Re-Roll: This Week’s Tabletop Game News for the Week Ending June 12, 2020

Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending June 12, 2020.

Gaming News

• In a Facebook post this week, GAMA announced that they were cancelling Origins Online, which has been scheduled for next weekend after the organization pushed back the live event several months ago. The announcement has also been posted on the Origins Game Fair website. The cancellation was in response to a mass walk-out by presenters and companies following the organization’s silence on the Black Lives Matter movement. In their statement, GAMA finally voiced support for BLM and apologized for the delay in making the statement. However, as game designer Eric Lang pointed out, the wording of the announcement and apology is still pretty troublesome. They are offering refunds to anyone who paid for tickets to the convention, but also offered to match donations of exhibitors, vendors, sponsors and advertisers if they forego the refund and instead donate the monies they paid to one of several organizations supporting the BLM movement. GAMA has also cancelled the live Origins event, which had been rescheduled to October, citing a potential second wave of COVID-19 as the reason.
• In response to outcry on Twitter and other online sources, Wizards on the Coast this week officially removed multiple cards from Magic: the Gathering that were widely considered to be racist. In their statement they said the cards, which include “Invoke Prejudice”, a card that has been part of the game since 1994, would no longer be printed, no longer be included in the official online database of Magic cards, and no longer be sanctioned for tournament play. The statement concludes with the company noting, “There’s much more work to be done as we continue to make our games, communities, and company more inclusive. Know that we work every day to be better and that we hear you. We look forward to sharing more of our plans with you as our games and organization evolve.”
• SHUX’20, the Sit Down and Shut Up convention that had been scheduled for October, has been moved to an as-yet-to-be-determined date in 2021.
• Renegade was not the first company to decide to hold its own virtual conference this year, but it is the first that I’ve seen to give us a post-mortem. It seems they’re happy with the results; what this means for in-person conventions, once those are allowed to start back up, is anyone’s guess.
• Arcane Wonders and Greater Than Games have teamed up to produce Freedom Five, a Sentinel Comics board game.
• CMON has made a print-and-play version of their game Foodies available for download. They also used Twitter to clarify how to pronounce the company’s name.
• CMON is also previewing Modern Art: The Card Game, which should be available by the time you read this.
• The Op has entered into a licensing deal with Asmodee to bring licensed versions of Spot It! to the market. The games are due out this fall, and there are no details as of yet which licenses will be included.
• Portal Games is taking pre-orders for Rise of the Empire, an expansion to Imperial Settlers. 
• If you missed the Kickstarter for the 10th anniversary edition of Tanto Cuore, good news: the company is accepting late pledges.

GeekDad and GeekMom Reviews

• Robin Brooks reviewd the Warhammer Fantasy Role-play Gamemaster’s Screen.
• I reviewed the GeekDad Approved Back to the Future: Back in Time.
• Jonathan Liu reviewed The Whatnot Cabinet.

What We’re Playing

Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:

• Rebecca Angel Maxwell played Mancala and Boggle.
• Robin Brooks played Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave, and Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game
• Jonathan Liu played Roar and Write!, Chronicles of Crime: Noir, Abandon All Artichokes, Dollars to Donuts, and The Mind Extreme.
• I played Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, Disney Jungle Cruise Adventure Game, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time, Fugitive, dude, Family Business, Tiny Towns, The Mansky Caper, Jaipur, My Story, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Flash Point: Fire Rescue–Extreme Danger, Aggravation, Small World, Scotland Yard, Disney Villainous, and Eurorails.