Academic Departments By Comfect

Players: 2 per team, as many teams as desired, each team representing an academic department Components: Supply of "class" tiles in each department color with length, maximum enrollment and quality rating; supply of "professor" cards and matching tokens with quality rating; board consisting of a class schedule with 3 slots for each hour between 9 am and 4 pm and 20 student areas (each of which has space for major tiles); major tiles in each department color; money; cubes for student class assignments that can be matched with the appropriate student area

Each team represents a department at a college attempting to attract students to their major. One player is the "chair" and the other the "advisor."

Play consists of a series of "semesters" alternating turns within the semester between teams and players (first the advisors in order, then the chairs, then back and forth).

Each team is given 3 "intro" level classes and one "upper" level class, along with 4 professors.

On their turn, an advisor may do one of the following: Plan a class, by assigning a professor to a class and handing the combination to the chair for future scheduling Assign a student in their major to any class already scheduled [Note the limitations] Develop a new class, with the chair's approval, by drawing a random new class tile and paying the appropriate price Assign any student to an intro-level class already scheduled, in any major [Note the limitations]

On their turn, a chair may do one of the following: Schedule a class planned by the advisor, by placing the class tile with the professor token on it on an open time slot and pays the registrar for the privilege. Hire a new professor, with the advisor's approval, by drawing a random new professor card/token pair and paying the price Assign any student to an intro-level class already scheduled, in any major [Note the limitations] Fundraise (receiving a set amount per student in their major) Switch the timeslot any two classes of their major, removing any students already assigned Switch the professors of any two classes of their major, removing any students already assigned

The game consists of 8 semesters. Each semester ends when all developed classes have been scheduled; every player in turn may then assign one more student to any class, subject to the limitations. At the end of each semester, each student who was assigned to a class receives a major tile of that major, except for the WORST class they took, with the caveat that only 2 major tiles of one department can go to a single student in a single semester. Classes are ranked according to their own rating added to their professor's rating. Once a student has accumulated 4 major tiles of a major, they are considered to be "in that major" (students may double/triple/etc major). After placing these tiles, Players receive fundraising for all students in their major who took a class from their department this turn (hence the need for upper-level classes).

After the 8th round, the team with the most students in their major is the winner.

Student assignment limitations: Each class has space for between 1 and 3 students depending on class size; no excess students may be placed. No student may take more than one class in any time slot (so beware of the longer classes!). Also, no student may take more than 4 classes in a semester.

RNA Race

By Seo

From Wikipedia: "The genetic code is the set of rules by which information encoded in genetic material (DNA or RNA sequences) is translated into proteins (amino acid sequences) by living cells. The code defines a mapping between tri-nucleotide sequences, called codons, and amino acids." RNA Race is a card game where teams of 2 or 3 geneticists try to beat the rival teams on a race to synthesize the 20 amino acids an RNA molecule can produce. Communication and collaboration among team members will be of paramount importance to achieve success.

Components

• A deck of 64 cards (one copy of each of the possible combinations of three nucleotides: Uracil, Cytosine, Adenine, Guanine)
• To keep track of the score: 20 Amino acid tokens (with different VP values written on them), and 50 1-VP tokens
• A reference board displaying codon-amino acid relationships

Setup

Place the scoring tokens on one side of the table, so that all the Amino acid tokens are clearly visible. Shuffle the cards and deal 12 per team (6 or 4 per player, depending on team size), face down. Deal one face up card per team on the table, and use the remainder of the deck to form face down reserve piles covering the top two thirds of the face-up cards. The visible portion is the starting base for each team's RNA chain.

Game play

Turn order

1. Draw one card from any reserve pile
2. Add one card to any of the RNA chains.
3. Pick up or remove from the game any scoring token, based on the scoring rules below.

Communication among team members

Team members can exchange information about the cards they hold, or which cards to play, but only through specific facial expressions: - Uracil = tighten lips - Cytosine = raise eyebrows - Adenine = open mouth - Guanine = wink

Scoring

The only way to score is by playing a card on one's own team RNA chain. Playing cards on the other teams RNA chains is also valid, and can be used to reduce their chances to score. Scoring is based on forming codons (groups of three nucleotides surrounded by two dotted lines) that are translated into its corresponding amino acids. When a codon is completed, the corresponding Amino acid token is moved to the current player's team scoring pile (if the codon was formed on the player's team RNA chain), or removed from the game (if the codon was formed on the RNA chain of a rival team). If the token for the amino acid that forms from a codon has already been removed or used to score, no further action is taken, and step 3 of the turn order list is just skipped. Three codons are used as STOP signs that mark the end of a gene: UAA, UAG and UGA. When a player completes any of these codons in his team's RNA chain, the team receives one 1-VP token per codon in the RNA chain (including the Stop codon). Then all the cards from the chain are reshuffled into the reserve pile, except for the one just played, which is placed under the reserve to start a new chain. When a Stop codon is completed on a rival RNA chain, the cards from it are reshuffled into the reserve pile just the same, but no points are scored for either team.

Game end

Game continues until the last Amino acid token is scored or removed. Team with the most points wins.

Bluffery
by Stuart Haag (Stubert)
A battle of wits for 4-18 players (2 or 3 teams w/ 2-6 players each)

Overview:
Each round, each team will show HOW MANY cards they will play (all teams simultaneously), then play that amount of numbered cards (from a pool of cards numbered 1-60 – also simultaneously), with the highest total winning. Teams get to confer among themselves before each showing of cards, and crosstalk and/or trash talk is ENCOURAGED (to throw off other teams).
Knowing how many cards your opponents are going to play (and counting cards to figure what they have left to play), your team will try to play a higher total value of numbered cards than opposing team(s).

RULES:
Contents:
3 decks of 60 cards, numbered 1-60,
3 sets of 6 strength cards – one “NONE”, one “THREE”, two “ONE”s & two “TWO”s.

Setup:
Each team takes a deck of numbered cards and a set of strength cards and distributes the 60 numbered cards among their teammates. When you distribute the cards, you may give any player any cards, as long as the QUANTITY of cards is distributed evenly among all players on your team.
If there are uneven teams (i.e.– one with 3 players and two with 4 players) the cards are still distributed evenly WITHIN EACH TEAM, which may result in some players holding more numbered cards than other players at the beginning of the game.
Teams must be distributed in such a way that there is never more than a one player difference between any two teams (i.e.– 7 players can be three teams – 2, 2 & 3 players, or two teams – 3 & 4 players, but NOT two teams – 2 & 5 players).

How to play:
The three parts of each round (in this order) are:
1) PLAY STRENGTH CARDS
2) PLAY NUMBERED CARDS
3) BUY BACK A PLAYER

PLAY STRENGTH CARDS:
Teams confer and decide which player will play which strength card. The strength card denotes HOW MANY numbered cards that player will play.
Each round, each player plays ONE strength card unless there are uneven teams. With uneven teams, EVERY player on the team(s) with the fewest players will play a strength card, and AN EQUAL NUMBER OF PLAYERS on the remaining team(s) will play strength cards. Example: with a 3 player team and two 4 player teams, 3 players per team will play strength cards each round.
Players play their strength cards face down in front of them, and ALL strength cards are revealed at once.
If one of your players is out of numbered cards, that player MUST play the “NONE” strength card each round until you buy that player back in (see “BUY BACK A PLAYER” later in these rules).
With uneven teams, you may choose to have a teammate with no cards NOT play strength cards instead of having them play the “NONE” card.
You are not forced to buy back a player until MORE THAN ONE of your players MUST play the “NONE” card

PLAY NUMBERED CARDS:
Teams confer again, and decide which numbered cards each player will play (each player’s QUANTITY is determined already by the strength card they played – If a player does not have enough cards, they play ALL of their remaining cards).
Players play their numbered cards face down in front of them, and ALL cards are revealed at once.
The team with the highest TOTAL VALUE of numbered cards collects them all and keeps them for scoring. If there is a tie, the team playing the FEWEST cards wins. If there is still a tie, teams win ONLY THEIR OWN NUMBERED CARDS.
Teams then collect their strength cards.

BUY BACK A PLAYER:
If one or more of your players has no cards, you may buy them back.
a) Each of your players gives another team their lowest card for scoring.
b) Redistribute ALL remaining cards your team holds among ALL of your players EVENLY, giving all leftover cards to another team for scoring.
If you buy back a player, ALL players without cards are bought back simultaneously. If your team is not holding enough cards to distribute at least one card to each player, your cards are considered “leftovers” and must be given to another team, ending the game.

Ending the game:
Once a team has exhausted ALL of their cards, the team that won the most recent (or current) round wins ALL of the remaining cards held by ALL of the teams (including their own). Teams then total the value of all of the numbered cards in their cache, with the highest total winning the game. Ties are awarded to the team with the FEWEST NUMBER of cards.