Days of Wonder - Small World: What ever happened to "Mwahahaha!!!"?

If you’ve been out to Days of Wonder’s website recently, you no doubt noticed the trail of teasers for their next game.  Each teaser featured a cartoony depiction of a given race (Amazons, Giants, Wizards, etc) with a snappy one-liner.  After much speculation (and more than a few people threatening revolt if its a card game), Days of Wonder has revealed that this is all part of their next big box game, Small World.  Essentially, Small World is a game where players control various races, scoring points by navigating a race to prosperity (and by knowing when to abandon them for an up and coming race).  There isn’t much else known about the rules, but it seems to feature a good bit of player conflict and a variety of special powers to spice things up.  The game itself is due in April and will retail for $50 US.

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PlayDate is a new organization coordinating board, card, and parlor game nightlife events in cities across America. The events are targeted as alternate to loud clubs and passive entertainment. Events have been held in Atlanta, Albany, Houston, Seattle, Dallas, Tulsa, Orlando, Detroit, Savannah, Austin, and Nashville, with additional events planned in Miami, NYC, Boston, Cleveland, Las Vegas, and DC.

Some of their events have attracted up to 500 people. Nearly all of the attendees appear to be inner-city African-Americans, although the organizers claim that this is not their intention. If they’re looking for people outside the inner city, maybe they should try changing the hip hop soundtrack that blasts when you’re on their website, which by the way looks like a bit like a gambling portal. (Each city has it’s own website, too.)

What do they play? Dominoes, Spades, Bid Whist, Poker, Scrabble, UNO, Chess, Checkers, Perfection, Trouble, Pictionary, Yahtzee, Backgammon, Taboo, Operation, Chutes and Ladders, Scattergories, Simon, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Battleship, Connect Four, Twister, Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Jenga, Monopoly, Sorry, and Jacks. They also play Musical Chairs, Red-Light-Green-Light, and similar games.

They also run an associated social networking site, Play Date Playground. One of PlayDate’s founders has a profile.

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Is a winning score of 100 to 0 a clean victory or an embarrassment?

That was the question facing Dallas’ Christian preparatory Covenant School’s girls basketball team on January 13 after they defeated the team from The Dallas Academy, a school for girls with learning disabilities. Dallas Academy girls are not physically disabled, so there was no reason not to expect a fair game … except that Dallas Academy hasn’t won a game in five years. As first quarter (35-0) marched through halftime (59-0) and rounded on through to the end of third quarter (88-0), Covenant girls began to question whether running up the score was really the Christian thing to do.

For their part, the girls of Dallas Academy, realizing what the situation was by halftime, persevered with a new strategy: ignore the score and use the event as an opportunity for learning. For this, they have been showered with accolades and praise from TV stations around the country.

The Covenant School so regrets the outcome of the game, they have apologized on their website for their un-”Christ-like” behavior and have submitted a request to forfeit the game in question, “recognizing that a victory without honor is a great loss”.

The story continues: Covenant’s coach disagrees with the apology, claiming that Covenant girls played respectfully and correctly, and should have nothing to be ashamed of. He has now been fired for expressing his opinion.

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You have not one, but at least three choices if you would like to role play a common house cat.

Cat by John Wick is a streamlined RPG by John Wick. You get six traits: claws, coat, face, fangs, leg, and tail (magic ability), as well as reputation and lives (nine,  of course), and encounter a variety of foes including dogs and boggins. You also get to venture into the dreamworld.

Cat is another streamlined venture into feline role play. Cat’s stats include leap, bat, pounce, patience, speed, climb, hear, love, transcend, and the capacity to see that which cannot be seen. They protect mankind by fighting the Snufles, birds, dogs, ghosts, and mice.

Warrior Cats is an online fiction-writing RPG, based on the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, and played on fan forums around the internet. Additional sites for Warrior Cats include Darkening Forest, Warrior’s Control, and Warrior Cats.

Another forum-based RPG is available for fans of the musical Cats.

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This should be in my weekly game criminal roundup, but it’s too good to leave it until Friday.

A 61 year-old woman in Denmark walked into a bank and exchanged her Monopoly money for Danish money by convincing the inexperienced teller that the fake money was in fact Swedish kroners.

She was caught trying to do it a second time.

(source)

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