The Sailor’s Game, from 1986, is a trivia game about sailing. Other than it’s topic, it’s distinguished from other trivia games in that it has a pretty board and some nice pewter ship-shaped player tokens. It was produced by Sparkman & Stephens, famed ship designers.

S&S found a couple of wrapped copies of the game lying around their archives, and they’re giving away two of them. Just email info@sparkmanstephens.com with your name and contact info to enter the drawing.

It’s a pretty rare game, so don’t wait up. Of course, you could just buy this used copy on eBay, currently on offer for $5.

(source)

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The Daily Camera has a nice article on the resurgence of tabletop gaming.

It starts off covering the new D&D release, and moves on to Magic: the Gathering, Settlers of Catan, and many other topics around the Boulder, CO gaming scene.

Interviewees include Karl Schwols, owner of Karliquin’s Game Knight; Ed Brewer, gaming coordinator at Time Warp Comics; Patrick Begley, manager of It’s Your Move; and Keith Baker, creator of the Eberron fantasy world.

(source)

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The second edition of my first board game, It’s Alive, is now available for pre-order.

The new version will have some artwork tweaks and a few popular rules changes, but it will be otherwise the same as the old version.

(pre-order)

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Pocket Gamer reviews Catan: the First Island, otherwise known as Settlers of Catan for a mobile phone. It’s published by Exozet Games.

You can play the game against three AI’s, or hook your friends in via Bluetooth.

The review is good, as are reviews coming in from some other sits.

(source)

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Brewhaha is a Bangalore board games cafe run by Sreeram Vaidyanathan and Mansur Nazimuddin.

It’s doing well, and customers are coming in for the games, as well as the coffee. Apparently, even during the afternoon when other restaurants are in a lull.

The source describes the games they serve as “board games, such as Pictionary, Uno, Boggle”, but their web site links to Catan Online, Ticket to Ride, and Board Game Geek, so I’m thinking they probably go deeper than that.

(source)

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In conjunction with the 2008 Licensing International Expo, a recent announcement by Hasbro provides some information on a number of its licensing arrangements (some of which had already been made public). Hasbro explains that its Trivial Pursuit: America Plays television game show will have a home audience participation component. Viewers will be able to submit questions for contestants. And if a selected question stumps the contestants, the viewer who submitted it will earn cash.

The announcement also reports that in addition to the already released digital versions of Monopoly, Hasbro’s partner, EA, will soon be taking Monopoly to the Wii, Playstation 2, and Xbox 360. Other video games under development include Scrabble, Yahtzee, Trivial Pursuit, and Operation.

Outside of electronics, apparently Monopoly is the most licensed brand worldwide for lotteries. And deals are in place for a new compact Scrabble travel game by L.L. Bean, Monopoly trivia books, and appearances by Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Taboo, and Twister on grocery products (in conjunction with upcoming movies).

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Wired’s Geek Dad blog recently ventured slightly off the beaten path of the traditional major RPG publishers with a review of the True20 system from Green Ronin. In fact, the post even mentions third-party products for True20, Roma Imperius by HinterWelt Enterprises and Blood Throne by Reality Deviants.

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Legend of the Five Rings, or L5R, is a relatively successful CCG offering from Alderac Entertainment, with a few unique twists. For one, the storyline accompanying the game is created partially from what happens at the sanctioned tournaments.

They also have an RPG, and its third edition is due out this summer. Plans for a board game have been in the works for a few years, and are expected to be completed in 2008.

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The Stamford Times writes about Mary Ellroy, designer of traditional games and toys which marry existing products to new licenses. They mention a few of her games and a little about how she works.

The article misses that Mary is the owner of Gamebird, LLC, a company specializing in providing design and agency services.

(source)

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