A Quartet of Games from DEINKO: Skinny Racers, Racing RPS, Spice Stocks & Rainbow Rummy

The skinniest and the weirdest race begins right now! You – yes, you – have received an invitation to participate in the "skinnies" race, a race in which only skinny people can compete. Problem is, the stadium that holds the race has incredibly strong winds that can blow skinny people like you in directions you don't want to go. Can you win this race against the competitors and the devil winds?

In Wind Runner, players have a runner and a hand of seven action cards. Each turn in a round, the first player rolls the wind direction and speed dice to determine whether the wind is blowing north or south and how quickly. Players then each secretly choose an action card in hand, then reveal them and resolve them, starting with the player farthest down the track. The cards let players move forward, move sideways, swap places with another runner, reverse the wind (!), ignore the wind, or move a barricade. Afterwards, players then move forward or backward according to the wind – but if a player or a barricade blocks the wind, then you receive no benefit (or penalty) from it.

After six turns, players pick up all their cards and start a new round. The game ends after 3-5 rounds (depending on the number of players) or as soon as a runner reaches the finish line.

Action R.P.S is a race game on a modular track bearing rock-paper-scissors (RPS) symbols and a "VS" symbol. Each player has three discs, with each disc having two of the RPS symbols on opposite sides, i.e., rock-paper, paper-scissors, and scissors-rock.

On a player's turn, he advances one of his discs, flipping it in the process; occupied RPS spaces are jumped over when moving. When a disc lands on one of the RPS spaces, the symbol on the disc is compared to that of the space. If the disc beats the space (according to standard RPS rules), the disc advances another space, flipping once again. If the symbols are the same, the disc ends its movement on that space, and if the disc loses, it slides back one space without being flipped. On a "VS" space, the disc ends its movement if the space is vacant and advances if one of its own pieces is on the space; if the space is occupied by an opponent, though, the two players compete in an actual RPS game, with the active player moving forward if he wins and ending his turn otherwise.

Players are trying to land their discs in the final section of the track, which is worth bonus points based on how far the disc advances. Additional spaces along the track bear positive or negative points based on that game's set-up. The game ends once a disc reaches the final space on the track. Players then tally their scores, with discs on the starting spaces losing points. Whoever has the most points wins!

Spice Merchant comes across like a minimalistic Reiner Knizia design in which cards are both stocks in the value of goods and the goods being sold.

Each player starts the game with a hand of seven spice cards, with six types of spices in the game; each player secretly stashes 1-2 cards (depending on the round), and these secret investments will be scored at the end of the round.

Six markets are available in the center of the table for players to create demand. On a turn, a player either lays one card face up in front of him – thereby openly showing a stock in a particular type of good – or plays 1-4 cards of the same spice onto a market. Once a market has a type of goods on it, only goods of the same type can be added to it. No market can have more than four cards on it, and the same good can by played into at most two markets. The player then refills his hand to seven cards.

When all the markets have cards in them or two markets are full with four cards, the round ends. Each player reveals his secret stock; for each stock card that has a market devoted to it, the player scores 1-10 points, depending on the type of spice and the number of cards in the market. A player can score an identical spice card only if two markets carry this spice.

Players clear the markets, then begin a new round. The player with the most points after four rounds wins!