Salvation Quest is a new trivia game from sggc Brightstar Games. It has no dice: “We can choose our paths and how we travel on them to reach the destiny God has for us, hence that’s why no dice is involved. The way you travel, (i.e. through the hard, medium or easy questions) to your destiny is your choice.”

Salvation Challenge is from Talicor (now merged with Aristoplay). It’s a roll, move, and pick a card game with no decisions. I guess in this game it’s all in the hands of God.

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Dexter is a TV series about a sympathetic serial killer who channels his urges by working vigilante with a police officer to kill people who have escaped the law via loopholes.

Of course, this makes a great subject for the board game Dexter, in the works from Gamaka and Showtime. At least it’s labeled for ages 18 and up.

Gamaka has a number of other TV licensed games, including The L Word and Charmed, as well as Chart Star, an electronic singing game.

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Papworth Trust is a charity in the UK to help the disabled find housing, employment, integration, and empowerment.

They launched a board game based on Snakes and Ladders to educate people about how to build an inclusive community.

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Moonshot Euchre is sort of a double deck of Euchre, with two of every card, J to A. You’re dealt 8 cards each round.

I’m not entirely sure how this makes the game better. Makes it a bit more like Pinochle, maybe.

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Fairy Crystal Forest. Looks like a roll and move game. Got a pink die. Other than that, all we know is from the back of the box:

• Collect gems and buy a magic wand
• Make a waking potion
• Ride fairy dust waves
• Save Jewel from her eternal slumber

I’m guessing: sell the most drugs while trying to prevent the pop singer Jewel from having an overdose. Or something like that.

Ride the fairy dust waves, man.

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BiblioOdyssey posts a fantastic collection of five centuries worth of hand colored and illustrated game boards from the British Museum Prints Database.

Nearly all of the games are essentially forefathers of the first American games Mansion of Happiness and The Royal Game of Goose.

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A family in Limerick, Ireland was “horrified” to find that one of the clues about their town in University Games’ Smart Ass trivia game was that it is popularly referred to as “Stab City”. The children and grandpa were shocked.

In truth:

A) Yes, the city is popularly known as “Stab City”.

b) No, it’s actually not any more dangerous than most other areas of Ireland at this point, and the name is merely a popular historical press reference that carries on to this day.

University Games has agreed to drop the reference in the next version of the game.

(source)

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I see a lot of articles about prisoners playing chess, but this one is a little different.

Benecard Insurance Services sponsors the competition which pits expert chess players from Princeton University against serious convicts, including killers and rapists, in prison in Trenton, NJ. The students typically play at a disadvantage, taking on several prisoners at the same time.

Benecard also gives its employees lots of chess time, with the company claiming that the game is “conductive to a business environment.” (source)

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