Dice

Game description from the publisher:

"Crossroads" is a new series from Plaid Hat Games that tests a group of survivors' ability to work together and stay alive while facing crises and challenges from both outside and inside.

Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game, the first game in this series, puts 2-5 players in a small, weakened colony of survivors in a world where most of humanity is either dead or diseased, flesh-craving monsters. Each player leads a faction of survivors with dozens of different characters in the game.

Dead of Winter is a meta-cooperative psychological survival game. This means players are working together toward one common victory condition — but for each individual player to achieve victory, he must also complete his personal secret objective. This secret objective could relate to a psychological tick that's fairly harmless to most others in the colony, a dangerous obsession that could put the main objective at risk, a desire for sabotage of the main mission, or (worst of all) vengeance against the colony! Certain games could end with all players winning, some winning and some losing, or all players losing. Work toward the group's goal, but don't get walked all over by a loudmouth who's looking out only for his own interests!

Dead of Winter is an experience that can be accomplished only through the medium of tabletop games. It's a story-centric game about surviving through a harsh winter in an apocalyptic world. The survivors are all dealing with their own psychological imperatives, but must still find a way to work together to fight off outside threats, resolve crises, find food and supplies, and keep the colony's morale up.

Dead of Winter has players making frequent, difficult, heavily- thematic, wildly-varying decisions that often have them deciding between what is best for the colony and what is best for themselves.

From the back of the box

Do you like Treasure Hunts?

Grab your magnifying glass and detective's hat - it's time to travel the world tracking down a Mammoth! Transform yourself into a super sleuth, then armed with dice, a track, clues and a map, pit yourself against your fellow explorers as you search for mammoth footprints and discarded blueberries (our Mammoth's favourite snack)!

Each time you land on a square, try to guess where it is on the map. If you're willing to pay for the information, you can buy extra clues with special Mammoth Money. If you get the answer right, your collection of Mammoth treasure grows and your knowledge of the worlds geography increases.

Experienced explorers can play a second, even more challenging game. Using a set of quiz cards, you can launch a fast-paced battle requiring quick thinking and even quicker answers! Even if you don't manage to beat the competition, you keep the knowledge you have learned, so everyone's is a winner!

Using strategy and cunning, each player moves his group of companions from volcano to volcano collecting treasure. His/her goal is to collect sets of dragon eggs and gemstones. The player scores for each egg and gemstone collected but also receives extra points for each complete set. The game ends when the last dragon egg is collected.

Bruges in the 15th century – culture and commerce flourish and make the Belgian Hanseatic city into one of the wealthiest cities in Europe.

In Bruges (a.k.a. Brugge or Brügge depending on the country in which you live), players assume the role of merchants who must maintain their relationships with those in power in the city while competing against one another for influence, power and status. Dramatic events cast their shadows over the city, with players needing to worry about threats to their prosperity from more than just their opponents...

The game includes 165 character cards, with each card having one of five colors. On a turn, a player chooses one of his cards and performs an action, with six different actions being available: Take workers, take money, mitigate a threat, build a canal, build a house or hire the character depicted on the card. In principle, every card can be used for every action – but the color of the card determines in which areas the actions can be used or the strength of the chosen action, e.g., blue cards provide blue workers and red cards help mitigate red threats. All of the action is geared toward the gathering of prestige, with the most prestigious merchant winning in the end.

Yam Master combines the dice-combination game play of Yahtzee and other such designs with a competition for prime spots on the game board in order to create rows of tokens.

On a turn, a player rolls the five dice, setting aside any he wishes, then rolls up to two more times with dice set aside in the first round being available for reroll on the third throw. After his final throw, the player can place one of his tokens on the game board on any space for which his dice-combination qualifies. The possible combinations are:

Three of a kind ("Square" 1-6): at least three dice with the same number (Square 2 = at least three dice with a "2")
Full House ("Full"): three dice of a kind and two dice of a kind (not necessarily different)
Four of a kind ("Carré"): at least four dice with same number
Five of a kind ("Yam"): five dice with the same number
Straight ("Suite"): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
≤8: when the sum of all dice does not exceed 8
One shot ("Sec"): one of the above figures, except 3 of a kind, in the first throw
Challenge ("Défi"): before the second throw, the player places a bet and successfully attains on of the figures above, except 3 of a kind, within the second or third throw. He must not bet on a specified figure.

Note that a "Yam" is also a "Square", a "Full", and a "Carré"; the player may choose which combination space he wants to cover with his token. Covering a space with a token is optional.

Instead of placing a token after a Yam, the player may remove one of the opponent's tokens from the game board.

The game ends either when one player creates a row of five tokens on the game board – winning the game instantly – or when a player places his twelfth token on the board; in the latter case, players score two points for each four-in-a-row created with their tokens and one point for each three-in-a-row, with the winner being decided on points.