» Miniatures Games
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Seen and heard at GAMA Trade Show 2008
Since I’m borrowing a machine yet again – man, I need a laptop – I’ll give you a quick braindump of things seen and heard at the GAMA Trade Show ’08 this year. I’ll post more when I can sit down longer, and we’ll discuss everything in detail next time we record an Audio Report episode.
Many of the show’s exhibitors and attendees missed the show schedule addendum, which explained room costs had been negotiated lower for next year (yay!) by agreeing to hold both 2009 and 2010 starting on and during the week immediately following Easter Sunday (What?!?). Nearly everyone I spoke with thought the move was beyond a bad idea – doesn’t anyone remember the final nail in Gen Con UK’s coffin a couple years ago? Reportedly, GAMA is now rapidly backpedaling on this announcement.
Now on to the games:
- James Ernest and Mike Selinker have their fingerprints all over the show this year. Steve Jackson Games is bringing out Lord of the Fries: Third Edition, a boxed version which has a minor rules tweak and a new menu. Paizo Publishing was showing off a new version of Falling featuring the popular goblins from Pathfinder products. Paizo also plans a card game called Yetisburg, a comedic historical-ish design for two players by Mike Selinker and Joshua Frost, and yes, it has yetis wearing Civil War uniforms. Duncan Toys is working on finalizing Warball, another Selinker design. Not the game you played during PE in grade school, it’s a cross between Marbles and a CCG, with metal miniatures cast inside certain rare marbles. There’s at least two other Ernest and/or Selinker titles I’m forgetting, too.
- Yes, Upper Deck’s World of Warcraft CMG looks outstanding. Especially the dragon. My players had better watch their backs, as I’ll be springing some of these goodies on them eventually.
- Looney Labs will have Monty Python Fluxx this fall. Yes, it will use Creeper cards - including a lot of spam. Done deal.
- Twilight Creations, the Zombies!!! folks, will bring us Humans!!! in July. The game will be playable alone or in combination with Zombies!!, which should be sweet.
- Steve Jackson Games should have the Munchkin boardgame ready by Origins. Though I’m not a Munchkin fan, I’m cautiously optimistic.
- Privateer Press’ Monsterpocalypse looks great, nearly ready for its fall release – two big monster figures and their powered-up versions, multiple buildings and support units, all in each collectible one player starter for $29.99. Kinda wish they were two player starters, but the game’s enjoyable enough that I might buy in anyway.
- Fantasy Flight, quite possibly the show’s MVP, was showing off all sorts of lovely figures from Dust Tactics, while giving away starter sets of the Mutant Chronicles CMG - frighteningly gorgeous figures. Amidst other announcements, the company has plans for both a Battlestar Galactica boardgame and a Gears of War boardgame. The Anima RPG is finally due out this summer, after being delayed again to catch up with Spain, which just released the game’s second edition. As predicted, Talisman: Fourth Edition will be designed to receive expansion sets, which may not be a bad thing – after all, the game’s best version, Talisman: Second Edition, had plenty of expansion sets.
- This fall, Flying Frog Productions will release A Touch of Evil, a boardgame with the same style as Last Night on Earth, that can be played competitively or cooperatively. An original CD soundtrack will come with the game, and the supernatural beast is randomly determined each session.
- Yes, Valley Games had a pre-production version of Titan. Production value on this one is great, and will have some added reference charts to speed gameplay.
- Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd has scheduled three books each for Serenity and Battlestar Galactica. Serenity Adventures comes in June, followed in August by Six Shooters & Spaceships, and the Big Damn Heroes Handbook in September. BSG fans will get Colonial Military in September, Ships of the Fleet in November, and Battlestar Galactica Adventures in January ’09. A new Tom Wham boardgame, Dragon Lairds, arrives next month, and the Demon Hunters RPG, based on the film by Dead Gentlemen Productions, will ship any day now.
- D&D 4e is here. But since we all knew it would be, even Wizards of the Coast doesn’t seem to be making a big production out of it. Odd, that.
I’ll get more posted when I can, though at this rate, it may have to wait until after the trip home.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Upper Deck bringing WoW Minis promo to GTS
ICv2 has the story of the first of what is sure to become many GTS ‘08 previews. In this case, Upper Deck will be giving out a World of Warcraft CMG promo figure at a retailer presentation on April 21st, the first full day of the show. It seems doubtful that a single WoW figure will lead to any of the craziness of promo releases past, but just wait until Onyxia, the “broodmother of the black dragons of Azeroth”, becomes a convention promo figure - that’s when we’ll see if Upper Deck handles the process any better than WizKids did. I’m not saying UD has announced a similar con exclusive sales plan yet or anything, I’m just seeing the potential for history to repeat itself.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Audio Report - Them’s heretical words!
Round two of today’s catch-up episodes, this early February show muses on the future of the Dark Heresy RPG (which became clearer soon after show time), upcoming con season, the WoW CMG, and more. Mike also gives us a primer on Vincent Baker’s latest game, In a Wicked Age, and we’ve all been keeping busy playing things. Again, thanks to everyone who emailed asking when we’d be back - the answer is, now.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Remember, kids, stealing genes doesn’t make you cool
Suave-looking straight-up 2D adaptation of Space Hulk for Windows. Free, free, free. I don’t know about network play, though.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
World of Warcraft Minis Game, because Blizzard can’t allow a licensed-product gap with Halo
Well, that’s probably not the reason. To me, the interesting bit about this announcement is the attribution of “paint scheme design” to Mike McVey, the painter that Privateer made, um, I guess famous for some definition of the word. The addition of a “name” painter to the marketing is interesting, if only because the paints still don’t look very interesting. But yeah, Upper Deck’s doing it, it comes out in the fall, and, er, nobody has yet taken credit for the actual game design.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
2nd Dark Heresy printing rumored coming soon; next Warlord CCG printing confirmed coming from Germany
Multiple sources tell us that another printing of the WH40K Dark Heresy RPG rulebook is indeed on its way, despite the announced immediate shuttering of its publisher Black Industries. So, you might wanna hold off on hoarding those extra copies for eBay.
Uh, a single source tells us that AEG is licensing its Warlord CCG exclusively to PHOENIX Interactive GmbH for all future support. But that source is, like, an actual press release, so it’s okay.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
First Warhammer 40K RPG sells out preorders, taps out its own publisher
The announcement is confusing on the surface, but really, I’m thinking the conversation went exactly like this: “We put in all that work, sold the thing out and only made that much? Bugger this, then. Put another dozen novels on the schedule, lads!”
Uh, to explain: after Dark Heresy, the first of three planned RPGs based on Warhammer 40,000, sold out its initial print run in preorders, its publisher Black Industries has announced that it’s getting out of the RPG business. This also has implications for the still-fairly-recently released Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay relaunch, to say nothing of the other two WH40K RPGs that were announced. No word from line developers Green Ronin on whether picking up the license is planned, or if it’s even an option (although they do have interesting details on A Song Of Ice And Fire and the Freeport line in the last installment of their year-end message).
Interesting times indeed. The complete (very brief) announcement is after the jump. Read More…
LEGO turns 50, rapidly realizing own hipness
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick (which I would’ve posted sooner, but I’m still not on my own machine). The famed building-block brand continues to venture into the gaming market (never as quickly as we’d like, as per the long-standing example set by Evil Stevie), and will have a licensed Indiana Jones video game this summer. Looking ahead, this 50th anniversary video has me wondering if a James Bond LEGO game might be a good idea for 2009. Here’s to 50 more years, and a closer working relationship between LEGO and the gamers who love it/them/her.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
D&D Minis updated for 4e compatibility, rulebook now online
So just how many hands does WotC have, and do any of them know what even one of the others is doing? I mean, not to say anything bad about making the new, updated-for-4th D&D Minis rulebook free online - that’s lovely and thoughtful. What’s odd is that they’d release minis rules that have been adjusted for 4e compatibility and not even seem aware of how the 4e rules are still secret, available only for 5 large and an NDA, and madly speculated-about. Naturally, the minis rules are probably not a rosetta stone of 4e insights; they’re only going to create confusion, and WotC must know this. Hell, is that their goal at this point? Jeez.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
2007 OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide - pt 2
Holiday parties and other happy interruptions have delayed us, but the OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide shall not be stopped! Continuing our 2007 gift suggestion lists, we present Twelve Games Under the Tree, our picks from gaming goodies over $20. Time grows short, so get to your local game store and pick up those gifts. We’ll prep the rest of our Guide and get back to you shortly, but there’s always our previous lists if you’re desperate for ideas.
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