Fantasy

Welcome to the world of the Gnomes of Zavandor.

Like most gnomes, you have two great passions: sparkling gems and wondrous machines.
The sought-after gemstones can be found around the mining town of Diamantina. They can be bought and sold at the gem exchange, shady traders are always willing to engage in a little wheeling and dealing, and then you can use the gems to claim valuable mining rights, artifacts and jewellery. Who will become the most successful gem trading mogul?

Zavandor is a fantasy setting which revolves around a capitalist economy based on trading in gems - sapphires, rubies, mystical gems etc. Other games in the family include Mines of Zavandor, and The Scepter of Zavandor.

Gnomes of Zavandor features two central boards. The first is a grid with markers indicating the current price of each of the gem types, and also indicating whether the price is going to go up or down next turn. Gems can be bought (or sold) for cash in the first phase of each turn. Buying gems makes them more valuable in subsequent turns; selling them reduces their value, and this is reflected on the grid. These gems can be used to buy tiles from the second board, a star-shaped arena featuring "mining rights" tiles positioned randomly around it. The position on the board indicates the cost to purchase these mining rights; the cost will be a mixed selection of coloured gems. At the end of each turn, players gain new gems according to the mining rights they have acquired and this affects the central economy, generally reducing the value of the relevant gems when they are purchased for hard cash, in future rounds.

The initial phase of the turn involves buying gems, selling gems, taking gold, trading with the central supply, and purchasing cards and tokens (with gems rather than cash). The items available for purchase include equipment improving your efficiency, jewels providing victory points, and mining rights. The second phase of the turn involves mining for new gems. Each player takes the gems they are allowed according to their mining rights. At the end of each turn, the market values are adjusted according to the actions which have occurred; the price of the available equipment is discounted (this rule is optional); and another area of the star-shaped board becomes accessible with more mining-rights available to purchase in the next round.

The game continues until one player has reached a victory-point target, dependent on the number of players in the game. Victory points are achieved by purchasing mining-rights, equipment, and most significantly (but also most expensively) jewellery.

Game description of the 2011 revised edition from the publisher:

Welcome to Cadwallon, an infamous city known for the chicanery of its artful guilds! Can your guild sweep through its districts and gain power through recruiting influential citizens and acquiring valuable relics?

The revised edition of Arcana is a card game of recruitment and resource gathering for 2-4 crafty leaders. Command a guild of loyal agents during a series of district encounters against your opponents. Score the most prominent citizens, advantageous locations, and valuable treasures through bribery and power struggles. Collect the highest amount of victory points to become the master guild of Cadwallon!

This vibrant game creates a fantastical atmosphere for players to enjoy while they attempt to best their opponents through strategic card play. Make your guild the most influential by winning Stake cards and strengthening your deck with impressive Personalities, advantageous Locations, or tempting Relics to use in bribery.

The revised edition of Arcana introduces two new guilds to choose from, the Guild of Fortune-tellers and the Guild of Architects, as well a variety of optional rules that players can utilize to enhance their experience. Players can customize their guild, fulfill objectives, recruit Militia, invoke the ability of their Guild Masters, affect game play through random events, or optimize tactical strategy through card discards. Which variant will you use in your game?

Summary of Play

Arcana is played over a series of rounds that are comprised of two phases, the Intrigue phase and the Resolution phase. Send Agents from your unique guild deck to any of Cadwallon’s districts to claim control of Stake cards: Personalities, Locations, and Relics, all of which award victory points.

During these district encounters players gain control of Stake cards by playing their Agent cards. Stake cards are won through meeting or exceeding the card’s main arcanum: either Military, Political, Spiritual, or Financial. Whichever Agent has the highest matching arcanum type wins the current revealed Stake card in that district.

Of course if the Stake card you are after is a Personality card you can choose to bribe them with a Relic Card instead, immediately ending the phase and wresting the victory points from your opponents should you succeed.

Players can increase the mystery of the final outcome through bluffing. Players control two friendly distracts (piles of Stake cards) in which they can place their Agents facedown. Will your opponent chance opposing you when he is uncertain of your arcanum value?

Test your knowledge of Naughtiness! Answering trivia and acting out "silly and outrageous sins," is the key to winning the game. Includes 1890 trivia questions and 700 'sins' in 7 categories:

- Vanity and Beauty
- Envy, Jealousy, and Theft
- Anger, Revenge, and War
- Sloth, and Vulgarity
- Greed, Wealth, and Gambling
- Gluttony and Food
- Lust, Love, And Sex

From Barad-dûr, the bulwark of the dark lord Sauron, and from Orthanc, the fortress of the wizard Saruman, a threat goes out to all of Middle Earth. Innumerable, nameless Orcs stream forth from both towers. The players support the side of good and guide the heroes of the story in the fight against the Orcs. If the Orc hordes succeed in forming a connection between the two towers, the dark side will have won and the players will all lose together. If, in their continuing quest, the players can hold back the Orcs for a very long time indeed, until the Ents reach Orthanc, then the player who has contributed the most to this success wins the game.

Game description from the publisher:

Blood Bowl: Team Manager - The Card Game is a bone-breaking, breathtaking standalone card game of violence and outright cheating for two to four players. Chaos, Dwarf, Wood Elf, Human, Orc, and Skaven teams compete against each other over the course of a brutal season. Customize your team by drafting Star Players, hiring staff, upgrading facilities, and cheating like mad. Lead your gang of misfits and miscreants to glory over your rivals all to become Spike! Magazine's Manager of the Year!

Once a manager has chosen one of the six teams, he has five weeks to groom them into the best in the league, culminating with the Blood Bowl tournament. He does this by competing at highlights, collecting payouts, upgrading his personnel, and drafting Star Players.

Managers begin the season with a starting team deck full of basic scrub players. These players are none too bright and have limited talents, but a clever manager can play to their strengths by carefully positioning them to excel on the pitch.

Is your team ready to compete against other teams in head-to-head highlights? Highlights are the randomly determined matchups over which players compete. The more highlights a team wins, the more it improves and the more fans it accumulates.

The season culminates with the Blood Bowl tournament. After the Blood Bowl, the season ends. Players then tally up their total fans and the manager with the most fans wins the game.