Change the World with Macarons and Great Leaders from History

• World Changers is a card game for 1-4 players from Japanese designer THEKI and publisher Korea Boardgames that seems to have been born from the "deserted island" conversation that sometimes arises between friends.

Here's a summary of the setting and gameplay:

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Who would you take to another planet if Earth were no longer inhabitable? What if you could pick people from long bygone eras?

Turns out that you are the captain of an interstellar spaceship, and you need to assemble your crew to live on a new planet. You can recruit them from historical persons throughout the whole of human history, but each person has their own peculiarities. Can you make the best team to let humanity thrive once more?

In World Changers, players draft cards from a common display with each card having an unique effect and a Legacy value. On their turn, players can either "invite" or "pass", with invite adding a card to the player's display, that is, a member of that player's team. Each card's effect is triggered either when the card is taken or when certain conditions are met. When no cards are left to invite or when each player passes in succession, the game ends and the player with the highest total Legacy of their members wins.

The game includes a booklet full of art and stories of the 32 historical persons featured in the game!

• Sticking with card games, let's take a peek at Macaron, a 1-5 player trick-taking game from Ta-Te Wu of Sunrise Tornado Game Studio.

Macarons hold a special place in my heart as after SPIEL '15, my wife and son joined me in Europe to visit a former exchange student in Hamburg and friends in the Netherlands and Belgium, with us concluding this trip with a stop in Paris that included a food tour of the Latin Quarter, with the guide explaining everything about the meats, cheeses, wine, and yes, macarons found in this area.

In any case, here's a rundown of the setting and what you're doing in the game:

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To celebrate King Louis' birthday, royal pâtissiers are busy preparing macaron gift boxes for the royal family and guests. At the end of the celebration, the pâtissier who has made the most boxes will win and become the most prestigious pâtissier in France — so you must be watchful for dark currents underneath the cheerful pâtissiers and colorful macarons as an allergen might slip into your box and ruin the pastry. Are you ready to make some macarons?

In Macaron, players are French pâtissiers preparing macaron gift boxes. In every game, a number of rounds will be played, and each round ends when thirteen tricks have been played or a player has prepared at least eight boxes. Players receive victory points (VPs) at the end of the round based on the number of boxes prepared.

In more detail, the deck will contain 5-7 suits of macarons based on the number of players, and these macarons are put together into 3-4 groups, e.g., almond and pistachio are in group A, while strawberry and blueberry are in group B. Each round, one group will be determined to be "royal", and the 1-2 suits in that group are trump for the round. In addition, one flavor (not group) of macarons will be the allergen for the round.

Standard trick-taking rules are used, with the leading player being allowed to play anything and with other players needing to follow suit. Whoever wins the trick scores 1 box — or 3 boxes if the trick was won with a 1. If a trick contains an allergen, then no boxes are scored, except if the trick also contains a 2, which negates the allergen. Players track boxes won on a scoring track, and they also use this board at the start of a round to bet on the number of tricks they expect to win, with players winning or losing points based on how well their bet matches reality.

Macaron lasts a number of rounds until someone passes the VP threshold established at the start of the game. The solo rules have you compete against an AI player, Emma, who follows particular rules for deciding what to play.