Bet you didn’t know that the rulebook for tournament Chess looks a whole lot like the rulebook for tournament Magic: the Gathering, did you?

FIDE updates their rules on occasion. The following new rules go into effect on July 1:

• If one player is late to the game by any time, he or she loses immediately (you don’t simply start his or her clock). If both are late, white’s clock is started. I don’t know how this works. If white shows up 15 minutes late and black shows up 20 minutes late, does white win or does white start playing with fifteen minutes off of his or her time?
• A few misc rules about broken clocks and how to offer a draw.
• I like this one: mobile phones, and any other electronic communication devices, are forbidden at the game, unless switched off. “If any such device produces a sound, the player shall lose the game.” Heh. What if your digital watch goes off in your pocket with your switched off mobile phone?
• Some rules about illegal moves in blitz games.

(source)

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A board game as a class project is old hat, but Becky Brooks’ and Lorraine Rogers’ American Sign Language III classes have been making games for several years. They have made over fifty board games and they have been shipping them out around Ohio and now around the US.

The games are derivatives of word, trivia, and mainstream games. They have been sent to individual families and to institutions for the deaf.

(source, picture)

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Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) is known for its lines of CCGs (7th Sea, Legend of the Five Rings) and RPGs (FarScape, StarGate SG-1).

Seems like they’re about to bust out into the board game world. They’ve recently released one board game and have a boatload more ready to land.

• The new wave started last year with Tomb. “Recruit a party. Kill the monsters. Take their stuff.” They’re obviously aiming at crossing over the RPG players to board gaming. More info on the website. BGG opinion appears to be radically divided.
• This year brings us The Adventurers. Preview at GenCon, for sale at Essen, and released in October, The Adventurers is co-produced with Dust Games. Looks like another dungeon delve, this time in the booby-trapped temple.
• Another co-production with Dust Games scheduled for release in October, Arcana uses a Dominion-like mechanic of playing for stake cards which then get shuffled into you deck for you to use later in the game.
• In Abandon Ship, scheduled for the summer, you need your rats to collect cheese and abandon the ship before it sinks. Control of the rats may be shared by more than one player.
• The Isle of Dr Nereaux’s release is currently unscheduled. It’s a cooperative card game about saving the world.
• Monkey Lab is scheduled for release next month. Roam the halls of the lab breaking cages and avoiding the guard.
• Myth Pantheons gives you challenges as a deity in five domains. Currently unscheduled.
• Pressure Matrix, unscheduled, is a futuristic arena game with random tile setup.

That’s an ambitious release schedule.

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Rules of Play is a book of game design principles by industry veterans Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman that can be applied to every conceivable genre of gaming.  It does this by breaking down game design into three distinct areas:  Rules, Play and Culture.  Each area is covered extensively with a variety of examples and exercises to challenge the ways you think about game design.  Here’s an example from the Rules section:

-Take a board game and remove a key element from it.  (Role Selection from Puerto Rico, for example.)  What other changes would need to be made to have a playable game again?  Would the theme change over time, as well?

This book is a must for game designers, regardless of medium along with being an interesting read for the everygamer thanks to the insights it offers into the design process.  Check it out if you get the chance.

The table is yours,

Phil

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Fantasy Flight Games has released two variant units for the BattleLore game. Specifically, a new version of the Dwarven Cattle Riders and the Goblin Sling – both of which are part of expansions themselves (the Dwarven Battalion ang Goblin Skirmishers expansions respectively). While it’s nice to see FFG providing active support for the game, it would be even nicer to see a new expansion (particularly the long-awaited Heroes expansion).

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