Last post for 2011. Have a happy holidays!
Fun:
- Perhaps the most dangerous die in the world. The entire set.
- Someone’s trying to get this interesting set of dice made on Kickstarter – it’s a dungeon randomizer.
- More beautiful dice
- Who says that a hospital stay can’t be fun – bring Dominion!
- Umm… er… ahh… yeah, I got nothing. (NSFW)
- Eh… well… oy… still got nothing. (Even more NSFW)
- If you are interested in what goes into making a Ticket to Ride map, here’s a designer diary by the winner of the $10,000 contest from Days of Wonder who made the India board now for sale.
- Help support the Creative Play Project, a non-profit that encourages kids to play games and stay off the streets, by purchasing a board gaming t-shirt.
New Games:
- Quarmageddon: Second expansion for the dice pool builder craze from 2011. 40 new dice, 6 new creatures and 2 new spells. New “immunity” ability too. And they have gone the way of Thunderstone and gotten a box to include all previous editions. Release June 2012.
- Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition: Talked about this one a while ago, but now they have announced a release date of 2012. The conversion kit will be released at the same time.
- Rockband Manager: This Fantasy Flight game was created by the same designer as 7 Wonders. It’s a card game where you assemble a band, record albums, play concerts, buy gear, etc. All the fun of putting together a band without the car chases and singing cops (ok, that would make it more fun – can you name the movie?) It’s an auction game that’s due out in March.
- Recent releases: Siberia, Bios Megafauna, Core Worlds, Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Friday, Octopus’ Garden, Malta Besieged, Memoir Campaign Book Vol 2, Principato, Bazaar, Cyclades: Hades, Eclipse, Mansions of Madness: Forbidden Alchemy, Plutocracy
iOS
- If you’re looking to get something last minute for an iPad owner, BGG has an iOS 2011 gift guide
- Carcassonne River and Inns and Cathedrals is now available however it seems that there are some crashes
- Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution was updated and I can tell you first hand that there are crashes :-(
- Looking for an iPad wargame? Hex Empire has been released. It was apparently a very popular Flash game and has now been released to iOS.
- FITS is now out for $3.99! Only 1-2 players though, but that’s because it’s not pass and play. A look at the pics of the game show that you play on the same pad across from each other.
News:
- Seven Scrabble bingos (7-letter words) in one game! Joel Sherman of the Bronx scored a whopping 803 points to set a world tournament record.
- Fantasy Flight is rereleasing Fortress America, a political/war game from the 80s from Milton Bradley. They apparently had to update it though because it’s causing a bit of a furor with people who felt that it was casting America as a villain in this scenario.
- Merging mediums: A band from Kentucky called Big Fresh has released a new album called Moneychasers that is also a satirical board game. Don’t see where you can get the board game though…
- Interesting debate about whether to give real board games for the holidays or apps of board games
Commentary:
- I have internally been very suspicious of Kickstarter, the invest before it exists web site. Board games have been really proliferating on there as small publishers look to decrease their risk by getting people to invest in their initial run and getting little free bits along with the game. Fact of the matter is, most of these games aren’t very good. Only one of the games, Alien Frontiers, is in the top 100 and only 4 in the top 1000. I recognize the value of a site like this, but I’m a bit more critical of where I invest my money. I’ll save it for the 169th expansion of Dominion.
Happy holidays and happy gaming!
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