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Short Games (< 30 min)2 Players Games Light Playstyle Games

Once-Per-Game Abilities

Once-Per-Game Abilities in Board Games

Once-per-game abilities are special powers or actions available to players that can be used exactly one time during a game session. These abilities are typically powerful and can significantly impact the game's outcome.

Design Purpose

These abilities add strategic depth and complexity to games by providing players with a critical decision point: when is the optimal moment to deploy this game-changing power?

Strategic Impact

Players must balance the immediate advantages against potential future needs. This mechanic also introduces a psychological element, as opponents must anticipate the use and prepare for the effects of these abilities.

Examples in Games

Pandemic: Special event cards represent unique, potent actions that can be game-changers when used appropriately.
Twilight Imperium: Certain races have once-per-game abilities that can turn the tide of interstellar politics or warfare.

Considerations for Designers

When implementing once-per-game abilities, designers must ensure they are balanced and enhance, rather than detract from, the game's fun and fairness.

Conclusion

Once-per-game abilities are an exciting game mechanic that, when used judiciously, can provide memorable moments and elevate the strategic layer of board games.

Once-Per-Game Abilities games published by Heidelberger Spieleverlag

Once-Per-Game Abilities and Dice Rolling games

Seasons - Enchanted Kingdom Expansion

Cthulhu Wars - Opener of the Way: Opener of the Way Expansion

Bardsung - Legend of the Ancient Forge

Tales from the Red Dragon Inn

Once-Per-Game Abilities games published by MIPL

Now is a Time for Heroes!Become a hero. Perform mighty actions and recruit powerful champions to your cause.From the makers of the award-winning Star Realms, Hero Realms combines the fun of deckbuilding games with the interactivity of trading card game...

You are bird enthusiasts - researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors - seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your aviary. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats...

Wingspan (with Swift-Start Pack)

Once-Per-Game Abilities games published by Frosted Games

This expansion brings a new action to the game: Cave Painting! Players use dry-erase boards to fill in spaces, draw lines, and unlock a variety of immediate and ongoing benefits. Plus, after each game, the boards look like unique animals!Mechanisms:4...

It's finally time. You've finished your preparations and the time to start the ritual is here.You only have one goal: Summoning Baphomet, the Sabbath Goat. Just play your cards right, thin out your deck, and prepare the 3 keys. Easier said than done,...

In June 1972, five men are arrested in Washington’s Watergate building. What looks like a third-rate burglary attempt on the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee induces journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post...

Cooperative Game with Once-Per-Game Abilities

Time Is Running Out!It's up to Indiana Jones and his friends to rescue the Ark of the Covenant before it falls into the wrong hands! Scour ancient Tanis to find the elusive relic, while building up your strength and resources. But beware - if the sand...

Climb the Cliffs of Insanity, brave the Fire Swamp, and help Buttercup, Westly, Fezzik, and Inigo Montoya survive the dastardly machinations of Prince Humperdinck, Count Rugen, and Vizzini. Follow the incredible story through six chapters and work together...

There is a bomb full of wires and the countdown has begun . . . Who are you gonna call? YOU, the Bomb Busters!To safely defuse each bomb, you'll need to collaborate with your fellow team of bomb disposal experts! Use the wires you have in front of you...

Once-Per-Game Abilities games published by 999 Games

Quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger asked, "Is the cat in the box alive? Or dead?" And now, you can too!How many cats are alive on everyone's cards? Or are the empty boxes a better guess? Make bold claims (or bluff) and outdo each other's bids! Do you...

Answer Oniria's Call and Come to Its Aid!Tales tell of Oniria, an idyllic paradise filled with marvelous dargon-made wonders. This may have been true. . .in the past.Now, its fate is hanging by a thread as a dangerous power is being awakened, and your...

The Friends & Foes Expansion provides two completely new Scenario boards, Bree and Isengard, as well as 21 new Feature cards. Find new friends to help you conquer the challenges ahead: Tom Bombadil, Glorfindel, Treebeard, Strider and many more. In addition...

You are an amateur dracologist in the world of Wyrmspan, a place where dragons of all shapes, sizes, and colors roam the skies. Excavate a hidden labyrinth you recently unearthed on your land and entice these beautiful creatures to roost in the sanctuary...

Once-Per-Game Abilities and Negotiation games

Derrocar is a strategic card game about the week in which Argentina had five presidents, designed by native Argentinian Bruss Brussco.It captures the craziness and at the same time base its gameplay on the reality where, in a country tired of politicians...

Ixth. The lost planet.Scholars have long debated the existence of Ixth. Once rumored to be a verdant paradise, an expedition through an enigmatic gateway has revealed the truth. Ixth was never a paradise - it was a prison.When the Lazax Imperium was ...

What if the animals were the ones who ran the zoo?Presumably, this wild government would be built upon the support of fellow creatures and fueled by the fame, attention, and prestige of wide-eyed visitors. Naturally, the most aspirational beasts would...

"One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans." -Attributed to Otto von Bismarck, 1888June 28, 1914, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Duchess of Hohenberg, plunged Europe...

Once-Per-Game Abilities and Contracts games

Brazil: Imperial is a midweight strategic board game for 1-4 players introducing a new concept of the “euro X" game—combining a euro game, in which players collect and manage resources, with a 4X game, where players explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate...

Fall of Lumen is a stand-alone tabletop game based on deck-building and tableau building. It is a follow-up of Legends of Void.The Void battles have ended. The Outer Lands are devastated after years of battles against the Seraphs, and the people are...

Mallorca. Island of the wind.A place of golden beaches and a light-blue sea. The almond harvest is at hand. In addition, juicy oranges, lemons, and figs are ready to be picked and taken to the market. Olive trees bewitch the country with their curled...

The appointment of a new Aztec High Priest is imminent. In order to prove their value and merit, the contenders engage in a race for prestige to win the favor of the gods. Will you be able to make the most beautiful sculptures of feathered snakes (called...

Strategy Game with Once-Per-Game Abilities

Reincardnated (Kickstarter Edition)

Solo / Solitaire Game with Once-Per-Game Abilities

Would you like to be let in on one of the secrets of coffee roasting? In the one-player game Coffee Roaster, you try to create a perfect cup of coffee. To this end, you need to have the right touch and a good nose for harnessing the full potential of...

Thousands of years ago, when the human mind was still primitive, the gods ruled the world. Men were only creatures at their service who tried to gain more and more power through their blind faith.However, their arrogance and incessant fighting precipitated...

The Lands of the Mesozoic puts you in the era between 252 and 66 million years ago. Subdivided itno the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, this is the time that dinosaurs first appeared and dominated the world before they went extinct. However...

Once-Per-Game Abilities and Turn Order: Stat-Based games

Atlantis Exodus

The catastrophe is imminent! Save the citizens to prove yourself king.The ancient civilization of Atlantis is on the brink of imminent destruction. The Kings have five years warning. It seems like a world of time, until you realize that you are one of...

mostly positive, 76%

Ancient Civilization

End Game Bonuses

Once-Per-Game Abilities

Once-Per-Game Abilities and Worker Placement games

Fantasy themed games with Once-Per-Game Abilities

Once-Per-Game Abilities and Simultaneous Action Selection games

Glass Road (3rd Printing)

Gloomhaven: Frosthaven

Science Fiction themed games with Once-Per-Game Abilities

Once-Per-Game Abilities games published by Hasbro

The Chilling Night of the Dread Moon is ApproachingCold, metallic moonlight casts an eerie glow over Elethorn in this HeroQuest expansion that continues the dramatic story of treachery and civil unrest within the elven kingdom. At a time when Elethorn...

The adventure continues! Go deeper into the rich story of the HeroQuest fantasy dungeon crawler board game with this exciting expansion. Players work together to solve an ancient puzzle to triumphantly rescue the King who is trapped in the forbidding...

The HeroQuest Hero Collection: Path of the Wandering Monk introduces the Monk hero with 2 detailed miniatures, 7 game cards, and a scroll. (Requires HeroQuest Game System to play. Sold separately)Miniatures are supplied unpainted and some assembly may...

This adventure sees trouble brewing in the elven kingdom, and a brave elf must first manage their way through dangerous solo quests before rejoining their party to confront the diabolical archmage, Sinestra.The Mage of the Mirror includes a Quest Book...

Once-Per-Game Abilities games designed by Andrew Bosley

Once-Per-Game Abilities games published by ADC Blackfire Entertainment

Develop your science and your army, construct prestigious buildings and lead your civilization to victory!7 Wonders Duel is a stand-alone game in the world of 7 Wonders, made especially for 2 players. 7 Wonders Duel offers a whole new system of drafting...

Shape the historic skyline of New York City in this skyscraper building game. You will take on the role of land developers competing for glory and prestige in the city’s financial district as you acquire new land, demolish old buildings, and build up...

Once-Per-Game Abilities games designed by Reiner Knizia

Pumafiosi

The Pumafiosi (Puma Mafiosi) operate in a strict hierarchy from the family's boss down to the lowest Picciotti. Everyone wants to reach the top, and no one wants to end up at the bottom - or even beneath the soil. Amongst these aspiring Pumafiosi, it...

Hand Management

Once-Per-Game Abilities

Temple themed games with Once-Per-Game Abilities

Lost Ruins of Arnak

On an uninhabited island in uncharted seas, explorers have found traces of a great civilization. Now you will lead an expedition to explore the island, find lost artifacts, and face fearsome guardians, all in a quest to learn the island's secrets.Lost...

Ancient Civilization

Deck, Bag, and Pool Building

Multi-Use Cards

Habsburg themed games with Once-Per-Game Abilities

Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683

July 1683.A 100,000-strong Ottoman army arrives outside the Habsburg capital of Vienna. Inside the city, 12,000 infantry, a city militia, and citizen-soldiers mount a desperate defense. As the Ottoman siege lines draw closer to the city walls, the outnumbered...

mostly positive, 72%

Campaign / Battle Card Driven

Hand Management

Once-Per-Game Abilities