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August 24, 2003

Another Boston Visit

The end of Jeanne's vacation visit this week brought me another chance to brave Mass. Ave. and the resident game stores...

It was a most fruitful trip...

RPG Finds:
Gorilla Warfare, the Jammer sourcebook for Feng Shui, which looks from a quick read-through to be one of the better sourcebooks, thanks to sticking close to the Shadowfist card game for additional characters and to adding new non-archanotech cybernetics (long needed).

Talent Operations Command Intelligence Bulletin No. 2 is a mock US Army publication for Godlike, detailing both the Allied and Axis talent forces, including full details on the Allies standard training methods, for use in games where the PCs are trained commando-style units. This is going to be very handy for the game I'm still working on.

Board/Card Game Finds (already read or at least skimmed):
Attack and Attack Expansion are Eagle Games' new WWII board game. As is standard with Eagle (I had picked up their Sid Meier's Civilization earlier in the week and already owned their Napoleonics, American Civil War, and Victorian Era games), the pieces are very impressive (massive amounts of reasonably high quality soft plastic figures and huge boards) but the rules are somewhat less impressive. By trying to keep the rules closer to Risk than to Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (though there is quite a bit more here than there is to Risk), they manage a game that seems like it will be fun to play, but that won't really simulate WWII all that much. The expansion moves a good bit further toward simulation, albeit highly randomly, with Technology cards, politics-influenced minor powers, and less abstracted navies. Kinda feels like Axis and Allies done over from scratch.

Mini Fomula De is a nice small re-working of the fantastic Formula De. The rules are simplified, the tracks are fast and easily maneuvered, and everything is a bit smaller (so it will fit on more tables). The two tracks provided are a bit silly and simplistic (no sharp turns, making downshifting unlikely), but the base idea is sound and this game will be a lot easier to carry around than the original.

Troia is a game of archeologists competing to uncover the ruins of Troy. Game pieces are piled up in roughly historic order and must be drawn from the jumble and assembled into sets for optimal publication. Publishing quickly maximizes points, but each player gets only a limited number of publications, so you can't waste them.

Wheedle is Knizia and Out of the Box Games doing a quick, light trading game of the Pit style, with some Rummy flavor as well. Players trade cards representing stock in companies in a rapid-fire, turnless fashion. You can stop trading when all your cards score points (i.e., when they represent all majority-holdings in non-bankrupt companies). Stopping trading is worth bonus points, but stopping incorrectly (i.e., with worthless cards in your hand) costs points. At all times, one company is face-up as Bankrupt... but any player can trade with the table to switch which company that is. It looks to be a great, fast-paced game, easily learned and quick to play.

Other Board/Card Game Finds:
Nanofictionary
King's Breakfast
Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island (and expansion/sister game to Grave Robbers From Outer Space and Cannibal Pygmies In The Jungle of Doom)
Reiner Knizia's Amazing Flea Circus
Lawless
Nobody But Us Chickens
Munchkin Fu

Posted by ghoul at August 24, 2003 08:08 AM

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Comments

You do have Graverobbers From Outerspace floating around in this collection of yours, don't you?

Posted by: Jessi at August 24, 2003 10:41 AM

Oh yeah. Now I have all three and can make some VERY odd movies!

Posted by: Ghoul at August 24, 2003 11:05 AM

A refined Formula De? Cool. I'll pass the word to my contingent.

Posted by: Scott at August 25, 2003 08:27 AM


It's certainly good to hear that you're still hoping to run that Godlike game. And that new supplement sounds pretty interesting too.


Michael

Posted by: Michael at August 25, 2003 09:59 PM

Yes, the Godlike game is still on my mind, but I've found myself having less time than I wanted to work it out, and I've been distracted with a few other projects (mostly less fun).

The new book should help to re-focus me.

Posted by: Ghoul at August 26, 2003 11:06 AM

Anye from Diet Evil Games here,

Out of curiosity, which store did you see "Nobody But Us Chickens" at? We keep a retailer locator on our website to keep track of which stores have our games.

Thanks,
Anye M. Sellers
Diet Evil Games

Posted by: Anye Sellers at October 29, 2003 08:26 AM

I'm fairly certain it was Games People Play in Cambridge, MA. They do a pretty good job of carrying "everything", which is why it's dangerous for me to go there.

Posted by: Ghoul at November 6, 2003 04:22 PM

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