But not everything is as straightforward as that! If a player rolls a blank face, they draw their own icons on the faces of their dice. Some icons give players points, others may cause opponents to lose points, force competitors to re-roll and more! The first player to reach 13 points at the end of a round wins.
Just as the bio-organism contamination alarm goes off, one of the crew members seizes the chaotic moment and sabotages the freighter's engines. The ship, its crew, and the parasitic organism are all on a collision course with planet Earth, where further contamination of the world's population awaits.
Which of the crew are dedicated company personnel wanting the alien organism to reach Earth? Which are just crew wanting to identify the infected crew member? Most importantly, which member of the crew is infected?! Join the crew of Burke's Gambit on a wild space adventure with hidden affiliations and a hidden infected player.
In Burke's Gambit, players take on specific roles of Captain, Marine, Comms Officer and more as they take turns and roll a die. The possibilities of the die include damaging another player, healing themselves, looking at a crew affiliation card, or even scanning a player's diagnostic card. But if you roll an engine power up, you hasten the ship's arrival to Earth. When Burke's Gambit reaches Earth, a vote must be held to eject someone from the airlock (assuming anyone's left)!
• Japon Brand has announced two dozen games that it will have available at SPIEL 2016 — and yes, I know that I still need to add them to BGG's SPIEL 2016 Preview — with one of those titles being Unicornus Knights, a 2-6 player co-op from Seiji Kanai and Kuro that bears this description:
The game is played on a modular board, where each board contains an enemy general. When a player closes in upon an enemy general, random "fate" cards are drawn that will represent the connection between the enemy general and the player, adding to the narrative and available tactics.
• Renegade Game Studios has announced a November 2016 release for The Blood of an Englishman from Dan Cassar, designer of the masterful Arboretum. Here's the lowdown on this two-player game:
In The Blood of an Englishman, players take on the role of either Jack or the Giant. The Giant must maneuver the Fee Fi Fo and Fum cards while Jack tries to create three beanstalks to steal the bag of gold, the Golden Goose, and the Singing Harp. Each player has different available actions and must carefully arrange the cards to achieve their goal. Are you brave enough to face your fate?