Now this is just weird: Palladium will be sharing their Gen Con booth with Nokia – yes, the Finnish cell phone empire and makers of the thus-far lackluster game deck N-Gage. The form-factor problems with the N-Gage have been at least partially solved, but the bigger problem was a games
Author: Mike Sugarbaker
Essen 04: if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
GameFest has an Essen ’04 preview that is mostly kind of perplexing. It’s meant to collect all the details for all the pre-announcements of board and card games coming out this year at Germany’s preeminent game fair, but sometimes the details are pretty sketchy. Some highlights: a European-map version of
But running them down in a burnt-out Hummer is no challenge!
Phil Reed, who among his other fine qualities has the distinction of being the very first financial contributor to OgreCave (he gave us a dollar!), has released a new PDF RPG called MotoCaust. I was disappointed to learn that it has little to do with motocross, the retro sport of
The prequel to Catan… of Catan
Candamir: the First Settlers is a new game by Klaus Teuber, author of The Settlers of Catan. Candamir will indeed be a prequel – the story of the very first settlement in the land of Catan. Due in October in Germany and who knows when in the States, it’s a
Then again, it works for Games Workshop
Open letter to whoever’s in charge of the D&D Miniatures web presence: uh, it might be kinda good to have a PDF of the Quick Start rules booklet from the Entry Pack up there? You know, seeing as how the Entry Pack is now out of print, and the next
My God… it’s full of… well, you know
I don’t think I ever mentioned that the Star Chamber folks had a booth at Origins, pimping the first expansion (at least I’m pretty sure the other title they toss around – which is “Origins,” confusingly enough – refers to their starting card set) to their CCG/4X masterpiece. The new
Well, we’ve got some, but it’s a bit runny
This cute essay over on GameFest’s GameWire is worthy reading for the game snob in your life. However, I am not sure its point is quite incisive enough to get over. People sure are having fun picking the low-hanging analogies in the comments, though. *sigh*
We represent the Blood-of-the-innocent Guild, the Blood-of-the-innocent Guild…
Just when you thought the Munchkin money machine couldn’t roll on any further without making an illegal U-turn, Steve Jackson Games announces Munchkin Bites!, a swing at the World of Darkness (or whatever they’re calling it now) that may or may not re-introduce (ahem) some jokes from Chez Goth. Like
Uberplay/Eagle merger, deep thoughts
We haven’t commented yet on the recently-announced corporate merger between newish German-games reprinter Uberplay and conquest-gaming stalwarts Eagle Games. Both brands are going to continue as they’ve been, intact, although Uberplay is pushing more into straight family party games and Eagle is now publishing PC games that don’t have anything
First one to quote Monty Python gets a punch in the mouth
Wingnut has announced Bram Stoker’s Tom Jolly’s Camelot, a “pseudo-realtime” board game in which multiple families with fey sons named Arthur try to pull a sword from a stone. I was privileged to hear a great deal about the so-called Lightning system back at DunDraCon; it is sort of real-time,
Greg Costikyan on Origins 04
The Paranoia XP creator delivers an incisive travelogue/rant about Origins 2004 on his weblog. The awards ceremony definitely had problems (although the Hall of Fame parade actually preceded the asinine LukeSki, contrary to Greg’s recounting) – for instance, when you tell the crowd to hold their applause between nominees and
Spiel Des Jahres winner: Ticket To Ride
Brett & Board has the news (BoardGameGeek likely has it too, but seems overwhelmed with traffic right now) that Alan Moon’s popular Ticket To Ride has taken taken top honors in Germany’s annual Spiel Des Jahres competition. Tongue-in-cheek horror game Dicke Luft in der Gruft, Reiner Knizia’s placement game Einfach
Origins 2004: playing catch-up till the day I die
Steve Jackson Games and Atlas were sharing a booth, and SJG was making noise about GURPS Fourth Edition, hitting at or near Gen Con. GURPS Dragons, new at the show, featured conversion rules for 4th Ed., billed as a sneak preview. Also new at the show was Transhuman Space: Toxic
Origins 2004: WEG rides again
You have of course read our review of D6 Adventure. It and D6 Space are here at the show. West End Games’ latest owners Purgatory Publishing have a great deal planned, including a revised edition of Torg to be released both as a PDF and a small print run of
Origins 2004: best in show
I am giving it to Pirates of the Spanish Main at this point. It’s simple, it’s got some exception-based stuff in it but there’s plenty of core gameplay for it to interact with, it’s cheap, and it’s ragingly fun. Even when you buy multiple packs per player, you are still