Last year, Darf brought us Funagle, the board game that you play with your dog. Pick a card and gain points if you can get your dog to do the activity named on the card.

Darf continues with their line of pet games with Do You Mind?, a dog dice game, and Muttheads, the card game version of the previous board and dice games. Fine and dandy.

But now Darf has Catfeats, the dice game you’re supposed to get your cat to play. Roll the dice and try to get your cat to do the activity.

Are you kidding me? Trying to get cats to do something is like trying to manage programmers. Does the game come with antiseptic?

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Ruckus and Pile It are the two curent card games offered by Funstreet Games. Both games involve simultaneous play by all players.

In Ruckus, you keep getting new cards. Whenever you see a pile that matches your card, you slam the card down and take the pile. The last to do this will end up with the pile, but if someone goes out of cards first, you may get stuck having never used the card. Sounds violent.

In Pile-It, each player has to sort and stack their cards in three different ways as quickly as possible. Sounds like an aptitude test.

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Circa 1966 (What Shall I Be?), 2008, Oil and enamel on copper, 9 5/8 x 18 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches

The artist Tim Liddy’s exhibition “Stratagem” at the William Shearburn Gallery in San Fransisco contains reproductions of period board game box covers. November 7 to December 19.

He chose to reproduce not simply the pretty game box covers, but the ones that shower the changing American cultural values through time.

(source)

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Richard Berg, designer of classic war games such as Pax Romana and SPQR, is designing Godzilla, the board game to be released next year.

Playtests and reports are going on at BGG, and io9 reports on the mechanics: “Players split a set number of action points per turn between their monsters and military units. Monsters collect victory points by trashing buildings, stomping tanks and beating each other up with fists, nuclear breath, claws and other attacks. Monster-on-monster combat involves playing a series of attack cards that define how many dice you roll. Everyone rolls a pile of dice and figures out how many hits they’ve scored.”

There have been numerous other Godzilla games, including the usual fare from Mattel, a CCG, and the classic Pink Godzilla Dev Kit.

(source, image)

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Sen So Ninja was supposed to be a ninja game, but ended up as a ninja, zombie, aliens, vikings, etc, etc, combat game.

There are no random elements, but the game is played with blind “bidding”. Each player locks in his upcoming move on the previous round, and the move he will make next round on this round. In other words, one round ahead is programmed.

You score points if you strike where your opponent is. Here are more detailed instructions:

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8,000 people are expected at the ACBL”s Fall Bridge tournament, held over eleven days in Boston, Nov 20 to 30.

Get ready to play, be a caddy, or just kibbitz. There will events at all levels including beginner, free speakers, and local tours.

Says one of the spokesmen: “This is not your grandmother’s card game.”

(source)

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Wholesale Board Games is offering a holiday special.

Essentially, buy $X, and get a coupon giving you $X off your next purcahse of $2X. So, if my math is correct, that’s about 33% off. Not too bad.

They’ve got all kinds of games, including Euros, RPGs, electronic, and so on. Use the code Early08 and place an order in December.

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Fat Dragon presents Dragonshire, prefab 3D fantasy buildings, including exteriors and 2D interiors.

Also usable for steampunk settings, so they claim, with bolter and smokestack roofs.

Follow the link to see how it’s assembled.

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Fragor Games, of brothers Gordon and Fraser Lamont, takes the unique strategy of producing only one new game each year, and that in very limited quantities. I don’t know if this approach has been a commercial success for them, but the quality of their games has certainly earned them some enthusiastic fans. This year’s Essen release was Snow Tails, a dog sled racing game. What sets it apart from other racing games is the need to balance the numbers on two played cards, because while the numbers played determine how fast the sled moves forward, the difference between the two cards determines how far the sled slides uncontrolled. Snow Tails also comes with 16 sections to assemble different tracks, as well as miniature tree pieces to act as obstacles in the race.

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