Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending October 23, 2020.
Gaming News
- It’s tough to keep track of time anymore, but the chilly mornings and huge bags of candy at the grocery store indicate that it might be October. And that means it’s time for our annual 13 Monstrously Fun Games for Halloween post!
- October is also the time of year where normally I’m super jealous of my fellow boardgame community folks who get to go to Germany and attend Spiel. But this year, we all get to go! Spiel Digital is happening right now and runs through the weekend. All of the big publishers are there, along with plenty of smaller folks. There are demos, new game releases, and a lot more. It’s free (although you do have to register), but there are fees for some events.
- Some sad news in the industry this week: North Star Games co-founder Satish Pillalamarri passed away, just days after the birth of his son Om. The company has decided to donate the remaining 1000 copies of Dude, the last game Pillalamarri brough to market, to a scholarship fund for Om. The entire purchase price of any of those copies–which can be purchased directly from northstargames.com–will be donated to the fund.
- Z-Man is releasing a newly updated edition of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. Being a Carcassonne completist, I’ve owned the original edition for many years. This new edition of the stand-alone title has updated art and some new tile abilities and should be out this winter. The original edition of the game is this week’s featured image.
- I don’t know if Z-Man is intentionally going with “variations on a theme,” but they are also set to release Paleo, a cooperative survival game set in… basically the same time period as Hunters and Gatherers. So if you’re really gung-ho to hunt some mammoths, you have some choices. Paleo is available for pre-order now, or you can play it on Tabletopia.
- Gods Love Dinosaurs is set a bit further back in time but is also available now from Pandasaraus.
- I didn’t really intend for this week’s column to be about bouncing back and forth in time (I blame Z-Man), but Renegade will take you into the distant future with Warp’s Edge, a solo bag-building game of space combat, available now.
- Going back the other direction (really, this wasn’t at all planned), WizKids has released Seastead, a two-player resource collection game set in the age of pirates.
- We all know that the pandemic has created a boom in our industry, but one of the games that have seen a massive uptick in popularity isn’t the newest shiniest thing from Asmodee, but instead, good old humble chess. But unfortunately, as tournaments have gone fully online, it seems that there has almost been a big uptick in the popularity of cheating at the game.
- I’m always a bit surprised to see that events are still thinking they can hold live events in 2020. I’m always less surprised when those events cancel. The latest: LA Comic Con.
GeekDad and GeekMom Reviews
- Jonathan Liu reviewed GeekDad Approved Tiny Epic Dinosaurs and Pandemic: Hot Zone–North America.
- Paul Benson reviewed The Librarians: Adventure Card Game.
- Greg Howley gave us a peek at Freedom Five: A Sentinel Comics Board Game.
- I reviewed the TacTiki and Disney Hocus Pocus: The Game.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:
- Jonathan Liu played Pandemic Legacy: Season 0, Atheneum: Mystic Library, Cartographers Heroes, The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, Tiny Epic Dinosaurs, and Wingspan: European Expansion.
- Michael Pistiolas played Gloomhaven, Lords of Waterdeep, Marvel Champions, Terraforming Mars, Race to the Treasure, Raggedy Ann and Andy Great Day in the Park, and Mastermind.
- Z. played Dungeons & Dragons.
