Re-Roll: This Week’s Tabletop Game News for the Week Ending July 10, 2020

Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending July 10, 2020.

Gaming News

• The New York Times reported that the North American Scrabble Players Association has removed racial slurs from the list of approved words in the game. In addition, “Julie Duffy, a spokeswoman for Hasbro, also said the company will amend Scrabble’s official rules ‘to make clear that slurs are not permissible in any form of the game.'” The Times also points out that because many software companies license the Association’s approved word list for electronic versions of the game, the decision will also likely remove them from those as well.
• In other Scrabble news, I wouldn’t have pegged Scrabble as a game ripe for reskinning and licensing, but The Op has proved me wrong with the release of Scrabble: National Parks Special Edition. The game plays as normal at its core but adds cards that provide players with special abilities and awards extra points for national park-related words.
• Gloomhaven sequel Frosthaven shattered Kickstarter funding records, bringing in a whopping $13 million in pledges. That helped the game sector of Kickstarter have its biggest-ever numbers in the first half of 2020, despite the number of projects being launched and the number of projects successfully funding both falling year-to-year when compared to 2019.
• Event registration for Gen Con Online is open.
• CMON has continued to release new scenarios for Zombicide that can be downloaded for free.
• The card-based deduction game Blade Runner: Nexus Protocol has been released by WizKids and should be available at your friendly local game store.
• WizKids has also released WWE: Headlock, Paper, Scissors, which likewise should be available at your FLGS.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Boardgame, a classic designed by Reiner Knizia, is returning to print with a special 20th-anniversary edition from Fantasy Flight that replaces the standees with sculpted miniatures. The game is due to be released in the fourth quarter but can be pre-ordered now.
• Dicebreaker had an exclusive reveal of Pandemic Legacy: Season 3, which it turns out is actually a prequel to the other two seasons of the hit game.

GeekDad and GeekMom Reviews

• Jonathan Liu the GeekDad Approved Abandon All Artichokes (our featured image this week) and Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria.
• Sarah Pinault reviewed Kill Merlin.
• Robin Brooks wrote up two parent’s guides: one for Warhammer 40K and a second for Warhammer 40K: Indomitus.

What We’re Playing

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

• Jonathan Liu played 3 Secrets, Abandon All Artichokes, Overlord: A Boss Monster Adventure, Space Battle Lunchtime Card Game, Warp’s Edge, and Welcome To … Summer.
• Will James played Flick em up and Star Wars Carcassonne.
• Michael Pistiolas played Azul, Gloomhaven, and Potion Explosion.
• Robin Brooks played Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave.
• Sarah Pinault played Kill Merlin, Jungle Cruise, Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride.
• I played Marvel: Villainous.