Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending May 8, 2020.
Gaming News
- Boardgame Geek has announced the winners of the 2019 Golden Geek Awards. Wingspan took the top prize, 7 other categories.
- The Op this week announced the upcoming release of Talisman: Star Wars. Unfortunately, due to the way Star Wars licensing works, the title will only be available in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East when it comes out in the fall. If any of our readers are in those regions and want to discuss getting me a copy, please reach out.
- Z-Man has announced Pandemic: Hot Zone, an “express” version of the classic (and timely) co-op game. You can read details about the game and its development in an open letter with designer Matt Leacock on the Z-Man website.
- And in closely related news, Leacock has also released a set of rules and tips to play Pandemic Survival—the tournament version of the game—remotely.
- While the pandemic and stay-at-home orders have been a boom to the boardgame industry overall, it’s no surprise that Kickstarter campaigns are suffering. Not just in the game sector, but across the board, which has led to the unfortunate news that Kickstarter has laid off 40% of its workforce.
- The Met in New York has a d20 engraved with ancient Greek characters in the museum. It is one of a collection of polyhedral dice owned by the museum that dates from between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD.
- AEG has released a rule set for playing Space Base at home, supporting between 2 and a million players.
- Games Workshop has reopened its webstore to the rest of the world, including the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
- WizKids will be releasing WWE: Headlock, Paper, Scissors later this year.
- Clank! Adventuring Party, the latest edition to Renegade Games’ Clank! franchise, is due to be released in September but is available for preorder now. Those who do order in advance will get a special promo card.
- Mind the Gap is the newest game from publisher Solid Roots. The trivia party game has players team up by generation and is available for pre-order now. The game is also being developed as an online virtual version, hosted by YouTube personality Steve Starobinsky. The show streams every Tuesday and Thursday on Facebook Live. Those interested in applying to be on the show can do so online.
- The United States Playing Card Company, the maker of Bicycle-brand cards, moved into the board game market last year with the release of Tattoo Stories, It’s Blunderful, and Shuffle Grand Prix. Now, they’ve announced two new titles. One is The Alpha, in which “players control a wolf pack, and they lead the wolves on a search for food.” In a press release, the company says that the game’s “innovative prisoner’s dilemma mechanic of fighting or sharing food brings thrilling and heart-pumping excitement to The Alpha.” The other new title is Exchange, where each player is “a securities trader competing for the highest net worth on Wall Street.” Both games are available for purchase from the Bicycle website as of June 16.
- Academy of Adventures is a unique Kickstarter campaign running right now. Pledging in the campaign reserves a spot for your 11-15-year-old to do a five-day summer camp where they’ll learn to play D&D. Spots are filling up quickly, so don’t delay.
- Polygon ran an interesting piece this week on the rise of boutique dice in the gaming industry.
- If your family is playing the old classics like Monopoly, Clue, and Battleship, you can enjoy these playlists that Pandora and Hasbro put together.
GeekDad and GeekMom Reviews
- Jonathan Liu reviewed Dale of Merchants 3: The Grand Continental Railway.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:
- Jonathan Liu played The Whatnot Cabinet, Chronicles of Crime: Welcome to Redview, Abalone, Dale of Merchants 3, Sentinels of the Multiverse, and Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria.
- Robin Brooks played Pathfinder ACG, MetroX, and Warhammer Underworlds.
- Michael Knight played Star Wars Imperial Assault, Star Wars Outer Rim (our featured image this week), Star Wars X-Wing, and Star Wars Destiny.
- Rebecca Angel Maxwell played Timeline.
- I played Abandon All Artichokes.
