Entry #1 - Treasure Hunt

by Kactus

You and your friends heard a story that your local beach used to be a famous bay that pirates would use to hide from the navy. You all decide to set out in search of any forgotten treasure that may be buried there!

Equipment: Game board (see below) Gold coins 1 pawn per player 1 counter per player, colour to match pawn 1 direction die with sides labelled N, E, S, W, 1, 1.

The game board is hollow with an opening with a sliding cover on one end. Each square on top is able to be opened.

Setup: Put the coins in the board (see below for the number of coins) and shake it until all players agree that the coins are distributed randomly.

2-4 players: use 7 coins 5 players: use 8 coins 6 players: use 10 coins 7 players: use 11 coins 8 players: use 12 coins

Each player places their counter and pawn on their starting square. The positions available to start on depend on the number of players. The players' starting positions should beequally spaced from each other and should be on the edges of the board. A suggestion is below.

To win: The first person to have a certain number of gold coins on their starting square is the winner; the number of coins depends on the number of players as below:

2 players: 4 gold coins needed to win 3 players: 3 gold coins needed to win 4 or more players: 2 gold coins needed to win

Play: On a player's turn, they roll the die, and can choose to move their pawn 1 or 2 squares in the direction indicated by the die, or one square in any direction if the die shows a '1'. Moving is not compulsory.

After moving (or not) they may choose to lift the lid of the square they are on to check for treasure. Players' home squares may not be checked for treasure. The other players must be able to see the contents of the square. If there is a coin showing, the player may take it, however each player can only carry one coin at a time. Coins only count towards the winning total if they are on the player's home square.

Players may also steal treasure off other players, or off home squares. To steal treasure from another player, your pawn must land on the same square as another player's pawn that is 'carrying' a coin and then roll a 1 on the direction die. To steal off a home square you only need to land on it when the owner's pawn is not there. When a player is on their home square, other players cannot land on it. Remember you can only carry one coin at a time!

Entry #3 - Busted

by shazzaz

4 - 6 players (5 is best)

You are a curator for a museum and have less than an hour to put your display together, where are your artefacts, and who has the gold bust?

Game objective: dispose all unwanted cards and display a full set of 6 artefacts.

First player: left of the dealer, all other players take turns in clockwise order

Dealer: decided by mutual consent.

Components

1 deck of cards depicting artefacts: 6 x Silver 6 x Bronze 6 x Ivory 6 x Jade 6 x Pottery 6 x copper 1 x gold bust

Setup

Decide who will be dealer – shuffle the deck and place the top card face down in the centre of the playing surface (centre card). Deal two cards to each player until the remainder of the deck is distributed.

During a player’s turn, they may choose one of three actions:

a) Discard up to three cards by placing them face up near the centre card.

b) Collect an artefact from the discard.

c) nominate the player you think has the gold bust

If the nominated player holds the gold bust, they must place it face up on top of the centre card – one of the artefacts is now “busted” and cannot be used.

If the nominated player does not hold the bust card, they may swap the centre card with one of their own (remember to keep it face down) in addition to one of the three actions listed above.

If the holder of the gold bust is not nominated, they may swap the centre card for the bust and discard all excess cards in a single move.

Declaring the winner: the winner is the first player to hold just the six artefact cards of one set.

The gold bust wins if no one has their artefacts displayed with in an hour.

Entry #5 - The Gold Bug

by Scurra

a game for three to five players

It's the old, old story. You accidentally stumble across an old document in a chest in your attic, which suggests that there is truth to the legend of the treasure hidden somewhere in the town. There are a bunch of nonsensical cryptic clues to follow, uncovering a complicated history of gold, greed and betrayal. Eventually you realise that there are other treasure hunters, and you are in a race against time to find the hiding place...

Game Summary

Players move their Hunters to visit buildings, which grant a temporary power that will help them finding the clues that will lead to the treasure. There is no actual Treasure piece; instead, the players are set-collecting to establish exactly where it is. The tiles are magnetic, which should help to reduce inadvertent reveals.

Game components

1 Town Square 12 Town buildings (pentominoes with metal bases) 30 Clue tiles (six each of five black symbols) 20 Hunter tiles, four for each player. 10 ID tiles, five blank and five red symbols. Various building tokens 5 Hunter pieces 5 File Cards with space for seven tiles (metal strips)

Game set-up

Put the Town Square in the middle of the table. Randomly select a starting player. You should each take a Hunter and the four matching Hunter tiles. Put the Hunter in the Town Square and the tiles on your File Card (which is kept secret from the other players.)

In clockwise order from the starting player, take one of the town buildings, three clue tiles and an ID tile. You should secretly look at the tiles and stick them to the bottom of the building. You then place the building such that at least one block of it is directly adjacent to the Town Square or to another building that is directly djacent to the Town Square. In anti-clockwise order this process is repeated. In a three-player game there is a third clockwise placement round.

After the placement round is complete, remaining clue tiles are placed face-down to one side. Unused ID tiles are removed (unseen) from the game. Building tokens are placed in a central pool and are visible at all times. Play proceeds clockwise from the starting player and continues until someone wins.

Game play

On your turn, take one of the following actions:

• You may move into an orthogonally adjacent unoccupied building (note: the Town Square may contain any number of Hunters.)

• You may move directly to the Town Square.

• You may look for a Clue. Pick up the building your Hunter is in, and look at the tiles. You must exchange one with one on your File Card. Replace the building in the same position and put your Hunter back on it. You cannot exchange ID tiles!

• You may take the matching building token for the building your Hunter is in. If there are none in the Buildings pool, you may take one from another player. A Hunter may never have more than one identical token.

• If you have a token, you may return the token to take the associated action.

Examples of building token powers

Library: Extra information. Take the Clue action, but you may exchange up to three Clue tiles.

Town Hall: Extra information. Take the Clue action, but you may take an extra tile from that building.

Locksmith: Lock or unlock a building. Lock: your Hunter must be inside the building. Place the Padlock token on the building and move your Hunter to the Town Square. If a building is locked, no Hunter may enter it. Only one building may be locked at any one time.

Unlock: your Hunter must be next to the building with a Padlock token in hand. Return both tokens to the Buildings pool and enter the building.

Taxi Rank: Extra move. After moving your Hunter, take an additional movement action (i.e. you cannot use this with the Clue action.)

Hospital: Eject a Hunter. Move into an occupied building. That Hunter is moved into an adjacent unoccupied building (or to the Town Square if this is impossible.)

Town Square: If you have two matching Hunter tiles on your File Card you may return one of them to that player to summon their Hunter to the Square. They must give you either a token or a clue tile from their File Card (your choice) You may look for a Clue in the Square – these are the unused Clue tiles (if any.)

Game End

When you have five identical black symbol clue tiles on your File Card, you should go to the Building with the matching red ID tile and enter it. On your next turn, reveal your File Card and the ID tile and win.