Game Mechanic: Set Collection

The holiday-themed 12 Days takes the familiar "Twelve Days of Christmas" song and twists it into a quick-playing card game. Over twelve rounds, players try to re-gift unpopular cards while keeping cards that are strong enough to win the day, while also keeping a careful eye for bonus scoring at the end of the game. The gift deck consists of eighty cards: one partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, and so on up to twelve drummers drumming, as well as one card each for Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Shuffle this deck, then deal each player twelve cards. Each round a new holiday card is up for grabs, with the cards ranked from 1 to 12 and being worth 1-12 points. In a round, a player: Gifts a present to the player to his left, Opens presents and tries to win the day with the best present, and Buys a new gift to refill his hand. More specifically, all players simultaneously pass one face-down gift card to their left-hand neighbor. Then everyone chooses one gift card in hand and reveals them simultaneously. Whoever plays the lowest gift card wins that round's holiday card; in the event of a tie for lowest, with the Clauses counting as zero, then the next lowest card wins. Each player then draws one card to bring their hand back to twelve cards. After twelve rounds, players score points for each holiday card they've collected. In addition, whoever holds the most gift cards for each rank scores as many points as that rank, with all tied players scoring in the event of a tie. Whoever has the most points wins. Happy holidays!

Bears vs Babies is a card game in which you build handsome, incredible monsters who go to war with horrible, awful babies. The shared deck of cards consists of bear parts (and other monster parts) and baby cards. When you draw a part, you use it to build a monster for yourself; when you draw a baby, it goes in the center of the table. When babies are provoked, they attack, and anyone who has fewer monster parts than the number of attacking babies loses their monster; everyone with more parts than babies defeats this infantile army and scores.

Castle Dice is a light dice-drafting game in which the players have been ordered by the king to build castles along the borders of the kingdom. The player who can create the greatest castle will become the new heir to the throne. Players will explore the land by rolling the dice, and then take turns gathering resources from them. These resources are then used to hire workers and improve castles. Players must gather and spend wisely as the Barbarians from the neighboring lands will attack players and steal their resources throughout the game. At the end of seven turns, the player who has built the greatest castle (earned the most victory points) wins the game!

Creatures: Chupacabra is a special set of 3 creature cards, available only to Kickstarter backers: Front: CHU- (11 points) Middle: -PA- (11 points) Back: -CABRA (11 points) These cards are added to the CREATURES deck and can be used like any other creature card during the game. CHUPACABRA (11) - with glowing red eyes, this mythical creature is purported to drain its victims entirely of blood and will allegedly leave behind a sulfuric stench when alarmed.

Elemental Blast is a quick playing card game for 3-7 players. The players take on the role of Elemental Sorcerers using the elements to compete for elemental dominance, culminating when one Sorcerer achieves an Elemental Blast. Elemental Blast is a light weight card game of strategic hand management. Starting with three cards each and using draw one/play one rules, the players utilize element cards to create effects to help themselves and hinder other players. Most harmful effects target the next player in turn order, but turn order can be reversed using certain elements. In addition, playing the same element that was just played creates a more powerful bonus effect that may affect additional players. The goal is to collect five of the same element in your hand, referred to as an Elemental Blast. The first player to complete an Elemental Blast wins the game.

Fleet Wharfside is a standalone card game based on Fleet and Fleet: Arctic Bounty. Players compete to complete contracts by selecting contracts from the Market and by collecting fish from their fleet at the wharfside. It's what happens when the fleet comes home! Tales of the bountiful harvest at Ridback Bay have traveled far, attracting merchants to the local wharfside who wish to pay handsomely for your haul. A successful fisherman’s day is not done with the catch; keen business decisions will determine if your fleet has amassed a rich profit! Merchants have offered generous contracts for the catch, but which offer the greatest benefits? Choose and complete the most lucrative contracts and reap your reward! In Fleet Wharfside, players fulfill Contracts from local Ridback Bay businesses. Each turn, players will either collect fish from their fleet at the wharfs (by taking cards) or choose to purchase a Contract from the Market. Contracts provide a bonus while in play, but once they are completed the bonus goes away too! The player who collects the most VP from Contracts, Trophies, King Crab, final Goods, and their Captain Bonus wins the game! Fleet Wharfside is game #8 of the E-G-G Series!

Each player has a pool of gold, which everyone else wants to steal. Players have a secret goal of how much gold they need in their pool to win. Playing cards on other players moves gold and cards around, or blocks those actions. A player wins a round by starting their turn with their target amount of gold. The first player to win three rounds wins the game.

Come and enjoy our cute, cutthroat, family friendly, card game where our dragons will... Welcome you to the high fantasy world of Vallhyn. You will roam the countryside in search of treasure because you are a dragon — a young dragon, that is. You and your friends have just been kicked out of the nest for eyeing your parents' treasure hoards. The problem with being young is that you don't always succeed in your quest to find treasure, which often leads to havoc. To make matters worse, you must compete for the best loot with your friends by engaging in hijinks. Havok & Hijinks is a fast-paced, light strategy card game that pits you against your friends in a race for the first respectable treasure hoard. Each turn starts with a quest for treasure that could lead to Havok like loot-hungry adventurers or beneficial heat waves. Engage in Hijinks by stealing and breaking your friend's shiny treasures or defending your own. When a dragon has a hoard with a value of 15 or more, it wins! Game Play Start your turn by flipping a Havok Card Resolve any event flipped exactly as the card reads Add any treasure flipped to your hoard Once you've resolved your Havok card you may play one Hijinks card You may also use your dragon's play ability You may choose not to play a Hijinks card and instead discard one to draw one Pass your turn

Journey through the Magical Forest to find a Golden Unicorn and Majestic Unicorn. Add them to your stable to win the game. Your journey is not without challenges. Beware of foul mystical beings, potions, and magic as they may hinder your quest. This is a strategy card game and perfect for people of all ages. A must have for all unicorn enthusiast! Game Information Players: 2-6 Time: 15-40 min Age: 8+ Components 40 Mystical Being cards 20 Mystical Potion cards 15 Mystical Magic cards 6 Reference sheet 1 Rule book 1 Box

Dragons and banshees are terrorizing the Magical Forest. Loot the dragon's lair, craft power potions, and cast mystical magic. The base game is required in order to play. Components: 1 Box 1 Rulebook 10 Being Cards 18 Magic cards 18 Potion Cards -description from publisher's website

The Fairies are enchanting ordinary items with special powers. You may attach the powerful gear to your mystical beings in order to aid you in your quest. But, Watch Out! Trolls are trying to steal the magical gear and keep it for themselves. Keep far away from the trolls in your search for the Magical Unicorns. The Magical Unicorn Quest: Mystical Gear is an expansion to Magical Unicorn Quest. The base game is required in order to play. Components: 15 Mystical Being Cards 30 Mystical Gear Cards 6 player reference Cards 1 Rulebook -description from publisher's website

Your mission, Martians, is to swoop down on the pathetic denizens of the primitive planet Earth and scoop up as many of the inhabitants as you can manage. We are interested in samples of the Chicken, Cow, and Human populations so that we can determine which of them is actually in charge. The Earthlings might manage to put up a feeble defense, but surely nothing that a small taste of your Death Rays can't handle. Make Mars proud – be the first Martian to fill your abduction quota! In Martian Dice you will roll 13 custom dice in an effort to set aside ("abduct") Humans, Chickens, and Cows. With each roll you must first set aside any Tanks, representing the human military coming to fend off your alien invasion. Then you may choose one type of die to set aside as well - one of the earthlings to abduct, or Death Rays to combat the military. At the end of your turn, if you have at least as many Death Rays as Tanks, then you may abduct the earthlings you've been setting aside. You can't pick any type of Earthling twice in one turn, but if you manage to abduct at least one of each you'll score a bonus! With each roll you will ask yourself, do you feel lucky?

How to Play: At the start of the game, deal each player 5 cards. At the start of your turn, draw a card. If at any time you run out of cards, replenish your hand by drawing five more cards from the deck. On your turn you may place one herd animal face up in front of you, either a zebra or an antelope. When you have 5 of one kind in front of you (5 zebras or 5 antelopes), you win the game. After you play your herd animal, you may play one action card from your hand. Lions, elephants and giraffes are your action cards. To play a lion, place it face up in front of you. When you have played a second lion, you now have Matching Lions. Your matching lions can be used to chase away two animals from one other player’s herds. They can chase away 2 zebras, 2 antelopes, or 1 zebra and 1 antelope. The animals all go into the discard pile. You may use your matching lions on the turn you play the 2nd lion, or you may wait and use them on another turn, after playing your action card for your turn. If you gather several pairs of matching lions in front of you, you may use them all on one turn to chase away other players’ herd animals if you choose. When you play an elephant, everyone, including you, must pick up their lions and put them back in their hand. The elephant then goes to the discard pile. When you play a giraffe, you may choose any other player and view all the cards in their hand. The giraffe then goes to the discard pile. Other animals: The hippopotamus is a defense card. Play the hippopotamus to block a pair of lions from chasing away any of your herd animals. The hippopotamus and the pair of lions all go to the discard pile. The hyena is automatically played when it is drawn. All herd animals migrate left, meaning your herds go to the player to your left, that person’s herds go to the player to their left, and so on until every herd has migrated. The hyena goes to the discard pile, and you get to draw again and start your turn. (If you choose, you may use the hyena as an action card instead.) When the last card from the deck is drawn, the discard pile is shuffled and replaced as the deck.

Gather your ants in Micropolis, and send them through the anthill to do your bidding. What do you want? Fruit? Warriors? A queen? Even more ants?! Each player starts with a central location that will be surrounded by ten tiles over the course of the game, with the tiles being connected by a series of tunnels. Over ten rounds, players draft tiles one at a time, with the player with the largest army going first. They can take the first tile in line, or place an ant on each tile they want to pass to get to something better. The tiles have various roles on them: Queens who if alone can improve their space; Nannies who give you extra ant soldiers; Architects who let you take any tile for free; Warriors who attack the first player; Generals who manage the movement of your ant soldiers; and Fruit gatherers who collect fruits, which score based on the variety you have. Ants at the end of the game are worth one point each, and whoever has the largest army earns an additional 5 points.

Mystery Rummy: Al Capone and the Chicago Underworld, the fourth title in the Mystery Rummy series, introduces some elements of Canasta with players scoring bonuses for collecting complete sets. Sets have varying numbers of cards in them, from Mike Heitler with four cards up to Al Capone with eight. The four types of gavel card make cards accessible everywhere: ";Agent Meeting"; searches other players' hands, ";Eliot Ness"; searches the deck, "Search Warrant" looks in the discard pile, and "Raid" allows you to take an opponent's already melded cards, provided you have at least three melded. All these mechanisms help make completing entire sets for their bonuses something you can reasonably strive for – while also putting you on guard against your opponent doing the same.

Alcatraz Island is home to one of the most formidable federal prisons ever conceived. In its history, no one was ever acknowledged as having escaped from the prison. As guards, it's your job to foil escape attempts by gathering information on plans and capturing the ringleaders. Mystery Rummy: Escape from Alcatraz, game #5 in the "Mystery Rummy" series from Mike Fitzgerald, consists of 129 cards in two decks: the Plans Deck of 84 escape plan cards and 14 escapee cards, and the Action Deck of 31 action cards. The goal of the game is to earn points by helping foil escape plans. Players gather information by melding matching plan cards or playing off an existing plan. When players collect eight matching plan cards and identify the plan's mastermind, they can foil the escape plan, capture the culprit, and score points. The first player to reach 100 or more points at the end of a round wins.

This game attaches an interesting theme to a fairly standard Rummy framework. Playing Victims, Suspects, Scenes, and Evidence-melds, players try to build a case against various suspects for the famous Jack the Ripper serial murders. Whichever suit has the most cards played in it when a player goes out is the guilty party, but if all the Victim cards come out before the end of the game, the Ripper might escape, giving the player who produced that card a significant point allowance. This is #1 in the Mystery Rummy series.

It's still rummy at heart, with multiple suits of 5 cards each, with the twist being that the suits are designated J for Jekyll, H for Hyde, or J/H for suits that count as both Jekyll and Hyde. The unique mechanism in this version of MR is that there is a two sided card (the 'identity card') on the table next to the draw deck, which has Jekyll on one side, and Hyde on the other. At the start of the game, Dr. Jekyll is showing, but this can change if a "potion" card is played (one of the three gavel cards, cards you can only play one of on your turn). You then flip the identity card over, and draw 2 cards from the draw deck. This is important, because you can only play melds whose suit matches the identity that is currently showing. The identity card is important in scoring as well, because any melds that match the identity card when scoring count double, and during scoring if all your meld suits match the current identity card, you shut the other player out! This makes for a tense endgame, especially if you're trying to go for a shutout, because there is a card 'transformation that can change the value of your or an opponents meld from one suit to another. Add in one more gavel card type ('work in lab') which lets you draw three cards from the draw deck and keep one, or the top of the discard pile, but only if the card you take matches the identity currently showing. The round ends when one player goes out, and scoring then occurs. Cards in your hand count as negative points. This is #3 in the Mystery Rummy series.

The second Mystery Rummy game. In this one players investigate the murder from the Edgar Allan Poe story. The basic mechanics (evidence card melds, gavel cards, etc.) are similar to the first Mystery Rummy game, but this one adds a hidden "kitty" in which players secretly place cards throughout the hand. The first player to go out (before the draw deck is exhausted) wins the kitty in addition to their regular melds. Can be played as a partnership game with 4 players.

A rummy-type card game where players compete to be the first to finish completing all ten phases. Phases include collecting runs of numbers, collecting certain number of a given color cards, etc. The first player to finish completing the 10th phase wins. In case of ties, the player with the fewest number of points wins.

Small Railroad Empires is a pickup and deliver, track-laying and set-collection board game for 2-4 players, where players build railroad tracks, send trains with goods from industries to cities, and complete achievements to earn prestige! During their turn, players will build their tracks by placing 2 trains on the modular board. When building tracks, players must pay the gold costs for the different terrain that the track passes through. Once a track connects an industry that produces a good with a city that demands that certain good, the player may send a train to complete the delivery and earn gold depending on the track length. Players will also race to complete achievements such as: "Be first to make 4 deliveries" or "Be first to build 3 Tunnels" for which they will earn extra prestige. Finally, when all players run out of tracks to lay down, the game ends. Player calculate the final prestige points they have from the achievements and the player with the most prestige is the winner! —description from the designer

Imagine yourself staring down a giant Grizzly in Katmai National Park. Take a canoe ride alongside alligators in the swampy waters of the Everglades. Trek the trails that define our nation’s most valuable public resource – the National Parks! Trekking the National Parks is a spirited family board game that lets players experience the U.S. National Parks in a fun and competitive way. Up to six players compete in a cross country race to visit the National Parks and collect the most points. Gathering colored trek cards allows players to move across the map and claim valuable park cards. If a player is the first to visit a National Park, they collect that park's colored stone, which award bonus points at the end of the game. Players must jockey for position and make tough tactical decisions at every turn to emerge victorious!

Some may know the classic White Elephant gift exchange game as Yankee Swap, Dirty Santa, Thieving Secret Santa, or Parcel Pass. The White Elephant Card Game simulates this classic holiday game in a quick, light family card game. In the White Elephant Card Game you play the part of a no-good cheapskate, unwilling to spend a measly dime on the people on your gift list. However, you will be attending several White Elephant parties. You can take some junk from your attic and exchange it for treasures to give as gifts. If you “play your cards right” you could fill your gift list for free and no one will be the wiser! Each player has a Gift List Card, a list of three people for whom to acquire gifts. The Gift Cards in their hand constitute their “attic”. There is one “White Elephant Party” for each card in a player’s attic. For each “party” a player “brings a gift to the party” by placing one Gift Card from their hand facedown on the table in front of them. The first player begins by selecting one of the gifts and “opens” it by turning it face up. The next player may then select a new gift, or “steal” an opened gift by taking a face-up Gift Card from a player who has an open gift. When a player steals an open gift they hold it in their hand until a new gift is opened. This way a gift may be stolen only once until a new card is turned over. When a new card is turned over all stolen gift cards are placed face up so the next player may steal any opened gift. This continues until the last gift is opened. At this point each player keeps the gift they have and a new party begins. This continues until all of the Gift Cards have been played. At the end of the game each player counts only the one highest-numbered Gift Card they received that matches each color on their gift list. The total of these cards is the player’s final score. The player with the most points wins.

In WordSmith, players continuously smith together cards to build words and score points. The game will challenge your literary skills and test your reflexes. Smith off against your friends and family to see who’s the best WordSmith. All WordSmith cards contain different 2-lettered combinations. Players use a WordSmith Card from their hand with a WordSmith Card from the center play area (Workshop) to build words. Once a word is smithed, that player replaces the Workshop card with the WordSmith card used from their hand and keeps the Workshop card for points. A new WordSmith card is drawn to replenish the WordSmith card used from that player's hand.

In Zooligans card game players take on the role of zookeepers trying to find animals to complete their exhibits. In so doing, they attract visitors to make the best zoo. The game is set up with a three exhibit goals, such as "4 or more reptiles" or "3 or more rainforest animals" that are central to all players. In addition, players have a secret continental theme, scoring them bonus visitors for animals from their continent. When the game begins, players start with a hand of three animal cards. Each turn, players can bid on a worldwide animal in the auction. Then they play a card adding it to their zoo. When a player has all the animals to complete an exhibit goal, they can form the exhibit, attracting a number of visitors. At the end of the game, the points are tallied, and the player with the most visitors wins.