Charms is a fun, easy to learn party game where each player takes a turn as the Quester by asking a question from the Quest Cards (or their own question). Everyone else finds their inner sage and tries to write the wisest answer based on the Quester's roll of the charms, their meanings, and where they land on the board. The Quester then picks the winning answer. The player with the most winning answers wins the game.

3–8 Players
30–90 Min

Quests for Antiracism is an expansion for Charms: A Game of Insight, or it can stand alone as discussion or reflection prompts.

Quests for Antiracism can expand CHARMS: A Game of Insight. Players ask questions, roll and interpret inspiring game pieces, and try to discover the most amazing insights toward antiracism.

Or the game's questions can be used for dialogue, reflection, or writing prompts on your own or with any size group. Includes options for online play!

In this expansion of Charms, the focus is on one of the most important topics, racism. Studio 9 Games and collaborators view racism as the most vital and challenging issue facing America. We understand that everyone belongs to one wonderfully diverse human family, we're all created noble, and we all deserve equal rights and fair opportunities. We also know that our collective well-being, peace, and security are dependent upon rooting out racism and prejudices, and that the sincere attention and sustained participation and action of all peoples are what is required to succeed in its elimination. While having conversations about racism is a necessary step towards creating justice and liberty for all, talking about it can be uncomfortable and challenging. Charms gameplay helps facilitate dialogs for antiracism with families, friends, or groups in a way that offers every player the opportunity to share and be heard.

To play Quests for Antiracism as an expansion to Charms, add the 2 specialty charms to the base game's bag of charms pieces. Then review the expansion’s suggested play options sheet before playing.

CHARMS: Quests for Antiracism: Review the following suggestions and notes with all players to help facilitate a constructive and insightful experience for everyone. (All other rules are on the Charms: A Game of Insight's instruction sheet in “Game Play & Rules”. Not recommended for use with base game’s alternate or variant play options.)
* Set cards from base Charms game aside. Quester picks a quest from this expansion's deck, modifies it, or says one of their own that they sincerely want answers to regarding antiracism. Quester should state only those word(s) desired for their Quest. It helps to make Quest as specific as possible.
* This is a creative problem-solving game. Keep an open mind about the gameplay process, as well as any answers shared and received. If any answer doesn’t resonate with the Quester as helpful or true, Quester shouldn’t select it as a wise and winning answer.
* Players try their best to give and gain the most wise or helpful insights. If Quester decides there aren’t any insightful answers, Quester may choose not to select a winner during their turn.
* At the end of their turn, Quester may choose to share why they’ve selected a particular answer as the winning or most insightful one.

NOTES:
* Quests for Antiracism is designed for groups sincerely interested in striving towards antiracism. As reflection/discussion prompts it can be used alone or in groups.
* While playing Charms can be fun, racism is a topic that may bring up uncomfortable feelings. It’s up to each player (or discuss as a group beforehand) to find productive ways to manage any feelings of discomfort.
* Consider playing in a diverse group, or with players of the same race—depending on your needs or goals.

3–8 Players
30–90 Min
Age: 12+

Below the earth lies a mysterious dungeon. Heroes venture through its dark passages and enchanted chambers in search of glory and gold. Will you join the quest to master these forbidden halls, or become the legendary Guardian protecting its priceless treasures.

DungeonCraft: Hero vs. Guardian is an asymmetrical dungeon crawl where one player, as the Guardian, builds and defends a dungeon, while other players form the perfect raiding party to loot the dungeon treasures.

A (mostly) cooperative game where powerful world leaders (save one saboteur) work together to avert global chaos.

GLOBAL CRISIS blends cooperative game play (Hanabi, Pandemic, 5-Minute Dungeon etc) with elements of hidden role games (Coup, Resistance, Werewolf etc). Players who love either category will find GLOBAL CRISIS a blast to play.

Global Crisis... Earth 2265

The world is on the edge of total annihilation. Natural, social, political, military, and corporate forces have pushed humanity to the brink. The words of a Persian mystic and prisoner who foresaw the future 400 years prior stands truer than ever before...

"O ye the elected representatives of the people in every land! Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind, and bettereth the condition thereof... Regard the world as the human body which, though at its creation whole and perfect, hath been afflicted, through various causes, with grave disorders and maladies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of ignorant physicians..."
-Bahá'u'lláh (Lifelong prisoner of the Ottoman Empire for His visions of unity and peace)

In fits and starts the process of creating global stability has been emerging for eons. Now the world faces it's most dire hour. The super-science of catastrophic weaponry, imbalanced and exploited globalization, and the unlocked potentials of Mother Nature's wrath have all given rise to myriad horrific problems which require a host of powerful solutions.

Forces of light and dark battle openly in public discourse, secretly behind the closed doors of the powerful elite, and deep within the minds and hearts of all people. Despite those who cling to a world long gone, a consensus has formed among the world's peoples and great leaders: a new world must be made. Led by the charge of reason and fueled by a desperate hope, a rallying cry for peace is heard:

"The Great Peace towards which people of goodwill throughout the centuries have inclined their hearts, of which seers and poets for countless generations have expressed their vision, and for which from age to age the sacred scriptures of mankind have constantly held the promise, is now at long last within the reach of the nations."
-From "The Promise of World Peace" by The Universal House of Justice

Is it too late to counteract eons of destruction? Can humanity set aside their petty squabbles, age old hatreds, and demagogue-stoked fears in order to bring about what is only dreamed of? And what of suspicions? Is everyone a trusted ally or do some lurk in shadow, attempting to plunge the world into a dark age of fallout and waste?

You are the rulers and leaders who will settle the fate of the world, for better or worse!

Your leadership represents a major world superpower and a collective of nations. Can you overcome ancient challenges and bring about world peace? Global Crisis is a collaborative game (with a twist) where everyone is working to stabilize global chaos. The twist is that one player might be an agent of chaos. Yes, might. This potential saboteur raises suspicion and increases the challenge. Trust will have to be earned, hopefully before it is too late!

Game Play
Goal: If players collectively score enough points, they win. Players score by passing as many global policies as possible (before time runs out) to address the five overarching sets of Global Challenges. If a player is the "Agent of Chaos," that player can only win if the group scores in the lowest bracket possible—thus causing all other players to collectively lose.

Overview: This game can be played with 2 to 5 players. All players begin with five cards. In the initial rounds, players gather as much information as they can about the cards in the hands of other players. Next, they will aid each other to remove challenge cards from their hands, organize them by sets (color), and finally try to score on each set. There are five sets of challenges that can score. Scoring is based on how many cards within a set the group can collect and whether the group can form a unique policy on each set—all before time runs out. Time expires when the players have formed a policy for all five sets of challenges, or when a player attempts to draw a card from the deck, but the deck has run out.

Turns of Play: The game is played over a series of turns. Each player takes a turn by selecting and playing out one action from five possibilities, and/or by playing a Special Asset Card as an action. The five possible actions include;

* Host a Conference: gain information from another player about their hand
* Request a Summit: you share information about your hand
* Diplomacy: select a two players to exchange a card of their choice from their own hand
* Foreign Aid: allow any other player to remove Challenge Cards from their own hand
* Global Policy: score a set of Challenge Cards in play

At the end of each turn, all players draw or discard back to five cards.

The Catch: A few rules make the game extra exciting and challenging:
* Global Crisis: If a player ever holds five Challenge Cards at the start of their turn, their country declares a global crisis, and the players to their left and right must immediately discard from their own hand an Asset Card of their choice. This could lead to a chain reaction of global crisis!
* Unique Action: Players aren't allowed to take an action which the previous player just used. So, no two actions can be played back to back.
* Information: Players can't reveal information about their hand or another player's hand, unless it is required by the action taken on a player's turn.
* Global Policy: Global policies can only be created once per Challenge Card set. Forming a policy requires one Material Asset Card and one Abstract Asset Card. This combination of cards cannot be used in any other policy. So, no two policies will be the same. Therefore, managing your Assets Cards will be important.
* Agent of Chaos: In a three, four, or five player game, players have the option to include the "Agent of Chaos" (see below).

Global Challenges: There are five overarching sets of Global Challenges—each a different color. The five sets are: Social Issues, War, Materialism, Disaster and Inequality. Within each set, there are 11 specific kinds of Global Challenge Cards. For example; Global Challenge Cards within the Disaster (blue) set include: Tsunami, Volcano, Earthquake, and Flood. Also, each set contains one Extreme Challenge Card which is worth extra points when it is included in a scored set.

Optional Challenge Level: Agent of Chaos
Using the Agent: For those eager to take on an added level of challenge in a 3, 4, or 5-player game, there is a set of rules for the Agent of Chaos. Using the 8 World Leader cards, shuffle in the Agent Card. Deal one card to each player. Keep these cards hidden from other players. If someone is dealt the Agent of Chaos, they must attempt to win the game by causing the group to score 20 or fewer points while not being caught. Using sabotage and subterfuge, the agent's goal is to plunge the world into total chaos and destruction. However, as an added action in this version, any suspicious (or malicious) player can discard an Asset Card to attempt a coup. After debate, players vote, and if the majority selects one player, that player reveals their Leader Card. If it is a World Leader Card, that player immediately has a global crisis, discards their Leader Card, and then draws another (possibly creating an Agent of Chaos). If the Agent Card is discovered, that player exposes all the cards in their hand, discards the Agent Card, and draws a World Leader card—with the collective win condition restored. Failing a majority vote simply causes play to continue—but perhaps with new suspicions and grudges. This version of play is highly challenging even if the agent is not in play since players may be eager to "throw stones" in the court of public opinion. That distrust can unravel a cooperative team.

Contains:
* 55 Global Challenge Cards (11 in each set: War, Materialism, Inequality, Disaster, and Social Issues)
* 34 Asset Cards (16 Material Assets & 18 Abstract Assets)
* 9 World Leader Cards (8 Major World Leaders & 1 Agent of Chaos)
* 1 Score Card + 5 Player Aid Cards (front and back)
* Score card, and 5 (front and back) Player Aid Cards for quick reference of key rules
* 5 Action Cards or Tokens

2 to 5 players
ages 13 and up
playable within 60 minutes

Säännöt valmistajan sivuilta.

As the mayor of a frontier town, you stand in the center, eyeing the roads for talent and trouble. Will you take on challenges or hire help, develop your town or command its heroes? Your strategies, risks, and fortune can transform your village into a thriving city or forgotten ruins.

Villagers and Villains is a card game with over 100 unique cards. The game is played over several rounds. Each round has 6 distinct Phases. During each Phase, all players (Mayors) have a chance to take specific actions. The Mayor who builds the most successful village wins.

Game play: Villagers and Villains is a building game. In the 1st phase players recruit cards from a common pool neutral to all players. 4 classes of cards could appear in the pool: Challenges, citizens, buildings, and heroes. Each card has different game play applications and different affects on end scoring. In the 2nd phase each player has a chance to defend their town from challenges. In the 3rd phase challenges loot towns left unprotected. The 4th phase is when each town earns money. In the 5th phase money can be spent to expand a town by hiring heroes and citizens or creating buildings. The final phase resets the board for a new round of phases. The starting player changes and rounds continue until a town reaches a fixed size. At that time the game is scored.

Goal: In the end each town is scored based on a variety of facets and features. Players have to assess which facet will score the most points as the game is played–and circumstances dictate.

Features: The game ships with a basic and advanced version for experienced and novice gamers and special 2-player game rules. In the advanced game players gain access to the king’s favor, special card powers, and pairing options for final scoring. While chance plays a part in the game (via a die-roll for certain elements) choices in recruiting, and how to use town’s abilities and resources play a large role.

Variant Rules:

COOPERATIVE: In this rule variation Players add their final score together to achieve the highest total possible. All rules are played in the same manner, except for the following: All Challenge Cards require a defend roll higher than the Defense Value (rather than equal or higher). If gold is not available during the Pillage Phase the Challenge Card will remove one non-challenge card (of the owners choice) from the town. Remove that card from the game. If cards are unavailable to remove the game ends. If a player holds more than 6 non-challenge cards in his or her hand, the game ends. Track your high score as a cooperative team, and try to beat that score.

QUICK START: In this variation each player gets to start with 2 additional cards in hand. First shuffle the hero, building, and citizen cards into 3 separate stacks. Each player will draw 2 cards from any stack. Then set up and play the game as normal.

THEME BUILDER: In this variation the deck is built to represent a scenario or theme rather than randomly suffled. This can be done by someone who is not playing in the game, or done by all players who should know the general order of the cards. Example: Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai Theme: Starting 6 include farm, farmer, bandits, blacksmith, alchemist, thieves. Next Seven cards are all hero cards representing the Seven Samurai. Next 12 cards are all various challenges. Finally a few citizens and buildings back up the back of the deck. This is a combat heavy, challenge heavy theme. In 2012 we will do a theme deck contest. Stay tuned and start working on your ideas.

TEAMS: Both sides add score totals, they can share vending, and defense rolls can be allocated to a teammate’s town. (Defense rolls still occur on the players own turn and this does not grant a greater number of Defense Rolls than usually allowed) Challenges defeated are still kept by the player whose town the Challenge was located. In addition, the loot bonus is taken by the player who has the challenge–not necessarily the player who defeats the challenge. Finally, during final scoring, teams can share pairing (see advanced game pairing rules). Example: If one player has the Gladiator, and the other has the Arena–they score a pair for those cards (if those cards are not used in another pair).

House Rules:
* This house rule came from Bud Humphrey: Challenge Breaker: During final scoring, when there is a tie for most challenges, look at the total difficulty rating (defense value) to determine who actually won. This will affect not only what challenges people choose but also makes it less likely for there to be multiple people getting 2nd place points.
* House Rule from a fan at GENCON 2013. Money Bonus: While this one personally pains me as the designer. I was deliberate in making money worthless at the game end. I can see the merit in a SMALL bonus for the player with the largest coffers. I would recommend a 1 (or 2) point bonus for the player with the most gold.
* This house rule comes from a conversation with Jeremy Pane. Vision: For added strategy this house rule allows all players to see the next card “coming down the road”. Place the stack of cards face up rather than face down. This will affect card drawing choices, and make the turn order of such choices more important. A variant on VISION is allowing it to start once a specific card or card(s) come into any town. Including one or any of the following: Mystic Seer, Tower, Spy, Witch, and/or Explorer. Once the target card or cards enters a town, flip the deck over and play from the new exposed top.
* This one comes in from Mendon in Arizona. Free Market: Players with cards that offer VEND, must vend to any player who requests. This smooths out some of the advantages that a VEND card might give the owner. However, it does remove some of the “take that” involved in denying VEND services.
* This one comes from Rebecca in Illinois. Cities and Citizens: The game ends when the town size is larger than 9. Decide before the game starts to have 10, 11, or 12 size towns. For 2 or 3 player games town size could extend to as much as 15. Note: This increases the play time and disrupts some of the bonus structures.
* This house rule comes from a conversation with Johnny. Sponsors: During any players’ turn in any phase that player may place gold on a challenge in any town if the amount of gold exceeds any amount previously placed on the challenge. That player is now the sponsor for the challenge. All money that challenge would normally extract and place in the bank goes to the sponsor. In addition, at the end of the game, all negative town value of sponsored challenges also counts as positive value to the sponsor. Sponsorship ends if a challenge is defeated. All gold on the challenge card is then earned as bonus loot for the town that defeated it.
* House rule: Poaching In the Defense Phase, on his or her turn a player may utilize an unused HERO Defense Roll to “poach” a challenge in another town. A failed roll results in the HERO being discarded from play. However, if the HERO Defense Roll succeeds, the poaching player gains the loot box, and places the card in their own hand as if it was their challenge. The town being poached may use the KINGS FAVOR or ANGRY MOB to reduce the defense roll of the poacher. The poaching town can use any available bonuses as well.
115 cards (57,5mm x 89mm Chimera Orange)

The Borderlands expansion provides 26 additional cards for Villagers & Villains, designed to bring even more variety and challenges to this fantasy town-building game.

Build a thriving city in a world of legends, heroes, dragons, and wizards with Villagers & Villains: City Builder.

Hire militia to combat thievery within your walls, build an embassy to set up trade deals by your design, create cobblestone roads to attract better talent and business, or add value to your town with a wise investment. These opportunities and more await you in this city-building expansion for the fantastic and humorous town-building game Villagers & Villains.