The popular board game podcast, The Spiel, featured a unique piece of art in this week’s episode: stained glass D20’s (20 sided dice).  While only tangentially related to gaming (as they definitely can’t be rolled more than once), these items are so gorgeous that they deserve further mention.

The artist has a website up and active, but there’s not a lot there – instead, you can buy the pieces at Etsy.com for $175 each and the buyer can choose the colors used.

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Karen Febey and Molly Coyne created a board game called “Program Evaluation” in order to teach the principles of this activity.

A summary of the game and an evaluation of its effects were published in the American Journal of Evaluation (from Sage Journals), but I can only access the abstract.

(abstract)

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Looks like the Open Game License and Developer’s Pack are starting to bear fruit for the Traveller community. Another set of ship deck plans has been released by third-party publisher, D.B. Game Design. The Venture Class Frontier Courier is a small, modular vessel found serving a variety of roles along the outer rim of chartered space. D.B.’s PDF book describing the ship contains maps, keyed descriptions, background information, and three adventure hooks.

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North Star Games and Days of Wonder today announced a deal that takes Wits & Wagers to Europe as Gambit 7. Wits & Wagers is the party trivia game that doesn’t require players to know trivia. The game has been a tremendous success for North Star, with an Xbox Live Arcade version, a licensing deal for a TV game show, and the game carried in Target and Borders stores nationwide. Days of Wonder will be making Gambit 7 the start of a new line of low-cost games aimed at a wider audience. Focusing this new effort on Europe, Gambit 7 will initially be released in French and German versions, with language and culture specific questions. An English version for British Commonwealth countries will follow in 2009.

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The latest in the International Game Series, Storm Over Stalingrad, is now shipping from Multiman Publishing. The game was designed by Tetsuya Nakamura, who is also the source for two other games in the series, Fire in the Sky and A Victory Lost. For you wargamers in the know out there, Storm Over Stalingrad is an area-impulse game that uses a simplified version of the Storm Over Arnhem system.

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The latest True20 supplement, Warrior’s Handbook, completes a series of three books on the heroic roles of characters that began with Expert’s Handbook and Adept’s Handbook. This one is all about combat, covering everything from one-on-one fights to mass battles. The book includes new rules for large-scale combat, as well as new feats and skills. Warrior’s Handbook is currently available as a PDF from Green Ronin’s store but will soon also be available in print.

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There’s been a leak of footage purported to be from a new Warhammer 40K first person shooter titled “Space Marine.”  Joystiq has been in contact with THQ (who currently owns the video game license to the classic miniatures game), but thus far, there’s no response on the video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbjbbzOrCIg]

The game looks similar to last year’s hit, Gears of War, which can only mean good things for those of us who have eagerly waited for the opportunity to burn the heretic, kill the mutant and purge the unclean.  But this wouldn’t be the first 40K-based first person shooter; no, that distinction goes to Fire Warrior.  Fire Warrior was based on the fire warriors of the Tau Empire and was available for both the PS2 and PC.  Unfortunately, the title, also published by THQ, was met with poor reviews that declared the game to be too similat to other titles.  Hopefully, this next outing will be the high-octane treatment that the 40K universe deserves.

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