Variable Set-up

In Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo, Rokugan teeters on the brink of upheaval as the Great Clans—the Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Scorpion, and Unicorn—clash for control of the legendary fortress, Toshi Ranbo. Once a strategic gem on the borderlands, the castle now stands at the heart of a war-torn battlefield, its banners contested by rival warlords seeking glory and vengeance. The air hums with the tension of drawn steel and elemental magic, as ancient shrines smolder and village alliances shift like the wind.

In this strategy game, players take on the role of ambitious daimyō representing one of the seven Great Clans: recruiting samurai heroes, drafting powerful orders, and building their clan's military might and strategic influence. Through tactical maneuvers and clever engine-building, they strive to fulfill seven victory objectives—from capturing and holding the coveted castle to completing secret missions and claiming sacred locations. Only one clan will write its legend in the blood-soaked chronicles of Toshi Ranbo.

7th Seal is a solo dice management boss battle-style game in which you will face the judgement of the end times. Your goal is to open the seals of a scroll and face the wrath of a supreme being who has unleashed an avalanche of furious beasts and demons that will attempt to wipe out humanity. Use your dice wisely and prove that you can convince the great maker to give humanity another chance.

LYNGK is a synthesis of the first six games of the GIPF Project.

The game is played with 48 pieces in six colors. At the start of play, all colors are neutral and do not belong to any player. During the course of the game, both players must choose two colors. The goal is to make piles of five pieces of different colors whose top color is their own. Whoever has clever tactics, plans for the future, and uses the possibility of multiple moves on stones of their own color will ultimately win with a majority of the 5-stacks.

The abbey at Iona is famed for its illustrious manuscripts, replete with gold leaf and remarkable calligraphy. In fact, through talent and discipline, you have joined their ranks as a master illuminator!

In Inkwell, each player will either take supplies from a shared mat, or choose to score and move on to a new page of their own codex. Supplies include colored ink cubes, gold leaf, and technique cards with special powers and effects. Everything you take must fit on your manuscript card, and if you empty the last inkwell of a certain type, the abbot ticks down the game time towards ending the game. If you choose to turn the page, you score for all your completed work, and collect your ability cards on the side to benefit you the rest of the game, building an 'engine' of learned skills. You also get a reward of gold leaf and a chance to pick your next page to work on. Just beware that if the abbot becomes upset, he may force you to move forward before you are finished.

A strategic and tactical game with few rules and lots of choices, Inkwell is designed to celebrate beautiful historical manuscripts and surprisingly tricky gameplay for groups or even solo play.

Devious is an anti-set collection card game. Build the strongest faerie alliance over five rounds and claim the crown. To do so you must play and hold in your tableau a single faerie from each of the faerie tribes, of the highest rank possible. But be wary, a second faerie of a given tribe negates your score - and more than two plunges your score into the negatives. Seek only the highest ranking faerie from each tribe for the strongest alliance possible. But each tribe has a unique power and the ability to manipulate faeries from around the table, including your own. Gaining the upper hand will be both chaotic and devious.

To set up before the game, players decide which six faerie tribes to use in the game from the 13 suits included in the box. They can be mixed and matched so game play varies from game to game.

In each round, all players are dealt three cards. But interestingly, they are not yours, they are your opponents. You look at them, decide the order in which to stack them - and therefore in which order your opponent will later encounter them, then pass that stack in the direction of play. Likewise, you'll receive your stack in the same way.

Then look at the top card of the three-card stack and announce your intention to keep the card for your tableau or discard it, hoping for a better card your opponent may have buried deeper. If you choose to keep, discard the remaining stack of cards, without seeing them. If you choose to discard, look at the second card and choose to keep or discard. If the first two are discarded, the third card MUST be played. Did your opponent trick you into playing the worst card at the bottom of the stack. Was the best card the first card, which you discarded?

Once everyone has chosen their faerie card for the round, they are played in order of their Rank. The highest Rank plays their card into their tableau and executes the faerie's ability. Some Faerie Powers are only important for scoring purposes at the end of the game. Others have effects that target one or more faeries in play. A cunning player may choose to pass on a high ranking faerie for an ability that is more powerful when played later.

After the fifth round, players score each faerie suit in their alliances:

1 card of a Tribe: Score its Rank (from 1 to 5, depending on the card).
2 cards of the same Tribe: Score 0 points.
3-4 cards of a given Tribe: Lose points equal to the highest Ranking faerie in the Tribe.
5 or more cards of a Tribe: Score the summed value of all the fairies in the Tribe.
The player with the highest favor score wins.

Then, change the faerie bands in the deck, with their own unique powers for a new challenge and constant variety in play.