Components: Dice with Icons

20 Strong is a new deck-based game system from Chip Theory Games, capable of being played in about 30 minutes or less. We say “game system” because the idea behind 20 Strong is a small nucleus of simple, adaptable rules that can then be applied to a variety of unique decks, each with their own set of mechanics. We are launching 20 Strong with three such decks – one set in the world of Too Many Bones, one set in Hoplomachus: Victorum, and one in the new universe of the space-faring Solar Sentinels. We have more decks in development and plan to release them regularly if our customers are excited by them. For now, 20 Strong is a solo-only game, but even that could differ in future decks using the ruleset.

The object of a game of 20 Strong is to progress through a shuffled deck of cards, each card bearing a unique challenge. This challenge could be in the form of an enemy, a unique scenario, or some other requirement (for example, players of the Too Many Bones deck might expect to see a Lockpicking challenge or two). Challenges usually require a certain number of successes to complete, which you earn by rolling a set of 17 dice with different odds for a hit (these dice, along with three adjustable stat dice, make up the “20” in 20 Strong).

If you roll enough successes, you complete a card’s challenge and gain its rewards. If you don’t, you take damage and move on to the next card – unless, of course, your HP stat is reduced to 0, costing you the game. If you manage to make it through an entire deck, you take on one of the deck’s final bosses, attempting to score enough hits against this powerful enemy to claim ultimate victory.

Of course, it’s never so easy that you’d want to spend all of your dice on a single card. In addition to your HP Stat, you’re also keeping track of your Strategy (which controls how many rerolls and items you have) and your Recovery, which controls how many dice return to your pool after taking on a challenge. If you roll more dice than your Recovery, those dice are exhausted, lowering your pool for your subsequent challenges. It’s a game of pressing your luck, strategic decision-making, and resource management. We think you’re going to love it!

The Hobbit: There & Back Again is a competitive adventure game in which players draft dice to make pathways, collect resources, and perform actions that help them to reach their chapter goal.

In more detail, each of the players has their own adventure board book open to the same chapter of the game, and they play in turn order starting with the shortest player. That player rolls all of the dice, then selects one, then the next player selects one, and so on until all dice have been chosen, at which point the next player rolls all the dice once again.

With your chosen dice, you use a dry-erase pen to mark the current chapter of your book, drafting a path to evade trolls, battle goblins, solve riddles, and pen the best conclusion to each chapter. The game takes players through the eight most iconic challenges faced by Bilbo and the Dwarves in The Hobbit, such as overcoming trolls, goblins, wargs, and giant spiders; reclaiming the treasure of the dwarves; and defeating the dragon Smaug. In the end, you want to complete the most rewarding journey to The Lonely Mountain.

The Hobbit: There & Back Again includes a solo mode, as well as a way to increase the game's difficulty, whether for some players to balance different skills levels or for everyone to increase the challenge.

The Dwarven King has issued an order to the houses of each clan. It is imperative to reclaim Karrak-cüm-Kazar, the sacred mountain, ancestral home of the Dwarves since the first Age of the Beard. For too long it has been occupied by the poison of the dark lords, with their creatures defiling the halls that once housed the noblest of all Dwarves. The insult cannot last any longer. The Dwarves return to the mountain.

Covenant is played in turns over three ages. During their turn, players will assign the Dwarves of their clan to different tasks that will allow them to explore the ancient halls of the ancestors and drive out their enemies while rebuilding their ancestral home. Your dwarf tokens and tools will allow you to do all kinds of actions: dig into the mountain, defeat the enemies that live there, and build all kinds of buildings that will bring the legendary dwarf city back to life. At the end of the game, the clan that has accumulated the most glory will take the recognition of the monarch and the victory.

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 roll thirteen 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 type of 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?

Railroad Ink Challenge is a quick-playing roll-and-write game for 1 to 4 players. Grab a board and a dry-erase marker, and get ready to reach networking nirvana! Roll the dice and draw the routes to connect the exits around your board. Expand your network with railways, highways and stations to collect points, but you will be penalized for any open connections, so plan carefully!

Railroad Ink Challenge has everything you love from the original Railroad Ink games and a lot more, with an all-new focus on player interaction thanks to in-game goals! Only those who achieve them first get the reward, so you have to keep an eye on what your opponents are doing and try to complete the goals before they do! A different set of goals is available each time, so no two games will be the same!

But wait, there's more! Draw unprecedented, mind-bending route configurations thanks to the new dice! Connect special structures to your network to trigger new effects: factories allow you to duplicate a die, villages give bonus points if they are close to a station, universities unlock extra special routes — use these effects wisely and you'll score big!

Railroad Ink Challenge comes in two versions, each one including one expansion with an additional dice set that adds new special rules to your games. Create placid forest landscapes and build into a beautiful arboreal paradise with the Lush Green Edition!

—description from publisher