line, but you may spend Telescope tokens to start new observations. As soon as you mark the last star in a Constellation, you take the card from the Night Sky, granting you a powerful reusable ability for the rest of the game. But other players also benefit from the discovery: based on how many stars they marked, they may choose one of the card’s instant benefits (Boons) at the time it is discovered.

The Rest action allows you to not only refill your Stardust up to your capacity, but also to reactivate all of your card abilities that match the currently active Sphere. Your card abilities are very powerful and strategy-enabling, so a well-timed Rest action can give you a huge advantage.

—description from the publisher