The best games from Rüdiger Dorn 🇩🇪👨 2025

Las Vegas is a lively, dice-based game that combines luck, strategy, and the joy of thwarting your opponents. Developed by Stefan Brück at alea, it's designed to be an easy and interactive game, full of schadenfreude moments.

Las Vegas Royale blends the original Las Vegas dice game with elements from its 2014 expansion. Players use colored dice to place bets on six casino mats, aiming to win money based on their rolls. Additional expansion stones add complexity and special abilities, enhancing the strategy as players compete for the best financial outcomes.

Karuba is a tile-laying race game that combines strategy with a touch of luck, as players navigate their explorers through a dense jungle to reach temples and collect treasures. Each player's decision-making skills are put to the test as they create paths and vie to be the first to explore the riches of Karuba.

Istanbul: Big Box consolidates the captivating experience of the original Istanbul board game and its expansions into a comprehensive package, inviting players to immerse themselves in the bustling activity of a bazaar. This all-encompassing edition not only streamlines the game collection process but also enhances the gameplay experience with a variety of new options and strategies brought by the expansions Mocha & Baksheesh and Letters & Seals. The addition of the Istanbul: Caravan Leader Mini Expansion further enriches the game, albeit in a more compact form.

Istanbul: The Dice Game is a vibrant standalone dice game set in the bustling bazaar of Istanbul, where players vie to collect rubies as a symbol of their prosperity and victory. Utilizing dice as the core mechanic, participants must strategically acquire money and goods through the roll of the dice. These resources are then cleverly traded for the coveted rubies. The game encapsulates the essence of the Istanbul bazaar's lively trade and commerce atmosphere, demanding clever strategy and a bit of luck from its players to navigate the market's opportunities and secure the precious jewels that signify triumph.

Istanbul is a strategic board game set in the bustling environment of Istanbul's grand bazaar, where players compete as merchants trying to outmaneuver their rivals to collect precious rubies.

In Luxor, players embark on an adventurous quest through the legendary temple of Luxor in search of treasures and the ultimate prize: the tomb of the pharaoh. This game stands out for its ever-changing path to the tomb, ensuring a unique experience in each playthrough.

Dragonheart is a captivating card game set in a vibrant fantasy world filled with dragons, knights, and other mythical beings. In this duel of wits and strategy, players embody the roles of dragons seeking treasures and dragon hunters aiming to thwart them. The game's mechanics are straightforward yet engaging, requiring players to play cards with matching motifs onto corresponding areas of the board.

Jambo is a strategic card game that immerses players in the role of traders in Central Africa, competing to become the most successful merchant through savvy buying and selling. Set before colonization, the game captures the essence of traditional trading practices and market competition, with players aiming to earn wealth by dealing in various goods.

Players work together in a tile-laying adventure to help three brave explorers search for treasures in the jungle of Karuba Island. They must strategically place the path tiles to reach all the treasures before the pirates invade. Cooperation and careful navigation are key to outsmarting the pirates and avoiding tigers that block the paths.

The evil witch has trapped Azura, the giant dragon and guardian of the Kingdom of Atlea, in stone using the Opal. Without protection, the kingdom is on the brink of war, facing rebellious creatures of darkness that are hard to resist. As followers of the giant dragon, players must enter the conflict to awaken Azura.

Guide your adventurers skillfully through the jungle! In each round, choose two pathway cards from your hand to outsmart your opponents. Players will connect their adventurers to temples, with the one scoring the most points from valuable treasures and temples declared the winner.

Rune Stones is a hand management game where each card has a unique number. Players carefully buy and play cards to collect gems, forge artifacts, and combine them into rune stones that grant special abilities. On their turn, players can summon creatures, play cards for resources, or forge artifacts to maximize their points and abilities. The first to reach 65 points triggers the end of the game, and the player with the highest score wins.

Players grow food in their own garden and raise livestock, embracing the trend of self-sufficiency while managing the challenges of running a successful farm shop. In this family game, players roll three dice each round to make decisions about farm expansions and activate various farming actions, such as milking cows, shearing sheep, harvesting honey, or collecting eggs. The goal is to earn the most money by selling these resources.

"Buenos Dias!" invites families with children aged 6 and up into the world of Los Mampfos, a game about food, hungry donkeys, and the millstones that determine their fate. In this 20 to 30-minute game, three donkeys with varying levels of fullness are always on the move, requiring good memory skills from players.

Players receive a wooden disc and a set of task cards. Each player reveals their top task card, which indicates a target to hit with their disc by flicking it with their thumb and finger, without throwing it. Obstacles on the board move during the game, complicating efforts, and opponents' discs also remain on the board to hinder progress. Completing tasks allows players to reveal new cards, and the first to finish all missions and collect two gems of each type wins the game.

"Asante," Swahili for "thank you," reflects the gratitude of an African trader after a successful deal, which players may earn by outmaneuvering their opponents. It is a two-player game set in an African marketplace where players buy and sell furs, silk, jewelry, fruit, tea, and salt to amass wealth. Players encounter individuals with special abilities and can strategically disrupt their opponent's business, while visiting sacred sites grants access to unique actions beyond their standard moves.

The active player draws cards from the deck equal to the number of players without looking at them. They flip one card at a time and give it to a player, including themselves, until everyone has one card.

A new baby dragon has arrived, and everyone knows what that means: the dragon mother must have amassed a horde of treasure for her nest. Knights from the area rush to claim their share of the gold and jewels. The dragon mother will catch any knight who dares to attack, condemning him to a life of polishing gold and caring for her baby, while those who evade her will take away their share of the treasure.

Gambling continues in the glamorous world of Las Vegas, now featuring cards instead of dice. While players may have a better grasp of their odds, the game is packed with surprises. This title is the third in the Alea series of small boxes and includes an expansion for the medium box series game, Las Vegas.

In Goa: A New Expedition, set in the early 16th century, you're immersed in a world of strategic auctions and resource management. The game captures the essence of this era's trading centers, focusing on spice trade, ship dispatch, and colony establishment.

Players receive cards with objectives to complete. They aim to acquire cards from a market display featuring a central wheel that adjusts card prices after each transaction. Fulfilling an objective grants them benefits, while the game remains purely abstract with no thematic elements.

Relikt invites players on an adventurous treasure hunt! Ride through the jungle on an elephant, face dangerous challenges, and collect valuable gems. As treasure seekers, players strive to find the most precious treasures while passing cursed items to their opponents. The player with the most valuable treasures at the end wins.

Arkadia is a strategic board game centered around the construction of the city and castle of Arkadia. Players take on the roles of builders, utilizing cards, workers, and neutral workers to erect houses and develop the city, intertwined with the growing castle at its heart.

Welcome to the market of beautiful things! Players wander among stalls, seeking special items to enhance their status. With a selection of fine fabrics, elegant jewelry, and golden trophies, choices can be difficult. Each player has a personal bag of coins and must strategically place them on the market stalls to acquire valuable goods and increase their prestige.

Welcome back to the bazaar of Istanbul! Players take on the role of clever traders, collecting goods and Lira to exchange for valuable rubies needed for victory. Instead of a central board, each player has their own market sheet to track their decisions, and they can play either location or guild cards to take actions or hinder other players. Familiar locations like the Grand Bazaar and Gem Merchant return, but the innovative choose-and-write mechanism offers a fresh challenge.

In the mid-19th century, the first permanent settlements emerged in Montana. Many fortune seekers traveled with their caravans in search of work to build a better future, where plentiful jobs awaited in the mountains and fields. Players must hire the right workers, deliver goods on time, and strategically choose their settlements to have the best chance of winning Montana. Each turn, players can recruit new workers, send them to various locations for resources or money, or spend resources to build new settlements. The first player to build all their settlements wins!

A fast and simple card game for 2-6 players. Each player places a colored card as a marker, and matching sets of numbered cards (1-12) in those colors form the stack. Players can lay down a card in a row or attempt to trade cards with another player, aiming to accumulate points based on the game stones they earn. The game ends when all stones are taken, and players tally their scores by subtracting negative from positive points.

London, 1899: Four successful gem traders compete in the prestigious Diamond Club to beautifully furnish their country estates using profits from gemstone trading. The goal is to build a magnificent park with various attractions, with the game ending when a player completes their park. Players earn victory points based on their park's contents, technological advancements, and achievements throughout the game, with the player holding the most points declared the winner.

Shop for ingredients, welcome guests, and serve tables. Running a restaurant can be hectic, and only the one who remains organized can earn a star for their establishment. The goal is to attract as many guests as possible, but only satisfied customers will be good customers.