Originally published by GDW but now a product of Heliograph, this RPG is Victorian steampunk and space opera rolled in to one. Ironclads cruise the ether, beastmen roam Mars, and soldiers of the British empire investigate the cave systems of Luna. Space: 1889 allows players to adventure in the fantastical worlds of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Arthur Conan Doyle. The rerelease has been available a little while in print and is now also available in PDF form from either DriveThruRPG or e23.

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This, believe it or not, is a chess board. Kind of.

Jürg Hassler is a cinematographer who also made this strange chess creation, along with others.

Despite certain new aspects, the basic features of the game remain the same as those of past centuries: a network of coordinates to enable strategic moves of the figures: foot soldiers, combat elephants, messengers, knights – a game with endless possibilities.

In real combat situations, the generals were relatively safely placed away from the heat of the action. Thus, Hassler starts to shape the chessboard as a terrain with one hill, with two hills, with a river. He soon abandons the strict colour differentiations in favour of other formal distinctions, so that, at the end, the network of coordinates disappears completely from the game board. The figures or players have to orient themselves differently. As a consequence of this step, the traditional chess figures placed on their squares become in part a feature of the system of orientation by themselves adopting the shape of an individual square or part thereof.

(source, other works)

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Rhea Zakich, creator of The Ungame, has a new game to inflict on the teeming masses: Out of Your Mind.

The game has no winners and losers, and is really a set of cards for use in starting conversations.

(source)

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Hasbro’s reworking of Risk, as previewed with the interim game Risk: Black Ops, is so over the top in testosterone that it deliberately excludes women from the game.

“The game of global domination”s now tag-lined as “Destroy your rivals! Bring your foes to their knees!”

The game’s online site prominently asks, “Are you man enough?”

Black-Ops’ rules indicated that the winner is allowed to demand that all the losers call him “Sir”.

Hasbro’s online marketing includes a game called Risk Factor, which carries the warning, “Grab your shoes and pull up your panties, your manliness is about to be tested!” The game won’t accept a feminine name, only a masculine one. And if you don’t enter your own name, the game will assign you a proto-insulting one such as “Cupcake”, or “Bubbles”. It also includes an on-screen “Wife button” which brings up a picture of a fake jewelery store, so you can hide your game-play from your wife.

And so on.

Apparently, Hasbro has decided that women do not play Risk and men will play Risk if the instructions imitate the neo-dweeb loud-mouthed chauvinism in the intros to violent video games.

(source, via)

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Back in March, the Sunday Times handed out a Scrabble game with its newspaper that made some parents unhappy: the version came with the complete, curse-laded dictionary. Not your family game.

This time it’s Nintendo’s turn. Their version of the game also comes complete with naughty words, which made one mother rather unhappy when the computer started using them against her 10 year old son. Nintendo blames Ubisoft.

The game is rated 3+.

Meanwhile, the removal of Christian words – such as aisle, bishop, chapel, empire and monarch – from the Oxford Junior Dictionary has upset another mother.

(source)

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Adventures in Gaming provides an excellent chart on the lineage and descent of D&D products, from inception until 2nd edition.

Now awaiting part 2.

(chart)

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RarityGuide.com is a new site for collectors, listing the rarity and value/condition for various types of items.

They just started a board and card game section, which may prove to be useful if it grows (right now, it has 30 games in it).

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Toying With Games is a Santa Barbara-based company dedicated to board games.

Their biggest hit is In A Pickle, a party game where you have to convince other players as to whether the contents of one card can logically fit into another card. It’s published by Gamewright.

They also host game nights at a Borders book store, so join them if you’re in town.

(source)

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Lost Horizons is a site devoted to the vast conspiracy of the US government to steal tax money from its citizens in an unconstitutional manner. Through their efforts, so they proclaim, dupes of the American tax system have been able to reclaim 3.5 million dollars in illegally acquired taxes, in particular the absurdity known as “income tax”.

They also offer a few games, including one called Cyberwraith, “where a knack for the Hack can transform you from a shorn sheep into a Virtual Freedom Fighter!  All it takes is the right computer, the right software, and guts that don’t quit even when the Feds are no-knocking at your door.”

Your object is to delete every government file about you using cyber-cracking techniques. The winner is the player with the monst money, which means that he’s paid the least taxes by erasing him or herself from the most government files.

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