Set collection

Biblios: Quill and Parchment

A "roll and write" version of the popular Biblios.

The life of a monastic scribe is not easy. Every day you spend long hours in the monastery copying books, praying, and performing tasks. Through hard work and prayer, earn the abbot’s trust and display your dedication to the pious life.

The object of the game is to score the most piety points. The game consists of 8 days (i.e., rounds). In the first 4 days, players simultaneously roll their own dice (that show various book types, abbot influence and travel points) and may do so up to 3 times. After each roll, the players have 3 options: (1) to keep the dice as shown, (2) to reroll exactly one die or (3) to roll all the dice.

Most of the dice are resource dice showing books monks are copying, but there are also abbot influence dice (abbot influences is accrued in the first half, but spent in the second half of the game), and a travel die (allowing a player's novice to go out into towns to do good works and find more books).

In the last 4 rounds, players use their abbot influence to bid for a priority of tasks.

This is a rare (if not unique) "roll + write" game that includes auctions and, unlike many roll + write game; it is highly interactive.

After 8 days, the game ends and the players calculate scores. As in the original Biblios, the relative value of books changes during the game, so players are unsure of which books will be most valuable until the end of the game.

—description from the designer

Mandala Stones

In Mandala Stones, you use artists to collect colorful stones in towers that you then score.

To set up the game, randomly place the 96 stones — 24 each in four colors and 48 each in two patterns — on the main board in stacks of four. Place the four artist pillars in their starting locations among these stone stacks.

On a turn, you either pick stones or score stones. To pick, move an artist to a new location, then collect all stones adjacent to this artist that (1) bear the same pattern as that artist and (2) are not adjacent to another artist. Choose one of these stones to be first in a tower, then stack the other collected stones on top of this foundation one in clockwise order, then place this tower on an empty space on your player board.

To score, choose to remove either (1) a color that appears on the top stones of at least two towers on your player board or (2) any number of top stones on your player board. In the latter case, you score 1 point for each removed stone. In the former case, you score points for each removed stone depending on the scoring condition for that space on your player board, which might be based on the height of that stone in a tower or the number of colors in that tower or the height of all towers on your board. Place all removed stones on the shared central mandala, building from the inside out and possibly scoring points depending on the spaces that you cover.

If a player can neither pick nor score OR if a stone placed on the central mandala covers the game-ending space based on the number of players in the game, complete the round so that everyone has the same number of turns. Each player can then score one of two secret objective cards in their hand, then the player with the most points wins.

CVlizations

In CVlizations, you take the role of a leader of a tribe, and you are charged with the task of "writing" its CV (Curriculum Vitae - résumé). To do so, you choose which orders to give and which inventions, tools, buildings and ideologies to develop. The happiness of your people depends on you.

Gameplay is built around action selection. Each turn, every player chooses two order cards, and the strength of the action depends on how many other players have chosen that action. Players manage their resources to develop ideas, and in the end the one who collected the most happiness points wins.

Here, Kitty, Kitty!

In the crazy cat-collecting game Here, Kitty, Kitty!, your neighborhood has a cat problem, the problem being that the cats don't all belong to YOU! Unfortunately you can't just grab them for yourself as everyone in the neighborhood wants to claim those adorable kitties. Outwit your fellow feline fiends as you lure cats onto your property, move cats into your house, and steal cats from your neighbors. All's fair in love and cat-collecting!

In the game, each player chooses a Property board, which contains three zones: the Yard, the Porch, and the House. At the end of the game, cats in the House are worth 5 points each, cats on the Porch are worth 3 points each, and cats in your Yard are worth 0 points. However, having cats in your Yard does have advantages for special scoring conditions, such as having the most cats of a single color or the most cats overall. All 40 cat miniatures are placed in the center of the table, and represent the Neighborhood. Each player is dealt 2 or 3 cards, depending on the number of players in the game.

On each player's turn, they perform two Actions: moving a cat, playing a card, or discarding cards. Cats can be moved 1 space for 1 Action, by picking up the cat and putting it in the next zone of the property. For example, a cat can be moved from the Neighborhood to the Yard for 1 Action, or from the Yard to the Porch or from the Porch to the Yard (and vice versa). Playing cards may allow a player to move multiple cats at once, to move cats multiple spaces, to steal cats from opponents, or to make opponents give up cats. A player may also choose to discard 1, 2, or 3 cards as an Action. Once both Actions have been taken, the player draws back up to a full hand, and play passes to the person to the left. If an Instant card (red border) is drawn, it is played immediately and affects the entire group. The player then draws a replacement card for the Instant card until a full hand is achieved.

The final round is triggered when a player draws the last card from the draw pile. From that point every player, including the player who drew the last card, has one final turn to maximize their score. Then, the cats are counted and a winner is lauded for their purr-procurement proficiency.

Dragon Parks

Dragons are back into our world, and they are in vogue! As the proud owner of group of islands where dragons nest, you’ll have to manage both the tourists’ expectations and the dragons’ appetite…

Dragon Parks is a drafting game which makes use of transparent cards. Select a new card each turn to put on one of your three islands, adding or covering dragons in this park as you do. Some dragons hate to be covered by others and will snap back at you, and if you manage to hatch an egg by covering it, it will attract new visitors!

After 3 turns, the season ends. You will then score visitors depending of the number of different dragons visible on each island, with a bonus for the dragon type in vogue this season, and extra visitors if you attract the Legendary Dragon to your parks… But beware, if you have fewer sheep available than you have dragons, you will lose visitors equal to the difference!

The game ends after 3 seasons, and the player with the most visitors at the end wins!

-description from publisher