Cards & Boards

Now, while I’ve never covered role-playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), save for several special boxed introductory products that resemble boardgames that use miniatures and other special, cool-looking game aids, I think the next iteration of the iconic Wizards of the Coast product is worth a special mention.

After all, many game veterans will agree with me in saying that RPGs have largely inspired many fantasy games, including genres and subgenres. One can easily see that TCGs (trading card games) to boardgames, such as Heroquest, Talisman and the like, and even computer games, all take a cue from RPGs.

 
Wizards of the Coast’s latest announcement indicated that they’re doing a yet-to-be-officially named all-new edition to replace the existing 4th Edition. Everyone’s calling it 5th Edition in the meantime, or 5E in short.

The key differentiator for 5E this time around is the crowdsourcing method that Wizards will use, in order to tweak and finetune the game. This looks like Wizards attempt to get the once-great title to its former number one status.

Gawker Media’s io9 blog has a great article, that gives you the lowdown on all the past D&D editions, as well as their take on whether it’s possible for Wizards to “unify” all the editions under a single, “one-system-to-rule-them-all” game system. Nice one!

Have something to say? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

We’ve just entered the year 2012, and another holiday season passes us.

2011 was another decent one, games-wise, with polished products being churned out for Magic: the Gathering and the World of Warcraft TCG (WoW TCG). Games companies such as Fantasy Flight Games continued to impress with a slew of awesome products, with Blood Bowl Team Manager: The Card Game being one of the year’s surprise hits.

New box art for the upcoming Fortress America remake from Fantasy Flight Games.

This year should see more interesting releases and products. Apart from the usual follow-up expansions and follow-ups to existing product lines, there should be a couple of gems to look out for.

FFG seems to be setting the pace for the other game companies, as they’ve already lined up a Star Wars card game AND a Star Wars miniatures tactical combat game, after scooping the vaunted rights to the lucrative franchise.

These gaming stalwarts are also remaking Fortress America, a classic Milton-Bradley / Avalon Hill strategy boardgame back in the 1980s, and Nexus Ops, which was recently done by Hasbro and Avalon Hill (just several years back).

Fortress America looks like it will be majorly overhauled – well, the first preview article from FFG gives little away, but let’s see what the finished product will look like eh?

Have something to say? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Some weeks ago I blogged about the new Fantasy Flight Games (FFG in short) Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game.

You might, at this point of time, groan and go, no, not another card game! Well, fear not my bloodthirsty Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Chaotic fellas and Rat, err, Skavens, for the game is a non-collectible one. Better yet, it is not even a Living Card Game, which makes this entirely self-contained, and very wallet-friendly.

Of course the cynics would note that the game might well have numerous expansions that introduce new teams, races and what-not, but let’s rejoice in the game being self-contained, and entirely playable on its own. Hoo-ah!

The awesome news is that local distributors should be having this mighty exciting looking game in the shops by this weekend.

Word has it that this game will retail for roughly RM135. Not too pricey, not too cheap either – I like!

Curious to see how the game works? Check out the FFG YouTube demo link embedded in its announcement article, here.

Well, all I can say is, this weekend can’t come soon enough!

What do you guys think? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Ever wondered if games were be able to influence our daily lives. I’m not just talking about boardgames that make you brainier (Scrabble for instance) or sharper (Settlers of Catan), but what if you played a game, and your very life depended on it? (more…)