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The Hidden World: Supernatural Dials
I first came across the concept of the “supernatural dial” in Dogs in the Vineyard, but I’d encountered it in casual form long before. Sometimes the supernatural dial is expressed as “How gritty do you like your fantasy?” or “It’s a low magic setting”, while similar analogues exist for modern and sci-fi games. Show More Summary
TV Review - Defiance
Usually, if I'm reviewing a TV show, it's because I loved it and I want other people to enjoy it. Tonight, unfortunately, that is not the case. Tonight's review is a caution sign, a warning. Tonight, I watch bad TV so you don't have to.I probably should have known going in that Defiance was going to be lame. Show More Summary
One new and one old game
Came home to find two parcels had arrived for me today. The first was from Amazon and was a new Reiner Knizia game, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Das Kartenspiel. This is a refinement of King’s Gate and ported to Middle Earth to tie in with the film. The second was a copy of [...]
The Art of the One-Shot Character
Today’s guest article is by Angela Murray (aka Orikes), an occasional graphic designer, a sometime photographer, and one of the voices over at Rogue Princess Squadron, a new gaming blog put together by several female authors. Though she’s been gaming for years, GMing is still a new love in her life. Show More Summary
Thoughts on the nominees
As usual, the Spiel des Jahres jury threw up some surprises in the choice of nominees for this year’s awards. For the main award, the nominees were Qwixx, Hanabi and Augustus. This is really odd as two of the games are small box card / dice games and, as the aim of the award is [...]
And the nominees are….
The jury of the Spiel des Jahres have decided the shortlist for this year’s award should be Qwixx, Augustus and Hanabi. Meanwhile the Kennerspiel des Jahres (gamer’s games) nominees are Legends of Andor, Palaces of Carrara and Brugge. The list of recommended games is Riff Raff, Rondo, Yay!, La Boca, Escape, Mixtour, Hand aufs Herz, Divinare, Libertalia, [...]
Iteration: What GMing Can Take From GameDev, a Guest Article by Richard Dansky
Today’s guest article is by Richard Dansky, who tabletop gamers are most likely to know for his extensive work with White Wolf, particularly Wraith: The Oblivion. He’s a GM, a 14-year veteran of the video game industry, and the author of six novels, including Firefly Rain. Show More Summary
Card Game Review - Cavemen: The Quest for Fire
One of two things has recently occurred. One, Rio Grande Games forgot who I was. That, or they have forgiven me for my trespasses. Either way, they recently decided to up and send me some review copies. Only instead of sending me the...Show More Summary
Predicting the Spiel des Jahres Nominees
The SdJ jury announces tomorrow the nominees for the Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres. I don’t have much idea this year as there are several key contenders I’ve not played but here are my predictions (probably way off the mark): SdJ nominees - La Boca, Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Smash Up KedJ nominees - [...]
Lucky Fudge
Random luck affects us all the time. Just last week, the sewer line backed up in my house. As it happened, a local plumbing company dropped off a coupon the next day, fixing our headache at a very reasonable cost. Conversely, several years ago, my brother called me to announce that my first niece was due to be born any minute. Show More Summary
The Joys of Critical Feedback
And I'm not being sarcastic! So last weekend as I mentioned last week, my mate Tim was up for a long weekend with his family. During the day we all hung out together and entertained the kids, but once the sun had set and the kids were in bed it was gaming time. Show More Summary
Notre Dame
Played a good two player game of Notre Dame last night. Works really well and finished well within an hour even though it was Jan’s first play. Sad to say, she beat me 50-40 as she made good use of the VP-generating area (the Residence), while I had one or two problems controlling rats.
Excellent Idea Review - Fantasy Gaming Figures
Last weekend, I wrote about Galaxy Defenders, and explained that I will only review your Kickstarter game if I am really impressed. And then, to prove that I am a lying bag of koala poop, I went on to review nothing but Kickstarter stuff...Show More Summary
Silly Card Game Review - Princess Bride: Prepare to Die!
It seems silly to be writing a review of a game that is basically two cards that you put together to make something kind of dumb, but Game Salute has been very good to me and Dan Yarrington is a bad-ass (and he's the head dude at Game Salute). Show More Summary
A Grown-up Game Business
On Facebook recently, my friend Miranda Horner — an accomplished game editor who works primarily on Dungeons & Dragons for Wizards of the Coast — posted this: I want my chosen industry, the tabletop gaming industry, to be so successful overall that it can afford to take people away from the computer gaming industry instead of [...]
Suburbia
The game: Suburbia by Ted Alspach, published by Bézier Games in 2012. Elevator pitch: Sim City board game. Manage an economic engine, draft tiles to build your borough, and try to have your tiles interact well with the other tiles in play. What’s in the box? Lots of hexagon tiles. The tiles look plain by themselves, but [...]
Rules Shifting – Part 1
I love my Underground campaign. Its been one of the best things I have run in some time, and it has done wonders for breaking me out of my slump. The game has been rolling along well, until we came to a small bump in the road…the rules. Show More Summary
Review: Just in Time
Just in Time is a competitive puzzle game designed by Gunther Burkhardt and published by Ravensburger. It is in the same mould as Ubongo and FITS (the latter also a Ravensburger game) but is different enough that fans of this type of game should give it a try. What’s in the box? The game comes with 52 [...]
Not good enough to win a Two on One yet
For our second game I wanted to play something quick (we had less than an hour) and still use some toys I hadn't played with yet so I set up a 2 on 1 fight with myself controlling a Fokker E.III and my opponents working together with a Morane-Saulnier Type N and an Airco DH-2. Show More Summary
One afternoon over Italy in 1917 ... a Wings of War/Glory session report
Baracca's SPAD lines up for an early shot At the local game shop played a couple of quick games of Wings of War/Glory. Turns out there are some interested players so i hope to get a few more sessions in over the summer.The first game was an excuse to try out the big Bomber models and rules. Show More Summary
- Fantasy Flight Games
- Settlers of Catan
- Board Game
- Star Wars
- Martin Wallace
- Conquest of Nerath
- Avalon Hill
- Ascension Chronicle of the Godslayer
- Origins Game Fair
- Reiner Knizia
- Wrath of Ashardalon
- Magic The Gathering
- World War
- Ticket To Ride
- Legend of Drizzt
- Glory to Rome
- Milton Bradley
- Kingdom Builder
- Castle Ravenloft
- Mansions of Madness
