How about 6 games of chess, by cellphone? At 69 years of age?

That’s what David Levens just did, in the Robin Hood marathon in Nottingham. He wanted to combat rumors that Chess players are nerds. I don’t know how he did in the games or the marathon, but I’m pretty sure he failed in the combating nerd rumors department.

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Chinese players of “Police and Killer”, aka Werewolf or Mafia, will attempt to set a world record for number of simultaneous players later this year. They already have 700 applicants. They’re hoping to get 2009 for the final game.

Police and Killer/Werewolf/Mafia is a game with a moderator, a few criminals, a seer, and a host of commoners. The commoners try to survive the night without getting killed, and the day without getting lynched by other commoners. The killers try to kill all the commoners before they get lynched. It’s a componentless party game of negotiation and voting.

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Robert Louis Stevenson, the famed author of Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was also a war gamer. He’s not the only famous classic gamer-writer: H.G. Wells also indulged in war gaming, and created his own rules sets.

Stevenson at Play, by Stevenson himself with an introduction by Lloyd Osbourne, describes a strategic war game that he played with his stepson in the 1880s, and includes hand-drawn sketches by the author.

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Saturday saw the launch of Comprendo!, a new board game for teaching Spanish. The game, developed by two fathers to teach language skills to their children, takes players on an imaginary holiday to Spain. There they learn words, phrases, and proper pronunciation.

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Asmodee Editions is revising the popular Formula De auto racing board game and will be releasing it under a new name, Formula D. The new version will keep much of the original game but will add street racing elements such as individual characters as drivers with unique strengths. And as a special incentive for this new edition, the first 5,000 games produced will contain a limited edition Porsche model with character card. One favorite aspect of the original game was the availability of expansion boards representing racing tracks from around the world. Fortunately, tracks from both editions will be fully compatible. In another upgrade to the game Asmodee will be replacing the pencil-and-paper record keeping with a new dashboard system.

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With the recent announcements around BattleLore and Memoir 44, many have been wondering what was next for the French gaming juggernaut, Days of Wonder.  It appears that more Ticket to Ride is next.  But with dice.

Really.  We’re not kidding.

The expansion uses your existing game boards and relies on the same basic concepts as standard Ticket to Ride.  The main difference is that instead of using train tickets to lay track, players roll dice to determine what track can be layed, draw destination tickets, or take “route tokens” that can be saved for future use.  The newest expansion in the franchise will be available at the Essen Game Fair in October and will be available for purchase in the US and Europe “around the same time” for $20 (US).

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Gerald Cameron of My Play posted the beginning of a reworking of the skill DCs in 4e.

He’s trying to fix make the DCs better within the constraints of “high variability and flat probability curve” while maintaining the d20, which seems like a tough problem. The post is well written, neatly organized, and comprehensive.

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