NewVenture Games

NewVenture Games is a design and development part-time business for board games with tangible apparatuses such as cards, dice, boards and pawns. Begun as a hobby over 20 years ago, development continues. None of the games are currently being manufactured in quantity, but hand-built copies are available for most of them on request.

Logo of NewVenture Games

Games

Anti-Grid

Anti-Grid is a game for two players, each trying to eliminate the other’s pieces through capture. The unique thing about this board is that each player plays on his/her own grid - they never follow the same paths. The board is two-sided, allowing simpler, shorter games or a longer, more challenging version.

Avesta!

Avesta is an abstract game themed loosely on the Zend Avesta - the sacred texts of Zoroaster (also called Zarathustra). It is chess-like in the types of moves available, but there are a few spaces on the board that are limited to certain pieces, some pieces are used for blocking only, and promotions are vigorously sought to maintain one’s advantage.

StarCastles

StarCastles at first looks like a multi-level Chinese checkers. But of course there’s more to it than that, with each piece having a unique power over the others as the game unfolds. And when the three pieces of one of your “StarCastles” are assembled, your power increases. Close games are the norm, taking the suspense right up to the final moves every time.

Quanta

This unique game is a two-player competitive puzzle in which the pieces have values called “quantum charges” restricting their placement. This value can make the same pieces either offensive or defensive, depending on the way the game progresses. In the end, the player with the most captured neutrons will win the game.

Play 4

A game of foresight! Each player plans four moves ahead, without knowing what the opponent is up to. There’s only one pawn on the board for each player — a very valuable pawn indeed. There are two variations: the easier allows the players to change their minds...a little.

Causeway

Causeway takes its name from the “Giant's Causeway” along the northern shore of Ireland, where it is said giants of ancient times fought enchanted battles for power and glory! A hand of cards determines the moves available. Play your random hand with careful strategy, and annihilate the opposing armies. Up to six can play, for themselves or as teams!

Celestian

Here’s a game with two boards in one! While each player battles for dominance in this Sci-Fi Empire setting, they can use (or abuse) their access to Hyperspace - a second board superimposed over the first. Sacrifice can often tip the balance of this game in one surprising move...and watch out for a surprise attack!

Reynard’s Luck

The players of Reynard’s Luck engage in a competition of skill and luck. The abstract strategy is heavily influenced by the roll of a die on each move. With luck, a player can re-roll to further their advantage...or not!

Stones

It’s put-and-take meets Nine Men's Morris..sort of. Players progress around the playing field collecting stones and placing them into a grid...and sometimes removing them for strategic reasons! This is a game for all ages, and included in each package is a chart of the actual minerals depicted on the board.

Gopher Getter

One player takes the role of the struggling gardener and the other plays the gophers out to ruin the crop for the sake of their own survival. One board represents the garden, the other the gopher’s subterranean realm. The gardener sets traps, but the gophers are many. Who will win this desperate struggle?

Super Duper Delivery Service

Each player has a delivery van and a home base. Following calls for service taken from a card deck, they navigate a city map to deliver these goods around town. The winner is the first to reach a goal of either goods or income — but drive carefully!

Fleas!

Here’s one for a smile! Each player has a band of fleas who are striving for control of a room by eliminating the other player’s fleas. To help in their microcosmic conquest, they can take control of one or both of a pair of hapless dogs that can carry them to strategic advantage.

Card Board

“Card Board” is pocket-sized game and whatever surface you can find becomes the playing field, and the cards make up the board - which is different every time! Strive for points, follow the safe routes, build traps for your opponents and try to stay out of the traps yourself!

Over The Edge!

In “Over The Edge,” each player tries to circumnavigate the Flat Earth, hoping to avoid hostile natives, inclement weather, mutiny, and the dreaded “dead calm.” Mostly, though, the players try to avoid falling over the edge! Played on a representation of a world map of the 15th century, players relive the age of exploration in this fun and always unique game.

All Four One (The Cooperation Game)

As the name suggests, this game is only won when all the players reach the goal. Players advance to the inner tracks when they help or are helped by the other players. Everybody wins!

Polyphony

This is a deck of cards that displays musical notes and symbols. Players are challenged to create intervals, chords, and the ultimate combination: a complete octave! (Familiarity with music theory is not required, but if you play the game you may end up with a familiarity with it anyway!)

Dominotion

The dominoes are the board - all you need otherwise are two tokens of some kind and a pair of dice. Dominoes being a flat verions of die rolls, it’s sort of a natural. Play the pieces for the board from the “bone pile” and roll a die. You can move down the track using either the number you’re on or the number you rolled - but if they’re the same you stay put. Race to the end of the domino track and back again to win. Simple - and fun!

Frog Prince

Yes - it’s checkers...but with a twist. One of the opposing pieces is your kidnapped prince. By jumping around the lillypads (just like in traditional checkers), your objective is to rescue the prince! In the illustration above, the red player can position the price anywhere in his pattern, but he/she can’t move the prince during the game. When the black player lands on the space occupied by the price, the Prince becomes a “king” and is only rescued when that “king” gets back to the black player’s home row!

Battlefield!

Between those complex collectible card games and traditional “war” is Battlefield. Each player gets a deck of medieval warriors and royalty, and they play against each other with combined elements of chance and strategy. Occasionally, the plague hits, the spies reveal some hidden power, or the weather wrecks your hopes of victory.

Star Truck

“Star Truck” takes place in an interplanetary setting. It’s a unique make-all-the-money-you-can game, including all the play money and tokens needed for up to eight players. Cards represent freight to be hauled, permits to be purchased, and a host of random events that can help or hinder your exploits. There’s also the Interplanetary Trade Union to contend with! This one’s been play tested at Sci-Fi cons, and everyone says it’s a winner.

Ricochet

This is more than laser tag on a game board. With strategic variations and moveable mirrors, players find themselves confronted with puzzle-like decisions to lead to victory...or seal their fate! Think ahead...the move you thought would get you the final deciding shot may well be your downfall!

Quest for the Orb

This is a first step into fantasy role playing. It’s a game with enough chance to make it interesting but enough self-determination to keep it exciting. It can be played alone or by up to five adventurers, keeping track of the health and possessions of the characters in play right on the board. With only a couple of charts to consult, the game is very easy to learn and fun to play within minutes. Players must cooperate as a team to rescue the Orb from the Kingdom of Dark before they run out of food, or get killed by all manner of nasty foes and unfortunate events along the way!

Clan Cath

This is a territorial war game on a board that describes the foreboding terrain of the Scottish Highlands. Each player represents a rival clan in ancient Scotland vying for control of the region. Their forces include fighters and chieftains - and the occasional “berserker!” Store up movement points for a major assault, or strike fast with small forays into enemy territory!

Wickets

Wickets is a simulation of Croquet on a game board, with a dice-and-pawn strategy that can have intricate variations. The game includes adaptations of both the International 6-Wicket rules as well as the more common 9-Wicket “backyard” rules. And, just like in real Croquet, land next to an opponent and you can “send” him or her flying off in a disadvantageous direction!

Counting Coup (10 Little Indians)

Among the plains Indians, a great show of bravery and prowess was not to kill an enemy as much as to taunt them. This practice of harassment and intimidation was referred to as “counting coup” (pronounced “koo”). This game does not involve capture of the opposing pieces, but keeping score of one’s success at passing through target areas on the board (camps and outposts) while defending one’s own lands from the same. Different pieces have different power and value. Should you hold back the braves or corner the chief? Be sure to keep a watchful eye on the powerful medicine man!

Tattoo

I once saw a very impressive exhibition - a contest between two military units racing to disassemble, transport, and reassemble a cannon and caisson and all the equipment necessary to fire off a winning blast at the other end of a grueling obstacle course. This is a simulation of that contest, called a “Tattoo.” Choose your moves wisely!

Fate, Foes, and Fortune

Fate, Foes, and Fortune is role playing for the novice. This game combines a map of terrain squares (that will vary with every game) with a unique combat system (simple and fast yet very realistic in its effects). With a deck of cards that call for die rolls each time they’re drawn, every adventure is unique. (The game can also be played solo.)

Kathmandu (Mountaineer)

On this challenging mountain, players can start anywhere along the bottom of the board to race to the top. Each space on the board has a numeric value that reflects the level of difficulty in climbing, and the dice determine the players’ success at making the climb. There’s also a “weather die” to determine the conditions for the day’s climb. Choose your route carefully, hope for good weather, be the first to reach the peak, and fame and fortune shall be yours!

By Any Other Name

A game of homonyms and homophones – players in turn provide as many definitions as they can for the words on the card deck. The last acceptable contribution for any word earns points and privileges for the player or team, and the most “wordly” will win!

Chexx

A chess variant that’s played on a board of triangular spaces. Traditional moves are adapted to the new grid, but traditional strategies still apply! REQUIRES FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.

Moto!

A simulation game for motocross racing. The motocross track is made up of arrange-able tiles so the track can be customized; dice and cards determine the outcome of the player’s chosen course around the track. (Could be adapted to other race scenarios.)

Portals (Gateways)

Portals is an abstract strategy game for two, three, or four players. The objective being to eliminate the other “king(s)” on the board through simple moves and jumps through “portals” to remote points on the board. REQUIRES FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.

Strip Tease

Through a hand of cards drawn from a shuffled deck, players cause other players to turn over pages in specially drawn flip books which slowly remove the clothing from their cartoon personae. REQUIRES FURTHER DEVELOPMENT. (Not an adult-only game thanks to drawn-in censorship bars held by the characters)

Tilt

This is a game that attempts to simulate a joust by way of graphic score cards and die rolls as the players move their horses along the jousting track towards each other. REQUIRES FURTHER DEVELOPMENT.

Tetrathedral

An abstract strategy game involving the movement of pieces to form a winning arrangement, the game utilized an 8-sided die with some move-and-capture guidelines. Strategic choices balance with the die roll to keep it interesting.

See also

• Board game
• Games of chance
• Games of skill
• List of game manufacturers

External links

• NewVenture homepage