Saturday, August 14th, 2010 - Roleplaying Game
The bards will sing your praises as you battle epic monsters straight out of Norse Myth in The Hellfrost Players Guide by Triple Ace Games. This is the first in a series of books detailing the frozen lands of Rassilon and all your players will need to begin their adventures in a “cool” fantasy world using the Savage Worlds system.
The Hellfrost Players Guide is a welcome addition to the growing list of Savage Worlds supplements. Authored by fan favorite Paul “Wiggy” Wade, the guide offers an excellent take on epic Norse style fantasy. A cool new setting takes front and center as the lands of Rassilon are introduced. A glory system offers new ways for characters to grow into legends in their own right as their tales are told. Perfect use of new edges brings the world to life along with some new takes on magic. One of the Savage Worlds mantras, “Fast, Furious, Fun” is taken into account masterfully in this book. This is a good place for Savage Worlds players to find the fantasy world they’ve been looking for.
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Monday, May 17th, 2010 - Card Game
Saint Petersburg is a card game attributed to Michael Tummelhoffer, a pseudonym for German board game publisher Hans im Glück’s lead developer Bernd Brunhofer. Set during Peter the Great’s effort in the 17th and 18th centuries to modernize Russia, Saint Petersburg is about the construction of the titular city — meant to be the future capital of Russia – from nothing. The players are movers and shakers seeking Peter’s favor by making the greatest contributions to Saint Petersburg’s development.
Saint Petersburg is a middleweight euro, roughly analogous to Ra or San Juan, so all of this is heavily abstracted. The core system is clean and compelling, and the artistic presentation is distinctive and stylish as well. In fact, it is compelling enough, and plays fast enough, that it has been a favorite of my gaming group ever since I introduced it almost six years ago. It has even overcome some significant balance issues and, perhaps, a certain sameness from game to game. The recent (2009) expansion – designed by Karl-Heinz Schmiel and Race for the Galaxy’s Tom Lehmann – addresses the worst of these balance issues and adds a couple novel twists, but it can cause other problems if used uncritically. I nevertheless strongly recommend Saint Petersburg to eurogame fans. It is a minor classic that offers just enough interesting choices to overcome its flaws and remain charming.
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Thursday, April 29th, 2010 - Card Game
There are two signs of a golden age: quality and quantity – and as I’ve said before, we most definitely are living in a golden age of board games. A few great games does not a golden age make: you need a tsunami of great games, which in turn demands a tsunami of games in general, good and bad. In RPGs this was facilitated by the indie movement, the rise of self-publishing, and by print-on-demand. Apart from Cheapass Games, it’s taken a little while for board and card games to follow suit, but thanks to the wonderfully clever people at www.thegamecrafter.com and others, publishing on the cheap is now possible for start-ups in the board game industry as well. And so it is that a small fledgling company called Ninja Vs Pirates can publish quick and quirky card games with almost no art or budget. One of these is the story-telling game Shenanigans on the 8th Sea.
Storytelling games pique my interest because there is no game in the world I like more than Once Upon A Time – and party-type games in general are right in my wheelhouse. But this also raises the stakes, because if you’re going to step into a horse race with Once Upon A Time, you’d better be bringing your A-game, and you’d better be bringing something new to the table. Shenanigans fails at both tasks. Shenanigans is the worst kind of party game, confusing simplicity with poor design and believing a spirit of freewheeling fun is excuse for a lack of playtesting. It not only doesn’t deserve to be in the race with Once Upon A Time, it probably shouldn’t even be on the market.
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