Welcome to Purple Pawn, covering games played around the world by billions of people every day.

The Baby Boomer Retirement Game is written by and for Baby Boomers, naturally. It’s a roll-and-move trivia game.

Funny rule in the game, however:

Before the game begins, each player secretly completes a will by writing the name of another player on it (not a spouse) who will inherit his tokens in the event of landing on the Grim Reaper space without a resuscitation card and is forced to exit the game.

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Game Zone posted an article about a new game for mobile phones called Man Don’t Get Mad About It. They said it was based on a “well known and popular classic board game”. And that was it.

I wracked my brains trying to figure out what game this could be. Couldn’t guess. Finally I went to the publisher’s web site, only to find that they used the same words: “based on a popular board game”. I finally figured out which board game from the screenshot:

Of course: “Sorry!” Get it?

I’m wondering if the Scrabulous fiasco made them skittish about naming their game inspiration. If so, why couldn’t they just say “Pachisi”, which is hundreds of years old and not copyrighted?

Debby Pozza has invented a game called Foto Feud that she hopes will be the next blah blah, etc etc…

Basically, you play cards in a rummy like fashion, stealing cards from other players or from the discard pile, and trying to form sets. Looks harmless enough.

What I like is that she’s made the game open source. Not only are the rules online, she encourages visitors to make their own version of the game using their own photos. All templates are freely available for downloading. That’s pretty cool thinking, Debby.

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The Eastside Grandmothers in Alberta for a New Generation (GANG) raised $55k for the Stephen Lewis Foundation on Sunday simply by holding a Scrabble tournament.

This is not the first time that these grandmothers have played and raised thousands of dollars for charity. In fact, they’ve founded an entire organization devoted to that cause: Grandmothers to Grandmothers.

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Destination: Animation?

Destination: London made a splash a few years ago, after briefly outselling Monopoly at posh London store Hamley’s, and being rejected by the snarky judges of Dragon’s Den. It’s apparently still selling well.

11 versions with different destinations have since been produced: London, New York, Paris, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Cardiff, Dublin, Norwich, Portsmouth, Sheffield, and South Africa. They also have a Junior version. Bournemouth and Poole, Isle of Wight, Southampton, and Suffolk are also scheduled for this year.

Their latest version is Destination Animation, featuring Disney Pixar characters and including a “magic animation lantern”, the kind you spin and peek through to see the characters jump up and down.

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Philadelphia’s Mayor Michael Nutter and Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman challenge you to a game of Scrabble Tuesday morning (doesn’t say which, but might already have been today) at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

They’re hoping to inspire you to play Scrabble all month long.

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After only a few months of operations, and after securing a patent for its methods only this month, Duplicate Poker is shutting down.

It’s reasons: “Caught in the middle of the global financial situation the company is not able to continue to provide service.”

Kind of vague. But one wonders what other online gaming services are going to be “caught in the middle” of this crisis.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, an early classic story-game RPG, is back in print through the works of Mongoose Publishing. This game sees players attempting to outdo each other with fantastic tales, wild, grand, and heroic. Game play is simple, with players passing coins to complicate each other’s tale, and particularly well-told stories rewarded with a round of drinks. There are no skill limitations or challenge ratings in this game. It’s all about crafting an incredible but entertaining boast. A limited number of hardcover Gentleman’s Edition books have already run out. Mongoose is designating the remaining softcovers the Wives and Servants Edition.

True Dungeon Goes Epic

Forget True Dungeon – now you’ve got True Realm!  From the same folks who run the True Dungeon event at GenCon, we now have True Realm, which simulates an entire medieval village with two nearby dungeons within a 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse!  For those who aren’t familiar with the event, True Dungeon can best be thought of as a highly contained LARP (Live Action Role Play) with unbeatable production values (including animitronic dragons at GenCon this year!).  Here’s the bad news – it’ll only be up for two days (April 3 & 4) and its a bit out of the way for most (8 miles south of Marion, Illinois).  If any of our readers are able to make it to the event, let us know!

Hat Tip: OgreCave