Around The Republic

Welcome to July, and happy almost-Independence Day to our American readers! Happy just-after-Canada Day to our Canadian readers! Happy Thursday to the rest!

And, last but not least, happy congratulations to our new Indie Spotlight, Praetor!

Last week, we were up to no good: smashing cities and raiding the Hudson River coast line.

This week, we tried to keep ourselves in line. Firstly, though, No podcast this week due to the holiday and my intensive celebrating/sleeping schedule. Vox will be back next week, though!

But we did start off the week with Ryan starting a four-part series on how to not be a jerk while playing M:tG Commander. Then, as a wrap up to our Boston Festival of Indie Games month, we spoke with Aerjen and Glenn about this year’s fest (which is being held in September and hopefully will be attended by why, oh, ewe). Dave is back with another installment of his Dave of the Five Rings series chronicling his re-entry into the Legend of the Five Rings tournament scene. As for me, being a proper Games Journalist (emphasis on the Capital “J”), I sent some hard-hitting questions over to Games by Play Date about Pack the Pack and received some equally hard-hitting responses. Lol, kidding. I don’t even know what that means. We did talk about the game, though, and about Glenn’s potential secret Terror Drome that has yet to be confirmed or denied.

Finally, we reviewed Legacy: Gears of Time – a game that I was very good at but did not enjoy because it felt a lot like my day job. If you don’t manage project timelines during your nine-to-five, though, give it a look.

Games & Expansions

Title: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Class Decks  
Publisher: Paizo
Designer: Mike Selinker and Lone Shark Games
Anticipated Release: August 14th, 2014 – also known as opening day of Gen Con

Why You Should Care: Paizo is releasing seven Class Decks based on the following: Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Wizard. Each deck contains 109 cards, including four PCs with two roles (though it’s unclear if that’s two roles each or just two roles per deck). The decks will be required if you want to take part in the new Organized Play program, but they’re compatible with both the original Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and the upcoming Pathfinder ACG: Skull & Shackles.

Title: Pandemic: Legacy
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designer: Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau
Anticipated Release: No official date, as it’s likely still in development. Or, you know, being cultured.

Why You Should Care: Because it’s Pandemic, and that by itself is a really great game with a notoriously punishing AI and clever theme/mechanic integration. In the Legacy format, players will use the same board to play through an entire year-long outbreak.

Other Interesting Things

What: The 20 Most WTF Magical Items in D&D
Why: For ideas, obviously. Look, if you’re playing a wizard and you don’t take advantage of AT LEAST one of these to troll your fellow players, you’re doing it wrong.

Crowdfunding Corner Top Three

Title: Fragged Empire
Publisher: Self
Designer: Wade Dyer
Buy-In: $75 AUD

Why It’s Special: That’s an admittedly hefty buy-in, but keep in mind that it’s in Australian Dollars. Okay, in USD, it’s still about $70 which might be more than I would generally pay for an RPG book, but your mileage may vary and this does look nice. You get a 350-page rule book (for GM and players) in color, detailing the far-future post-apocalyptic setting.

Title: Zombicide: Season 3
Publisher: Cool Mini or Not
Designer: Raphaël Guiton, Jean-Baptiste Lullien, and Nicolas Raoult
Buy-In: $100

Why It’s Special: Phew, it’s an expensive week on Kickstarter! To be perfectly honest, Zombicide is on this list more because I think that you’re all interested than because I am. I love the idea of Zombicide, but I’ve yet to actually get my hands on a copy. Because minis. Anyway, Season 3 takes place in the Rue Morgue, and it can be both a standalone sequel and/or an expansion.

Title: Gothic Doctor
Publisher: Meltdown Games
Designer: Doug Levandowski
Buy-In: $25

Why It’s Special: There are a lot of games out there involving zombies, werewolves, vampires, and other creatures of the night. The vast majority of them either have you trying to mindlessly dispatch them from this realm, or to pretend like being an undead bloodsucking creature is somehow a good thing. Gothic Doctor takes a more humane approach. In this light card game, you play a a Victorian-esque doctor taking in these monsters who are looking for some medical care and have no where else to turn. You’ll help them of course, partly because of your desire to help them, but mostly because they’ll pay handsomely.

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