Around The Republic
Gen Con approaches! With less than two weeks until we head out to the fabulous gaming world of Indiana, there’s so much to do, and so much to cover! So, you know, sorry if our schedule is a bit off as we prep. Since we last spoke, though, Ryan looked at Helios and Dave talked about his latest experience with the Legend of the Five Rings card game. We also had a nice little chat about what tabletop RPGs out there are good for having open-ended storylines. You know, beyond D&D (obviously).
Carry on, gaming padawans, for the news awaits!
Games & Expansions
Title: El Gaucho
Publisher: Argentum Verlag
Designer: Arve Fuhler
Anticipated Release: Q4 2014
Why You Should Care: This game is basically shrouded in mystery. Really. All that’s known is the name and pending release so far.
Title: V-Wars
Publisher: IDW Games
Designer: Rob Daviau
Why You Should Care: Adapted from the comics series of the same name, V-Wars is still in its early stages and not much is yet known about the gameplay. But it’s Rob Daviau designing, so hopes are justifiably high.
Title: Pixel Lincoln: New Challenger
Publisher: Game Salute
Designer: Jason Tagmire
Why You Should Care: Dust off your mutton and strap on your Beardarang, because Pixel Lincoln is getting some help with the infusion of a New Challenger. It’s a mini expansion adding a 5th player to the mix.
Title: Dead Man’s Draw
Publisher: Mayday Games
Designer: Mayday Games
Why You Should Care: Now here’s an interesting one. Dead Man’s Draw is an analog adaptation of the similarly named digital card game. In the card game version players…actually to be honest, the Kickstarter page is a little all over the place and it’s hard to pin down exactly how gameplay works, but at its heart it’s a risk v. reward, press your luck game with a pirate theme.
Title: Diamonsters
Publisher: IDW Games and Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Masao Suganuma
Why You Should Care: This looks adorable. It’s a simple card game in which players compete to…well, I’m not really sure. They play a card each round, and the highest value wins – but since some cards have effects and equal-value cards cancel each other out, there’s also some strategy involved in figuring out when to throw which card when.
Other Interesting Things
What: CosmicCon2014
Why: Want to attend yet another game convention between Origins and Essen? Fantasy Flight does, so they’ve decided to create CosmicCon, a con devoted to Cosmic Encounter.
What: Read an RPG in Public Week
Why: It’s happening now! The idea is to take your RPG source books out of your living rooms and into public spaces to increase awareness of the hobby and the people who play it. You can also follow what other people are doing on twitter by following #readrpgs.
What: The Case Against Cards Against Humanity
Why: Whether you agree or not, this is an interesting take on the appeal of CAH. The game bills itself as having been designed for horrible people, but really it’s designed for average people to convince themselves that they aren’t horrible. This sort of thing depends on trust – you trust that the people you’re playing with are laughing at your jokes for the same reason that you are…which is hopefully the sheer ridiculousness of saying something obviously abhorrent. But is that trust really earned?
What: D&D Minis
Why: The Escapists takes a look at the new Icons of the Realms minis. Now with 100% more invisibility!
Crowdfunding Corner Top Three
Title: Asking for Trobils
Publisher: Kraken Games
Designer: Christian Strain
Buy-In: $42
Why It’s Special: Trobils is a light(ish) worker placement game with a strong focus on visual design. Seriously, this is a thing of Saturday morning cartoon beauty. In the game, you play a trobil hunter who has to gather supplies to catch the pesky trobils before they go all langoliers on the beautific world of Paradise.
Title: Tymor
Publisher: Mongrose Games
Designer: Mongrose Games
Buy-In: $52
Why It’s Special: Tymor is a kingdom-builder set in a fantasy universe with a seasonal mechanic. You gain points in all the usual resource management-y ways, but what’s new and different here is the season chart. At the beginning of each turn, a die is rolled to determine how the season progresses. Usually, it goes as expected – summer to fall to winter to spring. Sometimes, though, the seasons get stuck or even regress (which is the norm here in New England, though I’m led to believe that other parts of the country get all four in the correct order). The season determines how resources and gold are distributed during that turn, and you have to plan ahead (ant-style) for the leaner winter months.
Title: Lift Off!
Publisher: Eduardo Baraf
Designer: Eduardo Baraf
Buy-In: $39
Why It’s Special: As usual, someone wasn’t paying attention, one thing led to another, and now your planet is going to be destroyed. It’s a tale as old as time, really. In this semi-cooperative game, players are a bunch of aliens trying to secure passage off of a soon-to-not-be-there-anymore planet, and time is off the essence. It seems like a fun tongue-in-cheek game worth exploring. You know, until there’s only so many rockets left to escape in. Then the gloves come off.
Honorable Mentions: Werewolf Full Moon; Clockwork Wars
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