Profane Miracles, an adventure book for the Esoterrorists roleplaying game, is now available from Indie Press Revolution or the Pelgrane Press web store. The material provides players with the opportunity to investigate one Cassandra Madrigal, psychic to the stars, as she raises people from the dead. Esoterrorists uses the GUMSHOE rules system for investigative roleplaying. GUMSHOE is designed to ensure that players always have access to the clues they need, but are challenged in interpreting them to solve a mystery.

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Indianapolis: Man shot in shoulder during dice game early Tuesday waits until Tuesday night to get wound (just out of prison and feared rearrest). (source)

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David Gardner writes with wisdom in the Motley Fool on the comparison between strategy board gaming and sound investing.

His wisdom includes a diss on old-school games such as Candyland and Monopoly, a pimp for Board Game Geek and its top games list, Funagain Games, and Thoughthammer.

(source)

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Holloid Plastics has teamed up with the English Chess Federation to supply 250,000 chess sets to UK schools. The sets will be made from plastic which would have otherwise have gone into landfill.

That’s a lot of sets. Given that there are only 25,000 school in England, counting primary, secondary, and independent schools … why, that’s a lot, isn’t it?

(source)

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Khyber Pass Games is set to begin shipping B-29 Superfortress, a solitaire war game in which players take charge of a World War II bomber in missions over Japan. Similar in concept to the long out of print but still much beloved B-17 Queen of the Skies by Avalon Hill, this game approaches the subject with a greater level of detail. Among the conditions challenging flight crews in this game are fighter attacks, bad weather, compromised cabin pressure, damaged landing gear, and inoperable navigation and communication equipment.

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Many people claim that playing games like Chess can improve your mind, but you don’t often get to see the measurements.

Since integrating the America’s Foundation for Chess “First Move” program into public schools in St Louis, the percentage  of students “proficient” in math jumped to 65% from 56% in one example class, with similar gains in other classes.

Interestingly, another benefit includes better writing proficiency. According to one student:

“It helps me with my writing because it give you ideas of what you want to put down on paper,” said Kyla. “Because when you get interested in things, you want to write about it.”

(source)

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Dr Jane Goodall, famous for her work with chimpanzees and the environment, spoke in Chicago on behalf of Chess Without Borders, an organization that brings chess to the elderly  in nursing homes and also helps set up chess clubs around the world.

Dr. Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Foundation. Grandmaster Yuri Shulman founded Chess Without Borders. I don’t believe that any chimps took part in the Chess games.

(source)

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April Fools has come and gone, and many game related sites got into the spirit with fake press releases and product announcements.

Microsoft ran an advertisement for the XBox Live Board Game. In a fit of silliness, the board game requires the actual XBox to play, as it plugs in to the console via USB port.

(source)

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