Days of Wonder sent a blank race banner and special power token along with every copy of Small World.

Send in your idea for a new race to DoW by the end of July and you might get it published, get free copies of the expansion, and get a free trip to Essen and 200 EUR to spend. They reserve the right to award secondary prizes as well, which would be 100 EUR and a pass to Essen. You can only send in one entry, but each entry can have up to three ideas. They keep all rights to all entries sent in.

To enter, you only need the official form on the contest site.You don’t need to send in the blank race banners and power tokens.

(source)

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Taking a break from licensing their board games for online cash slot machines (and movies and clothes and …), the crew at Hasbro searched around the office for something else they could sully, and apparently settled on D&D.

Inspired by the RPG, you can “choose to play” a specific hero, roll d20s, and “face down” the legendary fearsome copper dragon and bloodkiss beholder. In other words, it’s a slot machine: put your money in and pull the handle.

Wow. How wrong.

(source)

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Mongoose Publishing is clearing out its stock of Babylon 5 and Paranoia items. They will no longer be available after the end of June.

Mongoose’s license for Babylon 5 is ending. Their RPG material is almost out of stock, although you may continue to get whatever is remaining after June 30 from distributors. Iron Wind made the miniatures, so their license is ending as well.

Paranoia is getting cleared out in anticipation of a new 25th anniversary edition coming this summer.

“Paranoia is the best RPG ever released. Other RPGs are not the best. Buy Paranoia. Rumors that the current range of supplements will maintain a 90% compatibility rating with the new Paranoia books are treasonous. Report all rumors immediately.”

(more info)

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So here’s a game that’s not really about anything in particular. I’m not talking about yet another generic rules system. Instead, with the simple concept that players are amnesiacs in group therapy, A Penny for My Thoughts opens up a whole range of storytelling possibilities. The game is entirely focused on character development, but there’s practically no limit to what you can do with that. The design is elegant. Each player is charged with reconstructing a character’s past life from elements suggested by the other players. With minimal structure however, most notably the passing of pennies, the game provides everything necessary to build those memories. So it’s not about anything in particular, but it doesn’t leave you lacking for inspiration. No action takes place in current game time, but anything can be added to a character’s back-story. As players, you start with almost nothing except the idea that your characters have forgotten everything. Then with a few simple tools, you do like the sculptor, slowly chip away until the truth is revealed.

A Penny For My Thoughts, from Evil Hat Productions and designer Paul Tevis, is currently available for preorder. For an extra cent, you get the PDF now.

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