Blokus (officially pronounced "Block us") is an abstract strategy game with transparent, Tetris-shaped, colored pieces that players are trying to play onto the board. The only caveat to placing a piece is that it may not lie adjacent to your other pieces, but instead must be placed touching at least one corner of your pieces already on the board.

There is a solitaire variation where one player tries to get rid of all the pieces in a single sitting.

Goal of the Game:

Each player has to fit as many of his/her 21 pieces on the board as possible.

Components:
Blokus Game Board (400 squares)
84 game pieces (four 21-piece sets of red, green, blue, and yellow)
Each color inlcudes:

1 one-square piece
1 piece with 2 squares
2 pieces with 3 squares
5 pieces with 4 squares
12 pieces with 5 squares

In Ingenious, a.k.a. Einfach Genial, players take turns placing colored domino-style tiles on a game board, scoring for each line of colored symbols that they enlarge. The trick, however, is that a player's score is equal to their worst-scoring color, not their best, so they need to score for all colors instead of specializing in only one or two.

In more detail, the game includes 120 domino-style tiles, each consisting of two conjoined hexes; each hex has one of six colors in it, with most tiles having different-colored hexes. Each player has a rack with six tiles on it, and on a turn a player places one tile from their rack onto two hexes of the game board. For each hex on this tile, they score one point in that color for each hex of the same color that lies adjacent to it and each hex in a straight line from it. If a player brings the score of a color to 18, they immediately take another turn. At the end of their turn, they refill their rack to six tiles. (Before refilling their rack, if they have no tiles on it that contain hexes in their lowest-scoring color, they can discard all of their tiles, then draw six new tiles from the bag.)

When no more tiles can be placed on the game board or when one player scores 18 in each color, the game ends. Players then compare their lowest scores, and whoever has the highest low score wins.

Ingenious includes rules for solitaire and team play; in the latter case, two teams of two play, with each player not being able to see their partner's tiles and teams keeping a combined score that maxes out at 36 instead of 18.

In the game Rumis, the players construct an Inca building with their stones. All players receive three-dimensional pieces made of wood or plastic, which they will try to position adjacent to already placed pieces of their own color. All of their own pieces are of different shapes, which is a challenge to the three-dimensional imagination.

Cubic, wedge-shaped, or pyramidal volumes are different building limitations, which are imposed by the various building scenarios. Playing RUMIS, you will find that no game is similar to any previous one. Once your mind has mastered the puzzling shapes of the RUMIS pieces, you will explore the depth of tactical and strategic possibilities offered.

The rebrand by Educational Insights is labelled 1 to 4 players on the box, adding solitaire puzzles such as building a 3x3 cube with one color and building the various shapes using all the colors, following the rules of the multiplayer games while leaving no gaps in the structure.

Expanded by:


Rumis+

Each player receives a plastic board with 25 spaces on it labeled A to Z (with X and Y sharing a space). The playing board has spaces marked 15, 30, hand and 2. Each player takes a turn moving the single pawn around the board. Once you land on a space, another player draws a card (each with 6 categories on them), looks up your die roll on that card and reads the corresponding category. If you landed on a 15 or 30 you have that many seconds to think of as many words in that category as you can and for each word you can come up with, you cover the appropriate space on your plastic board with a chip. The aim is to be first to fill all 25.

If you land on a hand, you get 15 seconds and choose another player. For every word you think of you can pull a chip off of their board that starts with the appropriate letter. If you land on the 2 space you can cover 2 spaces on your board for free (handy for Q and X, Y, Z).

The timer is obnoxiously loud by intent (very distracting) and flips over very suddenly, scaring people who aren't used to it, to mark the end of the time limit.

Basically, this is a very simple word enumerating party style game that's quick and easy to learn and frustrating for people with poor vocabularies or stalled minds.

Many years ago, while still known as Nelospelit, Tactic already used the title Ord Mani for an earlier word game; these are different games, although some similarities do exist.

In Burrowdale you are a family of rabbits battling to store enough food for the coming winter. Build and change routes between the fourteen burrows, trade carrots, radishes and other goods and move your rabbit workers to where the best resources and locations are, to gain the most points to make sure your burrow comes out on top.

On your turn, you can take three actions, from any combination of the following:
- place one of your rabbit workers on an unoccupied burrow;
- place one of the available resources on any burrow;
- make a trade between two burrows that have the same resource;
- change the layout of the warren network by placing a new warren card and removing an existing one;
- place your family emblem token on a warren card to score an extra point in future trades.

Points are scored through trades, depending on how many warren card that trade route passes through - so if the shortest possible route between two burrows means passing through four warren cards, you score 4 points. The winner is the first rabbit to 40 points.

-description from designer

"The Game of Scattergories," published in 1988 by Milton Bradley, is a great game for any group to play. In the game each player fills out a category list 'with answers that begin with the same letter.' If no other player matches your answers, you score points. The game is played in rounds. After 3 rounds a winner is declared, and a new game can be begun.

Scattergories is a commercial version of an old parlour game known as Categories or Guggenheim.

Similar to:

Facts in Five

Wordsy is a streamlined re-implementation of Prolix, a word game from 2010.

Each round, players study the 8 letters (always consonants) on the board in real time. The first player to write down a word flips a 30-second timer. That player is now the fastest player, and every other player now has 30 seconds to write down their word.

Once time has run out, the fastest player scores their word by counting the point value of each of the matching letters on the board. Players are not limited to the letters on the board; they can add any letters they'd like. Letters score based on which of the 4 columns of the board they're in, and how rare they are.

After the fastest player scores, the first player clockwise scores their word, and compares it to the fastest player. If that player scored more than the fastest player, they score a small bonus.

Every other player scores their word and checks for a bonus. Once they've all done this, the fastest player scores a bonus if their score is equal to or higher than half the other player's scores.

After 7 rounds, players add the scores their best 5 words, plus their bonuses. The player with the most points wins!

5211 is a fast-playing card game with a unique scoring method that rewards clever play!

This game has cards 1-6 in five colors. Each player starts with a hand of five cards. Players play two cards face-down, then simultaneously reveal them. They refill their hand, then repeat this process two more times, but only with one card.

The cards of the majority color will score — unless too many are present, in which case the color busts and the second most color scores. In case of a tie for majority, the tied colors are also out. These rounds are repeated until the deck runs out. The player with the most points wins.

5211 is a new edition of 5 COLORS that has all new art.

Roll For It! is a casual, family-friendly dice and card game. Each player starts the game with six dice of a single color, and three target cards are laid face-up on the table. Players take turns doing the following: On a turn, a player rolls all of her dice not already on cards, then places any dice that match the targets on the corresponding cards. (Alternatively, before taking her turn, a player can first choose to reclaim all of her dice from all cards.)

If the player now fulfills the target with her dice – e.g., a pair of 3s, a quartet of 6s, or a specific combination of numbers – she claims the card, takes back her dice (and returns any other dice on the card to their owner), then places a new card on the table. Each card is worth a certain number of points. The first player to earn forty or more points wins!

There are two sets of Roll For It! available -- the red set comes with translucent dice and the purple set comes with pearl dice. There are no duplicate cards between the sets. Each set allows play for 2-4 players, but when they are combined, up to eight players can compete in the same game of Roll For It!

In Suspend, you want to be the first player to get rid of your share of the 24 notched, rubber-tipped wire pieces that come with the game. How do you get rid of them? Throw them away? Hide them under a cushion? No – you must hang them from a shared tabletop stand, using only one hand to place the piece on an unoccupied space. If anything touches the table after you place your piece, you must remove and reposition it; if anything falls off, you have to keep those pieces and try to hang them again on future turns. The first player to suspend all of her pieces wins!

A word game where quick thinking pays off. Up to 4 players build a crossword out of their tiles. Every 30 seconds or so, a timer goes off and each player must draw 2 tiles and add them to their crossword. Using a letter in 2 words scores double points for that letter. Infrequently used letters (e.g. x,q,z) score higher amounts of points but are harder to use in your crossword.

Players take turns forming words on either an 8x8 (original and Winning Moves "new classic" versions) or a 10x10 (most later versions) grid. Words may be formed horizontally or vertically, as in Scrabble, but, as the title suggests, the letters may also be stacked. This allows already played words to change into different words by stacking new letters (up to a limit of 5 high). For example, LATE could be changed to CATER and then to BELATED. Instead of having different values for each letter, when a new word is formed, the number of tiles used in that word is counted. If the whole word is one tile high (no stacking), then the word scores 2 points per tile. However, if there are any stacked tiles, you score one point per tile in the word, including those underneath. This results in scoring that increases as the game continues, even for simpler words.

It all started when the Imperium seized control of Earth and declared martial law, sentencing those who opposed their will to immediate death or worse fates. It seemed as if all hope was lost, but before their edict could be carried out, a group of defectors managed to wrest control of the Ridback, a Class–II jumpship, and flee with as many of the condemned as they could save.

It has been close to seven years that these refugees from Earth have called the Ridback home, and finally the crew has found a planet with promise. They have managed to establish outposts around it, and now the great burden falls on you to expand these small “alphas” into a full-fledged Beta Colony. Success will mean that your people will be able to begin life anew on exoplanet 14 Bos c, or, as they have renamed it, "Victus" — Latin for "way of life".

In Beta Colony, you play as one of five Directors working to create prosperous colonies. If you earn the most Confidence Points (CP), you will be elected as the first leader of Victus. Players will collect the needed building materials to produce and erect colonization pods – Defense Stations, Science and Tech Towers, Living Quarters, Agriculture Pods, and Water Treatment Centers – on the varied terrain of Victus.

Using a unique "rolldell" mechanism (dice + rondel), Beta Colony is a mid-weight strategic game for players of all levels. Each round, the start player rolls their set of four colored dice. All other players duplicate that roll with their own dice. Players take two actions each round, one action at a time in turn order, with each action using two dice. Players will use one die to move and one die to activate the location to which they moved. Die color and value affect how each of the seven unique locations are used. Players will build colonization pods at each of three colonies to gain the confidence of the settlers and lead them to glory!

—description from the publisher

This game by Carl Chudyk is a journey through innovations from the stone age through modern times. Each player builds a civilization based on various technologies, ideas, and cultural advancements, all represented by cards. Each of these cards has a unique power which will allow further advancement, point scoring, or even attacking other civilizations. Be careful though, as other civilizations may be able to benefit from your ideas as well!

To win, you must score achievements, which you can attain by amassing points or by meeting certain criteria with the innovations you have built. Plan your civilization well, and outmaneuver your opponents, and with some luck you will achieve victory!

PARKS is a celebration of the US National Parks featuring illustrious art from Fifty-Nine Parks.

In PARKS, players will take on the role of two hikers as they trek through different trails across four seasons of the year. While on the trail, these hikers will take actions and collect memories of the places your hikers visit. These memories are represented by various resource tokens like mountains and forests. Collecting these memories in sets will allow players to trade them in to visit a National Park at the end of each hike.

Each trail represents one season of the year, and each season, the trails will change and grow steadily longer. The trails, represented by tiles, get shuffled in between each season and laid out anew for the next round. Resources can be tough to come by especially when someone is at the place you’re trying to reach! Campfires allow you to share a space and time with other hikers. Canteens and Gear can also be used to improve your access to resources through the game. It’ll be tough to manage building up your engine versus spending resources on parks, but we bet you’re up to the challenge. Welcome to PARKS!

—description from the publisher

Similo is a co-operative deduction game, and each version of the game — e.g., Fables, History, Myths — comes with a deck of thirty cards, beautifully illustrated by Naïade, showing the portrait and the name of a series of characters with a common theme.

Your goal is to make the other players guess one secret character (out of the twelve characters on display in the middle of the table) by playing other character cards from your hand as clues, stating whether they are similar to or different from the secret character. After each turn, the other players must remove one or more characters from the table until only the right one remains and you win — or it is removed and you lose!

You can play with one of the Similo sets on its own, using the cards from, say, Fables both for the characters being laid out and for the clues being given to the guessers, or you can use the cards from one set for the twelve characters on display and the cards from another set as the clues. The game is far trickier this way!

On an uninhabited island in uncharted seas, explorers have found traces of a great civilization. Now you will lead an expedition to explore the island, find lost artifacts, and face fearsome guardians, all in a quest to learn the island's secrets.

Lost Ruins of Arnak combines deck-building and worker placement in a game of exploration, resource management, and discovery. In addition to traditional deck-builder effects, cards can also be used to place workers, and new worker actions become available as players explore the island. Some of these actions require resources instead of workers, so building a solid resource base will be essential. You are limited to only one action per turn, so make your choice carefully... what action will benefit you most now? And what can you afford to do later... assuming someone else doesn't take the action first!?

Decks are small, and randomness in the game is heavily mitigated by the wealth of tactical decisions offered on the game board. With a variety of worker actions, artifacts, and equipment cards, the set-up for each game will be unique, encouraging players to explore new strategies to meet the challenge.

Discover the Lost Ruins of Arnak!

—description from the publisher

Yahtzee is a classic dice game played with 5 dice. Each player's turn consists of rolling the dice up to 3 times in hope of making 1 of 13 categories. Examples of categories are 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, straight, full house, etc. Each player tries to fill in a score for each category, but this is not always possible. When all players have entered a score or a zero for all 13 categories, the game ends and total scores are compared.

The traditional (public domain) game Yacht predates the trademarked game, and has slightly different scoring.

There are four basic scoring difference between the tradition game Yacht and Yahtzee. They are: 1) Yacht has no Three of a Kind category, 2) there are no bonuses in Yacht, 3) there are no Joker rules in Yacht, and 4) the Full House category is scored as the sum of the dice. The other scoring rules are identical between the two games.

Travel versions of the game use a device that keeps the dice captured within compartments of a plastic box and allows players to "lock" a particular die between rolls.

In King of Tokyo, you play mutant monsters, gigantic robots, and strange aliens—all of whom are destroying Tokyo and whacking each other in order to become the one and only King of Tokyo.

At the start of each turn, you roll six dice, which show the following six symbols: 1, 2, or 3 Victory Points, Energy, Heal, and Attack. Over three successive throws, choose whether to keep or discard each die in order to win victory points, gain energy, restore health, or attack other players into understanding that Tokyo is YOUR territory.

The fiercest player will occupy Tokyo, and earn extra victory points, but that player can't heal and must face all the other monsters alone!

Top this off with special cards purchased with energy that have a permanent or temporary effect, such as the growing of a second head which grants you an additional die, body armor, nova death ray, and more.... and it's one of the most explosive games of the year!

In order to win the game, one must either destroy Tokyo by accumulating 20 victory points, or be the only surviving monster once the fighting has ended.

First Game in the King of Tokyo series

Hardback is a deck-building word game, a prequel to Paperback. As an aspiring 19th-century novelist, you work to pen your next masterpiece, earning prestige along the way. Specialize your deck in certain genres to exploit card combinations, and press your luck to draw extra cards — but make sure you can still string a word together!

Players build a deck of letters with various powers and race to 60 fame points to win. Some of the features:


No wilds in your deck - any card can be wild.
Push your luck for more cards with the Ink system.
Match genre colors to gain bonus abilities on your cards.
New "Timeless Classic" letter cards stay in play until an opponent uses them.


In addition to the competitive race mode for 2-5 players, the base game includes several variant rules, including Literary Awards, Adverts, Player Powers, and Events; and a co-op mode for 1-4 players, in which players join forces against one of four simulated opponents, each of which is proficient in a different deck genre.