Vendor: Redshift Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 19.95

Vendor: Redshift Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 11.95

Vendor: Catalyst Game Labs
Type: Board Games
Price: 26.95

The year is 2078. The worlds’ megacorporations straddle the sprawls of the Sixth World, goliaths that intimidate even nations as they suck in souls in their drive for the almighty nuyen. Between the cracks, shadowrunners carve out a living as deniable and disposable assets that megacorps fire at each other for datasteals, personnel extractions, or even wetwork. Whether casting manabolts of magic, riding the electrons of the Matrix with just the brain, or slinging good, old-fashioned flying lead while firing at speed enhanced by the latest in bio-engineering, runners live dangerously and hope their skills are good enough to let them survive another day.

Encounters: Shadowrun is a 1-8 player fast-paced, pushed-your-luck dice and card game. Players take the role of Mr. Johnson, arranging the megacorps’ dirty work and adding new shadowrunners to their already-assembled teams. They send their teams into the shadows of the mean sprawl streets of the Sixth World, collecting though paydata to beat down their rivals. Grab some dice, make a team, and show ’em who’s the boss.

The goal of the game is to be the first player to acquire ¥30.
Each player starts the game with (1) runner and 6 dice. At the start of your turn you flip over location card, that has effects aka breaks the rules, on every turn until a new environment card comes into play. You then flip over the top Event card form the deck and try and roll an exact match of the number on the card. If you succeed you place a die on the. You could stop then and receive ¥1 or flip a card and continue to press your luck. If you fail the next player starts a new run with a chance to collect n the ¥ you forfeited.

¥ are used as victory points as well as currency to buy additional runners.

Vendor: Redshift Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 5.95

This expansion adds thirty-two unique kittens to the game in two new groups, allowing for play with up to six players (or teams). It also has color-reminder cards, and flavors.

Flavors add a new dimension to the strategic play of Kittens in a Blender. If you are having trouble rescuing your kittens, you really really can't keep them out of the blender, throw some vanilla extract or strawberries into the mix and make a smoothie! It's a new way to score points toward victory, and now other players have to think long and hard before sending too many of your kittens toward the evil blender.

Vendor: Catalyst Game Labs
Type: Board Games
Price: 11.95

Encounters: Bravest Warriors is a quick push-your-luck dice game set in the world of the Pendleton Ward cartoon. Players roll dice, assigning them to encounters to defeat those encounters and earn Heroic Points. After beating an encounter, the dice used are spent, and another encounter can be revealed, but the player must use only the remaining dice. Players can stop rolling any time they want, but if a player manages to use every single one of their dice, they can take all their dice back and keep going, with each encounter being worth double points! You can spend these points on later turns to buy item cards that can help you manipulate the dice.

If you fail, other players can leap at the opportunity to "assist" you (using their items to help you win in exchange for half the points, and you can't refuse!) or just let you fail and ride on your coat-tails, picking up where you left off.

Vendor: Catalyst Game Labs
Type: Board Games
Price: 11.95

Encounters: Bravest Warriors is a quick push-your-luck dice game set in the world of the Pendleton Ward cartoon. Players roll dice, assigning them to encounters to defeat those encounters and earn Heroic Points. After beating an encounter, the dice used are spent, and another encounter can be revealed, but the player must use only the remaining dice. Players can stop rolling any time they want, but if a player manages to use every single one of their dice, they can take all their dice back and keep going, with each encounter being worth double points! You can spend these points on later turns to buy item cards that can help you manipulate the dice.

If you fail, other players can leap at the opportunity to "assist" you (using their items to help you win in exchange for half the points, and you can't refuse!) or just let you fail and ride on your coat-tails, picking up where you left off.

Vendor: Redshift Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 15.95

You are twisted. I can’t believe you actually want to put these adorable kittens in a blender! I guess that’s none of my business. Maybe you’re more of a dog person. Sure, kittens are curious by nature, but when they get in a kitchen full of dangerous appliances, it is up to you to save them.

This fast-paced card game has players working to save all of their own kittens before the unthinkable happens. But sometimes the only way to save your precious litter of kittens is to let those curious little cats learn the lesson of why you should never play in a Blender!

According to the box: A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a no kill cat shelter.

Objective:
Save your kittens and send your opponents' kittens to The Blender.

Setup & Play:
Put the game box top on the table, open-side up and place the oversized Blender card inside, face-up: that's The Blender. Place the oversized Box card face up in the base of the box: that's The Box. Leave a little space between The Blender and The Box: that's The Counter. Assign each player a Kitten color (red, green, blue or yellow), shuffle the deck, deal each player 6 cards and it's time to start saving adventurous kittens.

On each turn, players play two cards and then draw back up to 6. Kitten cards may be played into The Blender, The Counter or The Box. All other cards are played face up in front of the player so that all players can see which cards have been played.

Players can play Kitties on the Move to move kittens to or from The Blender, The Counter or The Box; the number on the card specifies the number of kittens that can each be moved 1 space. Playing a Blend card will destroy the kittens currently in The Blender, save the kittens in The Box, and move the kittens on The Counter into The Blender unless countered by another player's Blend "Pulse" card.

Players can move kittens around with other cards as well. Kittens in the Blender moves all of the kittens on The Counter or in The Box to The Blender. With These Cats in the Blender a player can move all cats of a chosen color from The Counter and The Box to The Blender. Kittens in the Box moves all kittens in The Blender or on The Counter to The Box, while Cats on the Counter moves all the kittens in The Blender or The Box to The Counter.

Total chaos reigns when the Dog's in the Kitchen as each player gives her hand to the player in the direction indicated on the card.

The game ends when all 16 of the Blend cards have been played. Saved kittens are worth 2 points each, blended kitties cost 1 point each. Highest score wins.

Contents: 1 oversized Blender card, 1 oversized Box card, 110 playing cards (64 Kittens: 16 in each of 4 colors - red, green, blue and yellow; 18 Kitties on the Move: 6 of each number; 16 Blends: 8 Regular Blend & 8 Blend Black; 4 Dogs in the Kitchen: 2 left & 2 right; 2 Kittens in the Blender; 2 Your Cats in the Blender; 2 Cats on the Counter; 2 Kittens in the Box), rules.

Vendor: Catalyst Game Labs
Type: Board Games
Price: 35.95

It is 1815 and the world has been turned upside down. Napoleon Bonaparte has finally been defeated after nearly conquering all of Europe through years of devastating warfare. Now the Great Powers must deal with the chaos left behind. As each nation eagerly tries to grow, a careful balance of governmental, military and economic interests must be maintained.

In Balance of Power, players carefully create and move Kings, Generals and Bankers as they capture territories and expand their empires. A player’s skill and strategy are all that stand between him and ultimate victory!

Vendor: Catalyst Game Labs
Type: Board Games
Price: 11.95

This logical card game is just made for the geek in us. Utilizing cards with variables (A, B, C & D) and familiar logical operators such as 'Not', 'And', 'Or', 'If-Then' and the dreaded 'Parenthesis' (and some gotcha cards such as 'Fallacy!'), players take turns creating and changing up to four lines of 'true' statements. Each player tries to prove that they (their variable) exists (is definitely true) and everyone else...doesn't. Finally, with the Ergo card, whoever at last exists gets the points.

A fun romp and definitely one for the gray matter in us all.