The board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending August 10, 2018.
- Strap in, kids. We’ve got some things to talk about.
- Anything happen in the past week? How about Gen Con?! We were there again and, while it would be tough to catalog in this column all 600 games that were released in Indy last week, we did cover the things we liked best during our all-too-brief time together at Gen Con. Have a read—there’s a lot here!
- Jim Kelly and I attended the Fantasy Flight Inflight Report last Wednesday, where there was a slew of announcements, including the expansion for the Game of Thrones Board Game, Mother of Dragons, the third edition of Arkham Horror, and the HUGE expansion for Armada, the Executor Super Star Destroyer. Seriously, it’s HUGE—it’s 24 inches long. Each of those inches will cost you $8.33 because retail is $199.99 when it goes on sale Q1 2019. (Still, take our money!) But the biggest news was the announcement of a new Richard Garfield card game, Keyforge. We’ve played it a bit and it is amazing—check it out!
- Gloomhaven is coming to Steam. I repeat, Gloomhaven is coming to Steam!
- This week’s image? When I Dream.
- It’s Machi Koro‘s fifth birthday! That means the game is getting an anniversary edition with molded, 3D coins, a fancy box, and chunky dice (among other improvements). Look for it in the fall. But that’s not all. Pandasaurus brought Rob Daviau on to make Machi Koro a Legacy game. This one will be hitting shelves next spring. Not joking.
- CMON is launching a board game based on the Swedish Norse and Celtic mythos RPG, Trudvang. Kickstarting in Q2 2019, (natch).
- Horizon Zero Dawn has been heavily praised for being a beautiful, amazing, and engaging action RPG on the PlayStation. So naturally, it’s getting a board game version, complete with minis. It will be coming to Kickstarter via Steamforged Games “soon.”
- WizKids is bringing another Trophy Plaque out. After rapidly selling out their Beholder, Mind Flayer, and Red Dragon offerings, expect similar sales for the Black Dragon Trophy Plaque. My sources tell me the rubber and latex wall hanging will ship at the end of January 2019. Talk to your FLGS to order one.
- Warhammer 40K gets Munchkinized in a new version of the evergreen card game, currently in production. The set will come with 168 cards, a custom die, and level tracker.
- Restoration Games announced a Return to Dark Tower. If you are truly old school, you’ll remember Orson Wells shilling for the original.
- Renegade Game Studios had an announcement at Gen Con last week that was a bit of a surprise to me. Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid is a real-time, five-player affair where Rangers will have to join forces to fight evil. It’s coming to Kickstarter next week, but if you’re attending Power Morphicon, you can get hands-on with the game there!
- Have time for a couple of expansions? Renegade also announced Gold and Silk, the first of a more streamlined set of expansions for Clank!, called Expeditions. Alitplano (read our review) gets The Traveler, a fellow who will be happy to trade with you (and maybe share some fortune, too). Both will be in stores in October.
- Lastly, Renegade just announced Passing Through Petra, coming to stores in October. The economic engine game will have you trading within a canyon on one of the world’s oldest trade routes.
- Did I say lastly? How about one more thing? Magic is working on augmented reality cards.
At GeekDad, we write a lot about tabletop games. Here’s what we’ve written about this past week:
- Tom Fassbender alerted us to a Kickstarter for an RPG based on The Expanse, the sci-fi novel series.
- Since we last Re-Rolled, Simon Yule has visited barren battlefields and toxic swamps in his retelling of the Curse of Strahd, sessions 64 and 65. He also took a look at some new DM resources.
- Robin Brooks examined the crowdfunding effort for a card game about the quest for godhood in the cosmos, called Endogenesis. He also got down to basics, explaining Warhammer: Age of Sigmar in a way that even I can understand.
- Ryan Hiller got excited about the release of Pathfinder Playtest, the opportunity for everyone to test drive 2e and provide feedback, in advance of its release at Gen Con 2019.
- Jonathan Liu took a look at Visitor in Blackwood Grove, a Target-exclusive puzzler, and the Kickstarter card game PopCats Fighter, inspired by arcade fighting games.
- And, in case you missed it above, we ticked off the things we liked best about our four days at Gen Con.
Finally, here’s what some of the GeekDad Crew has been playing this week:
- Rob Huddleston: Trains, Nevermore, Five Tribes, Wings of Glory, Sails of Glory, Vast, Get Bit, Love Letter, Star Wars Destiny
- Michael Harrison: Galaxy Trucker, Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age, Welcome Back to the Dungeon
- Jonathan Liu: Moneybags, No Thanks!, Dude, Flotsam Fight, Startups, Troll, Architectura, Bandido, Before There Were Stars, Deep Sea Adventure, Evolution, Jungli-La, Jungle Race, Junk Orbit, Match Madness, Kaosmos, Minute Realms, Most Wanted, Nessos, Pantone: The Game, Sabotage, Sailing Toward Osiris, Show & Tile, Team Up!, Zogen
- Michael Pistiolas: Massive Darkness, One Deck Dungeon: Forest if Shadows
- Robin Brooks: Outfoxed, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions, Citadels, Battle Sheep, Pirate Plank, Sushi Go Party!, Go Nuts for Donuts, Endogenesis
- Dave Banks: Power Grid, Escape Plan, Sabotage, Ravine, Flotsam Fight, Tiny Epic Mechs, Troll, Petrichor, Dude, Junk Orbit, No Thanks, Junk Orbit, Flotsam, Before There Were Stars, Moneybags, Kaosmos, Deep Sea Adventure, Sailing Toward Osiris, Pantone: The Game, Jungli-La, Indie Dev, Spell Smashers, Keyforge, Welcome to, Tower of Madness
