Polish publisher, Wolf Fang, has just announced that a 2nd version of their card game, CrystalicuM, will be released September 14th. Unfortunately, the game will be in Polish only. Wold Fang doesn’t want you to cry though, as a board game version will be hitting Poland, the US, and Germany later this year.

You remember Wolf Fang from when we reported about the game 7. All of their stuff looks pretty cool, but I have NO idea how any of it plays.

If you’re interested in CrystalicuM, you can checkout the Facebook page here. Oh yeah, it’s in Polish.

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Scattergories Categories is a new variant on the Scattergories word game. Published by Winning Moves, the game challenges players to find words that begin with the letters making up the category name. So for example, when the category is “road trip,” players need to come up with words beginning with R-O-A-D-T-R-I-P. Just like the original Scattergories, points are accumulated for each unique answer.

The game’s designer, Kim Vandenbroucke, has been a reader and regular commenter on Purple Pawn, so I thought it a great opportunity to find out more about the game’s origin.

You’re a professional game designer. How did this project come about? And what was it like taking on such a well-established brand?

I love word games and just couldn’t get this idea of a vertical word challenge out of my head but initially the idea for Scattergories Categories wasn’t for the Scattergories brand. It was a small mini-game in a larger game concept but in a client meeting it was obvious that this small segment of the game was just too big of an idea to stay as a mini-game. It was kind of a “duh” moment and was obvious that it would be a great extension for the Scattergories brand.

What was your goal with this variant on the Scattergories game? Was there something you were trying to accomplish or a particular experience you were trying to create?

I have enjoyed playing Scattergories for years but I always found the 12 category cards limiting. Sure, you use different letters each time but now I feel like I’ve been tackling the same categories over and over. With Scattergories Categories, you get a different category in every round and with 250 different ones it’s going to be a LONG while before you repeat a card. Having tons of categories was something that really appealed to me even before I had the “duh, this should be a Scattergories game” moment. The variety of topics really keeps the game fresh.

Well, it’s obvious to me that Scattergories Categories is as much a result of Kim’s love of playing games as it is her job to design them.

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Games Workshop has released the boxed starter set for the latest edition of the Warhammer fantasy battles game. The Island of Blood includes High Elf and Skaven armies (74 figures total), a rule book, a getting-started booklet, dice, templates, and range rulers.

In other GW news, Bwana Bill over at the Tabletop Wargames Blog reports that Games Workshop is planning a Warhammer Historical book for World War II games titled Kampfgruppe Normandy.

And finally, Games Workshop has opened another three retail Hobby Centres—in Denton, Texas; Lyons, France; and Pforzheim, Germany.

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John Wick does Monopoly… what!?!

Oh, a Cthulhu version with monsters and cultists moving counter-clockwise to rob players of their sanity. That makes sense, sort of.

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What’s considered safe in the board game industry by Hasbro? Releasing a game that plays nearly identically to a previously popular game, and using the popularity of the previous game to sell the new one. The thing is, the games often have new mechanics, some of which actually improve the game. It’s just nice to have a well known brand name to boost the attention of passing shoppers.

Given how little actually changes in the game play, it’s amazing how much Hasbro’s art and packaging divisions have to do.

• Sorry Spin: It’s just like Sorry, but parts of the board spin.
• Trivial Pursuit Steal: 55 question cards in a small box.
• Trivial Pursuit Master Edition: Harder questions.
• Cranium Scribblish: Telephone game of definitions and drawing.
• Candyland Deluxe: With additional plastic toys.
• Bop It Bounce: With bouncing challenges.
• Trivial Pursuit Bet You Know It: A Wits and Wagers type game.
• Twister Hoopla: With hoops, no mat. Some additional race games.
• Guess Who Mix and Mash: Create a face from different parts, and then guess the result.
• Monopoly Revolution: A round board.

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Callisto is a tile-laying game that looks and plays remarkably similar to the hit game Blokus. What’s different?

• Tiles must touch orthogonally, not diagonally.
• You have three single piece tiles; place two at the beginning of the game anywhere you want, and place the third anywhere you want later during the game. Use the third piece if you need to start a new field, or to block a field someone else is using.
• Unlike Blokus, Callisto plays naturally with 2, 3, or 4 players.
• It’s uglier.

Blokus is a fantastic game, and Callisto looks to be about the same. Are they strategically identical? Probably not. A small change in the rule-set is sometimes enough to make a big change in the strategy. Still, I would be hesitant to buy both, unless money and space was no object.

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Given a word, sing a song with that word in it; I play this game all the time at the dinner table. That’s the premise of Spontuneous, self-published by Rob Ridgeway. Add a die to randomly reward someone with movement after they name a tune and you’re set.

The game is $30, but for $100 you can get the “Platinum” edition, which includes a regular copy and a numbered copy with a different box, including a “unique photo of inventor’s friends on box back”.

Source describes the usual stars in the inventor’s eyes (trademarks, patents, etc.)

(source)

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We’ve all done it at some time or another. There’s no way you’re going to win, and one of the other guys so brutally wronged you in the past. What do you do? Help someone else gain the upper hand to totally crush your mortal enemy!

Now, of course, you’re probably being a total jerk by doing this.

So what are your thoughts on kingmaking? My own opinion is that it depends on the situation entirely. A little light hearted kingmaking goes a long when when you can’t win, but you can help your spouse, significant other, or kid win.

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Hamlet’s Hit Points is a game-mastering advice book for the seriously-minded story-teller. Actually, it’s not what you would normally think of as game-mastering advice. Rather, in it Robin Laws presents a system for analyzing the emotional ups and downs of a story, and then applies that method to Hamlet, Casablanca, and Dr. No. The idea is that understanding how a reader is drawn in to a good story will help the game-master craft more engaging adventures.

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Not counting themed versions of Uno and Scrabble, the only currently existing Diary of a Wimpy Kid game is Cheese Touch from Pressman Toy.

It’s a “guess who chose which answer to the question” game.

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