In Ex Libris, you are a collector of rare and valuable books in a thriving gnomish village. Recently, the Mayor and Village Council have announced an opening for a Grand Librarian: a prestigious (and lucrative) position they intend to award to the most qualified villager! Unfortunately, several of your book collector colleagues (more like acquaintances, really) are also candidates.
To outshine your competition, you need to expand your personal library by sending your trusty assistants out into the village to find the most impressive tomes. Sources for the finest books are scarce, so you need to beat your opponents to them when they pop up.
You have only a week before the Mayor's Official Inspector comes to judge your library, so be sure your assistants have all your books shelved! The Inspector is a tough cookie and will use her Official Checklist to grade your library on several criteria including shelf stability, alphabetical order, and variety — and don't think she'll turn a blind eye to books the Council has banned! You need shrewd planning and cunning tactics (and perhaps a little magic) to surpass your opponents and become Grand Librarian!
- Book-centric theme appeals to readers
- Accessible and satisfying tableau-building
- Potentially light on depth for power gamers
- book collecting and organization
- Library-building and cataloging
- tableau-building with book themes
- Shelfie
- Bring Your Own Book
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- tile placement / set collection — Build a library tableau while meeting criteria
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This video is all about board games for Book Lovers.
- Call to Adventure is a card-based narr narration game where you are going to be building out a story path for your character.
- It's very story-driven; it's very RPG-like in a board game way.
- If you're into high fantasy, you like the development of a story, I think these games are really great for that.
References (from this video)
- creative writing/creative guessing
- great social interaction
- thematic tie-in with literature
- some players may not know the sources
- appeals to a literary crowd more
- famous first/last lines from literature
- literary artifacts and famous lines
- bluffing/guessing with secret lines
- Balderdash
- Dixit
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hidden Information — secret lines are chosen by players; others guess which is real
- set collection / bluffing — players collect lines and try to guess the real line among fakes
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the satisfying interlocking puzzle
- I would much rather play this than Cluedo
- it's such an amazing theme that sure is set in a futuristic city but has such a comment on our modern world
- I just really love that form of communication
- this is one of the best party games there is