Complete Prehistoric Milestones, Employ Your 6th Sense, and Help Your Neighbors Play

In HELP!, you don't want to be stuck unable to play a card or unable to help a neighbor play.

The game is played in rounds that alternate in clockwise and counter-clockwise order. The deck of cards is numbered 1-11, with more of the higher cards than lower ones; four types of special cards are also included in the deck. Deal each player a hand of four cards, then create a space next to the deck that can hold up to six cards.

Whoever has the lowest card in hand plays that card next to the deck, then refills their hand. Each player in turn plays a higher card, and when the sixth card is played in the row, discard all six cards, with the next player then playing whatever card they want. If you can't play on a turn, ask the previous player whether they have a card you can play; if they do, the two of you exchange cards, then you play. You can play special cards — or pass them to or receive them from a neighbor — to get you out of a jam:

—X is a joker that can be inserted in the middle of a row or at the end, and it counts as one higher than whatever card it's next to.
—Switch allows you to replace a card in the row with a different card from your hand as long as the row is still in ascending order.
—Zap removes the last card in the row.
—No!, which is placed in front of you, serves as your play for the turn and also skips your next turn; additionally, you are skipped when a neighbor needs help.


If you can't play a card and a neighbor can't help you, then the round ends and each other player scores 1 point. Alternatively, if you can't play and everyone else has a No! in front of them, which prevents them from helping, the round ends and you score 1 point because they failed you in that moment. Keep playing rounds until one or more players have 3 points and win the game.

Your goal in Milestones is to score as many points as possible as a team, but throughout the game you'll each be working on a goal individually with no communication during play.

To set up, divide the deck of cards into three piles according to their difficulty. Each player draws a goal card of their choice and keeps it hidden. Flip the three-minute sand timer to begin play. To start, one player rolls all six dice, which have the numbers 1-6 on the sides with a different color on each side. Players then take turns in clockwise order grabbing and re-rolling as many dice as they wish from what lies on the table. If at any time the die results allow you to complete your goal card in hand, place that card on your "completed goals" pile, then draw a new card from the pile of your choice. Sample goals are have three dice with the same number, have three dice of the same color in sequence, have no visible red or black dice, or have a pair of a certain color and a different pair of a certain number at the same time.


When the sand timer runs out, tally the points for completed goals. To make the game more challenging, you can shuffle all of the goal cards into a single deck or you can lay out 1-4 public special goals at the start of the game; if you fail to complete all of the special goals, then your final score is 0 no matter what else you do.

In 6th Sense, you score by correctly predicting the number of tricks you'll take in a round.

The game lasts 4-6 rounds depending on the player count. The deck contains cards numbered 0-14 in five colors, and at the start of a round players are dealt a hand of 11-15 cards, then the top card of the deck is revealed to designate a trump suit. Each player then simultaneously chooses a card from their hand to predict the number of tricks they'll win this round, then places this card face down on the table.


In general, standard trick-taking rules apply: Someone leads a card, and other players must follow suit, if possible, with the highest trump or highest card of the suit lead winning the trick. That said, some cards have special effects when played:

—When you play a 0, you can treat it as a 0 of that color, or you can remove the 0 and one previously played card from the current trick.
—A trick with a 4 in it is won by the lowest card played instead of the highest; a second 4 cancels this effect.
—The 6 and 9 are on the same card, and you declare which value you want when playing it (or when using it to predict the number of tricks you'll win).
—When you play an 8, you can peek at the prediction card of whoever wins that trick.
—If a trick contains at least one 12, the trick's winner can choose to immediately split the cards in that trick to count as two tricks.

At the end of the round, if you've collected as many tricks as you predicted at the start of the round, you score that many points. If you failed to collect that number, you lose as many points as the difference between your prediction and what you collected, e.g., if you predicted 5 and collected 4 or 6 tricks, you lose 1 point. After the designated number of rounds, whoever has the most points wins.

It's time for the annual Festival of Wizardry and Witchcraft! Battle against the best wizards and witches in the world to prove you can mix the best potions and become this year's winner!

At the start of Elixir Mixer, each player has a hand of five ingredient cards. The elixir cards and ten bonus cards are placed on the table, with six random ingredient cards next to them as a market. On a turn, take one of three possible actions:

—Draw a card from the deck.
—Take a card from the market, then refill the market.
—Place one card from your hand into the market, then take any number of cards so long as their sum equals the card placed, then refill the market.

If you have several cards of the same color in your hand and their total value corresponds to the value of the top elixir card of that color, you can discard these cards to collect that elixir. You can create several elixirs in the same turn. End your turn by seeing whether you can claim one of the bonus cards by meeting the depicted requirements, such as an elixir or each color or three purple elixirs. Each collected elixir and bonus card is worth 1 point, and whoever collects 8 points first wins.