The board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending February 9, 2018.
- Reminder: the Gen Con housing lottery happens this weekend. We hope you get a room downtown that fits all your friends. Or the next best, closest thing. Remember, to qualify for the lottery, you must have purchased a badge before 11:59 pm Eastern TODAY!
- Old Spice has developed a new class for your next role playing session, the Gentleman class. It’s just … perfect. Go check it out.
- One of my favorite games from last year, Clans of Caledonia, is coming to retail. It’s heavily strategic and has lots of replay with a modular board and multiple clans. Look for it on shelves next month, in March.
- Mantic Games has the second edition of Dreadball on the way. The science fiction sports game will be at brick and mortars on March 19 with rebalanced teams, streamlined rules, and league rules.
- This week’s image is from the great party game When I Dream.
- One of our favorites here at GeekDad, Ice Cool, the penguins-in-school dexterity game, gets a sequel, launching at Gen Con. Ice Cool 2 will be a stand-alone game, but it can be combined with the original to form a huge track for race mode. Exciting!
- Renegade announced Prowler’s Passage, a two-player game where players create tunnels beneath a city to gather loot and gain control of districts. The game is from designer J. Alex Kevern (World’s Fair 1893, Sentient) and will be available in May.
- The ever-growing boardgame sandbox, Tabletopia, is now available on mobile (sort of). The virtual game table is in beta and available for free, but only on iOS tablets, Mini 2 and later, and currently features just six of their library’s 500+ games. (Sub Terra, Hansa Teutonica, The Shipwreck Arcana, Burgle Bros, Mint Works, Champions of Midgard.)
- Hey there, Captain Tightpants, if you’re itchin’ for more challenges, more Firefly Adventures are on the way. In addition to the already announced Brigands and Browncoats, crew expansions are down the road in June. Wanted Fugitives and Respectable Folk will both retail for $20, but you’ll need the base game to play.
- Monte Cook is promising to change the way you play RPGs. While the monstrous Black Cube of the Invisible Sun system has been known since last summer, we now have pre-orders available for retailers ahead of a March release.
- In addition to a reprint of the critically acclaimed Byzanz, hitting shelves March 7, Renegade also has Castell just around the corner. Releasing on February 21, this challenging drafting and set collection game is based on Catalonian human towers. Look for a review from us soon.
- Cryptozoic has a new arrival called, um, The Arrival. The game is by Martin Wallace, prolific designer of many great games, and takes place in ancient Ireland. You’ll fight against other player’s for area control while battling mythical demons as well. The game will be available February 21.
- Ahead of the movie release of Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time (March 9), USAopoly announced a cooperative game based on the film. Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time Daring Adventure Game is a puzzle-based board game and is “a STEM skill-focused game.” Really? Cool! The game will also be available in March.
- Shadows Over Normandie gets a new set of clothes in Heroes of Black Reach, a reskin that places the game firmly in the Warhammer 40K universe. Announced last year at Gen Con, we now know that the base game and two expansions will be available on May 24. If you can’t wait that long, it will be available two weeks earlier, on May 10, in brick and mortar stores.
- CMON has been quietly releasing some games without much fanfare. Sleeper hit Ethnos was one of these last year. This past week, 13 Clues just kind of showed up. It’s a reprint, so not entirely new, but it’s a fun deduction game that gives you the overflow of Scotland Yard’s cases.
- North Star Games announced a unilateral MAPP (minimum advertised pricing policy) this week, alongside restricted Amazon sales channels. If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts, you can read about it here, but the bottom line is that both moves should help to cut down on piracy and provide a more even playing field for brick and mortar stores.
At GeekDad, we write a lot about tabletop games. Here’s what we’ve written about this past week:
- Ryan Hiller didn’t just tell us about how to build the perfect dice collection for roleplaying, he also looked at what dice a dungeon master needs and then wrapped it up by considering dice bags. He’s even giving some away!
- James Floyd Kelly had a wonderful piece called 10 Reasons to Play a Skirmish Wargame With Your Kids. I know Jim and I am certain this is all just internal justification for spending a truckload of money on Star Wars Legion. Am I right, Jim?
- Simon Yule recapped his 42nd session of Curse of Strahd and he also interviewed Matthew Mercer from Critical Role—a great read.
- Jonathan Liu let us know about a Tony DiTerlizzi exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. (I’ve been there!)The exhibit will run through May 28 and features D&D, Magic, and Spiderwick Chronicles art from Tony’s important career. Jonathan also reviewed… nothing? False prophets and moral decay, surely this is another sign of the pending apocalypse?
- John Booth told us about Dungeon Fantasy, based on Steve Jackson’s GURPS system, and had a giveaway for a set.
- Anthony Karcz tackled more Star Wars painting and alerted us to a new Kickstarter for some new Wyrmwood gaming items.
- I reviewed a couple of small games from APE Games, Dark Is the Night, a hidden movement game, and Major General: Duel of Time, a fast-playing combat game.
Finally, here’s what some of the GeekDad Crew has been playing this week:
- Sophie Brown: Formula D, Champions of Midgard, Star Wars Dobble, Mobi, Tsuro of the Seas
- Will James: Heroes of Kaskaria
- Gerry Tolbert: Gloomhaven
- Anthony Karcz: Starfinder: Into The Unknown, Star Wars: Imperial Assault
- Samantha Fisher: Stormhollow, Splendor, Mysterium
- Robin Brooks: Go Nuts For Donuts, Herbaceous, Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire
- Andrew Terranova: Unstable Unicorns, Escape the Dark Castle
- Rebecca Angel Maxwell: Hearts, Alhambra
- Jonathan Liu: Catacombs & Castles, Draconis Invasion, Potato Pirates, The 7th Continent, Darkest Night, Fantastiqa Rival Realms, Harvest Dice, Millennium Blades, Mord im Arosa, The Shipwreck Arcana, Darkness Card Game (upcoming Kickstarter), Apocrypha
- Dave Banks: Major General: Duel of Time, Dice Forge, Rising Sun, When I Dream
