19 at the UNO Community Center for an evening of spooky Halloween themed games curated by Armando (aka The Armando Horror Show).

Welcome to Julie on her first visit and to Kyle (visiting Amy from Houston)

Our November 6 session will be a request night. What games do you want to lead and/or play? Perhaps a Presidential Election game like Campaign Trail or Mr. President? A game that didn’t get to our tables due to timing (like The Fox Experiment or Tokyo Highway) or player counts? A repeat of something you saw on another table and wanted to try? Email Steve with your requests.

IN: Armando, Steve & Sandy, Sean & Wendy, Ethan & Amy, Tim, Chris, Nicole, Reimi, Danny, Zach, Rob, Lauren & Elliot, Landon, Julie, Kyle

Skull 2x (led by Tim/Armando) 2011 game of pure bluffing. Each player plays a face-down disk, then each player in turn adds one more disk – until someone feels safe enough to state that he can turn a number of disks face up and get only flowers and no skulls. Other players can then overbid them, saying they can turn even more disks face up. The highest bidder must then turn that number of disks face up, starting with their own. If they show only flowers, they win. If they reveal a skull, they lose, randomly placing one of their disks out of play and possibly losing their own skull moving forward. Two successful challenges win the game.

Nocturne (led by Chris) 2024 bidding and set collection puzzle game where players are fox mystics casting magic spells to collect an assortment of enchanted items. Players compete against rival mystics, each deciding when to cast the most powerful spells to move through the forest most cunningly to secure the best collection. Each turn players decide which items are most valuable to them and when to hold the other mystics back. Through two rounds (twilight and moonlight), players compete to collect the strongest sets of magical items like firebird feathers, creature skulls, glowing mushrooms, mysterious eggs, and rare herbs. These items have value when collected in specific sets, but can also be combined to fulfill recipes needed for concoctions, scoring players more prestige.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/393175/nocturne

Carnival of Monsters (led by Sean) 2019 Richard Garfield designed card-drafting game in which players try to collect sets of Land Cards so they can capture and display strange and exotic Monsters, hire talented Staff to help run their enterprise, and pursue their own Secret Goals. Points are awarded for displaying Monsters, completing Goals, and earning Gold Crowns (Crowns) over four “Seasons” of play. In the end, the player with the most profitable and spectacular carnival is the winner.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/231484/carnival-of-monsters

Mysterium (led by Tim) 2015 cooperative deduction murder mystery game game with limited communication and storytelling aspects. Sort of a mixture between Clue and Dixit. One player is the ghost and the other players are mediums trying to solve the mystery by receiving “visions” (Dixit style cards) from a ghost who has been murdered. Detectives use the visions to pin down the “who”, “where”, and “what” of a particular murder. The Ghost has only 8 rounds to pull this off with all detectives, otherwise everyone loses the game. Additionally, Detectives can openly discuss any information and even vote on if they agree/disagree with any other Detectives’ decisions to gain extra clairvoyance. 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/181304/mysterium

Quacks of Quedlinburg (led by K-ban) 2018 push-your-luck game where players play as quack doctors, each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will explode the whole pot. Each player has their own bag of ingredient chips. During each round, they simultaneously draw chips from their bags and add them to their pots. The higher the face value of the drawn chip, the further it is placed in the pot’s swirling pattern, increasing how much the potion will be worth. Push your luck as far as you can. At the end of each round, players gain victory points and coins to spend on new ingredients, depending on how well they managed to fill up their pots. But players whose pots have exploded must choose points or coins — not both! The player with the most victory points at the end of nine rounds wins the game.

Broom Service (led by Amy) 2015 revision of 2008’s Witch’s Brew where players collect ingredients and deliver valuable potions by outguessing their opponents. The game is played over 7 rounds, with 4 turns per round. Each round, players simultaneously select 4 of their 10 role cards, and then they take turns playing one role at a time. Each role has a brave action and a cowardly action; the brave action is stronger, but riskier, as another player could steal the action from you later; the cowardly action is safer, but not as robust. Use the gatherer roles to collect ingredients to make potions, the witch roles to zoom around on your broom to different areas, and the witch or druid roles to deliver the potions, collecting victory points as you go. Chase away lightning clouds with the help of the weather fairy, and keep an eye on the event cards that change game play, one event per round. The winner is the player with the most victory points after all 7 rounds are complete and end-of-game bonus points have been awarded.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172308/broom-service

Cryptid (led by Tim)  a unique 2018 deduction game of honest misdirection in which players must try to uncover information about their opponents’ clues while throwing them off the scent of their own. Each player holds one piece of evidence to help them find the creature, and on their turn they can try to gain more information from their opponents. Be warned; give too much away and your opponents might beat you to the mysterious animal and claim the glory for themselves!

DragonMaster (led by Armando) 1981 trick taking game is a trick-taking card game based on 1966’s Coup d’État. Each player is given a supply of plastic gems, which represent points. Each player will get to be the dealer for five different hands, with slightly different goals for each hand. After all cards have been dealt out, the dealer decides which hand best suits his or her current cards, and the other players are penalized points (in the form of crystals) for taking certain tricks or cards.  All players will get a chance to be the dealer for five hands, but other players can steal this opportunity by taking all of the tricks during certain hands. At the end, the biggest pile of gems wins the game. We played our own shortened version due to time constraints.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2/dragonmaster

Steve