Hand Management: Players will be dealt a hand of five cards at the beginning of the game. On their turn they will play one and discard one. Each card has a unique effect when played and when discarded giving you an intricate puzzle to solve with each hand of five.

After playing, players will draw cards from the card deck until they have five cards again after which they will have to check the suit of all cards in hand. If all have the same suit, the player goes mad which has severe consequences. This increases the importance of choosing the right cards to play and discard.

Resources Management: Your three basic resources are your Health, your food and your draw deck. Running out of health or cards in your deck will make you lose the game while food, while not necessary to win, will allow you to heal and manage your deck in useful ways.

Cards will affect these resources differently depending on how they are played. For example a card might make you lose life when discarded and food when played, forcing you to make hard decisions on what is more important in the short and long term.

Survival: In Maeshowe: An Orkney Saga mere survival won’t be enough but to actually win, players will have to dig their way out of the tomb.

This is done by playing four Excavate Passage cards in a row. Each time a player does this Passage tokens are removed from the board, of which there will be different amounts depending on the difficulty setting.

These cards do not offer any other benefits though, so having enough resources to handle the many negative effects that occur through discarding cards, will be essential before starting a new row of Excavate Passage cards.

Gray Eminence is a game for 3-6 players set in the modern-day political arena, lasting between 60-90 minutes. Secretive shadowy figures, hidden away from the limelight, use money, power and influence to steer the course of multiple factions such as Foundations and large Corporations toward their own inscrutable ends. It is within these parameters that players take on the roles of these powerful puppet-masters, each working towards common goals as well as their own, secret agenda.

Political Intrigue and Questionable Morality: During a game of between five to eight Rounds, Gray Eminence players attempt to use public displays of goodwill or underhanded tactics, paying lip service to the concept of civilised society and its morality, to resolve a series of international Events. Players work to fulfill Goals that appear to be in the World’s best interest as well as completing additional hidden agendas. Within the political arena there will undoubtedly be Factions that are similarly motivated who will offer their support to one another. However, players will never really be sure who is actually pulling the strings and, consequently, never know who they can fully trust.

World Events and World Solutions: Each game opens with a highly plausible Scenario presented on the world’s political stage. This scenario of Events should, if resolved, benefit humanity. However the means to these ends may not always lie along a socially acceptable path, as the methods can often be questionable. Is it Power, Money or Influence that's needed to get the job done?

In The Shadows: Players bid valuable commodities or resources in secret to secure their place on the Visibility Track. This track not only determines player order, but also dictates what benefits and boons may be awarded to a player making the bid. Rewards can be great but higher activity will bring the player into the light and the notice of the public, a position that would make future underhand decisions far more difficult to undertake successfully.

Players are able to program their Action cards for each round, hoping that other players don’t interfere or upset plans. The advisors work in webs of secrecy, lies and deceit and Factions that once supported each other, may change allegiance. In addition to the dark goings-on, the President of the United States is also on the scene and prone to Tweet what is on his mind, creating further havoc.

Power and Influence: In game terms abstract concepts such as Power represent underhand tactics such as threats, intimidation and physical harm covering a wide spectrum of real-life actions from simple offers of military assistance for adversaries to outright assassinations and coups arranged with mercenary powers. Power comes in many guises and lurks in the most unexpected places, but in game terms, it is always represented as a simple abstract concept. Influence represents persuasion, diplomacy, negotiation and connections. Influence comes, as we know from media coverage, in many shapes and sizes, be it religious, political, sexual, commercial, personal or some more sinister form, but again, in game terms, it is represented by a simple abstract form.

The role of Political movements in Gray Eminence has been deliberately left as an unspecified element, but its intent is still clearly visible.

Bluffs and Broken Promises: Players have the option to trade resources, game cards or even make promises of future favours in a desperate attempt to succeed in an altruistic and personal endeavours. As with real-life, promises can be broken, and players are under no obligation to uphold or honour agreements made. And with this notion in mind, lies the game’s suspense. Who can be trusted in this dark world?

Perdition's Mouth is a new kind of dungeon crawl, one that embraces the European school of game design with clever and elegant mechanisms and emphasizes strategy while minimizing luck. Cooperation, planning, and the enemy response deck eliminate the need for chucking dice, creating a tense combat environment with meaningful decisions! The rondels provide another tactical layer, including the enemy's devious and challenging AI.

Cooperative play for 1-6 players: Designed as a fully cooperative game, Perdition’s Mouth accommodates from one to six players acting as the game’s heroes delving ever deeper into the Abyssal Rift. Due to its design and the widely varying skills of each hero, a single character is unlikely to last long against the challenges that await the heroes. As such, it is advised that solo players, and perhaps even two players, take a party of at least three characters into the darkness that awaits. Wisely choosing characters based on what might be deemed the most successful combination of skills and abilities is as important as how players draw upon their collective abilities to overcome obstacles.

Immersive RPG feel: Perdition’s Mouth is essentially a dungeon crawl adventure-style game set within a campaign-style collection of scenarios, but it does have very strong role-playing elements that materialise in the different styles in which each character plays. This is due predominantly to the wide variety of skills and abilities each possess. Clever mechanics govern the non-player characters, negating the need for a ‘dungeon master’ role and bookkeeping for the heroes has been streamlined to alleviate the need for constant notation so frequently found in true RPG games.

The Rondel: What must be considered the central focal point, around which all game actions literally revolve, is the Rondel mechanic. Two action Rondels dictate what actions become available, turn by turn, to both the group of intrepid heroes and to the wide variety of unspeakable foe that lurk within the dark shadows. Careful thought for each action a hero takes is crucial, as future actions are heavily influenced by each decision. Limited slots for available actions force the heroes to collaborate and draw upon their unique abilities to best utilise their skills for the good of the party. Foes are similarly directed on their own rondel which dictates their spawning and how they react to the presence of the hero party. This is not just some aimless walking holiday, picking off unthinking enemies and reaping great rewards with little consequence. No. This is a dark, brutal reality where ‘life’ is not so straightforward. Things often fail to go according to plan and adaptability is key to success. The rondel system effectively recreates the setbacks and advantages one would expect to face in real life, bringing a stark reality to the game.

Immersive storylines: The game has been designed as an extensive, campaign-style, exploitative dungeon crawl, with each scenario having detailed flavour text to set the scene. But the gameplay itself, with no two plays alike, also drives a narrative for all the players. The real story is created as the heroes delve deeper and deeper into the Rift. The game has been designed to flow from one scenario to the next, growing the adventure story for the heroes, but each step of the journey can equally be played as a stand-alone adventure. The scenarios have been developed in such a way that heroes jumping into a stand-alone scenario, are equipped to emulate the level of a veteran hero who would have otherwise worked their way to this point the hard way.

Character development: Characters have a base level of skills, abilities and health as would be expected from the genre, but useful items, abilities and skills can be gained throughout their journey, making them more adept at facing the growing challenges. However, wounds and injury are also accumulated, following a hero as they move deeper into the Rift. By this mechanism a greater depth and reality is injected into the game. A hero does not automatically become stronger and fitter from setting to setting. In Perdition’s Mouth careful decisions must be made to avoid excessive injury (or even death) in order to successfully progress with the campaign.

Tactical miniature combat: Combat will be inevitable at times in Perdition’s Mouth. A clever mechanic has been developed to ensure a realistic yet easy to operate system for hand to hand and short distance combat encounters. Not only does a hero take health loss but re-occurring wounds and infections build to further hinder future actions. The cooperative nature of the game further encourages teamwork as heroes assist one another in the ensuing conflict to mitigate or, at least minimise the inevitable knock, scratch and bruise.