[GDS] JANUARY 2016 "Stronger together"

The King's Gold

The game is played on a board with a number of locations, connected to each other, with the Castle in the middle.

One player is playing a wise King, the other player is playing the mighty Hero.

King player uses two separate decks: Kingdom cards and Troubles cards. Hero is using his own deck of Quest cards.
Both players are dealt 4 Kingdom and 4 Quest cards, respectively, at the beginning of the game.

The round starts with the King drawing the top Troubles card and examining it.
Troubles can be monsters or events. If it's a monster, it's placed on one of the entry-locations on the board, face-down.
If it's an event it's resolved immediately.
Events may move monsters around the board (one area closer to the castle - If a monster ever reaches the castle, both players lose.) and cause other kinds of random misfortunes for the players.

After the Trouble is resolved, the King collects gold coins (at the start of the game, only the castle location produces gold) and draws a kingdom card.
These coins are used for two things:

1) Constructing buildings - most of the kingdom cards are buildings - they are placed on the board locations and provide additional income and/or help the Hero player.

The catch: King player MUST play at least one Kingdom card. If he doesn't have enough coins to play any of the Kingdom cards, the kingdom falls into chaos and both player lose.

2) Assigning bounties. King may place some of the gold coins on any one Monster card as a bounty. If the hero defeats the Monster and survives, he collects the coins.

The catch: King doesn't know which cards the Hero has, but knows the monster card.
Players are not allowed to discuss game state, cards etc. with one another, show each other cards etc.
Bounties are the only way of communication between the King and the Hero.

After the king is done with his turn, it's Hero's turn.

The Hero draws a number of quest cards from the deck and spends the gold he have earned previously to keep some of them, then discards the rest.
Quest cards can do a variety of things, such as allowing faster map movement etc., upgrading hero stats etc.
Quest cards can have level requirements (hero gains a level when he defeats the monster) and location requirements (can only be obtained, if there's a blacksmith building in the kingdom).

The hero then moves around the board and fights monsters if they are in the same location.
Combat is simplistic. The hero discards a number of quest cards from his hand to beat the monster's power level.

Players lose if any monster has reached the castle, or the King ran out of gold.
Players win if they survive for 15 turns, or until the hero defeats the "Evil Overlord" monster found in the troubles deck.

Can you spend the King's gold wisely and bring peace to the Kingdom?

Pirate Jailbreak

Set in the Caribbean in the 1700s, you and your cell mate have broken out of prison, but are still shackled together. Together, you must try and make it to your pirate ship, trying to pick up members of your crew and treasure along the way. Watch out for British soldiers and natives. If you’re caught by either one, the game is over. Yes, you are working together, but like any pirate, you are out for yourself as well.

Board is a grid map of a ‘Port Royal’ type town with the jail at one end, the port with the pirate ship at the other end, and a native village outside of the city.

Natives and British soldiers are cardboard tiles laid out on the indicated spots. Treasure, items, and crew members are cardboard tiles laid out on indicated spots on the board face down with the same design on the back. Natives will stay outside of the city and soldiers will stay inside the city. Both will have numbers and arrows showing the direction they will move each turn. They’ll follow one arrow one turn and the other arrow the next turn. Each player will be responsible for moving either the soldiers or the natives. NPCs may move through each other. Items and crew members, once found, are put in front of the players. Crew members may be discarded if you are caught by a soldier/native. It’s up to the players to decide whose crew members will meet their fate each time. Items are mostly treasure tiles, but may be something that can be discarded to be used, like a pistol or bomb to get out of getting caught. If the player tile interacts with a native or soldier tile, and there are no items or crew members to be discarded, the players are caught and lose the game.

Players will decide who is player one and player two. The player token is a two-space cardboard tile with the numbers 1 and 2 to indicate player position. Players draw individual goal cards (i.e.: Make it to the ship with 3 treasure tiles). Players then draw a hand of 3 movement cards. Movement cards will have a direction and a number of spaces to move. Both movements will be made, but one at a time. The players will have to discuss their best options. The player whose number lands on an item/crew member owns that tile. Within the movement deck are ‘reinforcements’ cards. When drawn, soldier/native tiles are placed on any empty start space (item and player spots included) on the board.

Players win if they reach the boat without getting caught. The supreme winner is the one who is able to complete their goal as well.

1. Players move
2. NPCs move

The difficulty level can be changed in two ways. 1) Add more reinforcement cards to the movement deck. 2) Add double the soldiers/natives at the beginning.

Components:

One raging river game board - Board is divided into a square grid, each space containing one of either: (a) calm water, (b) quick water, (c) rapids, or (d) rocks or obstacles

Two identical decks of cards (18 cards) - Each deck has three copies of each number 1-5, and several special action cards.

One Raft Token

Tokens to indicate damage

Objective:

Reach the end of the river with your raft intact

Set up:

Place the game board between the players and place the raft Token on the starting space Players decide who is “Left Paddle” and “Right Paddle” if not already clear from board placement Each player chooses one deck of cards and draws 6 cards

Game play:

1. Action Phase

   1. Paddle: Each player secretly chooses and simultaneously reveals one of the cards in their hand.
   2. Move the raft: The raft moves in the direction of the player who played the largest value card a number of spaces equal to the difference of the two cards. The raft also advances downriver by 1 space if the turn started on calm water, 2 if quick water, 3 if rapids. The raft must complete all moves in a single direction before moving the other direction, at players’ discretion.
   3. Example: The raft starts on a quick water space. Left Paddle plays a “3”, Right Paddle plays a “1”. The raft will move left (because left’s card was larger) by two spaces (3-1 = 2), and advance two spaces downriver. The players choose to move two spaces downriver first, then two spaces left.

2. End of Turn

   1. Take Damage: If the raft’s movement crosses or ends on a rock space add 1 damage token for each rock hit. If the movement ends on a rock, shift the raft left or right until it sits in a water tile, taking additional damage tokens for each rock space it must pass over.
   2. Draw: If players have no remaining cards in hand, draw 6 new ones from their respective decks.

3. Game Over

   1. Players win if their raft reaches the end of the river. Note: Damage taken is calculated AFTER movement, thus it is possible to limp to shore then have your raft collapse around you.
   2. Players lose if:
   3. They end a turn with all damage markers placed.
   4. They are unable to draw new cards

The game component is a postcard.

The front of the postcard displays an image of a big group of people both men and women standing in rows posing to the camera. It looks like a high school class picture taken inside a gym. In the lower right there is written “84’” in hand. Also a heart around the text “me” with an arrow pointing on a blonde girl is written onto the picture. There is approximately 6 rows with 10 people.

On the back there is a handwritten message.

“Dear love,
How strange it is that everything is finally coming to an end after so many years. I couldn’t have wished for a different life - and thinking about how it all started back when we meet at that school party. Do you even remember that time - how we always went to lake Tikesh to just lie in the sun - and all the games with played with Tim and Brenda? To refresh you memory you can see this picture from a year before we dated the first time. I’ll give you one last game to play my love - can you find me?“

Next to the message, dividing the backside in two halfs - written vertically in very small size it says;

All secretly imagine to be one of the persons on the photograph. Each place a die with 6 up in front of themselves. I turn clockwise everyone may ask a yes/no question to someone else about who they are. If the answer is “no” , rotate the die down one number. Reaching zero - the player is out and may not ask or answer anymore. The questions can be “are you a man?”, “Do you stand above the middle row?” or “Are you her?”. If it is not possible to answer clear yes or no - the question may be changed.

CO-OP
Instead of asking a question a player can tell a (not unique) fact about their secret person by paying with 1 die point. Any person that is guessed may continue to ask questions. If two players guess each other they win.

VERSUS
If the imagined person is guessed that player is out. The last player not out is the winner.

Address field is left empty...

The premise is starting a business. You win if you profitably reach one million dollars of sales in three years or less. You lose if you don't, if you run out of money or if either partner gets burned out trying.

To ensure both players are equally involved players choose their actions simultaneously. Each turn both players choose a card to play paired with an action indicator card. Cards can be used four ways, so the indicator card shows how it will be used (specifics later).

Total sales and total expenses are tracked around the perimeter of the board (100 spaces of $10k). The board features a dial of twelve months. The pointer moves one month per turn, three full rotations for the game.

Inside the sections of the dial both players place a vitality token. If the pointer reaches a token, the game is over, because you've burned yourself out. Players must maintain balance to keep moving the token away from the pointer.

Another token tracks cash flow. The inner circle of the dial moves with the pointer, assigning a value to each section. The values are on a removable disc. New discs are placed as expenses go up. In other words, when you move the pointer, you're spending money automatically to represent monthly expenses. When money is needed for other costs, the token is moved to a different section. When you get to zero you must play a $10k chit which moves the total expenses marker and resets the money token on the board. If you don't have a $10k chit (gained from sales, loans, or investments), the game ends.

To start you get targets in a variety of categories like strategic planning, production, marketing, etc. (represented by icons). As you hit the targets, you open up greater levels of potential sales. To hit targets you must set goals and perform tasks in a timely manner to accomplish them.

Back to the cards-action types are: goal, task, third party, and miscellaneous. When you set a goal the card is placed on the outside of the dial a number of months ahead. One or both players depending on the goal must play other cards as tasks with icons to match the requirements of the goal card by the time the pointer reaches it. Third party is things like loans, venture capital investment, warehouse space. Miscellaneous is things like moving the vitality tokens, drawing or swapping cards. Achieved goals help hit targets and provide ongoing benefits to help sales and reach additional goals.

The outer ring of the dial dictates two types of events: count sales and unexpected (you have to expect the unexpected). The more targets you've hit the better your sales will be and the less likely you are to be adversely affected by the unexpected (it could even be positive). The outer ring is removable, a different ring is used each “year” to vary the timing of events (used rings also allow for tracking the “year”).