Crowdfunding Round-up: Francis Drake, Creekos, Twin Tin Bots, Steam Noir: Revolution & Ultimate Mafia

Return to a bustling Plymouth Harbor in 1572 as an aspiring Elizabethan captain making preparations for three exciting voyages to the Spanish Main in search of fame and fortune! As captains, players will have to plan their missions and provision their ships accordingly.

Francis Drake is a race to see who can set sail and reach the Spanish Main first. The riches of the Aztec and Inca Empires await these swashbuckling captains. Many tough decisions must be made before each voyage:

• How many crew members, guns and trade goods will be needed?
• What supplies will be needed to reach deep into the Caribbean?
• Will a stronger galleon be needed to attack the treasure fleets?
• Can special charts from the Spanish Admiral and Governor help?
• Will the Queen or rich investors back the voyage?
• What information can the informer give?
• Will Drake himself be available to guide the voyage?
• Who will get the use of the golden hind?

Each new voyage has its own challenges to overcome, but the captured gold, silver and jewels should greatly please the Queen. Get ready for the voyage of a lifetime!

Creekos: The Card Game is a trick-taking card game with a customized deck that pits two partnerships of two players against one another, first in an auction to determine the power of their cards, then in the card play itself.

At the start of the game two auctions take place, one for the number scale – that is, which value on the cards they hold will be used by the partnership – and a second for the trump color. After this, the players then compete in a trick-taking game that uses customized cards in different categories that relate to one another; in the packet "Hercules' Labors", for example, the categories are Events, Gods, People, Creatures, Lifeless. For each trick, players lay one card in the center of the table – with some cards having special abilities that activate thunderbolts or block other cards – and the most powerful card wins the trick. Once all the tricks are finished, players tally their points (subtracting however many points they bid at the start of the game), and the partnership with the high score wins.

Creekos: The Card Game can also be played by only two players, with each player competing on her own.

In Twin Tin Bots, the robot-programming game for the new generation, many corporations have invested in crystal mining after they were discovered as a potent energy source. They designed and improved robots to harvest crystals and a few people can now run a big crystal harvesting rig. Many teams work on the same harvesting plant, but the game's always on to bring more crystals back than the others.

In the game, each player programs two robots to harvest crystals from the game board and bring them back to his base. The catch is that robots repeat their programming, but changes to the program from turn to turn are limited. Robots can also interact with other robots so even the best laid plans can end up slightly different than expected.

The player who harvests the most valuable crystals wins.

In the Wilhelminian steampunk State of "Januskoogen" five factions of the population rise against Emperor Julian. They must work together to overcome the Emperor, but only one will eventually rule the future country. Otherwise, Julian suppresses the revolution and retains control...

In Steam Noir: Revolution, each faction consists of a total of 13 cards: three cards with a value of 4-6 and two cards with values 7-8. There are ten additional cards which can be added to the strength of any faction card already in play. The table represents Haven, the capital of Januskoogen, where the emperor deploys his army on one side and the insurgent people gather on the other.

The game is played over a series of turns ("weeks"). After four weeks, a month is completed with an intermediate scoring, and after three months a final scoring ends the game.

Each player starts with a hand of seven cards, one random "secret goal" faction that the player attempts to guide to victory, and a set of support cards. With these cards you secretly "bid" on the faction you believe will win the next month’s scoring by having accumulated the most points.

In the game, players simultaneously place one card each in the centre of the table, either towards the revolutionary forces, or as a traitor on the emperor's side adding this value to an "Emperor card" already placed in that location. This happens three times, but you are only allowed to place one of your three cards as a traitor. The week is then resolved and the highest card of the player who provided the most support for the strongest faction is put aside for future scorings; in addition, this player is immediately awarded 2 extra points. The player who played the highest single card for this faction (not necessarily the same player!) is awarded 1 point. But beware - when the Emperor (his card plus all traitors) gained more points than each single faction, the Emperor card id placed to the scoring! The table is cleared and the next week begins. After four weeks, a month is over and an intermediate scoring takes place. If you are correct with your prediction of this month’s winner you gain another 6 points.

After three months the final scoring occurs, determining the winner: the "secret goals" are revealed and the collected points of each player are added to the cards put aside for their faction during the course of the game. The faction with the highest score wins the revolution - and the game. But when the emperor (with traitors) can put down the rebellion - then the faction with the lowest score wins the game. Or, if the highest scoring revolutionary faction wins and is too far ahead, it is immediately overthrown by all the others and the faction with the second highest score wins the game.

Ultimate Mafia is a party game for 7-55 people in which secret teams try to eliminate one another. Each player is given a role card that identifies him as being part of the Mafia or a well-respected citizen of the small town in which you all live. The members of the Mafia know who all the Mafioso are, while the citizens are trying to figure out who among them they can trust and who are aligned with the Mafia.

Each day the residents of the town convene in the town square and decide on a player to lynch...typically one that they as a group suspect of being in the Mafia. Each night, members of the Mafia "take out" a player from the game. This continues until only one side remains, at which time that side wins the game!

One of the great things about Ultimate Mafia is that players aren't limited to just Mafioso and Citizen roles; two additional standard roles in Ultimate Mafia, for example, are The Doctor, who visits a player each night in case he needs saving from the Mafia, and The Detective, who looks into the background of one player each night to determines whether he is a Mafioso or not. Just these roles make for an engaging game, but Ultimate Mafia includes many more roles...more than forty in all!