Pohaku is a four-sided three-color dominoes like game set that comes with rules for four games and twenty-six puzzles.

Some video info.

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Hunting Fever Games makes hunting simulation games.

Designed by a hunter, the games simulate the frustration of trying to kill that elusive deer, pheasant, or duck, until the moment of glory when you’ve finally bagged your limit.

You hunt with shotgun, rifle, black powder, compound bow, cross bow, and recurve. The mechanic appears to be: roll the dice to see what you’re hunting, pick a card to see what die to roll for the hunt, and then roll a die to see if you got it.

(source)

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Top Trumps is a wildly successful card game that plays out a little like War.

Each card has a series of statistics. On your turn, you look at your top card and call out a stat (typically the highest one on your top card), and the player whose top card has the highest value in that stat wins the “trick”.

Top Trumps has sold over 40 million cards, and has been licensed up the Wazoo. That’s not entirely bad, as some versions of the cards provide an opportunity for a slight amount of education. The latest deal is with Ripley’s Believe it or Not. (source)

Amazon sells Star Wars Starships, Star Wars – Episodes IV – VI, Star Wars – Episodes I – III, Animals, Indiana Jones, Doctor Who, The Simpsons, Shrek 2, Lord of the Rings The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings the Return of the King, Dinosaurs, Sharks, Space Phenomena, Wonders of the world, The Davinci Code, Sealife In Danger, Predators, Skyscrapers, Wildlife in Danger, Warships, and Ultimate Military Jets. You can see a list of all of the versions on the Wikipedia page.

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Dr Finn’s is a new company with three card games for sale. As Dr Finn says, the games emphasize mechanics over graphic design.

The available games are:

• Scripts and Scribes: “You are an abbot of a medieval monastery competing with other abbots to amass the greatest library of sacred books. To do so, you need to have both the workers and resources to run a well-functioning scriptorium. To acquire workers and resources, you use a limited supply of donated gold. In addition, you must be on good terms with the powerful bishop, who can help you in your quest.”
• Slush Fund: “It is 21st century America–a place where money talks and politicians listen. In this game, players are wealthy CEOs who bribe politicians to gain political power and influence. Players must be careful, however, because political scandal might bring down one’s political friends and all of one’s invested money. Players who use their money wisely to bribe the right politicians will be victorious.”
• Charioteer: “You are a Roman Aristocrat who uses your influence and power to hire an experienced Charioteer, to acquire an excellent chariot and to buy a strong horse to compete in a chariot race.  More importantly, however, you must offer sacrifices to the Gods to gain their favor as they help your team toward victory.”

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CAMP is a trivia game about the outdoors.

It comes with four levels of play, so the younger players have a chance against the older ones.

There’s even a booster pack for a second edition.

(source)

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The Sixth Sense game is another in the field of “predict what the other players will answer” games. You can even opt to predict what the other players will predict.

Questions are on the order of “What’s the greatest motivator for adults: love, hate, fear, or money?”

For each purchase, $1 will be donated to NALA (Neighborhood Adult Literacy Action).

No relation to two other games names “Sixth Sense” from around 1980, and no relation to the movie.

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There is something called the World Domino Open happening in Las Vegas at the Hilton. $50,000 in prizes. (source)

And here’s a video of the successful world record domino toppling from last Friday. 4,345,027 fallen.

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The 38th Chess Olympiad opened Thursday in Dresden with 156 open teams and 119 women only teams. Each day will see 550 games.

The Olympiad occurs every two years, and is organized by FIDE and the IOC, so is also subject to the latter’s ridiculous doping laws.

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