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| <itunes:summary>The Shut Up & Sit Down crew (and guests) talk about the very best board games, tabletop and card games! What's new, what's hot, what's happening?!</itunes:summary> | |
| <itunes:author>Shut Up & Sit Down</itunes:author> | |
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| <title>GAMES NEWS! 13/01/20</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-13-01-20/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-13-01-20/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 13 Jan 2020 20:22:50 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Lees]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Kemet]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Kanban]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Rococo]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Mariposas]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Shining]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Kemet: Blood and Sand]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Cosmic Frog]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=59138</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[Ava: Welcome… to the Newsdome! And welcome our latest challenger, Tom Brewster, despoiler of news. Tom: I WILL RIDE THE CARDBOARD CHARIOT OF NEWS INTO THE SUN. Ava: Okay Tom, calm down a second, this is just what we call a riff. Tom: TWO NEWS ENTER! ONE NEWS LEAVE! Ava: *pinches nose* That’s not how ... <a title="GAMES NEWS! 13/01/20" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-13-01-20/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Welcome… to the Newsdome! And welcome our latest challenger, Tom Brewster, despoiler of news.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Tom: <span style="color: #800000;">I WILL RIDE THE CARDBOARD CHARIOT OF NEWS INTO THE SUN.</span></strong></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Okay Tom, calm down a second, this is just what we call a riff.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Tom: </strong><span style="color: #800000;"><b>TWO NEWS ENTER! ONE NEWS LEAVE!</b></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> *pinches nose* That’s not how this works! Not to mention I’m definitely Tina Turner in this situation. Let’s just write about some games.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> </span><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>MEDIOCRE.</strong></span></p> | |
| <p><span id="more-59138"></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava: </strong>Pick a film that you’d least expect to ever be made into a board game. No, not that one, a different one. Yup. That one.</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59150" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic5158386.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/99191/pull-bar-lloyd-tony-and-more-shining">The Shining is coming out soon from Prospero Hall</a>, and honestly, I’m still reeling from that announcement. It promises a three to five player semi co-operative game of rushing about a haunted hotel and trying to build up the willpower to resist the gushing blood, weird twins, creepy bartenders and god I really love the carpet actually. As if that’s not enough, one of you might secretly be Jack Nicholson with an axe </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">and</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a limp.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m speechless. And it only took me twelve goes to figure out how to spell Jack Nicholson’s name.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt:</strong> Jack Nichololson, more like.</p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> I suspect this might have a feel akin to other licensed games that promise to ‘rewrite the show/film’ etc in your own terms; but will actually feel like misremembering the events of said film after a few pints. Having said that I have been playing an awful lot of Awaken Realms’ ‘Nemesis’ recently, which is basically one phallic symbol away from a lawsuit with Ridley Scott, and it is a blast. I’m not sure if the semi-cooperative aspect will gel as well with the theme in this game, but I suppose we’ll wait and see.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Odds on there’s a ‘Here’s Johnny’ card.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> I’d say about 237/1.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> If anyone wants to start a pool about the least likely films to be made into games, I wouldn’t stop you.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You know who (I’m pretty sure) won’t chase you with an axe and then freeze to death in a hedge maze? Why, it’s Elizabeth Hargrave, still flying high on the wind beneath her Wingspan, the game that won last year’s kennerspiel des jahres and wowed the world with a deckful of beautiful birdies. If you were wondering how you follow up a game about bird habitats, now you know. <a href="https://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/99046/elizabeth-hargrave-takes-skies-again-mariposas">Different flappers, and this time they’re migrating.</a></span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-59149" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic5153417.png" alt="" width="938" height="695" /></p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.alderac.com/mariposas/">Mariposas</a> is Elizabeth Hargrave’s new game, about butterfly migration up and down the east of North America. The game will imitate the movements of the titular flutterbys and take place over three seasons. In Spring you’ll head north, in the Summer you’ll breed like the brightly coloured bugs you are, and in the Autumn, you’ll head back down South. Just like real life, at the end of each season you count up points based on what exactly your butterflies have been doing.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> Dang, all my butterflies have taken up arson, hard drugs and littering, meaning I get… 100 points?</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt:</strong> Mine are just into hard littering, what does that mean</p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Details of the scoring system and just how delinquent you can get the pretty little insects have yet to emerge. We’ll keep you updated, and we’ll keep Tom well away from any lepidopteraria, just in case.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> </span><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>RESPONSIBLE.</strong></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> So. Two games I don’t know much about are getting a big box new edition, and I’m moved to write about it. Why is that? Well, in ‘new lows for shallow reasons Ava selects a bit of news’, it’s because I can’t say the word Rococo without singing it five times to the tune of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az_2oiccZNo">that Arcade Fire song</a>. Maybe we can do a newscorcism?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Economic heavyweights, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/98535/big-boxes-inbound-rococo-and-kanban-ev">Rococo and Kanban</a> are both getting new overhauled editions, with fancier arts, bigger boxes, and a few expansions thrown in. </span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59148" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic5160753.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rococo, a game of making fancy frocks for palace dwelling French wig-wearers has the honour of being a game I’ve been told I’ll like but always irrationally turn my nose up at. The first time I saw Rococo was when I got to a boardgame night late, and had to watch people play their final turn and do all the scoring. Oh my word, there’s nothing more off-putting about a fairly convoluted system of bonuses, efficiencies and other crunchy decisions points, than watching people agonise over it completely devoid of any context. I love that stuff when I’m in it, but watching the economic sausage get calculated is…not the best.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I know even less about Kanban. I was going to say ‘but I bet there’s not been any over-emotional indie song about it.’ But I googled it, and I was wrong. Thanks for ruining my joke, earnest songster <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcyFIA2uSmQ">Gudmundur Runar.</a></span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-59151" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic5130533.jpg" alt="" width="735" height="551" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The latest edition of Vital Lacerda’s game will be called Kanban EV. Producing electric cars this time, you’ll be building machinery on enormous production lines and pushing for efficiencies and the prestige of being the best employer.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> It’s a game where the theme </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">is </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">the engine behind it, akin to my recent favourite euro-em-up Pipeline. This also has artwork from Ian O’Toole, so perhaps we’re seeing the pieces of another winner slowly come together?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> I believe this is the game with the mechanic where you only get points for things if you do them while the boss is looking? That’s all a little bit too realistic for my tastes, but it must be doing something right to exist in three different versions.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> Ava. Ava.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> What?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> There’s no bosses here today. It’s just us!</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> <span style="color: #800000;"><strong>WHAT!! WHY ARE WE EVEN WRITING!?</strong></span></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> We’re doing it for the news, Ava. Think of the news.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt:</strong> You do both realise that I edit the news and upload it after you’ve written it, right? And that I’m then able to throw in comments before it goes online, and appear to be joining in with conversations that – in actuality – took place more than six hours ago? Hello? HELLO? ANSWER ME</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59147" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic5146255.jpg" alt="" width="861" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Kemet’s an absolute fave around these parts, with the punchiest punching, the pointiest pyramids and the most extensive wine list. <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-kemet-seth-and-kemet-ta-seti/">Matt recently delved into both expansions, and reviewed them both</a> just to give more coverage to the game. Will Kemet end up being the game we review three times? We’ll find out soon, apparently.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt:</strong> It’s the Stargate / Groundhog Day crossover that the world’s been patiently waiting for.</p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/297562/kemet-blood-and-sand">Kemet: Blood and Sand</a> isn’t a Playstation game about 50 Cent, but an updated version of pyramid bopping Egyptians-on-a-map game of the slightly shorter title. New artier art, nebulously improved gameplay and a rulebook overhaul are promised. I am very unclear on how much difference these will make, except perhaps giving conniptions to people with an old copy wondering if it’s worth upgrading.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> ‘</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The game also features a redesigned map with a twist, bigger and more detailed figurines, and other surprises’. </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">So mysterious, Jacques Bariot and Guillaume Montiage!</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m excited about the last part of that sentence. Perhaps this edition will come with </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">real </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">sand and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">real </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">blood?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> It is always disappointing when you have to provide your own components.</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59146" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic4480540.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> It’s been so long since I last shouted about how much I love W Eric Martin’s Japanese game round-ups (last week), that he’s only gone and done <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/98268/japanese-game-round-walking-labyrinths-tiling-caps">two</a> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/98998/japanese-game-round-following-yellow-threads-maid">more!</a></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check them out for such delights as Hyper Super Yoga, a game of hyperextensible limbs, or Rolling Shibahama, which requires you to be successful fish merchant without succumbing to alcoholism. It’s all just a bit too real. Or too unreal. I don’t really mind which, I just hope more of these games make it across the oceans and onto my table.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In pretty bleak news, just a little late for last week’s news, it was announced that <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/99087/fantasy-flight-interactive-close-ffg-rpg-staff-let">Fantasy Flight have closed their interactive and RPG departments</a>. Loads of people have lost jobs, so it’s pretty hard to make jokes here. Two presumably slightly less profitable departments have been sloughed off, possibly to make the parent company more attractive for sale. It’s a real shame, and that’s all I can say, really. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Good luck to everyone who has lost work at the hands of this.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> I’ve waited long enough, can we </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">please</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> talk about COSMIC FROG? A game of STRATEGIC GLUTTONY?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Take it away, Brewster. </span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59145" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic5146615.png" alt="" width="600" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> Several things leap out at me when stare deeply into the eyes of ‘<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295905/cosmic-frog">Cosmic Frog</a>, a game of collection, combat and theft on a planetary scale’ from Devious Weasel. First, it’s called </span><b>Cosmic Frog</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Second, <a href="https://www.deviousweasel.com/cf0">the publisher’s</a> description features the line:</span></p> | |
| <blockquote><p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">‘</span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once on the Shard, you harvest land and store it in your massive gullet. When your gullet is sufficiently full, you leap into the Aether and disgorge your gullet contents into your inter-dimensional vault for permanent storage’</span></i></p></blockquote> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lastly, the box art. I need it. It looks like… well it looks like a cosmic frog, if I’m being honest.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> It’s hard to parse the fluff to work out what you actually do in the game, but there’s some set collection, some psych-rock box art, and the subtitle is ‘World Eaters from Dimension Zero’, which sounds like the villains from a Saturday morning cartoon. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Tom:</strong> The game could be terrible – you’re right about the fluff making it almost impossible to understand the actual mechanics of the game. But if it </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">is </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">terrible, at least it’s a weird crazy theme that’s coming to a shelf near you, taking up space that instead might have gone to ‘Planet Combat 3: Dudes doing Space’.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Apparently, you have to worry about how you’re going to deal with Aether Flux AND Splinters of Aeth? It’s going to be a bumpy frog-rodeo, if you ask me.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Tom: <span style="color: #800000;">DID I WIN THE NEWS? AM I THE CHAMPION OF THE NEWSDOME?</span></strong></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> There is no winner, only news.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Tom: </strong><span style="color: #800000;"><b>WRONG FRANCHISE, AVA. WRONG FRANCHISE.</b></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Damn. I think you won the news, Tom.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Tom: </strong><span style="color: #800000;"><b>MAD MAX JOKE</b></span></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-13-01-20/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>65</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 06/01/20</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-01-20/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-01-20/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jan 2020 16:57:25 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Lees]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Treasure Island]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Godspeed]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fort]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tekhunu]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Dune]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=58807</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[Ava: Oh my word, would you look at that, a whole fresh new year, hot out of the oven, gently cooling on the windowsill. The year is 2020, and I’m still hungry for news. Let’s cut a slice off the still-warm year, and spread some tasty melted news all over it. Fort, coming soon from ... <a title="GAMES NEWS! 06/01/20" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-01-20/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava:</strong> Oh my word, would you look at that, a whole fresh new year, hot out of the oven, gently cooling on the windowsill. The year is 2020, and I’m still hungry for news. Let’s cut a slice off the still-warm year, and spread some tasty melted news all over it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296912/fort">Fort</a>, coming soon from Leder Games, is an update to fellow four-lettered card game SPQF, with cuddly classical empires swapped for rival neighbourhood tree-forts. I skipped over this when it first got announced, but artist <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FortBoardGame?src=hashtag_click">Kyle Ferrin has been posting some really lovely pieces of art</a> and it gives me an opportunity to right that wrong.</p> | |
| <p><span id="more-58807"></span></p> | |
| <p>In Fort, you will build a deck of friends, pizza and toys to try and build the fanciest fort on the block. Each turn players get to play a card for its action and buy another one from the market. So far so deck-bulder, but where this game holds promise is in the added interaction and ‘deck decomposition’. Some of the actions you take can be boosted by playing extra matching cards. But it’s not just you who can get those bonuses, as all your rivals can jump in and do the same. After that, any card you don’t use on your turn gets put out to pasture for the rest of the round, and can be purchased by any other player. Thematically, this is your friends not hanging out with you if you don’t bother to play with them. Heart-breaking stuff!</p> | |
| <p>Having heard good things about SPQF (Senatus Populusque Forest), I’m gently curious about this.</p> | |
| <p>Casting a long shadow over the games news today is this terrible pun about the latest game from Daniele Tascini and David Turczi: dice drafting sun-blocker, Tekhunu.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-58816" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic5139825.jpg" alt="" width="551" height="551" /></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/297030/tekhenu-obelisk-sun">Tekhunu: Obelisk of the Sun</a> is something of a successor to Tascini’s Teothihuacan. Replacing that game’s central temple-building doodad with a large obelisk, casting a literal and ludic shadow over the board. Tekhunu uses dice drafting to let you thread a route through the various actions offered by the Egyptian pantheon. You’ll be spending those dice to hold festivals for Bastet, build farms for Osiris and draw cards for Thoth, all in the hopes of getting the most points at the end. To make sure that’s no easy decision, the ever shifting shadow of the obelisk dictates which dice are pure, tainted or forbidden. Forbidden dice! You have to maintain a careful balance between purity and taintity, lest you end up distressing the gods with your rudely chosen dice.</p> | |
| <p>There’s a thrill and excitement about this sort of table presence, and I’m sure this is going to draw attention. But I can’t overstate how much I hate it when the focal point of a game turns out to be a tiny wrinkle instead of the actual core of the experience. That was my beef with Teotihuacan, which turned out to be hiding nothing in its satisfyingly chunky temple but an extra point or two if you were lucky and/or could be arsed to spend a minute out of the game thinking about how to rotate some tiles optimally.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt:</strong> Ah, yes. I had a similar problem with the obelisk of emotionz in our recent review of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/cerebria-emotional-turmoil-with-a-purple-pillar/">Cerebria</a> – centerpieces are hard to land!</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava:</strong> Hopefully I’m just being a grumplehex and Tekhunu’s rotating sunny side will be a bit more intriguing. We’ll have to wait and see.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-58815" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ENB28hgXsAAIBYd.jpg" alt="" width="601" height="601" /></p> | |
| <p>I’ll tell you what doesn’t make me grumple, that’s an <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/297566/treasure-island-captain-silver-revenge-island">expansion</a> for <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-treasure-island/">Treasure Island</a>, one of the uniquingest games of the last few years.</p> | |
| <p>Treasure Island: Captain Silver: Revenge Island, when not drowning in a tide of colons (eww), is going to add two maps to the game of compasses, pens and furious logic. There’s also a bundle of new powers on offer for the unscrupulous subtitular treasure tucker.</p> | |
| <p>This looks like exactly the right scale of expansion for this game, adding a few bonuses for anyone who has played out the options in the base game, without necessarily making it too complicated for newbies. Most importantly, there’s a chance that they’ve fixed the most egregious problems of the game, a map that made it hard to read the pen marks that made up the core of the puzzle. One of the two maps is the same as the base game, but with new art. Here’s hoping that on this third try (the original was double sided), they’ve beaten the problem.</p> | |
| <p>It’s hard to resist a bit of news about an expansion to a game with <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-dune/">a stellar video</a> from this very website. For that reason only, I’m going to drop in a mention for an expansion I’m slightly less hyped about.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/dune/">Dune</a>, the updated version of a table hogging adaptation of a genre hogging book, adds two new factions with the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296579/dune-ixians-tleilaxu">Ixians and Tleilaxu expansion</a>. This bumps Dune’s roster of angry, asymmetrical factions up to eight, bringing in xenophobic genetic engineers and cyborg monarchists that hate each other. There goes the space neighbourhood!</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-58814 " src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic5124006.jpg" alt="" width="513" height="514" /></p> | |
| <p> </p> | |
| <p>Honestly, I’m already daunted by the prospect of teaching the base game’s weird intersections, so the idea of chucking two extra factions into that melange fills me with a spicy mix of dread and excitement. I may never get to the point where I’m ready to play this, but I’m curious to see what old hands make of it.</p> | |
| <p>Over on Kickstarter, we’ve got an alternate history space race to contend with, new from Pandasaurus games.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-58813" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/36b0def26910b427395b8f47421d0718_original.png" alt="" width="658" height="370" /></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pandasaurus/godspeed">Godspeed</a> promises space-faring worker placement with lovely art and a few unusual details. The game takes place in a version of the sixties and seventies where the race to the moon was a cover up for various space agencies sending astronauts through a wormhole to a habitable planet. Each player is working with a crew of workers with different abilities and influence values. As well as sending these workers to the various action spaces to build the obligatory economic engine, each round you have to put some of them into auctions and random events, casting aside some previous flexibility.</p> | |
| <p>If I’m honest, I’m only picking it out because I’m unusually hype for the little baggies with real and fictional space agency logos on. Boy, oh boy, do I love a space agency badge.</p> | |
| <p>Still digging around Pandasaurus pastures, the co-owner has published a follow up to <a href="https://pandasaurusgames.com/blogs/news/the-business-of-board-games-the-superstar-problem">his interesting piece on the superstar effect</a>, this time <a href="https://pandasaurusgames.com/blogs/news/the-board-game-bubble-doesn-t-exist">looking at the huge growth of the board game industry over the last few years.</a></p> | |
| <p>Nathan McNair’s latest blog post argues that there’s no such thing as a board game bubble, in that so far nobody is making ridiculous investments or going into huge debts to fund imagined future value. He argues that the growth of the hobby, which is slowing ever so slightly, is built on actual demand. He also notes that discerning customers are making it hard for people to simply shovel more coal in the boiler without getting burnt. He does acknowledge that the industry might be due a ‘realignment’ which could prove troublesome for some, but he’s not hearing the drums of doom quite yet. It’s an interesting read if you like thinking about wider trends and the busyness of businesses.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-58812" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/pic1888243.jpg" alt="" width="707" height="393" />Finally, I want to wrap up by linking to BoardGameGeek powerhouse <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/98628/my-highlights-2010s-innovation-mind-abluxxen-strik">W Eric Martin’s review of the decade</a>. I think he’s got interesting perspectives, being so deep in one of gaming’s largest institutions. Several of his picks are the sort of smaller fare that often gets lost in the excitement for all the big box excesses. He has also got me particularly hyped for co-op trick-taker The Crew, nothing like a last minute entrant into an all decade greatest hits to tickle my fanciest fancy.</p> | |
| <p>I don’t really have a witty thing to add, I’m just glad he’s in the industry, and really appreciate the time he takes to highlight things that could easily drop off the radar. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/97721/japanese-trick-taking-round-ballet-weather-split-c">This round up of interesting Japanese trick taking games</a> is a case in point. Thanks Eric! Glad to have you around!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-01-20/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 16/12/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-12-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-12-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:48:19 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[CAR WARS]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Spycon]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ducks in Tow]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Holi: Festival of Colors]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=54663</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Twas the news before Christmas, and all through the office,<br />Not a creature was newsworthy, not even the…..boffice????</p> | |
| <p>I should’ve thought more carefully before I started that. But it’s the end of the year, the UK election last week was horrible, and I’m pretty sure British culture is entirely built up on the principle of phoning it in on the last day at work (and failing to own up to the horrors of our colonial past).</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, don’t talk about phoning it in at work while I’m here! I didn’t get you a Christmas present, but if I *had* I would now pitch it out of my window, in anger.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Let’s get this news down this chimney, and hope someone’s left us a mince pie and a carrot.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Twas the news before Christmas, and all through the office,<br /> | |
| Not a creature was newsworthy, not even the…..boffice????</p> | |
| <p>I should’ve thought more carefully before I started that. But it’s the end of the year, the UK election last week was horrible, and I’m pretty sure British culture is entirely built up on the principle of phoning it in on the last day at work (and failing to own up to the horrors of our colonial past).</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, don’t talk about phoning it in at work while I’m here! I didn’t get you a Christmas present, but if I *had* I would now pitch it out of my window, in anger.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Let’s get this news down this chimney, and hope someone’s left us a mince pie and a carrot.<span id="more-54663"></span></p> | |
| <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"> | |
| <p lang="en" dir="ltr"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/72x72/1f6a8.png" alt="🚨" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />Exciting news! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/72x72/1f6a8.png" alt="🚨" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /><br />Remember a few weeks ago, when KSRU asked our leadership to commit to neutrality? After a lot of back and forth, today we're very pleased to sign an agreement that guarantees a truly fair process moving forward. <a href="https://t.co/93w6HUGdDL">https://t.co/93w6HUGdDL</a></p> | |
| <p>— Kickstarter United (@ksr_united) <a href="https://twitter.com/ksr_united/status/1204896571835461633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2019</a></p></blockquote> | |
| <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Calloo callay! Oh frabjuous day! Yes, I’ve already done the Jabberwocky in the news this year, but I am a little bit hype that a thing I’d given up hope on has happened. <a href="https://twitter.com/ksr_united/status/1204896571835461633?s=20">There’s some distinctly neutral-sounding news coming out of the nascent Kickstarter union</a>, Kickstarter United, and hopefully it’s the start of us not having to caveat every kickstarter (except about the general unreliability of kickstarters).</p> | |
| <p>Kickstarter United are going into media blackout as part of a neutrality agreement with Kickstarter management, which they think indicates a willingness to engage with a union ballot without interfering. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed and sending solidarity to the workers until we hear more. Good luck! Keep it up! Get organised!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic4997449.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-54674" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic4997449.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="900" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The news that Kickstarter might be becoming a less hostile environment for its workers has arrived right on time. I feel that we’re getting our ducks in a row.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Aha, that’s a segue.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Stephanie Kwok’s <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1812622835/ducks-in-tow-0">Ducks in Tow</a> is a fabulous-looking Kickstarter that will finally let us do what we all want to do in city parks: adopt the ducks as our very own.</p> | |
| <p>Players in this parochial puzzler first have to tempt ducks with colour-coordinated food, which then (through the fantastic use of some translucent plastic) sees the birds following you as you wander around the park, and finally you can finally drop them off at locations so that you can build patterns of birds on your tableau of cards.</p> | |
| <p>If you’ve ever heard Shut Up & Sit Down complain about over-done eurogame themes (e.g. medieval merchants, running a small business, colonising the bejeezus out of an isolated nation), Ducks in Tow is a showcase of what the genre could be doing instead. This setting is innovative, charming, friendly and silly, and will be made that much more so with a free “Angry Goose Expansion” in every pledge.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I like how far this is leaning into the phrase ‘ducks in a row’ by having at least three mechanics based on rows of ducks. There’s some strong commitment to the bit here.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/d8f511119d4b8a3774298199119aa8bc_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-54669" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/d8f511119d4b8a3774298199119aa8bc_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="504" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Car Wars is a very old game from Steve Jackson Games, and it’s getting an overdriven reboot in <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sjgames/car-wars-sixth-edition-by-steve-jackson-games">a Kickstarter for its sixth edition</a>. A combination of the twin arts of racing and fighting, Car Wars treads familiar territory, and promises miniatures-based combat with lots of dice, guns, and sharp turns. Spruced up with lovely little cars and a little chipboard turning tool, it could be interesting. But hoo-boy is some of that graphic design looking dated. I guess that’s what happens when you’re running into a rebooted retro racecar rumble with nothing but nostalgia in the tank.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oof. Getting me to back this would be a tough sell when I’ve only heard great things about <a href="https://gaslands.com/">Gaslands</a>, which can be neatly summarised as “The X-Wing Miniatures Game with Hotwheels cars”. We’re actually hoping to offer a review of Gaslands on the site early next year, if our excitable readers can bring themselves to wait…</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I definitely slammed my brakes on this one, but as a counterpoint: I could sing ‘Car Wars Car Wars, what you gonna do? What you gonna do when the car wars you?’ to the tune of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG2ci9CyiwI">Bad Boys</a>, and I think that would make me very happy.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: As with the arrival of bad boys, a car war is something I don’t know how to react to. It’s so true!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic5055357.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-54668" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic5055357.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="350" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Okay, okay, so I wasn’t going to link this, because the bit that intrigues me most doesn’t have a picture yet, but then I found a really duff justification, and I just want to bring it up.</p> | |
| <p>Coming soon from Floodgate Games and Julio E Nazario is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295957/holi-festival-colors">Holi: Festival of Colors</a>, which currently consists of a gorgeous Vincent Dutrait cover, and a few cryptic sentences about what the game will actually be like. I’m enticed by the prospect of a very colourful area control game with a three tier board, but I also have no idea what it’ll actually look like. Based on the paint covered Hindu festival, this could be pretty, but we don’t know much it’s going to explode off the table until we get more pictures.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: So why exactly are we covering it now?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Well, it’s entirely because when I went to dig up more info on the Floodgate games website, I found they had a game in their back catalogue called ‘<a href="https://store.floodgategames.com/products/bad-maps-deluxe-edition">Bad Maps</a>’.</p> | |
| <p>What a great name for a game, honestly. Bad Maps. Some kind of piratical treasure hunting programming chaos apparently, but I want it just for the name.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava. This isn’t how news works.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Too late Quinns, I’ve newsed it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Spycon_box_ENG-top.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-54683" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Spycon_box_ENG-top.jpg" alt="" width="2127" height="1000" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Hobby World has announced a follow-up to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-spyfall/">Spyfall</a>, the social deduction game that could be summarised as “What if everyone in a James Bond movie had just taken methadone?”</p> | |
| <p>The next game in the series, <a href="https://hwint.ru/portfolio-item/spycon/">Spycon</a>, sounds like it’ll be a much more less anxiety-inducing word game, and quite familiar if you’ve played <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-decrypto/">Decrypto</a> or <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/215371/crosstalk">CrossTalk</a>. Players will be divided into teams, and players must cagily convey to their team which costume card they were dealt. The catch is, the other team are listening to the clues you give and are able to guess first. The /other/ catch is that your team is dealt a private keyword that you can use in your clue-giving.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I really don’t understand this.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: OK. Imagine you’re dressed as Blackbeard, and you and your team have the secret keyword “Ladder”. You might say “He used this to get to work”.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: You still don’t understand, do you.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: No. But the game won’t come out until next year, so we have about six months for you to teach me. And I am pretty tempted by a team-based version of Spyfall that might not give me a panic attack if I play more than three games in a row.</p> | |
| <p>Now, tell me again what a word is?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ELf7RMLU4AAr8RU.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-54670" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ELf7RMLU4AAr8RU.jpg" alt="" width="1124" height="604" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Itten Games <a href="https://twitter.com/itten_games_en?lang=en">continues to report back</a> from <a href="https://is-this.a-game.tokyo/">Is this a Game</a> #2, the unusual art and games gallery show in Tokyo. Here’s some more highlights.</p> | |
| <p>First off, Oink Games have dismantled a load of their games and made a series of patterned pictures out of them. It’s definitely not playable, and they’ve called it <a href="https://twitter.com/itten_games_en/status/1204707704683384833?s=20 Corpse">Corpse</a>. Similarly reconstructive, Ryuta Yumada has players making aerial domino displays in <a href="https://twitter.com/itten_games_en/status/1205717821201604608?s=20 Space Domino 2019">Space Domino 2019</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Nilgiri’s <a href="https://twitter.com/itten_games_en/status/1206505924401061888?s=20 One Year Game">One Year Game</a> asks players to come up with points scoring challenges to exchange with another person, asking them to catch up one year later and see how well they’ve done. And <a href="https://twitter.com/itten_games_en/status/1205784843902078976?s=20 __’s chair">__’s chair</a> by Osamu Hakamada, has players taking a seat high above the gallery, and turns the whole room into a game, a different one depending on which chair you’re playing in:</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ELvO67wU8AAXYcC.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-54671" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ELvO67wU8AAXYcC.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="400" /></a></p> | |
| <p>That last one reminds me of the time I got a very weird gig DJing from a balcony in a museum, and spending a long time trying to get museum visitors to dance around a random collection of 20th century furniture from a high vantage point was definitely an unusual experience. I love art and games and balaconies for giving us new perspectives, and this show appears to have done just that. Well done to everybody involved.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Ludocherryedit-83.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-54672" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Ludocherryedit-83.jpg" alt="" width="1568" height="501" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Here’s a little oddity picked up from the BoardGameGeek news blog.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.ludocherry.com/">Ludocherry</a> is a new set up offering boardgame themed, 50s inspired outfits. Using game component themed prints, and 50s style dress and shirt patterns, this looks like a slightly more upmarket way to dress as your hobby than the classic ‘t-shirt with a pun on it’. Maybe it’ll catch on.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Hey, these are nice! I really like that Meeple Garden shirt.</p> | |
| <p>I don’t trust myself to say anything more than that when it comes to fashion, but I will say the word “Nice” again, for effect.</p> | |
| <p>NICE!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Nice. *grumbles under breath about not being the only one phoning it in*</p> | |
| <p>Happy solstice everybody! And any other celebrations, holidays or breaks you might be having in the darkest days of the year. I recommend food, friends, fires and boardgames.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Just be careful how you combine them.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Quite.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-12-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>52</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 09/12/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-09-12-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-09-12-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 09 Dec 2019 15:38:41 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Arkham Horror: The Card Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Nice Egg!]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Barkham Horror: The Dogwich Legacy]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Hanabi: Grand Feux]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Frosthaven]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Gloomhaven]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[EXIT: The Game]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=53392</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: The rest of the team is in something called ‘Philadelphia’, so they left me to sweep up the last crumbs of pre-Christmas news. Only it’s not crumbs at all, there’s big news, weird news, premature news, barely news, local news and even some bad news. Pull up a chair and settle yourself down, let’s tuck into a big old roast news, stuffed with newslings and with all the greasiest news-trimmings.</p> | |
| <p>Oh my word would you look at that. The biggest game in games is getting a frosty full-fat follow-up. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/97777/isaac-childres-heads-north-gloom-prepare-frosthave">Gloomhaven is heading north and getting a lot colder</a> (which I can relate to, as I moved to Yorkshire three years ago).</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: The rest of the team is in something called ‘Philadelphia’, so they left me to sweep up the last crumbs of pre-Christmas news. Only it’s not crumbs at all, there’s big news, weird news, premature news, barely news, local news and even some bad news. Pull up a chair and settle yourself down, let’s tuck into a big old roast news, stuffed with newslings and with all the greasiest news-trimmings.</p> | |
| <p>Oh my word would you look at that. The biggest game in games is getting a frosty full-fat follow-up. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/97777/isaac-childres-heads-north-gloom-prepare-frosthave">Gloomhaven is heading north and getting a lot colder</a> (which I can relate to, as I moved to Yorkshire three years ago).<span id="more-53392"></span></p> | |
| <p>Frosthaven will be heading to kickstarter next year, and promises to be just as big a box of adventure, combat, and high stakes dungeon crawling as its predecessor. Focusing on the eponymously chilly northern town, Frosthaven promises the same combat systems as Gloomhaven, but with more activity between battles with mysteries, seasons and a slow-growing village to manage.</p> | |
| <p>This is likely to be a huge deal, both as another cavernous bundle of cardboard and a hype-furnace big enough to burn your slippers off. I suspect there’ll be a number of people worried that they don’t really need a second enormous box of battles in their life. But they’ll probably be outnumbered by people delighted to spend more time in Isaac Childres stressfully heavy-weight world.</p> | |
| <p>Keep this one in your coolest cool box.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic4973935.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53397" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic4973935.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400" /></a></p> | |
| <p>In a much smaller box with some warmer insides, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/290357/hanabi-grands-feux">Hanabi: Grand Feux</a> is coming soon, and it promises a big fire. This deluxe edition of logical little sparkler <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98778/hanabi">Hanabi</a> will offer the co-operative firework display base game and a few expansions to help gussy up your cogitations. It’s offering an avalanche of colours, black powder and five flamboyants. Or some multi coloured cards, some black cards, and a few bonus tiles.</p> | |
| <p>I bounced off Hanabi quite dramatically, but that’s mostly because I played it with someone who shouted at me a lot about second order logic and gave me a bit of a headache. If I’m honest, I’m mostly linking to it because I really enjoy saying Grand Feux. I wonder how long it’s going to take for publishers to work out the best way to get in the games news these days is to lather on the euphony.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ahc-z_box_left.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53403" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ahc-z_box_left.jpg" alt="" width="1182" height="609" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Lovely SU&SD commenter (and purveyor of strange Swedish sweets) Erik Tengblad noted last week under the news that I missed the biggest story. And he was probably right, at least for those living in the heart of a venn diagram made up of ‘animal lover’, ‘big into bad jokes’ and ‘squamous investigator’.</p> | |
| <p>‘<a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/12/2/barkham-horror/">Barkham Horror: The Dogwich Legacy</a>, a new expansion for the Arkham horror collectible card game, was announced last Monday. Fantasy Flight delighted so many people with <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/4/1/the-dogwich-legacy/">their April Fool’s promise</a> of a canine expedition to the edge of reality, that they’ve actually gone and done it. Who is the fool now, eh April? It’s certainly not Wagatha Dane or even Pupper Mutteo, who can both be added to your deck via the new box set.</p> | |
| <p>Look. Let’s be clear. It’s a lot of puns and pictures of puppies in a cosmic horror wrapper. If you thought being able to kill Cthulhu with a shotgun undermined the unknowable terror of Lovecraft’s deeply racist work, then I’m not sure how you’ll feel about adding a load of anthropomorphic animals. But the people who are delighted by this are going to be <em>delighted</em> by this.</p> | |
| <p>I’m intensely cynical about the whole thing (despite a deep love of dogs and word-play), but honestly, the little picture of a pile of half chewed tennis balls in a summoning circle? They got me. I kinda want it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic5091821.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53399" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic5091821.jpg" alt="" width="360" height="360" /></a></p> | |
| <p>My favourite bit of boardgamegeek’s news column is their semi regular round ups of goings on in the Japanese games scene. There’s always something curious on offer, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/94880/japanese-game-round-drop-eggs-drip-water-make-colo">this update is no exception</a>, coming so soon after the enormous Japanese Games Market.</p> | |
| <p>I’m going to hand the spotlight directly to ‘Nice Egg!’ for reasons I don’t think need explaining. This lovely egg of a dexterity game has you dropping yolks onto your table. The publishers describe it as ‘feeling reminiscent of curling’. Honestly, they had me at eggs, but they took me over the edge with comparisons to curling. I bloody love curling. Take me to a curling rink and offer me a passable vegan poached egg and I’m yours forever.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/sadasd.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53404" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/sadasd.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="513" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Sticking in Japan, Jordan Draper <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJordanDraper/status/1202972751008583686?s=20">flagged up</a> one of his games in a Tokyo exhibition called ‘<a href="https://is-this.a-game.tokyo/">Is this a game #2</a>’, and this sort of show is exactly my thing. I love when people explore the borders between games and art and getting people to do silly things. I’ve been trawling twitter to turn up some of the weird experiences on offer.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://twitter.com/itten_games_en/status/1203261993395748864?s=20">Fictional masterpiece</a> has players coming up with titles for songs that don’t exist. <a href="https://twitter.com/itten_games_en/status/1203563407208673280?s=20">Dweller of the Game</a> gives players curses they have to stroll the exhibition under until someone hands them a coin. <a href="https://twitter.com/itten_games_en/status/1203624953859342336?s=20">Message of the Rule</a> features a mystery board game box with components but no instructions, and asks players to leave notes for the next people about how they think it is played. Jordan Draper’s gambit is called ‘I’d eat that’ and asks people to come up with a dish from a random list of ingredients, and then ask other players if they’d eat it.</p> | |
| <p>I wish I could be there, but if anyone’s in Tokyo this week, it closes on the 15th December, with contributions from Oink, Itten, Asobi and many more. Looks lovely.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic5085994.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53398" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pic5085994.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="415" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Is this a game? No it’s a news post, but also, it’s <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/97580/kosmos-2020-save-dodos-build-city-worthy-legacy-ex">a very early announcement of a 2020 advent calendar</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Inka and Markus Brand have expanded their Exit series of once-and-done escape room puzzle boxes many times already, but next year they’ll be releasing an Exit advent calendar, with each day offering a new puzzle to solve. Spread through the month, these will build into an adventure narrative and you’ll be finished in time for Christmas. I just think this is a very cute idea. Other board game advent calendars always felt too high stakes for me, with a varied stash of promos for games you might not own seeming likely to be as frustrating as it is fun. But this looks self contained and clever. Lovely!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/11252019_ravensburger_135154-1560x1040.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53402" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/11252019_ravensburger_135154-1560x1040.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Christmas marks the season where mainstream pressers look into board games, as everyone gets more panicky about the whole festive thing and is more likely to click on links that might dispel their gift giving grief.</p> | |
| <p>The Seattle Times <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/ravensburgers-capitol-hill-office-shows-the-growth-of-the-board-game-creation-industry-in-seattle/">has a nice profile of the North American branch of Ravensburger games</a>. There’s some curious tidbits here, I didn’t know Ravensberger was founded in 1883 and its first game was a take on Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. A very early multimedia tie in. The piece ends ominously though, with a line about the number of games that are ending in a graveyard of good games that aren’t connecting with their audiences. It’s nice to see some curious journalism on the games industry. Thanks Seattle Times.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Untitled-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53401" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="407" height="232" /></a></p> | |
| <p>On this year’s journalistic naughty list is the Telegraph. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/e6xj2t/telegraphs_top_10_christmas_board_game_list_is/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share">Dunk-linked</a> on reddit, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/0/best-family-christmas-board-games-play-2019-fun-monopoly/">this listicle</a> offers 10 recommendations designed to infuriate the average modern board game fan. I’m not going to be quite as harsh as some (despite a deep abiding distaste for the Telegraph), but it’s pretty brow-furrowing to see people highlighting weak old games that are already gathering dust in attics, when there’s a whole world of excitement out there.</p> | |
| <p>On the other hand, I think it’s easy and unnecessary to be snooty about mainstream games. Scrabble is a ruthlessly territorial game that I think more people should keep in their collection, it’s hard to argue with Chess (unless you’ve got some weird talking chess set), and the newest game they do manage to mention, Bananagrams, is actually a pretty good shout for a family recommendation.</p> | |
| <p>That said, you should probably be getting Chinatown instead of Monopoly, Twilight Imperium instead of Risk, Hive instead of Chess, Click Clack Lumberjack instead of Jenga, Captain Sonar instead of Battleships, Monikers instead of Cranium, and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective instead of Cluedo.</p> | |
| <p>Also, you should be watching <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/15-great-games-to-fill-your-table-this-christmas/">our festive game recommendations</a> instead of reading the bloody Telegraph.</p> | |
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| <title>GAMES NEWS! 02/12/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-02-12-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-02-12-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 02 Dec 2019 18:41:49 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Venice]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Loot of Lima]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Divinity Original Sin the Board Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Great Wall]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=53241</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: Happy December, my beautiful news-children. It’s the season of barging around shops, loads of social obligations, wrapping up work and presents, slow news days, and it being really, really hard to stay sober. This week we’re focussing on what I optimistically like to call ‘presents for your future self’, but might more accurately be called ‘gambling on games that have limited incentive to actually be good because they’ve already sold out their stock before they started production’. Sorry about the cynicism, honestly. I have a finite amount of Christmas Cheer, so I have to be really grumpy for most of December in order to still have some in reserve for the actual festive period. It won’t last all month, I <em>secretly</em> love Christmas.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: Happy December, my beautiful news-children. It’s the season of barging around shops, loads of social obligations, wrapping up work and presents, slow news days, and it being really, really hard to stay sober. This week we’re focussing on what I optimistically like to call ‘presents for your future self’, but might more accurately be called ‘gambling on games that have limited incentive to actually be good because they’ve already sold out their stock before they started production’.</p> | |
| <p>Sorry about the cynicism, honestly. I have a finite amount of Christmas Cheer, so I have to be really grumpy for most of December in order to still have some in reserve for the actual festive period. It won’t last all month, I <em>secretly</em> love Christmas.<span id="more-53241"></span></p> | |
| <p>(I am secretly fond of a Kickstarter too, though as I’ve said a hundred times, I’d really feel a lot more positive about them if they recognised <a href="https://twitter.com/ksr_united">Kickstarter United</a> formally as a union)</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53251" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/4ec6147751a8a18c0483a0cba146846f_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="355" /></p> | |
| <p>Divinity: Original Sin, Larian’s explosively playful role-playing video game <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin-the-board-game">is getting a tabletop edition</a>, and I’m baffled by its promise to turn what looks like a giant clock into a sprawling narrative epic with tense tactical combat. Check our our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4b4wTvGjuc">SHUX Preview video</a> for the details.</p> | |
| <p>I had to skip through the high production value am-dram of the official video. I’m just too tired for bad acting in good armour, even if everyone does look like they’re having a lot of fun. Scrubbing through did at least reveal the promise of the possibility of everyone catching on fire, which I understand to be a fundamental part of the video game.</p> | |
| <p>Divinity offers exploration and combat, action points and elements. Everything unfolds on an abstracted central board, with a huge range of cards used to represent locations, options and enemies. You’ll balance a range of different tactical and moral decisions, and update a chronicle that keeps track of anything that could affect your next game. It sounds like a smorgasbord of ideas that we’ve already seen elsewhere, but I suspect Larian will put their own spin on all of it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/6bb70ce0bdf869f9fe9368e2e68a60b8_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53246" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/6bb70ce0bdf869f9fe9368e2e68a60b8_original.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="378" /></a></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1296268806/loot-of-lima">Loot of Lima</a> is a lovely looking Cluedo-clone, promising a little less wasted time and some crunchier deduction than the mainstream murder mystery mansion.</p> | |
| <p>Using a colonial backdrop without casting you as colonisers, players are trying to recover a stash of gold stolen from the Spanish after it was stolen from the natives of Lima. Tokens representing each of the locations on an island are shuffled and two are stashed away to represent the actual treasure trove. The rest are handed out, letting each player know where they’ve already searched and found nothing. Finally, dice are rolled each turn to allow players to interrogate each other about the information they’ve gleaned.</p> | |
| <p>It sounds like a nasty knot of logic-puzzling on a pretty little island, and the art is really charming.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/0825e218cf5a9a7b579198ff492174e0_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53249" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/0825e218cf5a9a7b579198ff492174e0_original.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="379" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Braincrack Games are touring the trading capitals of Europe by moving <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/braincrack-games/venice-beautiful-groundbreaking-eurogame-for-1-5-players">from Ragusa to Venice</a>. Venice is an economic game built around navigating the canals of the eponymous city.</p> | |
| <p>With two gondolas, but only one gondolier, you’ve got to balance your plans between two different routes around a cityscape made up of possible actions. Staying on the same boat comes at a cost, even though that might be the better plan. A similar weight rests on how far you move. One space is free, but you can move as far as you like if you’ve got the cash. Flexibility comes at a cost.</p> | |
| <p>Venice grabbed my eye partly because I’m still curious about <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/253635/ragusa">Ragusa</a>, and partly because it promises a range of player actions that made me chuckle. You’ll be completing contracts, enhancing workers, performing combos, building bridges and avoiding arrest. Pretty sure this is an accurate description of a union rep on a beered-up holiday? It’s even got rules for meetings.</p> | |
| <p>I’m charmed by the lovely art and if nothing else, I really want a little wooden gondolier.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53248" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/73b31a69c599a845493530162c0d5a0e_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="605" /></p> | |
| <p>Speaking of temptingly tiny wooden pieces, next we’re looking at <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/awakenrealms/great-wall-board-game">The Great Wall</a>, an elaborate offering from Awaken realms, which comes in deluxe mini or discount wooden flavours.</p> | |
| <p>Players will be getting into rucks and building a famously large wall, like some kind of over-ambitious and slightly aggressive bricklayer. A general gives each player asymmetrical powers that can be expanded further with advisors, and there’s some troubling timing issues as actions only trigger once enough players have decided to send workers to complete them. Add in a slowly-growing great wall that requires correctly balanced armies to be useful, and there could be some chewy decisions here.</p> | |
| <p>It’s unusual to see Awaken Realms delve into something more like a traditional economics and efficiency game, rather than the baroque narrative structures they’re known for. It’s also definitely nice of them to offer a cut price wooden option that still has quite a lot of fancy looking pieces in it. I’m curious to see how well this fares.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53247" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/68E28FC4-B844-40E6-845E-8E5BEE03579A_w1597_n_r0_st.jpg" alt="" width="1597" height="1067" /></p> | |
| <p>I’m bundling together a selection of oddities for our ‘and finally’ finale. Partly because it’s just three little unusual things to look at, and partly to apologise for leaning so hard on kickstarter this week. Here goes.</p> | |
| <p>The Boardgame Detective has brought together a selection of writers, creators and designers and asked them all ‘<a href="https://tbgd.blog/2019/11/21/whats-a-10-10-game-to-you/">what does a 10 out of 10 game mean to you?</a>’ It’s a curious little thought experiment, and it’s nice to see a range of answers. Mine would be that it just means something that when I think about playing it, my heart skips a beat. It doesn’t need to be actually perfect, just thrilling enough that I’d never turn it down. According to my board game geek ratings, so far only Mottainai and Mage Knight have earned that accolade.</p> | |
| <p>The incredibly talented Kwanchai Moriya, one of gaming’s best illustrators, got profiled by a Thai news site, and it includes <a href="https://www.voathai.com/a/boardgame-illustrator-board-game-kwanchai-moriya/5157155.html">a nice little English language video</a>. Moriya talks about his career, what game art means to him and what’s going on in the industry at the moment. It’s clearly for a wider audience than just board game fans, but it’s a lovely video.</p> | |
| <p>Finally, I’m hiding this at the end, because we’ve already mentioned Cole Wehrle’s upcoming, ambitious epochal narrative sandbox Oath, but I really, really enjoyed <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2319818/designer-diary-6-oaths-and-visions-victory-part-1">his latest design diary</a>. It includes some critical analysis of his mega-hit Root, and digs deep into the weirdnesses of victory points, and what they actually mean. It’s a topic I’m really fascinated by, the semiotics of one of the most abstracted and arbitrary elements of board games, and Cole’s position that it almost always refers to some form of ‘legitimacy’ is really interesting to me. It’s worth a look whether you’re excited for Oath or not.</p> | |
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| <title>Tactics & Tactility #5 – The Clairvoyance of Failure</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-tactility-5-the-clairvoyance-of-failure/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-tactility-5-the-clairvoyance-of-failure/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Fri, 29 Nov 2019 15:01:38 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Lees]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tactics & Tactility]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Istanbul]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Quacks of Quedlinburg]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=53167</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[[Tactics and Tactility is our column about the feelings, details and pleasures of tabletop gaming. This week Ava is looking at Quacks of Quedlinberg and the perils of prediction.] Ava: I’m a potion maker, I’ve got a bag of secret ingredients. There’s magic spilling everywhere. In this moment, I know the exact odds of failure, ... <a title="Tactics & Tactility #5 – The Clairvoyance of Failure" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-tactility-5-the-clairvoyance-of-failure/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>[<a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/category/tactics-tactility/">Tactics and Tactility</a> is our column about the feelings, details and pleasures of tabletop gaming. This week Ava is looking at Quacks of Quedlinberg and the perils of prediction.] </em></p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava:</strong> I’m a potion maker, I’ve got a bag of secret ingredients. There’s magic spilling everywhere. In this moment, I know the exact odds of failure, and I make the fatal mistake. I say it out loud.</p> | |
| <p>‘There’s only one thing that can kill me, and there’s loads in here. Knowing my luck, I’m doomed.’</p> | |
| <p>I pull out that one ingredient, my cauldron explodes, and so does the table. A wave of sympathy and laughter. Of course I did the thing. A one in six chance was the only possible outcome.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-quacks-of-quedlinburg/">Quacks of Quedlinberg</a> is a simple push your luck game wrapped in the right trappings to take it off the table and into your hearts. It’s built out of simple probabilities, a little calculation, and the illusion of control. You pull tiny cardboard chits out of the soft, black bag you’ve built for yourself. You always know exactly how many of the dreaded berries inside can ruin everything.</p> | |
| <p><span id="more-53167"></span></p> | |
| <p>For most of the round, you’re fine, you just pull and pull and pull. Then you hit the danger point. Suddenly, the security is gone, and you’re really playing the game.</p> | |
| <p>Are you going to risk it? Are you going to take one more pull? There’s one, two, maybe three things that could kill you. But you can feel roughly what the odds are. Actually feel them. With your fingers. It’s not abstract numbers, it’s the little bits of cardboard that dance across your fingertips, hiding in corners and bumping against each other.</p> | |
| <p>All of this would be pointless, if board games weren’t so social. Sat around a table, it’s almost impossible not to talk. You want to share the drama with your friends, it’s what you all sat down for. So of course, you start talking about how you’re doing.</p> | |
| <p>And you start predicting.</p> | |
| <p>The fun (and occasionally dreadful) thing about humanity is that we always remember the unlikely thing, particularly if it’s also the bad thing. My memory of Quacks is almost entirely made up of me saying ‘I’ve got a one in six chance of failure, so obviously that’s going to happen’ and then promptly blowing up my cauldron. It’s a trick of the mind, but it’s a joyful trick.</p> | |
| <p>There’s already something magic about pretending these cardboard chits are important, and there’s even more magic in pretending we have control over them. Pretending what we say matters. There’s a reason the game is about potions and magic and fortune tellers and witches. It’s all part of the theatre, it wants you to think you’re magic.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/istanbul-2/">Istanbul</a>’s gambling den begs you to indulge your predictive fatalism. It asks you to pick a number you can beat with two simple dice. Everyone knows the odds, what should be safe (pick it and you’ll roll high, of course), what’s an enormous gamble (you’ll just fall one shy, of course). There’s a cruel interplay between our understanding of the maths involved, and the bit of our heart that tells us everything happens for a reason.</p> | |
| <p>This sort of magical thinking is genuinely dangerous, but a special thing about games is that they make the dangerous safe. You get to toy with your own approach to the world, overestimate and underestimate and fiercely estimate the future. You take your fate in your hands and you pour the dice onto the table and play with the fire you could never control.</p> | |
| <p>But it’s only a game. You don’t get burnt. You just roar and moan and laugh and let go. You get to make mistakes. It’s all for the sake of the drama, the table, the moment.</p> | |
| <p>The moment when you tell everyone you’re so very wrong, and you’re exactly right. Games are the artistic application of theatre, mathematics and magic. An alchemical rack of machines built to refine a group of people into a set of stories. Say it out loud and take part in the magic. Win or lose, you’re part of the story now.</p> | |
| <p>***</p> | |
| <p>So folks, what’s the most magical thing that happened to you playing a game? What’s the story about your precognitive powers you always like to revel in? When did you promise yourself failure, and get it?</p> | |
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| <title>GAMES NEWS! 25/11/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-25-11-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-25-11-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 25 Nov 2019 20:06:22 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Magnate: The First City]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Unmatched: Cobble & Fog]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Crew: The Quest for Planet 9]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fairy Trails]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Undaunted: North Africa]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=53058</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: QUINNS QUINNS I’M ON A TRAIN!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: You’re writing the news from a train? I--</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: CHOO CHOO!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m so glad you’re--</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: NEWS NEWS!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ok, I’m now looking forward to the wi-fi dropping you in about eight seconds.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: CHOO CH-</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: QUINNS QUINNS I’M ON A TRAIN!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: You’re writing the news from a train? I–</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: CHOO CHOO!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m so glad you’re–</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: NEWS NEWS!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ok, I’m now looking forward to the wi-fi dropping you in about eight seconds.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: CHOO CH-<span id="more-53058"></span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53064" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/6650aa4310fd992887459f0f03076681_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="524" /></p> | |
| <p><em>(Support <a href="https://twitter.com/ksr_united">Kickstarter United</a>! And let us know about good projects on alternatives to kickstarter!)</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magnategame/magnate-the-first-city/">Magnate: The First City</a> has dropped onto kickstarter like a block of flats from a great height. This city building, housing market buy-em-up has got a hedge fund full of hype around it.</p> | |
| <p>Magnate is all about ruthless, mercenary capitalism. Players race to buy and build buildings according to an elaborate calculation of ‘how can I get the most rent out of these mugs’. You then want to sell as much as possible before the construction boom collapses and the game ends with all that concrete crumbling in value.</p> | |
| <p>I can’t quite work out where it sits on the faff to complexity ratio, but it’s got a quietly implicit ‘this is the real answer to monopoly’, without necessary being as accessible as that horrible game.</p> | |
| <p>People seem keen, but even as someone who plays games about real actual wars, I feel strangely uncomfortable about the aggressively predatory theme. I’ve been dancing in precarious rented housing for too long. It’s all very personal for me!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, and reading <a href="https://spacebiff.com/2019/11/13/magnate-the-first-city/">this review</a> from the great Dan Thurot caused my hype to spike upwards like an unstable property market.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: The review actually turned me off a bit? I’m not sure I want to have to explain a detailed rental income calculation AND a different fiddly sales mechanism? But I might have just read it when I was in the mood for simplicity. I’m normally a big fiddle-fan.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: That makes sense! For me, I guess I’ve been looking for another cruel capitalist fiddle along the lines of Container or Food Chain Magnate. Economic games that feel like a snowball fight, except instead of snowballs you’re throwing socks full of pennies at one another.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ouch.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5056685.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53070" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5056685.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="412" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rYoRaxgOE0">Cobble fog, cobble fog, oh foggy, cobble cobble.</a><br /> | |
| Cobble fog, cobble fog, oh foggy cobble cobble.<br /> | |
| Cobble fog, cobble fog, oh foggy cobble cobble.<br /> | |
| Cobble fog. *POP*. Da dum bum bum.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Restoration Games has announced <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/294484/unmatched-cobble-fog">Unmatched: Cobble & Fog</a>, the second big box for Unmatched, their beloved new implementation of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3284/star-wars-epic-duels">Star Wars Epic Duels</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Where the first Unmatched set let players arrange fights between Sinbad, Alice, Medusa and King Arthur, Cobble & Fog will add The Invisible Man, Dracula, Jekyll & Hyde and Sherlock Holmes to the game’s demented roster. For those not keeping track, this roster now includes Bruce Lee, Bigfoot and will soon feature no less than five characters from Jurassic Park, one of which is three raptors.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh, I hadn’t been paying attention to this at all! It’s a Public Domain Battle Royale! (Plus Bruce Lee, who I don’t believe is in the public domain). Can they do Elizabeth Bennet versus The Raven, next? Anna Karenina, up against Don Quixote?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m holding out for The Portrait of Dorian Grey in a cage match with the whale from Moby Dick.</p> | |
| <p>I’m actually working on the Shut Up & Sit Down review of Unmatched at the moment, and I’m beyond impressed. The fact that the game is produced in collaboration with Mondo means that in addition to being bewilderingly silly, Unmatched is maybe the prettiest game that came out this year. I’m a fan!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m not saying this made it into the news because I saw the screen shot of the german box and read ‘Die Crew’ as an imperative, but…</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5070021.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53063" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5070021.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="344" /></a></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/97255/bggcon-2019-game-preview-crew-quest-planet-9-or-tr">The Crew: The Quest for Planet 9</a> is a co-op trick taking game of flying through space by winning card hands in the right order. It has a hint of The Mind with it’s ever growing mission structure, and I’m still charmed by the idea of co-operative trick-taking. The trick to top trick-taking is making you want to win some hands but not others, and if the end goal of the hand is to make specific people win specific cards, but you’re all working together, that’s nuanced!</p> | |
| <p>I’m still more excited for upcoming co-op trick-taker <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-09-09-19/">The Fox in the Forest: Duet</a>, because I trust the core game of the original so much, but The Crew looks foxy in a different way.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic4956653.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53068" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic4956653.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="350" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Uwe Rosenberg is one of the biggest names in the business, and has designed three of my all time favourite games (<a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-patchwork/">Patchwork</a>, Nusfjord and Glass Road). My ears prick up when he’s got something new on the way.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/288775/fairy-trails">Fairy Trails</a> is a one or two player game about shaping paths to house rival gnome and fairy factions. It sounds like a super simple, tile-laying game with a bit of racing and faffing. It’s exactly the opposite of the kind of economic crunchiness that I most trust Uwe with, but I also know he can pull off simpler games with aplomb. Last pub game night I was at, the other table were having a whale of a time with Bohnanza, and Patchwork remains a perfect two player game.</p> | |
| <p>But Uwe’s not best known for his consistency. I found the first two rural tetromino follow-ups to Patchwork, (<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204027/cottage-garden">Cottage Garden</a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233678/indian-summer">Indian Summer</a>) insufferably boring (and never tried the third, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/253684/spring-meadow">Spring Meadow</a>). That said, he’s a huge name and a great designer. I just hope this one’s seen more quality control.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic4985932.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53069" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic4985932.jpg" alt="" width="345" height="500" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: We’ve not yet reviewed Undaunted: Normandy, but it’s already getting a sequel in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/290359/undaunted-north-africa">Undaunted: North Africa</a>, and I am excited.</p> | |
| <p>The Undaunted system is one of the simplest tactical wargames I’ve ever seen, with a delicate blend of deck building and moving tokens around the map. It’s reminiscent of the late Chad Jensen’s Combat Commander, one of the richest tactical infantry simulations I’ve ever touched, but stripped down to the absolute minimum complexity, with maximum drama. We’ve not dived deep enough for explicit recommendations yet, but it’s had some of my most exciting first plays of the year, and Quinns and I will be playing some more this very week.</p> | |
| <p>Undaunted: North Africa will take the fight to, well, the top bit of the titular continent, replacing the countryside of Normandy with the deserts of the Sahara. North Africa is the World War Two front I know the least about, despite having Spike Milligan’s war memoirs pushed on me as a kid, (mostly because I was anachronistically obsessed with The Goon Show).</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: In a state of affairs that I’m describing as “Very Quinns”, I know that you and I have barely played the first Undaunted, but I’m amped for this next box. The first instalment of Undaunted felt like an outrageously firm foundation, and I want to see how they build onwards and upwards.</p> | |
| <p>Plus, I know I’m not the only one who’s very bored of these games primarily following Americans fighting in Western Europe. It’s called a world war! At the risk of sounding like some kind of military-industrial mother figure, <em>there’s a whole world out there!</em> Can we not explore it a little bit? Let’s meet some new people and learn about their story.</p> | |
| <p>(Not that North Africa is exactly pushing the envelope. It was Mark Bigney of So Very Wrong About Games who pointed out to me that “North Africa” is always the first expansion after the designers have done Western Europe, and then after that it’s the Eastern Front…)</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53066" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/jbareham_191025_ply0958_decade_final.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="788" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Here’s a tasty bit of further reading. Polygon asks a few of the biggest designers in the business <a href="https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2019/11/17/20959387/best-board-games-of-the-decade-2010-2019">what games they recommend from the last decade</a>. There’s some good picks here! And some I’d argue with!</p> | |
| <p>I think Volko Ruhnke (former CIA analyst and designer of the COIN system of asymmetrical wargames) is a touch bold to nominate his own game, but its influence has been huge in that particular scene.</p> | |
| <p>I’m not surprised to see lightweight but punchy civilisation game 7 Wonders get nominated (in duel and non-duel formats) twice. I revisited it recently and it’s still surprisingly fresh, and played with people who know it well, you can rattle through a game ridiculously quickly.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Wow! This is fascinating. SU&SD has always made fun of Zombicide for being (and this is a technical term) total toilet, but here it is, nominated by none other than Rob Davaiu. And actually, his point that it invented a whole new business model is eye-opening and inarguable. I might reply that it’s an unhealthy business model that isn’t good for the consumer, but it’s certainly brought a lot of money into tabletop.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1573280499804-Jonathan-Ying.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-53065" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1573280499804-Jonathan-Ying.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="240" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.boardgameatlas.com/forum/lvNndAKBgP/jonathan-ying--from-dreamworks-to-board-game-designer">This interview with Jonathan Ying</a>, lovely designer of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-bargain-quest/">Bargain Quest</a>, is worth a read. And we’re not just saying that because he has nice things to say about us.</p> | |
| <p>There’s a lot of interesting bites here about design processes and specific details. After an unusual trajectory that took him from writer, to DreamWorks animator, to Fantasy Flight Games designer, he nearly dropped out of game design before Bargain Quest’s success. I wonder if we do need to start pushing for new ways to make designers lives more sustainable and accessible to a wider range of people, and I wonder what that would actually look like.</p> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 19/11/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-19-11-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-19-11-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Tue, 19 Nov 2019 09:28:55 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Azul]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Remember our Trip]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fafnir]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Inner Compass]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Azul: Crystal Mosaic]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Namiji]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Games Workshop]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Titan]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=52766</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: Ooh hoo hoo. It’s late in the day for a news harvest, but I’m sure there’s still some pickings out in the fields. Let’s have a little news-pumpkin fesitval and think about chickens, gems, memories, moods, pretty mosaics, old worlds, new boats, weird moons and sadness.</p> | |
| <p>Ooh I’ve gone autumnal maudlin, let’s see if BoardGameGeek can shake me out of it.</p> | |
| <p>Due to a clash with BGG Con, head honcho W Eric Martin won’t be making it to the Tokyo Game show this year. This is a shame as his tour of the Japanese game design scene is always pretty exciting. Instead <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/96876/tokyo-game-market-round-fafnir-remember-our-trip-d">he’s giving us a long distance roundup, of just a few</a>.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: Ooh hoo hoo. It’s late in the day for a news harvest, but I’m sure there’s still some pickings out in the fields. Let’s have a little news-pumpkin fesitval and think about chickens, gems, memories, moods, pretty mosaics, old worlds, new boats, weird moons and sadness.</p> | |
| <p>Ooh I’ve gone autumnal maudlin. Let’s see if BoardGameGeek can shake me out of it.</p> | |
| <p>Due to a clash with BGG Con, head honcho W Eric Martin won’t be making it to the Tokyo Game show this year. This is a shame as his tour of the Japanese game design scene is always pretty exciting. Instead <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/96876/tokyo-game-market-round-fafnir-remember-our-trip-d">he’s giving us a long distance roundup of just a few games</a>.<span id="more-52766"></span></p> | |
| <p>I was glad to see him cover <a href="https://news.oinkgms.com/post/188856561473/fafnir/">a new game from Oink Games called Fafnir</a>, as his wrestling with the translation yielded more information than I could wrangle <a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.oinkgms.com%2Fpost%2F188856561473%2Ffafnir">from google translate</a>. Fafnir will have you chasing after a chicken that lays gems of many colours, and then tasks you with trading those gems with Fafnir on future rounds, in particular sorts of auction. It looks adorable, just like everything else Oink.</p> | |
| <p>I’m also curious about Remember our Trip, from Saashi and Saashi. This combines town building and iffy recollection. You’ll be rebuilding your memories of a trip to a Japanese town, matching patterns on your own board, that you can then add as buildings to the shared board in the centre representing the actual reality of your journey. It does actually sound as elusive as trying to reconstruct an old holiday with a group of long-confused friends looking at overexposed old photos, which is pretty impressive.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5043219.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52777" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5043219.jpg" alt="" width="2025" height="900" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Sticking with psychological oddities. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/96736/new-game-round-fight-two-headed-giant-set-fires-dr">Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pedersen</a>, the design team behind Copenhagen (the game, not the city) and Deep Blue (the game, not the metonym), have put together an abstract emotional game in the form of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/293728/inner-compass">Inner Compass</a>.</p> | |
| <p>‘Take a deep breath and reflect for a moment on what is really important to you in life.’ That’s the first step of setup, apparently, and I’m already nervous.</p> | |
| <p>Inner Compass will have you navigating life on a map made up of blocks representing different emotional states and drawing cards that <em>also</em> represent emotional states. Once you have them, you can cash in powerful memories by releasing these little bundles of feelings in the form of collected sets. There’s a few wrinkles about trying to be mature enough to have emotions at the right time, effectively manipulating a little emotional market off to the side. There’s also secret objectives representing the state of mind you were geared towards, providing points for having had the right sort of moods in the right sort of places.</p> | |
| <p>I’m not sure I got the feeling of feelings from a read of the manual, but I trust these two designers to be doing something interesting, even if it’s a little abstract. There are definitely ideas here, and I’m curious if it really can give any insight into the right way to approach this nightmarish roundabout we call ‘life’.</p> | |
| <p>Possibly set my sights a bit high there. Hopefully it’ll be fun way to spend a few hours with good friends. ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-52772" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5054691.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="341" /></p> | |
| <p>Today in ‘expansions I’m not entirely convinced by’’ we have an addition to the absolutely stunning quasi-abstract mosaic builder Azul.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/294345/azul-crystal-mosaic">Azul: Crystal Mosaic</a> adds some new player boards and a little plastic overlay to the Portuguese puzzle puddle. The new boards start with with a few pre-marked spaces, leaving the rest blank for you to get stuck into. I assume the rule remains that no type of tile can be in the same row or column as another of its type, as was true on the really quite boring blank reverse board of the original game.</p> | |
| <p>The arguably more exciting element is a plastic rack to lay over the board to help your tiles stay in place. I’m all in favour of this sort of thing, as it can improve accessibility for people with motor difficulties. It’s a wonderful game, now easier to play for more people. That’s lovely.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52773" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Warhammer_Fantasy_RedCraig.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="710" /></p> | |
| <p>Moving on to news I’m definitely less angry about than some people, we have the announcement from Games Workshop that they are <a href="https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/11/15/old-world-new-warhammer/">returning to their old fantasy world, The Old World</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Games Workshop annihilated it’s fantasy setting just a few years ago, mostly metaphorically, but also in terms of tournament and official rules support. This was quite controversial at the time, as it meant a lot of collections people had sunk hundreds of pounds into became unofficial overnight. The Age of Sigmar setting did re-invigorate the game in many ways, allowing them to slough off a trough full of rules, and simplify their approach. This was also controversial, and Games Workshop has been slowly responding to feedback and adapting their approach ever since.</p> | |
| <p>Now <a href="https://twitter.com/sherlock_hulmes/status/1195373132359573506">some people are pretty upset</a> to find that the collections they burned, sold, traded or got rid of may now be playable again, as GW have announced a renewal of the Old World setting at some point in the future. It sounds like it won’t in any way be replacing the Age of Sigmar universe, but supplementing it.</p> | |
| <p>The company seems pretty thoroughly damned either way. If this is a response to the upset fans, it’s taken so long that a lot of people have accepted the need to move on, in a way that makes moving <em>back</em> doubly frustrating. It’s a sticky wicket, as we say in England. A sticky, skull-encrusted wicket.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52774" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/6bdf93de9f73e4ea11f89e89e56eeba5_original.png" alt="" width="624" height="375" /></p> | |
| <p><em>(<a href="https://twitter.com/ksr_united">Kickstarter United</a> is still seeking recognition from Kickstarter, and we’re still supporting them. They’re still not requesting a boycott, although we are hoping to support alternative crowdfunding platforms to give frustrated publishers more options, so if anyone knows of good projects happening elsewhere, let us know!)</em></p> | |
| <p>Lovely walk simulator <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-tokaido/">Tokaido</a> is getting a sequel, and do you know what’s lovelier than a lovely walk? A lovely boat.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/funforge/namiji-the-next-chapter-in-the-tokaido-universe">Namiji is now on Kickstarter</a>, and looks as gorgeous as Tokaido, but with a significantly more sailing. As with Tokaido, whoever is in last pace on the beautifully illustrated track takes their choice of which space to stop on. Once you land your boat somewhere, you take the relevant bonus, and likely add a beautifully illustrated card or token to your collection.</p> | |
| <p>The Kickstarter edition comes with gorgeous boat miniatures and even more miniature paper boat offering tokens. These obviously aren’t necessary, but they are gorgeous, and I suspect the main risk of this Kickstarter is whether it’s actually got enough in it to differentiate it from Tokaido, and whether it’s worth having both. Additions include a little board for collecting fish on, and a little push your luck crustacean minigame about grabbing shrimp but hopefully not grabbing too many crabs. I guess your mileage will vary depending on how you feel about imaginary representations of seafood.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52775" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2835abcb2ad46a00b9b6b845009a37e9_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="459" /></p> | |
| <p>To Ganymede and Titan, yes sir, I’ve been around. And so has Kickstarter, to Titan at least, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/holygrailgames/titan-0">with just 9 hours left on the campaign of Titan</a>, a game about a moon called Titan.</p> | |
| <p>You’ll be visiting the saturnine moon to ruthlessly strip-mine and hoard resources, as good (aka bad) businesses do. It promises a combination of network building, worker placement and heavy metal management, all laid out on a faintly ridiculous three dimensional crater colosseum of economics. You’ll build a network of rigs and pipes to slowly extract what you can, move it around, and hopefully swap it for points. It promises high complexity and fluid mechanics, but I’m not sure that…holds water.</p> | |
| <p>(I really don’t deserve to over-reach on that terrible pun but…it literally won’t hold water because the bowl shaped crater is made up of six parts that probably don’t form a watertight bond, so if you are actually hoping that it’ll be a reasonable back-up bird bath if the game is bobbins, you might want to look elsewhere).</p> | |
| <p>The whole thing is tied together with some lovely B-movie Sci-fi aesthetics and there’s a plethora of optional add ons to make your trip to Titan more exciting. I’m more into the box art than what’s in the boxes, if I’m honest.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-52776" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/chad.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="344" /></p> | |
| <p>Once again I find myself sharing some sad news from this week, <a href="http://www.dicetowernews.com/the-board-game-community-loses-chad-jensen-designer-of-dominant-species/61302">as game designer Chad Jensen has died after a long struggle with cancer</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Chad is best known for the thrillingly convoluted Combat Commander, a tactical wargame that has exhilarating card driven play and a smart event system that I would love a more accessible game to steal. He also created Dominant Species, a widely hailed large scale strategy game that has players acting as the stochastic processes of evolution upon particular families of animals. It’s one I’ve been keen to try for a long time. Chad will be greatly missed, but I suspect people will be playing his games for a very long time.</p> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 11/11/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-11-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-11-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 11 Nov 2019 12:51:55 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Terra Mystica]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Merlin’s Beast Hunt]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Terra Mystica: Merchants of the Seas]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Red Outpost]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fallout Shelter]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Scrabble]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Voyages of Marco Polo]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=52495</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Woo! I don’t know what your weekend was like, Ava, and I don’t want to be coy, but I played a *very* large board game that I’ll be covering in our big, year-end blowout review.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: How large are we talking?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: OK, imagine how big a board game should be.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: *closes eyes* I’m doing it.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It's even bigger than that!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh my.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Woo! I don’t know what your weekend was like, Ava, and I don’t want to be coy, but I played a *very* large board game that I’ll be covering in our big, year-end blowout review.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: How large are we talking?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: OK, imagine how big a board game should be.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: *closes eyes* I’m doing it.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s even bigger than that!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh my.<span id="more-52495"></span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52508" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/zx06_a1_layout.png" alt="" width="700" height="307" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Fantasy Flight has announced <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/11/7/fallout-shelter-the-board-game/">Fallout Shelter</a>, their latest riff on the infamous post-apocalyptic Fallout video games, and will see players looking after vault dwellers in a happiness-powered bunker. Each player will build their own level of a shared complex, slowly filling the table with increasingly elaborate options for adorable little vault-dwellers to reap exciting rewards. Also, it looks like a little lunchbox filled with apocalyptic snacks, which isn’t something I realised I wanted.</p> | |
| <p>I feel like the Fallout cartooniness used to have an amount of satire that isn’t entirely present here, but that might not stop it being an interesting game. It occurs to me that this is probably the first time Fantasy Flight have gone near traditional worker placement games? Is that right? Does that matter?</p> | |
| <p>Let’s wait and see whether this sets the world on fire, eh?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Zona-rozkladowka-z-pudlem-ANG_b.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52507" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Zona-rozkladowka-z-pudlem-ANG_b.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1161" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Staying nuclear, but moving to Eastern Europe, we have the announcement of <a href="https://www.rebelgames.eu/games/zona-the-secret-of-chernobyl-1004.html">Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl</a> from Rebel Games.</p> | |
| <p>While the new HBO Chernobyl TV series might paint this as a particularly grim setting (‘Roll 7+ to send 530,000 to clean up an incalculable tragedy’’, etc.), Zona instead draws from the wealth of Eastern Euopean sci-fi surrounding Chernobyl, which is mostly populated by gnarly scavengers in custom jackets.</p> | |
| <p>Players will each take on the role of one of these scavengers, racing to uncover secrets and to reach the sarcophagus that covers the devastated power plant before the ‘final emission’. Which sounds to me more like a fart gag than a mind-bending mystery. Or maybe that’s me being small-minded- after all, couldn’t it be both?</p> | |
| <p>Also, one of the playable characters is “Drunkard”, which makes me laugh.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5005210.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52501" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5005210.jpg" alt="" width="970" height="518" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Let’s stick with the soviets, and take a visit to Mayday Games’ <a href="https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/287589/red-outpost">Red Outpost</a>, a communist take on worker placement.</p> | |
| <p>Players will take control of a hidden soviet conclave on an alien planet, with joint responsibility for the comrades calling it home. Resources are shared among the whole table, as well as control of the workers themselves. Victory is earned by maintaining the mood of the workers as you move them from building to building to earn resources, build statues and get drunk.</p> | |
| <p>There’s a couple of rules here that tickle me, like the bureaucrat getting a crystal if they go to the admin building, but if anyone else visits, it makes the bureaucrat happier. Poor lonely space bureaucrat! Just wants someone to come say hi. The other effect of that building is fiddling with another player’s point-scoring influence disks, leaving them taking the fall for someone else’s misery. Which sounds a little bit like every business meeting I’ve ever been in.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m not convinced that this will be great, but I do have a soft spot for games that make your worker pieces more than just lumps of wood. Is there a more poignant moment in board games than when your parents finally die in <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-village/">Village</a>? And then you get REALLY upset because you realise that Dad was the only person who knew how to make a cart?</p> | |
| <p>Or what about <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233976/pie-town">Pie Town</a>! A game where getting extra workers is great, but until they’ve been around the block a few times your junior employees are <em>liabilities</em> who might spill your pie secrets.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/zh006_box_front_520px.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52505" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/zh006_box_front_520px.jpg" alt="" width="1042" height="520" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh baby! It’s not often that board games get outright sequels. <a href="https://www.zmangames.com/en/news/2019/11/1/announcing-marco-polo-ii-in-the-service-of-the-khan/">Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan</a> is being described as an “epic standalone follow-up” to The Voyages of Marco Polo, a game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-the-voyages-of-marco-polo/">we had a lot of fun reviewing</a> (even though Big Spitting Bumpy Boys would break up just weeks later)</p> | |
| <p>The prevailing attitude from the designers of Marco Polo II seems to be “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Players still choose their role from something like a 13th century character select screen, they still place dice to hustle across Asia, and they still have to fulfill trading contracts while on the road. But of course, as we learned from the superb Brass: Birmingham, sequels need more <i>stuff</i>, and that’s why players will also have to manage a new, sixth resource: jade.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It is still /very/ brown, though. Albeit a somehow brighter brown than the base game?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Come sit on my knee and I’ll tell you a story.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m 35 years old, Quinns. I’ll do it, but only if you provide safety equipment and a risk assessment.</p> | |
| <p>*several hours of bureaucracy and hoisting later*</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: In 1996, when I was very small, an incredible video game called Quake was released. And the video game journalists who I liked the most said that Quake was incredible, but they also made fun of it for years for being exceedingly brown. The whole game was like trying to spot corduroys in a clay pit.</p> | |
| <p>And you know what? Time proved them right. Quake was way too brown.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This is entirely irrelevant but when I was first playing Quake I didn’t realise I had left the wrong CD in the drive, and so for me the soundtrack wasn’t Nine Inch Nails, but the saccharine misery-pop of the Lightning Seeds. I still can’t hear Sugar Coated Iceberg without flashing back to wasting all my ammo on a big red snake demon before realising I just had to go upstairs and press some buttons.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I can’t hear The Offspring’s Conspiracy of One without thinking of Sacrifice.</p> | |
| <p>Anyway, Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan! It’ll probably be nice?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Look, either you’re paying me to sit on your knee, or have opinions. I am not doing both at once.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/zm7244_box_front_520px.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52506" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/zm7244_box_front_520px.jpg" alt="" width="972" height="520" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m two months late to noticing that <a href="https://www.zmangames.com/en/news/2019/9/6/announcing-terra-mystica-merchants-of-the-seas/">a second expansion to Terra Mystica is taking to the seas</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Terra Mystica: Merchants of the Seas, will add a host of factions that take advantage of water in one way or another, alongside new shipyards, docks and ships. The expansion also gives you a new double sided board, with fjords or lakes to mix up the territories.</p> | |
| <p>To balance things out, the game has to jump back in and shuffle around the victory point settings for various factions on the base game boards, as some will be stymied by a lack of water, and others will have the opposite. It all sounds a little queasy to me, but if you love slamming those enormous slabs of wood on the board and getting your brain crushed by competing point possibilities, this promises more of the same. I say bon voyage to it.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Hey, we were just talking about board game sequels- when the sequel to Terra Mystica, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-gaia-project/">Gaia Project</a>, came out, I felt profoundly alone when I said that I didn’t like it as much as the original game. I can at least take some solace in them still releasing expansions for one and not the other.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: You’ll never walk alone, Quinns. Gaia Project felt weirdly shapeless to me. Absolutely fine, but it never furrowed my brow as tightly as Terra Mystica did.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-52502 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic5024605.jpg" alt="" width="617" height="413" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Sometimes I want to highlight a random design diary from BoardGameGeek just for a random game doing something unusual. Today is one of those days. Ian Bach <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/87270/designer-diary-merlins-beast-hunt">has written about the evolution of his animal-catching dice and card game Merlin’s Beast Hunt</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Merlin’s Beast Hunt will have you rolling dice to try and get combos that will allow you to prop up cards and build little walls around animals and trap them. That’s it. It’s just dice and cards being used in a different way.</p> | |
| <p>I’m faintly disappointed as it drifts away from it’s novel prototype roots into something with custom dice and transparent cards, but it still looks like Ian has brewed an idea up from cosy messing around with easily available components combined in a novel way. I like it! I’m curious! I hope it’s good!</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52500" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/72738747_2394560984137253_3090989290352541696_n-1-e1573230935200.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="540" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m not convinced this is the most interesting reporting I’ve ever seen. But Quartz pointing out that <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1744913/how-nigeria-got-so-good-at-winning-scrabble/">Nigeria are doing great at Scrabble</a> just makes me want to note that Scrabble must be the most respectable of the classic mass market games that every home has a copy of.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’ve got a long-standing rivalry with a friend that runs to hundreds of games played remotely via app. It feels less like a word game and more like a ruthless territory control and push-your-luck contest, and I love it for it.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh, it’s so true! Returning to Scrabble after playing a load of designer board games is bizarre. You think it’s a word game, and then as an adult you do a double-take and see that it’s an area control game!</p> | |
| <p>I still can’t beat my wife, mind you, because she knows <a href="https://lifehacker.com/hacking-scrabble-part-one-5868095">the deviant two letter words</a>. Trying to beat her is like trying to stave off a pack of flying monkeys, except instead of monkeys it’s words like “za” and “gu”.</p> | |
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| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Your Introduction to… Carl Chudyk!</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/your-introduction-to-carl-chudyk/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/your-introduction-to-carl-chudyk/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 06 Nov 2019 15:09:28 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Special Features]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Glory to Rome]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Mottainai]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Impulse]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Flowerfall]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Aegean Sea]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Red7]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=46213</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: Welcome to an occasional series introducing you to a single, storied game designer. Today I want to tell you about the games of a man called Carl.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Certain designers have a set of obsessions that shine brightly when you put all their work together. There's a pattern of passions that unite their work. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/6001/carl-chudyk">Carl Chudyk</a> is my my board game design crush, and it's because he ploughs a furrow that nobody else could. His games are relics from a weirder, smarter world. He builds layered puzzle-systems where possibilities multiply at every turn. They're challenging to learn, but a delight to wrangle.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">It's odd though. I struggle to recommend them to people, even though they're my favourites. I don't like to push people into an experience that might feel horrible the first time round. It's like asking someone to dive into a river that will be cold until they adjust.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">But I want to talk about Carl Chudyk anyway. Once you're swimming with him, you'll find something you couldn't get anywhere else. You’ll open tiny boxes and find yourself tucking ideas under possibilities and watching your table turn into a sea of systems. You’ll still be finding surprises on your hundredth play.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">You'll get stories. Stories of the time a game felt different to anything else.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">These aren't reviews. There's no time for that.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Instead I'm going to dissect a few games, pull out a few gutsy details, and see if I can read in the entrails why Carl is the way he is. Why he fills me with wonder and what makes me scream. Take a deep breath. It's a fast river, you might not be able to get out.</span></p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: Welcome to an occasional series introducing you to a single, storied game designer. Today I want to tell you about the games of a man called Carl.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Certain designers have a set of obsessions that shine brightly when you put all their work together. There’s a pattern of passions that unite their work. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/6001/carl-chudyk">Carl Chudyk</a> is my my board game design crush, and it’s because he ploughs a furrow that nobody else could. His games are relics from a weirder, smarter world. He builds layered puzzle-systems where possibilities multiply at every turn. They’re challenging to learn, but a delight to wrangle.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s odd though. I struggle to recommend them to people, even though they’re my favourites. I don’t like to push people into an experience that might feel horrible the first time round. It’s like asking someone to dive into a river that will be cold until they adjust.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But I want to talk about Carl Chudyk anyway. Once you’re swimming with him, you’ll find something you couldn’t get anywhere else. You’ll open tiny boxes and find yourself tucking ideas under possibilities and watching your table turn into a sea of systems. You’ll still be finding surprises on your hundredth play.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You’ll get stories. Stories of the time a game felt different to anything else.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These aren’t reviews. There’s no time for that.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Instead I’m going to dissect a few games, pull out a few gutsy details, and see if I can read in the entrails why Carl is the way he is. Why he fills me with wonder and what makes me scream. Take a deep breath. It’s a fast river, you might not be able to get out.</span><span id="more-46213"></span></p> | |
| <h2><b>Red7 – Rules are made to be changed</b></h2> | |
| <p><em>[Co-designed with Chris Cieslik, who also helped to develop several of Carl’s other games.]</em></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/red7/">Red7</a> is one of his simplest games, and it comes with one central rule. At the end of your turn you must be winning. If you aren’t winning, you’ve already lost.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That sounds odd, but it makes sense when you’ve seen the rest.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Red7.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46223" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Red7.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="674" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On your turn you can play a card in front of you, or play a card into the centre of the table, or both. The card in the centre dictates how the game is currently won. You might be looking for the highest number, or the biggest set of matching numbers, or the most cards of one colour. The cards in front of you get compared to everyone else’s, and you see if you’re winning.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you can’t play a card on your turn, or you can’t be winning by the end of your turn, you’re out.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s simple, but it gives us a core concept from Chudyk’s games: The rules can change while you’re playing.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Red7 has a closed ruleset. There are seven suits, each giving a different win condition. You can see them on a reference card, all the different flavours of victory at once. But every turn the game can change. Within those seven orientations, you will be a winner every turn, until you aren’t. You’ve got to adapt as the rules change.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So each turn leaves you wrestling with the options in your hand. You can change the rules, or you can make yourself stronger, but you need to adapt, need to shift, need to plan, need to worry. The possibilities are all laid out clearly. But you need to find a way to win now, and stay winning. It’s a ruthless bucketful of maths and hope, and it’s a delight.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s the simplest implementation of his rule bending extravagance, but it’s got that beating Chudyk heart. Carl likes it when you play a card that breaks the game. It’s common to complain about overpowered combinations, game breaking possibilities. But for Carl that’s the goal. The game is made to be broken, or at least changed. You won’t often finish playing quite the same game you started.</span></p> | |
| <h2><b>Innovation – Tucked away complexity</b></h2> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is a frustration, so it’s one we should be up front about. A lot of Chudyk games are hard to learn. You need to learn a specific language, a particular syntax. Remember how we said that rules are going to get broken? Well to do that you need to build up from a robust core. You need a precise vocabulary and a shared grammar, a knowledge of what can change, and what will stay the same. If lots can change, it’s harder to teach what stays the same.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-but-wrong-size-Innovation.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46218" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-but-wrong-size-Innovation.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="814" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first time you play <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/innovation/">Innovation</a> will feel cruel and random and ridiculous. To its credit, it <em>is</em> trying to cover the whole span of civilised life, and random and ridiculous is how history has always felt from the inside. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Innovation has a small deck of cards for each of ten historical eras, from the stone age to the information age. Initially, there is no way to win. You’re introduced to the concept of scoring, but before you can do that, you have to find the cards that let you do it. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-innovation/">Quinns’ review</a> stopped short of recommending this tricky beast, but includes a lovely example of just how bewildering the opening moves of this game can feel.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is infuriating for new players, but it’s the price of having a rich web of possibilities. Every card is unique, and many of them are explosively powerful. I’m still discovering cards that I giggle or goggle at when I see what they can do.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There’s a late game card called Fission, illustrated with a tiny mushroom cloud. It’s hard to activate, but if you do, you’ll remove nearly every card from the table. All those civilisations you built? They’ll crumble in a fiery instant. But you don’t stop playing, you carry on. It’s just that you’ve been bombed back to the stone age.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I can’t think of another example of a pun executed entirely in mechanical terms. I can’t think of a card in a game that has made me laugh so hard and feel so bleak.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There’s wonder and weirdness tucked away in those decks. Unexpected possibilities and huge swings in power. I’m always eager to play, because even after tens of games, I don’t know what will happen. When did a civ game last make you feel that way? Game after game after game, Chudyk dishes up the unexpected.</span></p> | |
| <h2><b>Glory to Rome – Everything I can do, you can do better</b></h2> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/glory-to-rome/">Glory to Rome</a> is Chudyk’s ugly, out of print opus. Its enormous deck of cards is heaving with combos, game-breakers and weird ways to win.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s also got a baffling turn order ritual that emphasises another Chudykian obsession. When you do something, everyone else might get to do it too.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IMG_20191106_154510.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46227" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IMG_20191106_154510.jpg" alt="" width="1345" height="756" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you take your turn, you play a card in front of you, representing a citizen of Rome. Then wait to give everyone else a chance to follow. If they’ve been hanging around with the right people and have a matching card to discard, they get the action too.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a nasty weight to put on a decision. You can’t just do something because it benefits you, you have to weigh up how much it will benefit everyone else. Are you willing to risk giving them a leg up? Do they have the card they need? You don’t know. But it begs you to look at other people’s plans, stay invested in their engines, so you can tell when you’re giving them a helping hand. It’s a simple, cruel question about your efficiency, and whether you’re making that action work harder than everyone else. It makes every turn count. Every opponent could be your saviour or curse with the right action at the right time.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Quinns would tell you that <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/s01e05/">Race for the Galaxy</a> was the pinnacle of this kind of ruthless hand-management, but I think it’s Carl who knows how to make you wrestle your own hands the hardest. And that’s mostly because he makes you worry about exactly how much you’re helping everyone else with that move. There’s a real fear to each decision, as you throw away something you can use and watch to see if anyone latches onto the opportunity and gets you in a headlock.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Does it make you feel like a glorious Roman? Does it take you from zero to hero to Nero? Honestly, it’s hard to say. Everything has the name of a Roman building on it, and occasionally you get to say ‘Rome demands stone’ and see if anyone coughs up with the aggressive legionary action. The art is more preschool than praetor, though. It’s hard to sound impressive when you’ve got a tiny MSpaint drawing of a semi-naked Roman in front of you. But there’s a sense of the bustling forum in everyone calling out as they try to make the most of your turn. Everyone staring pointedly at each other’s cards looking for a chink in your engine like jealous senators in March.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So many of Carl’s games have some mechanism by which your action will be borrowed by someone else. It keeps interaction high, keeps attention focussed. It’s smart, it’s weird, it’s frustrating and it’s clever.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s very, very Carl Chudyk.</span></p> | |
| <h2><b>Mottainai – Every little thing means five things</b></h2> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For me, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/mottainai/">Mottainai</a> is Chudyk’s masterpiece. My application for this very job was a heartfelt pouring out of affection for this game recorded by the side of my favourite river. It’s a spiritual successor to Glory to Rome that borrows most of the rules, but puts the brakes on to make for a more meditative, more explorative experience.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It shares with Glory to Rome Carl’s next kink, multi-use cards.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Mottainai.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46222" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Mottainai.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="654" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Mottainai, you’re running a slightly capitalist Buddhist temple. Every card is an action you can take, grabbing new helpers as they pass by, moving materials into the crafts bench. Each card could <em>also</em> be a resource you can use for points or building, metal or cloth or clay or stone or paper. It’s <em>also</em> a person who might be able to help you out, boosting the right action, a visiting monk or a hard-working smith or a humble clerk. <em>Or</em> each card is a unique work, an object you can build for a game breaking effect. You’ll find everything from pin cushions to paper dolls, and each one can go in your gallery or your gift shop.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This makes every hand a puzzle. What do you need to hold on to? What do you want to discard so it’s available later? What do you want to use now? What do you want to save for later? What would you rather get rid of to make some space?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, add that list of questions to the fear of knowing that your opponents will perform any action you choose for yourself, and you’ve got to treat each hand, each turn, with precision and care. The word Mottainai translates literally as ‘everything little thing has a soul’ and more figuratively as ‘the regret experienced over wastefulness’. This sums it up. It’s a sweet, ruthless game of squeezing every last thing out of every hand, and delighting in the strange things you’ll make with it.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mottainai’s theme doesn’t come from its slightly absurd take on monastery life, but on the meditative flow of play. It feels soft and gentle, even as you’re getting frustrated and being ruthless. It’s a game of exploration, of wonder, of mindfulness and movement.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Every little game has a soul.</span></p> | |
| <h2><b>Impulse – Over-powered is the new normal</b></h2> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If Innovation was a playful homage to civilisation games, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/impulse/">Impulse</a> is a full on satire of 4X space games. It’s a disco opera take on Star Wars, in the best possible way.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Impulse.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46221" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Impulse.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="674" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Impulse finds yet another use for the cards you play with, as a galactic map laid out in the centre of the table. You’ll be sending fighters and transports across great voids, looking for planets that are just like the cards in your hand. You go through a rigmarole of different actions every turn, and every one of them can cascade into others.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You see that map on the table? They are still cards, they’re still actions like the ones in your hands. If you can land transports on a planet, you get to take that action. I’ve seen turns where people bounce around half the galaxy in a turn, picking up and pushing about, and desperately trying to find the thing that gets them what they need. You don’t just take each other player’s action. You get to repeat any combos on the table that anyone else has uncovered, provided you’ve got the fighters to back up your boldness. There’s a whole astro-geography of possibilities laid out in between everyone, a shared puzzle for you to fight over. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The cards themselves aren’t as wild as Innovation’s bizarre deck of possibilities, but in Innovation you only do one thing at a time. Here you’re trying to find a way to do twelve things a turn, and sometimes it’s even possible.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Combat is vicious, board states exploitable and absolutely everything is ridiculous. It feels like a monster of a game. It’s only an hour or so to play, but squeezes all but the most diplomatic dramas of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-twilight-imperium-fourth-edition/">Twilight Imperium</a>, into these sharp, overpowered bursts of movement, combat and domination.</span></p> | |
| <h2><b>Aegean Sea – Put it all together</b></h2> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ve only had a brief shot at an early prototype of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/285039/aegean-sea">Aegean Sea</a>, Carl’s next big thing, but I can see something that learns all of these lessons and twists them into a new shape. An island hopping wargame where each island can be home to five flavours of cards and the potential for huge conflict and game-breaking possibilities.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Aegean-sea.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46219" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Aegean-sea.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="655" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Expanding on the passion for unique powers, each player has their own entirely unique set of cards to draw from. Digging through your deck to find the right tool to manipulate the cardboard sea into something you can win from is a confusing, thrilling nightmare. Islands can be destroyed by the gods for their hubris, and absolutely nothing is safe. Your home port can be invaded by opponents, and the points you’ve earned can be taken from right under your nose.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ve no idea if it’s going to be tight and taut enough to bring Carl to the masses, but I’m excited to see how it plays out. And because it’s Carl, I don’t even mean how the prototype evolves, I mean how different each game could be.</span></p> | |
| <h2><b>FlowerFall – Let’s just ignore all of that</b></h2> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of course, everyone’s got a real outlier, and for Carl, it’s this very particular area control game. <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/flowerfall/">FlowerFall</a> features cards being dropped from a height to create a randomly scattered meadow. It’s simple, it’s silly, it’s nothing like anything else. It’s got comedy and tragedy, and rules that you can learn in a heartbeat.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Flowerfall.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46220" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BEST-Flowerfall.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="677" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On your turn you drop cards onto table, and they land where they land, creating new flower-beds and covering over others. Have the most flowers visible in a chain of green, and you win points for each green flower still visible on that patch. That’s everything.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s not got the depth of anything else we’ve talked about, but it’s still utterly unlike anything else out there, and I love him for doing it.</span></p> | |
| <p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s just the highlights of Carl’s acclaimed and continuing career making games that nobody else really could. Games that you’ll want to play again and again, that unfold in a new way every time. I think he’s wonderful, I think he’s playful, I think he’s obsessive and I think he’s one of a kind.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Carl Chudyk is my favourite designer, even though when I’m teaching his games I feel like I’ve turned into a parody of a constitutional lawyer. I find myself using oddly specific turns of phrases and getting excited about incredibly finicky details. The games fill me with joy, though. They surprise and excite me. I love watching the rules and the cards click with people, watching them realise just how much could change, how quickly tables can turn.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I said this wasn’t a review, but I would also vouch for any of these games. If your interest is piqued, and you don’t mind an inconvenient initial headache, I think you’ll find a wealth of weirdness and fun.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let me know who you think I should dive deep into next. And if you end up trying out some Carl Chudyk, let me know how it goes.</span></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/your-introduction-to-carl-chudyk/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>69</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 04/11/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-11-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-11-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 04 Nov 2019 18:47:57 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Lees]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[King of Tokyo]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Geometric Art]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Deranged]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Queen Collection]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Magnificent]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[King of Tokyo: Dark Edition]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Don't Get Got]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=46172</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[Quinns: Ava, before we get started on the news, I have to tell somebody. I had the most fabulous time playing Don’t Get Got last night. Ava: Oh yeah? Quinns: Oh my goodness. The paranoia. The guile. The outraged howls outside the pub when I managed to win just before we all went home by ... <a title="GAMES NEWS! 04/11/19" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-11-19/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns:</strong> Ava, before we get started on the news, I have to tell somebody. I had the most fabulous time playing <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/dont-get-got/">Don’t Get Got</a> last night.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Oh yeah?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns:</strong> Oh my goodness. The paranoia. The guile. The outraged howls outside the pub when I managed to win just before we all went home by getting another player to say “I love you.” It was <em>exactly</em> like someone scoring a goal in the closing seconds of the match.</span></p> | |
| <p><span id="more-46172"></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Wait, what? Are you sure this was a game, and not just a creepily competitive take on date night?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns:</strong> Never you worry! I just need to find a place on the site to examine it in earnest.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On with the news!</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns:</strong> Iello has announced <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/293141/king-tokyo-dark-edition">King of Tokyo: Dark Edition</a>, a “collector’s edition” that takes the popular game of dice-rolling monster mayhem and makes it… erm, dark. Or, more accurately, gives the game a kind of Sin City aesthetic where strips of lurid colour punctuate a black and white backdrop.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> I never really got on with King of Tokyo, although I think it’s just because I always play too risky and get knocked out early. I’m not sure ‘making things a little harder to see’ is what will fix my issues. I guess maybe I should be playing with my therapist rather than waiting for a special edition.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns:</strong> You know, I never got along with it either. In hindsight, I think I found it haunted by the ghost of more traditional games where you “Wait for your turn to roll the dice.”</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I do wonder what other board games would benefit from a “dark edition”. Agricola? It could take on a sort of Children of the Corn vibe. Sushi Go Party? Sultry sushis winking at you from ill-lit plates?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> I’m after Mage Knight directed by Ingmar Bergman.</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="size-full wp-image-46188 aligncenter" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic4871117.jpg" alt="" width="599" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> I’m not convinced that boardgamegeek’s hotness chart is a useful metric for ludo-enthusiasm, but I do pay attention when something jumps to the top of the charts immediately after a big convention. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283863/magnificent">The Magnificent</a> did just that, and was apparently at the top of BGG’s ‘geekbuzz’ chart by the end of the enormous Essen Spiel convention. So maybe it’s worth a look.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a brooding fantasy world, players will be managing rival circuses. You’ll be placing tiles to build an encampment of entertainers, and competing to put on the best shows. The Magnificent promises to be a taut economic game of tetrominoes, dice drafting and special abilities. A nice touch is that if you draft multiple dice of the same colour over the course of the turn, you add them together. So if you focus on one type of action, you get stronger and stronger, at the risk of dropping other spinning plates. And the cost you pay at the end of the round is the total of your highest dice colour, so you’ll never stop juggling costs and benefits.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m curious to hear more about why folk are so excited for it. Is it Magnificent? Are goth circuses the new zombies?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns:</strong> Oooooooooooh. Oooooh. Ooh. Ava, this is from the creators of the really-quite-good <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-santa-maria/">Santa Maria</a>! Except this time they’ve chosen a theme that’s sexy and striking, instead of one that, if it was a man, would smell of mothballs and hug you for slightly too long. I’m excited!</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="wp-image-46189 aligncenter" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/queens-collection_setup.jpg" alt="" width="767" height="591" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: I can’t say that I’m genuinely excited by this, but I think it’s such a bizarre move that it warrants a mention.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Queen Games, publisher of brilliant <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-escape/">Escape: Curse of the Temple</a> and pretty good <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-fresco/">Fresco</a> is celebrating its 30th birthday. Happy birthday, Queen Games! </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a birthday treat, they’re making a limited edition game about their games called ‘<a href="https://ssl.queen-games.com/en/queenscollection/">The Queen’s Collection</a>’. Cards will be laid out showing a selection of their back catalogue, and players will be moving pawns around the collection to put the right pieces into their boxes after everything’s got jumbled. The game can be played solo, co-operatively or competitively, and I have no idea who would love a publisher enough to buy a game about organising games, but presumably they think somebody will be keen.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns:</strong> Ooh. I would have been here for a special Queen Games game game where moves in this little collectible game would then be settled by whole games of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-shogun/">Shogun</a>, Fresco, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/almost-a-review-lancaster/">Lancaster</a>, Franchise and Luxor.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Ooh. I forgot about Franchise. What a great bowl of economic spaghetti to drown in. They do definitely have quite the back catalogue.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt:</strong> Just to interject here as a News Interloper, I honestly can’t stand the aesthetic of this. It’s like a children’s TV nightmare fuelled by over-the-counter flu medicine: I never want to see it again, if possible. Thanks.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-46190" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Deranged_Eng_01-1030x641.jpg" alt="" width="861" height="536" /></p> | |
| <p> </p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> <a href="https://hwint.ru/2019/10/18/deranged-the-us-release/">Deranged</a> looks like an interesting little beast, and has just found a US publisher in Semi-Pro.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Players will navigate some horrific city to complete a hidden objective, constantly at risk of turning titularly ‘deranged’. Once a player goes evil they have to kill another player to turn human again, but each time someone dies, the situation gets worse for everyone. It sounds like an interesting take on semi-co-operative nonsense, with a combination of hidden goals and heel turns.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It could be interesting, but I only want it so I can put on Bowie’s ‘I’m deranged’ and sing it badly every time someone turns. Neither song nor game is exactly the best treatment of mental illness, but at least the song comes from a ludicrous album from Bowie’s bizarre 90s multimedia era.</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46191" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pic4956314.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Multi-classed writer/actor/games fan Calvin Wong has been digging underneath the Essen hype machine to uncover some unusual oddities. <a href="https://www.boardgameatlas.com/forum/gCiAVHfT2N/three-amazing-undertheradar-essen-games-and-why-i-love-them">He’s written a piece on three of his favourites from the convention</a> that other people aren’t talking about.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m particularly intrigued by the uninspiringly named ‘<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/286215/geometric-art">Geometric Art</a>’. Another drawing game with players simultaneously trying to communicate a concept to the collective. The smart thing about this game is that all players will be limited to the same randomised set of shapes. Using two triangles, a circle and a hook to make a horse, hearse or horticulturist sounds like exactly the sort of tickly little wrinkle to a common gaming structure I like.</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-46192" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/w4ePuo.png" alt="" width="833" height="555" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> In ‘things I keep seeing linked to on twitter’ I’ve been enjoying the creations of this algorithmic dungeon generator. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://watabou.itch.io/one-page-dungeon">One Page Dungeon</a> will draw a randomised dungeon for you, but the most pleasing touch is the way it adds little plot hook style descriptions to each room. Honestly, if I was in a pinch, and didn’t have a session planned, I’d be happy DMing with just one of these maps to give me the nudges I need. Which is quite an impressive promise from a lovely tiny free thing.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns:</strong> Actor and comedian Paula Deming is an industry treasure, and this week she released <em>quite the treat f</em>rom her creativity pipes. Do you remember the song Part of your World from The Little Mermaid? It doesn’t matter. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMhH3YH0Wpw">Click play, and enjoy.</a></span></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-11-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>65</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 28/10/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-28-10-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-28-10-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 28 Oct 2019 15:01:16 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ettin]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tournament at Avalon]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Greenville: 1989]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fossilis]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Bloom Town]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Weimar Republic]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=45893</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Quinns</b>: Ava, I have returned from my holiday a <i>changed man.</i> Before, where the old Quinns would have been a tangled ball of anxiety, now I am a walking chalice of chill. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Oh, that’s wonderful! I’m glad you had a good time. Are you feeling ready to dive right back into the swarming, heaving mass of press releases, board game announcements, union conflicts, franchise cash-ins, weird crowdfunded plastic, the rise of totalitarianism and the inevitability of death? | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: ... | |
| <b>Ava</b>: What is it? | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Just performing a mental diagnostic. I remain chill, but that was a MEAN trick.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, I have returned from my holiday a <i>changed man.</i> Before, where the old Quinns would have been a tangled ball of anxiety, now I am a walking chalice of chill.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh, that’s wonderful! I’m glad you had a good time. Are you feeling ready to dive right back into the swarming, heaving mass of press releases, board game announcements, union conflicts, franchise cash-ins, weird crowdfunded plastic, the rise of totalitarianism and the inevitability of death?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: …</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: What is it?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Just performing a mental diagnostic. I remain chill, but that was a MEAN trick.<span id="more-45893"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Ettin_01_box.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45898" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Ettin_01_box.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Coming up from WizKids is <a href="https://www.phdgames.com/ettin-WizKids/">an enormous but fast fantasy battler called Ettin</a> (pictured at the very top of this page). It promises to play up to 8 players or a frankly absurd 16 if you have two copies. Players will form into teams of two mix and match nations, before going head to head with the players around them.</p> | |
| <p>Simultaneous turns stop that player count being quite so daunting. Players draft mercenaries, to add to their unique nation cards, and keep on fighting for three rounds of mayhem. It looks like an incredible heap of cardboard for quite an ambitious game.</p> | |
| <p>We’re huge fans of team games. They give people permission for trash talk and celebration, and fresh sources of frustration and mistakes. Those are some of the great pleasures of gaming, so it always puts a little spring in my step to hear about a quick, big, messy team-drafting game..</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oho. It seems to me that Ettin could have the marketing tagline “From the same risk-taking school of publishing that brought you Sidereal Confluence…”</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Look how many cards are on that table Quinns! It’s like there’s been a unusually tidy accident in a paper mill!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It took me all this time to realise that it’s named “Ettin” after the two-headed monster. I may have put too much duty-free rum in my tea.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1500x1500_97593bd8549ac31be978f3e24c1d97bf620ed33aed12177ce8f2a4ef.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45900" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1500x1500_97593bd8549ac31be978f3e24c1d97bf620ed33aed12177ce8f2a4ef.png" alt="" width="250" height="371" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh no. Maybe I didn’t put enough rum in my tea. WizKids <a href="https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/44140/WizKids-announces-tournament-avalon">has also announced Tournament at Avalon</a>, a standalone sequel to their bonkers trick-taking card game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/216632/tournament-camelot">Tournament at Camelot</a> that can be combined with the original set if you’d like to play with up to 8 people.</p> | |
| <p>Here’s the thing, Ava.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m listening.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Tournament at Camelot is actually very, very good. I’ve been wanting to talk about it on the site for a while. It’s the trick-taking equivalent of Cosmic Encounter, where all of the players have a game-warping power and then you proceed to interfere with the contest by deploying even more game-warping powers, until the card game you’re playing resembles a funhouse mirror version of itself.</p> | |
| <p>Plus, I found the cards that reference early Christianity continually funny. In one melee I showed up with the lance that pierced Jesus’ side, which is, at best, gauche behaviour.</p> | |
| <p>…But I played this game with 4 people and that was quite crazy enough. Playing with 8 is a <i>horrifying</i> proposition. The human brain is not designed to process that many rules modifiers.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I just imagined trying to play Cosmic Encounter with 8 players and I think I’m having a panic attack.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Breath into this paper bag and consider that you could just use Tournament at Avalon to mix up the base game, rather than expand it into an impossible behemoth.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4510263.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45901" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4510263.png" alt="" width="1200" height="629" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Creepy story-telling game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/265249/greenville-1989">Greenville: 1989</a> boasts some gorgeously horrific art and sounds like a role-playing horror Dixit.</p> | |
| <p>Players will describe their journeys through a series of surreal nightmare landscapes, taking turns to find each other amongst the mazes of monsters laid out on sumptuously unsettling cards. Some lovely presentation make this stand out, though I’m mostly bringing it up because ‘Sorry we are French’ is probably the best name for a game publisher I’ve ever seen. Bon chance, and I feel like I should add ‘désolé je suis anglais.’</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Untitled-1-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45902" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Untitled-1-1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="415" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Another recently-announced game is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/276622/borderlands-tiny-tinas-robot-tea-party">Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party</a>, a card game tie-in with the Borderlands video games about rooting around for bits and pieces and racing to build your very own robot. It’s a remake of Robotlab: the card game, which I’ve never heard of.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I did play enough of a Borderlands to meet Tiny Tina, but it’s one of those hazy gamey memories that I can’t really put back together. I mostly remember being distracted, confused and shouted at. Which to be fair, isn’t a bad basis for a party game.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’ve played Borderlands single-player, but never quite clicked with it. For all of the explosions and vinegary writing, exploring that world alone feels wrong. Like playing Dance Dance Revolution by yourself in an empty warehouse.</p> | |
| <p>I’ve gotta say, back when I worked as a video games journalist, franchise tie-in games were easy to handle as they were uniformly bunk. It’s awfully thoughtless for the makers of tabletop tie-ins of video games to make most of them bunk, but some of them good. In particular, Matt’s expecting <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/135116486/assassins-creed-brotherhood-of-venice">the Assassin’s Creed board game</a> to be ace, since it’s supposed to be a re-skin of V-Commandos.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Quinns, Quinns.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: What?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Have you seen <a href="https://gearboxloot.com/products/tiny-tinas-robot-tea-party-borderlands-card-game">the card backs</a> of Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party? Some of them are <em>lovely.</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I don’t know what’s worse- that you think I’m so shallow that would change my mind…</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Or that I’m right?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: >:(</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic5018602.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45903" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic5018602.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="801" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: (We’re still waiting for updates on <a href="https://twitter.com/ksr_united">Kickstarter United’s</a> campaign for recognition. We’re still rooting for them. See previous news posts or their twitter feed for more info.)</p> | |
| <p>One Kickstarter we dug this week was <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kidstablebg/fossilis">Fossilis</a>, a game of digging and brushing and finding bones.</p> | |
| <p>The star here is the enormous lump of plastic into which you’ll be pouring bones, shaking it up, and stacking little blocks to create a randomised dig site. It looks like a strong little structure to lay a game on, with a lot of pleasing physical touches. It even has giant tweezers for digging out samples. Collect the right fragments to satiate the eggheads back home, and you’ll win the game.</p> | |
| <p>I’m not sure if there’s as much figurative as physical depth here, but I’d like to see more of those little bones in the future.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic5016437.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45904" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic5016437.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="466" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284291/bloom-town">Bloom Town</a> is one of the 999,999 games that enjoyed a release at Essen Spiel this weekend, so its existence probably isn’t news. That said, it earns a late mention in the Games News, not just because it’s from the same design duo as the excellent Copenhagen and Deep Blue, but because they’ve published an exhaustive <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogger/5840/asger-sams-granerud">8 part design diary</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Like <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-quadropolis/">Quadropolis</a> or <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-64-dolphins-are-people-too/">Between Two Cities</a> (fine games both), Bloom Town is a game of placing buildings in a grid in a canny quest for points. However, in Bloom Town the square that you place your tile on determines what tile you get next round.</p> | |
| <p>It’s not a particularly exciting pitch, but then Daniel Pedersen and Asger Granerud’s work isn’t particularly ambitious or glitzy. They just make designs that are solid as a rock. But a fun rock. A Geodude, if you will.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/95749/bloom-town-scoring-designer-diary-4">This part on scoring</a> really grabbed me, describing how the game experimented with three different ways of scoring, and ended up bundling them all in. Immediate scoring for a steady dopamine rush, occasional rescoring, for big jumps in the middle of the game, and end game scoring based on a tile you have left over, giving you a final bump, and a tricky decision that lingers throughout about whether you should hold on to a tile for the finale. I knew nothing about this game before reading that, and now I’m thoroughly intrigued.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Weimar_Sample_Cards.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45905" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Weimar_Sample_Cards.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="800" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: We don’t often talk about traditional wargames around here, though I’ve got a quiet passion for weird historical simulators of very specific conflicts.</p> | |
| <p>The latest P500 pre-order launch from GMT Games sees something I’m intrigued and nervous about in equal measure. <a href="https://www.gmtgames.com/p-841-the-weimar-republic.aspx">The Weimar Republic</a> takes a look at post World War 1 Germany, and sees players taking the roles of political factions of the era, vying for sudden death victory by a variety of fair and foul means. You might be Communists, Radical Conservatives, Nazis, or the democrats attempting to prevent their rise. It looks like a scary little sandbox.</p> | |
| <p>The rise and consolidation of Nazi control of Germany is a terrifying story, and one that feels too close to home these days, but perhaps that’s why I want to take a closer look. It’s hard to say if a game is the best place to do that, but seeing the motivations and interactions of varied factions is one of the medium’s strengths.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic58867.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45906" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic58867.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="276" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: In sad news, one of the legends of game design died last week.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/58/francis-tresham">Francis Tresham</a> was responsible for two of the most influential games of the 70s and 80s, with his <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/71/civilization">Civilisation</a> game (which Sid Meier insists didn’t inspire his game of the same name) still being played today in its original form and the updated Western Empires, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-99-9-my-hungry-sleepy-civilization/">covered by Quinns and Ben in a recent podcast</a>. What I didn’t know until seeing news of his passing, was that Tresham also designed <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1823/1829">the first 18XX game, 1829</a>, which saw players buying stocks, laying tracks and vying for control of southern Britain. This was the origin of one of board gaming’s most intensely focussed subgenres, a very specific and prolific set of games sharing that shares-based DNA. These games DID inspire Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon series, and they’re a part of the hobby I’m really keen and scared to dive into at some point. As much as I struggled with my time with Mega Civilisation, to note that it was first released in 1980, it must have been miles ahead of its time.</p> | |
| <p>Very sad to hear he’s gone, and very glad that his games live on.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>83</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>Tactics and Tactility #4 – Mexica, and other great heel turns</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-4-mexica-and-other-great-heel-turns/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-4-mexica-and-other-great-heel-turns/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 23 Oct 2019 12:02:17 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Lees]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tactics & Tactility]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Mexica]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Estates]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Dead Last]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=45645</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[[Tactics and Tactility is our column about the feelings, details and pleasures of tabletop gaming. This week we’re looking at Mexica, and the glory of giving good friends the space to be cruel.] Ava: Some games are a particular joy to teach, because you get to slowly watch the implications play out in real time ... <a title="Tactics and Tactility #4 – Mexica, and other great heel turns" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-4-mexica-and-other-great-heel-turns/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>[<a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/category/tactics-tactility/">Tactics and Tactility</a> is our column about the feelings, details and pleasures of tabletop gaming. This week we’re looking at Mexica, and the glory of giving good friends the space to be cruel.] </em></p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava:</strong> Some games are a particular joy to teach, because you get to slowly watch the implications play out in real time on the face of your fellow players. Some rules are like a little snowball you start rolling down a hill, and watch turn into an avalanche. Games are systems, and it’s not easy to see the impact of a system until you’re in it.</p> | |
| <p>Enter <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/mexica/">Mexica</a>.</p> | |
| <p>I’ve explained the rules. I’ve told people that we’re trying to found districts of specific sizes, surrounded by canals, claim those districts, and then vie for ‘spiritual grandeur’ by building the biggest temples in each one. I’ve explained moving, bridges, placing canals and the scoring structure.</p> | |
| <p>What I’ve not explained, is that in about fifteen minutes, everyone around this table will have been an absolute monster to everyone else.</p> | |
| <p><span id="more-45645"></span></p> | |
| <p>Hidden in the simple but specific rules of Mexica, are a hundred different ways to screw over your friends. Before long, everyone is slamming temples around their enemies; blocking bridges to force people to take impossibly long routes; building the exact wrong canals or moving into the spaces where their opponents desperately need to be.</p> | |
| <p>It’s perfect, it’s cruel, and it’s inevitable.</p> | |
| <p>Watching someone’s face, when they first see an area they’d carefully calculated get founded by someone else? Or when they realise how easy it is to block someone’s walk home? When they’ve got just one spare point at the end of their turn and they use it to do the absolute worst thing to you? It’s beautiful.</p> | |
| <p>It’s a perfect heel turn. We start the game with a cosy competitiveness, that suddenly twists into elegant spite. You wouldn’t do that? You couldn’t be that mean? Oh yes. You would. You could. You will.</p> | |
| <p>Games like Mexica allow you to be mean safely. The mean thing is obvious and easy. There’s no reason not to, and everyone’s going to be doing it to everyone else. The path of least resistance lies through someone else’s carefully manicured plan.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/the-estates/">The Estates</a> leaves you with choices that are almost exclusively going to ruin someone’s day. Every action, every auction, results in someone being done over. The water you’re swimming in become so desperately cruel, that nobody minds when you drown them in it. It’s a relief, almost, to not feel responsible for your cruelty. You apologise, as you place a block on top of someone else’s dream.</p> | |
| <p>There’s no real villainy in board games, you’re only playing at it, and that means you can relish it. Enjoy every moment. Though I should mention that games like Cards Against Humanity <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-cards-against-humanity/">abuse this safety net</a>, to let people get away with being actually horrible, and I’m not okay with that.</p> | |
| <p>But when it’s the right kind of nasty? I’m in it for the precise moment someone realises they can shut me down. There’s a sly grin, a passive aggressive laugh or a pointed ‘sorry’. There’s a look on their face that tells me they’ve just understood how mean they can be. It’s one of my favourite looks in games.</p> | |
| <p>I love <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/dead-last/">Dead Last</a> a lot more than I like it. It’s not far from being a bullying simulator, with zero weight to each action but lots of theatrical, over in a moment monstrosity. Whenever I explain the rules, I get to the ‘any communication is allowed’ rule quickly, so that eighty percent of groups I teach will immediately decide the first move is to kill me. They plot easily while I’m distracted making sure they understand how this brutal silly game works. It’s a perfect, immediate descent into anarchy, and that’s one of the best things a ruleset can give you.</p> | |
| <p>Watching someone turn evil. Watching someone realise they can use the rules of the game to break the rules of society, just a little, in a safe way? It’s a joy. It’s a voyeuristic thrill that reminds me of the messy but compact drama that comes in a good board game box. Knowing someone is about to go bad? I am here for it. Knowing the whole table is going to turn? There’s nothing else like it.</p> | |
| <p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p> | |
| <p>So folks, tell me please. What game turned you into the baddie the fastest, the hardest, the cruelest? When did you first succumb to the dark side? When did you most enjoy watching someone else’s fall?</p> | |
| <p><em>Tactics & Tactility is illustrated by <a href="https://www.tomhumberstone.com/">Tom Humberstone</a>.</em></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>37</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 21/10/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-21-10-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-21-10-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2019 16:10:47 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Lees]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Pharon]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Under Hollow Hills]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ocean Crisis]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[It's A Wonderful World]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Labyrinthos]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[10 Workers United]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=45577</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[  Ava: Oooh, it’s that time of year. The cold is starting to bite, but the cosy is always close at hand. Why don’t you make yourself a lovely hot chocolate, put your feet up, chuck a log on the fire, grab a blanket, fill a hot water bottle, watch a leaf turn red, find ... <a title="GAMES NEWS! 21/10/19" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-21-10-19/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> Oooh, it’s that time of year. The cold is starting to bite, but the cosy is always close at hand. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why don’t you make yourself a lovely hot chocolate, put your feet up, chuck a log on the fire, grab a blanket, fill a hot water bottle, watch a leaf turn red, find your loveliest slippers, cuddle the closest consenting cuddle-able, put a scarf on, watch a firework, stomp your feet, get another blanket just for your legs, wear a third blanket as a shawl and listen to the tale of Ava’s very own autumnal games news.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt:</strong> I’ve filled my mouth with a mixture of marshmallows and leaves and popped my slippers into the fire. Is that still autumnal? My hot water bottle is full of hot chocolate, don’t worry: no sense doing two different tasks with hot water when you’ll get loads more points for a combo.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava:</strong> Whatever fills your heart with October-flavoured warmth!</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt:</strong> Putting these slippers back on was a bad idea, I’ll see you later bye</p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava:</strong> So, this week Quinns popped a little kickstarter vol-au-vent of recommendation onto the revolving newzy susan (But remember, Kickstarter still appear to be resisting attempts of Kickstarter United to unionise, so please do apply pressure to encourage them! See any of the last few news posts for more details.)</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dogmight/labyrinthos">Labyrinthos</a> has you exploring the infamous labyrinth of Minos. You’ll be running around looking for your keys, and occasionally get eaten by a bull headed beast. The maze can change at any moment, so you’ve got to balance your own route home with your willingness to mess up the plans of your enemies. </span></p> | |
| <p><span id="more-45577"></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Just like in real life, actions are limited by the number of hands and feet you picked up on your last turn: Hands help you manipulate the maze, feet let you run through it. The keys aren’t just for unlocking either, they grant special abilities that bump out the ones you start with. It looks pretty and it sounds mean, which are personally two of my favourite things. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Labyrinthos boasts an all woman design and art team – a notable rarity in the industry – and the kickstarter page also reveals that everyone involved has good dogs. I’m unable to muster this site’s trademark kickstarter dubiety, but don’t let my hound-susceptibility goad you into risking money you can’t afford!</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-45585" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic5000530.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Taiwanese designer Chi Wei Lin has <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/95646/designer-diary-ocean-crisis-or-designing-thematic">a lovely diary up at the moment</a> about a game promoting awareness of ocean pollution.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ocean Crisis is a co-operative clean-em-up where players work together on the beach to prevent plastics piling up at the heart of the Pacific. There’s some interesting conundrums dealt out by an ocean current that will sometimes pull waste towards the beach where it can be fished out and sometimes take the rubbish you haven’t picked back out to sea. There’s also a beach-bound skill tree that unlocks special abilities and optional side missions to save dolphins and turtles and the like. It’s unclear where it lands on the ‘purely educational’ to ‘actually fun’ spectrum, but I am reasonably curious. The designer doesn’t pretend there are simple solutions to the pollution crisis, so it sounds like it might be quite a tough cookie.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a bleak subject matter, but looks like an interesting take. Even though they don’t always hit the mark, we’re always glad to see games try and wrestle with the themes of real world problems.</span><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-45584" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/6c1c77bfa469337675fbec82376dcccc_original.jpg" alt="" width="1552" height="873" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Boondoggle Hob!</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s my two word pitch for Meguey and Vincent Baker’s latest role playing game based on the Apocalypse World system they built. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/226674021/under-hollow-hills">Under Hollow Hills</a> is no post apocalypse though, it’s about fey circus performers and the strange world they travel in. Boondoggle Hob is the name of one of thirteen character archetype playbooks, apparently some sort of bolshy goblin heel-dragger. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Honestly I’m just using any excuse to repeatedly say it. Boondoggle Hob! These are the two words I’ve been most pleased to see next to each other in months. Well, that’s my critical eye entirely boondoggled. You’ll have to see for yourself and decide whether the hollow hill is one you want to be digging and juggling under.</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-45586" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic5009826.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="793" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Big fan of games with rotating discs, but the devastation of the natural world isn’t weighty enough for you? How about we weigh your actual heart?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/95867/spiel-19-game-preview-pharaon-or-prepare-weigh-you">Pharaon</a> appears to be an Egyptian mash-up of the Game of Life and the theology of The Good Place, giving you a limited amount of time to take actions that will eventually evaluate the worthiness of your life. The way you play the game will determine whether you are carried into the afterlife on a palanquin or are dragged kicking and screaming. That’s probably a misrepresentation of both the ancient Egyptian afterlife and the game we’re talking about, but it’s certainly a mood.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With a rotating central disc that changes the cost of actions and some tricky timing to master, this looks like a classic economic efficiency brain burner. Unfortunately, it’s hiding its unusual theme under the trademark ‘eurogame beige’ and a rotating salad of iconography. I guess Egypt was pretty sandy and hieroglyphic, but it’s not the most inspiring board I’ve ever seen. You probably already know if that sort of thing makes your heart feel heavy or light. I’m not sure I’m holding out for a Horus, but I’m curious what people make of it.</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-45587" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="1226" height="606" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Floating at the top of the Hot Spiel Messe hype list on boardgamegeek for the last few months is a curious retro-future civilisation-building game with an optimistic handle.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271324/its-wonderful-world">It’s a Wonderful World</a> looks like a sci-fi Seven Wonders, with players drafting cards by passing them around and grabbing the best ones to plug into an engine of their own making. The critical wrinkle is that each player will be producing resources in a very specific order, so any combos you can build rely on careful planning, and will be different for each player. It’s an interesting touch, but there’s a reason I’ve let it pass through the ‘maybe this week is the time to fish this out of the news vats’ filter every week for a while now. I can’t quite tell if there’s anything here to actually excite me except for some dramatic cover art. I’d love someone to report back on whether there’s enough here to chew on. I’m hoping it’s high on the hype train for a reason.</span></p> | |
| <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-45588" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Teheran_1211.jpeg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In disappointing news, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/95673/iranian-publishers-denied-visas-germany-spiel-19">A whole host of Iranian game designers have been denied entry to Germany</a>, where they were hoping to attend the enormous Spiel convention.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We’ve been quietly getting hype about the games coming out of Iran that we were hoping would find wider distribution at the convention. <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-09-19">We recently covered a few of those games</a>, and enjoyed the story of one of <a href="http://faidutti.com/blog/?p=10944">Gaming’s Biggest Brunos trip to investigate the design scene there.</a></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m sad to find out the road to distribution has got a little harder. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s borders, and particularly ones that are used to close down collaboration, play and creativity (so, you know, borders). It’s almost certainly too late for German citizens to send their dismay to the <a href="https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/">German Foreign Office</a> to get them to change their mind, but it may be worth a try.</span></p> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 14/10/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-14-10-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-14-10-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Tue, 15 Oct 2019 06:44:24 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Mooose Trip]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Calico]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[10 Workers United]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Palm Reader]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Dekalko]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Oath: Chronicles of Exile and Empire]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=45321</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Oh frabjuous Monday! Callooh! Callay!</p> | |
| <p>The borogroves are mimsy with news. Let’s have a gyre and gimble about the wabe, and see if we can slay that news-jabberwocky with our vorpalest swords. Then we can have some uffish thoughts under the tumtum tree, whiffle and burble through the tulgey wood and galumph back home after a job well done.</p> | |
| <p>Brillig.</p> | |
| <p>Let’s get our news-toves slithed.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Oh frabjuous Monday! Callooh! Callay!</p> | |
| <p>The borogroves are mimsy with news. Let’s have a gyre and gimble about the wabe, and see if we can slay that news-jabberwocky with our vorpalest swords. Then we can have some uffish thoughts under the tumtum tree, whiffle and burble through the tulgey wood and galumph back home after a job well done.</p> | |
| <p>Brillig.</p> | |
| <p>Let’s get our news-toves slithed.<span id="more-45321"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4997223.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45333" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4997223.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="584" /></a></p> | |
| <p>We’ll start with a manxome bang, and one of the most ambitious setting out of stalls I’ve seen, by one of the few people I think might be able to pull it off.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2291265/designer-diary-1-whats-all-then">Oath: Chronicles of Exile and Empire</a> is the latest four letter word (with a subtitle) from Cole Wehrle and Leder Games. It’s hitting the ground running with a design diary full of bold and exciting claims. Oath will be a campaign game where goals and rules shift in response to player actions. Cole describes empires falling and changing the nature of the world you’re building. He rejects the legacy game approach to this, promising something even more ambitious. He talks about generation-spanning stories, and each game creating the rules, goals and setting of the next one. Players will take the role of people close to the great and the good, manipulating history to their own ends, and it sounds like there’s a lot of freedom to choose those ends, and then watch the implications play out.</p> | |
| <p>Here’s a quote:</p> | |
| <p>‘There are no scripted narratives or predetermined end points. The history embedded in each copy of Oath will grow to be as unique as the players who helped build it.’</p> | |
| <p>This is, frankly, a bold statement. I’m incredibly curious to see if Cole can pull this off. He’s coming straight off two very well thought of games (Root and Pax Pamir 2nd edition), and I’ve got a lot of faith in him to not make claims like that that he can’t follow through to at least some degree. Chuck in some slightly darker than Root Kyle Ferrin illustrations and the promise of a campaign game it’s really easy to drop in and out of and play as a series of one-shots and I feel like we’re onto something big.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4992294.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45332" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4992294.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="712" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Shifting down a scale or three, we see Roberto Frago (of Captain SONAR fame) teaming up with Sébastien Decad on a smart take on doodling party games we’ve seen before.</p> | |
| <p>Removing the need for drawing ability from the mix <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/95466/spiel-19-game-preview-dekalko-or-one-line-leads-an">is Dekalko</a>, a game in which players race to trace enough of an image to feel confident that people will guess it. The quicker you finish, the more points you stand to gain. Once everyone’s done, you take turns revealing your traces and shouting out answers. With various shields for covering tracings and the original photos, it’s an over-engineered type of fun, but it sounds just the right amount of hubris-inducement to get me giggling. ‘Of course, I can trace something quickly and have it be legible, it’s child’s-play,’ I’ll say, before looking down to see I’ve etched a Giger-esque monstrosity where a door-knob was supposed to be.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4911077.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45331" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4911077.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="590" /></a></p> | |
| <p>In other party game nonsense news, Sit Down Games has once again made me go ‘what, really?’</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267980/palm-reader">Palm Reader</a> requires significantly less tech than Dekalko, as you’ll simply be using a finger to draw on the palm of your neighbour’s hand. They’ll then attempt to pass the symbol you’ve drawn down the line by the same method, and you’re hoping to get it all around the table with people still able to identify it when you reveal what you could’ve been carving. It’s simple, it’s silly, it sounds easy, and it might be hilarious.</p> | |
| <p>Plus everyone gets to feel super awkward about having to touch each other’s hands. Make sure everyone’s okay with that before you suggest it? But then ‘is everyone okay touching their neighbour’s hand?’ is a pretty reliable conversation killer. Who knows. I’m just glad Sit Down Games isn’t giving up on having the weirdest sales pitches, the oddest obstacles, and the most awkward conversations. Keep up the good work.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/6538f50fe7cd33a688d0990379e0242f_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45327" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/6538f50fe7cd33a688d0990379e0242f_original.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" /></a></p> | |
| <p>In Kickstarter politicking news, Christopher Grey has created <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/greyauthor/10-united-workers-a-roleplaying-game-about-solidarity">a game about unions called ‘10 Workers United’</a>, that remixes the doom-laden darkness of role-playing horror game 10 candles into a message of hope and solidarity by putting it in reverse and having the players get more powerful as they unite.</p> | |
| <p>The project is explicitly set up to raise awareness around the attempts of Kickstarter United to gain recognition from Kickstarter as a sanctioned union. (I’ve talked about this enough already, but obviously, keep emailing Kickstarter-sot@kickstarterunited.org and showing solidarity however feels best for you). It’s also trying to directly teach the benefits of unionising. Which is lovely.</p> | |
| <p>There’s a little hint of Paranoia in one player taking the role of ‘The Company’ while the players are the workers, but it sounds like this one might have a happier ending. We’re still hoping the same is true for the unionisation effort, as if we haven’t already made that abundantly clear.</p> | |
| <p>The nascent union still hasn’t asked for a boycott, so we’re still promoting kickstarters on here. But we’re also still keeping an eye on the situation.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/87a73d5face2e8a28b09fe3c4cbc6db3_original.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45326" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/87a73d5face2e8a28b09fe3c4cbc6db3_original.png" alt="" width="680" height="582" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Significantly less politically apposite, but possibly a bit cuddlier, is Calico. Also on Kickstarter, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flatoutgames/calico-0">Calico combines two of my favourite themes, cats and quilts</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Calico has you stitching together hexagonal patterns to lure cats with very specific textile kinks to curl up with you. Matching colours gets you buttons, matching patterns gets you cats, and your player boards come with their own specific bonuses for particular achievements. This looks adorable and a little bit ruthless. I’m not convinced of the depth, but I’ve heard some people say nice things.</p> | |
| <p>As we always say (and the same goes for the rest of these projects) it may be worth waiting until the game has hit more tables and a retail release before risking your money.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ab04066676fbbe0c578c026c67caead0_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45328" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ab04066676fbbe0c578c026c67caead0_original.jpg" alt="" width="1099" height="508" /></a></p> | |
| <p>The opposite of cats is Romans. So it’s no surprise that <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1992455033/rome-and-roll-a-roll-and-write-eurogame">Rome and Roll</a>, previously <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-97-meeting-your-shadow-self-and-other-excitements/">played and podcasted about by ‘the boys’</a>, is asking for your money at the same time. Will those centuries old rivals ever make friends? I don’t think this game will let you find out.</p> | |
| <p>Rome and Roll has you rebuilding the titular city after a fire has destroyed most of it. Which is pretty helpful for a game that needs to start with a blank open board. You’ll be rolling dice and drawing tetris shaped buildings, as well as exploring, conquering and generally being a big old Roman. This looks significantly denser than your average roll’n’write, tasking you with building a shared city, alongside your own little player board heaving with rules and tick-boxes.</p> | |
| <p>Quinns dropped this in the news google doc with the words ‘we’ve played this, and it’s good, if extremely heavy’, which is actually a heartier recommendation than the podcast pull-quote used on the campaign page. Maybe worth a look if you want to get your teeth into something chewy and Romey.</p> | |
| <p>Like the cats do.</p> | |
| <p>Honestly, I’ve no idea where I concocted this Romano-Feline beef, but it’s going right in the historical headcanon.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/e9ff7348d8584bf54d1fe62591de6cd8_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45329" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/e9ff7348d8584bf54d1fe62591de6cd8_original.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="548" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Grabbing my fanciest fancy is the latest weird little thing from my favourite producer of weird little things, Carl Chudyk. And actually, the weirdest thing here is that it’s not that little! I think this might be Chudyk’s first big box game!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/429029786/blood-of-the-northmen-by-carl-chudyk">Blood of the Northmen</a> looks from a distance like any other Norse-ish brawler, and I was a bit baffled as to how it could be specific enough to follow in the footsteps of ‘posh historical fluxx, but in a good way, I promise’’ Innovation and ‘as ugly as it is brilliant’ Glory to Rome. On closer inspection, it’s a tile laying game where the number of sides of your tile with a particular landscape defines how much you can do the associated action. Slam down some forests, and you’ll be dragging new vikings out of them. Place some lakes, and you’ll actually get to move. Mountains is fighting talk. You get the gist. It’s a weird thing! I’ve no idea how it would actually play!</p> | |
| <p>I’m one hundred percent behind the idea, but it’s worth noting this is more out of doting loyalty to Carl. Chudyk is a designer I love so much that I tracked down a copy of one of his early game-crafter prototypes, which is the equivalent of loving a band so much you hunt down their weird early demo tapes. I am not to be trusted!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/JxB_bm.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45330" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/JxB_bm.png" alt="" width="547" height="386" /></a></p> | |
| <p>I try to make my ‘and finally’ something other than a game. But this tickled me in the right way to break my rules. Kira Magrann has made <a href="https://kiramagrann.itch.io/moose-trip">a one page rpg about hallucinating mooses</a>. Not in a silly ‘lol random’ way, but in a gentler ‘let’s think about how beauty in the world can be experienced by taking on different perspectives’ way. I’m here for it.</p> | |
| <p>If you /aren’t/ tickled by the idea of something with enormous horns taking psychedelics, then I’m just gonna have to give up on the concept of tickling.</p> | |
| <p>It’s called Moose Trip.</p> | |
| <p>We live in a beautiful world, people. Never forget that.</p> | |
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| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 07/10/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-07-10-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-07-10-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 07 Oct 2019 22:51:10 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Gloomhaven]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Agon]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Unicorn Fever]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Babylonia]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Wingspan: European Expansion]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Wingspan]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=45091</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Ava</strong>: Don’t dilly dally, SHUX may be over, but the news waits for nobody. | |
| While the team are hopping on planes, I’m hopping on the news-train, and running straight to the dining car, hoping to pull up a cloche on some tasty news-morsels and snap up some crunchy news-nuggets. I’m not sure where we’re going, but I know that I’m hungry, and a big fan of locomotion. | |
| Choo-choo-choo news-lovers!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: Don’t dilly dally, SHUX may be over, but the news waits for nobody.</p> | |
| <p>While the team are hopping on planes, I’m hopping on the news-train, and running straight to the dining car, hoping to pull up a cloche on some tasty news-morsels and snap up some crunchy news-nuggets. I’m not sure where we’re going, but I know that I’m hungry, and a big fan of locomotion.</p> | |
| <p>Choo-choo-choo news-lovers!<span id="more-45091"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/EGEZHzDUEAEtxP9.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45099" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/EGEZHzDUEAEtxP9.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="383" /></a></p> | |
| <p>After dropping hints in last week’s news, Isaac Childres went to SHUX and announced something very, very exciting. Untitled Gloom Game, features a goose, roaming about a fantasy land, stealing magic rings from dragons.</p> | |
| <p>No. Wait. I’ve got something wrong…</p> | |
| <p>Provisionally operating under the name <a href="https://twitter.com/Cephalofair/status/1180252219280510976">Gloomhaven: Subtitle</a>, Isaac is promising a stripped down, all barriers barred, normal-priced version of enormous mega-hit <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-gloomhaven/">Gloomhaven</a>. Taking the mammoth campaign based co-operative dungeon crawler and stripping it down to 24 scenarios, four characters, and a 40 to 50 dollar price point.</p> | |
| <p>I’m really excited about this. I’ve been left off this hype train by my difficulty in getting a consistent group together that I don’t immediately derail into D&D. I think i could tempt some people with Gloomhaven, but I’m not willing to bet a ton on it. Maybe this starter pack will be the thing that snags me.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/3D-box-1024x727.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45096" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/3D-box-1024x727.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="355" /></a></p> | |
| <p>In further ‘enormously hyped games getting a little bit extra’ news, Stonemaier Games <a href="https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/wingspan-european-expansion/">has announced the inevitable first expansion for bird-box builder Wingspan</a>.</p> | |
| <p>The European expansion will bring 81 birds from across Europe for you to shuffle into your already oversized deck of pretty winged things. Wait. That sounds like it’s asking you to shuffle live birds into your deck. Please don’t do this. Buy the expansion, and use the cards provided. Stop trying to shuffle birds, Millicent!</p> | |
| <p>The new cards will include new mechanics, including end of round bonuses, which I’m mostly excited about because they’re a lovely teal colour. it’s definitely a ‘you liked the game so here’s a little bit more’-style expansion. I’m still hoping for a reboot that will give the game the over-powered ridiculousnesses of Glory to Rome, but I might be missing the point of this accessible accessory. More of the same is a pretty safe bet with such a successful game</p> | |
| <p>I’m worried that the game being full of birds I’ve already heard of might take some of the charm out of enthusiastically announcing the name of every flutterer that comes into play like an ornithological town crier.</p> | |
| <p>What am I even saying? They’re birds! Every one is a perfect creature! Even the hyper-aggressive seagull that used to hang outside the window of The Great Eastern kitchen because the old chef gave it a sausage a day. IT WAS ENORMOUS.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4985332.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45101" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic4985332.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1500" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Guess who’s going back to Mesopotamia, baby!</p> | |
| <p>Correct! It’s Reiner Knizia!</p> | |
| <p>The good doctor has eleven games hitting wide release at Essen Spiel this year, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/95305/game-preview-babylonia-or-burning-ecstasy">ploughing the pre-classical furrow once more is Babylonia</a>. It reads to me like a successor to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-tigris-euphrates/">Tigris and Euphrates</a>, although W Eric Martin is comparing it to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-samurai/">Samurai</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-through-the-desert/">Through the Desert</a> and Taj Mahal. Whether it’s useful to make these comparisons or not, it’s always exciting to hear Knizia’s best games get name-checked.</p> | |
| <p>In Babylonia, you’ll fill a hexagonal map of middling-pots-amia with symbolic discs to build trade routes, wrap around ziggurats, connect cities and do something with farmers. There’s points to gather in lots of different ways, so presumably a lot of tricky decisions about what to focus on, and how to out reach your opponents.</p> | |
| <p>I’ll be waiting to hear people enthuse about it directly, as Knizia is not quite as consistent as he is prolific. Unpicking what works from previews like these isn’t that easy, as the magic is often hidden a layer or two deep. I’m curious though. How could I not be? He’s got a bowtie and some of his games are PERFECT.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-27-at-11.58.52-PM-1024x646.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44922" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-27-at-11.58.52-PM-1024x646.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="646" /></a></p> | |
| <p>It’s time to bang that drum again, but for the first time since the Kickstarter union-busting debacle began, I feel like I can tell people something positive to do, rather than just wring my hands.</p> | |
| <p>Kickstarter United <a href="https://twitter.com/ksr_united/status/1179445723429003264?s=20">has issued a call out to supporters to contact Kickstarter management and ask them to officially recognise their union</a>. This is a huge step, and an opportunity for Kickstarter to stop being awful that I really hope they’ll take up. Send messages of support via twitter, thoughts@kickstarter.com or any other means that feels appropriate. If we can convince Kickstarter to voluntarily recognise the union, it’s a huge victory for the rights of their workers and the platform itself. Show your passion, show your support, show your solidarity!</p> | |
| <p>With that sign of hope, and with Kickstarter United still not calling for a boycott, I feel slightly more okay linking to Kickstarter projects. I still want to make sure we aren’t unduly damaging creators that happen to be on the platform during the dispute.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/8bfa1d4598a1b2d4f86f413e068b6162_original.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45097" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/8bfa1d4598a1b2d4f86f413e068b6162_original.png" alt="" width="680" height="441" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Horrible Games are reviving Horse Fever, a game I am assured is not a tropical disease, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/horriblegames/unicorn-fever">with their new project Unicorn Fever</a>, which I am assured is not a magical disease.</p> | |
| <p>The tactical turf-accounting rainbow racer sees several unicorns vying for first place, while you bet, rig and magic your way to victory. The unicorns are adorable, and the publisher has been on a bit of a spree lately, with <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-railroad-ink/">Railroad Ink</a>, Potion Explosion and Dragon Castle all scratching different itches very emphatically. Hopefully this’ll add another brightly coloured horsehair to their bow. (Wrong sort of bow, I know, but sometimes I like being tenuous more than I like being funny).</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/422492c2a0feba6ee298979e5da9d27e_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45098" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/422492c2a0feba6ee298979e5da9d27e_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="509" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Also pretty exciting is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/agon/description">the re-release of one of John Harper’s old projects, Agon</a>. This role-playing game by the designer of grubby sneak-em-up <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/rpg-review-blades-in-the-dark/">Blades in the Dark</a> will transport you to the world of classical myths and ask you to beat up legendary monsters. I can’t tell if there’s specific rules for all the animals Zeus will disguise himself as to get laid, but we can only hope.</p> | |
| <p>I always associate the original Agon with theories about the different types of play from ancient message boards and blog posts about role-playing games I had never played. Agon is Greek for struggle or contest, and so this game and that word always represented people who played games to win, which always struck me as an odd approach for storytelling games. Maybe it’s the right vibe for bouncing from island and island in a series of trials and challenges. I’ve heard only good things and my RPG theorising is at least fifteen years out of date, so I doubt it’s relevant!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/EGQsDI0X0AMbtjp.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-45100" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/EGQsDI0X0AMbtjp.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="500" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Honestly, the last bit of news I want to share isn’t really even news. For anyone who made it to SHUX, or anyone who missed it, I think the most heartwarming (and possibly jealousy inspiring) way to spend the next five minutes is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shux2019">looking through the #SHUX2019 hashtag on twitter</a>.</p> | |
| <p>You’ll see a lot of lovely words, happy photos, and what looks like a wonderful event. One highlight is <a href="https://twitter.com/philippawarr/status/1181026932927995909?s=20">Pip going through the feedback post-it notes</a>, and finding someone celebrating their successful marriage proposal (congratulations, whoever that is). For me the most heart-swelling bit was Querdcast pointing out <a href="https://twitter.com/querdcast/status/1180868583632592897">that it was a joyful place for trans folk</a>. I remember that specific feeling from Nine Worlds Geekfest, where I used to help run a games lounge with a few of the SU&SD forum moderators. I’m super glad that SHUX has the same supportive vibe.</p> | |
| <p>Thanks to everyone involved and attending for making a magical happening. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it! (But at least not making it means I can be this congratulatory about it without making it seem self indulgent!)</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-07-10-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>98</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Give us your Gloomhaven questions for Isaac Childres!</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/give-us-your-gloomhaven-questions-for-isaac-childres/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/give-us-your-gloomhaven-questions-for-isaac-childres/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2019 01:21:58 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Gloomhaven]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[SHUX 2019]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=45006</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Matt</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/shux-tickets/">With SHUX just three days away</a>, I'm vibrating with excitement at the prospect of getting to quiz designer Isaac Childres about the past - and future! - of the brilliant Gloomhaven at <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/shux-events/">11:30am on Friday</a>. | |
| But one man can only brain-think so much, so as part of our efforts to host and record the most interesting conversation about the game to date, we would love to field the hottest questions from you: our startlingly clever and good-looking community. | |
| If you leave a question in the comments, we'll credit you and get answers from the man himself: Big Mr. Isaac. | |
| See you Friday!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Matt</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/shux-tickets/">With SHUX just three days away</a>, I’m vibrating with excitement at the prospect of getting to quiz designer Isaac Childres about the past – and future! – of the brilliant Gloomhaven at <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/shux-events/">11:30am on Friday</a>.</p> | |
| <p>But one man can only brain-think so much, so as part of our efforts to host and record the most interesting conversation about the game to date, we would love to field the hottest questions from you: our startlingly clever and good-looking community.</p> | |
| <p>If you leave a question in the comments, we’ll credit you and get answers from the man himself: Big Mr. Isaac.</p> | |
| <p>See you Friday!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/give-us-your-gloomhaven-questions-for-isaac-childres/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>85</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 30/09/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-30-09-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-30-09-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 30 Sep 2019 17:57:59 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Sidereal Confluence]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Baby Kittens]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Spring on a String]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[On a scale of One to T-Rex]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Minecraft: Builders and Biomes]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=44908</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong> (definitely singing, not necessarily well): I work hard (they work hard) every day of my life, I work ‘til I ache my bones. At the end (at the end of the day) I take home my hard earned pay all on my own…</p> | |
| <p><strong>Nobody</strong>: ….</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: Oh cripes. Hi there. I might’ve been making myself a little too at home in the Shut Up &amp; Sit Down office complex while everyone else trots off to Vancouver. Without Matt here I don’t have to fight about who has to do backing vocals.</p> | |
| <p>But you’re here, and you know what that means? It’s Monday. SHUX is approaching, and just beyond that lies enormous shopping convention Essen Spiel, and that means the news hopper is heaving. Let’s get to work.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong> (definitely singing, not necessarily well): I work hard (they work hard) every day of my life, I work ‘til I ache my bones. At the end (at the end of the day) I take home my hard earned pay all on my own…</p> | |
| <p><strong>Nobody</strong>: ….</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: Oh cripes. Hi there. I might’ve been making myself a little too at home in the Shut Up & Sit Down office complex while everyone else trots off to Vancouver. Without Matt here I don’t have to fight about who has to do backing vocals.</p> | |
| <p>But you’re here, and you know what that means? It’s Monday. SHUX is approaching, and just beyond that lies enormous shopping convention Essen Spiel, and that means the news hopper is heaving. Let’s get to work.<span id="more-44908"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4975741.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-44916" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4975741.jpg" alt="" width="487" height="450" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Top of the blocks this week is the latest box of tricks from Ravensburger, an ode to the charms and tribulations of the enormously successful video game Minecraft.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/95074/minecraft-builders-biomes-challenges-players-build">Minecraft: Builders and Biomes</a> will bring the building, digging, fighting and exploring to the table, through a miniature overworld, a cube made of cubes, and your own private hidey hole. The blocky voxel aesthetic of the game translates nicely, but a game renowned for freedom and enormousness is a tough thing to extrapolate to a flatter play surface. Hopefully a minecraft flavoured puzzle is up enough people’s streets, and I have to confess a love for the cubey little cube-cube. More games should have you slowly deconstructing something in the middle of the table for your own personal gain. It’s easy to wrap heads around a slowly dismantling block as timer for the game, and is just an inherently satisfying process. Why always build up when you can slowly destroy?</p> | |
| <p>Welcome to nihilism Monday, folks. Grab a pick axe, it’s time to tear down the world.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/slide-4_v2_x2.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44926" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/slide-4_v2_x2.png" alt="" width="1801" height="1470" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Boardgamegeek’s news round-ups are a great place to get a sense of how broad and varied the news pipes can blow. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/94756/new-game-round-guide-cats-brush-your-hair-and-batt">This one post almost pulled off a news-worthy hat-trick</a> by making me want to write about Tom Lehman’s two player war-thing, as well as Wolfgang Warsch’s new party game <em>and</em> a game about cats playing with string which you play with string!</p> | |
| <p>I’m going to stick with Wolfgang, on this occasion, as he’s on such a terrifyingly strong roll lately. ‘<a href="https://onascaleofonetotrex.com/">On a scale of One to T-Rex</a>’ sounds like a very absurd party game, that I’d not even consider if it didn’t have his name attached. The game will ask everyone at the table to act out something ridiculous, (my favourite was ‘discovering you have fingers’), but the trick isn’t to work out what everybody’s doing, as that’s public information. Instead you’ll all be given a number from one to ten that dictates the intensity of your performance. You’re trying to find the people who are doing something entirely different to you, with the same amount of force.</p> | |
| <p>Honestly, I think this sounds awful and ridiculous, and like it might be magic or fall flat on its face. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to do whichever of those things it does with the intensity of a T-Rex with a card that says ten on it, and as such, I’m into it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4961793.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-44915" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4961793.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="352" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Amazingly, that news post’s <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/286549/kociaki-lobuziaki">Baby Kittens</a> isn’t even the only Eastern European game about animals wrapping string through a game board coming out soon.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/94807/designer-diary-spring-string-or-big-journey-small">Spring on a String</a> has a lovely design diary up at the moment, that discusses the stresses (and joys) of attempting to make games out of textiles, alongside finding a publisher and making the game the best it can be. The game has players taking turns to thread lace through flowers, trying to ‘collect’ as many as possible. But with a limited amount of lace each, it’s never entirely clear how far you’ll be able to go, leaving it as a slightly wobbly race. The simple, tactile, abstract puzzle is wrinkled by a whopping 31 animal cards that will give special powers and priorities to different coloured flowers. That should guarantee the game is never quite the same twice, despite the fixed board, and that’s probably a pleasing prospect, providing particular plays won’t prosaically plod with poorly picked powers.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Robo-Quinns</strong> (definitely not just Quinns’ face drawn on a basketball): Ahem. Ava, that’s all the alliteration allotted for this article.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: Kiss my assonance, Robo-Quinns.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Robo-Quinns</strong>: …</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: It looks lovely and portable and hopefully interesting! Though I confess I’m baffled as to where this lace based game trend is coming from. Anybody got a string conspiracy theory?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Robo-Quinns</strong>: That was a bad joke, Ava.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: I know, Robo-Quinns. But you don’t have arms, so you can’t stop me.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44914" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/20190801_085457-1080x810.jpg" alt="" width="1080" height="810" /></p> | |
| <p>Obviously, I’m not remotely jealous that I’m stuck here with nothing but a basketball and a copy of Queen’s Greatest Hits for company, while the rest of the company flings itself across an ocean to go play boardgames with the loveliest people in the world. So there’s no way I’d get even more jealous at hearing that <a href="http://www.cephalofair.com/2019/09/tidings-of-what-is-to-come.html">Isaac Childres is teasing some cheeky little announcements about his newest Gloomhaven related projects</a> at the very convention that has pulled everyone to Vancouver.</p> | |
| <p>Not jealous at all.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/siderealconfluenceremastered-mock4-539561-ffS0M1XH.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-44919" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/siderealconfluenceremastered-mock4-539561-ffS0M1XH.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="500" /></a></p> | |
| <p>In further news from Grumpington towers, it looks like I’m going to end up reluctantly buying a game that I already own.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-sidereal-confluence-trading-and-negotiation-in-the-elysian-quadrant/">Sidereal Confluence</a> is a strange beast. With a name that I refuse to pronounce the same way twice. Sliderule Confidence is one of the most tradey trading games out there, giving each player their own personal flowchart of cards, a handful of cubes, and the ability to swap anything for anyone else’s anything else. It’s economic mayhem, full of back-scratching, head-scratching, brow-furrowing, brow-beating and me desperately trying to plead that I’m not winning, so it’s okay to trade with me, I swear.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/siderealconfluenceremastered-mock1-680468-5QO3eSyD.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44918" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/siderealconfluenceremastered-mock1-680468-5QO3eSyD.png" alt="" width="1140" height="562" /></a></p> | |
| <p>The one obvious problem with Cider-and-Eel Confit-Nets was that it looks like a powerpoint presentation about alien societies prepared hungover in the five minutes before a job interview you aren’t going to get. Which brings me to the actual news, which is that <a href="https://wizkids.com/sidereal-confluence-remastered-edition/">Spidery Conversation is getting a swank new edition</a>, with new art by the lovely Kwanchai Moriya, an improved rule book, and some actual graphic design.</p> | |
| <p>I’m being super snarky, and this is actually really unfair on Tauceti Deichmann and the team. They put a huge amount of effort into finding ways to make the art on each of the cards relate to their absurdly deep and rich world that backs up this brilliant game. I can’t say the game is beautiful in its earlier iteration, but it is fascinating, functional and I’ve never seen anything quite like <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1869473/trying-understanding-depth-design">the thread that explains some of the thinking behind it all</a>. I hope that the visual overhaul makes everything look a lot nicer whilst maintaining some of that depth. I’d love to see Slippery Condiments reach a much wider audience, as it’s delightfully unique.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-27-at-11.58.52-PM-1024x646.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44922" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-27-at-11.58.52-PM-1024x646.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="646" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Switching from grump to anger. There’s more developments in the ongoing Kickstarter union-busting debacle. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/a-message-to-our-community">The CEO of Kickstarter has made a statement</a>, and responded to criticism by stating they are going to continue doing everything they legally can to resist unionisation. Kickstarter United (the nascent union in question) has been sharing <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/09/kickstarter-to-workers-and-project-creators-drop-dead">the Current Affairs response to this statement</a>, and a lot of argument has been happening in various quarters about who and how to resist the activities without harming workers and creators (not that I want to create a false dichotomy there).</p> | |
| <p>Rowan, Rook and Decard, who currently have a project up on the platform, <a href="https://rowanrookanddecard.com/kickstarter-heart-and-the-union/">have a particularly nuanced take on what’s going on, that’s well worth a read</a>. For now, the union is not calling for a boycott, but mileage may vary on how to approach that, and I’ve not picked out any projects to highlight this week. I still feel conflicted about that. Particularly as I’ve already linked to a game currently exclusive Amazon, a company I absolutely despise!</p> | |
| <p>The CEO and the unions have both suggested that people should send their opinions to <a href="mailto:thoughts@kickstarter.com">thoughts@kickstarter.com</a>, so that may be a way to go. We’ll keep on monitoring the situation. Sorry there’s no way to make this funny. But that’s how anger works sometimes.</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="How to make an edible Carcassonne board!" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VTzXr_fjGus?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p>There’s so much vying for my ‘and finally’ slot today! Let’s do a whistlestop round up!</p> | |
| <p>Bruno Faidutti has been in Tehran, <a href="http://faidutti.com/blog/?p=10944">and has posted a blog</a> (scroll down if your French isn’t what it used to be) with some photos of his exploration. He’s been hanging out in boardgame cafes, playtesting with publishers and looking at cats.</p> | |
| <p>Someone on Reddit made <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/damrxn/so_i_made_a_giant_backyard_edition_of_galaxy/">a giant outdoor version of Galaxy Trucker</a>, and all I have to say to that is that I hope they remember to yell ‘punch it’ whenever they activate their double engines.</p> | |
| <p>And we got an email from Danielle Schneider, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOwm9s4ECpkQW4QsDOCTVUA">aka the board game baker</a>, who has instructions on how to make an edible game of Codenames, complete with biting into the word-biscuits to find out what team it’s on. The assassin is spicy!! It gave me the opportunity to use the phrase ‘word-biscuits’. Everyone’s a winner!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-30-09-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>76</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>And with that, Team SU&SD Leave for SHUX!</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/and-with-that-team-susd-leave-for-shux/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/and-with-that-team-susd-leave-for-shux/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Thu, 26 Sep 2019 18:47:50 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[SHUX]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[SHUX 2019]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=44740</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: With just over a week until the third annual Shut Up & Sit Down convention, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/shux19/">which still has a good few tickets left (including one</a><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/shux19/"> day passes)</a>, it's time for our team to G.O.S.P. (get on some planes). | |
| For those of you attending, it's gonna be fabulous. For those <em>not </em>attending, I'm here to say that our content schedule for the next couple of weeks will be a little spotty. Keep an eye on the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shut.up.and.sit.down/">SU&SD Instagram</a> for any hijinks that occur, and expect the occasional written article, but probably no more than that. | |
| But fear not! We're going to return with all kinds of recorded shows, unusual jetlag-infused videos and tales of games big and small. | |
| Thank you for your patience, everybody. See you on the other side!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: With just over a week until the third annual Shut Up & Sit Down convention, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/shux19/">which still has a good few tickets left (including one</a><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/shux19/"> day passes)</a>, it’s time for our team to G.O.S.P. (get on some planes).</p> | |
| <p>For those of you attending, it’s gonna be fabulous. For those <em>not </em>attending, I’m here to say that our content schedule for the next couple of weeks will be a little spotty. Keep an eye on the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shut.up.and.sit.down/">SU&SD Instagram</a> for any hijinks that occur, and expect the occasional written article, but probably no more than that.</p> | |
| <p>But fear not! We’re going to return with all kinds of recorded shows, unusual jetlag-infused videos and tales of games big and small.</p> | |
| <p>Thank you for your patience, everybody. See you on the other side!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/and-with-that-team-susd-leave-for-shux/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>22</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 23/09/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-23-09-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-23-09-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 23 Sep 2019 14:04:44 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Heart: The City Beneath RPG]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Mint Co-operative]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Nunami]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[a garish nostalgia hole]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=44573</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: Welcome to the news, my greedy little fact-hounds. You’ve arrived to find me waist deep in an ethical quagmire. My news-galoshes are brimming with nuanced political mithering. How troubling. <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-09-19/">Last week we reported on the alleged union-busting of Kickstarter</a>, and stood in solidarity with the unionised workers. Obviously we still do. But this week sees the biggest glut of exciting-looking kickstarters I’ve seen in months, and it feels cruel to punish the creators of those projects for picking the platform as this skulduggery emerges. Former Kickstarter worker Clarissa Redwine had <a href="https://twitter.com/ClarissaRedwine/status/1173995672913268737?s=20">a strong twitter thread</a> about the escalation of the fired workers resistance <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/09/kickstarter-union-accuses-company-of-retaliatory-firings-in-nlrb-complaint.html">into a federal complaint</a>, and has highlighted that they aren’t asking creators to boycott, and so it follows they aren’t asking potential backers to snub those creators (or asking media folk to steer folk away). We’ll keep on monitoring the situation, and if you do back any of these tasty looking projects, you may want to think about how you can communicate to Kickstarter your feelings on the situation, and your solidarity with the workers.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: Welcome to the news, my greedy little fact-hounds. You’ve arrived to find me waist deep in an ethical quagmire. My news-galoshes are brimming with nuanced political mithering. How troubling.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-09-19/">Last week we reported on the alleged union-busting of Kickstarter</a>, and stood in solidarity with the unionised workers. Obviously we still do. But this week sees the biggest glut of exciting-looking kickstarters I’ve seen in months, and it feels cruel to punish the creators of those projects for picking the platform as this skulduggery emerges.</p> | |
| <p>Former Kickstarter worker Clarissa Redwine had <a href="https://twitter.com/ClarissaRedwine/status/1173995672913268737?s=20">a strong twitter thread</a> about the escalation of the fired workers resistance <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/09/kickstarter-union-accuses-company-of-retaliatory-firings-in-nlrb-complaint.html">into a federal complaint</a>, and has highlighted that they aren’t asking creators to boycott, and so it follows they aren’t asking potential backers to snub those creators (or asking media folk to steer folk away).</p> | |
| <p>We’ll keep on monitoring the situation, and if you do back any of these tasty looking projects, you may want to think about how you can communicate to Kickstarter your feelings on the situation, and your solidarity with the workers.<span id="more-44573"></span></p> | |
| <p>With those caveats thoroughly emptored, it’s my first duty it to jump on the hottest board game inspired story machine of the season: Root The Tabletop Role-playing Game.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-44583" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/3809ef64e02c7264490fb1fdcbcdf42a_original.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="250" /></p> | |
| <p>Root’s cuddly class war was <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-root-and-the-riverfolk-expansion/">one of the most hyped and broadly adored games of 2018</a>. An asymmetrical woodland wargame featuring stick-in-the mud dynasties, industrialist cats, and an insurgent alliance of militant muppet miscreants. The politically convoluted forest was all brought to life by Kyle Ferrin’s adorable illustrations. Those illustrations are also the star <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magpiegames/root-the-tabletop-roleplaying-game">of a role-playing system</a> that will have players as roguish vagabonds, travelling from clearing to clearing, interfering with and getting caught up in the schemes and dreams of the board game’s slowly unfolding war. It feels like a well chosen perspective on the setting, and there are promising promises of a political sandbox type system for a GM to pull you through.</p> | |
| <p>Perusing the Kickstarter forces me to admit I’ve no idea how to tell if something like this is going to hit the mark or not. Role-playing systems are fiddly beasts, and it’s very hard to get the correct blurring of system and background. Don’t forget about those caveats before you wind up waist deep in fancy bindings and optional bonus bits. The lack of solidarity isn’t the only reason we warn people to be wary of Kickstarter!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/91db87d3cc18d06e27d9356ffd26debd_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44584" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/91db87d3cc18d06e27d9356ffd26debd_original.jpg" alt="" width="1301" height="805" /></a></p> | |
| <p>It’s another role-playing game! Oh no! I’ve been left on my own too long!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gshowitt/heart-the-city-beneath">Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor’s Heart</a>, pulls off the trick of sounding a bit like a traditional dungeon crawler, but absolutely nothing like any dungeon ever previously imagined.</p> | |
| <p>Heart’s beating heart is a variation on the ‘resistance’ system that powered <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gshowitt/spire-rpg">Spire</a>. Heart takes its players underneath that monstrous tower and into a byzantine amorphous underworld populated by impossibly imaginative terrors and weirdnesses. Beautifully illustrated by Felix Miall, you’ll enter a world of junk mages, vermissian knights and, and I cannot stress this enough, something called deep apiarists. Your characters could end up fighting mirror spiders, an intergenerational dance virus, mad trees, knife cults, carnivorous pubs and owl hives.</p> | |
| <p>Honestly, the lore here is so sodden with ideas that I feel like if I could keep a tenth of this world in my head for long enough to run a game, it might just be the most thrilling thing I ever did. On the other hand, I might never be able to sleep again, so it’s a bit swings and roundabouts.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/0ac7e7058e4c071892b1d40432c9de67_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-44580" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/0ac7e7058e4c071892b1d40432c9de67_original.jpg" alt="" width="521" height="350" /></a></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/five24labs/mint-cooperative-the-minty-fresh-cooperative-game">Mint Co-operative</a> is the latest in a series of games about mints in little metal tins. It follows the tiny footsteps of Mint Works and Mint Delivery (a worker placement and pick up and deliver game, respectively).</p> | |
| <p>The latest iteration is co-op game in which, and I cannot believe I am writing this, you attempt to save the suburbs of Mintopia from the threat of gingivitis. You’ll be saving the city from being overrun by bad breath, using only a tinful of not actually mints and cardboard.</p> | |
| <p>This series baffles me slightly. I ended up buying the first two during the second Kickstarter, utterly enthralled by the cheapness, compactness and tidiness of the designs. It’s a cute bargain, what’s not to like? But despite reports they are sharp, simple but strong distillations of the genres they spring from, they gather dust on my shelves. I can’t find the motivation to learn or teach them. Beyond the size, I can’t see the hook, the story I’d tell someone to encourage them to play, and that’s so important to me.</p> | |
| <p>Perhaps the absurdity of the us versus halitosis narrative will nudge me over the edge on this one, but even after hearing the phrase ‘periodontal peril’ it never quite got me from a chuckle to an actual laugh.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/62b5daacaa41844f6b635fb1bdb26bb6_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-44581" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/62b5daacaa41844f6b635fb1bdb26bb6_original.jpg" alt="" width="315" height="500" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Matt and Quinns got very excited <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-97-meeting-your-shadow-self-and-other-excitements/">a few podcasts back</a> about Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid. A sharp little co-operative card combo beast battler, that might be more ‘how you remember something from your childhood’ than ‘how something from your childhood would look if you watched it now’.</p> | |
| <p>The game is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/165626423/power-rangers-heroes-of-the-grid-phase-2-back-to-the-grid">already back on Kickstarter</a> with a new season’s worth of expansions and Zeo-faffery. A slightly different generation of high-kicking brightly coloured heroes will add new a range decks to play with, alongside some extra evil nasties to fight. In a game of unique decks and interlocking powers, that’s a lot of possibility to bring to the table</p> | |
| <p>I honestly can’t make head nor tail of what you actually get when you back this project, but my word there’s a lot of it. It also appears to cost a tremendous amount of money, so there’s some big question marks for anyone not readily able to drop a few hundreds of dollars down a garish nostalgia hole.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44578" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/b7d06235113b2f58bfe2234b7e1a3ea8_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="383" /></p> | |
| <p>And here’s the real reason I couldn’t bring myself to ignore Kickstarter this week. While I’m furious at the possibility of union busting behind the scenes, I’ve always believed there’s so much merit in a system that can bring marginalised voices to wider audiences.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nunamigame/nunami-an-inuit-game/description">Nunami</a>, made by Inuit designer Thomassie Mangiok (no relation to recently-reviewed card game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-inuit-the-snow-folk/">Inuit: The Snow Folk</a>), is a game about human roles in ecological systems, and exactly the sort of thing that I find most valuable and exciting on the platform. Representing an Arctic environment slowly filling with a shifting landscape of animal life and humanity, the game looks like a pleasing little abstract aiming to present a unique perspective on the world. An unusual modular set up should guarantee some variety, and I’m really charmed by just about everything happening here. Lovely!</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44579" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Untitled-1-1.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="387" /></p> | |
| <p>Finally this week, we turn away from Kickstarter look at the other ‘biggest website in the industry’, Boardgamegeek, with <a href="https://www.peterjezik.com/bgg/">a lovely visualisation of how their top 100 has changed in the last year</a>. I love pretty intersecting lines, and it’s curious to see how quickly or slowly things have moved around the rankings. It’s a lovely snapshot of the ever shifting hype patterns from the slice of the board game community BGG rankings represent. Thanks Peter Jezik for making a pretty and intriguing thing (and also, I’m really sorry that my first question is ‘can you do it again for the last decade please?’)</p> | |
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| <title>Review: Detective Club</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-detective-club/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-detective-club/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Thu, 19 Sep 2019 13:06:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Party Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Detective Club]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Quick Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Bluffing Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[New to Games?]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Card Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[SU&SD Recommends]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Conflict-Free Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Creative Games]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=44338</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ben</strong>: Picture the scene: you are in an art gallery. The curator asks you to pick two paintings that match a specific word. They won’t, however, tell you what that word is. You run off and pick two different paintings; one of a horse, the other of an apple in a window. The curator then tells you the word they were thinking of was “escape”, and asks you why on earth you picked those two paintings.</p> | |
| <p>Welcome to the most unusual club in the world!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/detective-club/">Detective Club</a> is a party game that sees 4-8 players trying to match fabulous picture cards to different words. Each round, a different player will choose a word, write it on <em>all but one</em> of the adorable tiny notebooks the game comes with, shuffles them, and deals them out. Can you see where this is going?</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ben</strong>: Picture the scene: you are in an art gallery. The curator asks you to pick two paintings that match a specific word. They won’t, however, tell you what that word is. You run off and pick two different paintings; one of a horse, the other of an apple in a window. The curator then tells you the word they were thinking of was “escape”, and asks you why on earth you picked those two paintings.</p> | |
| <p>Welcome to the most unusual club in the world!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/detective-club/">Detective Club</a> is a party game that sees 4-8 players trying to match fabulous picture cards to different words. Each round, a different player will choose a word, write it on <em>all but one</em> of the adorable tiny notebooks the game comes with, shuffles them, and deals them out. Can you see where this is going?<span id="more-44338"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_135950121_HDR.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44331" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_135950121_HDR.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="700" /></a></p> | |
| <p>The player who chose the word then takes a a card from their hand that represents the word they’ve chosen, and places it on the table.</p> | |
| <p>The other players then look at the word that’s been written on their notebook, and collectively laugh, frown, squint, or all of the above (or they just pretend to if they received the blank notebook, but more on that later). You then go around the group, with everybody playing a card from their hand they think matches the chosen word, until each player has two cards in front of them.</p> | |
| <p>Let’s be clear before we move on; these cards are as gorgeous as they are dreamlike (‘very’ on both counts). If you’ve seen the abstract artwork of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-mysterium/">Mysterium</a> or <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-dixit/">Dixit</a>, you’ll know what to expect here. There’s genuine joy and intrigue as each player lays out another beautiful image in front of them, and players crowd round to pick out all the different aspects of the picture. This not only creates a pleasant tingle of excitement amongst the group, but also gives the Conspirator crucial thinking time.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_135746424_HDR.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44330" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_135746424_HDR.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="624" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Remember, one of the notebooks handed out is totally blank, meaning one player has no idea what connects the other images. As such, they are desperately scanning each picture to pick out a theme.</p> | |
| <p>Do these cards all depict travel? Regret? Sponges? The images are so abstract and surreal it’s never entirely clear. The Conspirator has little time to think, as once everyone has placed a second card the first player tells everyone what the word is and why they played the cards they did. What happens next made both me and Quinns laugh out loud when we read the manual. Quite simply, each player then has to explain how the cards they chose match the chosen word. If you only found out what the word was 15 seconds ago you better do a good job at convincing your fellow detectives that you had a detailed plan all along.</p> | |
| <p>This gives Detective Club a gentle element of hidden identity games. Once everyone has explained their pictures they then interrogate each other and try to find a weak link. Of course, normally a detective is trying to find out if a fact is true or not. Detective Club feels more like the Annual Art Critics Arguing Convention. You start to question; does that look like a tunnel, or a worm? You have fantastic moments where you have the realisation that a person isn’t lying, they just have such a weird imagination they see images completely differently.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_140114532_HDR.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44332" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_140114532_HDR.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="726" /></a></p> | |
| <p>This is where the strangeness of these images comes home to roost. You can be one of the players who knows what the chosen word is, but not have a single card in your hand that represents that idea or concept. This leaves you looking for increasingly abstract interpretations, like a 17 year old who has just discovered jazz and won’t shut up about it. Of course, a tenuous explanation makes you look guilty even if you’re not.</p> | |
| <p>Once everyone has voted on who they think the Conspirator is with the placement of an excellent little magnifying glass, everyone reveals, and scores points if they guess correctly or, if they’re the Conspirator or the first player who handed out the notebooks, they score only if less than two players identified the conspirator. After all, crime doesn’t pay. Unless people don’t know you’re guilty, in which case apparently it does.</p> | |
| <p>The pace of Detective Club is just right for a party game. There’s hardly any downtime, as spending time thinking is easily read as the actions of the guilty, so the structure of the game gently pushes players to act impulsively rather than overthinking each card. The only time there’s dedicated thinking time is when the first player is choosing and writing out the word. However, in a subtly efficient piece of game design, this is when players draw new cards, giving them a couple more pieces of art to admire.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_140508528_HDR.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44334" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_140508528_HDR.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="664" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Detective Club also gets massive points for being a very visual game, which makes it much immediately more inclusive. The version we had was French (which we barely speak), and after we’d learned the basic rules we never referred to the manual once.</p> | |
| <p>The only major criticism we have of Detective Club is around which groups it plays well with. Whilst the mechanics are simple and can be explained in a few minutes, there is a natural tendency for quieter detectives to be drowned out by their louder colleagues. That said, this is a common issue for a lot of similar games, and Detective Club somewhat mitigates this by encouraging players not to over-analyse their own artistic choices. In our games the more a player tried to explain their choices the guiltier they sounded. The fact that everyone gets a turn choosing words and the Conspirator is random each turn also keeps everyone involved.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_140758575_HDR.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44335" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190909_140758575_HDR.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="681" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Detective Club might remind people of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-spyfall/">Spyfall</a>, as both are games of trying to root out an impostor who’s missing the information that other people are. Whereas Spyfall relies on questioning one another and a somewhat artificial time limit, Detective Club is simply a case of playing two of six cards and hoping you can talk the right level of nonsense. It’s a significantly more relaxing experience. There are fewer cunning plays to be made, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Getting 8 people to concentrate on rules explanations and advised strategies is about as easy as getting 8 people to remember details of each others’ holidays. From 5 years ago.</p> | |
| <p>Instead, you’re better off thinking of Detective Club as a more grandiose version of <a href="https://oinkgms.com/en/a-fake-artist-goes-to-new-york">A Fake Artist Goes to New York</a>. Both games are excellently simple hidden identity games without the intense pressure that usually defines the genre. But where A Fake Artist is a masterpiece of simplicity, breaking out Detective Club feels more like an event.</p> | |
| <p>You’ll likely already know if you have friends who would enjoy Detective Club. If you’re the kind of social group that has as much fun arguing about a film as watching it then you should definitely investigate it. If you have a group that would prefer to sit in quiet contemplation as they mastermind a complex strategy them may find it a touch too raucous. The psychological to and fro combined with increasing levels of pseudo-artistic interpretation are a huge amount of fun, and definitely worthy of a recommendation.</p> | |
| <p>If you’re still unsure, try reading this review and deciding if I actually played <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/detective-club/">Detective Club</a>, or if I’ve only read the manual and I’m actually bluffing it. Spoiler: I did play Detective Club and it’s a blast.</p> | |
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| <slash:comments>34</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>Impressions: Yomi</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/impressions-yomi/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/impressions-yomi/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 18 Sep 2019 15:45:40 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Impressions]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Combo Fighter]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Yomi]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=44207</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: The people have spoken! After <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-combo-fighter/">our glowing review of Combo Fighter on Friday</a>, Shut Up &amp; Sit Down was besieged by comments asking what we thought of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84838/yomi-second-edition">Yomi</a>, a well-liked 2011 game with a very similar foundation (as well as a teeming <em>crowd</em> of 20 playable characters).</p> | |
| <p>We hadn't played Yomi when we filmed the Combo Fighter review. Today, we have played Yomi, and can provide some official SU&amp;SD impressions!</p> | |
| <p>So let's start here: Holy kittens, Yomi is *bizarre*.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: The people have spoken! After <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-combo-fighter/">our glowing review of Combo Fighter on Friday</a>, Shut Up & Sit Down was besieged by comments asking what we thought of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84838/yomi-second-edition">Yomi</a>, a well-liked 2011 game with a very similar foundation (as well as a teeming <em>crowd</em> of 20 playable characters).</p> | |
| <p>We hadn’t played Yomi when we filmed the Combo Fighter review. Today, I can announce that we have played Yomi, and can provide some official SU&SD impressions!</p> | |
| <p>So let’s start here: Holy kittens, Yomi is *bizarre*.<span id="more-44207"></span></p> | |
| <p>Like Combo Fighter, Yomi is a fighting game that sees players simultaneously selecting a card, revealing, and then one player wins the rock/paper/scissors battle. Like Combo Fighter, winning a round in Yomi then lets you play more cards from your hand in a bruising combo.</p> | |
| <p>…But unlike Combo Fighter, which has strikingly clean cards and cardplay, Yomi has the busiest cards <em>I have ever seen in a game.</em> Cards so busy that they probably have three phones and a heart condition.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190918_114413.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44216" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190918_114413.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="798" /></a></p> | |
| <p>There are fifteen different features you might find on these cards, but also note that every card is <em>double-ended,</em> meaning that there can be upwards of 20 pieces of relevant info on a single card (as well as a picture of your character in one of three different art styles that is upside-down half the time). Fan out your starting hand of seven cards, and you’re potentially staring down the barrel of <em>more than 100 pieces of information.</em></p> | |
| <p>You can also see a “Joker” on the left up there. That’s because every fighter deck can also be used as an ordinary deck of playing cards! This is a design decision that it both amazingly awkward and semi-elegant. It’s awkwalegant!</p> | |
| <p>However, where Yomi benefits from this deluge of data is in presenting players with an absolutely excellent hand management game.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190918_114144.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44213" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190918_114144.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="631" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Where in Combo Fighter players always draw back up to five cards, in Yomi you draw just one card a turn, <em>but</em> you can draw an extra card if you play an unambitious “Normal” attack or a successful block. In fact, block cards always return to your hand unless they’re countered with a throw.</p> | |
| <p>What this means is that players who aggressively extend their combos are also thinning out their hand of cards (and available options) for future turns, while players who cautiously stockpile cards will have an easier time utilising Yomi’s rules to do with forming cards into poker-style pairs and straights. Since a game of Yomi takes three or four times as long as a round of Combo Fighter, this system gives player plenty of rope to hang themselves should they go in for the kill too early or too late, which is a lot of fun.</p> | |
| <p>In 2010, beloved board game reviewer Tom Vasel said that Yomi was one of his favourite games to play, and after trying it myself I can’t say that I’m surprised. The peculiarities of each character and how to pilot them through this thought-provoking puzzle made me want to stick with a single character and hone my skills, but it was equally tempting to crack open a new deck and see what it was like, and that feeling of being spoilt for choice is a sure sign of quality.</p> | |
| <p>I don’t think the array of teeny text on the cards has aged all that well, the horrible <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/528426485_preview_Yomi_Valerie_Char.png">male</a> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Yomi_Persephone_Char.png">gaze</a> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/image-asset.jpeg">art</a> definitely belongs in the past (my gosh, it’s even seedier than the video games it’s emulating), and it’s hard to teach Yomi’s array of unusual rules without sounding somewhat demented, but the game itself shines through all of this bad weather. It’s just a very strong design.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190918_114230.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44215" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190918_114230.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="729" /></a></p> | |
| <p>That said, it’s also crystal clear what Combo Fighter does better. It’s profoundly ironic, but Combo Fighter is actually a better example of “Yomi”, <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Yomi">the intangible mind game of “predicting your opponent”</a> that was coined by the designer of Yomi, David Sirlin.</p> | |
| <p>In our video review we described Combo Fighter “as if Inception took place in an alley at 2am”; it’s a game where at least 5 of the 10 minutes that a round takes is spent inside of your opponent’s head. By contrast, in the actual game of Yomi both players are presented with a haystack of information and the complex hand management game that’s mostly hidden from your opponent, which means that while prediction is still part of the game, it’s harder for both players to derive satisfaction from the outcome. Did you actually out-think your opponent there? Or were they half-expecting to lose, instead choosing to play sub-optimal card so that they could keep building a straight? Where Combo Fighter creates a painful impact with each flip of a card, flipping two cards in Yomi creates a lot of reading and the question of whether the losing player wants to deploy a Joker for the Rewind Time feature.</p> | |
| <p>But as I say, overall I was very pleasantly surprised by Yomi, and I certainly wasn’t expecting our review of Combo Fighter to lead me to another great game!</p> | |
| <p>That said, despite some similarities Combo Fighter and Yomi are meant for two very different audiences. Combo Fighter is a light bit of fun that I could teach to anybody. I also think it best captures the spirit of fighting games, which is an endless cycle of “What’s happening,” “Oh my gosh that was awesome,” “Oh crap I’ve lost”. It’s a AAA game for reasons of art, attitude and accessibility, and it’s the box that I’ll be keeping in my collection.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190918_114214.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44214" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_20190918_114214.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="705" /></a></p> | |
| <p>By contrast, Yomi is for people who like their games to have serious staying power. It’s for competitive folks who want to get down and dirty in a rich lil’ system, and it better simulates the <em>technical complexity</em> of fighting games. Where in Combo Fighter you’ll have figured out what makes two characters special within five minutes, in Yomi learning the fundamentals of two characters might take two hours. If you want a 1v1 game that’ll keep you and your roommate or partner scratching your head for months, I think you could do a lot worse than Yomi.</p> | |
| <p>If you’re interested, Yomi appears to still be available from <a href="http://sirlingames.com/yomi">Sirlin’s own site</a>, where you can also download Yomi as a free print’n’play (which you could totally stick onto a normal deck of cards!). It’s also available digitally on <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/287960/Yomi/">Steam</a> and <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yomi/id594630025">iOS</a>, in case you’ve always wanted a fighting video game, in card game form, in video game form.</p> | |
| <p>Now if you don’t mind, I’m heading off to sit in my office with the curtains drawn and my hands over my ears, so that I can ignore the small group of people telling me to <a href="https://www.level99games.com/exceed">try Exceed instead</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Bye!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/impressions-yomi/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>49</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 16/09/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-09-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-09-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 16 Sep 2019 13:38:05 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ticket to Ride]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Trick Legacy]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Two Khans]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Last Station]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Chrono Corsairs]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 7 – Japan & Italy]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[kickstarter]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=44096</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Hlph um kumphlll. Mummph blumph fulmph bugublfu | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: What was that, Ava? | |
| <b>Ava</b>: *large tearing noise and a series of ragged gasps* Help me, Quinns, I’m stuck inside this baseball! | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: ... | |
| <b>Ava</b>: It’s an allegory, Quinns, and a warning that this week’s games news is a bit more inside baseball than usual. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: I can just about understand that, but how did you get in there!? | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Never doubt my commitment to a bit, Quinns. Also, I’m sorry I ruined your baseball.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Hlph um kumphlll. Mummph blumph fulmph bugublfu</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: What was that, Ava?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: *large tearing noise and a series of ragged gasps* Help me, Quinns, I’m stuck inside this baseball!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: …</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s an allegory, Quinns, and a warning that this week’s games news is a bit more inside baseball than usual.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I can just about understand that, but how did you get in there!?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Never doubt my commitment to a bit, Quinns. Also, I’m sorry I ruined your baseball.<span id="more-44096"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/99f403399173879a263366579c9e36d9.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-44107 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/99f403399173879a263366579c9e36d9.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="576" /></a></p> | |
| <h6><em>Kickstarter’s Brooklyn offices.</em></h6> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s impossible to ignore the big news this week, which is that <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/09/kickstarter-union-organizing.html">Kickstarter has been accused of union-busting</a> after three employees were sacked in rapid succession. The workers say there’s no clear reason given for their firing, and it’s hard to ignore the common factor being union organisation. Over a hundred Kickstarter creators (this site included) have <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/09/we-stand-with-the-kickstarter-union">signed an open letter in condemnation of the crowdfunding company</a>, standing in solidarity with the fired workers and the rest of the union.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s certainly a reminder that beneath all of the glossy PR, Kickstarter is still a tech company. SU&SD will be monitoring the situation closely, and we’ll be thinking twice before using the platform for any future projects.</p> | |
| <p>SU&SD has a strange relationship with Kickstarter. It’s the source of a couple of fun news stories a week, yet we often find ourselves warning people away from the most hyped projects. Despite this, there’s no doubt that Kickstarter has helped bring new voices and unusual projects into the world, so it’s hugely disappointing (if predictable) that a company that theoretically supports grassroots projects appears opposed to the rights of its workers.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Of course, I would point out that a company that uses its platform to extract a percentage from as many people’s creative labour as possible is a precise definition of exploitative capitalism, but so is pretty much all labour in our economic system!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/tt_mc7_spreadbox_jap_ML.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44106" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/tt_mc7_spreadbox_jap_ML.png" alt="" width="1557" height="1000" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Back to news about actual board game boards. Days of Wonder has announced the destinations for the seventh(!) map pack of the enormously successful Ticket to Ride.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.daysofwonder.com/en/presskit/TT_MC7/">Ticket to Ride: Japan and Italy</a> offers two new maps, each with their own special features, and some of the most <a href="https://presskit.daysofwonder.com/tt_mc7_jap_bullet.png">adorable little bullet train minis</a> we’ve ever seen. Look at that lovely snub nose locomotive. I’ll take ten!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: You can’t, I’ve taken them all, they are mine now</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Quinns’ bullet trains are (were?) part of the Japan map, representing a joint infrastructure project that players can contribute too, but are then shared by everyone. If you do the most work on the bullet train network, you’ll be rewarded, but drag your heels and you might find yourself losing points. It’s a nice little twist! Italy will have you touring the country’s regions to gather bonuses, whilst wrestling ferries over stormy seas.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4913347.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44104" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4913347.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="900" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/286261/chrono-corsairs">Chrono Corsairs</a> has been announced by Tasty Minstrel Games, and it will be the greatest board game ever made.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Are you sure about that? It sounds like someone fell asleep drunk in front of Time Bandits and woke up to find themselves shaping mashed potato into the shape of a game board.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, how dare you. Sometimes a games writer has to pin their colours to the mast. Chrono Corsairs is a game of several pirates crews trying to collect the most treasure on <em>Ouroboros Island,</em> where time forever loops, and when it releases I will never need another game ever again</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I can’t hear the word ouroboros without thinking of the Red Dwarf bit about it being a baby in a cardboard box called ‘our Rob, or Ross’.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Essentially, Chrono Corsairs is an iterative programming game. Each turn players all place a new event card in the timeline, and then you play out these event cards, reset the board (but leave the event cards!) and add another action to the queue. I’m being silly up above, but I actually think this sounds like an elegant way of modelling Hollywood timeline-twisting shenanigans.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Some other pop culture reference masquerading as a joke.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: How about, “So it’s Primer meets Robo-rally?”</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: *Celebratory air horn* We’ve got a news!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4905508.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44103" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4905508.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="670" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I was pretty excited this week when I got an email from Askhan Javaheri, CEO of Iranian publisher <a href="https://twitter.com/dorehamigames">Dorehami Games</a>. He wrote with information about two new games, The Last Station and Two Khans, and both sound like intriguing prospects.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/286891/last-station">The Last Station</a> tickled my wick quite emphatically by promising a storytelling social deduction game set in Veresk, the last train station before Tehran. The outlaw Marvan is being sent to trial, and some players will be trying to rescue him, while the rest try to keep him at the station until the train is ready to take him to his trial and execution. Players will have secret roles with some shared information, but it sounds like a more narrative concept than most Werewolf-alikes. Your character is not tied to your secret faction, and you’ll play through a series of events to attempt to uncover who is who, and what will happen in a slowly escalating confrontation. It sounds like a lark, and the art is gorgeous.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/286892/two-khans">Two Khans</a> looks like a deductive version of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsdy_rct6uo">Spin Doctors’ ‘Two Princes’</a>, with two teams vying to kill competing heirs and leave their chosen Khan as the holder of the throne by dawn. Again, it feels like a nice twist on social deduction, and I’m keen to find out more.</p> | |
| <p>Please get in touch, publishers from further afield! It’s lovely to hear from you!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I am *so* here for Iran joining the international board game scene. I was lucky enough to do a lot of travelling when I was younger, and Iran was the friendliest place I’ve ever been. Even if part of my sightseeing was this <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/zoroastrian-towers-of-silence">“Tower of Silence”</a>, which I believe arrived on Earth from the Dark Souls universe.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of historical games, and all the best details of history come from people who have lived near to it. All history is local history to somebody. I really hope we can start a trend for regional publishers making games out of weird little incidents we’d never otherwise hear about. More perspectives always means better angles!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic3493767.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-44102" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic3493767.png" alt="" width="450" height="305" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Perhaps you thought legacy games were over, but maybe it’s just time they learnt a new trick or two. You’ll get this joke in exactly one more sentence, I promise.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/224443/trick-legacy">Trick Legacy</a> will take you on a tour of some of the most popular trick taking card games, using two perfectly normal decks of playing cards and a fantasy ruleset that changes as you play. It sounds like a campaign version of our <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/card-games-that-dont-suck/">card games that don’t suck series</a>, and that alone is an intriguing prospect. The subtleties and peculiarities of trick taking games is a subject I could get lost in for hours, and the chance to play through that discussion as a legacy game is something I never expected to be offered.</p> | |
| <p>That said, it might all be bobbins, and for trick-taking games I already have Skull King, The Fox in the Forest, and as many games as I can throw a standard fifty two card deck at.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’ve never been simultaneously so repulsed and so onboard as I was watching <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/video/132320/trick-legacy/trick-legacy-intro">this short explanatory video</a>. I think you’re dead right that this game faces some humongously stiff competition. Just a couple of weeks ago I discovered the fantastic Tournament at Camelot, which is also a trick taking game of fantasy combat that threatens to spiral into madness at any second. But equally, a legacy game that modifies a 52 card deck is SUCH a good idea, and in this one I can play a skeleton</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: That video is incredibly off-putting. I was quite heartened that they’ve found a way to get out of the replayability problem of Legacy games, in that actually you can reset the game with two standard card decks, which is the cheapest reboot kit I’ve ever seen.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Why do they *sell* those reboot kits? Can you imagine anyone finishing a legacy game and going “You know what? Let’s reset this baby up a notch and go again!”</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I imagine it’s one of those things that you only manufacture two of, so you can claim you’re selling it, so that people feel reassured that they <em>could</em> reset it if it came to that? Answer the perceived criticism, knowing you don’t actually have to fix anything? Maybe they’re all just empty boxes.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Untitled-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44101" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="522" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Heading back inside that baseball, Nathan McNair of Pandasaurus games has had a fascinating dive behind the scenes of publishing probabilities <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/94438/business-board-games-superstar-effect">reblogged onto boardgamegeek</a>. He’s talking about “the Superstar effect”, and how the risks of publishing and distributing games cause scarcity and gaps in demand. It’s an interesting read, especially in light of Stonemaier Games’ Jamey Stegmaier <a href="https://stonemaiergames.com/damned-if-i-do-damned-if-i-dont/">announcing that he feels damned whatever he does</a>, while discussing the accusations of artificial scarcity around Wingspan and Tapestry. It’s a cutthroat world inside that baseball, I’m glad I’m mostly on the sidelines, and not being pitched past the stiff wooden bat of potential success, into the waiting leather glove of over-eager, impatient fans.</p> | |
| <p>I know absolutely nothing about baseball, by the way.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Whoever thought inside baseball was a good idea? There’s hardly enough room to swing the bat and you’ll get mud on the sofa.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: But at least it’s easier to get…..A HOME RUN.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-16-09-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>68</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Tactics and Tactility #3 – Songbirds’ Pretty Little Vice</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-3-songbirds-pretty-little-vice/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-3-songbirds-pretty-little-vice/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Thu, 12 Sep 2019 16:08:27 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tactics & Tactility]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Songbirds]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=43907</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<em>[<a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/category/tactics-tactility/">Tactics and Tactility</a> is our column about the feelings, details and pleasures of tabletop gaming. This week we're looking at Songbirds, and nasty little puzzles.]</em> | |
| <span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: There's a specific sort of puzzle that takes you by surprise. You hear some rules, you start making gentle moves, pushing towards one path or another, placing pieces, making choices.</span> | |
| <span style="font-weight: 400;">Then things start to tighten. The points and the prize and the folks sat beside you suddenly crowding in. Everything matters.</span> | |
| <span style="font-weight: 400;">And it's only going to get harder.</span> | |
| <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/212765/songbirds">Songbirds</a> is a beautifully sweet game of finding your favourite bird and hoping it's eaten the most berries.</span> | |
| <span style="font-weight: 400;">Except actually, Songbirds is a ruthlessly cruel game about second guessing, outmaneuvering, and slowly being left with no options whatsoever.</span>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>[<a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/category/tactics-tactility/">Tactics and Tactility</a> is our column about the feelings, details and pleasures of tabletop gaming. This week we’re looking at Songbirds, and nasty little puzzles.]</em></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: There’s a specific sort of puzzle that takes you by surprise. You hear some rules, you start making gentle moves, pushing towards one path or another, placing pieces, making choices.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Then things start to tighten. The points and the prize and the folks sat beside you suddenly crowding in. Everything matters.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And it’s only going to get harder.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/212765/songbirds">Songbirds</a> is a beautifully sweet game of finding your favourite bird and hoping it’s eaten the most berries.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Except actually, Songbirds is a ruthlessly cruel game about second guessing, outmaneuvering, and slowly being left with no options whatsoever.</span><span id="more-43907"></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Each card played on the table makes the outcomes of the game more certain, and gives you one less option. You start with a hand of cards, and watch all those lovely birds slowly fly away. Soon you’ve abandoned a suit that is doing too well. You’ve left yourself with only the biggest, most muscular birds, when what you need is a deft little flutter.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Every turn you have less options, more information. Every move takes you closer to having to decide what you’ll end up with. What this grid of ugly numbers and pretty birds adds up to.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a slowly closing vice, a gently cranking grip that’s not going to let up until somebody has won.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-azul/">Azul</a> has this too, your first moves are carefree and gentle, but every success closes down your options, makes you more likely to fall into someone’s trap, more likely to drop a huge pile of tiles on the floor.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-arboretum/">Arboretum</a> is a different sort of vice. Each turn giving you two agonising decisions, what to play is nearly easy, but what to discard? What hope to throw away? What opportunity to pass up? That’s mind-numbing.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This sort of slowly closing space is the fundamental structure of roll and writes. <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-welcome-to/">Welcome to..</a> is not really about building, it’s about crossing off options. Making choices that fundamentally reduce what you can do next. Even yahtzee has this. The tricky decision of which door to close permanently to yourself, knowing the probabilities, but not the future.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s all traps we build for ourselves, and that slowly closing maw is gripping.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I love to be crushed by a puzzle. I love to remember just how cruel a game is. I love to be dragged through a series of decisions, regretting each one, and hoping that I’ve made the right call. I like it when old moves leer up at me, make me remember what I had hoped for, what I had wished for, what I didn’t get.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A good puzzle reveals itself in stages. It unfolds before you, opening out into more and more interesting possibilities.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A good puzzle gets crueler at every step, slowly closing up around you, until you’re trapped in impossible decision after impossible decision.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A great puzzle does both. It lets you do it with your friends. Beautifully crushed together, like something out of a Smiths song. Except not tedious.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There’s something about being caught in a trap together. Something about watching your friend’s mind crumple up at the same time as yours. It’s hard not to laugh when you realise everyone at the table is close to crying about which bird, tree or mosaic to place next.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Games make you feel things. Some mix of camaraderie and frustration and hope that sets your heart just a little bit on fire. And that’s exactly what I’m here for.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Anyone fancy a game? It’ll only crush you a little. I promise.</span></p> | |
| <p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, folks, which games make you squirm and squeal as the walls fall around you? Which games let you make easy decisions early on, and pay for them later? What’s the most vivid noise you’ve made when you’ve realised your mistake?</span></p> | |
| <p><em>Tactics & Tactility is illustrated by <a href="https://www.tomhumberstone.com/">Tom Humberstone</a>.</em></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-3-songbirds-pretty-little-vice/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>30</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Review – Inuit: The Snow Folk</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-inuit-the-snow-folk/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-inuit-the-snow-folk/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 11 Sep 2019 14:57:02 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Conflict-Free Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Games for Two]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Card Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[New to Games?]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Inuit: The Snow Folk]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=43857</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Kylie</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/inuit-the-snow-folk/">Inuit: The Snow Folk</a> is a deeply alluring card-drafting strategy game that sees 2-4 players vying for the title of the greatest leader of the Snow Folk. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">First up, let me take you on a tour of the rules. Inuit is a breath of fresh air as far as rules go – it’s incredibly simple. On your turn you’re going to draw a card from the deck and place it face up in the middle of the table. This communal area is known as the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great White</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can then optionally turn over some more cards before finally choosing to take one or more of the face up cards and putting them in the relevant space on your player board. The game ends when the polar nightfall card is drawn from the deck and whoever scores the most points wins.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s it. Rules tour is done. </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phew</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">!</span></p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Kylie</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/inuit-the-snow-folk/">Inuit: The Snow Folk</a> is a deeply alluring card-drafting strategy game that sees 2-4 players vying for the title of the greatest leader of the Snow Folk. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">First up, let me take you on a tour of the rules. Inuit is a breath of fresh air as far as rules go – it’s incredibly simple. On your turn you’re going to draw a card from the deck and place it face up in the middle of the table. This communal area is known as the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great White</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can then optionally turn over some more cards before finally choosing to take one or more of the face up cards and putting them in the relevant space on your player board. The game ends when the polar nightfall card is drawn from the deck and whoever scores the most points wins.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s it. Rules tour is done. </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phew</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">!</span><span id="more-43857"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6599.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43852" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6599.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="665" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The heart of this game is obviously the cards themselves. As leader, you will be hiring Inuit and placing them within certain occupations for the good of your tribe. The more Inuit recruited to each occupation, the stronger that action becomes. As you can only activate a single occupation per turn, you need to think strategically about where you’ll place each Inuit you bring into your village. These villages are represented by colourful individual player boards with slots outlining the different occupations for the Inuit.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The occupations essentially determine what cards you can take from the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great White. </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">For example, the Whaler, Bear Hunter and Seal Trappers allow you to collect additional orcas, polar bears and seals. Shamans allow you take rite and spirit cards which have game-altering effects. Elders allow you to recruit the Inuit into the occupations in the first place, and Warriors allow you to ‘defeat’ other Inuit out in the <em>Great White</em> and take their weapons. All of these actions help in your efforts to score points. Scouts on the other hand allow you to add more cards to the <em>Great White</em> at the start of your turn.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, all of this sounds fine, right? Fine, but kind of </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">basic</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Where’s the tempo on this? Well, if we peek beneath the ice cap we see that this game is a lot deeper than you can initially see. </span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6580.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43853" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6580.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="633" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let’s talk first about the Inuit. Each Inuit card represents a human being. They all have names and tribes which they belong to, represented by the colours on the player boards. You can hire an Inuit from any tribe to work in your village but they’ll always remain loyal to their own tribe, meaning at the end of the game they’re going to be worth negative points if they don’t match your tribe’s colour. Now, you could just not hire any other Inuit and handily negate any point deductions, but the more Inuit you hire the more cards you can sweep from the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great White</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. And this, my friends, is where the game begins to come into its own, and it’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the decisions.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inuit is all about tricky little choices. Every turn and every decision is risk versus reward. It’s about trying to strike a certain amount of balance so you can always take something on offer whilst simultaneously trying to specialise in areas that rival villages have neglected. It’s about keeping options open, whilst recruiting enough Bear Hunters to make sure you’re ready to clean up when all those high point polar bears come strolling into the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great White</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>.</em></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In order to do that, though, you have to have Inuit employed in all the right places, which sometimes means avoiding that shiny four point polar bear so you can prepare for the bears arriving later. But this is a risk! What happens when an opponent starts handing out bear-poking spears to a wave of new recruits? Are the bears still worth it? Should you specialise in seals instead? They’re worth less points, but there’s more of them? But, what about them bears? And what about whales? And I haven’t even thought about the spirit cards? But <em>bears?</em> </span></p> | |
| <p> </p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6584.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43854" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6584.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="679" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here’s where the scouts come in. The scouts add to the shameless push-your-luck element of the game that helps to elevate your turn and up the tension. The more scouts you have, the more cards you can add to the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great White</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. This allows you more of a chance of getting a set of cards you want, but might also open up choices to the next players. Whilst scouts can seem risky, they’re altogether exciting. Do you have the nerve to pull another card? What’s it going to be? Is it worth it? What about another?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are a multitude of ways to score points and lead yourself to victory but ultimately you need to learn to go with the ebb and flow of the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Great White</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. And that’s what’s so pleasing about Inuit. The decisions you make are limited to just the few cards scattered across the centre of the table at the time. Subsequent plays of the game let you know more about the cards in the deck, but in the long run there are no guarantees of the order in which they’ll appear. Some games that rely on ‘luck of the draw’ can feel too aimless and fluky, but the speed and light weight of Inuit alleviates much of this. It’s easy on the rules but the decisions are still punchy enough to keep you around. Every turn still feels taut and every choice feels impactful. </span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6588.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43850" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6588.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="691" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inuit also comes with a couple of ‘expansion’ modules which you can add in as and when you fancy them. These additions are a bit of a mixed bag, though. Conflict cards, for example, start a ‘war’ between two tribes. Whilst this offers players a different way of scoring points, wars can feel a little forced when they break out due to a certain card being drawn. Also, for such a clean-cut family-friendly game, wars feel a little out of place. Another module adds season cards – ongoing effects or minor tweaks to game rules that come and go as the deck depletes, and offer a welcome level of variety to more, </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">ahem</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, seasoned players. Overall though, the expansion modules are a lovely added bonus.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inuit is ultimately a charming and welcome addition to my collection. But there’s just one thing… Please, can we take a moment to talk about the box size?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This might seem pretty pedantic to some – after all, who cares about a box if the game is good? But hear me out here, it’s a problem when the box is </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">that</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> big and the game is effectively a deck of cards. </span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6589.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43851" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_6589.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Inuit is a light, fast-paced card</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">game much like the <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-piepmatz/">recently reviewed Piepmatz</a></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. It’s a palette cleanser between bigger games, often playing in as little as 30 minutes, even at four players. But this box signifies an expectation of a much bigger, more strategic, and ultimately deeper game than what’s actually there. This isn’t so much about practicality or storage as it is about perception. This box belies the weight of the game and shoots itself in the foot because of it. The box matters here because this could become a much loved, well-travelled small box card game and instead it might be passed by. And that would be a damn shame. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This isn’t a richly thematic game, but there’s plenty here which helps create a story, one that’s not only beautifully illustrated but that’s been handled with a lot of care, honour and respect by the developers, something that’s clearly spelled out in the publisher’s note at the beginning of the rulebook.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In their own words, this game isn’t a simulation of Inuit life but more of an appreciation for a culture and people. This admiration is very apparent from the overall feel of the experience, and the game does a wonderful job of evoking a small sub-section of Inuit life. </span></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-inuit-the-snow-folk/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>52</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 09/09/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-09-09-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-09-09-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 09 Sep 2019 11:10:38 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Board Game Book]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Irish Gauge]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Half Truth]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[House Flippers]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Paranormal Detectives]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Azul: Summer Pavilion]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Spies and Lies: A Stratego Story]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Fox in the Forest Duet]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[books]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=43710</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><b>Ben</b>: Oh jeez, I’m introducing the news. Please don’t let me break anything. They never let the intern pilot the Enterprise. <b>Ava</b>: Luke Skywalker was basically an intern when he got a pop on an X-Wing, and he blew up an entire ‘that’s no moon’. Dream big, Ben! Blow something up! <b>Ben</b>: Hello! It’s time for some gaming news! If you’re ready for it, great, if not let me know and I will tip you out of bed and shout news in your face until you’ve had your fill or I get tired. <b>Ava</b>: That’s the spirit!</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ben</b>: Oh jeez, I’m introducing the news. Please don’t let me break anything. They never let the intern pilot the Enterprise.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Luke Skywalker was basically an intern when he got a pop on an X-Wing, and he blew up an entire ‘that’s no moon’. Dream big, Ben! Blow something up!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: Hello! It’s time for some gaming news! If you’re ready for it, great, if not let me know and I will tip you out of bed and shout news in your face until you’ve had your fill or I get tired.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: That’s the spirit!<span id="more-43710"></span></p> | |
| <p>Quinns popped <a href="https://www.renegadegamestudios.com/fox-in-the-forest-duet">The Fox in the Forest Duet</a> in the news doc, and I immediately wanted to mock him for being excited that one of his favourite two player games was getting a new two player variant. But then I actually looked at it and it’s a co-operative trick-taking game, and my word I’m already enthralled by the possibility.</p> | |
| <p>This game is a follow up to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-the-fox-in-the-forest/">a lovely trick taking game</a> of special powers woven with a fairy tale narrative to nudge you and your opponent into a ruthless game of trying to win just enough, but not too much. Duet adds a shared board to the game, a forest you’re trying to navigate by winning tricks. Details are sparse, but there’s the potential for something lovely here. Trick taking games sing when you’re given plenty of reasons to not want to win, and working towards a co-operative goal without (presumably) being able to communicate is a smart way of doing exactly that. Fox in the Forest was stunningly well balanced, so I’m really excited for this one.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: Maybe it’s my brutally competitive side, but I find small box co-operative games often feel a bit too wooly. They’re normally a bit too quick and small to feel like you’re achieving something epic, and when I’m playing a 2 player card game I usually want a tight 1 on 1 experience. That said, I love anything with foxes (forests, Starfox, Fox’s biscuits, 20th Century Fox, Ultra-Fox), and the art is gorgeous, so I’m certainly as curious as a fox near an unopened bin.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Stop right there. What on earth is an ultrafox and how can I meet one, and hug one, and call one George?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: Sorry. Ultravox. I always mix those two up.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This means nothing to me.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4936292.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43717" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4936292.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="863" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: W. Eric Martin is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/94214/game-preview-spies-lies-stratego-story-or-nostalgi">still pumping out all the hottest pre-Essen Spiel news</a>, and he tickled my news gland with this reboot of an old classic.</p> | |
| <p>Spies and Lies: A Stratego Story is a game that takes some of the conceits of Stratego, a classic chess-like game where your pieces’ strengths are hidden from your opponent, and turns it into a bluffing game of cards and mathematics. You and your foe play cards opposite each other, following strict numerical rules and indicating which cards fall within certain thresholds. The cards then face off against each other. It sounds like a smart idea, but I’m worried I’ve got sucked in because of the connection to Stratego, which was one of the first games I fell in love with as a kid.</p> | |
| <p>It was a summer trip to France with my extended family and an attic filled with the sounds of a Weetabix tape of eighties pop hits. The small stack of games we found included Stratego and Escape from Colditz, and while the latter took eight hours and I’m pretty sure my big brother was a bit too excited to get to be a nazi, Stratego was a tight, ruthless and easy to comprehend game of deception and mischief. I’m not sure if it still holds up, but it sure fills me with nostalgia.</p> | |
| <p>All of which amounts to, don’t listen to me when I fall for ‘A Stratego Story’ as a marketing line.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4930887.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43716" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4930887.jpg" alt="" width="1656" height="736" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Come and have Azul if you think you’re hard enough, because the beautiful and mostly abstract tile laying game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/94099/collect-tiles-once-again-time-azul-summer-pavilion">is getting a third iteration</a> following <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256226/azul-stained-glass-sintra">Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra</a>, this time set in a summer pavillion and with the tiles shaped like diamonds! The same tile drafting mechanics <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-azul/">of the original Azul</a> lie at the core of Azul: Summer Pavilion, which adds several round rosettes to place pieces on with bonuses for connected tiles of the same colour. Each round will make one colour wild, so presumably you can create unexpectedly different chains each turn? There’s some curious ideas there, but I do wonder if the bottled lightning of Azul is too tough a trick to pull off twice.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: I’m a total sucker for a strong theme, particularly one as unique as Azul’s. That said, designer Michael Kiesling’s dedication to educating people about 16th century Portuguese architecture borders on creepy (I spent 5 minutes trying to beat Ava’s Azul pun and couldn’t, so let’s pretend I came up with something great).</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4746946.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-43721" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4746946.png" alt="" width="350" height="419" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ever since <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-mysterium/">Mysterium</a> twisted <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-dixit/">Dixit’s</a> dreamlike card associations into a mystery solving machine, there’s been a gamut of games asking players to solve mysteries with one player giving vaguely frustrated clues to the rest of the table.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/280136/paranormal-detectives">Paranormal Detectives</a> is building hype at the moment, and will have one ghost player helping the titular investigators solve a crime using one of <em>nine</em> different confused methods of communication. Ranging from ‘arrange this noose in an appropriate shape’ to ‘trace the answer on my palm’, I’m unclear whether this is far too many ideas, or just the right amount of too many ideas. Time, and the answer I inscribe upon your palm, will tell.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: Naah, naah, naah, nanana naah, Aaaa-zuuuullllll….</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: …</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: Sorry, I was still thinking of puns.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4867260.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43720" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4867260.png" alt="" width="1200" height="726" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: For the second week running, we’re covering something from <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-magic-maze-maximum-security/">Magic Maze</a> publishers Sit Down Games. Does anyone know what the statute of limitations is on the ‘no relation’ joke?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/282341/house-flippers">House Flippers</a> is a real-time sand timer-spinning real estate market, that will have players racing around the board to profit from buying, repairing and selling buildings. Sit Down is on the road to a reputation for the weirdest takes on real time games. This is certainly more straightforward than the knot-tying <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-02-09-19/">Wormlord</a>, but the fact that that’s a phrase I had to write at all indicates a willingness to go weird that I quite admire.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: There’s something distinctly bourgeois about literally watching sand trickle down until your hardworking tenants have to cough up on rent day. It’s now got me genuinely worried that my landlady has a huge 30 day sand timer with my face stuck on it that she just sits and watches, gleefully laughing as I run out of sand.</p> | |
| <p>Actually, scratch that. If doing <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-99-sea-football/">podcast #99</a> has taught me anything, it’s to not start a conversation about sand on this site.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/674d51564694864bfa47fe9fa3015b53_original-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43723" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/674d51564694864bfa47fe9fa3015b53_original-1.jpg" alt="" width="824" height="312" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I got a bit over excited about this because Magic designer Richard Garfield plus incredible artist Ian O’toole plus the world’s second best Jeopardy player sounds like a terrible Ocean’s Eleven but for games.</p> | |
| <p>Unfortunately, I can’t see much that makes <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/halftruthgame/half-truth">kickstarter trivia game Half Truth</a> more interesting than asking questions out of a book. The conceit is that you are given multiple choice questions with three correct and three wrong answers, and you’re encouraged to sometimes double down and aim to get two or three answers instead of just one. I imagine there’s an amount of goading and frustration there, but I can’t see it singing. On the other hand, I don’t think I’m in a position to argue with Richard Garfield about what makes a game good. It’s not far off hearing about a new James Brown song and saying ‘hmm, doesn’t sound that funky to me’.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: What do you mean I can’t pull shiny cards!? Pfft. A lot of my family switch off the second I start talking resource management, but finding out who is the smartest is something that they can immediately get behind. Half Truth will either be a Christmas hit at the Winterton household, or cause innumerable arguments. Or both.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4659151-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43724" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4659151-1.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="658" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I may have spent too long digging around the news mines, and lost my news-mind a little, but I was tickled by <a href="https://hollandspiele.com/blogs/hollandazed-thoughts-ideas-and-miscellany/designing-irish-gauge">this Design Diary for Capstone’s new edition of Irish Gauge</a>, a simplified train and stock trading game that I’m pretty excited about.</p> | |
| <p>Having looked at a lot of these diaries, they tend to follow a very standard format of dodgy prototypes with numbers and letters on, tales of failed designs and bits that had to be sloughed off and dead ends and publisher meetings and years of refinement. That makes it kind of hilarious to read Tom Russell say ‘yeah, the whole thing popped into my head while I was stuck in some mild traffic and it was pretty great and didn’t need changing’. He doesn’t even sound smug about it, he’s reasonably bewildered by the fact.</p> | |
| <p>Creativity is weird folks! Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking they know how it works.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/be51dc77a5bc6883889f30631ea3e666_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43718" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/be51dc77a5bc6883889f30631ea3e666_original.jpg" alt="" width="1016" height="566" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Finally, The Board Game Book: Volume 2 <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owenduffy/the-board-game-book-volume-2">is now on Kickstarter</a>! We covered volume 1 of this unusual almanac <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-06-18/">when it was crowdfunded last year</a>. Essentially, you’re paying for an enormous tome summarising the year in board games, stuffed full of interviews, observations and a dazzling array of professional photographs.</p> | |
| <p>In all honesty, the team behind The Board Game Book do their job so well that leafing through Volume 1 fills me with anxiety. So many beautiful games! Could the team at SU&SD not have covered just a few more?! We left so many behind…</p> | |
| <p>No. No time for tears. Shut Up & Sit Down will do what it must, and The Board Game Book will be there to pick up the pieces.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-09-09-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>63</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 02/09/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-02-09-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-02-09-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 02 Sep 2019 18:06:10 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Mind]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Merchants Cove]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Gùgōng: Pànjūn]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[ClipCut Parks]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Wormlord]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Mind: Extreme]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Paris: New Eden]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Gùgōng]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=43210</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Sorry I’m late to the doc, Ava. I put too many news-chillies on my news-pizza last night, and it has caused problems with my ability to use the news-toilet.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Hey! Adding the word news to everything is MY thing. Let me make you some news-peppermint tea, while you decide if you need any news-ointment for your poor, spicy news-bum.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I thought I’d put you on the back foot by talking about my body, but I just feel like I’ve opened Pandora’s Box. Which isn’t the only thing that’s been opened this morning, let me tell you.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: THAT’S ENOUGH OF THAT! TO THE NEWS.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Sorry I’m late to the doc, Ava. I put too many news-chillies on my news-pizza last night, and it has caused problems with my ability to use the news-toilet.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Hey! Adding the word news to everything is MY thing. Let me make you some news-peppermint tea, while you decide if you need any news-ointment for your poor, spicy news-bum.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I thought I’d put you on the back foot by talking about my body, but I just feel like I’ve opened Pandora’s Box. Which isn’t the only thing that’s been opened this morning, let me tell you.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: THAT’S ENOUGH OF THAT! TO THE NEWS.<span id="more-43210"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ijQDzEGA.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43237" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ijQDzEGA.png" alt="" width="1536" height="1536" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: I’ve got a soft spot for French visions of the future. I went to a preview of The Fifth Element on my 13th birthday and I thought it was the best thing in the world. A few years later I played Beyond Good & Evil and loved it like a pig in fart-powered jet-boots loves his photo-journalist niece.</p> | |
| <p>All of which means I’m predisposed to be warm to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284429/paris-new-eden">Paris: New Eden</a>. Due out at Essen from Matagot games, this game has you drafting dice to try and survive in an overgrown post-apocalyptic but quite cosy looking Paris. With trees climbing up the Eiffel Trellis, you’ll be recruiting survivors, chasing objectives, and fulfilling secret missions. It looks pretty, but it’s only the art that’s currently setting it apart. I hope the game itself is as charming as Bruce Willis in a rubber vest.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I am very enamoured of the question “What if the apocalypse was alright?<em>”</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m looking forward to greeting the end of the world with a laissez-faire ‘mais oui’.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4919554.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43238" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4919554.png" alt="" width="1200" height="855" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ooooh. Now this is a thing I’m conflicted about!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-the-mind/">The Mind</a> is probably my favourite find of last year. It’s the perfect blend of simplicity, theatre, drama and pulling faces. It’s a delight, it’s elegant, it’s smart, and all that from a game as simple as dealing from a deck that goes from 1-100 and saying ‘we’ve got to put these cards in order, but we can’t talk about it’. It’s a game I can have people playing within thirty second of having suggested it, and that can be understood and enjoyed by anyone but the most stubborn fun-haters.</p> | |
| <p>So obviously I’m excited that Wolfgang Warsch is following it up with <a href="https://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/93874/make-way-more-mind-extreme">The Mind: Extreme</a>?</p> | |
| <p>It’s not obvious. At least half of what I love about The Mind is its simplicity. The idea of tripling the length of ‘the teach’ just to make it harder for people to win a game I’ve never won? Adding a second deck, and some complexities about whether you should be going up or down and some complexities about whether you should be playing the cards face up or face down? It all sounds really interesting, really challenging, and entirely not for me.</p> | |
| <p>That said, if you’re part of a more coherent gaming group than mine, and you’re so synched up with your gang that you need to throw a few wrenches in the works? This might be perfect for you. For me, I’m happy with the game I’ve already got. One I know I can throw at people and have them groaning and cackling and thinking they’re geniuses in equal measure.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: They recently did this with <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/209325/game-extreme">The Game: Extreme</a> as well. If this site ever has to do some kind of live 24 hour fundraiser, we should spend the stream exclusively playing <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/geeksearch.php?action=search&objecttype=boardgame&q=extreme">games that have “extreme” in the title</a>. It would be a hell of a show.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m opening the pool by betting ‘The Game of Life: Extreme Reality’ is going to be the one that breaks you.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/69995563_2792148857471010_3609654939791392768_o.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43239" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/69995563_2792148857471010_3609654939791392768_o.jpg" alt="" width="1984" height="1467" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: And the award for ‘Ava’s search term of the week’ goes to ‘Sit Down Wormlord’.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/282347/wormlord">Wormlord</a> is coming soon from Sit Down games (still no relation), and appears to be some combination of four player chess and a knot-tying workshop. I’m utterly bewildered by the prospect of a real time game about tying shoelaces and untying your opponents knots. There’s not enough information available yet to find out how this actually works, and if it’ll be as tedious as doing your shoelaces for the hundredth time in a day, ,ut I do know that it is called WORMLORD, and that’s quite enough for me.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I don’t want any more worms on this site. I delivered 4,000 carefully-chosen words of analysis and jokes in <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-dune/">my Dune review</a> and all the comments said was that they liked the 10 seconds where Matt was a worm.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Yeah. But I don’t know if you saw Matt’s worm costume? It was pretty cool.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: IT WAS A SLEEPING BAG</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4909847.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-43240 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4909847.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: You know what you need to cut through a gordian knot like the above? You need a lovely pair of scissors. And scissors are exactly why we’re excited about <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/93695/enter-ever-changing-dungeons-clank-legacy-acquisit">ClipCut Parks</a>, probably the world’s first roll’n’snip.</p> | |
| <p>As in a roll’n’write game, you’ll be rolling some dice to determine your options on everyone’s turn. What marks this out, is that instead of scribbling, you’ll be snipping out little squares of paper covered in landscaping features. The dice tell you how long your cuts can be, and you’ve got to figure out ways to let free the squares you need to build the parks your bosses have asked you to. It’s a weird little twist, and I haven’t seen a physical puzzle like this since the folding mat game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/206844/fold-it">Fold-It</a> (and the other folding games that followed it). I’m not entirely convinced the puzzle will be sharp enough, but I’d sure like to find out whether it’s running with scissors, or falling over whilst running with scissors.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4907518.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43236" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pic4907518.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="695" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Over on Kickstarter, today marks <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamebrewer/gugong-panjun-deluxe-expansion">the launch of Gùgōng: Pànjūn</a>. This is the first expansion for Gùgōng, a game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-gugong/">we reviewed here</a>, and a Kickstarter that I’ve been waiting for with bated breath.</p> | |
| <p>Pànjūn will add 4 optional modules to the game of feudal Chinese bribery, and while I love Gùgōng, I’m more than ready for a few complications. “The Peasants Revolt” and “The Summer Palace” will each be new locations that fit alongside the main board, broadening the game considerably, while new gift cards will allow players to offer officials a ludicrously expensive pair of jade knives… as well a new “zero” card representing a terrible, terrible gift. Just awful.</p> | |
| <p>At the time of writing, Gùgōng is competing with <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-pipeline/">Pipeline</a> to be the best new eurogame we’ve played all year, and it’s hard to imagine two more different games. The former is a delightfully colourful patchwork of fruit, paper and jade, and the latter is a grey capitalist behemoth. We’re also hearing very good things about <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230244/black-angel">Black Angel</a>, another eurogame with fascinating presentation.</p> | |
| <p>It feels like 2019 is the year that show-stopping eurogames realised that it’s nice to *look* nice, and I’m loving it.</p> | |
| <p>EDIT: Haaang on. I’ve just taken a closer look at this Kickstarter, and it looks like the only pledge options are for the “Deluxe” versions of Gùgōng and the Pànjūn expansion, which include expensive cosmetic upgrades like a slipcase with a velvet finish. Worse, the deluxe version of Pànjūn is incompatible with the standard base game.</p> | |
| <p>How disappointing! Personally, I’d avoid this Kickstarter and wait for the cheaper, standard versions of Gugong and the expansion to arrive back in retail.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/merchamt.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-43241" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/merchamt.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="729" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’ve been ducking out of writing about <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/512772051/merchants-cove">Merchants Cove</a> for a few weeks, because the only reason it intrigued me was the lovely cardboard dragon boats. But a game cannot float on boats alone, and as the game has sailed through it’s targets, I’ve been wondering if I’ve missed something.</p> | |
| <p>On closer inspection, Merchants Cove appears to share something of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-root-and-the-riverfolk-expansion/">Root’s</a> passion for asymmetry, with each player taking a different merchant, and their own entire minigame. You might be matching coloured marbles in the alchemist’s lab, drafting dice in the blacksmith, or pushing your luck as a wandering pirate. All this is attached to a core system of trying to get the right goods for the visiting adventurers.</p> | |
| <p>This could really float *my* boat, but I’m very reluctant to give it a concrete endorsement, as that’s so many moving parts that need to be well-oiled. Root’s asymmetry worked for me because the core of the game could be taught surprisingly quickly, and every faction had the bulk of their rules spelled out in front of them at all times. Root’s been notorious for splitting opinions, and that’s after going through an obviously solid polishing process. I hope Merchants Cove gets the same, and comes out as shiny as one of those easy to bump off alchemical marbles.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I read this whole Kickstarter with increasingly disbelieving sputters. If I was wearing a monocle it would have popped out and fallen into my tea. This is very, very ambitious. Designer Carl Van Ostrand is making six distinct games that all fit under the umbrella of a bigger game. Most designers are lucky to design one good game!</p> | |
| <p>But I can’t pretend that I’m not in love with the idea of everyone fretting over distinct minigames, which is something we haven’t seen since the excellently silly <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/susd-play-space-cadets/">Space Cadets</a>.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Space Cadets didn’t even need to balance those games against each other, as it was a co-operative affair. I’m very worried that someone’s going to feel like they drew a very short straw when they realise they’re getting screwed by an entirely different machine to everyone else.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Yeah. Then again, there’s something exquisitely funny about taking an action on the main board that causes your friend to have a bad day at work, when you don’t even understand what they do for a living.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Let’s hope it gives us all the right sort of groans. Unlike those chillies.</p> | |
| <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> | |
| <p dir="ltr" lang="en">My grandmother passed away. Her funerals were today, but here I’d like to talk about the most important thing I couldn’t spend too much time on in her eulogy: her love for Dungeons & Dragons. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DnD?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DnD</a></p> | |
| <p>— Antoine H. (@AntnHz) <a href="https://twitter.com/AntnHz/status/1165011404086284289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></p></blockquote> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: And while Quinns is hiding in the bathroom, I’ll sneak in a little heartwarmer of a story. Antoine H <a href="https://twitter.com/AntnHz/status/1165011404086284289">took to twitter to expand on a eulogy he gave for his grandma</a>, and how she got into Dungeons & Dragons at the tender age of 75. Everything about this story is lovely, and it is inevitable you’ll tear up at the parting words: ‘Never change, never loose your family spirit, and keep on playing Dungeons & Dragons’.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Oh my goodness. I’m not crying, you’re crying</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-02-09-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>81</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Tactics and Tactility #2 – With your eyes closed</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-2-with-your-eyes-closed-close-your-eyes/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-2-with-your-eyes-closed-close-your-eyes/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Thu, 29 Aug 2019 10:19:44 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tactics & Tactility]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Just One]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=42806</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><em>[Every two weeks, Tactics &amp; Tactility explores the culture and magic of tabletop. To read more, check out <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/category/tactics-tactility/">the series' archives</a> or Ava's original <a href="https://tacticsandtactility.wordpress.com/">Tactics &amp; Tactility blog</a>.]</em></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: Some games begin with a ritual. An incantation of instructions that call forth the playing field.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some games have an exchange of secrets. Something hidden. Choices to be made, information shared, and not with everyone, not by everyone.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When this happens, we do something incredibly simple, incredibly mundane. It’s an unusual enough social ritual that it brings magic, uncertainty, dread and wonder.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sometimes, when we play games, we close our eyes.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I'm playing <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/254640/just-one">Just One</a>, at the local pub, and it's my turn to be led towards a particular clue with the help of the other players. I pull a card, call out a number, and wait while everyone thinks and scribbles. When everyone's ready, I close my eyes...</span></p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>[Every two weeks, Tactics & Tactility explores the culture and magic of tabletop. To read more, check out <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/category/tactics-tactility/">the series’ archives</a> or Ava’s original <a href="https://tacticsandtactility.wordpress.com/">Tactics & Tactility blog</a>.]</em></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: Some games begin with a ritual. An incantation of instructions that call forth the playing field.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some games have an exchange of secrets. Something hidden. Choices to be made, information shared, and not with everyone, not by everyone.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When this happens, we do something incredibly simple, incredibly mundane. It’s an unusual enough social ritual that it brings magic, uncertainty, dread and wonder.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sometimes, when we play games, we close our eyes.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m playing <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/254640/just-one">Just One</a>, at the local pub, and it’s my turn to be led towards a particular clue with the help of the other players. I pull a card, call out a number, and wait while everyone thinks and scribbles. When everyone’s ready, I close my eyes…</span><span id="more-42806"></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Plunged into darkness of your own free will, your senses come alive a little and you take a mental step back. You think about how odd you must look, eyes closed, surrounded by a cluster of folks showing tiny whiteboards to each other and nodding approvingly, or grunting with dismay. You think about how you look, and you hear everything. Each person’s reaction is a glimmer of hope or worry about what you’re going to face when you open your eyes.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I open my eyes and see some words written before me, and a couple of blank slates. I make a guess, and we all grin at our cleverness.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Board games are full of strange rituals like this. Gestures and actions and movements that look different from the outside to how they feel. Moments imbued with weight and importance. Closing your eyes is an act of vulnerability, an act of trust. So is playing a boardgame.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A friend of mine tells me that whenever he’s at a gig and he finds himself thinking about the people around him, or his plans for tomorrow, or his aching shoulders, or whatever mundane distraction is tugging at that moment. He shuts his eyes and listens. He tries to put the music back in command of the moment. There’s something powerful in closing your eyes.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most common closed eye moment in games is the beginning of a social deduction game, like <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/the-opener-werewolf/">Werewolf</a> or <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/how-play-resistance/">The Resistance</a>. The long chant from one player as they bid certain roles to open their eyes, look for their friends, indicate arcane powers with thumbs and fingers, and close their eyes.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s often full of giggles. A whole table full of people with closed eyes is an unlikely thing. The sound of one voice giving very particular, quite theatrical instructions is inherently giggle-worthy.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But it’s also the intensity of the moment, the weird, powerful hum of doing something strange. At its simplest, you are sitting with people, and then shutting them out. You are losing a sense temporarily, voluntarily. You shut out the world to make something particular happen.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s magic. It’s darkness. It’s vulnerability. It’s strangeness.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wrapped in that darkness, you cast the spell that makes the game happen. Hear the words that empower or disempower you. There are secrets in the dark, it’s nerve wracking and confusing, and all part of the fun.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And when you open your eyes, you smile, relieved, and wonder who amongst you has changed in the night. What did you miss out on, what’s changed?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s just a little scary. Stepping out of the world for a moment.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Board games are an agreement to step into a shared world. To turn a table into something that doesn’t follow the usual rules of the world. With your eyes closed, you open up a whole new world of possibilities, and you stop, and you wonder, and you play.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is.</span></p> | |
| <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">So folks, what’s the weirdest thing that’s happened when you’ve closed your eyes during a game? When the lights have gone out, what’s made you giggle or worry? Also, if you aren’t sighted, how do these bits of games work for you? I don’t want to just focus on abled experience, even if the above obviously has.</span></em></p> | |
| <p><em>Tactics & Tactility is illustrated by <a href="https://www.tomhumberstone.com/">Tom Humberstone</a>.</em></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>19</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Review: Piepmatz</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-piepmatz/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-piepmatz/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2019 14:20:11 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Conflict-Free Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Piepmatz]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Quick Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Card Games]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=42686</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/piepmatz/">Piepmatz</a> is a profoundly beige card game for 2-4 players about songbirds fighting over a bird feeder. Now, I should be up front- this game is not a best-in-show card game, as I talked about in my recent <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-6-nimmt/">6 Nimmt review</a>. But you know what? I think it comes very close indeed. I’ve loved my time with it, and it’s now nesting in my game collection. Let me tell you how it works. This design’s a little fussy, so bear with me. “Pretty rough teach on this one,” as I learned never to say on <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-89-those-unattainable-vegetables/">podcast #89</a>.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/piepmatz/">Piepmatz</a> is a profoundly beige card game for 2-4 players about songbirds fighting over a bird feeder. Now, I should be up front- this game is not a best-in-show card game, as I talked about in my recent <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-6-nimmt/">6 Nimmt review</a>.</p> | |
| <p>But you know what? I think it comes very close indeed. I’ve loved my time with it, and it’s now nesting in my game collection.</p> | |
| <p>Let me tell you how it works. This design’s a little fussy, so bear with me. “Pretty rough teach on this one,” as I learned never to say on <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-89-those-unattainable-vegetables/">podcast #89</a>.<span id="more-42686"></span></p> | |
| <p>Here’s what a game of Piepmatz looks like in progress:</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0694.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42679" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0694.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="950" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Do you see? It’s a vertical bird feeder, with some birds crowding around the bottom.</p> | |
| <p>To begin the game, players are each given a hand of four bird cards. On your turn you’re going to drop a bird from your hand at one of the perches at the feeder, and at the end of your turn you’ll pick up a replacement bird from a separate ‘display’ of bird cards.</p> | |
| <p>It’s what happens at the bird feeder that scores you points… Or sometimes loses you points. Now, pay attention! Don’t let the teach buck you off, as if you were a six year old boy on the back of a hog that was in turn balanced on a mechanical bull.</p> | |
| <p>Grip tight! <em>Focus!</em></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0695.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42680" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0695.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="655" /></a></p> | |
| <p>At each perch of the bird feeder the biggest bird (meaning, the highest numbered card) will fly to the front of the line, with a queue of smaller birds waiting in a row behind them.</p> | |
| <p>IF, AND ONLY IF, the bird you dispatched to the feeder causes the total value of queueing birds to be higher than the value of the bird at the perch, the social pressure becomes TOO MUCH for that big bird. This bird then leaves and flies straight to your personal “scoring area”, <em>and</em> you collect some seed from the bird feeder based on how much you overshoot their value. So, if a value 3 bird is driven off by birds with a total value of 5, you collect the second seed card in the feeder, because 5 minus 3 is two. It’s also worth mentioning that seed cards can range from 1-3 points, so you’ll need to play with precision to receive the most calorific morsels.</p> | |
| <p><em>Then</em> the biggest bird in the line flexes its way forward to perch at the feeder, but the exact same thing might happen to them- if their value is <em>still</em> lower than the total of the queue, you’ll also add this bird to your scoring area and get yet another seed in a cascade of points and avian anxiety.</p> | |
| <p>HOWEVER, if the bird you send to the feeder on your turn is too small to dislodge the bird at the front of the line, you instead get a consolation prize- you can choose a bird in your hand that’s the same size or smaller than the one you sent to the feeder and drop it straight into your scoring area.</p> | |
| <p>When the bird feeder is empty of seeds, the game ends. The player with the most points wins!</p> | |
| <p>…and then, with a heavy heart, you tell your assembled group of players that you need to explain about <em>scoring.</em></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0698.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42681" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0698.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="787" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Above you can see what a player’s scoring area might look like at the end of a game. I’m going to be a bit thuggish now and use bullet points. At the end of the game:</p> | |
| <ul> | |
| <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Everyone gets points for their seeds</span></li> | |
| <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Everyone gets points for each male and female breeding pair of the same species</span></li> | |
| <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">For each species you check which player owns the most birds, and that player adds together their numerical value, divides by two, and gets that many points.</span></li> | |
| </ul> | |
| <p>And there, that last rule? That’s the game. Like the superb card games <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/double-feature-parade-incan-gold/">Parade</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-arboretum/">Arboretum</a>, players are scrabbling to collect cards, but the entire game is tinged with dread because it might all be for nothing. Yes, that’s a mighty impressive flock of blackbirds you’ve collected, making blackbirds function as blank cards (blankbirds?) for everyone else at the table. But you can only relax for as long as you can be <em>sure</em> that you’ll still have more blackbirds than anyone else at the end of the game.</p> | |
| <p>And so, Piepmatz enjoys an atmosphere of progress, but also tension. You’re adding to your score every single turn… probably?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/12312.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42677" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/12312.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="609" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Besides this, the strategy in Piepmatz revealed itself to me in increments, lending it a quiet mystery that kept me coming back for game after game. Behind the black, glassy eyes of this game is an intelligence greater than you first suspect.</p> | |
| <p>For one thing, the choice of which card to add to your hand at the end of your turn (or even which card to use to nudge a prize from her perch) might seem inconsequential, but you’ll come to realise that you’re actually seeding* the game with the birds that will eventually end up in people’s scoring areas. Yes, you’re king of the cardinals <em>now.</em> But if you keep sending cardinals to the bird feeder under the assumption that they’re useless to the other players, an opponent might start deliberately collecting them and challenge you for that pointy red crown.</p> | |
| <p>Also, filling your hand with great big birds that will arrive at the bird feeder like a wrestler sprinting towards the ring is going to be great for dislodging other birds and giving you seeds, but we need to talk about crows and squirrels!</p> | |
| <p>This is actually my favourite part of the game. There are crows and squirrels shuffled into the seed deck that will eventually take an interest in the crunchy kernels in your bird feeder. They’re always going to arrive at some point in your game, and players might spent half the game nervously anticipating them.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0699.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42682" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0699.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="609" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Squirrels and crows, you see, turn the whole game on its head. When they show up they attach themselves to seed cards and then brutalise any player who ends up taking that seed. Squirrels mug you for further seeds (losing you as much as 10% of your final score), and taking a crow scares away one of the birds in your biggest collection- meaning, whatever species you were leading the table in, whether you’re boss of the blackbirds or baron of sparrows, now they might not score at all.</p> | |
| <p>And this leads to a wicked pivot about half-way through a game of Piepmatz. Suddenly the bird feeder is clogged with crows, and this goes from a game of batting birds around left and right to trying not to disturb <em>anything.</em> I want to say that there are shades of Blackjack in this, with nobody wanting the bird queue to go bust on their turn, but it honestly just reminds me of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kndIxjQsw-Q">Don’t Wake Dad</a> and I don’t entirely know why.</p> | |
| <p>The point is that savvy players will prepare for this very moment. If you seed** your hand with low cards in preparation for these nasty animals, then you can simply enjoy the show when the squirrels show up, because they won’t bother you.</p> | |
| <p>Or maybe you’ll <em>choose</em> to tussle with a squirrel, because it might not be that bad! Losing two seed cards at random means you could lose 2 points, you could lose 6. Are you feeling lucky? And for all of the subtle strategy in Piepmatz, this is one of my favourite things about it. This is a very clever game and it’s not the easiest to teach, but it has all of these sumptuous little zones where you can turn off your brain and just <em>gamble</em>, as if you were turning off your car’s engine to coast down a hill.</p> | |
| <p>If you dislodge a bird and the difference is more than 4, you don’t draw any of the 4 cards in the feeder but instead draw blindly from the top of the deck, <em>and it could be a crow</em>. If you don’t like any of the birds in the display, you can take a chance by drawing blindly from the top of the deck, just like in Ticket to Ride. And at the end of the game, players pick 2 birds from their hand to add to their collection, just like in Parade, which means Piepmatz always ends in a spicy showdown.</p> | |
| <p>But if Piepmatz’ strategy is unobvious, its flaws *are* obvious. As I said before, it’s fussy. It’s a fussy thing to play.</p> | |
| <p>So much of the joy of card games is in the delicate tactility of holding (and fanning) a hand of cards, and simply flattening them and flipping them on the table. Piepmatz comes pretty close to frustrating this because of the breadth of admin that you have to perform on your turn. Once you’ve played a card on your turn, this card then moves other cards, then you pick up a card, then another, then a third card, all of which go in different places, THEN you reveal a new card from the top of <em>two</em> decks. If you’re not playing on a fabric surface, that’s a lot of cards to try and get your fingernails underneath.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0703.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42684" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_0703.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="577" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Also, while the pictures of the birds from artist Ben Pinchback are perfectly lovely, Klemens Franz’ art design – the card backs, the templating, the relentless oatmeal-iness of it all – is so weak as to almost feel like sabotage. Piepmatz clearly wants to look elegant and distinctive, but it ends up looking alternately plain, inelegant, and even repulsive. Who decided on two different shades of weird wrought iron cardbacks? And who chose to dress the sparrows in Pepto-Bismol pink?!</p> | |
| <p>But I don’t really care. That’s the nice thing about card games. Nobody expects the world from them, and this one especially takes up hardly any space at all. Piepmatz might be a hard game for me to tell you to go out and buy, but once I was done taking photos of it I slipped it straight into my card game collection without a second thought. Like a nest in a tree, I might not see it often, but it’s intricate, beautiful, and I’m happier knowing it’s there.</p> | |
| <p>DISCLAIMER: Just don’t buy the edition that comes in a big egg.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Piepmatz-Little-Songbirds-Easter-Edition-4-min.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42691" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Piepmatz-Little-Songbirds-Easter-Edition-4-min.jpg" alt="" width="837" height="600" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Did you think I was joking? I’m not. There it is. Game and egg in one unholy package. It’s like someone at Lookout Games turned to his colleague and said “You know the problem with board game boxes? They’re don’t wobble enough.”</p> | |
| <p>Probably do not buy the egg edition.</p> | |
| <p>That is all.</p> | |
| <p><em>Thanks.</em></p> | |
| <p>*Pun intended</p> | |
| <p>**Pun not intended</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-piepmatz/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>50</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 26/08/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-26-08-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-26-08-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2019 17:37:35 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Monopoly Socialism]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Alice in Wordland]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Orleans Stories]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Maracaibo]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Era: Medieval Age]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Monopoly]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=42576</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, you must dampen the news and lift it to my forehead. Brighton is experiencing the last big, thick heatwave of the summer. I don’t know if I’ll survive. <b>Ava</b>: It’s not just Brighton! It’s a bank holiday, so air all across the United Kingdom has turned into a thick, hot porridge, and I’m so glad we get to slip into a nice cool bath of news together. <b>Quinns</b>: Ah, I forgot. Not only do the banks get a day off, so does air. Not news, though! The news never stops, and we never stop never stopping it. Onwards!</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, you must dampen the news and lift it to my forehead. Brighton is experiencing the last big, thick heatwave of the summer. I don’t know if I’ll survive.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s not just Brighton! It’s a bank holiday, so air all across the United Kingdom has turned into a thick, hot porridge, and I’m so glad we get to slip into a nice cool bath of news together.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ah, I forgot. Not only do the banks get a day off, so does air.</p> | |
| <p>Not news, though! The news never stops, and we never stop never stopping it. Onwards!<span id="more-42576"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4909435.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42596" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4909435.jpg" alt="" width="806" height="481" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Alexander Pfister, the man behind Shut Up & Sit Down favourites <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-isle-of-skye/">Isle of Skye</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-great-western-trail/">Great Western Trail</a>, has announced his latest big ol’ strategy game! <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/276025/maracaibo">Maracaibo</a> will see players sailing in a circle around the sun-drenched Carribean, stopping only at ports to use their specific action. In other words, it’s the same foundation as Great Western Trail, making this game Great Wet Trail.</p> | |
| <p>…That’s probably the last time I’ll be using that nickname, as it sounds gross.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It does sound gross! But I do think that marrying that ‘looping around a randomised selection of actions’ with ‘grabbing stuff, and finding the right place to put it down’ is really smart.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Yes. Something that makes Maracaibo stand out, though, is the promise of a “quest mode” which will tell players who pursue the quest a “little story”. In other words, Pfister is the latest designer to try and bring a few scraps of storytelling to the otherwise cold and calculating genre of management games.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’ve yet to try out the two campaign expansions for <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183840/oh-my-goods">Oh My Goods</a>, a delightful little Pfister card game that has literally no space in it for story telling. I do think it’s an odd trend. I’m nervous about squeezing stories and campaigns into my belovedly dull European infrastructure (or my beloathedly insensitive colonial trading), I’m worried it just adds more paste to the sensation of a pasted on theme.</p> | |
| <p>But speaking of adding stories to management games…</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42600" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4911042.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="585" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Hopefully the latest from Reiner Stockhausen won’t send you to Bore-leans, given that it’s a dramatic variant of ‘pulling folk out of a bag’ game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-orleans/">Orleans</a>.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ah, the prequel to ‘pulling alpacas out of a bag’ game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-altiplano-the-traveller-expansion/">Altiplano</a>.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: A vital part of the ‘pulling things out of bags’ cinematic universe.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/93771/reiner-stockhausen-invites-you-relive-orleans-stor">Orleans Stories</a> will include an introductory and epic story mode, that will shuffle up the base game and give you a set of shifting goal posts and restrictions. This will let you and your fellow French Nobles pluck people out of a little bag and send them out from the titular city and into the wild world of the Loire Valley.</p> | |
| <p>I’m a bit nervous about the prospect of player elimination between the game’s eras, as sitting down to play a game and then being told you have to stop while your friends carry on is normally a bit of a blow, but I want to see how they’ll mix up the already quite satisfying game.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/era_laser_cut.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42592" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/era_laser_cut.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="957" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh my. Matt Leacock has given <a href="http://www.leacock.com/blog/2019/8/16/era-medieval-age-design-notes">a massive wordsplurge</a> about his latest invention, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/270971/era-medieval-age">Era: Medieval Age</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Era is (nearly) a reboot of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37380/roll-through-ages-bronze-age">Roll Through the Ages</a>, but also the start of a new series. Replacing the roll’n’write writing with physical buildings, the bronze age with castle-time, and the dice with more dice, Era will have you racing to build walls, homes and workplaces for a whole gang of dice-shaped folk representing the different classes and social roles of medieval society.</p> | |
| <p>Watching the game make the leap from pen and paper to lovely lumps of plastic is a really good narrative for this sort of design diary, and I’m definitely curious for a game that takes the building frustration of rapidly closing options with something that you can show off to everyone at the table. This could be a really lovely little knot of tactility and table presence, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the series develops.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42593" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/cthulhubox_systemlogo.png" alt="" width="700" height="459" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Leacock’s other series, Pandemic, is going through <a href="https://www.zmangames.com/en/news/2019/8/24/2019-pandemic-survival-worlds-and-looking-ahead/">some very particular rebranding</a>. I didn’t even know that the recent Pandemic special editions Iberia, Rising Tide and Fall of Rome, were called the ‘Survival Series’, which I’m reliably informed is not a wrestling match. The Survival Series is based on the European localities that hosted the Pandemic Survival World Championships made with local designers. Fascinating, yet poorly marketed.</p> | |
| <p>You can forget all of that immediately, as Z-Man Games has decided that if people didn’t know about it, there wasn’t much benefit to it. They’re rebranding the whole line of games that actually use the core pandemic mechanics (which adds the Reign of Cthulhu game to the list, which I understand was not designed in collaboration with any elder gods) as the Pandemic System. This differentiates them from games that just happen in the ‘Pandemic Universe’, which <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-27-05-19/">I’ve already goggled at when talking about Pandemic: Rapid Response</a>. Still the fictional universe I least want to live in.</p> | |
| <p>This is all very inside baseball, and technically very tedious. ‘Some games to have a slightly different label on them’ doesn’t really warrant news, except that this is one of the biggest names out there, and Z-Man Games’ continually desperate Pandemic-pushing baffles me into a mild state of excitement.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Z-Man’s parent company Asmodee is clearly pouring time and money into the most successful games it owns (Pandemic, Ticket to Ride and Catan, to name a few), but I’m not sure who all of these spin-off games are for?</p> | |
| <p>I feel I’m watching someone nurture a tree that is the ‘Pandemic Expanded Universe’, unaware that it’s only going to produce diseased fruit. As this site has said before, there are some fantastic ideas in all of these new Pandemic games, but it feels like the Pandemic affiliation is holding them back, as opposed to helping them to stand out.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Agreed. Even though the only spinoff I have tried, dice game Pandemic: The Cure, was actually quite fun.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/box-side-b-947x1024.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42597" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/box-side-b-947x1024.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="708" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: Curiouser and Curiouser. <a href="https://www.drawlab.com/games/alice-in-wordland/?v=79cba1185463">Alice in Wordland</a> is a Lewis Carroll-copying party game set at the infamous Mad Hatter’s tea party. Players have to try to find a word to fit the round’s category without using the three letters barred by the famously capricious Red Queen.</p> | |
| <p>Special character abilities will be swapped at the end of each round, until everyone’s had a chance to be everyone, which delights me if only because I get to yell ‘change places’ in my most overdramatic voice, and that’s basically what I play games for.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Wait, so I can’t use the letters-</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: CHANGE PLACES!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: F***!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: None of those letters were allowed, Quinns.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Sorry. It’s cool that designers can use Alice in Wonderland and Sherlock Holmes as settings for their board games because the books are out of copyright, but I’m always wondering at what other old novels they might use. Push-your-luck based on Journey to the Centre of the Earth? Some kind of Oliver Twist hidden movement game about picking pockets in London town (pronounced “Lahndahn tahn”)?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I still can’t wait for Mage Knight to be rebranded as the epic of Gilgamesh, a social deduction take on Chesterton’s ‘The man who was Thursday’ or a study in analysis paralysis heavy resource management game based on Hamlet.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Holy crap, is Shakespeare out of copyright?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Guy’s been dead for centuries, Quinns.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: WHAT?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4906742.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42598" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4906742.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="750" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: We’ve got an odd little double header from family game giant Hasbro, who this week have done something awful, and something lovely!</p> | |
| <p>In the lovely corner, we have an announcement that Hasbro <a href="https://newsroom.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-phase-out-plastic-new-toy-and-game-packaging">will be phasing out all plastic packaging from it’s board games by 2022</a>. They’re chucking out the shrink-wrap, the cellophane, the blister packs, the elastic bands, and even the humble plastic baggie.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Unfortunately, Hasbro is also in the news for producing (and almost immediately <em>stopping</em> production of) a parody edition of Monopoly titled <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/23/us/monopoly-socialism-board-game-trnd/index.html">Monopoly Socialism</a>. Essentially, the game is a vehicle for all of the least informed American stereotypes of a welfare state, a lot of which stem from decades of anti-communist rhetoric. The game sees players receiving a $50 living wage when they complete a lap of the board, as opposed to the standard $200 (never mind that that mechanic is <em>the definition of handout</em>), and features chance cards with titles like “lousy neighbours, vegan meatloaf and bad plumbing”.</p> | |
| <p>Taken as a whole, it’s somehow both insidious and nonsensical, and that’s before you consider that it’s been created by a family friendly board game manufacturer. “Winning is for capitalists!” declares the box, as if the entire point of the standard version of Monopoly wasn’t that <em>most people lose. </em>If Monopoly Socialism really wanted to be a parody, it would be a version of Monopoly which went on forever because it siphoned money from the richest player to the poorest player. Instead, we get a version of the game that mocks environmentalism.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Biggest ever sigh.</p> | |
| <p>Considering Monopoly’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_board_game_Monopoly#Game_development_1903%E2%80%931934">political roots</a>, I think it’d be great if someone converted Monopoly into a useful criticism of other political structures, but everything I’ve seen about this seems tossed together, cheap and nasty. As a pretty obviously left-leaning person, I’m genuinely sad they didn’t aim their sights a little higher so they could have at least given me something worth arguing with.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/731_01_2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42594" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/731_01_2.jpg" alt="" width="850" height="424" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: In further reading this week, we’ve got the oddity of an AI that’s <a href="https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/kz483y/scientists-are-discovering-long-lost-rules-for-ancient-board-games">trying to figure out how to play ancient board games</a>. It’s not trying to get good at them though, it’s trying to work out how boards, pieces and local culture is likely to have fallen together to create playable sets of rules. It’s breaking up the possible elements of a game into ‘ludemes’, a word I can’t wait to squeeze into my next pretentious games conversation, and then combining them in multiple ways to try and find something playable, interesting and relevant to the original context. As with much of ancient history, we may never know what was actually happening with all these bits and pieces, but it’s really exciting to see what might have been.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/cardart_C17_Teferis-Protection.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42595" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/cardart_C17_Teferis-Protection.jpg" alt="" width="850" height="500" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Also worth your reading time, we’ve got Magic: The Gathering’s head designer Mark Rosewater <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/why-diversity-matters-game-design-2019-08-19">talking about why diversity is good for game design</a>. I always feel a little funny about things that focus on practical benefits of something that you should obviously be doing anyway, but I think it’s useful when the people currently holding power in the industry acknowledge that they have work to do, and remind people that it’s worth doing. As part of the call for diversity, there’s some really strong insights into what makes a successful game, and the need for at least some people to find details they love. It’s all about the love.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>80</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 19/08/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-19-08-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-19-08-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 19 Aug 2019 15:59:39 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Burgle Bros.]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Sleeping Gods]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Welcome To:: New Las Vegas]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Kingdomino Duel]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Horrified]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Wayfinders]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=41772</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Look at that, this week’s games news is mostly about travels! I’m on pseudo-holiday in sunny Glasgow. All the sequels are moving to Las Vegas, and other games are jumping onto tin boats and seaplanes. Not to mention what Quinns wants to get up to in San Francisco. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Let’s hop on board the news travelator and send back some postcards.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Look at that, this week’s games news is mostly about travels! I’m on pseudo-holiday in sunny Glasgow. All the sequels are moving to Las Vegas, and other games are jumping onto tin boats and seaplanes. Not to mention what Quinns wants to get up to in San Francisco.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Let’s hop on board the news travelator and send back some postcards.<span id="more-41772"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Wayfinders_Web_Image_5_1100x.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-41792" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Wayfinders_Web_Image_5_1100x.png" alt="" width="500" height="503" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh my word this looks so pretty! <a href="https://pandasaurusgames.com/products/wayfinders">Wayfinders</a> is new from Pandasaurus and Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance, who designed brain-storming deduction game and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-91-the-2018-pearples-choice-awards/">Pearple’s Choice 2018 winner, Decrypto</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Wayfinders has you flying from island to island in adorable seaplanes whilst managing fuel and hangars and the appropriate parts for the appropriate islands. The core of the game will be choosing between placing more workers, reserving a spot to nab something later, or returning them to your hand and activating all the workers at once. Do you want to hold out for a bigger haul? Or do you absolutely, desperately need that thing before someone else has a chance to get it?</p> | |
| <p>It’s a tasty decision folks, let’s hope the rest of the game supports it. Once you nab the workers, you get to move your adorable airplane, limited in route by the parts you’ve collected. Islands have different effects and bonuses, so there’s some interesting balancing acts at play. Colour me curious!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s so small! If any player sneezes, that entire game is taking flight. Which is thematically appropriate, at least.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4812583.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41787" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4812583.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="699" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Creeping it’s creepy way into the news this week is <a href="https://www.ravensburger.us/discover/horrified-game/index.html">Horrified</a>, a collaboration between Universal Studios and Forrest-Pruzan Creative that will see players co-operatively battling a selection of seven classic monsters.</p> | |
| <p>All of that tender loving care that Forrest-Pruzan gave Disney’s villains in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256382/disney-villainous">Disney Villainous</a>? This looks like them trying to afford the same licensing love to Universal’s biggest bads, including the Bride of Frankenstein and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, all of which “Will require different strategies to be defeated.” In other words, just like Villainous, each monster will have some unique mechanics that at once offer the game flavour while hammering home their unique selling points. It’s a branding extravaganza! It’s a <em>brandstravaganza.</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Do you have what it takes to show a Frankenstein what it means to be human? To prove to the police that the Invisible Man exists? To cure the wolfman? <i>Does the Mummy fancy you?</i></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: If you’d like to learn more, the Dice Tower received a spoOOOoooOOoky advance copy of Horrified and has already posted a BLOOD-CURDLING <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/video/227326/horrified/horrified-review-tom-vasel">review</a>.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41785" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/KingdominoDuel-3DBox.jpg" alt="" width="693" height="330" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Blue Orange Games has announced <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/281960/kingdomino-duel">Kingdomino Duel</a>, which will be yet another tie-in game that tries to cram a popular board game into the format of a cute lil’ roll’n’write game. Kingdomino Duel will see exactly 2 players rolling dice, then claiming pairs of dice to create double-ended dominos that exist <i>only in their mind</i>, and then scribbling them onto their maps.</p> | |
| <p>Facetiousness aside, not only does this look like a sufficiently different game from Kingdomino, it actually looks like a strong roll’n’write game.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Mind Dominoes! Domindoes! Kingdomindoes! Domiknows?!? This is all too much!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: You’ve got no idea. Over the last few months I’ve been prodding the Kingdomino series with one eyebrow cocked to the heavens. What coverage should this site offer Kingdomino, Queendomino, and the Age of Giants expansion? I’m still not sure, so I keep playing it. Prod prod prod.</p> | |
| <p>Would you like to prod a domino around with me sometime, Ava?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’ve never played any of these monarchist domino games, but I hear good things. You know I’m always up for a prod. That said, taking the dominoes off the table and putting them into your mind does remove the lovely textural clack that I’m after. Dominoes are gorgeous objects! I’m not entirely happy with them being made out of cardboard, let alone imagination.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4762465.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41786" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4762465.jpg" alt="" width="1951" height="900" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Everyone is moving to Vegas! The city that doesn’t like naps. The Big Light. The city so shiny, they named it Las Vegas.</p> | |
| <p>I’m going to struggle with this sentence, and I almost want to ignore Blue Cocker Games for doing this to me, but here goes. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/281075/welcome-new-las-vegas">Welcome to…: New Las Vegas</a>, is a the sequel to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-welcome-to/">Welcome to…</a>, the roll’n’write card-flipping housing market game that everyone welcomed but nobody could google. The new New Vegas variant replaces the suburban enclave of the original with the infamously well-lit strip, and replaces one pad of paper with two: one for buildings, and one for the elaborate scoring systems. There’s limos, there’s golf courses, there’s hotels. I suspect there isn’t a drug-addled journalist and his lawyer, but maybe there’s room for that in an expansion.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Aarggghjjjjj</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh dear, not again. Are you ok?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: First off, I’m glad we covered this story after Kingdomino Duel, because it would have blown that poor little game out of the water with the force of a salmon cannon. But more importantly, I want this game SO BAD. This sequel looks like Welcome To… but a little longer, a little trickier, a little heavier, and that’s just great by me.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I hear you Quinns. But I had to type dot dot dot colon earlier, and I’m never going to forgive it for that.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: For which game?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: You’re just trying to make me type it again, aren’t you</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Yes. Anyway, could you not just describe this as Welcome To…: 2?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Can I get Ben’s phone number? I’m thinking about unionising.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41789" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4897699.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Also heading to Vegas, or at least, to the kickstarter casinos, is Burgle Bros, the <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-burgle-bros/">really quite solid</a> co-operative caper caboodle.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fowers/burgle-bros-2-the-casino-capers">Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers</a> will see your gang invading the roulette tables and being stalked by bouncers as they pull off yet another daring heist. I can’t work out if that makes you a thicket of thieves or a bunch of troublesome tourists. Either way, the star here is the luxuriant neoprene hotel carpet sample, and the box that unfolds into a little table to give the two floors of the casino a bit of depth.</p> | |
| <p>Tim Fowers consistently makes solid, gorgeous games, and this looks like no exception. I don’t remember being entirely won over by Burgle Bros when I played it, but it’s full of smart ideas and worked cleanly. I suspect a new slightly brighter theme and even more polish, could make The Casino Capers a really strong proposition. Ryan Goldsberry has made this look utterly delicious, even before you add in the novel accoutrements.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ain’t no Kickstarter like a Fowers Kickstarter / Because a Fowers Kickstarter-</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Don’t stop?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I was going to say “Won’t be crap”, which doesn’t scan, but it is doubly true in this case, with The Casino Capers being a sequel and Tim Fowers being a safe pair of hands.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m just faintly embarrassed I’ve got S Club 7 in my head, and not a more credible version of the classic couplet.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41790" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/6e3830bac6cf1d2155961c5109b5b81b_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="593" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Another designer with incredibly consistent art direction is Ryan Laukat, and he’s taken to the tabletop again with <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/953146955/sleeping-gods">Sleeping Gods</a>.</p> | |
| <p>With Laukat’s lovely illustrations at the centre, Sleeping Gods has you hopping from island to island in a storybook campaign mode. A novel length story awaits, alongside an atlas of 26 interconnected maps. You’ll take the role of Captain Sofi Odessa, and dance through a carefully stacked deck, getting into scrapes with terrible monsters, and presumably the titular napping deities.</p> | |
| <p>Honestly, I’m just in it for that tiny little steamship about to be eaten by a kaiju. I’ve yet to click with a Laukat design, but he’s got a hell of a lot I haven’t tried yet. Maybe one with an appropriately huggable little tugboat will be the one to take my heart.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41793" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1024x1024-1.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="558" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Finally, I was delighted this week by an article in SFGate on the dice games <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/San-Francisco-underground-dice-scene-exposed-14188244.php">that are emerging in San Francisco bars</a>. That probably makes me sound like some kind of craps fiend, so I should explain.</p> | |
| <p>A couple of years ago I read Reiner Knizia’s book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Games-Properly-Explained-Reiner-Knizia/dp/0973105216">Dice Games Properly Explained</a>, and it made me worry that unlike card games or roleplaying games, dice games might be a corner of gaming culture that all but vanishes in English-speaking countries. Obviously the dice themselves survived, escaping like a cuboid diaspora into the greater nation of tabletop, but that a whole area of tabletop design could be so quickly forgotten made me a little sad.</p> | |
| <p>And now, lo and behold, here are some of those games again! It put a smile on my face, is all.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m a bit nervous of all the gambling to be honest. Everyone knows that a craps fiend makes a crap friend.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Is that the joke we’re going to close the news on? It’s OK, it is. It’s a good joke. One of your best. I’m just making sure.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Dot dot dot colon.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>63</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>Tactics and Tactility #1 – On going with your gut</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-1-on-going-with-your-gut/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-1-on-going-with-your-gut/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 14 Aug 2019 17:05:41 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tactics & Tactility]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Power Grid]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=40887</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[[Introducing a new bi-weekly column! In Tactics & Tactility, Ava Foxfort will be exploring the culture and magic of tabletop, accompanied by fabulous illustrator Tom Humberstone. The series began its life on this blog, and we feel privileged to offer it a new home.] Ava: I can see all the numbers in front of me. ... <a title="Tactics and Tactility #1 – On going with your gut" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tactics-and-tactility-1-on-going-with-your-gut/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>[Introducing a new bi-weekly column! In Tactics & Tactility, Ava Foxfort will be exploring the culture and magic of tabletop, accompanied by fabulous illustrator Tom Humberstone. The series began its life <a href="https://tacticsandtactility.wordpress.com/">on this blog</a>, and we feel privileged to offer it a new home.]</em></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: I can see all the numbers in front of me. <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-power-grid-deluxe-the-stock-companies-expansion/">Power Grid</a> lays out every variable incredibly clearly. So many numbers, spread out in stout cables across the board, paper money rustling in my hand, and adorable little power stations. Every number is ready for taking, and there’s just no way I can get them all into my head.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Good evening, folks, it’s time to watch my brain slowly crumble.</span><span id="more-40887"></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We talk a lot about how games are made up of interesting decisions. We don’t talk much about exactly what makes a decision interesting. It’s one of those quasi-mystical parts of game criticism: what makes one decision too easy, and another ‘fun’. The answer isn’t always ‘lots of things to add up’, but when lined up just right, that can be enough.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Power Grid is a game I never want to teach anyone, and I never want to show anyone. The board is a full platter of writhing numbers, like someone made tagliatelle with a spreadsheet. The game is off-putting, overwhelming, full of dangerous little details and very, very tasty.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Every number can be nudged by the whims of other players – building where you wanted, buying what you wanted, or bidding more than you wanted. It doesn’t just ask you to do a load of maths, it asks you to do that maths competitively. It throws an auction at you and asks you, over and over again ‘are you sure you can’t afford just a little more? Are you sure you can’t make just a little more money?’</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s painfully cruel, and it’s wonderful. A crunchy bundle of brain-overwhelming joy.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I am not the sort of person who can hold onto all those numbers.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The truth is, you don’t have to work everything out as accurately as the concrete numbers on every component imply. This is business, this is your gut. You’ve got to keep an eye out for the moments where the market has shifted, or is about to shift. Work out if you want to make your big push this turn, or next turn.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some of my favourite games look like they need a mathematical occultist to piece together, but work best if you act on instinct. Get a rough sense of what you’re trying to do, and roll with the punches. There’s a joy in letting your brain quieten down and trusting your heart.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Less so when your brain is screaming at you to think again.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Games like this flood you with information. They pour possibilities all over you, give you options and numbers and routes and objectives. They let you think you can grab hold of these writhing numerical tentacles, and wrestle them back onto the table.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Games let you make a decision, put a piece down, or shout out a number in an auction, and immediately regret it. An interesting decision is one that, after you make it, you yell in agony. Agony and hope.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Games make you care about things you never thought you would care about. Flat bits of cardboard, scraps of paper, little lumps of plastic, and the numbers that link them all together. They can make you unbelievably invested in getting the right fuel to power little wooden houses scattered across a number drenched German cityscape.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There’s magic in those numbers, magic in trying to hold them together, trying to keep everything in your head and make it click. Wrestling numbers into plans into plays. Making mistakes that you care about. Not knowing if you could’ve added your way out of it.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That joyful agony is what games are all about. There’s nothing like sitting with your friends while everyone’s brains slowly crumble. Revelling in each others mistakes and successes. Spitting out numbers like broken calculators, then giving up and letting your gut take hold.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s those joys that make games what they are. Shared puzzles, shared moments, hoots and yells and meaningful, contemplative, mathematical silences. It all adds up to a tableful of drama: interesting decisions and agonising mistakes.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, folks, I want to hear about your stories. Tell me about those times you’ve gone with your gut, given up on maths, and found glory in it. Which games make you spring out the calculator, and which make you switch off the targeting computer?</span></p> | |
| <p><em>Tactics & Tactility is illustrated by <a href="https://www.tomhumberstone.com/">Tom Humberstone</a>.</em></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>62</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 12/08/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-12-08-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-12-08-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 12 Aug 2019 17:32:37 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fiasco]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ultra-Tiny Epic Galaxies]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fiasco In A Box]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Obscurio]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[You've Been Eaten.]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[So]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tapestry]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=40174</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[Ava: Quinns, you’re looking a bit peaky today? Ben (he/him): Erm… Ava: Wait a second, you’re not Quinns! You’re three interns standing on each other’s shoulders in a long jacket! Ben: We tried that, and we still weren’t tall enough to pass as the real Quinns. As a fresh new intern I’m contractually obliged to ... <a title="GAMES NEWS! 12/08/19" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-12-08-19/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Quinns, you’re looking a bit peaky today?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ben</strong> (he/him): Erm…</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Wait a second, you’re not Quinns! You’re three interns standing on each other’s shoulders in a long jacket!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: We tried that, and we still weren’t tall enough to pass as the real Quinns. As a fresh new intern I’m contractually obliged to replace Quinns where required, whether that is providing irreverent board game news commentary or tasting any food he eats to check for poison.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Well then, unQuinns, let’s get you a past sell-by-date sandwich, a mop and a big bucket of news. There’s work to be done!<span id="more-40174"></span></p> | |
| <p>Stonemaier Games is the games industry’s sultan of hype, so it’s hard not to get excited when they announce their plans. The last few days have seen <a href="https://stonemaiergames.com/games/tapestry/design-diary-tapestry/">a slow drip-feed of news about Tapestry</a>, a new civilisation game from Jamey Stegmaier himself, who you might know as the designer of Scythe, Viticulture, Charterstone and more.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4891982.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40206" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4891982.png" alt="" width="900" height="573" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: Stonemaier makes everything look like an opulent labour of love, and Tapestry is no exception. Tapestry grabs elements from pestilential misery simulator Antiquity and polyomino viking simulator A Feast For Odin, and then replaces those elements with lovely prepainted miniature buildings.</p> | |
| <p>Not all the details are out yet, but so far we know you’ll be racing up civilisation tracks, placing buildings in home cities and taking income at carefully calculated moments. It looks like a lush production, and I’m intrigued by some of the ideas on show. Andrew Bosley’s art really shines, and I like that rather than using historical civilisations, you will take traits that might leave you playing as ‘craftsmen’ or ‘merry makers’. Building your own story sounds a lot more fun than inaccurately retreading historical tragedies.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4876405.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-40191" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4876405.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="407" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Sometimes this job is as easy as getting an email and snorting with laughter. LudiCreations apparently know just how to grab me, and that’s by telling me they’re making a game called ‘<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284842/so-youve-been-eaten">so, you’ve been eaten</a>’.</p> | |
| <p>Fantastical vore fans will be delighted to hear this is a 0-2 player game about being a space miner desperately digging for stomach crystals inside the digestive tract of an enormous beast. You’ll be racing to either mine enough crystals or digest enough miner to be declared victorious. Honestly, everything about this is ridiculous and I am here for it. The Scott Almes design can be played solo against automated miner or beast, or you can pit the two automata against each other if you just want to watch some cardboard eat itself.</p> | |
| <p>It’s a strange time we’re living in.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: Wait, so if it can be played by zero players, does that mean it is constantly being played within the box, and opening interrupts the components mid-game? I would feel rude every time I started playing it. LudiCreations and Toy Story have a lot to answer for.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Untitled-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40189" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="945" height="654" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Stepping into some big, scary shoes this week <a href="http://www.libellud.com/obscurio/?lang=en">is Obscurio</a>. This is a successor to the excellent <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/mysterium/">Mysterium</a>, which mixed Dixit’s storytelling art with Cluedo’s “Let’s deduct a three part murder.”</p> | |
| <p>New from Libellud, Obscurio will mash up this mashup even further. Taking Mysterium’s hypnogogic image deduction and using it to lead a gang around an infinite library of strange imagery. Obscurio’s big little wrinkle is that one of your comrades in lostness is actually trying to steer you wrong.</p> | |
| <p>Getting lost in a magical library with a traitorous liar is an experience we can all relate to. (Did I ever mention I worked in a library for seven years?) There’s been a lot of these ‘guessing games with a traitor’ in the last few years, from Insider to Werewords to When I Dream. And I’ve yet to see one work perfectly, but maybe this will be the one to nail it.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: I’m interested to see how they manage this in terms of difficulty. My experience of Mysterium is that it can be hard enough getting players to make the right decisions already, without the addition of a devious pseudo-wizard trying to mislead them.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’ve already been accused of being a devious pseudo-wizard.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: And in the game?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b> (nodding sagely): And in the game.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/51961e2fea3970b302d25aec1303c9bb_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-40190" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/51961e2fea3970b302d25aec1303c9bb_original.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="500" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Well would you look at that? Fiasco is probably the RPG I’ve had recommended to me the most, though it’s possible that tells you more about what people think of me, than what people think of Fiasco. This Coen brothers-esque thrill-em-up <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bullypulpitgames/fiasco-the-cinematic-game-of-plans-gone-wrong/description">is getting a beautifully shiny new boxed edition</a>, turning a lot of the games tabular bones into lovely shuffleable cards.</p> | |
| <p>I’m a little sad this will make the homebrew ‘playset’ (sets of tables that allow you to tilt the game into some very, very, very specific places) scene slightly harder to bring to the table, but I think there’s a lot of magic in shuffling a deck of cards and having them tell people what to do. Especially if the thing you’re doing is <em>*checks notes*</em> smuggling a trolley full of ham through a spa retreat. I’ve only played Fiasco once, and it was quite a ride.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: I like how Fiasco gives players the tools to quickly build characters and relationships, which can be a big barrier to new RPG players. Most of my experience running RPGs involves grandiose plans being ruined by ridiculous behaviour, so I can see my regular Dungeons and Dragons cohort adopting Fiasco faster than a foster puppy that sneezes diamonds.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ah. That classic macguffin, ‘the hound with the thousand-pound hayfever’</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40193" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ce33e8391470dd44b5dcc0bcac9eb205_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="486" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Another wafer-thin sliver of news from kickstarter this week, as <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coe/ultra-tiny-epic-galaxies-the-universe-in-your-pocket">Tiny Epic Galaxies gets tinier</a>, whilst remaining precisely as epic. An already-small game is getting all of its components downsized to fit the game into your actual pocket. It’s still got enough bits and bobs floating around that it doesn’t look entirely travel-friendly, and I was only a little bit interested in the original game the one time I played it, but there’s something to be said for Scott Almes mission to shrink ever bigger experiences into ever smaller spaces. (Scott also wins the ‘double news’ award for the week, as he was the one being eaten earlier).</p> | |
| <p>I’m not entirely sure who asked for this, but it’s happening.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ben</b>: Kudos to them for offering a free print and play version for those who haven’t played the original. The best way to know if you like a game, after all, is to play it. I look forward to when they eventually shrink Tiny Epic Galaxies into half a playing card and a 4 sided die.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: The eggheads at Gamelyn won’t be happy until it won’t just fit in your pocket, but will fall through the hole in the bottom of it. Or perhaps it’ll be dense enough to create a neutron star. Either way, I’m worried about what ultra-super-tiny epic galaxies will do to my dungarees.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-12-08-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>98</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Review: Le Havre</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-le-havre/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-le-havre/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 07 Aug 2019 10:55:15 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Heavy Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Le Havre]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Games for Two]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[SU&SD Recommends]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Conflict-Free Games]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=24768</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[Ava: Le Havre could be the perfect resource shuffling game. It’s a tightly wound knot of decisions and possibilities, that unfurls and unwraps as you play. An elaborate and ever-increasing roster of buildings offers ways to process, use, acquire and sell as many goods as you can. Tiny, square, double-sided tokens flood the board, spilling ... <a title="Review: Le Havre" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-le-havre/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Ava</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/le-havre/">Le Havre</a> could be the perfect resource shuffling game. It’s a tightly wound knot of decisions and possibilities, that unfurls and unwraps as you play.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An elaborate and ever-increasing roster of buildings offers ways to process, use, acquire and sell as many goods as you can. Tiny, square, double-sided tokens flood the board, spilling out of warehouses that heave with potential, <em>begging</em> for you to grab them before someone else does.</span><span id="more-24768"></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Each turn is simple. You move your ship to the front of the queue in the middle of the board. This queue keeps track of turn order, and the space you move to dictates what new goods go on the docks, becoming available for anyone to grab. You can then either (a) grab a single pile from the dockside, or (b) you can move your only other piece, a ‘worker’, to a new building card, and use its action.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If another player is sitting in the building you want? Tough luck. You’ll need a new plan. </span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BEST-Down-the-harbour-slightly-tighter.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-24784" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BEST-Down-the-harbour-slightly-tighter.jpg" alt="" width="3968" height="2233" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Coal, hides, cattle, wheat, clay, wood, iron and fish. Each one can be flipped over by the right building, turned into something slightly more valuable or slightly more usable. Everything is worth different amounts of food, money or energy. All three are useful in their own way, until the final scoring, when only money, buildings and ships count for anything. Goods pile up relentlessly at the side of the harbour, available in large dollops at the cost of your turn. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Every few turns, when the line of boats reaches the end of the harbour, you’ve got to feed some food to your ever-growing (and entirely abstracted) family. If you can’t, you’ve got to borrow money to feed them.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s kind of it.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Obviously, that’s not it.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BEST-Buildings-that-have-been-built-in-a-pier.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-24782" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BEST-Buildings-that-have-been-built-in-a-pier.jpg" alt="" width="3968" height="2233" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The buildings you start the game with let you build <em>other</em> buildings, and once these cards start pouring across the table, they form an elaborate web of interactions and investments. To do anything useful you need to spend several turns bouncing your single worker from one building to the next, burning wood into charcoal, baking wheat into bread, smelting iron into steel, or butchering cattle.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Le Havre is a game of maximisation. The piles of goods get bigger and bigger until someone takes them. There’s always a temptation to leave a stack that you want to grow a little bit taller. It’s a constant lure to push your luck and hope for the best. But be careful, everyone is eyeing up the same ever-growing heaps. And everybody is hungry.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You’ve got to balance yourself between grabbing the goods you need, building the buildings you want, processing what you can sell, and getting stuff ready for the final haul. At the end of the game, everyone gets a single action that can’t be blocked by other players. This normally involves sending all the ships you’ve built to sell all the goods you’re left with. Making sure your fleet is big enough, while holding onto the resources you need to fuel them, and the goods you want to sell? That’s the core of the game, really.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BEST-Full-harbour-birds-eye-nice-angle.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24785" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BEST-Full-harbour-birds-eye-nice-angle.jpg" alt="" width="3968" height="2232" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s all efficiency, all stacks of stuff shuffling around the board. If you like to spend your time making numbers dance around the table, taking actions that make you feel ingenious for planning ahead, or achingly wrong for falling short by just one piece, then you’ll love Le Havre. It spreads options out before you and asks you to build your own route through them. There’s glory in seeing opportunities, doing the maths, and making it happen.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are problems though.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The art ranges from fugly to functional to (occasionally) fun, but it looks lovely on the table because of the huge, inviting piles of tokens hiding most of the town. If you’re the sort of player that needs everything in neat tidy stacks, this game might break you, but if you can get behind a reckless heap of cardboard, the harbour has a strange beauty bursting over the seawall. </span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/art.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-24781" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/art.jpg" alt="" width="3968" height="2281" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The building cards line up into neat little seaside villages, and it’s adorable. But it’s scream-inducingly hard to spot the difference between buildings that need clay and buildings that need bricks from across the table. It’s a small detail, but it’s an irritating one. Peering across the table at another player’s pier is a constant struggle.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Teaching is relatively simple, but a huge amount of detail is tucked away on the cards, so you’ll find yourself asking questions throughout the game. The answer is almost always ‘There’s a building that does that, but it hasn’t been built yet’. The manual is well laid out and clear, including a whole page of answers to those ‘how do I do this?’ questions. This is helpful, but I don’t want to hand out an A4 page of small print to someone learning a game unless we’re attempting to simulate a medium-sized war.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The set up is partly randomised, but it barely scratches the core of the game. Each time you play the goods will pile up in a different order and the stacks of buildings shuffle about a bit. There’s a deck of special buildings too, offering big actions or big piles of points. The latest editions of the game come with ‘Le Grand Hameau’ (French for ‘the grand ham’) already in the box. This expansion adds even more special buildings, but you’ll barely see any of them, and they come out too late to truly mix things up.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BEST-Cattle-and-cow.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24783" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BEST-Cattle-and-cow.jpg" alt="" width="2976" height="1675" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With this little variety, the only thing to get in the way of building the perfect machine is other people. Someone will absolutely get in your way, take the thing you wanted, or do the thing you needed. There can be ways to get around it, but that’s a big part of the game. Getting blocked. Getting stuck. Getting angry, and scowling while you embark on plan B. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The problem is a lot of this interaction happens without calculation. Someone will get in your way, and maybe they could see what you were planning, but most likely it’s an accident. You’re all in the same race, all in the same lane, sometimes able to pass each other with ease, and sometimes getting jammed up. It’s unpredictable, and it means you can’t play the perfect game. This can give you the urge to come back and make up for your mistakes, but I do wonder how long that can last.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I played it solo, and it was a smooth and simple delight. Without people in the way, you can think as long as you like. There’s absolutely no changes to the rules, so it’s easy to make the switch. The ship and building cards already shift subtly for different player counts, so you’re left with a pure and welcoming version of the game. But after doing it once, I decided I never wanted to do it again. If I got good at it on my own, there’d never be anything pulling me back to the multiplayer, and this is definitely a game I want to put in front of more people. I want to watch my friends get caught in its traps and terrors. I know I’ll get bored eventually, and I want that to come as slow as possible.</span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/GRID-HOVER-THUMB.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24780" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/GRID-HOVER-THUMB.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/le-havre/">Le Havre</a> might be my new favourite Uwe Rosenberg game, but it’s not going to stay that way forever. The designer has made so many different games about collecting resources, turning them into new resources, getting in each other’s way accidentally and adding up points at the end. In some ways, this is the purest take on this structure. It’s hard to argue that a game that could easily run to three hours with enough players is simple, but in many ways it is. You have one decision each turn, it makes one thing happen. Le Havre boils this resource conversion and worker placement into only the most essential elements. But somewhere in that distillation, I know I’m going to get bored of it. The town of Le Havre is always going to be the same town. I don’t think I will ever get the same type of bored with Nusfjord’s nordic ship building (<a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-86-doctor-my-dice-are-bleeding/">discussed on podcast #86</a>), or Glass Road’s relentless Bavarian resource wheel (<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143693/glass-road">BGG page here</a>). The variety in those games is more granular, you’re making your own path, rather than choosing how the steps of the path get revealed.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Uwe knocked it out of the park with this one, though. The bite-sized turns give you time to mull every choice, and remember every mistake for days. It’s a lovely, cruel little trip to the harbour, and it will keep your brain tied up in knots even months after you’ve finished. It’s definitely worth a visit. I’m just not sure I want to move there.</span></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-le-havre/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>43</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 06/08/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-08-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-08-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Tue, 06 Aug 2019 08:30:28 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Keyforge]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Machi Koro Legacy]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ankh: Gods of Egypt]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Cyberpunk 2077 - Afterlife: The Card Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Arkham Horror: Final Hour]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Marvel Champions: The Card Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Zombicide]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?p=24617</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Quinns, is it getting hot in here, or have I just taken off all my clothes. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Hopefully neither, it’s just that the site has been redesigned! And <em>not unlike</em> a person who’s taken off their clothes, the site is now smoother, sexier, and (most importantly) faster. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Ooh. It’s like you’ve snuck into my bedroom and tidied everything up. But not in a creepy way! | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: I’m glad you’re feeling good, because it’s time for us to jump into the grand slurry of news which came out of GenCon. Hold your nose!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Quinns, is it getting hot in here, or have I just taken off all my clothes.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Hopefully neither, it’s just that the site has been redesigned! And <em>not unlike</em> a person who’s taken off their clothes, the site is now smoother, sexier, and (most importantly) faster.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ooh. It’s like you’ve snuck into my bedroom and tidied everything up. But not in a creepy way!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m glad you’re feeling good, because it’s time for us to jump into the grand slurry of news which came out of GenCon. Hold your nose!<span id="more-24617"></span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24627" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/mc01en_layout.png" alt="" width="700" height="226" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Our absolute toppest story this week is <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/7/31/marvel-champions/">Fantasy Flight’s announcement of Marvel Champions</a>. This is a new co-operative LCG (“Living Card Game”) where players will create a deck representing their superhero, and then join forces with other friends to battle a villain, which is also a deck.</p> | |
| <p>Fantasy Flight’s LCGs have been hit-and-miss over the years, but my Spider-Sense is telling me that this is going to be one of the better ones. It’s clearly building off of the fantastic framework of the co-op <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-arkham-horror-the-card-game/">Arkham Horror LCG</a>, and the announcement article shows Fantasy Flight doing what they do best, securing the theme in the very foundation of the game. In Marvel Champions, players will all start as their character’s alter-ego, whether that’s Tony Stark or [checks notes] Jennifer Walters, and during the game players will have to repeatedly change costumes, swapping into their superhero outfit to biff the villain and foil their schemes, and changing back into a shirt and a pencil skirt to recover health and play “Alter-Ego” cards.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I just spent five minutes googling, trying to work out if it’s Spidey-Sense or Spider-Sense. And my conclusion was ‘I don’t care’.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Well, here’s something you /will/ care about- it looks like Marvel Champions will continue Fantasy Flight’s dedication to diversity. The five superheroes in the core set are (of course) Iron Man and Spider-Man, but they’re followed by Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and She-Hulk.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: You’re right! I did care about that! Really got my ‘That’s Actually a Nice Thing’-Sense tingling.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/kf06_spread-labeled.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24625" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/kf06_spread-labeled.jpg" alt="" width="903" height="453" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Hooo-wee. What’s that coming out of the sky? It’s purple and ridiculous and unique, I love it! Do I?</p> | |
| <p>It looks like worlds are colliding in the <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/8/2/worlds-collide/">newly-announced third wave of decks for Fantasy Flight’s unique card game battler Keyforge</a>. The new purple boxes will contain the first appearance of two brand-new factions, ‘Lizard Romans’ and ‘definitely not Star Trek’s federation’. The Saurians and the Grand Star Alliance will be knocking the Mars and Sanctum factions out of circulation, and bringing in a whole host of new cards to maybe be included in your algorithmically-generated archon deck.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh my gosh. This is like Love Island! A savage process of stripping out the least popular contestants and replacing them with sexy new ones.</p> | |
| <p>Designer Richard Garfield has said that in an ideal world Keyforge would contain thousands of rare cards, allowing every randomised deck to be that much more unique. But with the hasty announcement of Keyforge’s second and third wave of new cards, it looks like they’ve found a savvy way to create that exact situation. You see, Keyforge decks have a small chance of featuring cards from previous waves, so Worlds Collide’s algorithm will be pulling from a card pool of hundreds upon hundreds of rare cards. Lovely stuff!</p> | |
| <p>If you missed our review of Keyforge, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-keyforge/">do check it out</a>. It’s a one-of-a-kind game in more ways than one.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24623" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/afh01_layout2.png" alt="" width="700" height="460" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Taking the treacherous swim from Love Island, to Lovecraft island, I feel a bit spooky about this one?</p> | |
| <p>It’s not because I’ve been taken over by a squamous otherworldly horror though, I promise. It’s because the <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/7/31/arkham-horror-final-hour/">newly announced Fantasy Flight game Arkham Horror: Final Hour</a> has intrigued me more than an Arkham flavoured game has in a long while. Skulking within the standard adventure-horror narrative and the traditional ‘players take turns, then a demon makes everything worse’ structure of the Arkham Horror series are some really curious treats.</p> | |
| <p>Players won’t be allowed to communicate as they wander the halls of Miskatonic University, except by placing priority cards to say how important they think their next move is. Investigators will be prioritising their secret, simultaneously-played action cards to take stabs in the dark or hit the books, with unique decks for each character. Where you place in the priority queue changes both what you do /and/ when you’ll do it. Will it still be the right move? As you play you’ll fend off monsters and find clues to find out what cards you should be saving for your final confrontation, adding a little bit of deduction to the ghost busting.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Wait, what? It’s Arkham Horror meets The Mind?!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Just a little bit? With a soupçon of Magic Maze and maybe even a light dusting of Mastermind thrown in? Given the game’s promise to be playable within the titular hour, it may be trying to squeeze too many ingredients into too small a pot, but a series of smiles crept over my face as I read the preview.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Wow. Did Fantasy Flight just make me interested in <em>yet another</em> Arkham Horror game? That’s some real eldritch craft.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/cyberpunk.net_en_1564667945_5d42f02a0e9078.34276082.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24624" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/cyberpunk.net_en_1564667945_5d42f02a0e9078.34276082.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="630" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: CMON is heaving itself into the collectible card game market with a Cyberpunk hacking game that has nothing to do with recently ended behemoth Android: Netrunner.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://cmon.com/news/cmon-announces-cyberpunk-2077-afterlife-the-card-game">Cyberpunk 2077 – Afterlife: The Card Game</a> is tying in with the already-controversial CD Projekt Red video game, itself an adaptation of the classic role playing game. Afterlife will have you playing cyber-middle-managers, recruiting gangs of hackers and bionic ne’er-do-wells to gain something literally being referred to as ‘Street Cred’ which feels like a phrase I would use if I wanted to feel like I was 77 years old. The game has you drafting cards and deciding what to sacrifice to pay for them, so hopefully that’s a lot of crunchy decisions to chew on. But maybe I’m just hungry.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I trust this game about as far as I can throw it. That analogy doesn’t work very well with a card game because you can frisbee the box quite a distance, but you get the idea.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-24630" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4878589.png" alt="" width="300" height="319" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: That’s not even all that’s coming out of CMON’s news-pipes. CMON has announced the final part of Eric Lang’s mythical miniature trilogy. Following in the footsteps of Rising Sun and Blood Rage, this enormous box is going to walk like an Egyptian.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://cmon.com/news/cmon-announces-ankh-board-game">Ankh: Gods of Egypt</a> will be coming soon from Eric, reunited with illustrator Adrian Smith and miniature carver Mike McVey. This means that we know it’s going to be a stunningly gorgeous presentation, with an enormous box full of miniatures and illustrations that outdo nearly everything else on the market. What we don’t know if whether building caravans, summoning monsters, and converting followers will actually be any fun. That box art is making me quiver with anticipation, but I’ve been burnt by the beating desert sun of kickstarter before. Am I going to weigh my cynical heart against a crowdfunded feather again?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m reeling from this line on BGG- “Players will truly feel like Gods as they shake the very foundations of Egypt.” That’s perhaps setting yourself up for a fall, when your last game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-290118/">accidentally included a Wikipedia troll from New Zealand as a Japanese myth</a>.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: To be fair, if we’re in Egypt isn’t that the plot of Stargate?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: “Players will truly feel like Gods as they are accidentally included in the Egyptian pantheon.”</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Is it too soon to make my Quintinkahmun joke again?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>:….</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Av-Ra.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>:…..</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’ll get my sarcophagus.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic2741263.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24628" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic2741263.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="690" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: …Moving on, CMON also announced <a href="https://cmon.com/news/cmon-and-guillotine-games-announce-zombicide-2nd-edition">a new 2nd edition of Zombicide</a>. Considering the critical response to Zombicide was “It’s bad”, and the response to that response was “Who cares?” I’m amused by this underwhelming quote from the producer of the 2nd edition:</p> | |
| <blockquote><p><em>“We’ve gone through every aspect of the game, from making doors easier to work, to updating how the car drives on the board, to reworking target priority for ranged attacks and adding in dark zones that will hide zombies from survivor’s bullets, looking at where we could improve and make the Zombicide game experience all that it could be.”</em></p></blockquote> | |
| <p>That’s all you have to say? Because that sounds to me like “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Or perhaps, “If it prints money, don’t touch it.”</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4871664.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24629" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pic4871664.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="618" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Honestly, there are so many new game announcements from GenCon I shouldn’t even be talking about something that’s already announced, that I’m unlikely to like, but <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/92900/designer-diary-machi-koro-legacy">this design diary of Machi Koro Legacy</a> made me chuckle, so it’s going in the news-bag.</p> | |
| <p>Rob Daviau describes Machi Koro as <em>‘”My First Craps Game”, which I genuinely say with affection because I don’t know how to play craps’.</em> He goes on to explain some of the roads not taken in turning a light, dicey tableau into a larger narrative. I’m still not convinced I’ll take the plunge on Machi Koro Legacy, but there are a few details here that leave me curious. Not least that you can tilt your game away from the aggressive cards that I’ve always found to make the game take longer than it has any right to.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/01scramble-1-superJumbo.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24622" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/01scramble-1-superJumbo.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="985" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Thanks to Marty Demarest for sending in this link to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/style/board-games-cancel-culture.html">a New York Times piece on playing problematic roles in board games</a>. Focussing on GMT Games’ pulling of Scramble for Africa. As always, a mainstream news perspective on board games is interesting to see, and there’s some really chewy details in here. I particularly liked Cole Werhle’s description of games as ‘little sympathy engines’. It’s exactly how I think of games, and why they can be dangerous and useful, sometimes both at the same time. It’s a strong read. Though a tokenistic final paragraph about games developed in Nigeria could’ve done with some fleshing out. I’m super excited to find out what could be coming out of African design scenes.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>115</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 29/07/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-29-07-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-29-07-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 29 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ticket to Ride]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Undaunted: Normandy]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Aegean Sea]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Import/Export]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Trudvang Legends]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Cooper Island]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-29-07-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[Ava: It’s Gencon this week, and do you know what that means? We’ve got to get in the news-canoe, sail to the heart of a newsicane, going right by a violent newscano. I’m all on my ownsome, without a Quinns to cling to. Wish me luck, and good news to you all. This is the ... <a title="GAMES NEWS! 29/07/19" class="read-more" href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-29-07-19/">Read more</a>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: It’s Gencon this week, and do you know what that means? We’ve got to get in the news-canoe, sail to the heart of a newsicane, going right by a violent newscano. I’m all on my ownsome, without a Quinns to cling to. Wish me luck, and good news to you all.</p> | |
| <p>This is the news, be careful out there, there’s a lot of it about.</p> | |
| <p>First up we’re taking a trip to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269511/cooper-island">Cooper Island</a>, a game that finally answers the question: ‘what if a eurogame, but taller?’<span id="more-11550"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4858287.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-33245" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4858287.jpg" alt="" width="1193" height="670" /></a></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269511/cooper-island">Cooper Island</a> is a colonising explore-em-up, with an ominous cross of a board, covered in hexes that slowly pile with landscape tiles. You’ll be building statues, exploiting the land, and moving a little ship around the edge of the board to measure victory points and despoil even smaller islands. Judging from the pictures it’s going to be a lavish adventure.</p> | |
| <p>This is from Capstone Games, who have so far hit only home runs in terms of production values, and Andreas Odendahl, designer of La Granja and La Granja: No Siesta. It could be one to watch. (Although the idea of making a game, and then following it up by the same game but shouting ‘no sleep’ at you afterwards, seems oddly cruel to me).</p> | |
| <p>I just want to take a moment to say how much I love games that lift off the table like this. Survive, Mexica and Cuzco, all punch above their weight because they are so joyfully three dimensional. Hexes of unusual size, stacking hexes on other hexes, or measuring spiritual grandeur with the size of your pyramids. All of it is really pleasing to the eye and the mind. Plus, there’s nothing quite like hiding your clever move just behind someone’s enormous stack of cardboard.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bcnflb3e.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-33248" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bcnflb3e.jpg" alt="" width="1198" height="843" /></a></p> | |
| <p>I’m struggling to get that excited, but there is definitely <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8ij3qckusfuafwf/AABB5reMNlvAEt76rX2K-RxLa?dl=0">a new anniversary edition of Ticket to Ride on the way down the track</a>.</p> | |
| <p>The new version of the train-connecting classic will feature player carriages you can see through and a little history of Ticket to Ride pamphlet, which does sound a bit nice. I feel like making the trains distinguishable without colour perception would be more important than making them perspex, but what do I know? It looks like this is just going to be the new standard edition, and I’m sure some people will appreciate being able to hold their choo-choos up to the light and check for glints. To be clear, I’m not remotely cynical about Ticket to Ride itself, which definitely deserves the top spot on the hobby games bestseller lists. Of the big classic introductory board games, it’s the one I’m still happiest to see on the table.</p> | |
| <p>A new Ticket to Ride also gives me an opportunity to point to some slightly out of date news: Asmodee is working on <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/06/ticket-to-ride-propagate-asmodee-entertainment-developing-tv-competition-series-based-on-board-game-1202639225/">a TV show based on Ticket to Ride</a>. It’s a competition game show where rival teams travel the world completing currently vague ‘challenges’. Hopefully at the very least if one of them finds a rainbow train they’ll get a bit of a thrill.</p> | |
| <p>That said, I was hoping for a dense, experimental drama filmed in real time on a series of ever changing trains. Maybe just loads of slice of life stuff in old timey train wagons? And we never see the ends of anyone’s narrative, only the bits that happen on trains? Why aren’t I in charge of televisions. It’s not fair! (The answer is that if I ran all the networks, everything would star Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys of The Americans, and they’d be frightfully busy.)</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/a5a2221e29c9036bb44b3cceebceb9d7_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-33244" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/a5a2221e29c9036bb44b3cceebceb9d7_original.jpg" alt="" width="218" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p>TRUDVANG! TRUDVANG! TRUDVANG!</p> | |
| <p>Oh dear, the Trudvang claxon has gone off again, telling us that Eric Lang is leading a charge into mythical norse and celtic weirdness. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/trudvang-legends">Trudvang Legends</a> is dripping in fancy miniatures, old legends and beautifully grotesque illustrations by Paul Bonner. It’s safe to say that Shut Up & Sit Down hasn’t always fallen in love with Lang’s CMON miniature spectaculars (see <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-blood-rage/">Blood Rage</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-rising-sun/">Rising Sun</a>), but there’s no doubting that they’re alluring and interesting beasts. This new legend adds to the Trudvang setting first seen in role playing game <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/riotminds/trudvang-chronicles">Trudvang Chronicles</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Honestly, I just really like saying Trudvang.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/1963769199dcdeeb7d830dfd691005ac_original.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-33247" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/1963769199dcdeeb7d830dfd691005ac_original.png" alt="" width="680" height="384" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Also barging through the Kickstarter canal this week is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jordandraper/import-export-definitive-edition">Import/Export</a>, now re-releasing in a kickstarter exclusive ‘definitive edition’ with lots of fancy bits and a few usability improvements.</p> | |
| <p>It’s rare I can talk about a kickstarter and actually know any more than can be gleaned from the page, but as a proud owner of the original edition, I can tell you that this is a game I really like! A tribute to container shipping (not unlike <a href="https://soundcloud.com/containersfmg">this podcast</a>) and Carl Chudyk’s <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/09/how-a-ceo-fiddled-while-beloved-board-game-glory-to-rome-crashed-and-burned">infamously unavailable Glory to Rome</a>, Import/Export combines multi use cards, accidentally giving your neighbours a leg up, a large deck of unique game-breaking special abilities and enough very specific details that it’s a ‘mare to teach. It won’t be for everybody, but if you want a strange economic game with over-powered weirdnesses and a lot of mischief it might be up your street.</p> | |
| <p>While we’re floating in waters near Glory to Rome I might just sneak in a heads up for Chudyk fans that his latest design, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/285039/aegean-sea">Aegean Sea</a> is getting a limited prototype release at GenCon. Some people will be incredibly excited about that, while others shrug. For my container full of thought-goods, Carl is one of the weirdest and most exciting designers out there, so I’ve already nudged Asmadi to try and smuggle me a copy.</p> | |
| <p>Aegean Sea sounds utterly bizarre, with multiple factions with their own deck of unique cards, and those cards making up the islands of the archipelago as well as the temples, people and boats attached to them. This is precisely the sort of intricate faff that has me yelling for more. But be warned, Chudyk’s penchant for ridiculous power moves and very particular rules rub some people the wrong way. It’d definitely be my first port of call at GenCon, but that doesn’t mean it should be yours!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4838068.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-33249" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4838068.jpg" alt="" width="1149" height="871" /></a></p> | |
| <p>There’s <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/92318/design-diary-undaunted-normandy-or-euro-wargame-wa">a lovely design diary up at the moment on boardgamegeek</a>, of Osprey’s latest wargame, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/268864/undaunted-normandy">Undaunted: Normandy</a>. While down in Brighton, I had the pleasure of fifteen minutes with the rule book, and ten minutes getting utterly trounced by Quinns in our first mission. I misjudged enormously, but in a way that felt authentic, and while it was only a brief taste, it was one of the most tantalising first encounters I’ve had this year. It’s the smartest use of deck-building I’ve seen in a while, with a strong flavour of the weighty warbeast <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-combat-commander/">Combat Commander</a>, but rules I could teach in a tenth of the time. I’m looking forward to seeing if this lives up to those first impressions.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://twitter.com/elizhargrave/status/1153437455384797189"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-33242" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/wingspan-tweet.png" alt="" width="620" height="295" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Our final note is a follow-up to last week’s Spiel Des Jahres news. Winner of the Kennerspiel prize, Wingspan was designed by the excellent Elizabeth Hargrave (whose name I’ve hopefully got right this time). <a href="https://twitter.com/elizhargrave/status/1153437455384797189">She posted a thread that made me a little misty-eyed</a>, about how many people helped along the way, and then asking for what the rest of the industry was doing to support women, people of colour and queer folk (and the intersections of those) get into the industry.</p> | |
| <p>There’s no doubt that Wingspan has brought more people into board games and shows the benefit that new and diverse voices can bring. The thread left me punching the air and saying ‘let’s do this’ and I wanted to highlight that!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>Find me a great game SU&SD!</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/test/game-picker/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/test/game-picker/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jul 2019 22:56:46 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Pope]]></dc:creator> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?post_type=wpt_test&p=10606</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[]]></description> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 22/07/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-22-07-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-22-07-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Star Wars: X-Wing (Second Edition)]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Just One]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Funkoverse Strategy Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Unmatched]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Etherfields]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[One Small Step]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Magical Kitties Save the Day!]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Suffragetto]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Wingspan]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-22-07-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Quinns, Quinns, there’s a news emergency! The news pumps are overflowing. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Don’t worry, Ava! That's what they’re supposed to do. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: But no, Quinns, you don’t understand, my cynicism valve has got wedged to ‘can only be excited about cats, Queen and civil disobedience’. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Oh <em>dear.</em> | |
| <b>Ava</b>: I’m even a bit surly about the moon! | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Well, that’s no good. Let me see what you’ve written, then you can report to Decontamination Chamber B for De-Grumping.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Quinns, Quinns, there’s a news emergency! The news pumps are overflowing.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Don’t worry, Ava! That’s what they’re supposed to do.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: But no, Quinns, you don’t understand, my cynicism valve has got wedged to ‘can only be excited about cats, Queen and civil disobedience’.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh <em>dear.</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m even a bit surly about the moon!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Well, that’s no good. Let me see what you’ve written, then you can report to Decontamination Chamber B for De-Grumping.<span id="more-11540"></span></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: If there’s one thing I know about space, it’s that it’s always been exactly the same size and could only get smaller. You can imagine my shock to find out that actually there are now more stars, and the wars have got bigger.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/swz_photo_18.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32755" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/swz_photo_18.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="467" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Lovely commenter Enkufka pointed us towards the latest announcements for the second edition of spacey-pew-pew dog-fighter, the X-Wing Miniatures Game. <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/7/11/bigger-battles/">There’s bigger ships</a>? One is called Croc like a crocodile, presumably because of it’s powerful yet delicate jaws.</p> | |
| <p>I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about. Help me Obi Wan Quinobe! You’re my only hope!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, you’ve lost the news!</p> | |
| <p>That huge ships are being updated for the 2nd edition of X-Wing isn’t a particularly huge story, but <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/7/11/a-larger-world/">the announcement of the Epic Battles Multiplayer Expansion</a> is most intriguing. This box will attempt to snap open this beloved 2 player game like so much hardshell crab, creating a combat buffet for 2-8 players.</p> | |
| <p>Epic Battles will contain a variety of scenarios, “From team games to chaotic, eight-player, free-for-all battles”, as well as new rules for squadrons of small ships flying in perfect formation. X-Wing players have flown ships in formation since the start of the game, most famously by tucking TIE fighters into a mean little laser porcupine, but with the Epic Battles expansion tight squadrons will get some official support, with rules, dedicated “Wing Tools” and special upgrade cards.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4401273.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32756" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4401273.png" alt="" width="724" height="341" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: In very immediate, fairly predictable news, the games industry’s biggest award, the Spiel Des Jahres, <a href="https://www.spiel-des-jahres.com/en/awardwinners">was just won by Just One</a>. This is a lovely, simple party game of desperately hoping everyone’s minds work slightly differently to yours, and it’s a delight. It’s a well earned victory.</p> | |
| <p>The ‘connoisseurs’ Kennerspiel prize went predictably to the lovely flock simulator Wingspan. Again, it’s pretty well deserved, being a beautiful, accessible, cosy and enjoyable game. It’s an enormously inviting meal to offer people new to the hobby, and is still interesting enough for veterans. Remember when all we had to get new people excited about joining the hobby was sheep trading and medieval walls? I’d much rather hurl a flock of beautiful and curiously named birds at a newcomer.</p> | |
| <p>Also, this news has clued me in that the German edition of Wingspan is called ‘Flügelschlag’ which makes me want to keep it directly on top of my German copy of Power Grid just to confuse people.</p> | |
| <p>I can’t say anything about the children’s kinderspiel winner, Tal der Wikinger, but it does involve rolling a giant ball.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ah, and with the announcement of the winners, one of my new favourite pastimes has come to an end- listening to board game podcasters give unusual grand prize nominee <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266083/lama">LAMA</a> a fair shake, at once positive it’s not great and nervous that they’re missing something.</p> | |
| <p>If people aren’t aware, we should point out that the Spiel des Jahres is among the biggest financial rewards available to board game designers, as winners can expect to sell as many as half a million extra copies. This makes the announcement of nominees and winners a bit fraught for me, as a forgettable game being distributed to 500,000 families causes something like a papercut on my soul.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I just want to highlight that I had to translate the German ‘kenner’ into the French ‘connoisseur’ whilst fully aware that both basically mean ‘knower’. The knower’s game of the year. What a world.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4850568.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32757" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4850568.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="595" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Quinns, Quinns! Please don’t make me talk about the Funko Pops game! Can’t we just link to W Erik Martin’s thorough explanation and quietly walk away?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava… there’s no reason for us both to lose our innocence. I’ll handle this.</p> | |
| <p><i>Urgh.</i> So, earlier this year we received news that the bobblehead-mongers at Funko <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-18-02-19/">had acquired Forrest-Pruzan Creative</a>, a tabletop studio behind a lot of better-than-average licensed board games.</p> | |
| <p>This week, the first fruit of this ill-fated marriage was revealed: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/92553/funko-games-debuts-harry-potter-batman-morty-blanc">The Funkoverse Strategy Game</a> will be a series of branded sets where players can run Funko figurines around a board, roughhousing for supremacy in contests of capture the flag, area control, and the like. Players will also be able to combine sets, so your Rick & Morty funkos can fight your Harry Potter funkos, and so on.</p> | |
| <p>The fact that this is coming out in the same year as Restoration Games’ gorgeous-looking <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/274637/unmatched-battle-legends-volume-one">Unmatched series</a>, which in turn is a collaboration with pop art company Mondo (and which just recently announced <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/jurassic-park-mondo-game/">some Jurassic Park expansions</a>), has given the announcement of The Funkoverse Strategy Game an unexpected air of competition.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/UM-JP1_BoxTop_3D_1200_1200_81_s.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-32754" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/UM-JP1_BoxTop_3D_1200_1200_81_s-300x297.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="297" /></a></p> | |
| <p>I feel like the editor of a newspaper who has to decide between supporting an actual political candidate and a Funko Pop. Which is to say, it’s not really a decision, but <i>the stakes have never been higher.</i></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Watch this space for brand new ‘political candidate’ funko pops, complete with ‘baying rally’ accessories.</p> | |
| <p>I’m making that joke, and then immediately dreading what would happen if I googled to find out whether it was real or not.</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="Teburu: A New Evolution in Board Games" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cDBm3OzOSsA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: How about CMON <a href="https://www.cmon.com/news/teburu-a-new-evolution-in-board-games">launching an app assisted board game platform</a>? Brewed in collaboration with Xplored, Teburu offers a digital tabletop which can be filled in with the boards of compatible games. The digital underlay will read whatever miniatures and pieces you move around the board, and even the dice you roll, and corresponding information and options will be displayed on a shared tablet, and each player’s phone.</p> | |
| <p>Theoretically, the possibilities are endless. That said, I struggle to get excited about scanning technology that makes the answers come up on a screen. I worked in a library for seven years, I’ve seen barcodes, RFID or otherwise. I don’t want to sound like some kind of prudish curmudgeon, but I mostly got into board games to fiddle with little bits, not muck about on screens. And if I know one thing about user interfaces, it’s that making one licensed solution promising to offer an infinity of different experiences is an astronomical challenge.</p> | |
| <p>Teburu will launch with a fully compatible new edition of CMON’s Zombicide, which may well put it in front of a hell of a lot of people. I do look forward to hearing what those people say about it, even if it isn’t for me.</p> | |
| <p>One day, one of these doodads is going to do things I can barely imagine. It’ll take over the world and introduce a whole wealth of people to the hobby, and I’m going to be sat grumpily in a corner, eating humble pie and fiddling with my…</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: AVA!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Maybe you’re the prude. Let’s have a look at some kickstarters.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4827898.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32758" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4827898.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It sounds like a solvents festival to me, but there’s got to be something in it, as <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/awakenrealms/etherfields-board-game/description">Etherfields has already raised almost $3 million</a>, storming across the land like so many woozy blokes in bad hats. That’s miles from the point, as in fact everybody in this kickstarter has very good hats.</p> | |
| <p>Etherfields is co-operative smorgasbord of ideas. The production value is through the roof, with optical illusion game boxes, a huge pile of weird and inventive miniatures and strange cardboard masks. It looks like a treasure trove of hallucinogenic monstrosities for you to wade thoough, and they’re calling it a ‘Dream-crawler’. Which I assume is a dungeon crawler where the doors don’t have handles and everyone looks like a friend from school you haven’t seen in twenty years. I’m faintly worried the whole thing is as much of a trick of the eye as that box (which I imagine won’t look nearly as clever in person).</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s certainly a shockingly ambitious proposition- one part Escape Room, full of riddles and hidden puzzles, one part Arkham Horror Living Card Game, with characters being developed via deckbuilding, and one part Kingdom Death: Monster, with a 50 hour campaign just in the core box.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s from the publishers of the This War of Mine board game, which I’ve heard mixed things about (and is gathering dust on my shelf of shame). I’ve got faith that Awakened Realms are willing to put some time in making a strong and weird narrative experience, on top of any straightforward monster-battling. That said, the reason This War of Mine sits unopened is because I can’t quite bring myself to dig through the interactions between the many different decks and books that build that narrative. I went a bit squiffy eyed as this kickstarter video told me just how many decks you’d be deckbuilding in the game.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Maybe that was just you being sucked into the Dream Realm?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: If you mean did I have a nap whilst writing the news, I couldn’t possibly comment. But I am in a very nice sun beam right now, and I might just put my feet up for a second.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/410e3df4cacd9435b529f34de434a00d_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32760" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/410e3df4cacd9435b529f34de434a00d_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="510" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Meanwhile, back in space, but somehow still on kickstarter, Academy games has added <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/academygames/one-small-step-0">One Small Step</a>, a team game about racing to the moon.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Actually, this game features you taking <em>multiple turns</em> to step closer and closer to the moon. Team-based worker placement gives you the opportunity to annoy your friends <i>and</i> your enemies. Will you and your administrator beat your ideologically opposed counterparts to the moon? Only this game will tell you. (Alongside a fair few other games that I’ve seen covering the same theme, from <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172737/high-frontier-third-edition">High Frontier</a> to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173064/leaving-earth">Leaving Earth</a> to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191177/space-race-card-game">Space Race</a> to <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardcubator/space-race-0">the other Space Race</a>. Looks like we’re going to need a bigger shuttle, eh?)</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: This week a lot of my friends have been struggling to get their heads around Pax Pamir 2nd edition, and this Kickstarter is timely a reminder that for me personally, Academy Games hits the sweet spot between historic wargames and accessible fun. <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-1812/">The Birth of America Series</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-freedom-underground-railroad/">Freedom: The Underground Railroad</a>, and even the not-at-all-bad Mare Nostrum make me feel quietly confident about One Small Step.</p> | |
| <p>(I’m browsing the manual right now, and sure enough, it’s just 20 sparse pages with more big headers than a football match.)</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32759" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bc3a055d211baf9cb02e165ea71f8dad_original.jpg" alt="" width="616" height="450" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s conflict of interest time! I’ve only met SU&SD co-founder Paul Dean twice, but we have talked about Queen a lot, so I totally feel qualified to say ‘he used to work here’. He also worked on Atlas Games’ latest kickstarter RPG, which I promise I’d be covering anyway, if only because someone would be furious at me if I didn’t link to a thing called ‘<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atlasgames/magical-kitties-save-the-day/description">Magical Kitties Save the Day</a>’.</p> | |
| <p>After a weekend where everyone’s been panicking about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq50F-IDXDc">creepily CGIed singing cats</a>, it’s nice to have some cats on the right side of the uncanny valley. On the other hand, I just noticed that one of those cats on the box has wings. To distract you from that I’m going to point out that of three Queen songs <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQHi1QXboo">about</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OraAjMKPH_8">cats</a>, only <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEYRoXWmWYU">one of them</a> features anyone singing the word ‘Meow’.</p> | |
| <p>Ahem.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/46-Multimedia-428-1-17-20190622.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32752" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/46-Multimedia-428-1-17-20190622.jpg" alt="" width="898" height="867" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: And finally!</p> | |
| <p>Leigh pointed us towards <a href="http://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal/article/view/46?fbclid=IwAR3cI6tuKBySJv6g2AoWkjfVcZWNAKyDTa59iHCJLimbP-Vce6KPlPsyVaM">this absolutely fabulous piece about ‘Suffragetto’</a>, a board game of civil disobedience, feminism and criminal incitement! I’ve seen mention of this game in places, but this is the deepest dive I’ve ever read. Being given a taste of the rules, and how they feed into the still relevant ideological inequalities of state violence versus civil disobedience, makes for a cracking read. If not just to remember how hard the Suffragettes fought. The game sounds reasonably ruthless, too (and looks to have been made significantly more fair than the real fight was).</p> | |
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| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-22-07-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>71</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 15/07/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-15-07-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-15-07-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Quest for El Dorado]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Pappy Winchester]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Copenhagen]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Copenhagen: Roll & Write]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[3 Years of War]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Prêt-à-Porter]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-15-07-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: It was a busy weekend for ‘sports’ or as I like to call them ‘meat-games’, but that doesn’t mean the news wheel has stopped turning. Games gonna game and news is gonna news. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Oh, you watched the Cricket World Cup final? | |
| <b>Ava</b>: And something called ‘wombledown’ happened? I was drowning in crickets yesterday and it was a treat for rules-lawyers and fans of obscure tiebreakers everywhere. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Ever on-brand, I was too busy playing board games this weekend to watch "sports"! I got to introduce four entire people to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-el-grande/">El Grande</a>. I understand that the winner of Wimbledon <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/14/woody-harrelson-becomes-wimbledon-meme-possibly-entertaining-tennis-10284669/">was Woody Harrelson</a>? | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Sounds believable to me. Having had to research ‘Woody Harrelson’s face’ for the Monikers box, I doubt I’ll ever be able to escape his sturdy, well-cleft visage. Truly his countenance is a caballero hidden in the castillo of our hearts. | |
| Welcome, everybody, to the excessively digressive games news.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: It was a busy weekend for ‘sports’ or as I like to call them ‘meat-games’, but that doesn’t mean the news wheel has stopped turning. Games gonna game and news is gonna news.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh, you watched the Cricket World Cup final?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: And something called ‘wombledown’ happened? I was drowning in crickets yesterday and it was a treat for rules-lawyers and fans of obscure tiebreakers everywhere.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ever on-brand, I was too busy playing board games this weekend to watch “sports”! I got to introduce four entire people to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-el-grande/">El Grande</a>. I understand that the winner of Wimbledon <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/14/woody-harrelson-becomes-wimbledon-meme-possibly-entertaining-tennis-10284669/">was Woody Harrelson</a>?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Sounds believable to me. Having had to research ‘Woody Harrelson’s face’ for the Monikers box, I doubt I’ll ever be able to escape his sturdy, well-cleft visage. Truly his countenance is a caballero hidden in the castillo of our hearts.</p> | |
| <p>Welcome, everybody, to the excessively digressive games news.<span id="more-10479"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/656d9bde6686e266dc3b5b4d834d6692_original.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32164" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/656d9bde6686e266dc3b5b4d834d6692_original.gif" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ooo- ooh. Fashion</p> | |
| <p>Are you ready to porter? Because Pret a Porter is ready to porter. Ignacy Trzewiczek’s early design has had a reprint of this fashion house management game burning a hole in its pocket for a while and has finally <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalgames/pret-a-porter">hit kickstarter for an upcycle</a>.</p> | |
| <p>There’s not too many games about fashion design out there, and we always like a bit of variety, so I’m somewhat excited, despite having not played the thing, or entirely understanding how it works. I’ve never even seen the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110907/">Robert Altman film</a>. Is this an unlikely film tie in? No, but if someone makes a M*A*S*H game I’m here for it.</p> | |
| <p>Tangents aside, I’ve never really clicked with anything Ignacy has made. Designs like <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-nations/">Imperial Settlers</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-robinson-crusoe-adventure-on-the-cursed/">Robinson Crusoe</a> are widely praised, but I found them both too dry and too tidy. Part of my brain is begging me to assume that Pret a Porter is an exception to this, but I have a feeling his games just aren’t my style.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s not one I’ll be backing, either. If I’m going to play a game about making (or failing to make) an expensive dress, I’ll probably wait for a reprint of the much-lauded <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144344/rococo">Rococo</a>.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/53363a0235a0a6aaa35a4f176a6ece53_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32155" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/53363a0235a0a6aaa35a4f176a6ece53_original.jpg" alt="" width="1102" height="540" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Also starting to Kick in the last week is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1032467202/three-years-of-war-a-fun-game-of-misery">Three Years of War</a>. I’m irritated to find out is a game about the 30 years war, and not a three years war. If you do fancy a bleak simulation of one tenth of that war, then maybe this skull-covered box is for you. It’s earned comparisons to The Grizzled (which I love) and is by the designer of Blood Bowl: Team Manager (which I love), and it has a kickstarter pledge level called ‘the defenestration of Prague’ (which I love).</p> | |
| <p>Who can’t get on board with a bit of defenestration? Presumably whoever is being thrown out of the window at the time. The game sounds like it aims to be miserable for everyone, and that can be quite fun? I’m not entirely convinced by the ad copy, but I am entirely curious.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4811615.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-32160" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4811615-191x300.jpg" alt="" width="191" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: The twin superfads of roll and writes and polyominoes unite again in the kickstarter for <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1016374822/copenhagen-roll-and-write">Copenhagen: Roll and Write</a>. Copenhagen was a bigger box about making colourful buildings with neatly lined up windows, and this offers the same idea in a more scribbly format.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Hey!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Yes?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: <i>Hey</i>.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: What is it</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The original <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269595/copenhagen">Copenhagen</a> is really good! It’s not something we ended up reviewing because it’s been a hot summer of even hotter releases, but people shouldn’t equate our silence with ambivalence. As simple games go, it’s ace. I might even say it’s the best game about putting windows on a Danish house <i>ever made</i>. If designers Granerud and Pedersen can offer a similar experience in a teeny box, sign me up!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: The bigger box is also available as part of this campaign, and I’m more tempted by it. I’m drawn in by the lovely aesthetic, based on the scenic Nyhavn neighbourhood home you’ll be building. But I can’t think of a worse way to ruin something so pretty than having me scribble blocks, noughts and crosses all over it. That doesn’t mean the roll & write won’t be a cosy little delight.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: What is it now?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: <i>Italics</i>.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4783761.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-32159" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4783761-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Boardgamegeek’s W. Erik Martin has been rounding up previews ahead of GenCon, and has uncovered some details on <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/92229/buy-pappy-winchesters-land-then-go-boat-hopping-dr">Pappy Winchester</a>, a game of plots of land, auctions and – unexpectedly – duels! The theming is lovely, with players taking the role of the family members of the deceased, titular “Pappy”, who has left very specific instructions on how his legacy is to be handled.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This means I can get into character as a disgruntled executrix whilst teaching the game and that is more than enough for me.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m quite excited by this one, too! The money that you’re bidding with is actually victory points, which I always enjoy because it opens players up to making HUGE mistakes, and I’m head over heels in love with the rule of players being able to duel one another, once per game, to instantly resolve a bidding war with violence.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s definitely a new way to end an auction. I expect to spend the entire game goading other people into dueling each other.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: No, no! Don’t you see? You wouldn’t want to do that, because the ideal circumstance if two <em>other</em> players are bidding is for them to get higher and higher, each of them willing the other to spend their duel token.</p> | |
| <p>Urgh. If I’m getting excited about strategy before a game’s even out, you know what that means- I’ll be bringing the SU&SD readers the earliest possible impressions.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/D-8YAQ5WkAAVefi.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32156" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/D-8YAQ5WkAAVefi.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="705" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Next up, we’ve got a public service announcement. Remember <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-the-quest-for-el-dorado-and-the-heroes-hexes-expansion/">my review of El Dorado (plus the Heroes and Hexes expansion)</a> where I told you to buy El Dorado (and maybe the Heroes and Hexes expansion)?</p> | |
| <p>Well, now I’m telling you to STOP. All of those dozens of copies of El Dorado in your shopping basket? Dump them on the floor, then run! Run like the wind!</p> | |
| <p>Designer Reiner Knizia <a href="https://twitter.com/ReinerKnizia/status/1148163097733017600">has announced a new “international edition” of El Dorado</a> with prettier components, full-size cards and “many expansions waiting”. That’s great news for those of you who haven’t yet bought it, and horrid news for those of us who have. Especially for those of us with long, stick insect-like hands who struggle to hold tiny cards.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Having developed some kind of Stockholm syndrome passion for the original artwork, which gives the impression of something I would have grabbed out of a car-boot sale when I was six years old, I’m a bit confused.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: That reminds me! We still haven’t seen inside the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271320/castles-burgundy-expansions">new, upcoming edition</a> of The Castles of Burgundy. In <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-castles-burgundy/">our original review</a> I described the look of Castles of Burgundy as “The lovechild of a maths textbook and hotel room art.” But now I literally can’t imagine it looking any different.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: There was an update a while back that showed us the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/86159/alea-celebrates-twenty-years-new-look-las-vegas-ro">revamped Las Vegas</a> as part of this same republishing initiative, and it did look pretty fancy, so it’s possible the nouveau Castles of Burgundy will not look like someone’s thrown up a half-digested model village.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It just seems like Germany only makes games look modern <i>under duress</i>.</p> | |
| <p><strong>EDIT –</strong> <strong>Quinns</strong>: Oh dear! It’s been pointed out to us that this fancy new edition of El Dorado is only for “new markets that Ravensburger do not currently cover”. It’s not yet clear precisely what that means, but in the words of SU&SD reader @alexwglenn on Twitter, “people might want to get those dozen copies back into their shopping carts”.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic2085771.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32158" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic2085771.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="408" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Pushing the boundaries of what qualifies as news, I was delighted by <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/lackingceremony/status/1148336228476964864">Avery Alder’s thread on narrative economies in Sentinels of the Multiverse</a>. Avery knows her way around a smart RPG system or two, with Dream Askew currently up for some awards, and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/monster-hearts/">Monsterhearts</a> a long-time favourite. Her discussion of the interlocking systems has really got me wanting to dive into a game that I disregarded the first time around. Maybe it’s worth another look? At the very least it made me take another look <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/sentinels-multiverse/">at our ancient review</a>. Look how small and blurry everyone was!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-15-07-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>97</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>Review: Fuji</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-fuji/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-fuji/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Cooperative Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Conflict-Free Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Quick Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fuji]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-fuji/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Kylie</b>: Wolfgang Warsch’ <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Grail-Games-Museum/dp/B07HHJDQK8?tag=shupsido02-20">gorgeous new game, Fuji,</a> pits players as mismatched adventurers who find themselves on top of Japan’s most famous volcano. But it was poor planning on the part of the travel agent, because right as you reach the top, Mount Fuji begins to erupt. You and your companions will have to race against the flow of lava, back to the safety of the village. | |
| Did I mention that this is a co-operative game? Together, players will either scramble to safety, or burn to a crisp.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Kylie</b>: Wolfgang Warsch’ <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Grail-Games-Museum/dp/B07HHJDQK8?tag=shupsido02-20">gorgeous new game, Fuji,</a> pits players as mismatched adventurers who find themselves on top of Japan’s most famous volcano. But it was poor planning on the part of the travel agent, because right as you reach the top, Mount Fuji begins to erupt. You and your companions will have to race against the flow of lava, back to the safety of the village.</p> | |
| <p>Did I mention that this is a co-operative game? Together, players will either scramble to safety, or burn to a crisp.<span id="more-10470"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0153.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31778" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0153.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="725" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Each turn, everybody rolls their dice and compares the results to decide on the best route back to safety. Cards laid out at the start of the game map out the landscape of the volcano, but each of these cards examines your dice differently (the total of your red die faces, for example, or the total of your even numbers). To move to each space, you have to have a higher total of that than either of your neighbours.</p> | |
| <p>Here’s where it starts to get a little tricky. Players roll their dice behind screens and can’t communicate <i>exactly</i> what they have. In a similar style to popular card game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98778/hanabi">Hanabi</a>, players have communication limitations. You can’t talk about specifics or averages in any way. In the picture above, for example, you couldn’t say “I have two fives”. You could, however, say “I have a lot of high numbers”.</p> | |
| <p>This elevates Fuji from being a luck-based, dice chucking extravaganza, to a game of thoughtful gambles based on imperfect information. Because when those dice are revealed, if you can’t move to the space you chose? You don’t move <em>at all,</em> as the lava oozes ever closer.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0151.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31777" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0151.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="721" /></a></p> | |
| <p>What routinely happens in the game is you roll your dice and think “Aha, I’ve got some good pink and yellow dice here. Everybody, I’ll try and move to <em>this</em> tile!”</p> | |
| <p>*moaning from across the table*</p> | |
| <p>“What’s wrong?”</p> | |
| <p>“That’s literally the only place <em>I</em> can go.”</p> | |
| <p>**curses**</p> | |
| <p>What follows is a bout of intense discussion as players try to solve the puzzle on the table, half of which is elegantly laid out in front of you, half of which is hidden. And you see, your rolls in Fuji aren’t all about <em>you.</em> They’re about everyone. Sometimes you have to forget about moving forward, instead nudging and re-rolling your perfect dice just to give your teammate a better chance of dashing forward. Because if any of you die? You all lose.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0155.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31780" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0155.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="608" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Fuji is a raw, redolent experience which traps players in a series of tiny dilemmas from start to finish. On the one hand you’re trying to roll the best dice possible to ensure that you can slip down the side of the volcano, perhaps snatching a handy item card on the way. On the other hand, high dice rolls may freeze a teammate in place, and suddenly lava is licking at their heels. You’re constantly weighing up difficult decisions, and having to make brave leaps of faith.</p> | |
| <p>Players do get a slight reprieve with equipment cards, which often allow you to strategise out of a particularly dicey situation. In addition, individual character skills add an element of hope to a game full of suspense, agony and despair.</p> | |
| <p>However, don’t rejoice too much, because throughout the course of the game players will also collect <i>injuries</i> which will prevent you from using your ability, equipment cards, and – in the case of a leg injury – which permanently removes one of your dice. This can be exactly as debilitating as it sounds, and you’ll end up leaning on your teammates more heavily.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0154.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31779" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0154.jpg" alt="" width="1100" height="600" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Scalewise, Fuji is primarily geared towards 3-4 players. At 2, the game uses a couple of dummy variants. Whilst I’m often hesitant about these, this one was actually very enjoyable, and has you supporting a next-to-useless 3rd character down the mountain. It reminded me of Everest disaster stories, where you hear of wealthy but unskilled individuals caught on the mountain during a disaster, and being guided down by heroic Sherpas.</p> | |
| <p>There’s a fair bit to explore in this small-ish box. The game comes with several layouts for the volcano tiles and a few different character skills and equipment cards which adds a small degree of contrast to each play. There are also multiple difficulty levels which will ensure any group is kept on their toes, as well as numerous variants that tweak the balance of the game, whilst also providing committed groups with a plethora of increasing challenges.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0156.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31781" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0156.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="704" /></a></p> | |
| <p>So at first glance, Fuji is a work of art, both literally and figuratively. The illustrations provided by Weberson Santiago are breathtaking. Weberson provides a refreshing style in a world that relies heavily on basic primary colours. The game itself is innovative, fresh, and an example of cooperation in its purest form. It’s a game where self-sacrifice is absolutely necessary in order to ensure team survival. It has a high level of engagement and interaction as every player is involved in every decision. You can’t coast your way to victory here by relying on more experienced players. Your dice rolls will affect both of the players next to you, so you have to learn how best to communicate with one another, and do so quickly. The volcano rapidly turns to a hellscape of molten magma as the picturesque scenery cards are flipped to their fiery counterparts, evoking a real sense of danger, urgency, and precariousness, wherever you happen to be.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0159.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31783" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0159.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="517" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Here’s where the ‘but’ comes in. Communication is hard. It’s hard to explain to people, hard for some people to wrap their heads around and even when you understand the rules, it can be hard to get right. You can’t talk about numbers or averages in any way, remember, and you also can’t say exactly what coloured dice you have. Instead, you have to opt for vague sentences such as “I rolled poorly” or “I could be a threat for you”. It can all get a bit fiddly, and for such a big part of the game this can sometimes leave the experience falling a bit flat.</p> | |
| <p>And for such a clever game, there’s also a lot of dice rolling. By its very nature this is heavily based in the realms of Lady Luck, and a couple of rounds of poor results can leave players feeling frustrated and downtrodden by the whole affair. As this is a cooperative game you can quickly end up feeling like a burden to the other players, too, as you take on more injuries whilst remaining rooted in the same spot.</p> | |
| <p>The challenge is also pretty static. The overarching storyline is the same in each game that you play; you’re escaping an erupting volcano. There are no surprises thrown at you or cards that make one play stand out from the next one. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUESNTb5w7M]">Pandemic</a>, for example, the order of the infection and city cards can lead to some epic moments that stay with you for a long time. In Fuji, every round and every game is about the dice that have been rolled, which some may find tedious after multiple plays.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0150.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31776" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_0150.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="721" /></a></p> | |
| <p>However, the sense of amelioration and betterment as your group of amateur adventurers become bolder and greater is addictive. The new challenges means there’s always a bigger and better Fuji to tackle. And a slightly rudimentary, yet fun scoring system at the end of the game gives a finality to your story, from surviving the volcano but spending months in hospital,to capturing the eye of Hollywood directors who want to make a movie about your heroic endeavours.</p> | |
| <p>Whilst there’s no denying there’s a very obvious learning curve to the communication methods, once you’ve jumped over the hurdle there’s a real elegance to the experience. It’s frustrating, primitive and agonising, but it’s all wrapped up in a rewarding, unique and edifying puzzle, that offers an abundance of satisfaction when you finally crack the code.</p> | |
| <p>It won’t set the table alight for everyone, but if cooperative games are your jam, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/fuji/">this one</a> is worth powering through for.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>47</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 08/07/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-08-07-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-08-07-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[terraforming mars]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Pangea]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Century: Golem Edition: Eastern Mountains]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tinyforming Mars]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Auf Der Walz]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Deep Blue]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-08-07-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Happy news-time, my greedy fact-fiends. Quinns is busy with the business of podcasting, so only has time for a deep dive into a single plunge pool of news. That means you’ve got me taking you on a tour of Germany, a mission to Mars, a ride on a golem, to an archaeological dig, a meeting with some Prussian generals, for a poke under the games-bonnet and into the dark heart of Mordor. | |
| Just your average Monday, really. | |
| Let’s get a wriggle on, we’ve so much to see.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Happy news-time, my greedy fact-fiends. Quinns is busy with the business of podcasting, so only has time for a deep dive into a single plunge pool of news. That means you’ve got me taking you on a tour of Germany, a mission to Mars, a ride on a golem, to an archaeological dig, a meeting with some Prussian generals, for a poke under the games-bonnet and into the dark heart of Mordor.</p> | |
| <p>Just your average Monday, really.</p> | |
| <p>Let’s get a wriggle on, we’ve so much to see.<span id="more-10462"></span></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Yes! I’m coming for a quick splash into Ava’s news to talk about the new announcement from Days of Wonder, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283649/deep-blue">Deep Blue</a>, because I’ve actually played a prototype of the darn thing.</p> | |
| <p>Coming from Danish design duo Asger Granerud and Daniel Pedersen (who previously worked together on the excellent <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269595/copenhagen">Copenhagen</a>), Deep Blue is a game where players race ships around the board, jostling for position at treasure-stuffed diving sites. While there, a player can choose to initiate a dive for everybody present, and then the real fun begins.</p> | |
| <p>The player who initiated the dive plays a push-your-luck game, except they’re pushing the luck of everybody on the dive, and players have to use cards in their hand to dodge sharks or scoop up extra treasure. What’s even more exciting than trying to grab jewels while avoiding the bends? Managing to give <em>your friends the bends,</em> while you stick around for an extra few minutes.</p> | |
| <p>I had what I would describe as “medium fun” while playing Deep Blue. That said, “medium fun” with Days of Wonders’ stellar production values make for quite an appealing package.</p> | |
| <p>…Then again, Days of Wonder seem to be continuing the habit of putting game logos on card backs, which is the worst sin available to humankind. Eurgh! How could they?! It’s like putting a bumper sticker on an Aston Martin.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4732541.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31640" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4732541.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="556" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This one is a little niche for the news, but is so far up my street it’s already put the kettle on and there’s nothing I can do to stop them crafting me a little wooden teapot.</p> | |
| <p>Spielworxx, currently running a successful Kickstarter <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/indiegamestudios/die-macher-limited-edition">for German political simulator Die Macher</a>, is also more quietly running <a href="https://www.spielworxx.de/produkte-shop/">a low print-run pre-order for Auf Der Walz</a>. This game will see you taking the role of very literal journeymen, wandering the german countryside, barred from visiting home, with only your crafting abilities to make your way in the world. This is a very real tradition in German craft guilds, where people had to go auf der walz (it’s german for ‘on the waltz’) for three years and a day. The game looks a little like the lovely-walk simulator of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-tokaido/">Tokaido</a>, with some chewier resource management and route planning wrapped around it. It could be really interesting! I hope it sees a larger (and cheaper) release.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4796679.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31644" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4796679.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="767" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: One of the things that flags a game up to us is when it jumps to the top of the boardgamegeek hotness out of nowhere. It’s often a self-perpetuating mystery or a marketing optimisation scam, but it can highlight obscure little projects that make me glad this hobby is so weird and particular.</p> | |
| <p>Enter <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/282493/tinyforming-mars">Tinyforming Mars</a>, an adorable two player print-and-play take on some of the core ideas of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-terraforming-mars/">Terraforming Mars</a>, the widely lauded but locally criticised learny-spacey engine builder. A much smaller deck of cards, a tiny map of Mars and a bundle of tokens robbed from other games turns into a taut battle to be the best corporation on the red planet. People seem to like it, although most of the aforementioned hot hotness heat stems from people accusing it of ripping off the larger game. I’m just glad to be reminded of the huge swathe of freely shared print and play games hidden under the bedrock of hype mountain.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4821735.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31643" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4821735.jpg" alt="" width="1065" height="624" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Spice Road was the first of Emerson Matsuichi’s interlocking Century trilogy, a series of shorter games <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-century-spice-road-century-eastern-wonders-and-century-from-sand-to-sea/">that could be combined, Voltron-style, into slightly fiddlier games</a>. Spice Road was also available in a less compatible <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232832/century-golem-edition">Golem edition</a>, for those who hated spices but loved golems.</p> | |
| <p>That was supposed to be a one off, but somebody obviously smelled some money, as the second Century game, Eastern Wonders, is being published as <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/91874/century-golem-edition-heads-eastern-mountains-gen">Century: Golem Edition: Eastern Mountains</a>. That’s a lot of colons for a pile of rocks. We reviewed the two spicier versions already, and are waiting on the third part of the trilogy to see if it turns them into some joyful behemoth. I’m not sure a different coat of paint is going to make much difference to most, but I suspect there are some golem fans out there who are glad they aren’t being left behind.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4644345.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31642" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4644345.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Over in the prehistoric forests of kickstarter, we have some gorgeous speculative paleontology <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redimpgames/pangea-0">in the form of Pangea</a>. The art really makes this game stand out, showing a host of ancient beasts in glorious detail as they roam across the titular mega-continent.</p> | |
| <p>That said, everything is drenched in text and complication and it looks to me like it could be an unwieldy beast-wrangler to wrangle. I’d probably follow the company recommended policy of waiting until we’ve seen more reviews in the wild.</p> | |
| <p><em>That</em> said, the invertebrate team have a nautilus mascot that makes me pretty eager to wrap my tentacles across a planet spanning continent. It may be worth a dig into the rulebook and videos to see if it makes your tendrils quiver.</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="How Did War Become a Game?" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-seIA9tukDs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Simulationist wargames are effectively the basis of modern role-playing, and have had a huge impact on board game design. This means it’s a bit lovely to have a really solid video history of the Kriegspiel and the origin of wargaming. Built in Prussia for very rich people, different iterations of Kriegspiel had scaled terrain, modular boards, custom dice and a DM-like umpire with ultimate power over how the game played. Honestly, I’m surprised it’s not coming to kickstarter soon.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/D-UWAqsWwAE-c4O.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31641" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/D-UWAqsWwAE-c4O.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="808" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Meanwhile, Geoff Englestein got in touch to tell us about his latest book, written with Isaac Shalev. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Tabletop-Game-Design/dp/1138365491">Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design</a> (Amazon UK link <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Blocks-Tabletop-Game-Design/dp/1138365491">here</a>) is an encyclopedia of game mechanisms, allowing design students to dive into the nuts and bolts of ludic tickery.</p> | |
| <p>With illustrations that pay homage to lovely Korean gameshow <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-311016-and-a-secret/">The Genius</a>, as well as descriptions and examples for each bite-size building block, it looks like a lovely piece of work. It could be the definitive way to end tedious arguments about specific terminology. It could also be the beginning of the same arguments, depending on your perspective and/or friends.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ORC_2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31646" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ORC_2.jpg" alt="" width="1056" height="674" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Finally, this week’s further reading is a challenging piece of thought-craft. James Mendez Hodes has wrapped up <a href="https://jamesmendezhodes.com/blog/2019/6/30/orcs-britons-and-the-martial-race-myth-part-ii-theyre-not-human">a two part exploration of the racist origins of Tolkien’s orcs</a>, and how those dubious inflections have reached out across a century of media. In particular, the second part focuses on Dungeons and Dragons, its fixed concepts of races, and the biases masked by fantasy trappings. This may be an uncomfortable read for people (like me) used to turning certain creatures into monsters for the sake of a game night, but provides really positive ways to undermine and criticise these tropes. It’s a smart, enlightening read.</p> | |
| <p>I particularly like the part noting that Games Workshop accidentally avoided a lot of these problems (arguably replacing them with traditional British class prejudice) when it cut their Space Orks from the same cloth as eighties football hooligans. This might just be because I was an ork player as a kid, and have always been fascinated by the weird specificity of that particular iteration of the much maligned greenfolk. They just seemed so joyful, which felt like a respite from the rest of Warhammer 40,000’s ultra-bleak setting. Significantly more nuanced takes can be found in Mendez Hodes’ thorough and personal think-piece.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 01/07/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-01-07-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-01-07-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ghost Stories]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Monopoly: Voice Banking]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[On the Underground: London/Berlin]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Kenny G - Keeping it Saxy]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Last Bastion]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Cities: Skylines - The Board Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Monopoly]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-01-07-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Quinns, Quinns? I’ve been wondering… | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Oh no. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: No it’s fine. I’m just wondering, where does news come from? | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Well, Ava, when two people love news very much, they get together and… | |
| <b>Ava</b>: I’ve heard enough. Let’s make like Cole Porter and do it. Let’s fall in news. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Here we go.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Quinns, Quinns? I’ve been wondering…</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh no.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: No it’s fine. I’m just wondering, where does news come from?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Well, Ava, when two people love news very much, they get together and…</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’ve heard enough. Let’s make like Cole Porter and do it. Let’s fall in news.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Here we go.<span id="more-10455"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Untitled-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-31140" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="627" height="263" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.kosmosgames.co.uk/games/cities-skylines-the-board-game/">Cities: Skylines – The Board Game</a> finally has a bit more detail attached to it, with some exciting concrete morsels to chew on. Kosmos games is working with Paradox entertainment and Rustan Håkansson to bring your table a take on the <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/255710/Cities_Skylines/">computerised infrastructure fiddler of the same name</a>. The idea of trying to take that depth of simulated transport modelling and recreating it in cardboard is ridiculous, so I’m pretty glad Rustan has gone down an even more curious route.</p> | |
| <p>Combining weirdly shaped tiles onto modular boards with a prebuilt road layout while looking after the needs of your citizens is an intriguing prospect. Doing it co-operatively with a few of your terrible friends making horrendous mistakes on your behalf sounds like a recipe for grumpy delight.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The fact that this is a co-operative game has made me instantaneously excited. Just <i>imagining</i> someone laying a tile in an awkward way that prevents any other buildings going in that block was enough to make me put my face in my hands.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Doing things wrong is a team sport, and the best city-builders let you build accidental hellscapes. This has all the planning documents necessary to be a beautiful disaster.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: That’s especially true because players will share a single bank balance, and lose the game if they go bankrupt. Is this approaching the category of games that are “Too Real”?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: As long as nobody actually has to live in Pearhampton-under-Lime, it’s just real enough.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/odLjcq7.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31136" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/odLjcq7.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1152" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Here’s a saddening little newslet (newsling?).</p> | |
| <p>The box and board for the new edition of classic co-operative puzzle Ghost Stories <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/c7fix3/ghost_stories_20_first_pics_its_called_last/">have been revealed</a>. The relaunch will be titled Last Bastion, and instead of you playing as monks fending off colourful ghosts in rural China, you’re now generic Fantasy archetypes defending a fantasy castle from fantasy monsters.</p> | |
| <p>I never claimed to be a reasonable man, but Ava, I loathe this. Rather than doing a sensitivity pass on the old edition’s depiction of China, they’ve dropped the old theme like a hot stone.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: To be fair to Last Bastion, the bright colours look really inviting, and I am definitely less worried about appropriation in this version. But I’m not surprised people aren’t pleased. I’ve just never played the game so I’m not hugely attached.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It was one of the few games in my collection before we began Shut Up & Sit Down!</p> | |
| <p>Look, here’s <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-ghost-stories/">our old review</a>! Oh, leave me to my grief…</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/kg-circle2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31135" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/kg-circle2.jpg" alt="" width="746" height="627" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Following on from last week’s <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-24-06-19/">news of Jaws</a>, we’ve got another monster from your childhood, resurrected and shoved onto the shelves at Target.</p> | |
| <p><a href="http://www.biggcreative.com/games/kenny-g/">Kenny G – Keeping it Saxy</a> comes from the same school of thought as the Bob Ross: Art of Chill board game. That school being “Slapping a meme-friendly celebrity on the cover and building a game around the collective sense of irony and the nostalgia high”. You’ll be keeping Kenny in the smooth jazz groove by playing sound cards in this co-operative game that makes me wish I didn’t have ears. It’s recommended you put some Kenny on in the background, and do vocal scat as you play the cards.</p> | |
| <p>Maybe that’ll be fun. Maybe I’d rather be eaten by the shark. There’s only one way to tell.</p> | |
| <p>(Wake me up when someone’s made a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkLz4MyDmuE">Kamasi Washington</a> game.)</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4796715.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31139" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4796715.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="900" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Do you know what I like more than I like smooth jazz saxophone? Tubes. That’s why I’m intrigued by Ludicreations reprint of <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ludicreations/on-the-underground-london-berlin">On the Underground, on kickstarter now</a>. On the Underground lets you build your own subsurface rail network in both London AND Berlin. Those are two very tubey cities.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The game seems fairly straightforward. In the tradition of route-building games like <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-ticket-to-ride-and-rails-sails/">Ticket to Ride</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-through-the-desert/">Through the Desert</a>, players take turns to extend their lines in order to claim certain objectives, or they can spend precious “Branching Tokens” to birth a new head for one of their tubes, like a cylindrical hydra.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m kind of worried that I’ll feel awful rebuilding the London Underground wrong.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m just cracking up at the single beleaguered wooden passenger on the board that you all want to shunt around for additional victory points. There’s something very sad about that.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m pretty sure we’ve all had a day on the underground that felt like that, to be fair.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4764443.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-31137" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic4764443-266x300.jpg" alt="" width="266" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jurassicworld/jurassic-worldtm-miniature-game">There’s a dinosaur.<br /> | |
| And it’s really small.<br /> | |
| In a min-i-a-tures board game.</a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: ….</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This would make more sense if you could hear me singing. It’s beautiful Quinns.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: That’s as maybe, but have you looked at this kickstarter? I can’t see anything there to excite me, and it’s about dinosaurs, the most exciting creatures that ever lived.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: What about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium">giant sloth</a>? I reckon that’s more exciting than a dinosaur.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: You’re a fan of megafauna too?! We should talk after the news.</p> | |
| <p>This Kickstarter is proper bobbins though. We should have stopped after On The Underground.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31133" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/634.jpg" alt="" width="634" height="380" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Since I started writing news, I’ve wondered: what would it take for me to actually link to an announcement of a new version of Monopoly? It turns out that the answer is ‘remove the one thing I like about Monopoly’, the tactility. The new <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2019/jun/25/cashless-monopoly-is-this-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-for-physical-money">Monopoly: Voice Banking game</a> is a straightforward take on the game, but replaces your cheaty sibling as the banker with…a giant top hat that sits in the middle of your game and talks to you.</p> | |
| <p>I’m all about touching experiences, and my fondest, fondlingest memory of Monopoly is the time I attempted to break the system by hoarding all the one pound notes. The idea of taking out the wodges of cash and replacing it with a cut price robo-pennybags is utterly deflating.</p> | |
| <p>Though actually, it’s potentially a really useful accessibility tool, so I shouldn’t be such a snob. I just wish it could be customised for other games. <a href="https://meeplelikeus.co.uk/monopoly-1933-accessibility-teardown/">Meeple Like Us</a> did a great breakdown of accessibility in this game that concluded that it’s mainstream status had helped the designers polish up every aspect of the game until pretty much anyone could play. There’s definitely something to learn there.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I like <a href="https://monopoly.hasbro.com/en-us/product/monopoly-game-cheaters-edition:020C27CB-55DA-442A-B73B-B5C3CED8FCDA">Monopoly: Cheater’s Edition</a>, where you can handcuff your children to the board.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Are you still walking around with a monopoly board hanging off your wrist, Quinns?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: I will neither confirm nor deny that!</p> | |
| <p>…Though it has been a real pain keeping my left hand off-camera in videos.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31134" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ArsMagic1-640x426.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="344" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: In possibly the most unusual piece of games writing I’ve ever read. Ars Technica have the story of three researchers, Alex Churchill, Stella Biderman, Austin Herrick, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/its-possible-to-build-a-turing-machine-within-magic-the-gathering/">who have established that it’s possible to build a computer out of Magic: The Gathering</a>. In attempting to assess if the game is ‘Turing complete’ and therefore ‘unsolvable’ the mathsy wizards have turned the collectible card game into a <a href="https://www.toothycat.net/~hologram/Turing/HowItWorks.html">Turing machine</a>, theoretically capable of conducting any computation.</p> | |
| <p>I have even less idea what’s going on that in a regular game of Magic, but I’ve got to say, I love it when people bewilder so very specifically. It’s a lovely read.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 24/06/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-24-06-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-24-06-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 24 Jun 2019 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Watch the Skies]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ishtar]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Jaws]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Black Angel]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Endeavour: Age of Expansion]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Endeavour: Age of Sail]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ancient World Multi Game System]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-24-06-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<i>Header image courtesy of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/user/punkin312">Steph Hodge photography</a>.</i> | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Oooh, it’s officially summer (happy solstice everyone) and I’ve had two sunburn near-misses already. I reckon it’s a perfect time to cosy up with a tasty brew, pop my feet up and lean into a cosy warm bed of news. | |
| No time to sleep though. The news waits for no-one. We’ve got gods, gardens, angels, sharks, sails, aliens, objects and finances. | |
| Let’s have a look.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>Header image courtesy of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/user/punkin312">Steph Hodge photography</a>.</i></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oooh, it’s officially summer (happy solstice everyone) and I’ve had two sunburn near-misses already. I reckon it’s a perfect time to cosy up with a tasty brew, pop my feet up and lean into a cosy warm bed of news.</p> | |
| <p>No time to sleep though. The news waits for no-one. We’ve got gods, gardens, angels, sharks, sails, aliens, objects and finances.</p> | |
| <p>Let’s have a look.<span id="more-10447"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/unnamed.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30821" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/unnamed.png" alt="" width="254" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p>It’s not often a press release is ridiculous enough to warrant being quoted in big lumps, but Quinns forwarded me the press release for Ishtar and it’s a delight. It tells a tale of a gardener trying to plant flowers in the desert, giving up, falling asleep and dreaming of the goddess Ishtar weeping over his fate.</p> | |
| <p><em>“The gardener woke up with a start; water was flowing, and he did not believe his eyes. He immediately returned to work, and started to build the first fountain. Then, as the days passed, he cobbled together an irrigation system, and sowed some seeds. The first sprouts appeared a few hours later. Thanks to Ishtar’s blessing, the life of the gardener had changed forever.</em></p> | |
| <p><em>And so, Babylon was born: the legendary city of a gardener who became a king.”</em></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271088/ishtar-gardens-babylon">Ishtar is new from Iello</a>, and a collaboration between Evan Singh and Bruno Cathala (I checked which Bruno it was this time). We don’t have much detail, but apparently mythical PR is the way to get me excited about planting my way to a monarchy. Maybe I should get an allotment. Or a crown.</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="JAWS — Fun & Board Games w/ WEM" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sgWCpkCIi3E?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p>*Ominous string noises* Oh dear. It looks like the latest Target exclusive tie-in has dropped into the water, and there might just be a frenzy. Keeping their references up to date is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/91565/game-preview-jaws-or-please-stop-boat-shaming-quin">Jaws, a hidden movement and deduction game</a> in which one player plays a giant shark, and one to three others take the roles of Quint, Brody and the other one.</p> | |
| <p>The most exciting thing here is the two act structure. The game starts with more traditional hidden movement, bouncing around an island trying to throw barrels at the nearest terrifying fin. Once the shark has had their fill of barrels or humans, the action switches to the open sea. A crunchier, punchier battle ensues, with the shark deciding where to attack before the folks on board have a chance to fight back. It does all look very dramatic.</p> | |
| <p>I’m worried it might be a bit on the faffy side for the Target market, given that it looks like you’ve got to learn two different games in one. In theory it’s simpler as you can save the second part of ‘the teach’ until you’re in the deep water. But I doubt the best response to the line ‘you’re going to need a bigger boat’ is supposed to be ‘let me just check the manual.’</p> | |
| <p>Maybe I’ll let someone else dip their toes in the water first.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BLACK-ANGEL_LAYOUTduring-the-game.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30819" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BLACK-ANGEL_LAYOUTduring-the-game.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="809" /></a></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/91401/game-preview-black-angel-or-technicolor-trials-not">Another lovely preview from BoardGameGeek</a> nudged me towards a game that has apparently been ‘most anticipated’ for three successive Gencons. <a href="https://pearlgames.be/boardgame/black-angel-en/">Black Angel</a> is the latest from Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, and Alain Orban. You may remember those delightfully French names from <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-troyes/">delightfully dicey cathedral-em-up Troyes</a>. Black Angel has some similar dice manipulation and ‘borrowing’ action going on, but with a whole lot more things to worry about in between those lovely little microturns.</p> | |
| <p>Personally, I’m excited because it’s gloriously pink. I also hope it’s on the fascinating side of the fiddly-as-hell divide. Troyes definitely danced on the edge of being too much crunch with not enough chew.</p> | |
| <p>I have no idea what I just said. But I’m sticking with it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic3973039.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30822" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/pic3973039.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="709" /></a></p> | |
| <p>And we are living in the age of expan-si-on, age of expan-si-on, ooooooh.</p> | |
| <p>Ahem.</p> | |
| <p>What I mean to say is, I’m excited that someone’s finally felt justified in calling their expansion ‘the Age of Expansion’. Words tickle me.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233398/endeavor-age-sail">Endeavour: Age of Sail</a> was a pretty successful kickstarted second edition of a pretty successful game of industry, infrastructure and round-the-world exploitation. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burntislandgames/endeavor-age-of-expansion">Endeavour: Age of Expansion</a>, takes that base game and reshuffles the buildings and cards that were available to you, nudging the game into a slightly more industrialised era of colonisation.</p> | |
| <p>It’s a good pun. I’m glad they made it happen.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30818" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/9a5f37aa467b5acdf57124572bb3f991_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="467" /></p> | |
| <p>Another newly opened kickstarter is this curious box of widgets. The ‘<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playfordgames/ancient-world-multi-game-system">Ancient World multi-game system</a>’ is a selection of boards and chits that can be used to play a range of abstract games. There’s just a soupçon of ancient world theming to tie them together. It’s pitched as an opportunity to start designing and sharing your own games, with artfully selected tokens to help nudge your curiosity or give players a hand learning your rules.</p> | |
| <p>I can’t speak for any of the games already on offer, but I think it’s a lovely idea to have a toolkit like this for an aspiring designer. It really does depend on how popular it is whether it’ll create the endless eco-system of designs that would make the box really sing.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30823" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/watch.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="404" /></p> | |
| <p>After Quinns and Matt <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-97-meeting-your-shadow-self-and-other-excitements/">weren’t too excited</a> about the megagame in a box ‘Vampire – The Masquerade: Blood Feud’, kind reader Ross McCreedy pointed out that the megagame that blew the hobby open has also been boxed up.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.stonepaperscissors.co.uk/games-purchase/watch-the-skies-megagameinabox">For £170 you can get everything you need to play Watch The Skies</a>, without any of your own cutting and gluing and trips to craft shops. It’s a steep sum, but it’s also a unique experience. You can check out <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/susd-play-megagame/">the rest of the team taking a run at Watch the Skies</a> before the game got so successful that it became enormous, and then taking part in the ridiculously oversized <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/susd-play-megagame-2-pt1/">Watch the Skies 2</a> a year later. That’s a lot of drama.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30817" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/shot.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="508" /></p> | |
| <p>I’m not sure this still qualifies as board games news, but I’m intrigued that Sensible Object, makers of lovely physical-digital animal stacking game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/185709/beasts-balance">Beasts of Balance</a>, have just been <a href="https://medium.com/@ammonite/sensible-object-is-acquired-by-niantic-bb6f16b74f2e">gobbled up by Niantic</a>, designers of Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite.</p> | |
| <p>Sensible Object has been less and less involved with physical objects, and more and more excited by augmented reality. I’m not surprised Niantic want a company used to making people wander around and poke things. I remember Sensible Object’s precursor, Hide and Seek, making some really delightful incursions into reality. They once made me pretend a road outside my work in Brighton was a border crossing, and asked me to smuggle a plate of beans across. They also released a ‘<a href="http://www.hideandseek.net/projects/the-boardgame-remix-kit">boardgame remix kit</a>’ that offered alternative ways of using dusty sets of Cluedo and Monopoly.</p> | |
| <p>Even if they are getting less tabletoppy with the things they make, I’m curious to see what they do next, under the squamous mass of Niantic’s umbrella.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30824" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/monkeyz.jpg" alt="" width="1360" height="768" /></p> | |
| <p>And finally, I stumbled across a Bloomberg piece this week, where we get a look at <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-19/this-board-gaming-craze-comes-with-2-700-tables">exactly how the world of finance sees our hobby</a>.</p> | |
| <p>The piece kind of implies that someone has spent $2700 on a gaming table purely so they can play Rising Sun, but has some interesting takes on the market for products around the edge of boardgaming. There’s tables, organisers, fancy tokens and the greedy, greedy eyes of financiers. There’s probably little information you’ll find new there, but it’s always intriguing looking at ourselves through a different lens. There’s definitely some eye-watering numbers on display.</p> | |
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| <title>Interview: Kieron Gillen on his roleplaying comic, DIE</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/interview-kieron-gillen-on-his-new-roleplaying-comic-die/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/interview-kieron-gillen-on-his-new-roleplaying-comic-die/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Quintin Smith]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Special Features]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[DIE]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Kieron Gillen]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[comics]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Role-Playing Games]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/interview-kieron-gillen-on-his-new-roleplaying-comic-die/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Quinns</b>: If you like comics, we've got a real treat for you today! | |
| This month saw the release of the book collecting the first five issues of <a href="https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/die">DIE, a fabulous new comic about a group of people who become trapped in their fantasy roleplaying campaign</a>. | |
| Written by Kieron Gillen, creator of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, and breathtakingly illustrated by artist Stephanie Hans, DIE quickly became a series where I'd devour each new issue on the day of release. In two words, Kieron describes it as "Goth Jumanji". In three words, I'd add that it's "Very, very good". | |
| What makes this even more exciting is that Kieron Gillen is a personal friend of mine, and agreed to an interview about not just about the series, but the accompanying DIE RPG, and Kieron's thoughts on roleplaying games in general. This is SU&SD, after all. | |
| Before we get started, the three preview pages below give a summary of what DIE's about. Click to see them at full-size!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: If you like comics, we’ve got a real treat for you today!</p> | |
| <p>This month saw the release of the book collecting the first five issues of <a href="https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/die">DIE, a fabulous new comic about a group of people who become trapped in their fantasy roleplaying campaign</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Written by Kieron Gillen, creator of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, and breathtakingly illustrated by artist Stephanie Hans, DIE quickly became a series where I’d devour each new issue on the day of release. In two words, Kieron describes it as “Goth Jumanji”. In three words, I’d add that it’s “Very, very good”.</p> | |
| <p>What makes this even more exciting is that Kieron Gillen is a personal friend of mine, and agreed to an interview about not just about the series, but the accompanying DIE RPG, and Kieron’s thoughts on roleplaying games in general. This is SU&SD, after all.</p> | |
| <p>Before we get started, the three preview pages below give a summary of what DIE’s about. Click to see them at full-size!<span id="more-10076"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/8E1553F1-3114-4555-9D04-391D2E7CFF26.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30667" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/8E1553F1-3114-4555-9D04-391D2E7CFF26-195x300-195x300.jpeg" alt="" width="195" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/DB0C9C38-3091-4B1C-A42D-C15D3DCEE0A4.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30669" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/DB0C9C38-3091-4B1C-A42D-C15D3DCEE0A4-195x300-195x300.jpeg" alt="" width="195" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/BF9030B9-C443-4B77-9584-F7DC8830C56D.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30668" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/BF9030B9-C443-4B77-9584-F7DC8830C56D-195x300-195x300.jpeg" alt="" width="195" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: On with the interview. Hello, KG!</p> | |
| <p><strong>Kieron</strong>: Hello! Happy to be here.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: I’ll start with my hardest question. What are your favourite and least-favourite shapes of dice? I warn you now, there are right and wrong answers.</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: The worst dice is clearly the D4. It doesn’t roll. It isn’t natural to interpret in the way that the other dice are. Most of all, it’s essentially a brutal little caltrop that can puncture your feet when it inevitably lands on the floor. The D4 does have some small virtues, however – namely, it looks a bit like a wizard’s hat, so you can put it on top of other, superior dice as an adorable accessory.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I actually like how the D4 is a little bit absurd and totemic. I personally think the D8 is the worst. Like the D4, it doesn’t roll properly, but worse, it’s forgettable.</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: The longsword’s d8 damage means I’ve always had an affection for the d8. Plus it looks like two d4’s mid-congress.</p> | |
| <p>I want to say my favourite dice is the D13 that I have and you don’t, because I am like that, but it’s really a toss up between a D20 (which has basically reached the level of cultural icon, and still is a bewitchingly strange object) and D6 (because the common touch counts for a lot). Let’s go for the D20, because its unfolded form is on the cover of the excellent comic DIE, available from all good retailers, etc.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/die-vol-1-fantasy-heartbreaker-tp_9d947a2401.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30678" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/die-vol-1-fantasy-heartbreaker-tp_9d947a2401-198x300-198x300.jpg" alt="" width="198" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: There’s a stark contrast between the broodiness DIE’s depiction of roleplaying in the ’90s and the breezy, feel-good nature of the post-Critical Role D&D scene. Did that contribute to you wanting to tell this story?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: I can’t just have fun. I’d be risking enjoying myself.</p> | |
| <p>Seriously? It’s the mode I’ve always explored as a critic and writer. In Phonogram and The Wicked + the Divine, me and artist Jamie McKelvie were always interested in trying to explore the highs and the lows of pop cultural obsession. That most portraits of pop tend to be about the ups means that including any of the lows makes it appear much more cynical, but I feel that’s mostly contextual. We wouldn’t be so bleak if everyone else wasn’t so relentlessly peppy.</p> | |
| <p>DIE is me and Stephanie trying to apply similar thinking to the role-playing game, and where it’s got us. By which I mean, both as individuals and a culture.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0679.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30671" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0679.jpg" alt="" width="1332" height="1595" /></a></p> | |
| <p>The growth of D&D culture while I’ve been working on DIE has been a weird one. It was already on the upswing back in 2016 when I had the idea, but to see Critical Role invent Stadium D&D has been fascinating. I’ve had moments when I worry that it’s too well timed – it’s clear that someone should do a serious, metacritical examination of roleplaying, right?</p> | |
| <p>On a cultural level, it certainly looks looks like RPGs won. But the thing about winning is that it means you’re now in charge. Geek culture won. It doesn’t need to fight its persecutors any more. As such, it means we can be a bit more honest with ourselves, and talk openly. That’s one of the many terrible things about having to justify your existence to a wider world – in order to defend it, you have to flatten it. In the current state, it’s the perfect time to talk like grown ups about it.</p> | |
| <p>Where did the urge come from? The evening after I had the core idea, I had a moment when I realised why it got stuck in my head. I was wondering whether a part of me has been trapped in a fantasy world, and never got out. At which point, I burst into tears, which is always a tell you’re onto something worth writing about. How has my obsessive love of this hurt me, and all the people around me? What was the cost of all of this stuff you truly love? Hell, why did you love it?</p> | |
| <p>In the same way that The Wicked + the Divine is about “life is short – why be an artist anyway?” DIE is asking a similarly pointed question.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0678.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30670" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0678.jpg" alt="" width="1256" height="768" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Obvious question that you must have been asked before- how *has* your obsession was fantasy escapism hurt you, and the people around you?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: I haven’t, actually. I suspect the intensity of my answer makes people back away.</p> | |
| <p>Let’s keep it broad and applicable to almost all of us. Look at your life. Can you think of a time when, rather than giving a loved one the attention and time they needed, you were off with a bunch of fantasy people? Be it in a game, either tabletop or video gaming, or almost any form of escapism? This is the writer’s disease, of course – you read enough kids of famous writers talking about being jealous of the imaginary people in their parents heads for the attention they got. This is because DIE is about fantasy in its widest sense.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: For all of the allegories in DIE, the one that disturbs me the most is the portrayal of the Dungeon Master. Traditionally, the roleplaying community thinks of the DM as a generous or long-suffering figure. In DIE, the DM appears almost inhuman in their desire to escape reality. Where did that come from?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: The question of “what is the games master” is one of those things which has definitely changed across my life. You say “Traditionally” but I’d say that is something I saw developed. When I was coming in the idea that the DM wasn’t actively antagonistic to the player hadn’t been entire quashed. I remember enough DMs who believed they were there to make the players suffer. Not good suffer. Bad suffer.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0682.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30674" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0682.jpg" alt="" width="1536" height="1076" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Sol, DIE’s DM, was the first character in the book to form, and me explicitly interrogating how my love of fantasy could have stunted me. My one liner for Sol (and it should be stressed, all the one-liners really do reduce the complexity of the cast) is “Peter Pan as serial killer.” He’s the worst possible portrait of myself I can imagine.</p> | |
| <p>There’s more than that, of course – one of the things about winning means we get to play with the imagery that was once used to try and ban D&D. The GM as cult leader, this awful creature. It feels actively wicked to do it, which is a lot of fun.</p> | |
| <p>There’s a line in the rules of the DIE RPG where, towards the end, I compare the DM in DIE to the Goblin King in Labyrinth. “I have done it all for you.” The push and pull between the dominant and the submissive in a GM is fascinating to me.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Did a DM ever make you suffer in the ’90s? Didn’t you enjoy it, a little bit?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: I can’t remember enjoying it. Actual suffering of players is more a sign of incompetence than brilliance. Occasionally of actual sadism. It’s a fundamental lack of interest in the experience of the players. As such, any time I think of what you’re asking, I don’t have anything positive. It’s normally a “I will not be playing with this GM again” moment.</p> | |
| <p>For example, the Rolemaster GM I once played with. We were exploring a castle. That’s what we did all afternoon, room by room. We never found anything in that castle. Anything at all. It took literally all afternoon. Four hours, at least. On the bus home me and the other newest player just glanced at each other in horror. What was that? We immediately set up our own group, because F*** No.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m cracking up at my desk over here. Holy crap, that’s funny.</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: It was like meeting an alien species who had entirely different motivations than ours.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0680.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30672" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0680.jpg" alt="" width="1324" height="1484" /></a></p> | |
| <p>But in terms of the hard edge to DIE… well, there’ s something one of my readers said when I did something truly awful in one of my comics. “Do not kill Kieron Gillen. If he were to die, it would release the witches inside of him.” Said in a good way.</p> | |
| <p>As a storyteller, people come to me for many reasons, but not least because I play hardball. “Make it pretty, make it hurt” as a retailer has been known to say when trying to sell DIE. As a GM, I tend towards that as well. I want to make people feel something. I want to make the triumphs enormous.</p> | |
| <p>Remember that Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign that you and I played? In terms of what we’re talking about here, the two bits I think of are the bit where you guys just told the Thieves’ Guild where you lived and that you had a lot of gold, and I just smiled, and played out the consequences, step by step. And then the other time, when you were trying to feed a plague quarter. Everyone was starving. For two days, no food. Situation increasingly desperate. On the third day, the outer world sends in a carriage of old parsnips, cabbage and carrots and you guys just cheered. The treasure you guys were most emotionally invested in was some vegetables.</p> | |
| <p>I don’t mean to say any of that is particularly special, but that application of pressure in exactly the way the players want is one of the fun things in that traditional GM/Player model RPG.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: OK, this is a table gaming site, so let’s discuss you as a GM.</p> | |
| <p>As someone who’s read your comics and roleplayed with you, it strikes me that for all the pain you’re happy to inflict on characters in your comics, as a GM you’re a lot nicer. As your player, I enjoyed regular rewards, and only rarely got the sense that my character was in jeopardy. What makes you interested in nicer stories when roleplaying than in writing comics?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: Well, it’s unlikely that any of my characters will get up and biff me on the nose if I treat them too mean, and there’s a chance that the players may. You look like you’ve got a jab on you, Quinns.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0686.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30665" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0686.jpg" alt="" width="1272" height="1548" /></a></p> | |
| <p>You’re right. I suspect it’s a weakness of me as a GM, but I do lean avuncular. It’s telling in the example I gave of the thieves’ guild I let you get back to when the robbery was happening so you could chase the thief. A crueller GM would have just cleared you out. More generally though, a lot of that comes from the system you play. In most trad games, I’m not that interested in just offing characters through random dice, so I’m probably too safe. I’m doing story heavy games even during action scenes, so losing a protagonist for no reason doesn’t really seem to be an interesting move. It’s doubly true in games which don’t give any significant guidance of the physical threat a given player can survive, so I’m guessing, and leaning conservative, so combat isn’t that thrilling. In more story-focused systems, perhaps less so – I kill people a lot when running Dungeon World, not least as that Last Breath move is there for a reason. In fact, you came close there, right? That Wizard of yours would have died if you rolled poorly.</p> | |
| <p>(I find myself thinking that while I am too nice as a GM, as a player in a story game, if no-one else is actually causing trouble, I instantly slip into that role. I don’t even enjoy it. It’s just a “Well, someone has to cause some f***ing drama or this game breaks, and I guess it’s going to be me.”)</p> | |
| <p>Which means I am… susceptible to the system? Games seem to have implicit desires in them, and I try to actualise those desires – in fact, I get pissed off when I fail to hit the aesthetic that a game was aiming for. I was heartbroken when running Paranoia for you guys and everyone just decided to pull together in that final scene.</p> | |
| <p>The experience of all that went into the DIE rules – it’s designed to have a particularly mutable aesthetic depending on player input, with all results being good results. It works great as a heroic adventure into another world, but if the players go another way, is a really emotional cathartic cllimax. Hell, DIE is also quite death heavy, for similar Last Breath-Mechanising-Death reasons. When dying is part of the game rather than the end of it, it encourages me to go there.</p> | |
| <p>Suffice to say, I am very happy to kill players if the game calls for it in DIE. The clue’s in the name, after all.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0684.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30676" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0684.jpg" alt="" width="1314" height="1112" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Interestingly, what I felt was the cruelest moment from you as a GM in our WFRP campaign was actually my favourite. Do you remember when you tasked us with the command of some soldiers in a hill fort in the middle of a deep, dark forest, packed with Beastmen? And how immediately you made an intimidating situation worse by having the soldiers not respect us?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: Hah. I can’t remember why they didn’t respect you, for except for the obvious reasons you were all buffoons who had no idea what you were doing. But that is stuff I love – just how you reward the PC with immaterial elements like respect or the opposite. Killing an NPC you like is the most basic form of motivation, but having someone you genuinely like be simply disappointed in you is a wonderful thing. Remember in [the videogame] Deus Ex where all the characters who were likable wanted you to play less violently, and all the s***heads were applauding when you broke out the heavy weaponry? Deus Ex may have given you all the options, but it never pretended that it was equally respectful of all of them. It’s different in RPGs, depending on what you’re buying into, of course.</p> | |
| <p>You mentioning the castle reminds me of someone else who was in that castle. That Elf Ranger walks in and I just describe her as “the most beautiful person any of you have ever seen.” I don’t ever say anything else, or play her as anything other than a competent elven warrior, but it was a joy to see the party of (as far as I know) hetrosexual male gamers turn into blushing schoolboys any time they interacted with her. Sometimes it is very easy indeed.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0683.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30675" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0683.jpg" alt="" width="1329" height="1343" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: So, now we’ve got <a href="http://diecomic.com/rpg/">an open beta for the DIE role-playing game</a>, based on the comic. Can you talk about how it distinguishes itself from other fantasy RPGs?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: The RPG, and DIE generally, emerged from a conversation I had with Leigh [Alexander] after we did <a href="https://wicdiv.fandom.com/wiki/Issue_23">that WicDiv issue she interviewed the Morrigan for</a>. She said – I paraphrase – “I think your work is most interesting when it exists at the intersection of the bodies of experience that are pretty much unique to you.”</p> | |
| <p>I was obviously resistant to that, but I thought about it, and conceded the point. That issue of WicDiv which was reliant on me being in comics, me being in magazines (both writing for them and editing, commissioning for them), me being in text-based role-play back in the 1990s, and combining all those aspects. It’s not unique, but it is uncommon. After that, I decided to try and explicitly court that in my most personal work.</p> | |
| <p>DIE is the first work post that conversation, and the fact it’s got this whole bloody RPG system hanging off the side speaks to it. That’s what’s unique about it. It’s a system as made by both a critic and a writer, who is simultaneously trying to convert the core of a piece of narrative fiction (which is about games) into a piece of game design (which is about a specific piece of narrative fiction). For a long time I was worried that I was confusing which bit was the dog and which bit was the tail. I’ve come to understand that this is a dog that has ate its own tail, forming a ouroboros. There is no beginning or end, but simply is.</p> | |
| <p>The RPG also has at least four pretty funny jokes.</p> | |
| <p>What we’ve released as an open beta is designed to basically make your very own version of the first arc of DIE. It’s a one off – I suggest running from 2-4 sessions, but I’ve crunched it into one, and know there’s enough content there that people will hack to running longer. If folks like it, we’ll likely do a bigger edition down the line, including all the stuff which we excise from here – full details of the DIE world itself being the biggest obvious omission, though there’s a lot of others.</p> | |
| <p>I think the most striking thing you’ll find, Quinns, is how it basically acts as a Russian Doll structure for looking at RPGs. At each stage, it’s more similar to one mode or another.</p> | |
| <p>First step is a little like a pure narrative game like <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/rpg-review-fiasco/">Fiasco</a>. You sit (including the GM) and generate a social group. In the Beta we advise you to make a social group who (mostly) played an RPG at high school and are getting back together for some event years down the line. Clearly, there’s a lot of flexibility here. A group of 21 year olds getting back together is different from a group of 71 year olds getting back together. This is question driven, and continues until we’ve got a fun social group complete with all the rivalries, loves, hatreds and all those juicy complexities.</p> | |
| <p>You then step away from the table, and when you return you’re acting as your characters (“Persona” in our terminology). This is almost a brief Nordic LARP set up. You sit down at this social gathering, chat a little and… the gamesmaster’s persona gets out a box. It’s an RPG. “You know the urban myth about those kids who disappeared while playing an RPG in the 90s? This is that game. Let’s play it.” Each persona, while staying in character, designs a in-game character.</p> | |
| <p>Third step is, after a little ritualism, each persona is magically dragged into a fantasy world, and likely rapidly transformed into the character they’ve just designed. So you have the player playing (for example) a bitter secondary school divorcee who has been transformed into (for example) a Rage Knight, complete with sentient, murderous Elrician weapon. This is the stage which is most akin to a tradition Arneson/Gygax D&D game, based around the Master playing the environment and everyone else playing their persona. The world they have to traverse uses the fantasy adventure structure, and then adds elements drawn from the players’ backstories, mashed together with the persona’s teenage fantasy game to create this personalised fantasia/nightmare for the group. There’s a lot of techniques I describe for doing so.</p> | |
| <p>The players then either get home, or not.</p> | |
| <p>What I was trying to do is get a really robust structure. As I think I said earlier, it can work as a gleeful Jumanji-esque hack and slash game, and the rules support it. Go there, kill the baddie, go home. Or, with a different group, it can go become a personal piece where people are forced to confront their trauma, and grow (or not). Whichever way the game goes, it holds together.</p> | |
| <p>And the other quiet thing I really like? Despite being as meta as it is, it’s spectacularly easy to role-play your persona. You’re playing a real person in a weird situation. You know what people are like on Earth, and so it’s accessible for people who really have never done something like this before. You don’t know the conventions? You make a persona who doesn’t know the conventions. People who know a lot, can go deep. This is a game that’s often about the fetishism of D&D. Like in the same way the comic highlights the dice as an icon, the game does too.</p> | |
| <p>It’s a lot. I hope people like it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0685.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30666" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0685.jpg" alt="" width="1264" height="1424" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Final question- how could you make Stephanie draw so many sad hobbits?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kieron</b>: I just had to bribe her with a huge mechanical dragon.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Thanks for your time, Kieron. Roll on <a href="https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/die-6">issue #6</a>!</p> | |
| <p><em>The <a href="https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/die-vol-1-fantasy-heartbreaker-tp">DIE trade collecting issues #1-5</a> is out now, as both a book and on-demand download.</em></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/interview-kieron-gillen-on-his-new-roleplaying-comic-die/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>21</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 17/06/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-17-06-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-17-06-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Magic: The Gathering]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[warhammer 40000]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Papillon]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Lands of Galzyr]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Arkham Horror Third Edition]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-17-06-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Boy! Boy! You there! | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Boy? I’m 33 years old. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Tell me boy, is it still Chronicles Month? | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Oh, absolutely it is. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Wonderful! Then there’s still time. Head over to Shut Up & Sit Down and fetch me the plumpest, ripest news in the window.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Boy! Boy! You there!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Boy? I’m 33 years old.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Tell me boy, is it still Chronicles Month?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh, absolutely it is.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Wonderful! Then there’s still time. Head over to Shut Up & Sit Down and fetch me the plumpest, ripest news in the window.<span id="more-10069"></span></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s odd to think that we’ve skipped an entire generation of one of the biggest names in the business, but so far Shut Up and Sit Down hasn’t really delved into the new third edition of Arkham Horror. Following <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/s01e5-5/">our madcap review of the first edition of Arkham Horror</a> back on Halloween of 2011, my grudging return to the series with <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/eldritch-horror/">a review of Eldritch Horror in 2014</a>, and the release of the (in our opinion) <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-arkham-horror-the-card-game/">far-superior Arkham Horror card game</a>, this site is Arkham’d out.</p> | |
| <p>So it’s not entirely surprising that <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/6/11/dead-of-night/">the announcement of the first expansion, Arkham Horror: Dead of Night,</a> has beaten us to the punch, as Fantasy Flight expanding a new Arkham Horror game is as inevitable as tentacles and trilbys.</p> | |
| <p>The box will add two new scenarios, a slathering of new cards and, most excitingly for me, a “new monster card holder”. I hadn’t seen them before, but the card holders in Arkham Horror 3rd edition are now my favourite thing about it. Using them, sometimes players will draw new horrors from the back of the deck, which will always be a surprise, but sometimes you draw from the <em>front,</em> with the card holder offering players a teasing glimpse of the art and name of the card, just not the text. You know the name of the unknowable horror that’s coming, but you don’t know quite what it… is? Or will do to you? What a perfect pairing of mechanics and theme!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oooh. That is pleasingly ominous. I’ve wondered a couple of times whether the new modular board was an exciting enough promise to make me finally dive into Arkham Horror, but then I remembered how many moving parts the game has, and I feel like making set up even more complicated may not have been the most alluring prospect?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: All I know is that Paul had a quick play of the 3rd edition at Gen Con last year and said that it probably still isn’t a game for us.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4758090.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30636" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4758090.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/90904/tokyo-game-market-2019-spring-report-table-games-w">This report from the Tokyo Game Market</a> is a sight to behold. Things start off straightforwardly, with a game about building rail infrastructure across the USA, but before the end you’ll be exploring Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation, queuing up in front of elevators and trying to feed people exactly the right amount of food to make them defecate correctly.</p> | |
| <p>There’s also a game which looks utterly delightful about building a moon base by laying rings on top of each other. I’ve no idea which of these games would actually be fun, but it’s such a delightful smorgasbord.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh, I have a review copy of that moon base game! It’s called (wait for it) Moon Base. You’ll have to play it with me next time you’re in Brighton.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I assume that you’re also immediately going to start hunting for a review copy of the poop game too.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Actually, out of this list the one that caught my eye is Zimbabwee Trick, that hyperinflation trick-taking game. Players combining the digits of cards in their hand to create higher and higher numbers is such a simple, great idea. I love it. Plus, it’s got that minimalist look that I really appreciate in a card game, which Oink Games is so dang good at. I suspect that if Oink Games’ box size was just a shade bigger so that the boxes could hold standard-sized cards, I’d become obsessed with them.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I can’t believe you’re eschewing poop for clever ideas and smart minimalism.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4790252.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30633" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4790252.jpg" alt="" width="1216" height="792" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Dale of Merchants was an adorable little deckbuilder that swelled in size over a series of kickstarters, and Dawn of the Peacemakers was a fascinating-sounding reverse wargame. Finnish designer Sami Laakso has announced a new adventure game set in the same world, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/article/32208923">with the faintly bewildering title Lands of Galzyr</a>.</p> | |
| <p>All that’s on show at the moment is some adorable little wooden animal folk and a couple of cosy cards. I’ll be honest though, I made a note about this when I was very tired, and all I’ve written is ‘I really want these soft sole shoes’. It’s unclear if I’m keen on this game, or just need to get some new slippers. I’ll keep you posted though.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Goodness, I’m not brave enough to buy slippers. That’s like putting one foot in the grave.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: You take that back.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Just try and catch me in those slippers!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/89744047b8162b94faba1f0f1818f0e8_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30635" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/89744047b8162b94faba1f0f1818f0e8_original-223x300-223x300.jpg" alt="" width="223" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Over on kickstarter <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kolossalgames/papillon-0">we have Papillon</a>, a game of caterpillar auctions, floral tile-laying and butterfly-based area majority. It looks like a slightly overgrown garden full of ideas, but there’s definitely something charming about actual three-dimensional bushes. My ability to perceive fun went blurry at the phrase ‘the current round’s gnome will be placed to reveal its value in caterpillars’, so I’m not quite sure what to make of this one.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ahaha. I just can’t believe how lucky we are with this new bucolic direction that the hobby is taking! Games like this, Root, Wingspan, all of them with their accessible themes and tranquil box art. It’s a world apart from the state of board game themes when SU&SD was founded.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Gardens are the new zombies, eh?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: We always knew who the winner would be when it came to plants vs. zombies.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30634" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1_Spc0rmQ9Xf5gYY_c8BUnGQ.jpeg" alt="" width="970" height="545" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This may be the first time we’ve ever looked at an actual art journal? Roman Road Journal offers <a href="https://romanroadjournal.com/art-the-anthropocene-and-the-grim-dark-future-of-warhammer-40k/">a survey of how artists have used the imagery, iconography and ideas of Warhammer 40,000</a>, the grim dark sci fi mega franchise owned by Games Workshop. This means we end up with Slaanesh being pointed at post-structuralist psychoanalytic theory, the Ultramarines becoming idols of the alt-right, and orks as an avenue of racism.</p> | |
| <p>It’s quite the thing. I suspect half the people going in will be put off by Warhammer references, and the other half by the queer theory and political philosophy, but if you live (with me) on the sweet spot of that venn diagram, it’s well worth a look.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30632" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/MTG-Project-M-FI.jpg" alt="" width="970" height="545" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: And finally, we get round to some slightly old news. I have a weird habit of forgetting that world-conquering collectible card game Magic: The Gathering is actually part of the tabletop scene, so while I saw this announcement, it didn’t occur to me to bring it up!</p> | |
| <p>Netflix is throwing some money at the Russo Brothers (of Arrested Development and Avengers fame) <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/netflix-magic-the-gathering-russo-brothers/">to make an animated series based on the wizarding game of planeswalkers</a>. Very few details are out at this point, but there’s certainly an amount of hype floating around.</p> | |
| <p>I don’t know enough of the backstory to Magic, but I’m sure there’s a lot of it. Whether it’s fertile land for a TV show, and if it’s unique enough to make that show anything but fantastical dross, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll hold out hope that they’ll go for something closer to Arrested Development than Avengers. A tightly wound comedy of errors about a family of loathsome spellcasters who all manipulate each other could certainly be good for about three seasons and absolutely no more.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, I’ve got one word for you.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: What’s that?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/s02e04/">WIZARD!</a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: …</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: …</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I don’t think Netflix are going to hire you on the basis of that one.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-17-06-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>97</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Review: Museum</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-museum/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-museum/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Museum]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Games for Two]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Conflict-Free Games]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-museum/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Let us take you on a tour of the weirdest, most beautiful objects in the world. We can show you the largest palaces and the most specific digging implements, the canniest navigation tools and the shiniest hats you’ve ever seen. | |
| Welcome to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/museum/">Museum</a>, a game of archaeology (stealing), curation (re-arranging), and prestige (letter-writing). | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: With over 300 gorgeous illustrations by Vincent Dutrait, Museum is the definition of a labour of love. In fact, Ava and I approached it like a real museum, taking a leisurely tour of its exhibits across two days. | |
| Finally, we’re ready to write our review. Ava, do you want to explain the game? | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Let me be your guide through the byzantine corridors...of board game.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Let us take you on a tour of the weirdest, most beautiful objects in the world. We can show you the largest palaces and the most specific digging implements, the canniest navigation tools and the shiniest hats you’ve ever seen.</p> | |
| <p>Welcome to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/museum/">Museum</a>, a game of archaeology (stealing), curation (re-arranging), and prestige (letter-writing).</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: With over 300 gorgeous illustrations by Vincent Dutrait, Museum is the definition of a labour of love. In fact, Ava and I approached it like a real museum, taking a leisurely tour of its exhibits across two days.</p> | |
| <p>Finally, we’re ready to write our review. Ava, do you want to explain the game?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Let me be your guide through the byzantine corridors…of board game.<span id="more-10059"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_132300.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30597" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_132300.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Museum’s beating heart is your player board, laying out the galleries and corridors of one of the western world’s most famous museums. In the standard game, everyone’s playing to the same simple grid, but if you’re feeling fancy you can flip it over and explore a different layout.</p> | |
| <p>To win Museum you need to earn the most prestige, and most of that comes from exhibiting cards representing a dazzling array of artefacts. You’re looking for sets of objects from a particular civilisation, or broadly themed items from a mix of civilisations. You might be collecting items related to warfare, culture or navigation from different parts of the world, making a museum dedicated to weapons, words and wetness.</p> | |
| <p>But this ain’t Grandpappy Tut’s set collection. Your collections only score if they’re connected through the corridors and galleries of your actual museum. Either way, the shuffling of cards into stacks and chains, and the lovely crossovers between one collection and another – for example, a Greek boat sitting snugly between your collection of Greek things and naval things – is glorious fun to fiddle with.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_164835.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30603" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_164835.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="674" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Each turn an exploration phase lets everyone grab a card from the worldwide spread of archaeological digs. You might want a phoenican urn, a celtic spade or *ahem* <em>the entire city of Tikal.</em></p> | |
| <p>Curious leaps in scale aside, you get one artifact for free (colloquially known as ‘mugging’), and it becomes part of your hand of cards, just begging to be put in a glass cabinet for wandering visitors to gawk at. However, to get this card into your museum, you have to discard <em>other</em> items. If you want to display a 5 point monument, you might pay for it with a 3 point breastplate and a 2 point vase. Or maybe you’ll chuck away the monument to get a breastplate and vase combo that will really tie the room together.</p> | |
| <p>Discarded cards gather dust in the back room of your museum. This is fine, as you can “inventory” your stock and place it back into your hand at the cost of one turn, but it’s not fine, because other museums might start poking around your cobwebbed shelves. <em>Other players</em> can give you cards from their hand (hoping you have no interest in them) in exchange for robbing your archives.</p> | |
| <p>With a few exceptions, you’ll gain prestige from this, but if you were waiting to display that one beautiful bireme a little later? Well, you might be in trouble.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_164939.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30605" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_164939.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="674" /></a></p> | |
| <p>There’s an ebb and flow to Museum: spending cards, discarding them, grabbing them back and deciding once again exactly what to do with them. You could collect a few particularly fancy objects and use them over and over again to fuel your hunger for Celtic farm equipment. Or, you could go all out on the big and occasionally literal guns. Some of the nonsensically huge exhibits (say, Machu Picchu) get you bonus prestige, in the form of an extra currency that can be spent or saved at will. You slowly accrue this prestige when other people jump into your turn to take extra exploration actions, desperate to slake their thirst for pots.</p> | |
| <p>And then. And then. And then… the bumf comes down.</p> | |
| <p>Every ten points you earn? That gets you a favour card, labelled M for favour. These cards can be spent for some rule breaking power or another. Maybe you can exhibit for free. Sell something to a private buyer for bonus prestige. Hire an extra expert to bend yet another rule. Maybe you can choose to entirely ignore the public opinion mechanic. Or the headline mechanic.</p> | |
| <p>Wait. Have I talked to you about those?</p> | |
| <p>Sigh.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_162144.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30601" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_162144.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="609" /></a></p> | |
| <p>At the start of each round (except the first), a headline card is revealed to shuffle up the system. These are milder, generally giving a plus or minus to one tiny thing or another, occasionally closing the borders to a specific area, or making something cheaper or more expensive. If these come at the right or wrong time in your ebb and flow, that can be pretty frustrating, but none of it is game breaking. It’s just a little irritant, just a little bonus. It’s…fine.</p> | |
| <p>Public opinion cards crop up in the decks you dig through to ‘borrow’ those precious exhibits. People will be grumpy if, at the end of the day, you’ve been hoarding stolen goods without dutifully showing them off. I was hoping this would provide some in-universe criticism of the colonialist side of a bunch of western museums grabbing as much as they can from other cultures, but the public is totally happy with you stealing the stuff, provided you have them in your front room instead of the back. Maybe that does represent a marginally fairer cultural exchange, but I’m not clear if this game is anything but a love letter to museums, unwilling to countenance post-colonial objections. Public opinion is mostly just a mild ticking off.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ha. Gosh, there’s a grim enjoyment in watching you slowly run out of steam as you explain Museum. I think it’s fair to say that this is a game that you and I both wanted to adore.</p> | |
| <p>The multiple *enormous* decks of cards are full of more promise than a pile of birthday presents. Collecting your first few artifacts from one civilization and laying them out in your museum, while reading the cards to learn real-life history, is a <em>wild ride.</em> Especially because at the start of the game, you can really collect whatever you want. “That belongs in a Museum!” you cry, snatching up a Polynesian sea chart. “And that thing doesn’t,” you add, turning your back on the entire Phoenician civilisation.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh Quinns, you philistine, you really should visit Phoenis sometime.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: However, for a board game nerd like me… Museum simply wasn’t satisfying. The game as a whole reminds me of a pharoah’s sarcophagus- a breathtaking, gilded exterior, but what’s inside is a little dusty, and really quite lifeless.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s hard isn’t it. I could look at these cards for hours. Any excuse to get them out, shuffle them, and start poking through them should be worthwhile. Finding unusual objects with odd names and fascinating purposes? It’s like being in a museum, Quinns! With someone willing to really concisely explain one thing about every object, letting me be the touristy gadfly I always wanted to be.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_164728.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30602" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_164728.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="674" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: But it’s a good thing that Museum has all of this colour, because after our first two disappointing games of it, I grudgingly came to accept that it’s nowhere near as well-put-together as it appears. Ideally, games where you use cards to pay for other cards feel fascinating and taut as you have to decide which opportunities to pursue, and which to throw away. With Museum’s unevenly escalating scoring, you mostly know which cards are best for you, *and* you’re not truly throwing anything away, either. If you use an Incan item to pay for a Mayan item, you can still ultimately exhibit both. It’ll just take time. Tedious, tedious time.</p> | |
| <p>And as much as we love those gargantuan decks of artifacts, they massively increase the variance in a set collection game like this. Ava, remember that one game where you absolutely crushed me because the Egyptian stuff you wanted came trundling out of the deck, while the cards that I needed were never even excavated?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: None of the decks seem to do what you expect them to do. Everything here provides more clutter than treasure.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_162028.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30600" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_162028.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="674" /></a></p> | |
| <p>I can hire experts. All they do is give me a few extra points (apart from that one that makes <em>everything</em> cheaper). Public opinion might go against me. All it means is I have to watch my discard pile at the end, unless someone dumps a game-wrecking pile of trash in my back room on a whim. Most of the headline cards affect the choice of cards I can take from the artefact buffet in the middle of the table. All it means is I’ll get them a little later or little sooner.</p> | |
| <p>But I don’t actually care about any of it.</p> | |
| <p>I could spend hours re-arranging these cards in my museum, and the game constantly tries to pull me out of that pleasure. Lots of decisions don’t feed into that core at all. I’m shocked that Museum could work this hard to bore me about something I’m so up for being thrilled by.</p> | |
| <p>Then there’s your museum layouts. You can’t clearly see the corridors under your cards, and have you piling up these beautiful cards under each other. You’re left with just a few symbols and some names, and oh my god I’ve buried the sphinx under a spade and it just needs to stay that way, and it’s heart-breaking to hide this stuff.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_133137.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30598" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_133137.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="682" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Honestly? For me, if your personal Museum board shows anything off, it’s the whole box’s stumbling execution. There are two purposes of your board: limiting your space, and giving you a single grand gallery that you want to fill with one collection. But for the first 90% of the game space isn’t an issue, and depending on the luck of the draw, you may never have the <em>option</em> of filling your gallery. In a year when I’ve been playing a lot of roll’n’writes, a genre that thrills in letting players struggle to use the limited space given to them, Museum feels cavernously empty.</p> | |
| <p>But do you know what?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Give it to me, Quintinkahmun.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: This box’s world-class presentation is almost enough to make me recommend it anyway.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_164855.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30604" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_20190612_164855.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="674" /></a></p> | |
| <p>…But then I remember you and me cross-referencing the manual, with cards, with Googling, trying to figure out the details of rules, like archaeologists piecing together pot fragments under a hot sun. It’s a simple game! Couldn’t they have at least delivered the rules cleanly?!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: There are little irritations everywhere. The manual left me with really fundamental questions. Terminology is unnecessary muddling, even where obvious solutions are pointed to in the text. The game would be unplayably slow if people didn’t take the time to display their discard pile clearly to everybody, but nothing in the box actually says that.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: You and me were examining this game for multiple days, trying to figure out if we were missing something, playing something wrong, or just searching for the mysterious scroll that would tie this mess back together. At the end of the day, it shouldn’t take a pair of professional ludo-archaeologists this long to find a game’s flow.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: There’s so many little pleasures here that I feel cruel putting so much weight on its fault lines. The cards are lovely. The structural set collection is chewy. There’s a wry smile in the grudging exchange of items and prestige throughout. There’s either a much simpler game struggling to get out, or a much tougher game tying knots around it. If I’m honest, I desperately want to pass these cards to someone else to make some magic with. Or just give designers Eric Dubus and Olivier Melison another year and a half with the rough block of stone they’ve given us and a tiny pickaxe. I’m sure they could find the diamond at Museum’s heart.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-museum/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>52</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 10/06/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-10-06-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-10-06-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Altar Quest]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Hats]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Isle of Cats]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Magic Maze Mars]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-10-06-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Quinns</b>: Ava, you have to help me! Following our reviews of Chronicles of Crime and Batman: Gotham City Chronicles, SU&SD fans are <em>desperate</em> to know what the third and final review of Chronicles Month will be. I can’t have a moment’s peace. | |
| You have to hide me in the games news! | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Never fear, noble Quintin. Follow me, and come below the “Read More” button. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: They’ll never find me! | |
| <b>Ava</b>: Quick, hide under these hats.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, you have to help me! Following our reviews of Chronicles of Crime and Batman: Gotham City Chronicles, SU&SD fans are <em>desperate</em> to know what the third and final review of Chronicles Month will be. I can’t have a moment’s peace.</p> | |
| <p>You have to hide me in the games news!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Never fear, noble Quintin. Follow me, and come below the “Read More” button.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: They’ll never find me!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Quick, hide under these hats.<span id="more-10050"></span></p> | |
| <p>Opening the book on Lewis Carrol’s tale of surreal suppers and silly headgear, Thundergryph games are showing off an enormous pile of hats, in a little tea party game <a href="https://thundergryph.com/hats/">called, appropriately, Hats</a> (pictured above).</p> | |
| <p>Hats looks like a simple but intriguing game in the same weight and prettiness category as <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/double-feature-parade-incan-gold/">Parade</a>, the beautiful Wonderland-themed card game. You will spend the game swapping hats with the cards on the table, and making sets of the hats in front of you. Scoring is calculated according to how the central hats are arranged, giving everybody a chance to mess with everybody else constantly. It looks just a little bit ruthless. Also hats!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: ARRRRGH-</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: What is it <em>now?</em> If you keep making this much noise, the fans will find you again.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: How could you put so much effort into making a card game look so, so nice, even adding touches like a chocolate chip cookie and a “scoring napkin”, only to commit the heinous crime of putting your game’s logo on the card backs?!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s even worse than you think. Flipping the cards over to turn them into black hats is an actual part of the game. So you’ll be stuck with little piles of Hats with the words Hats on for the whole time. Still, you know what I always say: Don’t hat the player, hat the game.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: …</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m pretty sure it’s in my contract that you can’t fire me for puns.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clipboard01.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30534" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clipboard01-300x298-300x298.png" alt="" width="300" height="298" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Sit Down games (no relation) might be stretching the definition of news a little, but it has offered the above glimpse of a game called ‘Magic Maze Mars’. Canny sleuths may be able to work out that this is a version of co-operative, pass-agg shuffle em up <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-magic-maze-maximum-security/">Magic Maze</a> set on Mars.</p> | |
| <p>I can’t work out quite how excited I am about this? I have really enjoyed Magic Maze, but ‘dungeoneers in a mall’ was the perfect kind of simplicity and absurdity for a game like this. I can’t say a different theme is what I need?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ooh! Unusually, I actually know a little bit about Magic Maze Mars becauseI talked to designer Kasper Lapp at Fastaval last month. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that this will be quite a different game. Where Magic Maze was something of a novelty, Magic Maze Mars has… more in common with other games of Martian colonisation. It supposedly uses Magic Maze’s central conceit to create a very different game. And in fact, lots of the new mechanics can be seen right there on the box cover….</p> | |
| <p>I really shouldn’t say any more, except that I’m very excited for it.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Colour me your reddest, most planetest colour of intrigued.</p> | |
| <p>Digging around to find out more, I did bump into Sit Down’s <a href="https://sitdown-games.com/produit/hidden-roles/">hidden roles expansion to Magic Maze</a>, available as a beta from their website. Adding hidden roles to a game about silent, frustrated, furious collaboration is either an awful idea or the best thing ever, and I’m pretty tempted to find out where it lands.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4787537.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30535" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4787537.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="798" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Alright, try and be cynical about this one, Ava- <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/281259/isle-cats">The Isle of Cats</a> is a new game coming from Frank West, designer of The City of Kings, and it’s a “polyomino cat-placement game” about rescuing cats from an island while keeping their families together.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: You want cynicism eh? *deep breath*</p> | |
| <p>I’m not entirely convinced ‘squeezing as many cats as possible into a boat as possible’ is the best way of representing animal welfare. One of the goals is apparently ‘befriending Oshax’, and I have no idea what that means. The ‘I love/Isle of’ pun has already been used by Isle of Trains at the very least. I don’t want to be forced to decide if I love cats or trains more.</p> | |
| <p>*collapses back into their chair like Rocky at the end of a boxing match*</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Haha.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Quinns. It’s adorable. There’s no way I’m missing this one. They had me at ‘cat polyomino’.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Phew! I was worried you were being serious. Be right back, I’m off to go save some more birds by putting them in a big sack</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Oh dear.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30537" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/5082499c81dc72d23afe9aa64a723360_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="443" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This week’s nostalgic kickstarter with an uninspiring name is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blacklistgames/altar-quest/">Altar Quest</a>, a lustrous homage to Milton Bradley/Games Workshop 1989 collaboration HeroQuest, which you might remember as the game responsible for <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/pauls-most-important-gaming-memory/">Paul’s Greatest Gaming Memory</a>.</p> | |
| <p>I’m not surprised this has shot well past its fundraising target, as it looks like it remembers what was so thrillingly silly about that one vs many dungeon crawling classic. It’s also from the makers of ‘game wot was streamed by us’ <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/susd-play-street-masters/">Street Masters</a>. I didn’t catch that stream, so am not sure if that helps recommend this one or not. Quinns?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Hmm. I feel like I need one of those enormous jewel appraiser’s monocles whenever I’m asked about a Kickstarter like this. Let me take a closer look.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’ve just devolved into giggling at how many of the baddies sound like obsolete swears, you Frox Muckslinger.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: No need to be such a Ragglin Blooder, you Feral Mother.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: How dare you, you Lofflin Belchlord–</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: No, you know what Ava, I need you to stop having fun immediately. I’m actually seeing a few red flags here.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4668896.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30531" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4668896-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p>First off, Altar Quest will use the “Modular Deck System” that the designers used in Street Masters and then in Brook City, but Street Masters I thought was good-not-great, and I hear that Brook City was a step down in quality. That’s not a track record that makes me want to drop $109.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ouch. That’s definitely a price tag that stomped on my fun a bit.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Also, I dunno…. HeroQuest was a seminal design, but since then board games have evolved a great deal. Besides nostalgia, what exactly is the value in faithfully recreating this particular rung on the ladder of adventure games? Then again, I haven’t quite grasped the appeal of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_School_Revival">old-school revival roleplaying</a>, either.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Honestly, I never had as much fun playing HeroQuest as I did setting up the board and imagining the stories that could happen in those dungeons. And at that point I had the games connoisseurship of an eight year old. Because I was eight years old.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dd-baldur-s-gate-descent-into-avernus-main-cover.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30540" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dd-baldur-s-gate-descent-into-avernus-main-cover-234x300-234x300.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Dancing off piste a little (but sticking close to the dungeon), there was a lot of excitement at the announcement of Baldur’s Gate 3, which I’m reliably informed is a ‘video-game’. The detail nudging it on topic is that <a href="https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/baldursgate_descent">there’s a Dungeons and Dragons module coming out</a> that’s set in the titular city of Baldur’s Gate and precedes the narrative of the new computer game. That feels like a really lovely tie in.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s amazing how much fun Wizards of the Coast seem to be having with D&D at the minute. It’s all heists, in-jokes, tie-ins… it’s a far cry from the D&D supplements when I was growing up, which I bought based on how much peril the people on the cover seemed to be experiencing. Lordy, just take a look at <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17482/The-Shadow-Rift-2e">my favourite D&D module when I was a teen</a>:</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/17482.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30532" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/17482-229x300-229x300.jpg" alt="" width="229" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p>I ran that adventure three times, and my favourite bit was a field of carnivorous grass that ate your feet. Try and joke your way out of THAT.</p> | |
| <p>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voppNaslo1U</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: In board games on the telly news, designer Jonathan Ying <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/Fancymancer/status/1137014326240432137">pointed us</a> at the trailer Houkago Saikoro Club, a slice of life anime about a group of school girls finding an after school games club. This could be a really lovely intro to the hobby for some folks, and as we said on twitter, some of our readers will be well up for an opportunity to spot familiar boxes and cards.</p> | |
| <p>I am happy to see people getting as excited about games as I do, even if they’re tiny cartoon people.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30538" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4401962.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Finally, mark your calendars! SU&SD will once again be streaming this Thursday. Specifically, we’ll be trialling Concordia: Venus, the new team-based expansion for the legendary game of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-concordia/">Concordia</a>.</p> | |
| <p>If you’d like to watch me, Kylie, Matt and Ava do battle (in teams, no less!), you can join in the fun, live, <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown">right here on our Twitch page</a> on Thursday the 13th at 7pm UK time, 2pm Eastern Time.</p> | |
| <p>Fun fact: Neither I nor Kylie have ever lost a game of Concordia. This Thursday, someone’s winning streak will be shattered… but whose?</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-10-06-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>87</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 03/06/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-03-06-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-03-06-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 03 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[0xavier0]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tussie Mussie]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Sidereal Confluence]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The One Hundred Torii]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-03-06-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Welcome back to our weekly dive into the pages of the Shut Up & Sit Down Chronicle. Only the hottest news makes the pages of your most finger-smudging paper, guaranteed. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: In hindsight, I really don’t know why chose that as our promise. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: It’s only natural to want to leave a mark. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Groan. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: This week we’re taking a deeper dive than usual into the opinions section, as well as some of those grubby adverts in the back. | |
| Which is to say, today’s news is mostly think-pieces and kickstarters, and we think that’s okay.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Welcome back to our weekly dive into the pages of the Shut Up & Sit Down Chronicle. Only the hottest news makes the pages of your most finger-smudging paper, guaranteed.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: In hindsight, I really don’t know why chose that as our promise.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It’s only natural to want to leave a mark.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Groan.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This week we’re taking a deeper dive than usual into the opinions section, as well as some of those grubby adverts in the back.</p> | |
| <p>Which is to say, today’s news is mostly think-pieces and kickstarters, and we think that’s okay.<span id="more-10038"></span></p> | |
| <p>Let’s open the paper to a pretty little kickstarter that’s already blooming beautifully. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/239309591/tussie-mussie-by-elizabeth-hargrave-wingspan">Tussie Mussie</a> is the latest little treat from <a href="https://buttonshygames.com/">Button Shy</a>, specialists in wallet sized micro games, collaborating with Elizabeth Hargrave. Elizabeth is currently under the hype spotlight thanks to the inordinate excitement flitting around beatific bird-box Wingspan.</p> | |
| <p>This game looks just as pretty, with Beth Sobel taking illustration duties for an ‘I cut, You choose’ game about the Victorian language of flowers. The cards are beautiful, and it’s already smashed right through it’s target. Does anyone know the Victorian flowers for ‘congratulations on your kickstarter success’?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m loving the look of this! Also, can anyone in the comments recommend other Buttonshy games to add to a Tussie Mussie pledge? I’m a little overwhelmed:</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30476" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ce691e8b07f423e80e94638524d24a76_original.png" alt="" width="680" height="507" /></p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: Ooh, I’m very curious what designers come up with in response to the specific constraints of an 18 card wallet game.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hmm. Sorting their games by rank on <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/26991/button-shy">their BoardGameGeek page</a> reveals some slick little packets. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/251658/sprawlopolis">Sprawlopolis</a> is their biggest hit and it looks ace, but I’m particularly intrigued by the theming of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/242324/stew">Stew</a>, a game of players drafting veggies, fearful of varmints.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Personally, I’ve no idea how you made it past ‘<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/188181/avignon-clash-popes">A Clash of Popes</a>’.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30470" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/mad23_akachi_onyele.png" alt="" width="508" height="262" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It makes sense to flick the page from Elizabeth Hargrave’s successes to <a href="http://lunastationquarterly.com/board-games-and-bell-hooks-the-women-designing-mansions-of-madness-2nd-ed/">Erin K Wagner reflecting</a> on an old <a href="https://geekandsundry.com/meet-the-women-behind-mansions-of-madness-2nd-ed/">Geek & Sundry interview with the women and non-binary folk who wrote Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition</a>. I’m already sold on anyone who is bringing D&D and the author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks">bell hooks</a> into the same paragraph, and there’s a lot of interesting threads to pull on. I know that Ursula LeGuin’s ‘carrier bag theory of fiction’ has jumped to the top of my reading list once we’re done newsing.</p> | |
| <p>Sadly, within moments of reading the above, I stumbled across <a href="https://thewholenicole.wordpress.com/2019/05/29/harassment-and-board-gaming/">this bleak but necessary piece by Nicole Hoye</a>, of Daily Worker Placement and Greatway Games, on harassment in board game scenes. It’s worth reminding everybody we play with that it’s our responsibility to make game spaces welcoming. Whether you think there’s a problem at your table or not, this should be required reading. It’s easy for this stuff to not be noticed by those who aren’t directly affected. Don’t rest on laurels, folks, we have to keep working and fighting until everyone feels at home in every game space (except, paradoxically, those people who think we shouldn’t fight for everyone to feel at home, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance">who should not be welcome</a>).</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I earnestly believe that things are getting better for women and minorities within the board game conventions that I go to, but it’s very difficult to celebrate that without slipping into complacency. I remember the shock I felt when a woman almost left one of my Netrunner tournaments. I was convinced that my attendees were all nice enough- it was the textbook definition of “ignorance is bliss”.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Nicole lists some resources for ways you can intervene helpfully and be a decent ally, which I think are great. Even if you’re already nice, it’s worth taking a look at this, it’s definitely hard to be too nice, and very easy to not realise when your niceness isn’t enough.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Nice.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30469" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/D7d3D85U8AAx7s.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="422" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m always curious about new ways of spinning old ideas. Yuji Kosugi managed to stop me in my tracks the other day, <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/yujiberra/status/1132505275779338245">posting a single tweet variant on Rock Paper Scissors</a>. It’s a simple way to record victory between multiple rounds, that requires you to think about your play in a number of different ways. I’ve no idea if it would actually be fun, but my word is it thrilling that someone could chuck that big a wrench into a game that small. What a delight! I love a little thought experiment, and this is one I could actually play.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: On the subject, I found out at the UK Games Expo this weekend that the Japanese table gaming scene is growing at a huge rate, and I couldn’t be more excited. There’s an incredible amount of lateral thinking on show in the games that are being designed in Japan. I managed to acquire a copy of the matchbook-sized <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/263097/yeti-house">Yeti in the House</a> on Sunday and I’ve been showing it to just about everybody.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I look forward to meeting this tiny imported Yeti.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Yes?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: What is it?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The yeti is <em>so small</em></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4403853.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30471" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4403853.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="583" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I got a little thrill from our inbox this week, when reader Reid Delfield pointed us towards <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1869473/trying-understanding-depth-design">a BoardGameGeek thread</a> in which TauCeti Deichmann, the designer of preposterously overblown space trading game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-sidereal-confluence-trading-and-negotiation-in-the-elysian-quadrant/">Sidereal Confluence</a>, expounds on the nine alien factions included in the box.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I am awed to see that the lore runs so deep and ties in with the design so crunchily. The asymmetry of that game is a treat, and it’s nice to know it was never just mechanical.</p> | |
| <p>TauCeti is working on an RPG in the universe which does explain how there’s quite so much backstory. I’m curious as to how far down this universe goes, and the peaceful but diverse setting could house some very strange stories.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m a bit baffled as to how an RPG might work. I’d struggle to roleplay a compassionate squid, let alone an intelligent wasp or a *cloud of maths.*</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30467" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/18ch.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="466" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Speaking of diving deep into weird designs, Gloomhaven’s Isaac Childres has reported back from Heavy Cardboards ‘Heavycon’ with <a href="http://www.cephalofair.com/2019/05/of-heavycons-and-railroads.html">some thoughts on why the 18xx genre of stock trading train games are so exciting</a> (except when they aren’t). I’m always dazzled to remember that there’s a whole subculture of board games I’ve yet to probe, and I’m so, damn, curious. I don’t shy away from a heavy game, but something about the intersection of share-holding, day long games, elaborate tile placement and route building really daunts me.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ack, I loved this blog post. I’ve wanted an outsider to give an overview of this impenetrable genre for some time, and having Isaac alternately expressing love and hilarious criticism was just lovely.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m now a bit sad that I ummed and ahhed about adding <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/all-aboardgames/18chesapeake/description">the Kickstarter for 18Chesapeke</a> to the games news for the last few weeks. The combination of curiosity and fear pushes me right down the railroad of indecision.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Calling at Hesitancy, Ambivalence, Reluctance and Lower Maybeton.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Toot Toot.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30468" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/a2426f9ce8f7a43562149977310a3fd7_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="622" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Finally, why don’t we close with one more Kickstarter. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ebaraf/the-one-hundred-torii">The One Hundred Torii</a> is a gorgeous-looking collaboration by Scott Caputo, Vincent Dutrait and Eduardo Baraf about placing tiles to expand a garden <em>and</em> walking little wooden figures around it. Which is a winning combination, if <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-isle-of-skye-journeyman/">Isle of Skye: Journeyman</a> proved anything.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Eduardo Baraf worked on Herbaceous, which is a great little game I’ve taught a huge range of people. The beautiful herbs, and my elaborate headcanon about a group of flats with a shared community garden and an incredibly strict residents association make it a sweet smelling joy.</p> | |
| <p>The route building in 100 Torii could be like a more fiddly and/or nuanced counterpart to Tsuro, where you’re trying to get in someone else’s way while making a nice path for yourself. Or maybe a less snide Saboteur?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Gosh, games are getting more and more pleasant theming, aren’t they? I wonder if future generations of tabletop gamers will look back at the ‘90s and ‘00s as a brutal time, staggering under the weight of rayguns and scimitars.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I feel like the games that have stood the test of time from that era are mostly sad men and beige countryside.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I do love a good beige game.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I just hope that’s not because you’re a sad man.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-03-06-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>121</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Review: Underwater Cities</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-underwater-cities/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-underwater-cities/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Fri, 31 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Underwater Cities]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Heavy Games]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Games for Two]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Conflict-Free Games]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-underwater-cities/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Kylie</strong>: In Vladimír Suchý's heavy management game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/underwater-cities/">Underwater Cities</a>, players are competing to build the ultimate deep sea nation. But is it actually better, down where it’s wetter? Are there no troubles when life is the bubbles? Can we <em>really</em> trust a crustacean that sings? I guess we should find out. | |
| Each player is given a personal city map which you'll fill with a scattering of white and red biodomes, which will connect to a flourishing network of factories and laboratories. Ideally, this network will score you points, as well as act as an engine that'll occasionally spew out resources such as credits, biomatter, and kelp. Lots of kelp. | |
| Apparently when we colonise the seas, the only thing available to eat will be kelp. I’ve never tried kelp. Have you tried kelp? They tell me it's the kale of the sea, but I'm pretty sure that's a lie.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Kylie</strong>: In Vladimír Suchý’s heavy management game <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/underwater-cities/">Underwater Cities</a>, players are competing to build the ultimate deep sea nation. But is it actually better, down where it’s wetter? Are there no troubles when life is the bubbles? Can we <em>really</em> trust a crustacean that sings? I guess we should find out.</p> | |
| <p>Each player is given a personal city map which you’ll fill with a scattering of white and red biodomes, which will connect to a flourishing network of factories and laboratories. Ideally, this network will score you points, as well as act as an engine that’ll occasionally spew out resources such as credits, biomatter, and kelp. Lots of kelp.</p> | |
| <p>Apparently when we colonise the seas, the only thing available to eat will be kelp. I’ve never tried kelp. Have you tried kelp? They tell me it’s the kale of the sea, but I’m pretty sure that’s a lie.<span id="more-10029"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0145.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30426" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0145.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="695" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Pictured above is the game’s shared central board. To build your undersea civilisation, you need to play cards from your hand to use an action on this board. However, this is much deeper than it seems at first glance (sea what I did there?).</p> | |
| <p>The action slots on the central board, together with the cards in your hand, are all coloured. If you can play a card to a slot that’s the same colour, then you’ll get to perform both the action on the slot <em>and</em> the action on the card. Thus, each game you play will see you having to adapt your schemes depending on what cards you’ve been dealt. Doesn’t sound so hard? Well, I should mention that your hand limit is a mere <em>three cards.</em></p> | |
| <p>This limitation means that every card you either choose to play or discard becomes a very weighty decision. Do you stockpile green cards, which are the strongest in the game, but risk the green slots on the board becoming blocked by other players? Or do you try and get an even spread of colours, allowing more flexibility?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0146.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30427" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0146.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="742" /></a></p> | |
| <p>There are some really interesting decisions in the way that you might try and use your hand, and in what buildings you choose to incorporate into your network. When you’ve got some experience, players can also throw in ‘government contracts’ which give you rewards for being the first to reach a certain requirement. There are also two sides to the player mats, shaking up the possible placements of the buildings, offering up yet more tricky decisions.</p> | |
| <p>All of this makes for a superbly brain-burning puzzle. However, for such a uniquely moist game, these decisions are so… dry.</p> | |
| <p>There’s just no <em>personality</em> here. There’s no room to create something distinctive. There’s a certain joy you get from other city building games like <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/hexagonal-tile-laying-game-fest-2013/">Suburbia</a> when, at the end, you glance down at your suburbian paradise of parks and lakes, whilst the player next to you has built an authoritarian police state and someone else has just built a wasteland, with airports and outlet malls as far as the eye can see.</p> | |
| <p>The eponymous cities of Underwater Cities always turn out to be a series of white or red domes with coloured discs around the edges, connected by strips of cardboard. From a strategic point of view there are some fascinating decisions regarding what to place in your network, but from the point of view of what is commonly known as “fun”, you’re just churning out vanilla ice-cream. No added toppings, syrups or flavour. Whatever way you look at it, it’s just plain.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0141.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30423" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0141.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="737" /></a></p> | |
| <p>What’s more odd is how Underwater Cities manages to be both long, yet at the same time difficult to settle into. Because you only get three turns per round, there’s a stop, start, stop, start nature to the game which makes it hard to find a groove. Despite this, it’s a long game, almost excruciatingly so at a full 4 players, making it a game for just 2-3 people.</p> | |
| <p>But even then, I still ended up longing for interaction. You have next-to-no impact on other players’ cities. You can take the action slots that they need on the central player board, yet this rarely feels as affecting as it does in other worker placement games, which can feel not just restrictive, but downright vicious – the oft-used analogy of a knife fight in a phone booth comes to mind. In Underwater Cities it instead feels like your most efficient choice is now reduced to a slightly less efficient choice. What’s more, players will only rarely ‘steal’ a spot to stop you using it, as they tend to be so focused on their own endeavours. It’s less a knife fight in a phone booth, more ‘two busy people apologetically trying to squeeze down the same corridor.’</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0137.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30421" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0137.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="690" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Equally underwhelming is your underwater economy. One of your aims in Underwater Cities is to whip up an engine that will produce resources, enabling upgrades and further development. But your engine will only produce resources three times throughout the course of the game, and only two of these phases can actually aid in your expansion. For me, engine-building games often feel addictive due to the sense of progress – you watch your plans come to life as you turn your crank further and further, going from a dribble of scarce resources to a veritable fountain of goodies spilling out into your lap. With only two functional production phases in Underwater Cities, there’s very little feeling of advancement or evolution.</p> | |
| <p>Worse still, production itself is a fiddly beast. It’s easy to become engulfed by admin in this phase, first counting up buildings, then working out how many are of certain sizes, checking card effects, and finally checking your rules reference. The whole process feels like cross-referencing a spreadsheet, which is something I’ve never particularly Excel-ed at.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0136.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30420" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0136.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="671" /></a></p> | |
| <p>And so long as we’re all riding the Complain Train, the components in this game are pretty sub-par, too. The player aids and mats in particular are very flimsy, and it’s easy for parts of your network to shift around when you lean in to put your tokens on the board or grab a new card – watch those elbows!</p> | |
| <p>The artwork doesn’t really do anything for me, either. The cards in particular have a corporate and boring theme to them. They could have had such fun with a sea theme, but instead they just put multiple pictures of boardrooms and people on the phone. One of the cards has you ‘Organise a Conference’. Erm, why?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0143.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30424" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0143.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="692" /></a></p> | |
| <p>That said, as soon as I saw the art on the orange personal assistant I couldn’t help think he looked an awful lot like the rapper Xzibit, and then I couldn’t stop thinking about some sort of spinoff to Pimp my Ride.</p> | |
| <p>Although, Pimp my Symbiotic City Dome doesn’t really have the same ring to it. Probably best to stick to cars. Although how about an expansion: Pimp my Submarine?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0138.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30422" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0138.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="665" /></a></p> | |
| <p><em>“Yo dog! I heard you like engine building, so we put an engine builder in your city builder so that you can build while you build.”</em></p> | |
| <p>From the card play, to the city building, to the engine development, all of these interconnected sections do beg a question: is Underwater Cities more than the sum of its parts? SU&SD favourite <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-great-western-trail/">Great Western Trail</a> is a game that follows this formula well – it has a bunch of disparate sections from developing your herd of cattle, to hopping around a board to use different locations, to racing your train down a track. Yet that game all comes together into a cohesive whole, laden with hugely enjoyable strategic choices and long-term planning.</p> | |
| <p>Underwater Cities never quite achieves this. The transient nature of your options, from the cards in your hand to the spots available on the board at any one time means you’re just… doing what’s best for you at that point. Grand plans never feel like they gain momentum, because you simply cannot guarantee that you’ll ever be able to follow through with them.</p> | |
| <p>The fact is, city building has been done better, worker placement has been done better, and engine building has been done better and with oodles more character. Cramming these elements together into a single game is an ambitious task, but one that ultimately doesn’t cohere. There is undoubtedly an impressive tactical puzzle to be found in aligning card play with slots on the board, but that’s nowhere near enough to make me keep playing. Like the 1995 movie, Waterworld, there are some interesting ideas here, but ultimately it’s a bit waterlogged (and almost certainly too long).</p> | |
| <p>Sorry Sebastian! This one is a bit more Otoh Gunga than Atlantica. Maybe next time.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-underwater-cities/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>49</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 27/05/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-27-05-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-27-05-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 27 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Crystallo]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Dragon’s Interest]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Pandemic: Rapid Response]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Werewords]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[LAMA]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Detective: A Modern Crime Boardgame]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game – L.A. Crimes]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-27-05-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Ava</b>: Welcome all, to the Chronicles of Newsia. It’s chronicles month this Majune at Shut Up and Sit Down, and we’re here to bring you the newest, most ancient tales bound in the thickest volumes of web-based e-vellum. Inside this dusty tome you’ll find tales of winners, losers, sickness, war, dragons, castles, birds and Belgium. | |
| Sit down, young acolyte, and let me tell you the okay news. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Wow. I think this is going to be SU&SD’s best Chronicles Month *ever*.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Ava</b>: Welcome all, to the Chronicles of Newsia. It’s chronicles month this Majune at Shut Up and Sit Down, and we’re here to bring you the newest, most ancient tales bound in the thickest volumes of web-based e-vellum. Inside this dusty tome you’ll find tales of winners, losers, sickness, war, dragons, castles, birds and Belgium.</p> | |
| <p>Sit down, young acolyte, and let me tell you the okay news.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Wow. I think this is going to be SU&SD’s best Chronicles Month *ever*.<span id="more-10020"></span></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: A faster, dicier and just as ill chapter of Pandemic is coming soon. <a href="https://www.asmodee.co.uk/news-item/pandemic-rapid-response/">Pandemic: Rapid Response</a> (pictured above) will be the first instalment of the series to see players fighting globe trotting diseases in real time. You’ll be rushing around a tiny plane, rolling dice and stacking boxes, trying to make air drops just in time to save the poorly souls in cities around the world.</p> | |
| <p>This looks like a great way to mix up the well-trodden mechanics of this system. Though I’m curious how much of the base game’s blood will lie in something so different. The game is designed by Kane Klenko, who also made the <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-39/">delightfully frustrating FUSE</a>, so it could well be another healthy board-baby.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30358" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PRRimage4.jpg" alt="" width="698" height="451" /></p> | |
| <p>Asmodee calls this a new addition to the ‘Pandemic Universe’, and I’m trying to work out if there’s a worse fictional place to live than the version of Earth that is not only painted permanently blue, but also has four world-destroying viruses every week. Sure, there’s hard working scientists saving the day, but just imagine getting a new case of the reds every single time someone shuffled the deck. It’s bleak.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh, I received a review copy of Rapid Response last week!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: What? Before the press release went out? That’s what I call a Rapid Response.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, what you have to understand about the board game business is that news moves in mysterious ways. Sometimes we receive a game before it exists. Sometimes a press release contains no pictures or any sort of information at all. Sometimes we write “news” about a game that – imagine our shock! – came out 10 years ago.</p> | |
| <p>You can’t question it. Instead, let the news <em>flow through you.</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ooh, ooh. I think I can feel it! Here comes another one!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019nominierte.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30354" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019nominierte.jpg" alt="" width="1091" height="1082" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: The best known award in board games <a href="https://www.spiel-des-jahres.com/de/hier-sind-die-nominierten-2019">has announced its nominees</a>! The Spiel Des Jahres splits into three categories, regular, kinder, and kenner. That is, games for normal folk, kind folk, and folk called Ken.</p> | |
| <p>The main prize fight will be fought between <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/219215/werewords">Werewords</a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/254640/just-one">Just One</a> and the traditional annual ‘game I’ve never heard of’, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266083/lama">LAMA</a>. The jury for this award always focuses on accessibility, readability and german-ness, so it’s not entirely surprising they’ve picked three incredibly easy to play party games. I found the app-based Werewords a little bland, but Just One is a surprisingly clever little thing. In my opinion Just One makes just one enormous mistake, by giving you an incentive to do the boring thing and pass instead of making a wildly incorrect guess.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: What?! That’s a rule? None of the groups that I’ve played with has ever done that. (And yes, I’ve played it multiple times, ruining my quip <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-90-the-generation-train/">on the podcast</a> that I was interested in playing it “Just Once”)</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Yup, an incorrect guess is supposed to cost you two points, while a pass only costs you one. It’s a bad rule, Quinns. It’s a bad rule. If an easily fixable one.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Wild!</p> | |
| <p>Anyway, I’m very interested to see LAMA in there, despite it proving, once again, that Germany is incapable of dressing a card game with art that isn’t repellant. Like you, I hadn’t heard of it, but it’s actually by Reiner Knizia, and I’m thoroughly enjoying this new lease of life that he’s embarked on. After a quiet decade, this legendary designer is designing great games again! What did we do to deserve this?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Maybe it’s because you were mean to him.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Urgh. I do feel guilty about how SU&SD used to make fun of Knizia. In our defense, the games that he was designing when this site was founded were all total toilet.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Whatever inspired him to turn things around, I’m glad it’s happened.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0201.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30359" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_0201.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="666" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: The Kennerspiel (for ‘connoisseurs’) has a slightly weightier selection of nominees: Wingspan, Detective, and Carpe Diem. It’s no surprise to see <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266192/wingspan">Wingspan</a> in there, as it’s pretty, easy to learn and an incredibly tactile game. I have to plead ignorance about <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/245934/carpe-diem">Carpe Diem</a>, my main reaction being shock that a game with that cover could possibly have been made in the last year. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/223321/detective-modern-crime-board-game">Detective</a> is also outside of my wheelhouse. I know that Matt and Quinns absolutely slaughtered the writing <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-83-the-villains-criminal-google/">in their GenCon podcast</a>, but I’ve heard some people say they’ve really got on with its elaborate deduction.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Wingspan and Detective might not be for me, but they’re both great at what they do. I would absolutely recommend Wingspan to someone new to games if they wanted a beautiful little engine-builder, and Detective is tedious in a lot of ways, but the way that the cases link together means that there’s no other mystery of such grand proportions on the market.</p> | |
| <p>As for Carpe Diem, we’ll have to get some coverage on the site in the next year. You wouldn’t know it from watching SU&SD for the last five years, but there was a time that designer Stefan Feld was considered one of the hottest names around.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-castles-burgundy/">The Castles of Burgundy</a> is certainly a tightly wound masterpiece, despite its variegated muddle of tiny brown hexagons.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Absolutely! But since then he’s put out a run of forgettable eurogames like AquaSphere, Merlin and The Oracle of Delphi. Supposedly Carpe Diem (Latin for “Carpe City”) is a bit of a return to form. Like Castles of Burgundy, players are using a central thingy (in this case a rondel) to get tiles, and then placing them on a personal board in an attempt to build the fanciest district.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Finally, the kinderspiel prize deserves a mention. Focussing on games for children, I prefer to think of this prize as the ‘games with names that bring me great joy to say out loud’ category. This year is no exception, with <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/264295/fabulantica">Fabulantica</a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/270140/go-gecko-go">Go Gecko Go!</a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269526/tal-der-wikinger">Tal der Wikinger</a> all up for the prize.</p> | |
| <p>That’s a lot of games, folks! I feel like the SdJ hasn’t gone to my favourite game in a given year for a long time, but their very specific focus means they should always be putting something joyful and open hearted in front of shoppers throughout Germany, so I’m very glad it exists. I might also just be glad because I really enjoy German words.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s certainly no longer an award for hobbyists like us. Someone pointed out recently that <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-el-grande/">the incredible El Grande</a> won the Spiel des Jahres in 1996, a game that today would be considered too complicated even for the Kennerspiel.</p> | |
| <p>Have you played El Grande yet?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It was one of the first games in my collection! I adore it, and routinely dismiss new area control games as just not good enough because they can’t replicate the perfectly balanced back and forth of El Grande.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Keep talking.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I still want to make a soap based on El Grande, with Wolf Hall style pointed words and smouldering looks as the King tours Spain, devolving into rampant smut whenever anyone gets exiled to the castle. What happens in il castillo, stays in il castillo.</p> | |
| <p>I recognise this is a pretty niche sell, but if there’s any TV execs out there, come talk to me.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic3639138.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30355" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic3639138-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Kickstarter is absolutely swarming with games right now, so it’s getting hard to choose where to point the news cannon. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelmindes/dragons-interest">Dragon’s Interest</a> caught my eye as I wanted to make a joke about it being a game about an accountant dragon. It turns out that’s actually what’s going on, with a big fiery lizard lending you the capital you need each turn to develop your own little empire. You’ve got to be careful of when your warm-throated investor demands that titular interest, as the game ends whenever someone can’t pay up, and whoever defaults will be out of the running.</p> | |
| <p>With some interesting hidden price setting mechanisms and an easily burgled tableau of buildings, this looks like it could be a nice little bit of draconic calculus. This is exactly the sort of thing that sees me throttled by my own hubris. Could be one to watch.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4571738.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30367" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4571738.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="900" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: The Kickstarter that I’d like to point people towards is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lightheartgames/crystallo-the-award-winning-solitaire-puzzle-game">Crystallo, a solo game</a>. And this happens to be my favourite kind of solo game, namely “One with enough table presence that other people will at least potter over and ask what you’re doing.”</p> | |
| <p>Designer Liberty Kifer was kind enough to send us an advance copy of this card-placement puzzle, which sees you trying to create matching squares of crystals to try and free six mythical creatures from the grasp of an evil dragon. I learned it in 3 minutes, and ended up merrily playing for half an hour. If you’re a fan of meditative 1 player games, I think you should take a very close look.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/wsdv-spielplan-big.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30356" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/wsdv-spielplan-big-196x300-196x300.jpg" alt="" width="196" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I like dropping some further reading into the news, so it’s not just an onslaught of things you might want to buy. This week we’ve got <a href="https://cliosboardgames.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/a-new-start-and-two-new-germanies-century-of-german-history-4/">Clio’s board games’ history of Germany</a>. A year long project looking at the end of each decade of Germany’s twentieth century. I airdropped into the post-war division of Germany by the allies and was pretty delighted by what I read.</p> | |
| <p>Each post looks through the lens of a relevant board game, and this one grabs Wir Sind Das Volk, which is on of my fave ludicrously parochial game designs. It’s an economic wargame where the war is fought entirely through living standards, ideology and failing infrastructure. Clio gives you a sense of how the cards in the game fit the context of the time. The best thing about historical games is when they make me thrill for the period and yearn to find out more. This blog feels like an exploration of that exact excitement.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/8b7e0b10-city-43612-1666483c279.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30353" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/8b7e0b10-city-43612-1666483c279.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="600" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: And I have a little announcement for any Belgians or Belgian-adjacents in the house! That sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it isn’t.</p> | |
| <p>Matt and I have been invited to be special guests of the <a href="https://zomerspel.be/">Zomerspel gaming convention</a>, taking place in Ghent on the 15th and 16th of June. As in, three weeks from now. So if you fancy a couple of days of gaming in a beautiful historic city, why not grab some tickets and come see us there? We’ll probably try and arrange a meetup on one of the nights.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ooh, your tour of games conventions in the North sea adjacent flatlands is getting Beneluxuriant.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I know. But I feel like such an idiot! For all of these years we’ve been bludgeoning ourselves with jetlag flying to and from America, when Europe was <em>right there</em> and their games are <em>much</em> weirder.</p> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 20/05/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-20-05-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-20-05-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 20 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[1987: Channel Tunnel]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Bites]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[SPACE INVADERS - THE BOARD GAME]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ecos]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Dead Reckoning]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-20-05-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Ava</strong>: Hello lovely news-lovers. It’s another Monday, and I’m a bit worn out. I’ve had a wobbly weekend of overwhelm. | |
| Board games can be a playful, joyful anchor when the seas of your mind are rough, a set of routines and actions you can fall into that pulls you together, brings you back in touch with the people you care about. I’m so grateful to games and the people that make them and the friends that play them. That’s why I keep coming back to dig through the newsiest jungles of the internet, bringing you select morsels of upcoming play possibilities. | |
| Here’s the news.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: Hello lovely news-lovers. It’s another Monday, and I’m a bit worn out. I’ve had a wobbly weekend of overwhelm.</p> | |
| <p>Board games can be a playful, joyful anchor when the seas of your mind are rough, a set of routines and actions you can fall into that pulls you together, brings you back in touch with the people you care about. I’m so grateful to games and the people that make them and the friends that play them. That’s why I keep coming back to dig through the newsiest jungles of the internet, bringing you select morsels of upcoming play possibilities.</p> | |
| <p>Here’s the news.<span id="more-10012"></span></p> | |
| <p>Ted Alspach is still into werewolves, or at least fighting them. This time he’s warding off the beastfolk with silver and several small boxes. <a href="https://beziergames.com/collections/hot-items/products/silver">The Silver series</a> will build around the core mechanics of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271321/cabo-second-edition">Cabo</a>, another Bezier games release, which was in turn based on a more traditional card game (that may or may not suck) called <a href="https://www.pagat.com/draw/golf.html">Golf</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Each player in Silver will have a little village of cards in front of them, face down. With limited knowledge of what they’re holding, they can activate special abilities to look at cards, swap cards, or generally cause mayhem. Once players think their village has less werewolf juice (or ‘lower numbers’) than anyone else’s, they can call the end of the round and win or lose points as a result, as the villagers are beset with beasts.</p> | |
| <p>The series will start with Silver, and then move onto Silver Bullet, and that’s all we know for now. Each game can either stand alone or be combined with other sets by mixing and matching the villager types. I’m faintly wary of this type of variability. I prefer a curated ruleset to one I’ve got to guess at, but it does depend on the core game’s robustness. Ted designed One Night Werewolf, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/hexagonal-tile-laying-game-fest-2013/">Suburbia</a> and Castles of King Ludwig, so has probably earned a certain amount of faith and werewolf repellent.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4650725.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30227" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4650725.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="558" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Alderac Entertainment Group has kicked off their experiment of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-05-19/">not releasing too many games</a> by announcing two new games by designer John D Clair, creator of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-space-base/">Space Base</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-mystic-vale/">Mystic Vale</a>. Details are sparse, but <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/89605/reform-earth-then-raid-islands-john-d-clair-and-ae">Dead Reckoning and Ecos: First continent</a> are due out later this year.</p> | |
| <p>Dead Reckoning will have you ‘card-crafting’ (using card sleeves and perspex to allow you to customise the cards in your deck during the course of the game) pirate crews to sail the seas and use unlikely Cornish accents. Ecos will use simultaneous turns to have you build pre-civilisation ecosystems. You and your wallet can decide if you’d rather be a pirate or a force of nature. I say, get thee a John D Clair who can do both.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/4f0ad884ba98217e4b201904574eef92_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30224" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/4f0ad884ba98217e4b201904574eef92_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="593" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Kickstarter is going more than a little retro this week, with <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/533894064/space-invaders-the-board-game">Space Invaders making the transition from arcade cabinet to cardboard box</a>. This ever descending rainbow of pixel-squids will be battled in a deck building game where your position on the board dictates both what you can buy and what you can kill. This failed to pass my kickstarter rule of thumb of either (a) giving me a clear idea how the game would play or (b) making me really excited, but I suspect this hits some folks’ nostalgia-spots a lot closer than mine. I’ll not be truly tickled until someone makes a board game of Repton. Or maybe Turrican 2.</p> | |
| <p>Please nobody do that. I promise I’m joking.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/94714587157d91b92ec5a105b819fac9_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30225" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/94714587157d91b92ec5a105b819fac9_original-91x300-91x300.jpg" alt="" width="91" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Another kickstarter that grabbed me by the antennae <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1296268806/bites-a-20-min-interactive-board-game">was Bites</a>, a snack sized picnic of a game that knows exactly how to prod my inner entomologist. Fittingly, the best way we could embed the promotional photos was with the above ant-scale image, so please do click on it if you’d like to see it <em>at all.</em></p> | |
| <p>I remain obsessed with ants, and the cute little meeples here caught my eye, as did the little cardboard ant hill. The pitch also promises that ‘players can move any ant’ and ‘chocolate gives you special powers instead of points’. This is exactly the kind of realism I’m looking for in a game.</p> | |
| <p>Bites is a remix of an abstract game called Big Points, and has you moving ants to the next spot in their colour and picking up nearby food. Where the ants end up sets the value of the food you’ve collected, which sounds like just enough strategy to make this interesting. I am a bit baffled as to how the ants ended up as the patron saints of the relevant foodstuffs, but I’m willing to roll with it. I think this is going to look lovely on the table, and those ants are adorable. Just make sure nobody looks up what Bites means in French.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4741327.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30228" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4741327.jpg" alt="" width="745" height="459" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Speaking of the French, while Quinns isn’t looking, I’m going to sneak in a boring game* that tunnelled right into my heart.</p> | |
| <p>If there’s two things that get me going, it’s large infrastructure projects and games which make reference to specific dates. You can imagine how I felt upon discovering Looping Games are working on <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279306/1987-channel-tunnel">1987: Channel Tunnel</a>. Two players will take opposing coasts of la manche and place little stacks of engineers to try and project manage an enormous and symbolically-loaded tunnel under the sea. At the end of the game, you’ll tot up how much technology you’ve developed in the game, but also check that your machines haven’t dug too far off track. I love the idea that you might just fail completely and end up with two really big, long holes. I haven’t been able to find out how scoring works in the ‘two big holes’ scenario.</p> | |
| <p>*I’ve tried to talk myself down from this joke all day, and I’m really sorry it’s still in there.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/D6t3WjcXYAAod-P.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30226" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/D6t3WjcXYAAod-P.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="596" /></a></p> | |
| <p>I don’t know if a game design competition is something that we’d normally cover, but someone on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/junkfood_games/status/1129127366377246720">posted a picture</a> of the bag of bits they got from Haba USA, and I’m enchanted by the style of this contest. For five dollars (if you live in the US) <a href="https://www.habausa.com/game-design-kit/">Haba will post you a little bag of wooden pieces</a>, and you get your money back <a href="https://www.habausa.com/gdc">if you send them a prototype using some of them</a>, with all rights to the design remaining with you, the designer.</p> | |
| <p>Family friendly Haba make some really adorable games that occasionally punch well above their weight: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-go-cuckoo/">Go Cuckoo</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-rhino-hero-super-battle/">Rhino Hero</a> are quirky, joyful treats. A lot of that joy and quirk comes from the lovely solid feel of the beautiful wooden pieces. I think it’s delightful that they’re scouting out their next big hit by starting with the tactility.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Untitled-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30230" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="1118" height="306" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Sticking with tradition, my ‘and finally’ this week is a project gathering various game designers’ pithiest thoughts. With names you recognise and names you won’t, there’s a lot to chew on <a href="http://design100.org">at website Design100</a>. I found the web design to be utterly infuriating, but behind that veil, there’s intriguing quotes from a huge range of designers on everything from accessibility to collaboration and back again.</p> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 13/05/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-13-05-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-13-05-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[0xavier0]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Die Hard: the Nakatomi Heist]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Insect Inc]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Space Race]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Uno]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[KeyForge: Call of the Archons]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Space Alert]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-13-05-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Ava</strong>: After a week playing the fun game ‘moving all the objects I own from one building to another and then slowly finding new places for them to sit’, I’m mostly on my own for this week’s Games News. I’m cosily nested in an incredibly tall house on a slightly different hill in my gorgeous little valley. The sky is blue, the trees are green, the garden is gravelly and the game table is flat. | |
| What a perfect time to roast up some news. | |
| Kickstarting its way into orbit this week <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardcubator/space-race-0">is Space Race</a>, a follow up to a <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191177/space-race-card-game">card game of the same name</a> that looks to take up a little more of your table. The art direction is the star here, all blueprints and sharply inked illustrations. Players will build rival agencies sending astronauts into the void with a some literal and metaphorical engine building and what looks like a bit of orbital area control.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong>: After a week playing the fun game ‘moving all the objects I own from one building to another and then slowly finding new places for them to sit’, I’m mostly on my own for this week’s Games News. I’m cosily nested in an incredibly tall house on a slightly different hill in my gorgeous little valley. The sky is blue, the trees are green, the garden is gravelly and the game table is flat.</p> | |
| <p>What a perfect time to roast up some news.</p> | |
| <p>Kickstarting its way into orbit this week <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardcubator/space-race-0">is Space Race</a>, a follow up to a <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191177/space-race-card-game">card game of the same name</a> that looks to take up a little more of your table. The art direction is the star here, all blueprints and sharply inked illustrations. Players will build rival agencies sending astronauts into the void with a some literal and metaphorical engine building and what looks like a bit of orbital area control.<span id="more-10005"></span></p> | |
| <p>Some of the densest games I’ve ever seen (High Frontier and Leaving Earth) are about launching space shuttles, could this be the one that brings the moon to the masses? As an adaptation of a tried and tested card game, it’s got a better chance than many, but I’ve not actually tried the original Space Race card game. Has anyone in the comments made it into its orbit?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4736291.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30099" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4736291.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="504" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Are you ready to take off your shoes and scrunch your feet into the carpet? Because if you aren’t, maybe you aren’t ready for more details about the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/275785/die-hard-nakatomi-heist-board-game">Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist board game</a>. Honestly, my initial reaction was to ask ‘who would want this’ but I’m genuinely intrigued by the good guy one versus bad gang many structure on offer here. We can now see some sculpts of minis that are supposed to look like Bruce Willis (above) and Alan Rickman.</p> | |
| <p>Could a board game <a href="http://www.bldgblog.com/2010/01/nakatomi-space/">deconstruct the architecture</a> of the 80s as well as that beloved film? The film still stands up because of the unexpected ingenuity of the hero. If that sense of desperation and creativity can be replicated, this could be a winner, but it’s a pretty big if.</p> | |
| <p>I’m only interested if it includes a soundtrack of tense thriller-horn versions of Winter Wonderland and other festive favourites. If they don’t provide the right noises and I end up in front of a copy of this, someone is going to get very bored of my yuletide trumpeting.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4708671.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30098" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic4708671.jpg" alt="" width="1078" height="644" /></a></p> | |
| <p>If there’s one thing I’ve learnt since I’ve started fishing for news it’s that Board Game Geek’s W Eric Martin casts his net over some <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/89479/new-game-round-manipulate-dice-find-insects-create">fascinatingly pretty and studiously weird fish from the Tokyo Game Market and other Japanese sources</a>. In a recent round up, Insect Inc caught my eye like a spider in a jam jar. Ink blot creepy crawlies is exactly the sort of aesthetic that tickles me like a trout. I hope we see more of these games make it across the oceans to Anglophone publishers, because I desperately want more elevator queues, Rorschach bugs and animal gangsters.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30097" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/https___hypebeast.com_image_2019_05_uno-cant-stack-4-or-2-cards-001.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="473" /></p> | |
| <p>In more mainstream game news, the makers of Uno caused a storm this week by telling the world they’ve been playing the game wrong. <a href="https://hypebeast.com/2019/5/uno-cant-stack-4-or-2-cards-rule">They issued a clarification on twitter</a> to say you can’t dodge a +2 or +4 card by playing another to pass the penalty onto the next player. I’ve always been baffled by Uno, as I assumed it ripped off <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switch_(card_game)">the game I was taught as Black Jack</a>. In the game I was taught, you can definitely bounce those penalties around the table, which feels fundamentally more dramatic. Judging from the reaction, the house rule will live on.</p> | |
| <p>There’s something fascinating about game companies trying to re-teach games that are increasingly passed down by oral tradition. The latest editions of Monopoly have a warning on the front of the manual not to use some popular but game lengthening house rules. It’s often claimed that the free parking lottery and failing to auction properties turns an okay game into a bad one, but it’s the bad one that most people play. It’s impossible to extricate games from the way they are taught, and that folk cultural process is apparently somewhat unstoppable.</p> | |
| <p>I also love the image of me wandering into a casino and attempting to play Uno at the Black Jack table.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30096" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PH1213-Fiona_and_James-Web_Banner-Available_Now1.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="370" /></p> | |
| <p>Ben Collins mentioned in the comments last week a big news story we overlooked. <a href="https://www.plaidhatgames.com/news/987">Plaid Hat Games’ Ashes is coming to an end</a>, with a big final tournament, a base game reprint and the last expansions being released. I’ve still never delved into one of these ongoing collectible things, so not only have I not tried Rise of the Phoenixborn, but I haven’t tasted the sadness or closure that a grand finale like this offers. I hope that it’s like one of those TV shows that ends when it’s supposed to, with a satisfying conclusion (<i>cough</i> The Americans), rather than cutting off at some random juncture (<i>cough</i> One Day at a Time), or being rushed suddenly into an early compromise of a finish (<i>cough</i> Sense8).</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="Scott Westerfeld: Victory Points Suck - SHUX Presents" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tKMnANg4J2E?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p>In a little maze of references, the above SHUX presentation by Scott Westerfeld ‘Victory points suck’, got a lot of attention this week, not least <a href="https://gil.hova.net/2019/05/09/no-victory-points-dont-suck/">from Ludology’s Gil Hova</a>, who laid quite hard into Scott with a request to stay in lane, and respect that the narratives and pleasures of games just work differently to those in novels. It’s a harsh but interesting read. Both Scott and Gil have great points to make, and ironically, Scott’s desire to tell a bold story leads him to make absolutist statements that are easier to refute.</p> | |
| <p>I was faintly bewildered, thinking Gil was responding to a friend of mine who did a similar talk two years ago at woodland games conference Feral Vector. <a href="http://alliscalm.net/victory-points-suck/">Kim Foale’s take on the suction of victory points</a> squeezed in Bourdieu’s theory of social capital into the vacuum, and suggested some inspiring alternative approaches. The write up of their talk is worth your time if you like thinking about how games work and what they mean.</p> | |
| <p><iframe style="border: none;" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/8288969/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/000000/" width="800" height="90" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span></iframe></p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! I’m going to make a quick appearance in Ava’s news to point you towards a podcast that you might be interested in. <a href="http://thespelunkyshowlike.libsyn.com/10-keyforge-with-richard-garfield">Above (but also through this link) you’ll find an exhaustive interview with Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield about designing Keyforge</a>, the collectible card game where every deck you buy is unique.</p> | |
| <p>The podcast that he’s appearing on is worth a recommendation, too. The Spelunky Showlike is primarily a podcast about roguelike video games, created by some extremely talented friends of mine out of New York. In fact, one of these people, Zach Gage, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/interview-zach-gage/">was interviewed on this site a few years ago</a> on the subject of switching from video game to tabletop game design, and that interview even has some of his thoughts on the 52 card deck.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30095" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pic384545.jpg" alt="" width="1197" height="646" /></p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: And finally, in entirely self referential news, this week is a stream week, and Quinns, Matt and Kylie will be playing Space Alert (pictured above) <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown">on Twitch this Thursday</a>. This real time interdimensional chaos simulator is one of the longest standing items on my shelf of shame. I’ve not played it in seven years of owning a copy, and wish I could’ve made it down to Brighton to get my space-cherry plucked on camera. I’m pretty excited to see it in action, as maybe once I’ve seen the dramatics in action, I’ll be less scared of the teach and can get my copy played.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Oh my gosh, Ava. You have to play it. It’s everything. It’s Soviet Star Trek, it’s got giant space crabs, it has people bickering because the elevator can only hold the weight of one person, and at the same time it’s maybe <em>the most terror-inducing game I’ve ever played</em>. It’s a hell of a thing! I can’t wait to show it off to our beloved Twitch audience on Thursday.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 06/05/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-05-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-05-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Die Macher]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Battlelands]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Cleopatra and the Society of Architects]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Bloodborne: The Board Game]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-06-05-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Quinns</b>: Good morning, Ava! I understand that you just mainlined the latest episode of Game of Thrones before coming to work. | |
| <strong>Ava</strong> (they/them): I’m definitely trying to squeeze so much into to today that I’m genuinely offended they tagged on an extra twenty minutes to this episode. I’ve got a game of Twilight Imperium set up downstairs, and by the end of the day someone is going to rule the galaxy. | |
| But more important than the galactic throne, the iron throne, or even just the throne throne? It’s the news throne, baby, and someone’s got to sit in it. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Let’s take turns? Just so nobody has to die.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Good morning, Ava! I understand that you just mainlined the latest episode of Game of Thrones before coming to work.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong> (they/them): I’m definitely trying to squeeze so much into to today that I’m genuinely offended they tagged on an extra twenty minutes to this episode. I’ve got a game of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-twilight-imperium-fourth-edition/">Twilight Imperium</a> set up downstairs, and by the end of the day someone is going to rule the galaxy.</p> | |
| <p>But more important than the galactic throne, the iron throne, or even just the throne throne? It’s the news throne, baby, and someone’s got to sit in it.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Let’s take turns? So nobody has to die?<span id="more-9998"></span></p> | |
| <p>Our top story this week: German specialist publisher Spielworxx <a href="https://twitter.com/haewwi_de/status/1123239235299966976">tweeted some new box art</a>, which informed the staff of SU&SD that they’re developing a new edition of classic 1986 board game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1/die-macher">Die Macher</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Now, I’m sure Die Macher is fascinating, but it does sound like a board game that you might see played in a sitcom. Players represent political parties in competing in elections across seven of Germany’s sixteen <em>Länder</em> (German for ‘lands’). For *four hours*, you’re going to be checking favorability ratings, playing “shadow cabinet cards”, and trying to manage the media and your own grassroots activists.</p> | |
| <p>That said, there’s certainly some stuff here that tickles my ballot.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Do I want to know what that means?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: For example, players can choose whether to accept financial contributions from special interests at the risk of alienating their supporters, and there are mechanics where players can (and sometimes must) form coalitions if nobody gets enough votes.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: It must be an actual nightmare trying to come up with a game as fiddly and mean as modern politics. I love that earlier editions of this got to up the player count due to the reunification of Germany.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Right? Spielworxx is promising “Lots of minor tweaks” to their edition, so that’s exciting. I just hope they manage to make a box that’s a little more attractive than Captains of the Gulf, another Spielworxx game that we looked at <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-89-those-unattainable-vegetables/">back in podcast #89</a>.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PH2800-3D_Box_Comp-Left-Web.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30014" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PH2800-3D_Box_Comp-Left-Web.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="653" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.plaidhatgames.com/news/986">Battlelands</a> is a new bottom-of-the-garden ruck-a-thon from Plaid Hat Games. Your cards form an adorable animal warband that will face off in six battles over the course of the game. This appears to sit somewhere between <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-condottiere/">Condottiere</a> and the sadly out of print <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-dogs-war/">Dogs of War</a>, both of which are dramatic, punchy, tightly wound skirmishes. I’m excited to see if these cute warriors can be as brutal as their Italian and Clockpunk cousins. After a run of ‘not quite there’ games, I’d love to see Plaid Hat return to the form that made me fall in love with the company.</p> | |
| <p>The not so tim’rous beasties are from an upcoming storybook game titled “Aftermath”, but Plaid Hat hasn’t released any information about that yet, so I’m a little bewildered as to why I should care. On the other hand, Battlelands has a mining mole with a candle strapped to their forehead, and that’s more than enough to get me hyped.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Hang on. Moles are absolutely blind–</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I literally already googled this. Apparently even the ones that have their eyes covered over with skin have surprisingly good light detection.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Right. But having a candle strapped to your face didn’t make any sense when I first saw a goblin doing it in Hearthstone, and it makes even LESS sense here.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Not to mention a fire hazard. That’s it, I’m dismounting my hype horse.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/02c0825ad685643645290082e7a5b7ec_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30012" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/02c0825ad685643645290082e7a5b7ec_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="513" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mojitostudios/cleopatra-and-the-society-of-architects">Cleopatra and the Society of Architects</a> sounds like an Asterix book and looks like the sort of kickstarter fluff I’d usually ignore. It turns out it’s a reprint of a game that Days of Wonder <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22141/cleopatra-and-society-architects">had a lot of success with in 2006</a>. I can’t say I’ve noticed people clamouring for its return, but with Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc as the designers behind these pyramids, maybe there’s something worth digging out here.</p> | |
| <p>Cleopatra turns you into the titular architects, vying to impress the empress with the most monumental monuments. You’ll be fighting to build a plaza full of sphinxes, a temple roof garden, and the walls to the temple itself. I can’t help but think all of the big chunks of plastic are a big chunk of unnecessary, but it’s definitely going to look big and bold on the table, especially now it’s made enough money to bump the size of the entire game up by forty percent.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m so in love with the idea of Kickstarter fundraising causing a game to swell in size like a snakebite victim.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I might back this one if it gets big enough I can actually live in the temple.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: In all seriousness, I think this game looks pretty cool! I enjoyed the plastic chunkiness of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-pyramid-horus/">The Adventurers: The Pyramid of Horus</a>. Who says simple games need simple components?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: The simple components industry?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ahh, Big Simple Component strikes again.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cd0645f4f6d4f7964f10e51f72296b64_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-30011" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/cd0645f4f6d4f7964f10e51f72296b64_original-207x300-207x300.jpg" alt="" width="207" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Meanwhile, this week’s Kickstarter success story is CMON’s <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/bloodborne-the-board-game">Bloodborne: The Board Game</a>. A love letter to From Software’s blisteringly good video game Bloodborne, rendered in cardboard and a great many gorgeous miniatures. In fact, there’s even a Vicar Amelia miniature! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAgEQwX6q6Q">One of my favourite video game bosses ever</a>, although that’s partly thanks to her music.</p> | |
| <p>Now, allow me to break out my French horn and play the same old song you’ve heard SU&SD play a hundred times before:</p> | |
| <p>If you want to back this game for the miniatures, go for it. CMON is a safe pair of hands. If you want a great <em>game,</em> then statistically speaking, you’re unlikely to find it here. CMON’s miniatures-based games are frequently uninspiring, Eric Lang’s <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/195856/bloodborne-card-game">Bloodborne card game</a> received a pretty tepid reception, and for what it’s worth, the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/197831/dark-souls-board-game">Dark Souls board game</a> (from a different publisher and designer) wasn’t great either.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I just watched the video and it’s disturbingly uninspiring. Watching a giant tower get flattened into cardboard is a sad analogy for a table top transition. Tokens and miniatures floating around of their own volition is just animating the least exciting parts of a game. Without players board games are nothing, and this video feels haunted by that.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Let’s summon Matt, SU&SD’s biggest Bloodborne fan, for his thoughts.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Hello! There are few things I love quite as much as Bloodborne. The gothic and gory cousin of Dark Souls, in many ways it achieved what most of that iconic game didn’t: using fragmented chunks of vague narrative to successfully tell a cohesive story that works on a number of layers. Ostensibly a game about murdering vile beasts, it slowly mutated into something <em>much more</em> than that, which is why I must admit I’m fairly disinterested to see it packaged as a spin-off product of minis with cool weapons and creatures you can beat.</p> | |
| <p>Then again, at this point I’m really no stranger at all to the phenomenon of video games being celebrated the loudest with the least interesting readings of the subject matter, which is why I currently work here! HELLO.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hello!</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava</strong>: Hello.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/JohnsVillage.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30008" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/JohnsVillage.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="581" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.alderac.com/2019/04/25/publish-fewer-new-games/">The owner of Alderac Entertainment Group wants to make fewer games</a>. In a blog post dripping with side-eye, John Zinser suggests that the way to stand out in a crowd is to make less, but make it better. AEG isn’t going to the extremes of Days of Wonder, who take a gamble on one big new game a year, but it’s hard to argue that games don’t need a lot of time, energy and focus to be truly great. I’ve played a lot of games that feel mostly solid, but need something special, and it’s hard to know when a publisher could’ve made time to find that sparkle.</p> | |
| <p>Alderac recently developed pear-shaped favourites <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-space-base/">Space Base</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-tiny-towns/">Tiny Towns</a>, so they’ve probably earned an opinion or two.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I find it really interesting how the big publishers are all adapting in today’s impossibly crowded tabletop market. Over 3,000 games were released in 2018 alone! A lot of publishers, perhaps most notably CMON, are moving to a depressing “fire and forget” model where they publish a game and then abandon it utterly as soon as the hype fades. That’s saddening, and here at SU&SD we’re happy to see AEG going the other way.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: AEG has also talked recently about setting up a playtesting house, where people can stay while they try out new game prototypes, which sounds like the set up for the worst reality TV show ever. (Unless they fill it with Korean celebrities, at which point I’m here for it)</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30009" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019041310030100-75A32021BE3512D7AA96B2D72F764411.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://meeplelikeus.co.uk/">Meeple Like Us</a> is one of the best resources on the internet for finding out how often games make themselves inaccessible. The teardowns are an insightful eye on the visual, physical, mental, economic and social issues that get in the way of people enjoying board games. This makes it all the more striking that the lovely Michael Heron <a href="https://meeplelikeus.co.uk/the-fun-of-inaccessibility/">wrote recently about how inaccessibility is part of what makes games fun</a>.</p> | |
| <p>This is definitely not as contradictory as it sounds. Michael argues that while game design is about creating obstacles, it’s all about making them right obstacles. Games should be challenging in the ways that are interesting, and not in ways that are thoughtless. It’s lovely to read such a nuanced take on the subject, and even though it focuses a lot on difficulty modes in video games, it’s all very relevant for the table top.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30010" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Untitled-1.png" alt="" width="600" height="338" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: One last note for any readers living in London. Matt pointed us to this <a href="https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/south-london-Board-Games/events/tpjjxqyzhbkb/">lovely little charity board game event in South London, near London Bridge</a>.</p> | |
| <p>They’re hoping to run a regular games night, encouraging people to give money to Mind, a wonderful UK mental health advocacy charity. I’ve been known to bang the drum for board games as a support for folks with mental illness (like me). A hobby that lets me easily be with people even during anxious states and low moods has helped me immensely. It’s nice to see people making that connection more directly. So lovely work, Roll for Mind. If you’re in London, maybe heading down the Ugly Duck would be a nice way to spend a Tuesday evening.</p> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 29/04/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-29-04-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-29-04-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Blood on the Clocktower]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Dream Apart]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Dream Askew]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[God of War: The Card Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[On Mars]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Our Place in the Sun]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Sanctum]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[terraforming mars]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[terraforming mars: turmoil]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-29-04-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Ava</strong> (they/them): Oh dear. The bosses took a break to get rotten in the state of Denmark. Specifically, they're attending the <a href="https://www.fastaval.dk/?lang=en">Fastaval gaming convention</a>, and only dropping the occasional cryptic photo (see above) into the company Slack. | |
| That means I’m on my own for this week’s games news. They shouldn’t have left me alone. I don’t know enough of the news-ropes to not pick a random sentence, append the word news to random bits of it and pretend it’s an intro. | |
| I guess it must be time to news-sail the news-seas and news-harpoon some news-whales.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Ava</strong> (they/them): Oh dear. The bosses took a break to get rotten in the state of Denmark. Specifically, they’re attending the <a href="https://www.fastaval.dk/?lang=en">Fastaval gaming convention</a>, and only dropping the occasional cryptic photo (see above) into the company Slack.</p> | |
| <p>That means I’m on my own for this week’s games news. They shouldn’t have left me alone. I don’t know enough of the news-ropes to not pick a random sentence, append the word news to random bits of it and pretend it’s an intro.</p> | |
| <p>I guess it must be time to news-sail the news-seas and news-harpoon some news-whales.<span id="more-4226"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/pic4694072.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-29916" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4694072-283x300.png" alt="" width="283" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p>War Dad, or as some call it ‘God of War’ is a video game about having very large shoulders. I grew up with nothing but my eldest brother’s Games Workshop manuals for company, so I’ve seen an over-sized arm-helmet or two in my time. Shoulders aside, <a href="https://cmon.com/news/cmon-announces-god-of-war-the-card-game">CMON is making a card game based on the War Dad saga</a>. Judging from the cover, it’s about standing on a boat and ignoring your family in the hopes that they’ll eventually take the oars and do something useful.</p> | |
| <p>What grabs me here is their mythological excuse for throwing combinations of heroes at a card mosaic representing monstrous enemies and mysterious scrapes. You play the Norns, weaving the fabric of fate to try and prevent the end of the world. This means choosing cards, picking quests, and building decks. My sooth-says we’ll need more details before we can figure out the warp and weft of it.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29918" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/news-19-04-09-sanctum-new-big-game-announcement-composition.png" alt="" width="670" height="405" /></p> | |
| <p>Also taking inspiration from video games is <a href="https://czechgames.com/en/home/news-19-04-09-sanctum-new-big-game-announcement/">Sanctum</a>. Czech Games Edition is following up on it’s first-person shooter <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/202408/adrenaline">Adrenaline</a> with an interpretation of the rapidly clicking, number increasing action RPG genre of games exemplified by Diablo. It’s pretty bold to take some of the fastest, most overwhelming ideas from computer games and translate them to the slower medium of cardboard and plastic. I guess el diablo (it’s Spanish for ‘the diablo’) is in the details.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4667135.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29917" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4667135.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="563" /></a></p> | |
| <p>After spending <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-15-04-19/">the last news</a> highlighting the problems of colonial games, I feel a bit awkward wanting to talk about forthcoming war game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2179407/our-place-sun-iv-sun-never-sets-fill-blank-empire">Our Place in the Sun</a>, but I’ve not stopped thinking about it since it cropped up in the BoardGameGeek news.</p> | |
| <p>This card-driven political simulation is unlikely to be welcoming enough to warrant a recommendation from this site, but it’s a fascinating idea. Taking the 1871 treaty of Versailles (no, not that one) as a starting point, the game features European empires vying for prestige while engaging in the brinkmanship and precarious alliances that led to the wars that shaped the twentieth century. The kicker for me is that the political situation might <i>not</i> develop into the First World War. Whether your statecraft is good enough to prevent it or not will affect how you should be trying to win. Splendid isolation is all well and good if the continent doesn’t set itself on fire around you, but if the Archduke hits the fan, you’ll be wanting friends.</p> | |
| <p>The subject matter is grim, reducing colonial endeavours around the world to opportunities for point-scoring, but this is a pretty honest view of how the powers of the era saw the world. The lives and livelihoods they devastated were as good as irrelevant to the games they played with the world. It is bleak, but this looks like a unique window on a period of history that doesn’t have enough light shone on it. I go back and forth on whether board games are a great place to look at systemic historical problems, or too blunt a tool to help learn. Hopefully this will be nuanced enough to make it worth it. If nothing else, every wargame I’ve ever played has left me with a nagging need to find out more about the period.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29922" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/9442e190aef8bab1df5b228df28c427c_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="407" /></p> | |
| <p>Kickstarter appears to be pretty over-excited about Mars right now, with <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eaglegryphon/on-mars-by-vital-lacerda-with-artwork-by-ian-otool">Vital Lacerda’s vision of martian colonisation</a> taking to the skies at the same time as Terraforming Mars’ latest expansion (discussed below).</p> | |
| <p>On Mars looks pretty, complex, and drowning in moving parts. This is exactly what I expect from Lacerda, who seems to have a thing for great clunking machines. I was disappointed in Lisboa, after finding the different cogs didn’t click together as pleasingly as I’d hoped. That said, I’m appalled to find myself criticising any game that has you collecting wigs while you rebuild a flood/fire/earthquake battered city. Hopefully On Mars won’t have me quite so conflicted, but there’s no way I’m going to be as excited about ‘Opportunity Points’ as I am about wigs.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4b941f8ee630feae166ef57b73151cc2_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-29914" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/4b941f8ee630feae166ef57b73151cc2_original-128x300.jpg" alt="" width="128" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/strongholdgames/terraforming-mars-turmoil">Terraforming Mars: Turmoil</a> takes Terraforming Mars and adds politics, intrigue and ‘global events’. These might be exactly the right kind of spanners to throw into your scientifically believable machines. Turmoil describes itself as ‘the most gamer-focussed expansion yet’ which, frankly, makes me feel a bit sick. Probably not the sort of turmoil they were looking for.</p> | |
| <p>I liked Terraforming Mars’ engine building space adventure quite a lot, for its mundane but astronomically authentic storytelling, so I’m quite keen on more space toys. I’m not confident this will be as smart as the Prelude expansion, which added a few choices to the start and shaved enough turns off the end to make everything play a bit tighter. Turmoil could easily add that bagginess back in in the form of what looks like an area control political minigame, but it’s always hard to tell when more is less. The kickstarter comes with some recessed player mats and even just that is quite tempting, as the games’ billion resource-tracking cubes are incompatible with wonky tables and dramatic sleeves.</p> | |
| <p>If you missed SU&SD’s review of Terraforming Mars, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-terraforming-mars/">you’ll find it here</a>. Don’t miss it if you want to see Quinns and Matt drinking algae.</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="Blood on the Clocktower - Full Play-Through of Trouble Brewing (April 2019)" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4sfa8_kNxsQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p>I know that <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-blood-on-the-clocktower/">SU&SD’s Blood on the Clocktower review</a> caused a bit of upset, and people seemed particularly curious to find out how it was different to Werewolf. You might find some answers in <a href="https://soundcloud.com/tuesdayknight/175-blood-on-the-clocktower-vs-werewolf-featuring-steven-medway/">this podcast from Tuesday Knight games</a>, where Clocktower designer Stephen Medway, talks to Alan Gerding, the designer of another unique kickstarted social deduction game: Two Rooms and a boom. There’s a lot of enthusiasm and a little swearing in the podcast, so your mileage may vary. My highlight was finding out that Quinns’ initial reaction to the prototype was ‘this looks shit’, but within an hour and a half he was singing praises from the rooftops. There are also now <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVmPTpM355K0dXW4MbF_R6Q">several playthrough videos from the designers</a> (one of which is embedded above) if you’re still hungry for detail.</p> | |
| <p>I’ve not have a chance to play it yet, but I do hope Quinns will let me have a bash at his copy at some point. I’ve always loved a good grimoire.</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="PRACTICE 2018: Avery Alder" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vQr0d9nvSEk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p>Ooh, ooh, something caught my eye at the last moment.</p> | |
| <p>The <a href="https://itch.io/jam/belonging-outside-belonging-jam">Belonging Outside Belonging game jam</a> finished up over the weekend . I think the ‘no dice, no masters’ structure of Avery Alder’s Dream Askew is the most exciting simplification of role playing game mechanics I’ve seen in years. Avery’s talk at NYC Practice about the design process (embedded above) had me overwhelmed with inspiration. I can’t wait to see if this mode of making stories can have a similar impact to Apocalypse World or <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/rpg-review-blades-in-the-dark/">Blades in the Dark</a>. I will definitely be taking a look at some of these jam entrants to see if any of them are quite as magic as Dream Askew’s apocalyptic queer communities. Sorry, this is the second week in a row I’ve been fan-perling* about Avery, I just think she’s doing amazing stuff.</p> | |
| <p>*Okay, I might be making this word up, but there’s no decent diminutive of person, and there’s something cute and useful about having an non-gendered alternative to girl/boy. My preferred neologism is ‘perl’, as a cute slightly femme form of person. I’ve seen people use ‘per’ and ‘boi’ as well. There’s a whole load of different ways to be non-binary, and playing with language is <i>fun</i>.</p> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>Review: Tiny Towns</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-tiny-towns/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-tiny-towns/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[0xavier0]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tiny Towns]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-tiny-towns/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/tiny-towns/">Tiny Towns</a> is a cute little 30 minute city-building game that arrives in U.S. stores tomorrow. The box is full of winsome wooden buildings, players erect farms and homes, and on the cards you can see animals living peaceful lives. | |
| All of which is a little misleading. The best bit of Tiny Towns is hearing one of your neighbours - having carefully examined their own tiny town - mutter “Oh, sh**.” | |
| Intentionally or not, designer Peter McPherson has captured the <em>reality</em> of living in a tiny town. Friendly interactions, with a pungent undercurrent of jealousy.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/tiny-towns/">Tiny Towns</a> is a cute little 30 minute city-building game that arrives in U.S. stores tomorrow. The box is full of winsome wooden buildings, players erect farms and homes, and on the cards you can see animals living peaceful lives.</p> | |
| <p>All of which is a little misleading. The best bit of Tiny Towns is hearing one of your neighbours – having carefully examined their own tiny town – mutter “Oh, sh**.”</p> | |
| <p>Intentionally or not, designer Peter McPherson has captured the <em>reality</em> of living in a tiny town. Friendly interactions, with a pungent undercurrent of jealousy.<span id="more-4215"></span></p> | |
| <p>Here’s how it works!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0916.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29848" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0916.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Each turn, every player is told to collect a single cube of the same type, whether that’s stone, or brick, or whatever, and place it somewhere on their own, private player board. On one turn you might have to deposit a glass cube, then on the next turn you’re told to place a wheat cube, and so on. A run of bad luck might make it look like you’re running a free-range glass farm, but don’t lose your cool! You’re a town planner, dammit! You trained for this!</p> | |
| <p>What you’re trying to do is create patterns printed on public cards, at which point that anxious sprawl of cubes is replaced by a building. If you’ve played hit mobile game Triple Town, this will feel as familiar and comfortable as a pair of slippers. Imagine a satisfying “Whooshp!” sound as all of the cubes are suctioned into one square, being replaced with a teeny wooden building.</p> | |
| <p><em>But what do you building?</em> It could be a happy little house that produces 3 victory points so long as it’s fed by a happy little farm. It could be a happy little well that scores 1 point for each adjacent house. Or it could be a happy little abbey that scores 3 points so long as it’s kept away from the scum-caked workers of nearby factories, a type of building which isn’t worth victory points, but instead lets you store and swap resource cubes as they arrive.</p> | |
| <p> </p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0908.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29849" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0908.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" /></a></p> | |
| <p>And at the risk of damning Tiny Towns with faint praise, this puzzle is a very sweet thing to fiddle with. As you play, wooden cubes and buildings tumble through your fingers, all of them bearing a lovely lick of paint. This isn’t my area of expertise, though, so let me hand over to SU&SD’s resident colour expert, Matt Lees.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Fantastic to be here, Quinns!</p> | |
| <p>Most games that aim to appear fun and inviting know they want to be <em>colourful,</em> but according to rainbows there are only six colours. <em>Six</em>! Far be it from me to argue with a rainbow, but this causes a ton of grief for games that have more than six different things. At this stage we enter “THE INTERESTING TONE ZONE”, where all bets are off and if you aren’t ruddy careful you can easily end up with a muddy/neon nightmare, as seen with CMON’s otherwise-excellent <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-ethnos/">Ethnos</a>. Tiny Towns juggles the full spectrum beautifully, picking tones that are not only clear and distinct, but also feel like they cohere neatly within the same palette. It’s a game that immediately radiates warmth: warm reds, warm yellows, warm greens, warm blues! WARM BLUES. Anything is possible! I guess I’m arguing with rainbows after all.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Thanks Matt!</p> | |
| <p>And so long as we’re talking about pleasantries, Tiny Towns also has a teasing bite point where your player board goes from having more than enough space, to suddenly being absolutely chock-a-block, and placing every cube feels like a torturous compromise between what you hoped to do, and what you should probably do if you’re being sensible. It’s unreasonable to expect an arc from a 20 minute game, but it’s well-placed pivot.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0927.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29844" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0927.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" /></a></p> | |
| <p>But if Tiny Towns is little more than a fun fiddle, I’ll give it this- I couldn’t <em>stop</em> fiddling with it.</p> | |
| <p>For the last couple of weeks, I’ve shown Tiny Towns to literally dozens of people, partially because I want to see their faces light up (and then darken) as they encounter the game’s simplicity (and abrupt crunch), but also because there’s superb variety here. Of the 8 kinds of buildings that are present in each game, what they actually <em>do</em> can be swapped out from game to game, so you never play the same puzzle twice.</p> | |
| <p>And here’s the twist! During all of those plays, I found out that I don’t think the normal way that Tiny Towns wants you to play is as good as a variant sequestered in the back of the manual.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0920.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29847" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0920.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" /></a></p> | |
| <p>SO! Ordinarily, players take turns choosing the cubes that everyone has to place. So, on your turn you might say “Wheat!”, and you and all of your friends have to place wheat, like crazed wheat-placing enthusiasts. Then the next person clockwise might say “Stone!” like some some stony despot in the pocket of stone lobbyists, and everyone has to place a stone.</p> | |
| <p>However, in addition to this mechanic making the game slower, it creates an… unacknowledged collaboration where players call cubes that would help them personally, but this results in a perfectly varied sequence of resources. And this is Tiny Towns at its forgettable worst, where you receive a cube you wanted and it’s not a choice. You know exactly where it goes.</p> | |
| <p>BUT! There’s a variant in the back of the manual that instead has you determining the incoming cubes with a deck of 15 cards, containing 3 cards of each colour. You deal randomly off of this deck until there are just 5 cards left, then everyone picks whatever resource they want as the 11th cube, and <em>then</em> you shuffle the deck and start drawing randomly again.</p> | |
| <p>In other words, it removes all player interaction. No wonder it’s a variant, eh? And yet it also turns Tiny Towns from a game that I think is sweet but I’d quickly give away, into a game that might well be good enough to make it into the venerable 140 games that make up my collection.</p> | |
| <p>I’m not sure! I’d have to think about it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0925.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29846" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0925.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" /></a></p> | |
| <p>…I’m still thinking about it…</p> | |
| <p>…Ooh, I could be here all day! I’ll get on with the review.</p> | |
| <p>Basically, going from the default game of Tiny Towns to the random card-flipping variant is like… going from riding a docile mule to riding a Shetland pony that is <em>on paper</em> more childish, but this animal actually wants to kick you to death. Suddenly, you’ve got things happening like receiving three shipments of wheat in a row, as if your town was host an impromptu pagan festival. But vitally, you’re sharing this injustice with all of your friends! “COME ON!” you all shout, as brick fails to materialise for the *tenth* card flip.</p> | |
| <p>Using the card variant, Tiny Towns is host to the same magic that we felt during our reviews of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-welcome-to/">Welcome To</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-railroad-ink/">Railroad Ink</a> last year, wherein it turned out that players directly interacting is only one way to design a game, and another way is for players to simply <em>share</em> highs and lows as they fret over the same puzzle. Or put another way, playing the card variant simply packs a game of Tiny Towns with more cheering and swearing, more warmth and silliness, and perhaps even a more thought-provoking puzzle. From as early as turn 3 your tiny town might resemble something you never planned, perhaps that you don’t even want, and it’s a question of how you’re going to adapt.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0934.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29842" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0934.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" /></a></p> | |
| <p>(Your mileage may vary, of course. One thing that’s become apparent to me after roll’n’writes blew up in 2018 is that for some people, games where players don’t interact is a total dealbreaker. And if you’re one of those people, Tiny Towns is not for you! If you want to build a tiny town but interact your friends, I’d recommend <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/hexagonal-tile-laying-game-fest-2013/">Suburbia</a> or the simpler, arguably-underrated <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-quadropolis/">Quadropolis</a>.)</p> | |
| <p>But if you’re looking for your next amiable, 20 minute roll’n’write-style experience, I think it’s hard to do better than Tiny Towns. Not just because it’s strong and simple, but because it’s cheap! This is a big box with a lot of tasty, tiny wooden buildings, and yet it’s just £30/$30.</p> | |
| <p>A lot of people have been wishing for the return of our old series <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos-page/">The Opener (which is accessible via a button on our videos page)</a>, where we show off light games that are perfect to get people into the hobby, plus a recipe you might make. Well, hey! Why not get extravagant and pair the warm, square game of Tiny Towns with some hot, square sandwiches?</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="Chris Makes Spicy Chicken Katsu Sandwiches | From the Test Kitchen | Bon Appétit" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BOsikxHW0JQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p>I made them last night! Can confirm, they’re absolutely ace.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-tiny-towns/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>56</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 15/04/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-15-04-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-15-04-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[March of the Ants]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Roam]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Vampire: The Masquerade - Blood Feud]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Variations on Your Body]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Android: Netrunner]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Love Letter]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-15-04-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Quinns</b>: Good morning. Our top story this week? Shut Up & Sit Down has a new staff writer! Everybody, please give the warmest of welcomes to Ava Foxfort. Ava, will you please step in front of the class and introduce yourself? | |
| <strong>Ava Foxfort</strong> (they/them): Hi everybody! You may have seen me in the comments or the forums, and I have to say I’m utterly thrilled to be here. Shut Up & Sit Down has been one of my favourite imaginary places for a very long time, and I’m delighted to be part of it. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Ava, please kneel. I dub thee... a News Knight of the Realm. | |
| <b>Ava</b>: I guess I’d better go slay some news.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Good morning. Our top story this week? Shut Up & Sit Down has a new staff writer! Everybody, please give the warmest of welcomes to Ava Foxfort. Ava, will you please step in front of the class and introduce yourself?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Ava Foxfort</strong> (they/them): Hi everybody! You may have seen me in the comments or the forums, and I have to say I’m utterly thrilled to be here. Shut Up & Sit Down has been one of my favourite imaginary places for a very long time, and I’m delighted to be part of it.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ava, please kneel. I dub thee… a News Knight of the Realm.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I guess I’d better go slay some news.<span id="more-4207"></span></p> | |
| <p>Love Letter is a tiny bag of magic, so I’m nervous to hear <a href="https://www.zmangames.com/en/news/2019/4/5/new-faces-love-letter/">the new version has an amended roster of characters</a>. It’s like someone telling me they’ve reinvented cheese on toast, without telling me what they’re using instead of cheese. That said, Z-Man games is telling us that the Chancellor lets you hide cards of the bottom of the deck, which is exactly the sort of mischief that could spice up this delightfully taut set of cards, where a little knowledge could make a huge difference.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Downfall_Box_Large.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-29240" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Downfall_Box_Large-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: We’ve got an incredible story here. Superlative card game Android: Netrunner <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-06-18/">was recently discontinued by Fantasy Flight</a> after a dispute about the license. It seems that for some fans, this was a call to action.</p> | |
| <p><a href="http://nisei.net/about/nisei">Project Nisei</a> (a name which is both a reference to the game and the excellent acronym “Nextrunner International Support & Expansion Initiative”) is a fan-run organisation that provides both game night kits and <em>new expansions.</em> <a href="http://nisei.net/products/Downfall">Their first set of 60 new cards, titled Downfall</a>, is now available as a product or donate-what-you-can print’n’play.</p> | |
| <p>Looking at these efforts leaves me a little speechless. As you’d expect from hardcore Netrunner players, these cards not only look well-considered, the art is really pretty strong!</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I struggled to get very far with Netrunner, despite it obviously being a rich set of possibilities, but I think it’s lovely when fans come together to make the impossible real. This is a real labour of love and it shows.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It does. It actually makes me feel guilty that my response isn’t to immediately buy it and return to my nearest Netrunner meetup? But then, a collectible, competitive game isn’t just a game, it’s a scene, and to me personally that scene was a part of my life in 2016-2018. I mean, damn, I’ve already done a eulogy for the thing! You can watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMhuFaJQZCQ">my “Death of Netrunner” talk from SHUX 2018</a>, a sexy panel name that I now regret. This game isn’t dead, it’s just… my relationship with it has come to an end for the time being. And while that’s sad, it’s not something that I feel I should fight.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29237" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Clipboard01.png" alt="" width="666" height="446" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Avery Alder, creator of <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/monster-hearts/">Monsterhearts</a>, has collected together two of her older ‘solo, pervasive games’ with two new ones, and <a href="https://gumroad.com/averyalder">released them together as Variations on Your Body</a>. These odd little games ask you to reimagine your life with fantastical weirdnesses: turning you into a sparrow or a witch. These are beautiful, fragile pieces about bravery and healing and kindness, and they break my heart. I firmly believe in treating life with the sort of gentle animism this encourages. I cried the first time I read about the suggestion to rehabilitate yourself from depression by summoning a ghost to haunt your bones.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Have you played any of them?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m not sure where the line is between ‘playing’ a game like this and ‘holding it in the back of your mind’. I first read Brave Sparrow as I was digging into my trans identity, and there was something magic and hopeful in taking heart in passing birds and feathers. But I never collected the feathers as the game suggests, even if someone once posted me one. A lot of role playing games fall into the category of ‘I love thinking about this, but who would play with me?’ Quite sad to think the answer might be ‘not even me’.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’ve had the poor fortune to play a few board games with people who remind me of me. It was AWFUL</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/pic4683621.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-29239" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4683621-300x274.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="274" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh, this is fascinating! <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/88603/new-game-round-blood-feuds-vampire-masquerade-and">Vampire: The Masquerade – Blood Feud</a> is the world’s first attempt to publish a megagame (in this case, it looks like a Megagame design called <a href="https://www.thegametheatre.com/tickets/nightfalls">Night Falls</a>) as an ordinary boxed product. Weirder still, it purports to play 4-32 players and 1 or 2 “storytellers”. Could the same design really work with 4 players as well as with 32?!</p> | |
| <p>In a nutshell, the game will feature multiple tables in multiple rooms, with players taking roles in various vampire clans or human institutions. The devil will absolutely be in the detail of how much Everything Epic games can replicate the magic created by dedicated mega-gamers around the world.</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I’m really interested to see what support it has for the storytellers. In my experience megagames live and die on the tempered flexibility of the moderators, so I’m curious how a box and kit might help out the people making the magic happen.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Right? But if <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/blood-on-the-clocktower/">Blood on the Clocktower</a> taught me anything, it’s that I’m very interested in the possibilities of board games with dedicated, playful overseers.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29245" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/0e6ab00430baf91de3e13bf1e0b34923_original.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="409" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/910041337/march-of-the-ants-empires-of-the-earth">A new expansion for March of the Ants</a> is burrowing into the soil of Kickstarter meadow. Eclipse cut Twilight Imperium in half, and this (significantly less intergalactic) 4X game does the same job to Eclipse. As ants pour out across a set of undergrowth-clad hexes, you scrounge resources, wage war, evolve new abilities, and jump through “wormholes”. I think it’s worth it for that pun alone. Squeezing that much drama into a tight hour or two is a delightful trick, and I’m glad they’ve earned enough support to fund a reprint of the base game, so anyone can jump in and give it a try.</p> | |
| <p>And the expansion is full of new ants! As well as burrows for your larvae to be put to work in. I’m unsure how necessary the extra bundle of cards will be, but I’m thrilled the game is getting in front of more eyes, as I think it’s a bit of an overlooked gem.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Untitled-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29241" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="1258" height="689" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Ryan Laukat’s back on kickstarter again, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/953146955/roam-0">with something a little smaller scale, Roam</a>. Red Raven games has now produced a long run of utterly beautiful games that have always fallen a little flat with me. This looks nice and cosy though. A grid of landscapes surrounded by character cards that let you play pieces into very specific shapes. I think it might be a little like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlFis84sBw">Tash-Kalar</a>, a pattern based battling game, mixed with the area control of something like <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-el-grande/">El Grande</a>. That’s actually quite a tempting prospect.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’ve not actually played anything from Ryan Laukat. What I hear about all of his designs is that they’re interesting and human but perhaps not the tightest of things? Is that fair?</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: They’re always gorgeous, but seem to have so many rough edges smoothed off that there isn’t enough friction to hold me?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Title of your sex tape! Kind of. Not really</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: I could rewrite the sentence-</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: No, don’t worry, it didn’t work</p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: Title of <i>your</i> sex tape?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: OHO!</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29238" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Clipboard02.png" alt="" width="944" height="525" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: This year’s <a href="https://www.gdcvault.com/search.php#&category=free&firstfocus=&keyword=board+game%2Bdesign%2Bday&conference_id=208">Games Developer Conference has put its board game design day talks online</a>, with defences of King-making and non-interaction in games, and a panel hosted by someone called ‘Paul Dean’. For me, the biggest treat was the talk on cultural engagement in game design, which is an accidentally timely response to <a href="https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/vb9gd9/a-cancelled-board-game-revealed-how-colonialism-inspires-and-haunts-games">a recent furore over insensitive treatments of colonialism in games</a>. I honestly believe board games are a great tool for bringing people together and learning, and so it’s great to see people using design to do exactly that: seeking perspectives on Puerto Rico that are more honest and informed than those found in, well, ‘Puerto Rico’.</p> | |
| <p>My highlight was a hearing about the time thirteen German designers signed a beermat declaration insisting that their names get onto the box of any board game they designed. This act of solidarity was a turning point in the history of the hobby, encouraging people to see games as authored and giving fans the ability to keep track of favourites. This can still be felt in the way we talk about games today, I still remember the time someone asked me in a pub toilet(!) who my favourite game designer was, an awkward moment that simply couldn’t have happened without that beermat.</p> | |
| <p>Mikael Jakobsson wonders if designers could make a new demand: to only make games about a culture in consultation with people from that culture. I’d love to see this sort of shift in approach become common, if only because I really hate having to kick off so many games with apologies for terrible representation.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: After hearing me defend several insensitive board games rather zealously, my wife gave me a useful yardstick for this. If a board game has a questionable depiction of a particular group, you can simply ask yourself “Would I be comfortable putting this in front of [someone from the same group]?” If the answer is “…Actually, maybe not,” then you’ve identified a problem. It’s a technique I now use <em>all the time.</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Ava</b>: And that’s precisely what’s great about doing the cultural engagement work when you’re making a game. Getting to answer that question while you’re still designing the game can only make things better.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 08/04/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-08-04-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-08-04-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edmund]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Die Hard: the Nakatomi Heist]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Star Wars Legion]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Valley of the Kings]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-08-04-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Matt</b>: Unlucky Matt this week! I’ve got a cold! And worse than that, it’s not even a rare cold or an illustrious purple EPIC cold, but merely a plain green chunk of <em>common</em> head-gunk. As the coffee and paracetamol begin to wear off, I’m switching over to rooibos tea and lashings of toast with off-brand nutella. I’m not sure “lashings of toast” makes 100% sense, but what I get up to in my house is my business. | |
| And on that note - it looks like Fantasy Flight Games has certainly been putting the BUSY into BUSI(Y)NESS!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Matt</b>: Unlucky Matt this week! I’ve got a cold! And worse than that, it’s not even a rare cold or an illustrious purple EPIC cold, but merely a plain green chunk of <em>common</em> head-gunk. As the coffee and paracetamol begin to wear off, I’m switching over to rooibos tea and lashings of toast with off-brand nutella. I’m not sure “lashings of toast” makes 100% sense, but what I get up to in my house is my business.</p> | |
| <p>And on that note – it looks like Fantasy Flight Games has certainly been putting the BUSY into BUSI(Y)NESS!<span id="more-4195"></span></p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29157" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/swl44_photo_1.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="299" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Miniatures game Star Wars: Legion is getting a new core set, <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/3/28/the-clone-wars-have-begun-1/">based around the Clone Wars era of The Stars Wars</a>.</p> | |
| <p>As anyone who lived their formative years in the bleak shadow of George Lucas’s prequel bonanza will recognise, these new models are based on one of the worst films I’ve personally <em>ever seen.</em></p> | |
| <p>BUT RELAX, SUSAN: If like myself you were secretly enamoured with the introduction of rolly robot boys (RRBs), then providing they haven’t hired Jar Jar Binks to write all of the rules copy on the new cards, this expansion / standalone game looks like daft space fun for those who harbour passionate feelings for the era in which an entire team failed to say “no” to George Lucas.</p> | |
| <p>For more info on just how fun Star Wars: Legion can be (provided you spend enough $$$), be sure to check out <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-star-wars-legion/">our review</a>!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4627479.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-29152 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4627479.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="774" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Intern Kylie</b>: After dramatically rebooting their game and its entire world a few years ago, Games Workshop has announced yet another board game based in the world of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/263736/warhammer-age-sigmar-rise-fall-anvalor">The Rise and Fall of Anvalor</a> sees players pretending to work together to build and defend the city, with the ultimate aim of the game being seizing full control of the city in question, even if the city itself actually <em>falls.</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Gosh! It’s an interesting pitch for a game, I’ll give them that, even if they’ve lost me with the enthusiastic explanation that “the player who has the most influence over the city reigns supreme and secures their dominance over The Great Parch”. The Great Parch? Is Gatӧraade one of the new Chaos gods?</p> | |
| <p><b>Kylie</b>: Maybe? I’ve got to be honest here – I don’t know an awful lot about the Warhammer Universe, but I can tell you this game looks very black. It’s a big black board with black tiles and black cards, and I’m not really digging it. I think they thought adding luminous borders would add a pop of colour, but it just makes my eyes hurt.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Neon is an odd choice for high fantasy. I still can’t quite get over the decisions that CMON made with Ethnos (see our review of that lovely game <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XwGXGiQKTU">here</a>). Still, on a broader note: what is going ON with Games Workshop? I’ll be fascinated to find out how these new Warhammer board games fare in the wild, because from my perspective these dry-looking oddities can’t possibly do well… right?</p> | |
| <p><em>[Update: It seems this game was announced a little while back. We were just tipped off to it this week due to the designer posting <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/263736/warhammer-age-sigmar-rise-fall-anvalor">an extensive design diary</a>.]</em></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Die-Hard-3D-BT-rgb-e1553025817537.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-29154" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Die-Hard-3D-BT-rgb-e1553025817537-287x300.jpg" alt="" width="287" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Kylie</b>: Matt! Board game fans will soon be able to step into the shoes of Die Hard’s John McClane!</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Presumably you’ll then have to take the shoes off again, run through some glass, and crawl through a vent a bit until the terrorists decide that they’ve had enough of Christmas.</p> | |
| <p><b>Kylie</b>: But wait, let’s not get too excited – <a href="https://theop.games/2019/03/die-hard-nakatomi-heist-board-game-announced/">Die Hard: the Nakatomi Heist</a> is a collaboration between Fox Consumer Products and USAopoly, coming from two unknown designers, leading Quinns to state plainly that “statistically speaking, it is going to be bobbins”.</p> | |
| <p>In the potential event that it isn’t awful, you can look forward to a ‘one-versus-all’ style game in which Mr McClane must face off against a variety of Germans with fabulous hair. As someone who loves being the bad guy in a board game, it doesn’t get much better than joining Team Gruber.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4659147.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-29155" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4659147.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="708" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: The Ian O’Toole alarm just went off in my shed! I came as quickly as I could – what’s going on??</p> | |
| <p><b>Kylie</b>: He’s done the art for <a href="https://www.capstone-games.com/product-page/irish-gauge">a new edition of 2014’s Irish Gauge</a>! One of those mildly alienating games of stocks and shares and railway tracks that says it lasts about an hour but inevitably takes people like us a lot longer. However, where those games are usually enormously ugly, Capstone Games has made this one look <em>amazing.</em></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Oh gosh I love these games, but there’s nothing more paralysis-inducing than the fear I’ll do THE WRONG TRAINS. This is a delightfully clean bit of visual design, and cor – what an absolutely verdant bit of box art! Immediately evocative on my Irish-o-meter, and yet doesn’t even veer close to falling into the trap of lurid horrors that surround stuff like St Patrick’s Day.</p> | |
| <p><b>Kylie</b>: I’m pretty sure those lovely shades of green have cleared up the worst of my Warhammer headache. It’s also great to see a continued run of pretty little things from Capstone – this is the first release announced from their ‘Iron Rails’ series, in partnership with Winsome Games.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/202b81a04bf6e114c5e670e7d9581ed4_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-29151" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/202b81a04bf6e114c5e670e7d9581ed4_original-202x300.jpg" alt="" width="202" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Kylie</b>: Meanwhile, AEG has announced <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alderac/valley-of-the-kings-premium-from-aeg/">a Kickstarter for deluxe version of really-quite-good deckbuilding game Valley of the Kings</a>, which we talked about back on <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-18-turbocast/">podcast #18</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Valley of Kings is an unusually-themed game which sees players preparing for their own burials. Just want you want to think about during a Monday game night! The game is full of food, canopic jars, amulets and treasure, all of which you’ll hopefully stow away in the ultimate death-bed/pyramid. The player who has the most valuables entombed at the end wins!</p> | |
| <p>This edition of the game consolidates the three previously released editions into one big package, alongside some improved components. AEG seem very keen on letting you know that the cards in this premium edition are, for lack of a better word, premium. The Kickstarter has gone into some hilarious depth on the quality of these cards. They’re enormous linen-finished tarot cards, guys, what’s not to love? Although, AEG are also giving you sleeves for the cards. Probably negating all the effort made on the cards in first place.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CuqrbH9WgAE6JiT.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-29158" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CuqrbH9WgAE6JiT-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: It’s me, Quinns! I am also here. Seconds before loading this article into the news-tube and firing it into the waiting brainpans of our beloved audience, I spotted one more story for us to cover.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.tabletopnetwork.com/new-voices-scholarship">The New Voices Scholarship</a> is a new program created to help tabletop game designers from marginalised community to get a helping hand into the industry, and it’s now open for applications! The first wave of five successful applicants will receive:</p> | |
| <ul> | |
| <li><em>A badge to the Tabletop Network game design conference ($450 value; which also includes admission to BGG.CON)</em></li> | |
| <li><em>Hotel accommodations at Tabletop Network for three nights (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday). There may be up to two scholars per room.</em></li> | |
| <li><em>Reimbursement for up to $500 in air travel to and from the conference</em></li> | |
| </ul> | |
| <p>Initial funding for the scholarship is being provided by designer Geoff Engelstein, whose pretty face can be seen above. You can also read an interview we did with Geoff <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/actual-interview-space-cadets/">here</a>, watch our crazy playthrough of his excellently silly game Space Cadets <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/susd-play-space-cadets/">here</a>, or if you want to agree with us that he’s a very nice man, you can do so in the comments below.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>82</slash:comments> | |
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| <title>Tonight, we’re streaming Chinatown!</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tonight-were-streaming-chinatown/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tonight-were-streaming-chinatown/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 03 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[0xavier0]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Misc]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tonight-were-streaming-chinatown/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! Tonight team SU&SD is celebrating how superb negotiation game Chinatown is arriving back in shops after a <em>very</em> long absence. You can watch Quinns' review above, and at 7pm BST <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown/">we'll be playing a game of Chinatown live on Twitch</a>! Yes, we normally stream on Thursdays, but not tonight! Remember to click "Follow" on our Twitch page to get an email whenever we go live. | |
| Anyway, as I was saying, <em>what a game! </em>With a slim box, reasonable price, and simple-yet-fresh design, this is the kind of game that we can see ourselves recommending from now until this site finally implodes like a dying star. | |
| ...That said, the box art and setting look increasingly iffy with each passing year. Here's hoping that with the next print run, Z-Man update the theming to something less eye-rolly to Chinese board gamers.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! Tonight team SU&SD is celebrating how superb negotiation game Chinatown is arriving back in shops after a <em>very</em> long absence. You can watch Quinns’ review above, and at 7pm BST <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown/">we’ll be playing a game of Chinatown live on Twitch</a>! Yes, we normally stream on Thursdays, but not tonight! Remember to click “Follow” on our Twitch page to get an email whenever we go live.</p> | |
| <p>Anyway, as I was saying, <em>what a game! </em>With a slim box, reasonable price, and simple-yet-fresh design, this is the kind of game that we can see ourselves recommending from now until this site finally implodes like a dying star.</p> | |
| <p>…That said, the box art and setting look increasingly iffy with each passing year. Here’s hoping that with the next print run, Z-Man update the theming to something less eye-rolly to Chinese board gamers.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tonight-were-streaming-chinatown/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>31</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 01/04/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-01-04-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-01-04-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[0xavier0]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Potemkin Empire]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fuji Koro]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Bus]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-01-04-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: Everybody, please give a warm welcome to a new gladiator in the news arena. Intern Kylie is here to write news and drink tea, and she's <em>well aware it's not tea time.</em> | |
| Did that sound badass? I'm pretty sure it did. Kylie, take it away. | |
| <strong>Kylie</strong>: Capstone Games has announced <a href="http://www.dicetowernews.com/splotter-games-bus-being-reprinted-by-capstone/58103">a special 20th anniversary reprint of a Splotter Spellen classic, Bus</a>. Splotter Spellen is the Dutch team behind <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHSxnRS2g0o">Food Chain Magnate</a> and the bucolic and bizarre <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/875/roads-boats">Roads & Boats</a>. Sadly, they’re also known for sparse print runs and a lot of their games are nigh-on impossible to find. This year, they're letting another publish reprint one of their grand designs.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Everybody, please give a warm welcome to a new gladiator in the news arena. Intern Kylie is here to write news and drink tea, and she’s <em>well aware it’s not tea time.</em></p> | |
| <p>Did that sound badass? I’m pretty sure it did. Kylie, take it away.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Kylie</strong>: Capstone Games has announced <a href="http://www.dicetowernews.com/splotter-games-bus-being-reprinted-by-capstone/58103">a special 20th anniversary reprint of a Splotter Spellen classic, Bus</a>. Splotter Spellen is the Dutch team behind <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHSxnRS2g0o">Food Chain Magnate</a> and the bucolic and bizarre <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/875/roads-boats">Roads & Boats</a>. Sadly, they’re also known for sparse print runs and a lot of their games are nigh-on impossible to find. This year, they’re letting another publish reprint one of their grand designs.<span id="more-4186"></span></p> | |
| <p>Bus is a game that is, unsurprisingly, about buses, and sees players creating their own public transport links and transporting passengers around an ever-expanding city. It’s essentially an action-selection game with some unusual mechanics, like during route building, the player who chooses the action actually gets to build <em>last.</em> It also features some cutthroat player interaction and a mechanic where if players freeze time too much then the game ends because <em>the space-time continuum unravels,</em> destroying the universe (and, presumably, your bus routes).</p> | |
| <p>I’m not super keen on the box art they’ve gone with for the new edition (pictured above). There’s something quite charming and lovely going on with the original:</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic166866.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28957" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic166866.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="843" /></a></p> | |
| <p>It looks almost like a child painted it? A super talented child, mind you!</p> | |
| <p>There was always that one kid in class who could draw whilst the rest of us were still painting stick men…</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PH3200-Game_Setup-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28954" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PH3200-Game_Setup-1.jpg" alt="" width="1051" height="528" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Kylie</strong>: At the end of last year I decided that I should probably read Frankenstein, so the announcement of <a href="https://www.plaidhatgames.com/news/982">Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein</a> from Plaid Hat Games (pictured above) is very timely. Set twenty years after the novel, the aim of the game is to create a companion for Frakenstein’s monster, who’s hired you for the task himself.</p> | |
| <p>The game uses worker placement mechanics as players research scientific findings, charge Leyden jars and obtain the ‘materials’ required to create their beings. The game is also seemingly sprinkled with a bit of bribery and murder for good measure.</p> | |
| <p>But don’t get too excited! You have a mere twelve rounds in which to finish building your monstrosity. There’s a fear of either your body parts decaying or a certain Captain Robert Walton catching up with, and killing, your patron and completing the oath he swore to Dr Frankenstein all those years ago.</p> | |
| <p>Or so I’m led to believe. I never actually finished the book….</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hang on. Judging by the components, Frankenstein’s monster has commissioned you to create a male companion. So either Frankenstein’s monster is queer, <em>or</em> just really wants a bro, both of which are amazing. Build-A-Bro Workshop, that’s what I’d have called this game.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4624305-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28955" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4624305-1.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="791" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Kylie</strong>: In one of my English literature creative writing exams I wrote a story about falling into a pit of lava and trying to find a way out of that hellscape. I’m flattered that the designers of <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamebrewer/fuji-koro-deluxe">new Kickstarter game Fuji Koro</a> have apparently taken inspiration from my early work, except they’ve added samurai, three-dimensional temples and no less than thirteen dragons.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Sounds like they’re really testing the purity of your original vision.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Kylie</strong>: Honestly, this game looks insane! Players are trying to find ancient artifacts and gather resources in order to defeat the aforementioned mystical dragons that they’ll encounter along the way. Did I mention all of this is happening inside a volcano which is <em>in the process of erupting?</em> Wild!</p> | |
| <p>I’m not sure how I feel about the blocky Minecraft aesthetic, but it’s nice that this game is wearing its influences on its sleeve. Players in Fuji Koro gather resource cubes from inside the volcano, and then can “craft” those cubes into equipment by laying the cubes out in various shapes.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hmm. You know, I’m wary about this one. When I see that a game can be played either competitively or co-operatively, it makes me worried that they’ve got a game that doesn’t 100% satisfy as either competitive or co-operative experience, and they’re trying to make up for it with variety. But who knows? Maybe this will be the first competitive <em>and</em> co-op game that SU&SD can recommend. Aside from Descent & Imperial Assault, I guess, if you include playing them with and without the app…</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/89d998b063e0e372005d50ec011eda5f_original-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28952" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/89d998b063e0e372005d50ec011eda5f_original-1-252x300.jpg" alt="" width="252" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Kylie</strong>: I’m not super drawn in by the box of Potemkin Empire, but the concept <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2012515236/potemkin-empire">outlined in the Kickstarter</a> has my curiosity piqued.</p> | |
| <p>In the game, you’re trying to impress the Empress Catherine the Great with your prosperous village when she passes by. Only thing is, your village isn’t prosperous, it’s a disaster. However, as the mayor you’ve come up with a plan to fake it by creating majestic-looking facades with absolutely nothing inside.</p> | |
| <p>Players get points for each building they construct whether it’s real or not, and each building you add comes with a unique ability. Players can also spy on each other and gain extra points by exposing their opponents’ fake buildings, whilst passing off their own house(s) of cards as the real deal.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Loving the three-dimensional building facades in this one. What a lovely theme for a game. I’m not sure that Indie Boards & Cards quite pulled off what they were attempting with the art design, though. Do those yellow “Interior” cards look a bit sickly to anyone else? I don’t know whether to buy this game or buy it some vitamins.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4650645-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28956" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pic4650645-1.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="632" /></a></p> | |
| <p><strong>Kylie</strong>: Oceans is a sequel to the popular game Evolution (which we reviewed <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-evolution-flight-expansion/">here</a>), it’s <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/northstargames/oceans-a-standalone-game-in-the-evolution-series">on Kickstarter right now</a> and sees you evolving a species and finding it a role in the ecosystem. With a bit of luck that role will be “eating your friends”, but players are unlikely to stay on top for long. Throughout the game your species will gain and lose traits, and might even become extinct.</p> | |
| <p>I absolutely adore the idea of creating a unique species each and every game, and setting this game in the ocean adds to the charming primordial soup that started with Evolution. Whilst on the surface the ocean creates an idyllic and picturesque scene, humans have actually only explored around 5% of it, and North Star Games are representing this with a huge deck of traits known as “The Deep”. The Deep will add powerful traits and ‘strangeness’ to your species. There’s a joke here to do with The Deep adding hidden depths to the game but I can’t quite find it.</p> | |
| <p>Also, I can’t put my finger on why, but I’m slightly creeped out by the shark with the tribal tattoo. Then again, I’m not really sure what tattoo a shark would have?</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="The Estates Board Game Review" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4HhShe8Odak?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Finally, we’ve got one final Kickstarter to draw your attention to. Superb review site No Pun Included <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/771073763/631691669">are doing their yearly crowdfunding campaign</a>, offering (among other things) a new Gloomhaven adventure to anyone happy to support their efforts. Also, they’re currently sourcing donations for Elaine to go part-time!</p> | |
| <p>If I want to watch a review of something that SU&SD hasn’t covered, NPI are my first port of call. Especially recently, their analysis and gags have made me jealous. For a taste of what I’m talking about, check out the intro to their Estates review (above) or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBzcohSTkro&feature=youtu.be&t=474">this amazing bit of prop work in their Now Boarding review</a>. Ack! They’re really very talented. I’m off to support them <em>right now.</em></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-01-04-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>111</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Games News Will Return Next Week</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-will-return-next-week/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-will-return-next-week/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 25 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Misc]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-will-return-next-week/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everyone! There will be no Games News this week, as our team is developing one of 2019's more... <em>standout</em> reviews. | |
| In fact, this is the most time we've spent on a single review since <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-gloomhaven/">Matt's examination of Gloomhaven</a>. However, we think this game is more than worth it. | |
| You'll find out lots, lots more on Friday. Thanks for your patience!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everyone! There will be no Games News this week, as our team is developing one of 2019’s more… <em>standout</em> reviews.</p> | |
| <p>In fact, this is the most time we’ve spent on a single review since <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-gloomhaven/">Matt’s examination of Gloomhaven</a>. However, we think this game is more than worth it.</p> | |
| <p>You’ll find out lots, lots more on Friday. Thanks for your patience!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-will-return-next-week/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>114</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 18/03/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-18-03-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-18-03-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 18 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[SU&SD]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Dune]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Namiji]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Root]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Root: Underworld Expansion]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Talisman: Batman - Super-Villains Edition]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Unmatched]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-18-03-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Matt</b>: Hot on the tracks of the Shut Up & Sit Down News Train, I am hurtling towards Exciting Board Game Information at a speed of ninety miles-per-hour, after briefly stopping at East Croydon Station. | |
| As those of you who caught our <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/395458283">unexpectedly tense stream of The Estates</a> last week will know, today we’re about to start work with Kylie Wroe - our first intern of 2019! You’ll be reading and hearing bits from her in the future, but today you’re still lumped with Little Lees and Daddy Quinns, who will later be meeting to make a dent in our *teetering* stack of review copies. | |
| Mr Quintin: please OPEN THE NEWS DOORS!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Matt</b>: Hot on the tracks of the Shut Up & Sit Down News Train, I am hurtling towards Exciting Board Game Information at a speed of ninety miles-per-hour, after briefly stopping at East Croydon Station.</p> | |
| <p>As those of you who caught our <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/395458283">unexpectedly tense stream of The Estates</a> last week will know, today we’re about to start work with Kylie Wroe – our first intern of 2019! You’ll be reading and hearing bits from her in the future, but today you’re still lumped with Little Lees and Daddy Quinns, who will later be meeting to make a dent in our *teetering* stack of review copies.</p> | |
| <p>Mr Quintin: please OPEN THE NEWS DOORS!<span id="more-3319"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4621582.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28716" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4621582.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="598" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Our top story this week is that Restoration Games <a href="https://restorationgames.com/unmatched/">has announced Unmatched</a>, a brand-spanking new reimplementation of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3284/star-wars-epic-duels">Star Wars: Epic Duels</a>, the game that would later become the foundation of much-loved, now-defunct design <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11170/heroscape-master-set-rise-valkyrie">Heroscape</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Heroscape was a sandbox game that let wildly different characters from across time and space (and different expansions) fight one another, and that’s exactly what Unmatched is offering. However, where Heroscape was defined by the cheap cost of mass-producing plastic miniatures in 2004, Unmatched is defined by a collaboration with Mondo, a collectibles company that’s currently expanding into board games, which has given Unmatched some <em>astonishingly</em> cool art.</p> | |
| <p>As soon as this game was announced, I saw excitement spreading across board game twitter like a sexy rash. Heroscape is a beloved game, and the thought of Restoration Games bringing it back with a new, classy look is quite the proposition.</p> | |
| <p>What’s proved more divisive is Unmatched’s initial selection of playable characters, namely King Arthur, Medusa, Sinbad and Alice (of “In Wonderland” fame), while the first expansion will pit <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/274638/unmatched-robin-hood-vs-bigfoot">Bigfoot against Robin Hood</a>. Personally, I’m excited by a lineup straight out of classic folklore and literature. Other people are, of course, impatient to see the kind of licensed characters that a platform like this was made for- e.g., The Incredible Hulk vs. She-Ra vs. Starscream.</p> | |
| <p>But with Mondo’s industry connections, it’s likely we’ll see that soon enough.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4624149.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28718" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4624149-264x300.jpg" alt="" width="264" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Funforge <a href="http://www.funforge.fr/US/general-news/tokaido-product-line-namiji-is-coming/">has announced Namiji</a> – “a standalone game in the Tokaido product line”. This press release literally tells me absolutely nothing else about the game, and the News Train WiFi isn’t good enough for watching videos so honestly all that I can tell you is that, just like Tokaido, it comes in a <em>very</em> white box.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Haha. I love that rather than leaving this story to me, someone who’s actually played Tokaido, you soldiered on regardless. You’re a good man, Matt.</p> | |
| <p>You can read my review of Tokaido <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-tokaido/">here</a>. First released in 2012, it remains a uniquely lovely game of travelling from Kyoto to Tokyo, and competing with your fellow travellers to have the best time along the way. Mechanically, on your turn you travel as far down the road as you want, and collect the reward from a space that’s then denied to everyone else. In other words, you’re cherry-picking rewards as you attempt to collect sets without going broke.</p> | |
| <p>Namiji will have the same mechanic of travelling down a track, but “what people will be doing” will be different. Judging from the abstract box art, we might expect a little more… fishing? It’s hard to say.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sneak-peek-of-official-reprint-of-dune-from-gale-force-nine-14-1552587847.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28721" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sneak-peek-of-official-reprint-of-dune-from-gale-force-nine-14-1552587847.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="291" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: DUNE! Possibly my favourite science fiction property containing giant worms and/or Sting, for years Dune the board game has been a terrifyingly rare cult hit, later reimagined by Fantasy Flight games as <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/rex-final-days-of-an-empire/">Rex: Final Days of an Empire</a>. I played Rex once about five years ago, and the game ended within about thirty minutes due to an unlikely but frankly beautiful chain of edge-case events. A game of deception, politics, and circular sweeping waves of death, this is one of those rare, gorgeous, odd designs that I’m thrilled to hear <a href="https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/board-games/news/35-years-later-the-extremely-rare-extremely-good-dune-board-game-is">will soon be available again</a>.</p> | |
| <p>The new edition will come from Gale Force Nine, the company behind Star Trek Ascendency, Firefly Adventures, and the Sons of Anarchy game that popped up a few years ago. My only reservation at this stage – surprise surprise – is one of aesthetics. Dune as a property is evocative and arcane, luxurious yet doomed. It would be a huge shame if such a momentous reprint failed to capture that admittedly tricky visual benchmark, so here’s hoping that they invest in the required talent to make this production sharp and special.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4614455.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28720" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4614455.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: This week’s news item that makes Matt feel like a alien is the announcement of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/274690/talisman-batman-super-villains-edition">Talisman: Batman – Super-Villains Edition</a>. The supersaturation of comic book products over the last decade continues to amaze me, particularly when it comes to Batman – a property that has only produced one truly classic piece of media in the last 30 years. Time will tell if 1997’s Batman and Robin will ever find company in the echelons of greatness, but perhaps Talisman has the star quality to ring the bat-bell?</p> | |
| <p>With <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/86246/licensed-editions-talisman-coming-usaopoly">USAopoly having bought the rights to Talisman</a>, you can expect to see approximately 9999 spinoffs in the months and years to come – which frankly feels appropriate for a game that this morning I have suddenly realised is effectively just Monopoly For Nerds.</p> | |
| <p>Is that too catty, Quinns? Have I set off the catty alarm? How long do I have before the trapdoor above my train carriage opens and showers me in assorted cats?</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/101.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28719" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/101.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="597" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Continuing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gup6lTgGdjI">Quintin’s fantasy of Root being a game that never stops being new</a>, I’m sure he’ll be chuffed this morning to see that <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2074786394/root-the-underworld-expansion">the Kickstarter for the second expansion</a> (and a load of other extras!) is doing very well.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Yes! The second Root expansion will add Moles and Crows as playable factions, as well as add two new map boards, to be delivered in the first quarter of 2020. The Kickstarter is also offering a brand-new deck of cards to optionally play with instead of the deck in the base set, but that won’t be delivered until <em>late</em> 2020. At which point we should probably expect another Kickstarter for another set of expansions.</p> | |
| <p>Matt, I get the feeling that if the publishers have anything to do with it, we’re going to be playing Root for years.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Could we see a reality a decade from now where this game features a Cosmic Encounter-style zoo of playable factions? I’m onboard with that in theory, but then again, the base game of Root and both expansions is already $150 (plus shipping). That’s pretty pricey.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Sure, but then again, it’s still cheaper than some of the crazy miniatures-heavy Kickstarters of recent years.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: True. Perhaps it’s more telling that the thing I want most of all after scanning through the Kickstarter page is the plushy of the mouse, which looks 100% adorable. Seeing all of these wonderful new screen-printed animals, I can’t help but think how cool it would be if they included a little cardboard concertina of the forest, so you could display the adorable wooden beasts on a shelf somewhere? Bits this beautiful shouldn’t be hidden in a box.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/dead-pixels-best-22-1080x608.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28722" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/dead-pixels-best-22-1080x608.jpg" alt="" width="1080" height="608" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Finally, we’ve got a little request we’d like to share on behalf of our friends who run Now Play This – an annual interactive exhibition about games that takes place in London’s Somerset House. They want to put together an exhibit made up of <a href="https://nowplaythis.net/send-us-your-cards/">cards or components from tabletop games tha</a><a href="https://nowplaythis.net/send-us-your-cards/">t people have lovingly defaced / amended / personalised / improved</a>.</p> | |
| <p>The idea is to celebrate and examine the way that people personalise their games, and the different kinds of context that can naturally develop within groups of people that play them. It’s a fascinating and wonderful bit of collective voyeurism that I’ll definitely be trying to contribute to myself – and whilst they won’t be able to return the cards received, those included will be documented and stored. IT’S CALLED SUFFERING FOR ART, DAVID. SUFFER FOR IT, THANKS.</p> | |
| <p>I’ll be personally looking forward to visiting the exhibition later this year, so those who send in things will hopefully be – at the very least – mildly entertaining me.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>104</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>On March 14th We’re Streaming The Estates!</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/on-march-14th-were-streaming-the-estates/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/on-march-14th-were-streaming-the-estates/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Streaming]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Estates]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/on-march-14th-were-streaming-the-estates/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! Just a heads-up that on Thursday the 14th we'll be streaming one or two games of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/249381/estates">The Estates</a>, a simple yet legendarily cruel auction game of (a) trying to work with your friends to construct just two short streets, (b) failing, and (c) fleeing the country with whatever money you managed to embezzle. | |
| We talked a bit about this game back on <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-84-the-post-gen-con-blowout/">podcast #84</a> and while we decided that it had a couple of problems that made it unsuitable for review, we realised it would be a perfect thing to stream. And as an added bonus, Matt and I will be joined on the stream by our very first intern, Ms. Kylie Wroe! Talk about one heck of a first day at work... | |
| So, if you'd like to join us as we make each other swear, sweat and pray the mayor doesn't visit, <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown">be sure to click Follow on our Twitch page to get an email when we kick things off</a>. But as always, don't worry if you can't make it on the day. The stream will be available as a Twitch video on demand for 60 days after the stream, and we'll be uploading it to YouTube after that. | |
| Cheers!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! Just a heads-up that on Thursday the 14th we’ll be streaming one or two games of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/249381/estates">The Estates</a>, a simple yet legendarily cruel auction game of (a) trying to work with your friends to construct just two short streets, (b) failing, and (c) fleeing the country with whatever money you managed to embezzle.</p> | |
| <p>We talked a bit about this game back on <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-84-the-post-gen-con-blowout/">podcast #84</a> and while we decided that it had a couple of problems that made it unsuitable for review, we realised it would be a perfect thing to stream. And as an added bonus, Matt and I will be joined on the stream by our very first intern, Ms. Kylie Wroe! Talk about one heck of a first day at work…</p> | |
| <p>So, if you’d like to join us as we make each other swear, sweat and pray the mayor doesn’t visit, <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown">be sure to click Follow on our Twitch page to get an email when we kick things off</a>. But as always, don’t worry if you can’t make it on the day. The stream will be available as a Twitch video on demand for 60 days after the stream, and we’ll be uploading it to YouTube after that.</p> | |
| <p>Cheers!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>7</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 11/03/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-03-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-03-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 11 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[SU&SD]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Chronicles of Crime]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Combat Arena]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Hako Onna]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Iwari]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Memoir '44]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Memoir ‘44: New Flight Plans]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[StormVault]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Warhammer Underworlds]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Warhammer Underworlds: Dreadfane]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[We Need to Talk]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-03-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Matt</b>: Good afternoon, newshunters! Steady thy quiver; wiggle thine swords - new news is blooming in the wildlands just behind you, if you stay very still I’ll shoot over your shoulder and kill a bit of great news that we can have for dinner. | |
| Our top story this week is that I have just returned from a brief holiday and eaten a substantial quantity of tiny fruity meringues. I have <em>never</em> been so ready to be inundated with information about upcoming board games - Quintin, please tell me about a spooky team game, immediately. | |
| <strong>Quinns</strong>: Yes sir!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Matt</b>: Good afternoon, newshunters! Steady thy quiver; wiggle thine swords – new news is blooming in the wildlands just behind you, if you stay very still I’ll shoot over your shoulder and kill a bit of great news that we can have for dinner.</p> | |
| <p>Our top story this week is that I have just returned from a brief holiday and eaten a substantial quantity of tiny fruity meringues. I have <em>never</em> been so ready to be inundated with information about upcoming board games – Quintin, please tell me about a spooky team game, immediately.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Yes sir!<span id="more-3317"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/HakoOnna-Mock-600x600.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28629" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/HakoOnna-Mock-600x600-300x269.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="269" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: To date, there have been a few spooky board games where a team of good players are secretly corrupted by a growing team of evil players. None of them have been particularly great, but I’ve got my fingers crossed (and my neck twisted backwards…) for Japanese game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233848/hako-onna">Hako Onna</a> (pictured at the very top of this page) which is being brought to English-language markets by WizKids.</p> | |
| <p>Hako Onna pits a cannibalistic, box-dwelling ghost against a team of hapless visitors to her haunted mansion. The visitors need to creep through the house, collecting clues that will help them to either escape the house, or kill or placate the ghost. However! If a player ever opens a box and sees Hako Onna, they’re secretly converted to her team.</p> | |
| <p>There’s also a little dexterity game involved where the team of visitors has to try to stack a tower correctly, otherwise they’ve “made noise” (complicated by the fact that converted visitors will probably be secretly trying to make mistakes), but for me the most spine-tingling feature is that during Hako Onna’s turn, visitor players have to close their eyes as she creeps from box to box. OooOOOOoooh.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/3.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28624" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/3.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="547" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: As those who tuned in to <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-91-the-2018-pearples-choice-awards/">our last podcast episode</a> will already be aware, we were seriously enamoured by the slick design and technical wizz-pow of Chronicles of Crime. And what’s cooler than unravelling crimes with your friends? Inventing your OWN crimes! Using the start of the art power of the Personal Computer and Microsoft’s “Windows”, <a href="https://luckyduckgames.com/communityeditor/">Lucky Duck Games has provided free access to the tool they used to create the scenarios within the game</a>, letting the next generation of Agatha Christies begin murdering fictional people, today.</p> | |
| <p>We were already impressed by the audacity and scope of the game’s design, and the passion and care for detail shines through here too – having provided eight tutorial videos to explain the grittier details of the tool. As someone who grew up tinkering in Unreal Tournament’s level editor I must say I’m smitten by everything about this. What an alarmingly fun toolset to tinker with – I’ll be fascinated to see what people cook up.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/combat-arena-stuff.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28628" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/combat-arena-stuff.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="725" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Holy crap, I believe the technical term is that Games Workshop are now “Churning these mothers out.”</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Quite! Apparently on a roll with their newly found status of being “a company that makes money again”, <a href="https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/02/15/15th-feb-new-models-games-and-funko-pop-at-the-new-york-toy-fairgw-homepage-post-3/">appearing on the horizon this week are THREE new GW board games</a>. First up is Dreadfane – a rules streamlined small-box version of Shadespire, I think (which we talked about on <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-70-trading-shady-trees/">podcast #70</a>)? It’s interesting how such a rapid expansion after a clean brand reboot has me quickly back in my previous zone of not being *quite* sure what the deal is with Warhammer’s interweaving brands. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but there’s something about this gushing glut of similar-looking games that puts me in mind of Fantasy Flight Games, maybe ten years ago? I can’t quite work out what I’m getting at, to be honest – any ideas Quinns?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I’m not sure. Fantasy Flight were always pretty good at simultaneously working on a variety of brands and board game genres. Games Workshop now seem to be making a dozen variations of schlocky-game-that-includes-miniatures-but-isn’t-a-miniatures-game, and it seems to be confusing everybody.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: A lot of those FFG games were great, too – so far I’ve found most of these Games Workshop offerings to be a bit uninspired. Still, it feels like with this latest round of releases Games Workshop have failed to even inspire *themselves*, having also announced Combat Arena – a four player tactical game with a title so alarmingly no-frills that I’d expect to see it listed alongside 98 other games on a gaudy electronic keyring.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/stormvault.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28627" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/stormvault.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="622" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Finally, GW has announced Stormvault, a co-operative adventure game that – based on the sole photo of the game available, seen above – looks quite dangerously boring.</p> | |
| <p>Judging things based on appearances is obviously both unwise and uncool, but for a company that’s always thrived on the basis of people-seeing-things-and-immediately-wanting-them, I can’t quite work out what’s going on here. I’m no huge fan of Games Workshop stuff, but there’s a teenage fragment of me who *really still is*, and nothing they’ve put out yet has really managed to speak to me. To be fair though, in the same announcement they also unveiled 40k Funko Pops, so maybe it is I – not the children – who is wrong.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mm_nfp_components.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28625" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mm_nfp_components.jpg" alt="" width="675" height="464" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ooh, this is a nice surprise! Days of Wonder has announced a new expansion for superlative World War 2 game Memoir ‘44.</p> | |
| <p><a href="http://blog.daysofwonder.com/2019/03/05/memoir-44-new-flight-plan-the-most-aspiring-expansion-yet-released/">New Flight Plans</a> will add aircraft to the fast’n’furious little wargame, meaning it actually <em>replaces</em> a previous expansion that did the same thing, the 2007 Memoir ‘44 <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/31638/memoir-44-air-pack">Air Pack</a>. That said, the one problem the old Air Pack had was that it was perennially out of stock. If this new release means that more players can buy the darn thing, <em>and</em> the rules are improved, then I’m all for it.</p> | |
| <p>Now, every time this site mentions its love of Memoir ‘44, someone always pops out of the shadows to say that another game uses this rule system better, whether that’s Commands & Colours: Ancients or Battlelore. To which we say: Sure. But those games don’t let you play the enormous, beautiful team game <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGAxI7cJqEU">Memoir ‘44: Overlord</a>, do they?</p> | |
| <p>Gosh, just thinking about Memoir ‘44: Overlord makes me wants to cancel my plans for the week and play it again. Maybe the release of New Flight Plans will coax me into arranging a game of it, WITH the new aircraft rules…</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4503650.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28626" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4503650-300x237.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="237" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Adding to the list of genius game ideas that you can’t quite believe haven’t appeared already, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267986/we-need-talk">We Need to Talk</a> is a game of ridiculous interventions – everyone else knows that you’ve got a problem with uncontrollable interpretive dance, but there’s obviously no way to directly *broach* such a delicate situation. Through a series of directed questions the player with the problem gains points by guessing what the intervention is *about* as quickly as possible, while the friends and family – just like in real life – gain points for dragging the situation on, but get no points if the topic of the intervention still can’t be guessed at the end of the final round.</p> | |
| <p>Such great, simple ideas live or die when it comes to execution – but all being well this feels like a game I’d love to play during one of our live podcast shows. I’m officially adding it to my internal list of Games I Really Hope Don’t End Up Being Wildly Problematic.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4532652.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28623" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4532652.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="690" /></a></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Matt</strong>: Our Kickstarter darling of the week is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gonab/iwari">Iwari</a> – a boldly chunky reworking of a design previously known as <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/491/web-power">Web of Power</a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18100/china">China</a>, and more recently in 2014 – <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153625/han">Han</a>. The general vibe seems to be that it’s a fast game that plays brilliantly with three, but gets a bit sloppy and chaotic with five. So, it turns out <em>it’s a board game!</em> Thanks, I’ll be here all week: free the veal.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Seems like a solid box of lots of bits for not a great deal of money, but personally speaking I feel I should warn readers that this is an abstract area control game. What does that mean? It means Matt doesn’t really know how to play it for the first half an hour, and doesn’t especially enjoy himself even once he’s worked it out. I love a good area control game, I love a great abstract – but the two of them together? Chalk and cheese.</span></p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: All I know is, if a game is good enough to be relaunched <em>three times</em> in less than twenty years, I wanna try it!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pod58.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28631" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pod58.jpg" alt="" width="980" height="450" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Finally, we’ve got a board gaming podcast that you might want to add to your rotation. <a href="https://boardgamebarrage.com/">Board Game Barrage</a> has joined <a href="https://www.spreaker.com/show/so-very-wrong-about-games">So Very Wrong About Games</a> as a tabletop podcast where I’ll cheerily listen to <em>every episode.</em> Imagine that!</p> | |
| <p>These guys are concise, entertaining, and (like SU&SD) enjoy everything from heavy games to the most dumbest party games. Their team is also predominantly people of colour, which is a welcome change in the creamy-white board game industry. Also, kudos to them for putting me onto <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/202026/hundreds-horses">Hundreds of Horses</a>. I expect I’ll be keeping an eye out for that one in discount board game shops from now until the day I die.</p> | |
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| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-03-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>81</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 04/03/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-03-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-03-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Taverns of Tiefanthal]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Consumption: Food and Choices]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Love Letter]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Talisman: Kingdom Hearts Edition]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Walking in Burano]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-03-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Matt left for a skiing holiday this weekend, while I stayed in and didn't just play Scrabble, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BujR-24jlzZ/">I lost at Scrabble</a>. The less said about this horrid state of affairs, the better. I hope Matt skiis down a well. Let’s get on with the news.</p>]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Matt left for a skiing holiday this weekend, while I stayed in and didn’t just play Scrabble, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BujR-24jlzZ/">I lost at Scrabble</a>.</p> | |
| <p>The less said about this horrid state of affairs, the better. I hope Matt skiis down a well. Let’s get on with the news.<span id="more-3316"></span></p> | |
| <p><iframe title="The Tavern of the Deep Valley — game overview at Spielwarenmesse 2019" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eBDktL3cvbE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p>Our top story this week? BoardGameGeek News has posted the above video walkthrough of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269207/die-tavernen-im-tiefen-thal">Taverns of Tiefenthal</a>, the next game in the series that brought us <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03eoXKp7L7M">Quacks of Quedlinburg</a>, and it’s got my hype gland all a-quiver.</p> | |
| <p>This game is what I like to call a <em>genre fiesta.</em> Players run their personal tavern by constructing and tinkering with a little deck of upgrade cards, then drawing a hand of those cards each night and placing them around their tavern so as to make it an efficient business, and <em>then</em> drafting dice (which sort of represent your ability to serve customers?) which you assign around your tavern, making money that you reinvest in your pub.</p> | |
| <p>It sounds fascinating, it’s a superb theme, it’s from a designer who’s going from strength to strength, and the box itself will ship with all sorts of expansion modules including guest books and liquor. What else could we possibly ask for?</p> | |
| <p>(Also, you can flip over a dog and it becomes a waitress! Will wonders never cease?)</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4293750.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28550" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4293750.jpg" alt="" width="1089" height="663" /></a></p> | |
| <p>AEG has announced that it’s bringing Taiwanese game <a href="http://www.dicetowernews.com/aeg-to-distribute-emperors4-card-game-walking-in-burano/57693">Walking in Burano</a> to English-language audiences. Inspired by Burano, Italy (another place Matt has been) (I’m not bitter), players will spend coins to assemble beautimous pastel-coloured houses from a central shop of cards.</p> | |
| <p>It’s simple, it’s appealing, and the rules look neat. Why aren’t there more games about things being lovely and having a lovely time?</p> | |
| <p>I bet Matt would have something clever to say about Venice here, if he wasn’t once again gallivanting around Europe.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/KH-Talisman-2019-3DBT.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28546" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/KH-Talisman-2019-3DBT-300x177.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="177" /></a></p> | |
| <p>2013 saw the release of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128442/relic">Relic</a>, a reimagining of classic (bad) magical (bad) quest game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27627/talisman-revised-4th-edition">Talisman</a> (which is bad), set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.</p> | |
| <p>WELL, fans of the video game franchise Kingdom Hearts will soon also be able to go on a (bad) magical quest! <a href="https://theop.games/2019/02/talisman-kingdom-hearts-edition/">Talisman: Kingdom Hearts Edition</a> will once again see players travelling interminable circuits around a board, but this time encountering Donald Duck and Buzz Lightyear instead of a big orc or a wizard in a bush, and collecting “Munny” instead of “Money”.</p> | |
| <p>Let me resist being facetious for a hot second to say that actually, I don’t hate the core structure of Talisman. I think as a goofy gambling game, it’s actually quite exciting- you have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen to you on your turn, and there’s a lot of comedy and excitement within that uncertainty. I just think finishing a game of Talisman takes too long, and there’s too much downtime between turns. If the designers of Talisman: Kingdom Hearts Edition felt inclined to fix these problems, a new edition (packed with Disney characters, no less) could be pots of fun.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Untitled-2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28547" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Untitled-2.jpg" alt="" width="1078" height="567" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Z-Man Games has announced <a href="https://www.zmangames.com/en/news/2019/2/14/announcing-a-brand-new-love-letter/">a superlative new edition</a> of classic card game Love Letter, broadening it from a 2-4 player card to a 2-6 player game.</p> | |
| <p>The new edition will no longer be set in AEG’s <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/17960/tempest-shared-world">long-defunct Tempest universe</a>, and will instead boast a simple, classic-looking design with art from Andrew Bosley, who recently illustrated <a href="https://www.zmangames.com/en/games/citadels/">that lovely new edition of Citadels</a>. Best of all, it’ll still retail at the same low price.</p> | |
| <p>And I know I care about this more than anyone else in the universe, but I’m also loving the look of those rich-yet-simple card backs. “Baby Got Back”, in the words of Sir Mixalot, who I’ve always thought of as something as a kindred spirit.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DD-Stranger-Things.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28549" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DD-Stranger-Things.jpg" alt="" width="876" height="491" /></a></p> | |
| <p>Dungeons & Dragons is enjoying a phoenix-like resurgence at the moment, which is certainly good news for fans of roleplaying and table-gaming. A lot of that’s down to the appearance of D&D streamers, as well as growth of the tabletop industry as a whole, but we definitely have to give props to Wizards of the Coast- they market their product very shrewdly. This month, in another wise move, they’ve announced a D&D starter set <a href="https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/board-games/news/dungeons-dragons-stranger-things-starter-set-includes-the-campaign">inspired by the D&D depicted in Stranger Things</a>.</p> | |
| <p>The box will release in May, feature a Demogorgon miniature, and include a full adventure titled “the Hunt for the Thessalhydra” that the characters in the show are progressing through. <em>Lovely</em> stuff.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4578273.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28553" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/pic4578273.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /></a></p> | |
| <p>We’ve an unusual Kickstarter for you this week. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kolossalgames/consumption-food-and-choices">Consumption: Food and Choices</a> is a game about “meeting your body’s needs” designed by a registered dietician, and it looks like a cross between a meal planner and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/3189397/lisboa">Lisboa</a>.</p> | |
| <p>While I have no idea if this game is good, I will say that I had a whale of a time reading the manual (which is <a href="https://kolossalgames.com/rules/consumption-food-and-choices-kickstarter-draft-rules/">available to download online</a>). There are sentences like “When a player dines out at the Pizza To Go space that player takes all available food tokens from the spaces above and places them in their body.” Also, while players are mostly trying to assemble recipes, there’s an action titled “Snack” that allows you to consume a single ingredient token, which makes sense, except some of the tokens depict bottles of water, wine, or a picture of an entire live chicken, all of which would make <em>uniquely horrifying snacks.</em></p> | |
| <p>Let me be clear- this is a game where you can bake and consume an entire tray of brownies, put that in your body, have some wine (as a snack), and then head off for an evening of water polo (which is an “activity” card). Meanwhile, your friend could be seeing if they can cook anything at all that won’t bring on a game-losing bout of heart disease.</p> | |
| <p>I’m laughing just typing these sentences. I love the surrealistic narratives that come about from overambitious, granular theming, and Consumption looks like it has that in spades. I can’t eat Chinese food tonight because my friend went there earlier and already ate <em>literally everything there?</em> More of this sort of thing!</p> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>It’s gonna be a wonky week</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/its-gonna-be-a-wonky-week/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/its-gonna-be-a-wonky-week/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Misc]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Twilight Imperium 4th edition]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/its-gonna-be-a-wonky-week/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! After doing a nine hour(!) stream of Twilight Imperium this weekend, Matt and I are going to spend this week resting up and finishing up our quest to find this year's SU&SD interns. | |
| Normal service (Monday news, Wednesday podcast, Friday review) will be resumed next week, although we're still going to be posting little bits for you to watch. Some of our best panels from SHUX '18 will be going up on our YouTube channel, and on Friday we'll post our playthrough video of SEAL Team Flix. | |
| Best of all, you can watch <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/385392069">our epic game of Twilight Imperium right here</a> as a video-on-demand, but if you do that, we'd actually like to ask a favour... | |
| In a couple of months we're going to upload this gargantuan 9 hour video to YouTube, but we want to start preserving some of the best comments from Twitch chat as text pop-ups <em>within the YouTube video.</em> So, pretty please, if you watch any of the video on Twitch and something in Twitch chat makes you laugh, could you leave a comment on <em>this</em> post with the line of chat, the username and the timestamp where it appears? You should be able to copy-paste everything you see, so it should be pretty easy. | |
| Thanks so much everybody, and have a great week!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! After doing a nine hour(!) stream of Twilight Imperium this weekend, Matt and I are going to spend this week resting up and finishing up our quest to find this year’s SU&SD interns.</p> | |
| <p>Normal service (Monday news, Wednesday podcast, Friday review) will be resumed next week, although we’re still going to be posting little bits for you to watch. Some of our best panels from SHUX ’18 will be going up on our YouTube channel, and on Friday we’ll post our playthrough video of SEAL Team Flix.</p> | |
| <p>Best of all, you can watch <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/385392069">our epic game of Twilight Imperium right here</a> as a video-on-demand, but if you do that, we’d actually like to ask a favour…</p> | |
| <p>In a couple of months we’re going to upload this gargantuan 9 hour video to YouTube, but we want to start preserving some of the best comments from Twitch chat as text pop-ups <em>within the YouTube video.</em> So, pretty please, if you watch any of the video on Twitch and something in Twitch chat makes you laugh, could you leave a comment on <em>this</em> post with the line of chat, the username and the timestamp where it appears? You should be able to copy-paste everything you see, so it should be pretty easy.</p> | |
| <p>Thanks so much everybody, and have a great week!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/its-gonna-be-a-wonky-week/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>84</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Today we’re streaming Twilight Imperium!</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/today-were-streaming-twilight-imperium/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/today-were-streaming-twilight-imperium/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Sat, 23 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Misc]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/today-were-streaming-twilight-imperium/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: HELLO! After a literal week of preparation, today is the day <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown">we're going to be streaming a full game of Twilight Imperium 4th edition</a>. And with a bit of luck, it's going to be the most exhaustive playthrough of Twilight Imperium that the internet has ever seen. We will have... | |
| <ul> | |
| <li>Our <em>secret diary room</em> for whenever players want to share their secret plans</li> | |
| <li>A <em>tactical overlay</em> showing the map, the objectives and who's completed them</li> | |
| <li>The <em>"Galactic News" readout</em> showing the best Twitch comments</li> | |
| <li>And even more!</li> | |
| </ul> | |
| Obviously after the stream is over you'll be able to watch it as a Twitch video on demand, and after that's gone we'll be uploading it to YouTube, but if you want to come along and join in the fun we'll be starting at 2PM GMT, 9AM EST, 6AM PST. | |
| See you there!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: HELLO! After a literal week of preparation, today is the day <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown">we’re going to be streaming a full game of Twilight Imperium 4th edition</a>. And with a bit of luck, it’s going to be the most exhaustive playthrough of Twilight Imperium that the internet has ever seen. We will have…</p> | |
| <ul> | |
| <li>Our <em>secret diary room</em> for whenever players want to share their secret plans</li> | |
| <li>A <em>tactical overlay</em> showing the map, the objectives and who’s completed them</li> | |
| <li>The <em>“Galactic News” readout</em> showing the best Twitch comments</li> | |
| <li>And even more!</li> | |
| </ul> | |
| <p>Obviously after the stream is over you’ll be able to watch it as a Twitch video on demand, and after that’s gone we’ll be uploading it to YouTube, but if you want to come along and join in the fun we’ll be starting at 2PM GMT, 9AM EST, 6AM PST.</p> | |
| <p>See you there!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/today-were-streaming-twilight-imperium/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>27</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 18/02/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-18-02-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-18-02-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[SU&SD]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Aeon's End]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Mechanica]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Hadara]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Sushi Roll]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Villainous: Wicked to the Core]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Villainous]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Keyforge]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-18-02-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Matt</b>: Morning Quinns! How was your weeken-- | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Matt I watched SO MUCH of The Expanse. I was thinking we could write the whole Games News in Belter Creole. | |
| <b>Matt</b>: OK. I hear you, but I worry that <em>might</em> make it a bit hard to read. How about you write it while crossplaying as <a href="https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Chrisjen_Avasarala_(TV)">Chrisjen Avasarala</a>? | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: You’ve got yourself a deal, beltalowda. You cover the first story, I’ll see what earrings my wife has.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Matt</b>: Morning Quinns! How was your weeken–</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Matt I watched SO MUCH of The Expanse. I was thinking we could write the whole Games News in Belter Creole.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: OK. I hear you, but I worry that <em>might</em> make it a bit hard to read. How about you write it while crossplaying as <a href="https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Chrisjen_Avasarala_(TV)">Chrisjen Avasarala</a>?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: You’ve got yourself a deal, beltalowda. You cover the first story, I’ll see what earrings my wife has.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Love it or hate it, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-keyforge/">Keyforge</a> seems like it’s here to stay – and whilst <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/2/12/age-of-ascension/">the second wave of decks announced by Fantasy Flight – “Age of Ascension” –</a> aren’t terribly likely to blow many minds, it’s a solid bit of support for the game you can expect to see throughout 2019. Mixing 166 cards from the original pool with 204 brand-new ones, these decks add some neat new ideas and keywords whilst still being totally compatible for play against the first wave of decks that were released. I’d guess that’s one of many advantages of having a game that simply <em>isn’t</em> balanced.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I wonder if there’ll be power creep? It won’t be long before stats reveal whether each block of new cards is more or less likely to beat decks from another block. I feel like FFG would *have* to make Keyforge cards incrementally better, if only to avoid the community deciding that the decks from a certainly block perform statistically poorly, and shouldn’t be purchased.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: It’s a sticky potato and that’s no joke. Still, I think for the casual crowd like myself who’ve lightly embraced the game, this second wave represents a nice opportunity to buy a couple more decks whilst being *assured* that you’ll see stuff that’s new. Oh and Quinns, I’ve got some bad news: still no sign of them providing physical manuals for Keyforge. BUT: it seems the economy of scale they’ve now found for the game means that the effective new “Starter Kit” is a far neater deal than it was before – you get two sealed decks and enough tokens for two players, ideal for going in on with a mate if you fancy giving it a go.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/pic4559892.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28364" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/pic4559892.jpg" alt="" width="1159" height="900" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: In further expansion news–</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Is this going to be a joke about The Expanse.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: …Not anymore, no.</p> | |
| <p>A standalone expansion for Disney’s Villainous has been announced. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271518/villainous-wicked-core">Villainous: Wicked to the Core</a> will add Hades, the Evil Queen from Snow White, and Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog as playable antiheroes, each with their own superbly-abstracted miniature.</p> | |
| <p>We weren’t particularly hot on Villainous – you can hear our impression <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-83-the-villains-criminal-google/">on podcast #83</a> – though it’s a perfectly serviceable boondoggle, and if you’re a Disney fan then I can imagine you having a load of fun with it.</p> | |
| <p>In related news, over the weekend I saw that Forrest-Pruzan Creative, the makers of Villainous, were recently <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2019/pop-culture-toymaker-funko-expands-board-games-acquisition-seattle-studio/">bought by pop toymaker Funko</a>. It’s good news for Forrest-Pruzan Creative, who can now use Funko’s connections to make all sorts of licensed board games, but less good for their employees, who I saw on Twitter now <em>must</em> choose some Funko Pops to go on their business cards.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: With the entire SU&SD editorial team finding funkos repellent, our hearts are with the staff of Forrest-Pruzan in this difficult time.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28365" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/pic4572659.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="390" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The designer and publisher of phenomenal card drafting game Sushi Go, as well as the all-you-can-eat sequel, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-sushi-go-party/">Sushi Go Party</a>, have announced a new dice drafting game: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271869/sushi-roll">Sushi Roll</a>. A name *so good* it makes me want to do a little dance.</p> | |
| <p>There’s not much information around right now, but we can deduce a lot from the above picture. Players will roll dice, claim sets of dice, and then re-roll or swap dice to try and work towards winning combinations. The only reservation I have is why this game uses tokens to denote score when we’re in the middle of a grand rediscovery of the roll-n-write genre. Scribbling with dry-erase pen is a heck of a lot nicer than rummaging through a pile of flat, numbered tokens.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled-1-2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28367" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled-1-2.jpg" alt="" width="973" height="517" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Z-Man haven’t particularly caught our attention since last year’s wonderful <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-lowlands/">Lowlands</a>, but <a href="https://www.zmangames.com/en/news/2019/2/8/announcing-hadara/">Hadara</a> looks wonderfully jolly and bright – pitching players against each other in a race to build a cosmopolitan society, players build up a civilisation of cards that are purchased from a revolving shop of different… cultures? Eras?</p> | |
| <p>Honestly I’m not sure what the vibe is here, it appears to be a strange historical collage of sorts – ancient Egyptians, vikings, China… Cowboys? Is this Keyforge as envisioned as the discovery channel? Is this… COWFORGE?</p> | |
| <p>Something here I can’t quite put my finger on leaves me feeling provisionally uneasy – fingers crossed I’ve just had too much coffee: this looks like colourful economy-building fun.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/47aeff9b8539c4737ee10e8a57a504d2_original.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28362" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/47aeff9b8539c4737ee10e8a57a504d2_original.gif" alt="" width="680" height="383" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Vastly more exciting however in the world of “games wot rotate a bit” is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maryflanagan/mechanica">Mechanica by Mary Flanagan</a> – a game in which you build and run competing factories which produce robotic hoovers.</p> | |
| <p>A deliciously-implemented gimmick is always a delight, and this game appears to have SEVERAL NICE ONES. Firstly, the pieces that slot into your factory board are jigsaw pizzles – let those amongst us who do not love a jigsaw be the ones to throw the first stones. Secondly, this baby plays straight out of the box – featuring a revolving shop that auto-discards unbought tiles by dropping them down a hole into the bottom of the box.</p> | |
| <p>As ever we’ll point out that it’s always best to wait for reviews before purchasing games that look exciting, particularly when dealing with stuff on Kickstarter, but I’ve gotta say the physical execution here is just such an enormous amount of fun – I do <em>hope</em> it’s also a top-tier game.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/5a5e044bf25a0830e7ff529df4b6a4f5_original.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28363" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/5a5e044bf25a0830e7ff529df4b6a4f5_original-108x300.jpg" alt="" width="108" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: We also have <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2012515236/aeons-end-the-new-age">yet another Kickstarter for co-op deckbuilder Aeon’s End</a>! Click on the above image for a better view of what’s inside the box. This is a game I really quite liked <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/presenting-quinns-corner-awards-2016/https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/presenting-quinns-corner-awards-2016/">when we covered it back in 2016</a>, but I said was a little ugly and rickety. Since then Aeon’s End has only become prettier and more stable with each new release, like an ex-lover with something to prove.</p> | |
| <p>Aeon’s End also seems to have come down with a rare case of expansion madness, to the point that I can barely parse the Kickstarter page. As far as I can tell, Aeon’s End: The New Age is the third standalone expansion in the series, not counting Aeon’s End: Legacy, and then there are five (five!) smaller expansions and “an amount” (a technical term) of Kickstarter promos.</p> | |
| <p>I guess I’m putting it in the Games News out of guilt. This is a game we’re probably not going to cover again because there are just so many great new games coming out, but it’s worth mentioning here just for the community it’s developed and the extensive publisher support that it’s enjoying. If you like your co-op games, check it out! Apparently the Legacy game is a pretty good starting point for the series.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: We should also remind people one more time that this Saturday we’ll be streaming Twilight Imperium, with all sorts of prepared overlays and other tech wizardry. If you haven’t already, <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown">click “Follow” on our Twitch page</a> to get an email when we start streaming, and join in the fun.</p> | |
| <p>Right, see you later Quinns – I’m gonna get back to prepping for the big day!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ooh, finally, we have a new convention announcement!</p> | |
| <p>This April, Matt and Quinns will be the guests of honour at <a href="https://www.fastaval.dk/?lang=en">Fastaval</a>, Denmark’s biggest tabletop con. If you live nearby, why not come along?</p> | |
| <p>(We have exactly one scheduled appointment so far, which is to play <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-flamme-rouge/">Flamme Rouge</a>‘s secret next big expansion. I almost literally can’t wait.)</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-18-02-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>95</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 11/02/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-02-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-02-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[SU&SD]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Wavelength]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Shipwreck Arcana]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Terror Below]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Bunny Kingdom: In the Sky]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Bunny Kingdom]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Super Punch Fighter]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Castles of Burgundy]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Star Wars: Outer Rim]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-11-02-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Matt</b>: Good morning, Quintin! I awaken from a vivid dream in which the twist at the end of Return of the Jedi was that the whole thing was entirely being imagined by a man called Ryan who worked in Market Research, who was having a fantasy about what it might be like to be a smuggler called “Han Solo”. | |
| And now - as if by space magic - I’m being thrown straight back into Star Wars again. Another game in the genre of Firefly, Merchant of Venus, or Xia: Legends of a Drift System - <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/2/8/star-wars-outer-rim/">Star Wars: Outer Rim</a> sees players competing to be the cream of the galaxy’s scum and villainy. Flying around space, smuggling goods, hiring recognisable crew members and reasonably frequently rolling some dice. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Let us apply Occam’s Razor. Is the simplest possible explanation here that you, Matt Lees, created this game in a dream? | |
| <b>Matt</b>: Yes]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Matt</b>: Good morning, Quintin! I awaken from a vivid dream in which the twist at the end of Return of the Jedi was that the whole thing was entirely being imagined by a man called Ryan who worked in Market Research, who was having a fantasy about what it might be like to be a smuggler called “Han Solo”.</p> | |
| <p>And now – as if by space magic – I’m being thrown straight back into Star Wars again. Another game in the genre of Firefly, Merchant of Venus, or Xia: Legends of a Drift System – <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/2/8/star-wars-outer-rim/">Star Wars: Outer Rim</a> sees players competing to be the cream of the galaxy’s scum and villainy. Flying around space, smuggling goods, hiring recognisable crew members and reasonably frequently rolling some dice.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Let us apply Occam’s Razor. Is the simplest possible explanation here that you, Matt Lees, created this game in a dream?</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Yes<span id="more-3312"></span></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I think so too. I’ll try and update the game’s BGG page so that Matt Lees is the listed designer.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/sw06_box_left.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28287" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/sw06_box_left-283x300.png" alt="" width="283" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: I must say I’m a fan of the fun framing here, which sees you slotting cargo and upgrades and crew into the different parts of your player board spaceship – a mechanic which proved inordinately thrilling in that game which had a tiny prawn on the box. You know, the one where the aim of the game was to make crabs extinct, for money?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Captains of the Gulf, which we talked about <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-89-those-unattainable-vegetables/">on podcast #89</a>! Yes. Come to think of it, Captains of the Gulf is a good example of what I’d like to see in future games in this genre of “customising your space cargo ship and doing missions”.</p> | |
| <p>Too often, these games see player interaction being limited to you interfering with one another. “I fulfilled the mission you wanted”, “You bought the cargo I needed”, “He shot me up the bum with a laser,” etc. Captains of the Gulf instead saw your opponents being the most exciting factors in an economic <em>ecosystem,</em> where every little play your friends make <em>created more game</em> instead of taking it away. It meant my friends were interesting, rather than just roadblocks to my fun.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/pic4557988.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28286" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/pic4557988-236x300.jpg" alt="" width="236" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: If you’re a fan of red buildings, it’s time for a treat!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ooh daddy! After seven years of people asking Alea to publish a version of The Castles of Burgundy that didn’t look like – allow me to quote <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-castles-burgundy/">our review</a> here – “the lovechild of a maths textbook and hotel room art”, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271320/castles-burgundy-2019">we’re getting a new edition!</a></p> | |
| <p>All we know at the moment is what the box art will look like (pictured above), and that the new edition will allegedly contain every expansion released to date, plus a brand-new one.</p> | |
| <p>Soon, Matt Lees, you too will know the joy of putting a cow hexagon next to another cow hexagon.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/PH2600-Game_Spread-Web1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28291" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/PH2600-Game_Spread-Web1.jpg" alt="" width="1732" height="547" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: <a href="https://www.plaidhatgames.com/news/972">Super Punch Fighter</a> looks like a pleasingly dumb homage to oddball arcade fighting games from the 1990’s, complete with unlikely characters, over-the-top moves, and an emphasis on <em>wild combos</em> sprouting from bold circular plastic buttons. It’s a shame that the theming didn’t go full <a href="http://www.saltybet.com/">Salty Bet</a> (a hacked mashup of every fighting game ever), but solid art design and a silly theme tend to go a long way towards piquing our interest – or at least they <em>used</em> to.</p> | |
| <p>The fact is we’ve had such a rough run of disappointments when it comes to the designs that Plaid Hat have been putting out, for now we’ll actively be doing our best not to get too excited by their excellent aesthetics.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled-1-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28284" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled-1-1.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="481" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The big expansion for Richard Garfield’s supernaturally charming Bunny Kingdom is almost upon us. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/264396/bunny-kingdom-sky">Bunny Kingdom: In the Sky</a> will offer an additional side-board so that your bunnies can lay claim to the very clouds themselves.</p> | |
| <p>What I love about this board is that while the clouds will offer various saccharine industries for you to make use of, like a unicorn paddock and ice cream mines, it’ll still offer the main board’s resources of logging, fishing and carrot farming, but in the clouds. There’s something about that which I just adore. Taking a look at <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4550797/bunny-kingdom-sky">this high-res image of the board</a>, it’s one of the most fun boards I’ve ever seen in my whole weird career spent looking at board games.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: I think Bunny Kingdom might actually be great? We only played it once, and we were very tired, but the more I think about it, the more I suspect it might actually be brilliant?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: I have fond memories of it too! I’d totally play it again. But the fact is, our response after playing it “That was good, but not great,” which is mirrored by a lot of other reviewers.</p> | |
| <p>But yeah, to heck with logic, I’d totally play it again!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Clipboard01.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28289" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Clipboard01.png" alt="" width="766" height="388" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: We’ve got a few Kickstarters for you this week. The first isn’t one I’d necessarily suggest you buy, but I wanted to chuck a link to <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/165626423/terror-below">Terror Below</a> by prestigious publisher Renegade because it’s just absurd.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Is this… an unofficial board game based on the 1990s film Tremors?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Yes. Although technically it’s based on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremors_(franchise)">Tremors <em>franchise</em></a>, since the original movie spawned five direct-to-video sequels and a hastily cancelled TV series.</p> | |
| <p>Which is to say nothing of the tremors fan community among millenials, who refer to themselves as Tremorers.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: You’re lying to me now.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Yes.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/dfcdd70d53f029859e3cba84407cdcd4_original.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28290" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/dfcdd70d53f029859e3cba84407cdcd4_original.png" alt="" width="680" height="466" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: One of Paul’s last acts in his seven year tour of duty on Shut Up & Sit Down was to talk on <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-87-cheese-on-the-clocktower/">podcast #87</a> about an out-of-print deduction game called The Shipwreck Arcana. Well SLATHER MY CRUMPETS, because <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meromorphgames/the-shipwreck-arcana-stars-below">The Shipwreck Arcana is back on Kickstarter</a>, together with a mini-expansion of extra cards.</p> | |
| <p>Certainly, it’s every bit as good-looking as Paul suggested. If you’re interested in a quiet, co-operative game in a svelte box, this could be one to check out.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/c7bc8771399bc1ac5a953456ba4e6273_original.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28285" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/c7bc8771399bc1ac5a953456ba4e6273_original.png" alt="" width="680" height="368" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alxhague/wavelength">The Kickstarter for Wavelength has arrived</a>. This was one of my personal highlights of last year’s SHUX – a game in which teams must attempt to “become psychic”. Presented with a dial that pits two concepts as different ends of a spectrum, one player is then secretly shown an exact point on that scale they need to guide their team towards by giving them a single verbal clue. It was naturally a format that worked wonderfully for a funny live show at our convention, but more than that I was pleasantly surprised by the depths of the conversations that Wavelength led to.</p> | |
| <p>Trying to guide my team towards the rough centre-point between “Sci-fi” and “Fantasy”, I chose a clue of Star Wars – leading to a brilliantly interesting debate about genres that threatened to derail the show completely. And importantly, when Wavelength <em>works</em> it really does offer the same sensation as <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-the-mind/">The Mind</a> – perhaps unsurprising considering it’s a collaboration between the Monikers team and Wolfgang Warsh, but an achievement not to be sniffed at, regardless.</p> | |
| <p>The only real complaint I had about the game’s design seems to have been ironed out since I tried it last year, and the final style and box art they’re going with is some of the most effortlessly cool stuff I’ve seen in years. I can’t wait to pop a highly visible copy of this on the shelf underneath my coffee table, I reckon it’s going to be a fabulous treat.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Clipboard01.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28292" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Clipboard01.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="480" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Finally, we’ve a fun announcement for you! On <strong>Saturday the 23rd of February</strong> we’ll be doing our biggest stream yet as we play Twilight Imperium with Elaine and Efka of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/NoPunIncluded">No Pun Included</a>.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Oh gosh this one is going to be exciting. I’m pulling out all of the stops with our tech, and it’s possible I won’t be able to put the stops back where they came from afterwards.</p> | |
| <p>Pop it in your calendars! And <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown">click “Follow” on our Twitch page</a> to get an email when we start streaming. As always, the game itself will be posted on YouTube later, but you’ll only get the full thing, together with our amazing commenting community, by watching on Twitch, either during or after the event. For example, right now <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown/videos">you can find our playthroughs of SEAL Team Flix and Great Western Trail: Rails to the North</a>, even though we haven’t uploaded them to YouTube yet.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>Reminder: Click “Follow” On Our Twitch Page!</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/reminder-click-follow-on-our-twitch-page/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/reminder-click-follow-on-our-twitch-page/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Misc]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Streaming]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/reminder-click-follow-on-our-twitch-page/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! If you've not checked out our live Twitch streams yet, you're officially missing out. They're basically an extra-long, live Let's Play, and I can now proudly say the channel has developed a frighteningly witty chat community. If you've been part of our chat over the last few months, thank you so, so much. | |
| But here's the thing- <em>you don't actually need to remember when we're streaming.</em> If you just <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown/videos">go to our Twitch channel and click on the button that reads "Follow"</a>, you'll get an email every time we start the show, which is once every couple of weeks. Also, you're adding follower count, which helps us out. | |
| Tomorrow we're going to be trying the Great Western Trail expansion, Rails to the North, and the show after that... well, let's just say you won't want to miss it, and we'll be confirming more details shortly. | |
| Oh, and did I mention our Twitch chat has a custom emote of the LADY ON THE CONCORDIA BOX? That's right! The wonders never cease. | |
| Thanks again, everybody!]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Hey everybody! If you’ve not checked out our live Twitch streams yet, you’re officially missing out. They’re basically an extra-long, live Let’s Play, and I can now proudly say the channel has developed a frighteningly witty chat community. If you’ve been part of our chat over the last few months, thank you so, so much.</p> | |
| <p>But here’s the thing- <em>you don’t actually need to remember when we’re streaming.</em> If you just <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/shutupandsitdown/videos">go to our Twitch channel and click on the button that reads “Follow”</a>, you’ll get an email every time we start the show, which is once every couple of weeks. Also, you’re adding follower count, which helps us out.</p> | |
| <p>Tomorrow we’re going to be trying the Great Western Trail expansion, Rails to the North, and the show after that… well, let’s just say you won’t want to miss it, and we’ll be confirming more details shortly.</p> | |
| <p>Oh, and did I mention our Twitch chat has a custom emote of the LADY ON THE CONCORDIA BOX? That’s right! The wonders never cease.</p> | |
| <p>Thanks again, everybody!</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/reminder-click-follow-on-our-twitch-page/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>18</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 04/02/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-02-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-02-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[SU&SD]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Century: A New World]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Era: Medieval Age]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Arkham Horror: The Card Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Quartermaster General]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[PARKS]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-04-02-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Quinns</b>: How was your weekend, Matt? I got in some of our first playtests of <a href="https://bloodontheclocktower.com/">Blood on the Clocktower</a>. Adopting the role of a devious moderator, I cast a room full of players into a cutthroat logic puzzle that had them doubting not just their friends, but themselves. As I stalked back and forth with my grimoire that held all of the game’s secrets, men screamed, women died, and the forces of evil proliferated in the shadows. | |
| <b>Matt</b>: I had IBS | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Oh no]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: How was your weekend, Matt? I got in some of our first playtests of <a href="https://bloodontheclocktower.com/">Blood on the Clocktower</a>. Adopting the role of a devious moderator, I cast a room full of players into a cutthroat logic puzzle that had them doubting not just their friends, but themselves. As I stalked back and forth with my grimoire that held all of the game’s secrets, men screamed, women died, and the forces of evil proliferated in the shadows.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: I had IBS</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh no<span id="more-3310"></span></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Men screamed, women died, and the forces of evil proliferated in the shadows. Also I mostly slept and drank a lot of water.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Well, you know what they say! “News heals all wounds.”</p> | |
| <p>The third and final game in Emerson Matsuuchi’s Century series of games has been revealed. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/270970/century-new-world">Century: A New World</a> (pictured above) will take place in North America, and where Century: Spice Road featured card management and Century: Eastern Wonders used area control, A New World will use the mechanic of <a href="http://www.clevermovegames.com/2014/06/23/what-is-a-worker-placement-game/">worker placement</a>. Players will dispatch settlers to wrest a living from the buffalo-stuffed continent, trading and building in a race for the series’ precious cubes.</p> | |
| <p>If you missed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2GDSEWJZsU">our double review of the first two games in the series</a> then let me tell you the twist with Century, which has the audacious power of an alligator twisting in a death roll. Any games in the Century series can be <em>combined</em>, creating a new, bigger game that features mechanics from all of its constituents.</p> | |
| <p>With the arrival of A New World, we’ll finally be able to combine all three of these little games into a grand… well, a game that’s actually about the size of most normal board games.</p> | |
| <p>IMAGINE IT!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/pic4547156.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28220" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/pic4547156.jpg" alt="" width="1162" height="791" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Adding a twist to the newly popular Roll and Write genre, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/270971/era-medieval-age">Era: Medieval Age</a> is a Roll and BUILD game designed by Matt Leacock, creator of Pandemic. Plugging dinky little buildings into a player board filled with a neat grid of holes, it’s an immediately cute and enticing idea. At this point though I have to say, it’s tough to say what makes this design any different from a game that simply used pencil & paper – the gimmick of a mini 3D town is strong, but I can’t help but immediately leap to the fresh possibilities of a game in which you also build your cities <em>up.</em></p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Ooh, imagine that! You could use sheets of acetate to have players drawing multiple layers in multiple colours…</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt: </strong>Exactly! Instead, the bit about Era that most piques my hype-gland is the suggestion of more interaction between players than we usually tend to see in these games, promising “extortion, scorched earth, and, of course, disease!”.</p> | |
| <p>It’s adorable that Matt Leacock’s reputation at this stage is that yes, <em>of course</em> Leacock is providing additional contagion – I look forward to one day discovering the other three horsemen of the board gaming apocalypse.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28222" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="1140" height="600" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Exciting news! Did you know that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WA16gyRZyY">Arkham Horror: The Living Card Game is fantastic fun</a>? Fantasy Flight’s support for this grim and frequently ludicrous adventure continues into 2019, with the recent release of the <em>fourth</em> full campaign, ‘<a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/1/15/fate-of-all-fools/">The Circle Undone</a>’ (also known as ‘An Oval’ or ‘The Wobbly Oblong’). Featuring Tarot cards, witches, and all sorts of new hexes – those hungry for details will have to click through to the official FFG page, as I’m miles behind on Arkham Horror and still having a blast playing it glacially, and blind.</p> | |
| <p>What a game, what a sweet little game.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_1795.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28219" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_1795.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="581" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Ares Games has announced that <a href="https://www.aresgames.eu/22744">it will be releasing an improved second edition</a> of beloved quick and curious wargame <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/159473/quartermaster-general">Quartermaster General</a>, a game so well-liked that it earned three expansions and three spinoff games. <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-quartermaster-general-1914/">We even reviewed one of the spinoffs</a>, Quartermaster General: 1914, and had a nice time with it.</p> | |
| <p>Reading that review again, I’m hyped for this new 2nd edition of the original game. My experience of Quartermaster General left me feeling disappointed that the series was so obtuse, but Ares Games has promised “a careful revision of the original game, improving its ease of play, clarity, play balance, and more”.</p> | |
| <p>…That said, the whole reason I chose to review 1914 instead of the original game is that it only needed 5 players for the best experience, rather than the original game’s craving for a whopping 6 people to play all of the different countries in the war. If you don’t have a full complement of players, individuals have to control multiple hands of cards each, which – as anyone who’s experienced it will tell you – is a quick way to go 100% insane.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/e915f03feb2811fcb51e666021707fc8_original.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28223" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/e915f03feb2811fcb51e666021707fc8_original.png" alt="" width="680" height="505" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: It’s rare these days for any saccharine knife to cut so cleanly through my cynical shell, but one glance <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keymastergames/parks-the-board-game">at the Kickstarter for PARKS</a> and I’m thirteen years old, eating extremely salty chilli in Yosemite while heavy snow covers everything outside. This gorgeous game celebrates the absolute best thing about America: did you know that it is massive and full of natural beauty? For now, IT IS!</p> | |
| <p>Exhibiting the flavour of twee that would usually find my eyes gently rolling, this game sees you trekking across 48 of America’s National Parks whilst doing your best to create lovely memories – the winner being the player at the end who comes back with the most mementos and photos, just like with real holidays and Instagram. This could easily be one that ends up fronting way more style and heart than substance, but with an undisclosed percentage of profits being donated to the National Parks Service, it’s tough to be anything other than charmed. Speaking as a clueless Brit, it’s quite evocative of Firewatch, a videogame which I absolutely loved. I’m off to eat a sandwich and think about sunsets.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>105</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 28/01/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-28-01-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-28-01-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tuki]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Captain Sonar]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Captain Sonar: Operation Dragon]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Imperial Settlers]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Detective: A Modern Crime Boardgame]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Prêt-à-Porter]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Silver & Gold]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Palm Trees]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Vindication]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Champion of the Wild]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-28-01-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Quinns</b>: Matt, I started reading <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roll-Bones-History-Gambling-Casino/dp/0615847781/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1548694409&sr=8-2&keywords=roll+the+bones">a book on the history of gambling</a> on the weekend and I can’t stop telling all of my friends FACTS. | |
| Did you know that roulette, one of the coolest-looking games of all time, was invented by the English? And did you know we called it <em>roly poly</em>? I’m relieved to say that the French got their hands on it and began rebranding the wheel almost immediately. | |
| <b>Matt</b>: That’s-- | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Did you know that in the world’s first casino was the Ridotto in Venice, opened in 1638? Public displays of excitement or sadness were forbidden, but there was a darkened Chamber of Sighs where “unlucky gamblers could moan with despair.” | |
| <b>Matt</b>: Quinns, you know the rule. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: ... | |
| <b>Matt</b>: Tell me the rule. | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: ...when there’s work to do, facts have to wait.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Quinns</b>: Matt, I started reading <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roll-Bones-History-Gambling-Casino/dp/0615847781/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1548694409&sr=8-2&keywords=roll+the+bones">a book on the history of gambling</a> on the weekend and I can’t stop telling all of my friends FACTS.</p> | |
| <p>Did you know that roulette, one of the coolest-looking games of all time, was invented by the English? And did you know we called it <em>roly poly</em>? I’m relieved to say that the French got their hands on it and began rebranding the wheel almost immediately.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: That’s–</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Did you know that in the world’s first casino was the Ridotto in Venice, opened in 1638? Public displays of excitement or sadness were forbidden, but there was a darkened Chamber of Sighs where “unlucky gamblers could moan with despair.”</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Quinns, you know the rule.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: …</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Tell me the rule.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: …when there’s work to do, facts have to wait.<span id="more-3309"></span></p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4531003.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28152" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4531003-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: That’s right. First up on the non-facts train is my opinion that <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/270168/tuki">a game called Tuki has been announced</a> (pictured at the very top of this page) as the next game in the series that brought us Azul and Reef.</p> | |
| <p>Inspired by the Inuit practice of piling up stones to form landmarks or commemorative sculptures – imagine a cross between a cairn and a henge and you’ll soon be on the pebbly path to comprehension – Tuki has you trying to place a set of coloured 3D rectangles into the formation shown on a card, holding them in place using a limited selection of other 3D shapes that resemble a mutated family of Tetris.</p> | |
| <p>Very much billed as a speed-puzzler rather than a dexterity game, much like NMBR 9 this appears to be a game that I’m convinced I’ll be quite good at but in actuality will just make me scream.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4536322.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28145" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4536322-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Oh my goodness! The second expansion for Captain Sonar has been announced, and while the first expansion was a bit underwhelming, this new box looks set to whelm the crap out of us.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/270444/captain-sonar-operation-dragon">Captain Sonar: Operation Dragon</a> will offer a branching campaign to the team game of submarine vs. submarine, letting players duke it out in a 7 game story where teams clash at never-before-seen depths while searching for delicious minerables. And not only will the campaign offer new maps and abilities, Operation Dragon will ship with a “toolbox” containing new modules that you can swap into any game of Captain Sonar.</p> | |
| <p>Personally, I think this is exactly what Captain Sonar needed. Getting 6 to 8 people together to play the base game is such a chore that I’ve barely opened the box since our review. The campaign will, hopefully, give people a reason to get everyone over to their house to play some Captain Sonar, turning it into a real “event” game, and give me a reason to play the first expansion, which is (hopefully) compatible. I’m hype!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gry_2019_EN.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28149" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gry_2019_EN.jpg" alt="" width="999" height="999" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Portal Games <a href="https://portalgames.pl/en/portal-games-announces-new-titles-for-2019/">has announced a raft of new releases for the year 2019</a>. True to their name, it’s like they’ve discovered <em>an actual portal to the board game dimension.</em></p> | |
| <p>Imperial Settlers: Big Box will offer the vicious civilisation-building game together with all of its expansions in (you guessed it) one big box. Then we’ve also got two new games coming in “the same universe”. Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write will be a (you guessed it) roll and write game about constructing buildings and collecting bonuses, while Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North will be a (you didn’t guess it) standalone card game centreing around Northern civilisations, starting with the Vikings, Inuits and Scottish.</p> | |
| <p>Portal’s cryptic crime-solving game of Detective is getting yet-more love. As well as the previously-announced expansion L.A. Crimes, the new “Signature Series” will be a range of expansions created by well-known board game designers, kicking off with Rob Daviau and Mike Selinker.</p> | |
| <p>Most surprisingly, Portal has also announced that a new version of fashion business manager Prêt-à-Porter will be coming to Kickstarter this year, illustrated by the superb Kwanchai Moriya. We’ve not played Prêt-à-Porter at SU&SD, but I will say I’m relieved that Portal Games are sticking with the same theme of fashion houses for the new edition, after <a href="https://twitter.com/trzewik/status/451075686707380224">publicly stating that it wasn’t great for sales</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Also, hey, the board game industry has become a heck of a lot more diverse and welcoming in the 9 years since Prêt-à-Porter first came out. I bet that theme is going to be great for sales now!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4538993.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28146" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4538993.png" alt="" width="1122" height="900" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Hot out of the brain of Phil Walker-Harding – the Australian chap behind Sushi Go, Barenpark, Imhotep and Archaeology – comes <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/270673/silver-gold">Silver & Gold</a>, another game in the popular WOSMATRIOA genre (Writing On Shiny Materials and then Rubbing It Off Afterwards). Aside from the prior clout of the game’s designer, this small box has piqued our interest by having you physically drawing on a whole deck of cards – each of which represents a dinky little treasure map. Box art and style looks deeply uninspiring, but I’ll keeping an eye out for this one regardless!</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Palm-Trees.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28148" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Palm-Trees-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Perhaps more importantly though, let’s talk about <a href="http://www.dicetowernews.com/palm-trees-for-family-fun/56926">Palm Trees</a>. This wonderfully dumb family game has a deck of cards illustrated with coconuts and fronds: hold six of them at once, and you’ve won. But, each card must be held in a very specific way, chosen by your opponents: this one between your thumb and little finger, this one between your middle and your index. As you contort your hands melodramatically like a crap magician, perhaps the greatest inclusion here are the fake tattoo sleeves that make your arm look like an actual tree trunk. Stuff this silly just makes me instantly squeak.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4374344.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28144" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4374344.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Our Kickstarters this week are both the happiest type of crowdfunding campaign- ones that have have already done this once, the first print run received great press coverage, and they’ve returned to Kickstarter with a giddy swagger.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/orangenebula/vindication-boardgame">Vindication</a> is a fantasy sandbox game with an unusual, abstracted board. Players are tasked with “mastering heroic attributes”, and do so by moving their pawn around the board, carefully managing their character and doing… well, heroic stuff. You can fight monsters, or claim territory, or collect companions, or visit some kind of wishing well, or a range of other things, always keeping one eye on your growing collection of powers.</p> | |
| <p>The key selling points here are that Vindication has some intricate resource management, gorgeous components and you’ll have to play many times to explore everything the game might cough up. Discovery, in the words of the creators, is “RAMPANT”. Replayability is “LIMITLESS”. Strategy is “SIGNIFICANT”.</p> | |
| <p>Cutting through the eye-rolling marketing speak, I’m pretty sure the appeal here is that it’s the kind of hybrid European/American game where you can carefully manage cubes <em>and</em> find a really big toad who’ll be your friend. You know? You can optimise your resource-usage while cuddling a centaur. That kind of thing.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: I’ve been pretending to be a really big toad who wants to be your friend a lot, lately. He’s called “Embassador Toadly from the Lilypad Kingdom” and my wife absolutely bloody hates him.</p> | |
| <p><iframe title="The Champion of the Wild - Shut Up & Sit Down Review" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5sgcmgkJA1Y?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p>Finally this week, we’d like to point you toward <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1321865567/the-champion-of-the-wild-second-edition/">the second Kickstarter for the Shut Up & Sit Down Recommended game Champion of the Wild</a>. A lot of people weren’t sold on this game after the basis of our original recommendation, and plenty still weren’t convinced by our review.</p> | |
| <p>It’s true that to get the best out of it, this a box that requires the deft touch of house rules: but if you’re still on the fence and keen to see how <em>brilliant</em> this game can be with the right people and circumstances, on Wednesday we’ll be posting the video of the live game of this we played at PAX Unplugged. Keep an eye out for it on YouTube – that show was some of the most fun I’ve had in years.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-28-01-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>77</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>The SU&SD Podcast is now available on Spotify</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/the-susd-podcast-is-now-available-on-spotify/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/the-susd-podcast-is-now-available-on-spotify/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Misc]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/the-susd-podcast-is-now-available-on-spotify/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: Good news, everyone! The SU&SD board game podcast is <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/52vz8x9MCmVHBXbPSMsXL8">now available on Spotify</a>. If you'd like to listen to it, it can be found there now, in addition to the other places where it can usually be found. A short FAQ follows. | |
| <em>Q: Can I now listen to the SU&SD podcast on Spotify?</em> | |
| A: Yes | |
| <em>Q: Will brand new episodes of the SU&SD podcast be on Spotify?</em> | |
| A: Yes | |
| <em>Q: Using Spotify, can I now put the SU&SD podcast into my ears?</em> | |
| A: Yes | |
| We hope that clears everything up! If you have any further questions about the SU&SD podcast being on Spotify, please leave a comment and I'll see if I can help out.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Good news, everyone! The SU&SD board game podcast is <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/52vz8x9MCmVHBXbPSMsXL8">now available on Spotify</a>. If you’d like to listen to it, it can be found there now, in addition to the other places where it can usually be found. A short FAQ follows.</p> | |
| <p><em>Q: Can I now listen to the SU&SD podcast on Spotify?</em></p> | |
| <p>A: Yes</p> | |
| <p><em>Q: Will brand new episodes of the SU&SD podcast be on Spotify?</em></p> | |
| <p>A: Yes</p> | |
| <p><em>Q: Using Spotify, can I now put the SU&SD podcast into my ears?</em></p> | |
| <p>A: Yes</p> | |
| <p>We hope that clears everything up! If you have any further questions about the SU&SD podcast being on Spotify, please leave a comment and I’ll see if I can help out.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/the-susd-podcast-is-now-available-on-spotify/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>28</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 21/01/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-21-01-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-21-01-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[SU&SD]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Corinth]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Fog of Love: Midlife Crisis]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Conspiracy: The Solomon Gambit]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Stay Cool]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Nevada City]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Luxor]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Luxor: The Mummy's Curse]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[NewSpeak]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-21-01-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Matt</b>: Good MORNING Shut Up & Sit Down Shupuppers. That’s my new name for anyone reading the news right now - you can’t do anything about it, I’ve sent the stickers to print. It’s a bright and bracing day in London and I am positively brimming with vigor and vizz - partially because of a chilly morning bike ride, but mostly because of the weekend efforts of everyone involved in <a href="https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/20/18191023/hbomberguy-donkey-kong-64-twitch-stream-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-john-romero-chelsea-manning">Hbomberguy’s charity stream</a>. | |
| Raising almost $350,000 for the UK trans support charity Mermaids - in response to other mainstream funding being cancelled after a campaign of organised spite - this colossal achievement had me grinning all weekend at the sheer joy of what now seems possible. A US Congresswoman dropping in on a Donkey Kong 64 stream is exactly the tenor of madness that I get out of bed for - but the whole event has flicked some sort of switch in my head, and I now feel so much better about reality in general. So if you were involved in that in any way - thank you! | |
| <b>Quinns</b>: Wow! I just spent the weekend making some falafels.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>Matt</b>: Good MORNING Shut Up & Sit Down Shupuppers. That’s my new name for anyone reading the news right now – you can’t do anything about it, I’ve sent the stickers to print. It’s a bright and bracing day in London and I am positively brimming with vigor and vizz – partially because of a chilly morning bike ride, but mostly because of the weekend efforts of everyone involved in <a href="https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/20/18191023/hbomberguy-donkey-kong-64-twitch-stream-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-john-romero-chelsea-manning">Hbomberguy’s charity stream</a>.</p> | |
| <p>Raising almost $350,000 for the UK trans support charity Mermaids – in response to other mainstream funding being cancelled after a campaign of organised spite – this colossal achievement had me grinning all weekend at the sheer joy of what now seems possible. A US Congresswoman dropping in on a Donkey Kong 64 stream is exactly the tenor of madness that I get out of bed for – but the whole event has flicked some sort of switch in my head, and I now feel so much better about reality in general. So if you were involved in that in any way – thank you!</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Wow! I just spent the weekend making some falafels.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: How did that go?</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: When I tried to cook them they DISSOLVED. My wife said she’d never heard me sound so anguished.</p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Hahahahaha, I adore that following on from writing that line and seeing me respond with a typed line of laughter, you immediately hopped into Slack to talk seriously about your Falafel disaster. Never change, Mr Smith.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Clipboard01.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-27998" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Clipboard01.png" alt="" width="886" height="229" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Our top story this week is the announcement of Days of Wonder’s 2019 game, a classical-era roll’n’write called <a href="https://www.daysofwonder.com/corinth/en/">Corinth</a> (pictured at the top of this page).</p> | |
| <p>For those unaware, Days of Wonder are the company behind such colossal hits as Ticket to Ride, Small World and Memoir ‘44. They also maintain the unusual business practice of releasing just one beautiful, well-supported new game each year. Back when <a href="https://kotaku.com/the-porsche-of-the-board-game-world-975272588">I interviewed them</a> 6 years ago and they compared themselves to the Porsche of the board game world, this seemed wise. More recently… let’s just say their curation hasn’t been so hot. By most accounts, The River (2018), Yamatai (2017), Quadropolis (2016) Five Tribes (2014) and Relic Runners (2013) were attractive but disappointing.</p> | |
| <p>Even still, this year I’m feeling optimistic about Corinth, their 2018 bite of the apple. Based on a 2006 game called <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22345/yspahan">Yspahan</a>, Corinth will see players claiming dice that allow them to manage gold, camels, market stalls or even maneuver an imaginary “steward” around a grid to claim rewards. Mostly though, after having so much fun last year with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCe424Ty2qE">Welcome To</a>, I’m looking for another chewy, colourful roll’n’write to play in the pub.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/DxYgZ62X0AIBSAM.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28001" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/DxYgZ62X0AIBSAM-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The sequel to romantic relationship simulator <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a9oNOjI8V4">Fog of Love</a> has been announced, and it’s <em>even more ambitious.</em> <a href="https://twitter.com/FogOfLoveGame/status/1087092840285507584">Fog of Love: Midlife Crisis</a> will simulate a couple having (yes!) a midlife crisis. Stranger still, this will be a <em>four player game.</em></p> | |
| <p>Now, designer Jakob Jaskov has told me about this game. If memory serves, two players will each represent one member of a couple, just as if you were playing Fog of Love. However, two <em>additional</em> players will each represent the <em>unexplored</em> aspect of each of these people. In other words, sat opposite you will be two players, one representing your lover, the other representing the part of your lover that might want to buy a sports car, build a greenhouse, quit their job, have a kid, and so on. With four people pulling in different directions, will the relationship survive?</p> | |
| <p>Jakob’s also teased that the third game in the series will be about the relationships of people at the very end of their lives. Suffice to say, if you thought Mr. Jaskov would try something a bit simpler for his next game after Fog of Love, you’d be dead wrong.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/unnamed.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28006" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/unnamed.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="404" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Finally today I received an email about “conspiracy” that didn’t lead to me wiring a man dollars on PayPal to assist with hunting the alien squad that murdered Princess Diana. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267991/conspiracy-solomon-gambit/images">Conspiracy: The Solomon Gambit</a> is the next forgotten gem to be brought back to life by Restoration Games. A network of spies shift around the globe, passing a suitcase of secrets to one another. The twist here is that no-one wholly controls these spies, you simply bid for control of them on a turn-by-turn basis.</p> | |
| <p>Of all of Restoration’s re-jazzed games to date, I feel like this is the one I’m most personally excited about – <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/697/conspiracy">a fascinating design from 1973</a>, with rules tweaked to fix some of the issues with the original game. Most importantly to me though – as Shut Up & Sit Down’s resident artyfart – I adore that they’ve embraced the aesthetic of the era. Actual modern spies are more likely to resemble your boring niece, but as someone who grew up falling in love with re-runs of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. there’s an immediate connection to this fabulous fashion. Dossiers, suitcases, jet-flights to Paris. It’s a dark art crafting a thing that looks simultaneously old and modern, and from afar it looks like Restoration might have nailed it.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4485582.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28005" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4485582-300x273.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="273" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Le Scorpion Masque, publishers of the phenomenal <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-decrypto/">Decrypto</a>, have announced their next party game. It’s called <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267475/stay-cool">Stay Cool</a>, it sounds like a panic attack in a box and I can’t <em>wait</em> to try it.</p> | |
| <p>On your turn in Stay Cool you will have simultaneously answer questions from the players on your left and right, answering one of them verbally, and answering the other by spelling words with dice, essentially using them as building blocks. But wait! There’s more! On the second round of the game, you’ll have to tell a third player to flip a sandtimer before it runs out, or your turn ends early. On the third round, you do the same thing, but you can’t see the sandtimer.</p> | |
| <p>Speaking as someone who enjoyed last year’s <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/257527/trapwords">Trapwords</a>, I definitely enjoy party games with a bit of malice to them, and watching players sweat bullets trying to simultaneously answer two children’s questions sounds like superb entertainment. In all honesty, this synoposis has got me wondering if multitasking might be an under-used mechanic.</p> | |
| <p><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4523876.png"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-28004" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4523876-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Whilst this hobby keeps thrilling me with unusual game design, I absolutely adore that I get equally excited reading the synopsis of the rules of most management games. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269810/nevada-city">Nevada City</a> from Rio Grande Games will break’s the publisher’s long-lived curse by having box art that is quite nice, and the big, ambitious design that’s inside it already has tiny wooden cubes fluttering around inside of my stomach.</p> | |
| <p>You raise homesteading families: breeding livestock, mining silver, having potentially loads of children. You’ll also be helping to build a city, hiring workers, and at the end of the year those workers will leave unless you marry them into your family by spending… booze? You might also have to hire a gunslinger to stop unhired workers from rioting. It sounds absolutely bonkers, I can’t wait to get a look at it.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: The whole thing reminds me of when I saw Rob Daviau speak about his game design practice, in which he explained how he starts a project by questioning preconceptions about a genre. Using the example of worker placement games, he asked us questions like “Why do the workers work for free? Why don’t they unionise?” Nevada City looks set to explore those questions, and I’m hyped.</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28007" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Clipboard03.jpg" alt="" width="815" height="455" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: The first expansion for Spiel des Jahres-nominated Luxor is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1082720051/luxor-expansion-the-mummys-curse">on Kickstarter right now</a>! The Mummy’s Curse will add ancient mummies to this game of tomb raiding, although mostly I’m surprised that they weren’t in the game already. No mummies in your pyramid exploration game? That’s like making cookies and only adding the sugar six months later.</p> | |
| <p>Here at SU&SD we haven’t played Luxor yet, and while we do want to, I might advise against backing this particular Kickstarter. Queen Games’ pricing policies have often struck me as ungenerous, and this Kickstarter is a prime example. It asks for €80 + €15 shipping (a total of around $108) for the base game and the expansion, when at the time of writing the base game of Luxor in the United States costs just $35.</p> | |
| <p>Alternatively, as with most Queen games, you could just wait a few years until they release the inevitable Luxor “Big Box” that collects the base game and all of the expansions in a single, affordable package (making FOOLS of anybody who bought the expansions as separate, costly boxes).</p> | |
| <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28003" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Clipboard02.png" alt="" width="683" height="347" /></p> | |
| <p><b>Matt</b>: Newspeak – the interesting design we played at UKGE in 2018 – is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/itbboardgames/newspeak">up on Kickstarter this week</a>. Those of you who follow the podcast will recall that <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-81-our-irradiated-pastries/">I had an interesting experience playing it</a>, although it’s tough to say how much of that came down to blood sugar levels and mild exhaustion. It’s a fascinating and intense little game that sits somewhere in the same vein as Decrypto – a team of dissidents must arrange to meet in one of nine locations whilst everything they say is being monitored by THE MODERATORS.</p> | |
| <p>Using a secret code and sheer savvy to help disguise their intentions from the gigantic watchful ears around them, the game lies in feeling out an ad-hoc system of communication that your oppressors won’t be able to untangle, but crucially your allies will. Isn’t it amazing how fun board games can also teach entirely valuable life skills! For anyone on the fence, one of the game’s designers Mark Stockton-Pitt got in touch after <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-14-01-19/">last week’s news</a> to tell us that Puggsy was his favourite Megadrive game.</p> | |
| <p><b>Quinns</b>: Now this is a Kickstarter I <em>would</em> back. I love Decrypto, but it’s an accessible, formalised party game, whereas Newspeak is a wild, thematic labour of love. I wanted it <em>before</em> I saw all of the expansion modules teased in the Kickstarter. Now, I crave it.</p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
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| <slash:comments>124</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>GAMES NEWS! 14/01/19</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-14-01-19/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-14-01-19/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Taverns of Tiefanthal]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Monopoly Pizza Game]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Sonic Battle Racers]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Suburbia]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Suburbia: Collector’s Edition]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Quacks of Quedlinburg]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-14-01-19/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<!-- wp:paragraph --> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: We’re awake! And alive! Shut Up & Sit Down is officially <em>back in action,</em> ready to spend another 12 months covering amazing board games. What new designs await us this year? What never-before-seen ideas will spring out and delight us?</p> | |
| <!-- /wp:paragraph --> | |
| <!-- wp:paragraph --> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: What hellscape have you interrupted my slumber for? It’s 9am on a Monday morning and I’m looking at one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.</p> | |
| <!-- /wp:paragraph --> | |
| <!-- wp:paragraph --> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Those are the goat entrails that I was reading, trying to divine what awaits us this year... Oh, no, sorry, that’s just <a href="https://monopoly.hasbro.com/en-us/product/monopoly-pizza-board-game-for-kids-ages-8-and-up:3C39C14A-1045-46EF-8EBC-1EBA8DB231C5">Monopoly: Pizza edition</a>.</p> | |
| <!-- /wp:paragraph -->]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[ | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: We’re awake! And alive! Shut Up & Sit Down is officially <em>back in action,</em> ready to spend another 12 months covering amazing board games. What new designs await us this year? What never-before-seen ideas will spring out and delight us?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: What hellscape have you interrupted my slumber for? It’s 9am on a Monday morning and I’m looking at one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Those are the goat entrails that I was reading, trying to divine what awaits us this year… Oh, no, sorry, that’s just <a href="https://monopoly.hasbro.com/en-us/product/monopoly-pizza-board-game-for-kids-ages-8-and-up:3C39C14A-1045-46EF-8EBC-1EBA8DB231C5">Monopoly: Pizza edition</a>.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Who put algorithms in charge of mass toy production? On a more serious note, it’s nice to see capitalism finally adapting to the realities of the next generation. No, you can’t afford to stay in a hotel – but we’re willing to offer you a mortgage on this small slice of pizza. We’re no fans of Monopoly here at SU&SD, to put it mildly – but I don’t think we’ll be alone as we recoil in horror to see a board designed with the aesthetic of a <em>pizza box saturated in oil. </em>I’m not one for making a fuss about people enjoying finger food whilst playing a game, but this is a whole new VISTA of wrong.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Welcome to 2019, everyone! Wherein we force our uncles to declare bankruptcy because they can’t afford olives.</p> | |
| <div class="wp-block-image"> | |
| <figure class="aligncenter"><img class="alignnone wp-image-27892 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/jme01_layout.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="398" /></figure> | |
| </div> | |
| <p>This week’s <em>actual</em> hot new game announcement comes from the esteemed offices of Fantasy Flight Games. <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/1/13/the-lord-of-the-rings-journeys-in-middle-earth/">The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth</a> is to be an enormous, co-operative questing game where players control such storied heroes as Bilbo Bobbit and Gimli the Worf. It’s also going to cost an eye-watering $100.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: ONE HUNDRO DOLLOS? How many Bobbits am I getting!?!</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: We can’t be sure, but I can tell you that for your money you won’t <em>just</em> be getting a thoroughbred box of bits.</p> | |
| <p>You see, Journeys in Middle-earth will represent the continuation of FFG’s series of co-op games where the games’ antagonists are controlled by an app. This virtual dungeon master was a hugely popular addition to tactical combat games Descent and Imperial Assault, and the same digital assistant led to a lot of very happy players in Mansions of Madness 2nd edition.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: I’ll be interested to see how this one shapes up – I had mixed feelings about their experiment with Imperial Assault, but as a ground-up design this could be very neat.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Sure! On the one hand, I’m really glad we’ve got a publisher who’s boldly experimenting with board game/video game mashups. On the other hand, I’m one of the few players who used to absolutely adore the 1 vs Many FFG games that earlier versions of these board games represented. Having one of my favourite social dynamics replaced by a phone or tablet is not what I’m personally looking for in my night’s board gaming, but I’m aware that I seem to be in the minority on that one.</p> | |
| <figure class="wp-block-image"><img class="alignnone wp-image-27896 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Untitled-1.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="383" /></figure> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Quacks of Quedlinburg by Wolfgang Warsch was one of the games I had the most fun with at the end of last year, and it’s a design that is positively <em>ripe</em> for expansions. In the game players brew potions by blindly pulling ingredients out of a bag, hoping that their concoction doesn’t <em>literally explode</em>. It’s a push your luck bag-builder with volatile potions! I’ve no idea how what I just wrote isn’t nonsense, but it’s definitely one of my favourite things about this hobby.</p> | |
| <p>As you’d expect, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/269259/die-quacksalber-von-quedlinburg-die-krauterhexen">Die Kräuterhexen</a> (or “The Herb Witches”) – the newly unveiled expansion – adds a fifth player, and a bunch of new ingredients to chuck into your cauldron. One of the listed ingredients coming is “Fool’s Herb”, or as my wife calls it: Oregano. Also added: HERBAL WITCHES. My basic-tier German and game-design spider sense leads me to believe that the Herbal Witches might be an alternative, more consistent reward system for brewing the best potion during each round. More Quacks is More Quacks though – I’m absolutely down.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Me too! Our audience can expect our video review of Quacks of Quedlinburg early next month.</p> | |
| <div class="wp-block-image"> | |
| <figure class="aligncenter"><img class="alignnone wp-image-27894 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4510280.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="412" /></figure> | |
| </div> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: In further Warsch news, the sequel to last year’s hit roll-and-write Pretty Darn Clever will be arriving later this year. The title? <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269210/doppelt-so-clever">Doppelt So Clever</a>, which translates as Double So Clever.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: I can’t wait to see how this trilogy resolves – the first game ended on quite the cliffhanger.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Don’t confuse the good people with your *larks*, Matthew! The first game was a smorgasbord of maths, canny calculation and probability with no story whatsoever, which was one of the reasons it didn’t excite us very much. Still, the first game was a fun enough time that I’m interested to see how Warsch elevates the sequel.</p> | |
| <div class="wp-block-image"> | |
| <figure class="aligncenter"><img class="alignnone wp-image-27891 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pic4509088.jpg" alt="" width="591" height="591" /></figure> | |
| </div> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: In still <em>further</em> Warsch news–</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Are we sure that Wolfgang Warsch isn’t actually a GANG OF WOLVES? It’s quite alarming how much of this week’s news is dedicated to designs from just one person, but the scope and pace of this designer is like a runaway train that’s eight metres wide. Eight metres wide, and FULL OF WOLVES.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Matt, can I tell you a secret?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Are you also a wolf</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: No. I just think Wolfgang Warsch might end up becoming one of my favourite designers. This guy released Quacks of Quedlinburg, Ganz Schon Clever, The Mind and Illusion all in 2018, which is bananas <em>and</em> bonkers. It is <em>banonkers.</em> Anyway, now he’s announced another collaboration with the publishers of The Quacks of Quedlinburg, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269207/die-tavernen-im-tiefen-thal">The Taverns of Tiefan Thal</a>, a game about running PUBS that involves DICE and CARDS.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Do we know anything else?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: NOT REALLY</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: But it’ll have dice and cards?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: YES</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: I’m IN</p> | |
| <figure class="wp-block-image"><img class="alignnone wp-image-27897 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Untitled-2.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="418" /></figure> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Next up, <a href="https://beziergames.com/collections/hot-items/products/suburbia-collectors-edition">Suburbia: Collector’s Edition</a> has been announced! Suburbia is one of the many classics that I’ve yet to find a chance to play, and beautiful new editions of solid designs is definitely something we’re all about at Shut Up & Sit Down – but personally I’m continually disappointed by the aesthetics of some of these glossy reworkings. This new collector’s edition should be a no-brainer, but it feels oddly trapped in a temporal vortex: with art design that looks like an middling Facebook game and a plastic organiser designed by a company unironically called “Game Trayz”. </p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Oh, did you miss this? I have bad news. Game Trayz (and their typographical assault on common decency) are becoming more and more common.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: I mean honestly that’s fine, it actually looks functionally rather brilliant – I’m just a snob who will happily die on a hill when it comes to people using Z instead of S.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinnz</strong>: Is that so?</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: I will kill you</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Anyhoo, I have a suspicion that you wouldn’t think this edition was ugly if you’d been exposed to the original Suburbia in person. This is a HUGE step up. More importantly, this collector’s edition will include <em>both</em> of the previously released expansions for Suburbia, Suburbia Inc and Suburbia 5 Star, plus another new expansion titled Nightlife. That’s easily worth $100 <em>before</em> you throw in the great new art and embiggened components.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: Soundz Nize</p> | |
| <figure class="wp-block-image"><img class="alignnone wp-image-27895 size-full" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/battle-racers-board.jpg" alt="" width="910" height="426" /></figure> | |
| <p><strong>Matt</strong>: While we’re on the topic of revealing me to be an awful person, what on earth is the deal with Sonic the Hedgehog. I mean yes, I loved Sonic the Hedgehog too – but why did he survive the 1990’s when so many others correctly ended in the bin? What about Cool Spot? Zool? Where is the fervent fandom for Puggsy? You’ll have to finish the games news yourself, I’m off to start a Change.org petition to bring back <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1cFNEUcVi8">Rolo the Elephant</a>.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Quinns</strong>: Oh god. I just lot 10 minutes of my work day to watching that stupid video and I will <em>not</em> be signing your petition.</p> | |
| <p>Anyway, <a href="http://www.dicetowernews.com/sonic-battle-racers-coming-in-february/56530">Sonic Battle Racers</a> is an upcoming board game from Shinobi 7, a studio who are making a few licensed board games. Mostly I included this in the news to say that it seems the 2018 trend of publishers outside of board games commissioning (usually middling) licensed games of their intellectual properties will only increase in 2019. That’s something I’m not wild about, <em>even if</em> you game ships with no less than 40 “Badnik Tokens”.</p> | |
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| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-14-01-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>97</slash:comments> | |
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| <item> | |
| <title>10 Board Games to Buy the Enthusiast this Christmas</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/10-board-games-to-buy-the-enthusiast-this-christmas/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/10-board-games-to-buy-the-enthusiast-this-christmas/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Our Favourites]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Special Features]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/10-board-games-to-buy-the-enthusiast-this-christmas/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<b>Quinns</b>: I’m hoping that by now you’ve all seen Matt’s amazing video on big games to play with your family over Christmas. Didn’t he do a good job? And wasn’t it kind of hot seeing him dressed as a reindeer 30 seconds in? | |
| But there’s simply no time to imagine stroking Matt’s downy fur, or his rock-hard antlers. Today I’m presenting our second (and final) holiday list feature: 10 strong gifts for the hobbyist board gamer in your life that you can actually buy. | |
| That's because a lot of the hottest games this year, like Root, Brass: Birmingham and Welcome To, sold out almost instantly. Not so with this list! We’ve made sure each of these titles is in stock to buy in North America and the UK.]]></description> | |
| <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Quinns</strong>: I’m hoping that by now you’ve all seen Matt’s <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/15-great-games-to-fill-your-table-this-christmas/">amazing video on big games to play with your family over Christmas</a>. Didn’t he do a good job? And wasn’t it kind of hot seeing him dressed as a reindeer 30 seconds in?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But there’s simply no time to imagine stroking Matt’s downy fur, or his rock-hard antlers. Today I’m presenting our second (and final) holiday list feature: 10 strong gifts for the hobbyist board gamer in your life </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">that you can actually buy.</span></i></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s because a lot of the hottest games this year, like <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-root-and-the-riverfolk-expansion/">Root</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-brass-birmingham/">Brass: Birmingham</a> and <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-welcome-to/">Welcome To</a>, sold out almost instantly. Not so with this list! We’ve made sure each of these titles is in stock to buy in North America and the UK.</span><span id="more-3303"></span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We’re also using this as an opportunity to highlight games that, for one reason or another, are more likely to have flown under your radar. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Oh, and one last thing- I’ve arranged this list from most to least aggressive. If you’re looking for fighty games, they’re nearer the top of the list. For more chilled-out experiences, you can scroll to the end.</span></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/star-wars-legion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Star Wars: Legion</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star-wars-legion.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star-wars-legion.jpg 1024w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star-wars-legion-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star-wars-legion-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star-wars-legion-768x768.jpg 768w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star-wars-legion-200x200.jpg 200w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star-wars-legion-400x400.jpg 400w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/star-wars-legion-800x800.jpg 800w" alt="" width="637" height="637" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=susd-recommends" rel="tag">SU&SD Recommends</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=war-games" rel="tag">War Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=games-for-two" rel="tag">Games for Two</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=miniatures-games" rel="tag">Miniatures Games</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/star-wars-legion/" rel="tag">Star Wars Legion</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-2/" rel="tag">2</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/14/" rel="tag">14 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/60-120/" rel="tag">60 – 120</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-Legion-Board/dp/B076JNSDGL?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/star-wars-legion-core-set" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Little star-folk having a fight on your kitchen table? Is this a hallucination brought on by a devastating overdose of roast potatoes? Not at all! It’s just Star Wars: Legion, the latest Star Wars miniatures game from Fantasy Flight games, makers of the phenomenal X-Wing Miniatures Game, as well as the excellent Star Wars: Armada.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlike its space-faring sisters, Legion depicts the infantry battles of Star Wars, complete with stompy AT-ATs and a sackful of characters from the films. By all accounts, it’s a ton of fun- see our review <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-star-wars-legion/">here</a>. Marching squads of tiny Stormtroopers across your table has a broad, seductive appeal, does it not?</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The catch is that Star Wars: Legion is expensive, and requires a load of assembly and painting. For some people, this will be a great thing. For others, it’ll be chore. For a fun miniatures game that requires no assembly, no painting and almost no money, you should instead take a look at </span><a href="https://gaslands.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gaslands</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/battle-for-rokugan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Battle for Rokugan</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/pic3741716.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/pic3741716.jpg 771w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/pic3741716-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/pic3741716-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/pic3741716-200x200.jpg 200w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/pic3741716-400x398.jpg 400w" alt="" width="268" height="267" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=bluffing-games" rel="tag">Bluffing Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=war-games" rel="tag">War Games</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/battle-for-rokugan/" rel="tag">Battle for Rokugan</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-5/" rel="tag">2 – 5</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/10/" rel="tag">10 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/60-90/" rel="tag">60 – 90</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-L5B01-Rokugan/dp/B076TRQZX5?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/battle-for-rokugan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are loads of board games that see players battling for control of a nation, but they tend to be (a) expensive, (b) long, and (c) complicated.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Battle for Rokugan is none of those things, and instead offers the cut and thrust of Machiavellian warfare in a svelte box that has players feeling tense and exposed from the very beginning, and is for sale for the tasty price of just $32!</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-battle-for-rokugan/">his review</a>, Paul said “Battle for Rokugan isn’t a wargame I’d tell anyone to get first but, but if you absolutely demand more, it’s the one you get next.” He also described it as “A katana party in a corner cabinet.” Have I sold you on it yet? </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> sold. Get out of my way, I’m buying it</span></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/cyclades/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cyclades</a> & <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/cyclades-titans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cyclades: Titans</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/a7859b2058f307665645b7641f456130.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/a7859b2058f307665645b7641f456130.jpg 768w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/a7859b2058f307665645b7641f456130-300x209.jpg 300w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/a7859b2058f307665645b7641f456130-200x140.jpg 200w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/a7859b2058f307665645b7641f456130-400x279.jpg 400w" alt="Cyclades" width="316" height="221" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=susd-recommends" rel="tag">SU&SD Recommends</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=war-games" rel="tag">War Games</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/cyclades/" rel="tag">Cyclades</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-5/" rel="tag">2 – 5</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/13/" rel="tag">13 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/90-null/" rel="tag">90 +</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Asmodee-CYC01-Cyclades-Board-Game/dp/B002SAMB1Q?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/cyclades" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/da78a096754d6522ec4ce09f6dc5614d.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/da78a096754d6522ec4ce09f6dc5614d.jpg 768w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/da78a096754d6522ec4ce09f6dc5614d-300x209.jpg 300w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/da78a096754d6522ec4ce09f6dc5614d-200x139.jpg 200w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/da78a096754d6522ec4ce09f6dc5614d-400x279.jpg 400w" alt="Cyclades: Titans" width="301" height="210" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=expansions" rel="tag">Expansions</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/cyclades-titans/" rel="tag">Cyclades: Titans</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/3-6/" rel="tag">3 – 6</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/10/" rel="tag">10 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/90-null/" rel="tag">90 +</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Asmodee-MATSCYC3-Cyclades-Titans/dp/B00IM8B1R8?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/cyclades-titans" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><iframe title="Cyclades: Titans - Shut Up & Sit Down Review" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j70a7sGJOck?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cyclades: Titans first came out in 2014, but the fact that I’m <em>still thinking about it</em> should tell you an awful lot. This is actually a transformative expansion for a game called Cyclades, so if your friend doesn’t own that, you’ll need to buy both the base game <em>and</em> the Titans expansion. But that’s ok! With board game prices creeping higher and higher, buying two old games is often the price of a single 2018 release.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And goodness me, it’s worth buying two separate boxes for the experience offered by Cyclades: Titans. This takes the interesting, auction-powered wargame of Cyclades and (as well as adding all sorts of new ideas and content) makes Cyclades a team-based game that’s going to feel like nothing else in your friend’s board game collection.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cyclades’ older cousins also make fine gifts. There’s Kemet, recently rejuvenated by fascinating all-vs-one expansion Kemet: Seth, and the beautiful game of Inis, which will be receiving an expansion of its own in the new year.</span></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/whitehall-mystery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Whitehall Mystery</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pic3360633_lg.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 1022px) 100vw, 1022px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pic3360633_lg.jpg 1022w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pic3360633_lg-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pic3360633_lg-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pic3360633_lg-200x200.jpg 200w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pic3360633_lg-400x400.jpg 400w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pic3360633_lg-798x800.jpg 798w" alt="" width="658" height="659" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=susd-recommends" rel="tag">SU&SD Recommends</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=new-to-games" rel="tag">New to Games?</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=bluffing-games" rel="tag">Bluffing Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=cooperative-games" rel="tag">Cooperative Games</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/whitehall-mystery/" rel="tag">Whitehall Mystery</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-4/" rel="tag">2 – 4</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/12/" rel="tag">12 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/60-180/" rel="tag">60 – 180</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-Whitehall-Mystery/dp/B074Q1HNJM?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/whitehall-mystery" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Goodness gracious, Whitehall Mystery is such a good box. Hidden movement – where one player plots their movement on the board secretly and everybody else works together to find them – is a genre beloved to most board gamers, and this is now my favourite hidden movement game.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I didn’t <em>think</em> I would like it, either- Whitehall Mystery is a very pared down example of the genre, and comes in a small box with a low price. But in play, this game reveals its grandeur like a soloist walking into a spotlight. In discarding all of the extraneous stuff, Whitehall Mystery lets you focus on the hidden movement, which is the best part of the genre. That it does so at a low price and in a slim box? That’s just a bonus.</span></p> | |
| <p><iframe title="SU&SD Play... Whitehall Mystery!" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0itUHQP6Zyo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/a-tale-of-pirates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Tale of Pirates</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/pic3678807_lg.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/pic3678807_lg.jpg 614w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/pic3678807_lg-300x220.jpg 300w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/pic3678807_lg-200x147.jpg 200w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/pic3678807_lg-400x293.jpg 400w" alt="" width="874" height="641" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=susd-recommends" rel="tag">SU&SD Recommends</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=new-to-games" rel="tag">New to Games?</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=conflict-free-games" rel="tag">Conflict-Free Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=cooperative-games" rel="tag">Cooperative Games</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/a-tale-of-pirates/" rel="tag">A Tale of Pirates</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-4/" rel="tag">2 – 4</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/8/" rel="tag">8 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/30-plus/" rel="tag">30 +</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Cranio-Creations-CC055-Tale-Pirates/dp/B075FDGGXG?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Board-Games-Cranio-Creations-CC055/dp/B075FDGGXG?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.co.uk</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yo ho ho and a bottle of <em>fun!</em> And also bottle of rum. It’s Christmas, give it here. No I don’t need a glass</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Tale of Pirates (see our review <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-a-tale-of-pirates/">here</a>) is the game on this list that your friends will definitely not be expecting. I’ve barely seen anyone talking about it, and in fact, I wasn’t even expecting to have fun when I sat down to play it. But I’m glad I did, because the hours that followed were some of the zaniest fun I’ve had all year.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is a co-op game centred around a big, three-dimensional cardboard pirate ship(!). Players, representing the crew of the ship, place sand timers in various slots when they want to raise or lower the sails, fire or reload cannons, spin to the left or right, and so on, and when the sand runs out, you perform that action. This is an act requiring substantial co-ordination, which is fun, and where failure is hilarious, which is even more fun. Throw in the fact that the game has all sorts of surprises awaiting you in its 6 hour campaign, and you’ve got a lovely, memorable Christmas present.</span></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/through-the-desert/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Through the Desert</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/through-the-desert-2017-cover.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/through-the-desert-2017-cover.jpg 1024w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/through-the-desert-2017-cover-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/through-the-desert-2017-cover-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/through-the-desert-2017-cover-768x768.jpg 768w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/through-the-desert-2017-cover-200x200.jpg 200w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/through-the-desert-2017-cover-400x400.jpg 400w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/through-the-desert-2017-cover-800x800.jpg 800w" alt="" width="284" height="284" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=susd-recommends" rel="tag">SU&SD Recommends</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=new-to-games" rel="tag">New to Games?</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/through-the-desert/" rel="tag">Through the Desert</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-5/" rel="tag">2 – 5</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/10/" rel="tag">10 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/45-60/" rel="tag">45 – 60</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-KN28-Through/dp/B0779N6N7P?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/through-the-desert" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I love the new, updated edition of Through the Desert, as you’ll know from <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-through-the-desert/">my review</a>. I mean, if I’m honest, I love all of the new editions of Reiner Knizia’s classic games (see </span><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-samurai/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-ra/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-tigris-euphrates/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://www.zmangames.com/en/products/taj-mahal/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">), but if you were thinking of buying Through the Desert, it’s this box that would see me shooting you the most confident thumbs up.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is a classic of board game design along the lines of Ticket to Ride- accessible, thoughtful, and filled to the brim with cute plastic pieces for you to stud the board with. But there’s a coy charm to Through the Desert that I don’t think you find in Ticket to Ride, and it comes from the fact that everybody is trying to achieve four or five sneaky land-grabs at once, and everyone is punishing everyone else’s hubris with every single move they make.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I really like it a lot. Plus, when you’re finished with a game the board looks realllllllly good on Instagram. Just sayin’.</span></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/space-base/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Space Base</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/pic4017302.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/pic4017302.jpg 500w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/pic4017302-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/pic4017302-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/pic4017302-200x200.jpg 200w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/pic4017302-400x398.jpg 400w" alt="" width="502" height="500" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=susd-recommends" rel="tag">SU&SD Recommends</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=conflict-free-games" rel="tag">Conflict-Free Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=games-for-two" rel="tag">Games for Two</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/space-base/" rel="tag">Space Base</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-5/" rel="tag">2 – 5</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/14/" rel="tag">14 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/30-75/" rel="tag">30 – 75</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/AEG-7032AEG-Space-Base/dp/B0793MT3Y6?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/collections/new-releases-week-commencing-30-april/products/space-base" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Oh baby! The </span><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-10-12-18/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">announcement</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> this week that multiple expansions will be released for Space Base has got me all hot and bothered. As I said in </span><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-space-base/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">my review</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, I really enjoy this colourful game of rolling dice and dispatching spaceships as if you were a cross between a craps player and an air traffic controller. In fact, it’s my favourite dice game that I played all year.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s not a perfect game – as I pointed out in my review, it can go a little long and can conjure a few rules queries – but when you’ve got a price that low and production that fabulous, I’ll forgive you in a heartbeat and get back to rolling your sparkly dice.</span></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/isle-skye/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Isle of Skye</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/c47b1aa3823faa7be6a7e4fb24d85ef6.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/c47b1aa3823faa7be6a7e4fb24d85ef6.jpg 768w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/c47b1aa3823faa7be6a7e4fb24d85ef6-208x300.jpg 208w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/c47b1aa3823faa7be6a7e4fb24d85ef6-709x1024.jpg 709w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/c47b1aa3823faa7be6a7e4fb24d85ef6-139x200.jpg 139w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/c47b1aa3823faa7be6a7e4fb24d85ef6-277x400.jpg 277w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/c47b1aa3823faa7be6a7e4fb24d85ef6-554x800.jpg 554w" alt="Isle of Skye" width="607" height="876" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=susd-recommends" rel="tag">SU&SD Recommends</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=new-to-games" rel="tag">New to Games?</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=conflict-free-games" rel="tag">Conflict-Free Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=quick-games" rel="tag">Quick Games</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/isle-of-skye/" rel="tag">Isle of Skye</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-5/" rel="tag">2 – 5</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/8/" rel="tag">8 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/45-90/" rel="tag">45 – 90</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Isle-of-Skye-Board-Game/dp/B012HND8S8?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/isle-of-skye" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Holy kittens, Isle of Skye is good. Like Whitehall Mystery and Space Base, this is another game that punches way above its weight, offering a rock-solid tile placement game for just $32. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Isle of Skye’s premise is very cute. Everyone is developing their own little Scottish island, which in turn generates a little money for you, which you then use to buy more tiles from a selection put up for sale by all of your friends. It’s curious and tricky, but also excellently error-prone, with players ending up with tiles they don’t want or perhaps no tile at all. Disaster!</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Better yet, whenever you start to tire of it, you can pick up </span><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-isle-of-skye-journeyman/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the Journeyman expansion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that dramatically complicates the game. I’ve never seen anything quite like it- you have this perfectly friendly, quick, accessible base game, and the expansion develops into an equally good mid-weight game with a raft of extra rules and angles to consider. It’s nuts.</span></p> | |
| <p><iframe title="Isle of Skye - Shut Up & Sit Down Review" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xj7GpCYMtTs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/lowlands/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lowlands</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pic4007841.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 429px) 100vw, 429px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pic4007841.jpg 429w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pic4007841-215x300.jpg 215w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pic4007841-143x200.jpg 143w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pic4007841-286x400.jpg 286w" alt="" width="624" height="873" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=susd-recommends" rel="tag">SU&SD Recommends</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=heavy-games" rel="tag">Heavy Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=conflict-free-games" rel="tag">Conflict-Free Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=games-for-two" rel="tag">Games for Two</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/lowlands/" rel="tag">Lowlands</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-4/" rel="tag">2 – 4</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/12/" rel="tag">12 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/50-100/" rel="tag">50 – 100</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Zman-Games-ZF002-Board-Various/dp/B07BN33J4R?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/lowlands?variant=12122154008649" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And if you like managing European pastoral scenes made out of squares, you’re going to <em>love</em> Lowlands. This game of managing sheep and building (or failing to build) a dyke to keep them safe is on the more expensive side of the games we recommend, but it offers you a lot for your money. There’s lovely art, plenty of wood in the box, and plenty of tasty, tasty game. This is a truly luxurious Christmas gift.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Perhaps more importantly, Lowlands is also one of the best resource management games we’ve played all year. The threat of a flood bombing your score makes for plenty of tension, but in all other respects the game is tremendously rewarding, constantly offering you more money, more sheep and more buildings. </span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Who says counting sheep was supposed to be soporific? It Lowlands it’s only ever tremendously exciting.</span></p> | |
| <p><iframe title="Lowlands - Shut Up & Sit Down Review" width="728" height="410" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UGjBrQk4ekw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> | |
| <h1 id="pagetitle" class="textalignleft parallaxpgtitle dark "><a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games/altiplano" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Altiplano</a></h1> | |
| <table style="width: 100%; border: 0;"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td><img class="attachment-full wp-post-image" src="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/altiplano-box.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 429px) 100vw, 429px" srcset="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/altiplano-box.jpg 429w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/altiplano-box-215x300.jpg 215w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/altiplano-box-143x200.jpg 143w, https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/altiplano-box-286x400.jpg 286w" alt="" width="272" height="380" /></td> | |
| <td> | |
| <div class="blog_post_meta_line"><span class="blog_post_meta_categories"><i class="icon-folder"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=heavy-games" rel="tag">Heavy Games</a>, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/?taxonomy=category_games&term=games-for-two" rel="tag">Games for Two</a></span><span class="blog_post_meta_tags"><br /> | |
| <i class="icon-tag"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/tag/altiplano/" rel="tag">Altiplano</a></span><br /> | |
| <span class="blog_post_meta_players"><i class="icon-users"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/player_amount/2-5/" rel="tag">2 – 5</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_agerest"><i class="icon-child"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/age_restriction/12/" rel="tag">12 +</a> </span><span class="blog_post_meta_playtime"><i class="icon-clock"></i> <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/playing_time/60-120/" rel="tag">60 – 120</a> Min </span></div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-table"> | |
| <div class="one-half first"> | |
| <div class="location">United States</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://www.amazon.com/Renegade-Game-Studios-DLP01014-Altiplano/dp/B000CA7O02?tag=shupsido02-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon.com</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| <div class="one-half"> | |
| <div class="location">United Kingdom</div> | |
| <div class="susd-ads-links"><a class="susd-donate-button" href="https://leisuregames.com/products/altiplano" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leisure Games</a></div> | |
| </div> | |
| </div> | |
| </td> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finally, if your friend enjoys putting things into bags and then taking them out again, do we have a treat for them!</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Altiplano is a remarkably sedate yet <em>very</em> tricky game about slowly building up your holdings in the highlands of the Andes, first collecting fish and corn for the bag that holds all of your resources (and from which you randomly draw them, letting you do actions), but later getting fabulous things like llamas and jewels are CARPETS. Have you ever wanted to own a carpet? I know I have.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While the lack of player interaction will be a deal-breaker for some people, it’s on this list because it’s remained close to our hearts ever since we first reviewed it, partially for the puzzle, but also partially for the unusual theme. If you were looking for something a little more interactive and don’t give two toots about llamas, its sister game, <a href="https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-orleans/">Orleans</a>, is well worth a look.</span></p> | |
| <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s it from us, but if you’ve got suggestions of your own for great Christmas gifts that have available stock (using </span><a href="https://boardgameprices.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">boardgameprices.com</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://boardgameprices.co.uk/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">.co.uk</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is a quick way of finding out), then do leave a comment! After all, if Christmas teaches us one thing, it’s that capitalism is stressful and we’re stronger together.</span></p> | |
| ]]></content:encoded> | |
| <wfw:commentRss>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/10-board-games-to-buy-the-enthusiast-this-christmas/feed/</wfw:commentRss> | |
| <slash:comments>72</slash:comments> | |
| </item> | |
| <item> | |
| <title>Games News! 10/12/18</title> | |
| <link>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-10-12-18/</link> | |
| <comments>https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-10-12-18/#comments</comments> | |
| <pubDate>Mon, 10 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> | |
| <dc:creator><![CDATA[webdeveloper]]></dc:creator> | |
| <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Tiny Towns]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Wingspan]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Space Base: The Emergence of Shy Pluto]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Space Base]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Clank!]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[Ragusa]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[QE]]></category> | |
| <category><![CDATA[The Pearple's Choice Awards]]></category> | |
| <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/games-news-10-12-18/</guid> | |
| <description><![CDATA[<strong>Quinns</strong>: Good morning everybody! How are we all? Are we feeling Christmassy yet? | |
| On second thoughts, perhaps we shouldn’t waste our energy on chit-chat. We have a dense and fibrous stack of news to get through, you and I. We’re going to be bloated with announcements by the end of this. Stuffed with stats. <em>Packed with press releases.</em> | |
| Let’s start with the smallest announcement and see how we fa |
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