by W. Eric Martin • As many people know, Mystic Vale introduced John D. Clair's "card-crafting system" — in which plastic cards with bits of information on them are overlaid in card sleeves to craft unique new cards — but that game was not what Clair first showed publisher Alderac Entertainment Group when he approached them. Instead he first showed them Edge of Darkness, a sprawling design in which the card-crafting was just one part of a larger whole.At the 2017 Origins Game Fair, AEG's CEO John Zinser showed up with a copy of Edge of Darkness in public for the first time, noting that he's bringing the game to multiple conventions over the next several months to both test the design among new players and show off something different from what AEG normally releases. For those waiting for more info about the game, I think this is finally giving you what you want to know.Youtube Video• Rod Dougherty of White Wizard Games dropped info on Star Realms: Frontiers, a standalone game in the publisher's wildly successful Star Realms line with eighty new cards that accommodates up to four players. This title hits Kickstarter on July 11, 2017.Youtube Video• Dougherty also went into detail about Hero Realms: The Ruin of Thandar Campaign Deck, which takes the tiny Hero Realms game and spins it into something far larger.Youtube Video• I played the 4X card game Alien Artifacts from Marcin Senior Ropka and Viola Kijowska at BGG.CON 2016 and wrote up the experience on BGG News — or did I? The game as it exists today is not the game that I played six months ago, and it's likely not exactly what will appear in print from Portal Games before the end of 2017, but this overview can still give you the basics of the gameplay and we'll worry about the details once the final rulebook is released.Youtube Video• One of the odd things about the 2017 Origins Game Fair is how much time we have to fill. I can schedule game demos with more cushion time around them so that we don't have to hustle people on and off camera so quickly — but that means that when someone doesn't show, we have a lot of time to fill. Thankfully Origins has lots of designers walking around, so we grabbed Rob Daviau from the aisle (for the second time as we had him on camera on Wednesday as well) to talk with him. JR Honeycutt, who develops some of Daviau's designs, snuck onto camera as well. Maybe this will be interesting for you...Youtube Video... Read more »

by W. Eric Martin • We will know that "roll and write" games — designs in which players roll dice, then write something in response — have made it big when a character emerges from the mists to don the name and claim it as their own, and that day has come with the announcement of a "new line of premium roll and write games" from Chris Handy of Perplext. This line of games is based on Roland Wright, "a fictional game designer who is obsessed with making great roll and write games in his 'old time' workshop", says Handy. "He's like a Willy Wonka meets Reiner Knizia."The series will launch with 3-4 games in 2018, with the first title being Roland Wright: A Pursuit of the Perfect Dice Game. In the game, players select dice each turn to complete game design modules and earn equipment in order to create the "perfect dice game".• Z-Man Games has finally officially announced Pandemic Legacy: Season 2, a standalone game from Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau that throws you seventy years into the future past the events of Season 1. Here's a summary of the game's setting:Humanity has been brought to its knees. A network of the last known cities persists, supplied by the "havens", isolated stations floating in the ocean far from the plague. Three generations of survivors have called the havens home. Most of them have never set foot on the mainland. But now supplies are running low and the people have turned to you to lead. It is up to you to save what remaining cities you can and stop the world from ending for good.The main twist in the game is that instead of removing disease cubes from the board, you're now delivering supplies to the few cities that you can reach, trying to expand that network of locations over time, but limited in your travel to movement by ships or what you can reach over land as air travel is no longer possible. Check the post for more details, with the game due out in Q4 2017 and available for a sneak peek at Gen Con 2017 in August.• Uli Blennemann of Spielworxx has opened preorders for Stefan Risthaus' Gentes, with the game shipping in July 2017. Gentes is a civilization game in which you can't get everything you need as the more that you focus on one type of worker, the fewer you can have of another. Full rules can be downloaded in English and German from the Spielworxx website, or you watch an overview video that BGG recorded at the Spielwarenmesse toy fair in early 2017. As is usual with Spielworxx titles, only one thousand copies are being produced.• French publisher Bombyx has renamed their SPIEL 2017 release from Bruno Cathala and Florian Sirieix yet again, with the one-time Curiosity and later named Steamers now bearing the name of Imaginarium. We recorded an overview of this game in early 2017, and the gameplay remains the same,... Read more »

by W. Eric Martin Thanks to the efficient editing efforts of Nikki Pontius of BGG's own GameNight!, I can start posting game demonstrations and overviews recorded in the BGG booth during the 2017 Origins Game Fair less than week after that show ended. Kudos, Nikki!• We'll start with a trio of titles coming from Czech Games Edition, with the first two of those titles — Codenames Duet and That's a Question! — scheduled to debut at Gen Con 2017 in August.Codenames Duet is, as far as I can tell, the second title that lists Vlaada Chvátil as a co-designer (with Star Trek: Frontiers being the first). My understanding is that Scot Eaton approached CGE with the basic design for this two-player take on the Spiel des Jahres-winning Codenames, and CGE has been developing it non-stop ever since. The version of the game that I played at PAX East in mid-March 2017 differed from the original submission, and that version differed from what I saw one week later at the GAMA Trade Show, and that differed from what I saw at the Gathering in April, and so on. CGE has a great reputation for its designs, and seeing that development work in action helps you understand why they have the reputation that they do.Youtube Video• That's a Question! is another party game from Chvátil, his take on the well-known "guess how someone will answer a question" genre. In this design players get to create their own questions using the hexagonal topic cards in hand, with the goal of trying to split the party in their answers.I had asked someone at CGE about Chvátil's most recent designs all being party games, and they mentioned that he has children now, so he's been leaning toward shorter games that allow for quicker iteration and development. That isn't to say that Chvátil is done with larger and longer games, but given the strength of Codenames and how much fun this game has been to observe (as all I've done is observe it so far), this change of focus isn't necessarily a loss.Youtube Video• The final title previewed by CGE is Pulsar 2849, a dice-drafting, space exploration game from designer Vladimír Suchý (Last Will) that will debut at SPIEL 2017 in October. The design is still in development right now, but Josh Githens demonstrates the basics of game, the basics of the tech trees (plural, with each player having an individual tree and all players sharing a different tree), how you explore the stars, and more.Youtube Video... Read more »

by W. Eric Martin • Admittedly with Gen Con 2017 being the next major convention in the offing, much of the gaming news popping up relates to that show, but SPIEL 2017 looms even larger ahead of its October 26 opening, and publishers are popping out announcements for that show as well, such as Matagot's opening teaser for Okanagan: Valley of the Lakes, a 2-4 player game from Emanuele Ornella that bears this short description:Canada's wealth is waiting for you!The Okanagan Valley, with its huge lakes and fertile meadows, awaits anyone willing to exploit it. Shape the land and store your wealth in the gathering and territory-building game Okanagan: Valley of the Lakes. In the game, players arrange tiles to design the landscape along with its natural resources — and it's your job to place one of the three buildings to obtain and secure these resources so that you can complete your objectives.• A second title coming from Matagot at SPIEL 2017 is Cédric Millet's Meeple Circus, which was first announced in early 2016. The description gives you enough details to start imagining how it might play:You have only one goal in Meeple Circus: Entertain the audience. The competition is tough, but you can create the most amazing circus by proposing incredible acts! Acrobats, horses, and many accessories are at your disposal. Be sure to undertake a good rehearsal, then with your remarkable dexterity, you can give them the show of their lifetime. Once the circus music starts, all eyes will be upon you!In short, Meeple Circus is a dexterity game in which you do what all gamers do when setting up a game: Pile up your meeples!• Dutch publisher Quined Games has a new title coming in Q4 2017 from Michael Keller of La Granja fame with Agra being a 90-120-minute game for 2-4 players. Quined has included a decent amount of background in its description to put the game in context:Agra, India: The year is 1572; this year marks the 30th birthday of Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad, popularly known as Akbar the Great. Akbar is the third ruler of India's Mughal dynasty, having succeeded his father, Humayun. With the guidance of his regent, Bairam Khan, Akbar has expanded and consolidated India's Mughal domains. Using his strong personality and skill as a general, Akbar has enlarged his Empire to include nearly all of the Indian subcontinent north of the Godavari River; his presence is felt across the entire country due to the Mughals' military, political, cultural, and economic dominance.To unify the vast Mughal state, Akbar has established a centralized system of administration; conquered rulers are conciliated through marriage and diplomacy. Akbar has preserved peace and Order throughout his empire by passing laws that have won him the support of his non-Muslim subjects. Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic state-identity, Akbar has striven to unite his lands. The Mughals' Persian-ized culture has afforded Akbar near-divine status.Notables and emissaries from all over the country are on their way for Akbar's birthday celebration. As... Read more »

by W. Eric Martin • After a week of the 2017 Origins Game Fair plus a few extra sick days, I have a lot to catch up on, starting with the revelation that Legendary: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a deck-building game from Travis R. Chance and Nick Little that will debut from Upper Deck Entertainment at Gen Con 2017, will use photographic images from the television show and not original artwork — at least that's what I think is happening as the solicitation for the game from UDE features the cards depicted below, despite touting that the game features "All Original Art". Checking on this... • At SPIEL 2016, Korean publisher Happy Baobab released Fold-it by Yohan Goh, a real-time, pattern-creation game in which each player has a double-sided cloth and races to fold that cloth in a particular way to reveal only the dishes shown on that round's menu card. The game is a tricky take on the Spot it genre because spotting the images that you need to feature isn't enough; you need to also figure out how to make all the other images disappear within the folds of the cloth.Two things have happened since that release: First, publisher ThinkFun has licensed the game for release in the U.S., with a listed street date of July 21, 2017. (Hong Kong-based Broadway Toys has also licensed the game for a Chinese-language edition.)Second, at SPIEL 2017 Happy Baobab will release Battlefold, a new take on the system with co-designer Dave Choi and art by Vincent Dutrait. Says publisher representative Kevin Kim, "Originally, we had planned to make a Fold-it series of games with different artwork and puzzles, but the same game rules. However, after the successful launch in Essen, we changed the main direction of the project. We found the potential of the 'folding handkerchief' system and decided to make very different games while keeping only the folding handkerchief to show certain icons." Here's an overview of this new game:In Battlefold, each player takes on the role of a warrior, assassin, magician, or archer. The player takes the handkerchief matching their character, with each handkerchief providing different fighting powers. The warrior, for example, has a cross-shaped attack range and is more powerful when staying in the same position, while the archer has a long-distance attack and more movement.As in the earlier game Fold-it, once a mission card is revealed, players must fold their handkerchief to leave visible only the right combination of symbols. After successfully making a combination, the player takes the lowest remaining turn order token. Starting with the first player, each player controls their character on the arena board, moving and fighting with the goal of being the last one standing. If a player defeats all other opponents, they win!Battlefold is a player-elimination game, but eliminated players can still participate via the "ghost" rule. When a player's character dies, the character becomes a ghost. Flip the character board to the ghost side and keep playing. A ghost player... Read more »

by W. Eric Martin My apologies for the quietness in this space since the end of the 2017 Origins Game Fair, which corresponded with the launching of the Gen Con 2017 Preview, but in the past three days I've eaten only a banana, a piece of toast, a handful of cereal, a can of soup (over two days), a handful of chips, and two bowls of blueberries — this after ending my Origins with the eating, followed by the rapid uneating, of a turkey BLT (botulism-laden-terrorwich).I had hoped to jump immediately into Gen Con preview updates once Origins ended as I knew that my inbox would be flooded with messages from publishers who having now cleared the hurdles in Columbus could set their sights on the next obstacle ahead in Indianapolis, and lo, that flood did miraculously appear to test the gates of my Gmail dam, but I couldn't manage to do more than sit upright every so often and admire the light reflecting on the surface on my unusually untouched laptop. Now that I'm finally up again, I'll start draining the backlog, but let's start with something simpler: a recap of my Origins 2017 experience:There you go. Word Slam. Origins recapped!BGG's Scott Alden and Lincoln Damerst had raved about Inka and Markus Brand's Word Slam after seeing it demonstrated on camera in the BGG booth at SPIEL 2016, and when Thames & Kosmos donated an English-language copy to the BGG library for BGG.CON 2017 Spring in late May, Scott started playing it obsessively — yet somehow I caught only his simultaneously active Kreus obsession during that show. (More on that game another day.)At Origins 2017, Scott asked, "You haven't played Word Slam yet? Oh, man, you have to." So we played the game on air once we finished the scheduled game demonstrations on Wednesday. Then he brought it to the Nerd Nighters fundraising event on Thursday, and I joined in after it had already been on the table an hour to play for three more hours, with people coming and going constantly as they often do with Codenames and Concept. We played again on camera on Friday; we talked about the game on Lone Shark Live: Origins by Night, a three-night podcast from Origins hosted by Mike Selinker, Paul Peterson, and James Ernest; we played on dinky tables on Saturday night with people once again coming and going; and we played yet again on Sunday night, with me leaving the table only because my sandwich has different plans for its future than I had intended.Erin Dontknowherlastname, Paul Grogan, Mike Selinker, Scott Alden, Josh Githens, Chad KrizanFor those who don't know the game, Word Slam is played in teams, with the members of each team trying to guess the same hidden noun phrase. One member on each team knows this noun phrase — which can be anything from butterfly to mountain to the Golden Gate Bridge to Forrest Gump — and to get their teammates to guess it, they can... Read more »

by W. Eric Martin The 2017 Origins Game Fair is over, so it's time to look ahead to Gen Con 2017, which takes place August 17-20 in Indianapolis, Indiana.I'd say more about one or both of these shows, or the rate at which titles will be added to the Gen Con 2017 Preview over the next two months (which starts at 146 titles while the previous two years had about 550 on them), but I got sick at the end of Origins — bad sandwich, I think — and can barely think straight, so just have at it!... Read more »

by W. Eric Martin I'm in Columbus, Ohio to cover the 2017 Origins Game Fair, with five days of live game demos and interviews starting Wednesday, June 14, but before we get to that, let's round up a few announcements that I've possibly tweeted in passing but not posted here.• To start with, Renegade Game Studios has signed a deal with Shem Phillips of Garphill Games to make his 2017 Kennerspiel des Jahres-nominated title Raiders of the North Sea and its expansions available in English on a more widespread basis. Renegade expects to have the base game available in Q3 2017 with the expansions to follow in Q4.• In other Renegade news, the publisher is creating a "Play Renegade" kit for Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure to encourage game store owners to run events to demo the game, with participants taking home an as-yet-undisclosed promo card and the winner of the event getting a special version of this card. These promos will also be available at conventions in mid-2017, with "a unique, handcrafted dragon trophy" for the overall player with the highest score.• Dutch publisher Splotter Spellen is reprinting its 2004 title Antiquity that has gone in and out of print multiple times over the years, and it's taking preorders on its website with this new edition due out for SPIEL 2017 in October. This new edition has a few small changes to it — deeper box, shaped wooden tokens that aren't only cubes — but gameplay remains the same. • Designer Joseph Fatula has started taking preorders for the Sept. 1, 2017 release of Leaving Earth: Stations, an expansion for his Leaving Earth game from The Lumenaris Group, Inc. that adds the Space Shuttle, various space station modules, and new missions to this game.• The expandable card game Doomtown: Reloaded, which was born from the collectible card game Deadlands: Doomtown in 2014 and which publisher Alderac Entertainment Group cancelled in 2016, is being born again courtesy of Pine Box Entertainment, which is partnering with Pinnacle Entertainment Group to release the "Epitaph Series", a series of tournaments that will coincide with the release of Tales from the Epitaph, a new expansion for the game.• At SPIEL 2017, Cranio Creations will release Houses of Renaissance, an expansion for Lorenzo il Magnifico in which each player becomes the head of a house, with each of the ten houses having a unique power. Components for a fifth player are included, as well as new development and leader cards.... Read more »

by Jonathan Chaffer Some things are far more obvious in retrospect. Such is the design of Stroop, a speedy perception card game with simple rules.Psychological OriginsI can't remember exactly when I first saw a Stroop test. I feel like it was the kind of thing I would have encountered in a GAMES Magazine issue pilfered from my mom's bedside stand. I do recall being delighted by the idea and making flashcards with markers and note cards to test myself and my friends. Throughout the following years I saw it referenced time and again, most notably in the briefly-popular Brain Age game for the Nintendo DS.The Stroop test is simple. A subject is presented with a series of words, each printed in a different color. The subject is then asked to quickly speak aloud the names of the colors in which the words are printed, and they are timed during this task.Next, the subject repeats this task, but this time the words are the names of colors, instead of being random words.This causes the subject to stumble and take longer to complete the task. The experiment demonstrates the Stroop effect, named after psychologist John Ridley Stroop, and shows that the interference between different systems in the brain — in this case, language and color recognition — can slow down both systems.From Experiment to GameFlash forward to 2013 when I was in the midst of brainstorming ideas for new tabletop games to develop, and I randomly stumbled across the Wikipedia page for the Stroop effect. This led to the immediate question: Could this be a game?Now Brain Age had used the Stroop effect in its simplest and most obvious form. It was not really a game, but rather an activity at which you could improve; you were timed on how quickly you responded to the colors and given a score that you tried to improve upon the next time.The clear way to transform this into a card game was to do exactly the same, but with multiple players. I would print the names of colors onto cards, with ink colors that didn't match. Then players would run through the deck like flashcards, saying the colors out loud and being timed on their effort.Even before physically prototyping this, it was instantly an unsatisfying implementation. For one thing, a speed contest such as this is usually uninteresting. It is a solo experience that people happen to compare their efforts on, which is something I can enjoy at times but rarely gravitate toward.But the bigger problem is that the Stroop test can be defeated. Once a subject knows what they are being asked to do, they can use techniques, like squinting, that make the words harder to read, which makes saying the names of the colors much easier. I certainly didn't want players to be able to circumvent the challenge in this way, or worse, to have to make rules against squinting!Chain, Chain, ChainThe key to cracking this problem was, as is usually the case... Read more »

Publisher: Dicey Ventures StudiosThe Elemental Village is going flat! Now you can print, cut out, and play with the Elemental Village terrain any time you want to, with the new Print and Play 2D Terrain sets.  Each set contains over two dozen 2D models for use in tabletop wargames, RPGs, skirmish games, and board games. The Earth/Arcane set includes Elemental Village models from the Earth and Arcane elements as well as nature pieces like trees, rocks, hills, ponds, and more.  Full PDF includes 8 printable pages of models.Price: $4.99... Read more »

Publisher: Fainting Goat GamesWhat Do You Need?Adventures!When Do You Need Them?Now!We've heard demands for more superhero adventures for SUPERS!. Here at Fainting Goat Games, we love to write adventures - so we're happy to meet that need. In this compilation edition - you'll find the following adventures: Lair of the WrathmasterFestival of FearBelly of the BeastThe Eaters of SteelTorc of the Blood KingsCoils of the MeduaPrice: $5.99... Read more »

Publisher: Pegasus PressEDITORIAL GamesOrbit #38: Liebe Leserinnen, liebe Leser, Geschafft! Die „Spielwarenmesse“ liegt hinter uns. Wie immer wardas Branchentreffen eine Riesensache für alle, die in Nürnberg dabeiwaren. Neuheiten ohne Ende, vieles davon vorher nur Eingeweihtenbekannt. Doch für die aktuelle Ausgabe von Games Orbit haben wirschon einiges testen können. Attraktiv für Sie, liebe Leserinnen undLeser, ist dabei ein Aspekt, auf den wir besonderes Augenmerk gelegthaben: Die Spiele (wie auch Bücher und Filme im hinteren Bereichdes Heftes) sind bereits im Handel – worauf also warten? Mit spielerischem GrußAlexander KraftPrice: $1.12... Read more »

Publisher: Pegasus PressEDITORIAL GamesOrbit #38 Sonderausgabe SPIEL13: Liebe Leserinnen, liebe Leser, „Games Orbit“ kommt mit dieser Ausgabe in einer etwas ungewohntenForm daher. Erstmals hat sich der Verlag entschlossen, zur „Spiel 13“,den Internationalen Spieltagen in Essen, ein Magazin als Sonderausgabeheraus zu bringen. Logische Konsequenz: Das ganze Heft widmetsich ausschließlich dem Thema Spiele. Von Brett- über Karten- und Würfelspielebis zu Rollenspielen reicht die Bandbreite. Bücher, Hörbücher,Comics sowie Filme und Digitales werden Sie in dieser Sonderausgabevergebens suchen. Aber keine Sorge: In der regulären Nummer 38 vonGames Orbit finden Sie die vertrauten Rubriken wieder!Und noch etwas ist anders bei der vorliegenden Ausgabe von GamesOrbit. Das Redaktionsteam ist neu aufgestellt. Neben den neuen Autorenund Grafikern bleiben natürlich weiterhin die bewährten Kräfte derseit zehn Jahren erscheinenden Zeitschrift an Bord. Die gravierendsteÄnderung: Erstmals gibt es einen Chefredakteur – und als der würdeich mich freuen, wenn ich Sie, liebe Leserinnen und Leser, auch inZukunft in unserem Spiele-Universum begrüßen darf. Mit spielerischem GrußAlexander KraftPrice: $1.12... Read more »

Publisher: Pegasus PressEDITORIAL GamesOrbit #39: Liebe Leserinnen, liebe Leser, und vielleicht sollte ich in dem Falle hinzusetzen: Liebe Studierende! Denn: Mit derAusgabe 39 beginnt für den „Games Orbit“ eine neue Zeitrechnung. Das Spielermagazinwird von nun an auch an fast allen deutschen Hochschulen zu haben seinund zusammen mit dem Unimagazin „Unikum“ verteilt. Ich bin mir sicher, unsereMischung findet auch dort viele Fans: Vom lockeren Zockerspiel bis zum Strategiehammersowie dem Special zur „Role Play Convention“ ist alles drin. Plus viele Terminesowie Rezensionen von Büchern, Hörbüchern, Comics und Filmen. Mit spielerischem GrußAlexander KraftPrice: $1.12... Read more »

Publisher: Pegasus PressEDITORIAL GamesOrbit #41: Liebe Leserinnen, liebe Leser, das hat es noch nicht gegeben, das „Double“ für einen Verlag: Bei der Preisverleihungzum „Spiel des Jahres“ und zum „Kennerspiel des Jahres“ gingen beide Pöppelan Pegasus Spiele. Was die Jury dazu sagt lesen Sie auf Seite 7. Doch viel Zeit zumJubeln bleibt nicht, die Spielebranche läuft sich schon warm für einen heißen Herbstmit der Spielemesse Essen. Und die anderen Verlage werden alles daran setzen, denFriedbergern im Oktober zu zeigen, was eine Harke ist. Was man bis dahin tut? Vielleichtunsere Neuvorstellungen testen ... Mit spielerischem GrußAlexander KraftPrice: $1.12... Read more »

Publisher: Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.Welcome to Bree and The Inn of the Prancing Pony! Nestled at the foot of the ancient landmark of the Bree-hill, Bree and The Prancing Pony provide a welcome respite from the trials of the road. With a wisdom all of its own, Bree has endured for centuries, minding its own business and serving passing travellers with good food and better beer. Surrounded by deserted and dangerous lands, and watched over by the mysterious Rangers of the North, Bree is an ideal place to break a journey, or to begin a new one! Bree includes: Details of the Bree-land, including Bree itself, Archet, Combe and Staddle. Things to do in Bree and new Bree undertakings Maps of Bree-land, Bree and The Prancing Pony Playable culture: The Men of Bree  Three exciting new adventures: Old Bones and Skin, Strange Men and Strange Roads, Holed up in Staddle.   Price: $19.99... Read more »

Publisher: Pegasus PressEDITORIAL GamesOrbit #42: Liebe Leserinnen, liebe Leser, das Hochfest der Spielefans steht vor der Tür: Wenn am 16. Oktober die „Spiel“ inEssen ihre Tore öffnet, gibt es für rund 150.000 Besucher kein Halten mehr. Mehrals 800 Aussteller warten mit Welt- und Deutschland-Premieren auf. Ein paar davonkönnen Sie schon hier anschauen, denn: Die Redaktion durfte für diese extradickeAusgabe von „Games Orbit“ exklusiv Vorab-Versionen testen. Da tun sich spannendeneue Trends auf, etwa das Zusammenwachsen von digitaler und Brettspielwelt (Seite24). Was Essen sonst noch bietet – mehr dazu auf den Seiten 4 bis 7 und 38 | 39! Mit spielerischem GrußAlexander KraftPrice: $1.12... Read more »

Publisher: Pegasus PressEDITORIAL GamesOrbit #43: Liebe Leserinnen, liebe Leser, mit der neuen Ausgabe wird „Games Orbit“ noch ein bisschen bunter. Womit nichtdas Layout gemeint ist, sondern: Wir erweitern die Bandbreite der vorgestellten undbesprochenen Spiele. Haben Sie bisher oft über komplexe Strategie- oder ungewöhnlicheGesellschaftsspiele gelesen und durften in die Welten kultiger Rollenspieleeintauchen, so kriegen künftig auch Familienspiele mehr Raum. Die sind nichtgleichzusetzen mit „Kinderspielen“. Vielmehr stellen wir Generationen-übergreifendeKonzepte vor – von denen manche auch ganz prima als Partyspiele funktionieren! Mit spielerischem GrußAlexander KraftPrice: $1.12... Read more »

Gamemasters (GM’s) occupy an unusual position. They have great power over the game, adjudicate the rules, and make major decisions. Sometimes they willingly give up that power, rolling dice and letting fortune decide the outcome. GM’s are not really players, but they’re not quite “not players” either. In this article, we’ll look when and why […]... Read more »

Origins was last week and I’m still walking around in a gamer high haze. There were games galore and many, many people to see and talk to—so many people! As I made my way through the convention center to a variety of games, both scheduled and off-book, I realized I know a crap-ton of people. […]... Read more »

  Welcome to the Gnomecast, the Gnome Stew’s tabletop gaming advice podcast. Here we talk with the other gnomes about gaming things to avoid becoming part of the stew. So I guess we’d better be good. This episode we’re at Origins and Ang is talking to as many Gnomes as she can find.... Read more »

In fantasy settings with sufficient magic, there is likely to be a low level spell to send a simple message from person to person. Consider that a permanent magic item with this power is essentially a one way cell phone. This is such an indispensable item that no one who could afford it would be […]... Read more »

  There are more pre-created settings in role playing supplements than you can shake a stick at. There are even more settings out there in other creations outside just the role playing industry. These include TV shows, movies, novels, graphic novels, comic books, and video games. Some of these have already been adapted to a […]... Read more »

Welcome to the second installment of Gnome Spotlight, where we highlight gamers doing good. Today I’m excited to share the really cool programs and practices of a convention that consistently gets rave reviews: Big Bad Con. It’s a tabletop and live action gaming convention, boasting a wide variety of RPGs, larps, and card/board games. It’s […]... Read more »

Sometimes players zag when you expected them to zig. It happens to all of us. Often it’s easy to just adapt your current adventure to the changing situation. However, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes they go off into a totally different part of the world (or another plane or planet altogether). For those situations, you may […]... Read more »

Two weeks ago, I teased you with how different the cabin areas of the Camp would be for the campers. Rather than try to spend words describing them here, I’m going to give you the description directly from the text. The Cabins The cabins at Camp Adventure are perhaps the most unique and adaptable part […]... Read more »

In level-based fantasy rpgs, trying to match the power level of the big bad adversary to where the player characters will be at that point in an adventure is like trying to thread a needle with your eyes closed. As the GM, you’re anticipating where the PCs are going to be in terms of hit […]... Read more »

Hardcore Gamer checked out The Guild 3: E3 2017: Build Your Own Dynasty in The Guild 3 So many fantasy games use the middle ages as a template that is easy to forget that life in this time period was not all powerful wizards assisting gallant knights in rescuing beautiful princesses from evil dragons....... Read more »

Game Watcher has interviewed Spider devs about Greedfall: Greedfall: An Interview With Spiders' Marie-Cécile Jacq & Sébastien Di Ruzza [E3 2017] [...] GameWatcher: So take us into the world of Greedfall. What is going on here?Marie-Cecile Jacq: It’s a fictional 17th Century....... Read more »

Pamela v0.2.1.2 is live on Steam: Mega-Update: PAMELA v0.2.1.2 is Live – Crafting, Tutorial 2.0, and much, much more! <Please note! This update will cause existing world save files to be deleted!>Happy Thursday, Sleepers. Sit down, get comfortable, and grab a snack because this is going to be a long read!Picture in your mind a snowball, rolling down a snowy slope....... Read more »

Hardcore Gamer checked out ELEX: E3 2017: Will Reason or Emotion Prevail in Shaping the World of Elex? As creatures with a higher level of cognition functioning, us humans are cursed by possessing both reason and emotion. Both of these traits are essential to experiencing life at its fullest, whether it be feeling the bitter pain of heart break or a fleeting moment of pure joy, emotion is a crucial part of the human condition....... Read more »

Tobi and ESO are showing some Kingdom Come: Deliverance gameplay: Kingdom Come: Deliverance - E3 build with Tobi and ESO loading... Tobi and ESO are introducing the E3 2017 build of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. See the complex quest structure of the game, a fighting tutorial, a small skirmish and get new insights into the development of Kingdom Come: Deliverance....... Read more »

Gamepressure has collected a lot of info about the Witcher series: Behind the scenes of The Witcher trilogy with CD Projekt RED Digital Dragons in Cracow have gathered top Polish video game developers, and more. We’ve took this chance to talk with some members of CD Projekt Red (both their current and former workers) about the Witcher series and some behind the scenes mysteries....... Read more »

If the recent summer sale was not enough for you, this weekly sale at GOG brings us over 70 games with a discount up to 90%. On top of that you get the Double Dragon trilogy for free upon your first purchase.... Read more »

Update number 4 of Exoplanet: First Contact, which is currently in Early Access, has been made availabel last week. Dear players, we gladly present to you the latest update! The new starting area was heavily overhauled and vastly expanded. We've added new locations, characters, quests and things to do in this area....... Read more »

Grim Dawn's Grim Misadventure #121 is about the necromancers in the expansion (to be released near the end of the year). Hello and welcome to another Grim Miasdventures dev update. In case you have not been keeping track, we recently had a big patch (v1....... Read more »

Note, this article has been updated from the original posted in February 2016. RPG sage Monte Cook wrote an interesting article called PCs versus NPCs in which he discusses the time we often waste put... Read more »

On 9 May 2017, I posted a note to both Twitter and Facebook asking for, in one or two words, the three most important traits for a good D&D dungeon master. This returned roughly 162 total response... Read more »

In May 2017 on the DM's Deep Dive I spoke to Will Jones of Encounter Roleplay who plays D&D full time on Twitch professionally. For us old timers who barely have a handle on what Twitch is, this i... Read more »

Note: This article contains numerous spoilers for Storm King's Thunder. Turn away now if you are planning to play in this campaign. There are a number of villains in the published adventure Storm Kin... Read more »

Note, this article updates the original February 2012 version. When we GMs are off to a game away from home, it can be tough to bring only what we need and avoid filling a U-Haul full of Dwarven Forge... Read more »

On 4 May 2017, Gill Sulivan posted a topic to the popular Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Facebook group asking for the best D&D advice in four words or less. This resulted in over 1,400 respon... Read more »

The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons describes three main types of gameplay in the game: exploration, roleplaying, and combat. Combat is probably the most well refined part of the game. We gen... Read more »

Last month I had the privilege of talking to David Hartlage of the DM David website and Twitter account. Around the time that D&D Next came out, David started writing wonderful and deep-thinking a... Read more »

Ancient monuments are a cornerstone of D&D games. They fill out the "exploration" portions of D&D. They're something weird to investigate when traveling across the lands of old. They're a rema... Read more »