Crypt

Crypt is a little game of luck-pushing and set-collection: the story of the game is that the dying king desires to take his riches to the grave, and the players are his considerably-cheesed-off children, objecting to the point where you send your minions down to the crypt to make off with said treasure. The treasure is the cards, and the minions are the dice…

The cards are made up of suits – each has a number (a point value at the end of the game) but also having a certain number of the same suit will trigger additional points, or in-game bonuses. At the start of each round a number of cards are revealed, and then players take turns placing as many of their three dice on them as they choose (the last player to go may only place dice on a single card). You choose the value of the dice placed, but with two catches: first, subsequent players can place higher-valued die or dice to bump you off the card, and second, when your cards are claimed you must roll the dice placed on them: if you don’t roll equal to or higher than the numbers you placed, the dice are lost to you – at least temporarily. With less dice, you obviously have less flex in terms of claiming cards! If you manage to lose all three dice, you skip a turn to claim them all back.

So turn order is critical, and so is the cards you claim and going scattergun is unlikely to get you a win. Cards like to be in sets, and some cards will be hidden too, meaning you usually can’t be sure who the winner is until the final cards are claimed – which doesn’t take all that long. Most points: wins.