Welcome to Purple Pawn, covering games played around the world by billions of people every day.
09 Jul
Posted by David Miller as Card Games, Electronic Games, Miniatures, Modern Board Games, RPGs, War Games
Interesting projects…
Seas of Iron is a game of fighting battleships. Each player takes charge of a ship, assigns crew to individual sections, and chooses where to fire his guns. While not a particularly deep game, it does use images of real historical battleships.
Yushino is a variant on the idea of mathematical Scrabble. Instead of constructing equations, players lay tiles using a fixed mathematical series: add the previous two numbers and take the final digit to get the next number.
Our friends at The Spiel are producing Scopa, the traditional Italian card game, but with the standard suits replaced by modern gamer symbols: dice, cards, dominoes, and meeples.
From Happyshops in Germany, 21 Mutinies is a pirate-themed board game where each turn one player acts as captain and chooses an action for everyone. Crew who disagree, however, always have the option to mutiny.
Star Bowl, on Indiegogo out of Spain, is a fantasy football (American football) miniatures game, where the figures look suspiciously like Star Wars characters.
Need just a little more help…
Eagle Games’ Dawn: Rise of the Occulites is a board game filled with miniatures of strange but cute alien creatures.
With TABLE (the Tabletop and Boardgame Learning Expo), the Roll2Play game store in Coppell, Texas is hoping to launch an event that introduces board games to a wide audience of non-gamers.
Expand Your Lab is an expansion for Mage Company’s abstract board game, Wrong Chemistry. It adds 66 new elements (configurations), 10 new scientists (special abilities), and other features.
Already funded but worth considering…
Ancient Terrible Things is a pulp-style horror game about exploring the jungle. Dice rolls in specific combinations are used to overcome encounters and unlock ancient secrets.
Jolly Roger Games is raising funds for a reprint of the board game, Kremlin.
The Lord of Catan is a dramatic short-film about tension that develops between a husband and wife when they plan Settlers of Catan.
Gaming Paper’s Megadungeon 2—Lost Catacombs project is for disposable paper battle maps, preprinted with geomorphic dungeon sections.
Shaintar: Legends Unleashed takes the high-fantasy campaign setting to the Heroic and Legendary ranks of the Savage Worlds RPG.
I’m skeptical…
Darkling Plain looks like a project built for stretch goals. It’s an augmented reality board game/miniatures game/RPG (depending on what part of the pitch you’re listening to). The technology looks cool enough but it has been done before. Also, I can’t tell what the AR will actually add to game play, or whether it will outweigh the downside of having to watch an electronic device while manipulating cards and pieces on the board. The project owners have promised to post an example-of-play video but have not done so yet. In fact, the pitch is mostly about the setting and the excitement of the developers. Nothing is said about gameplay. With 28 days left, Darkling Plain has raised $14,000 of an announced $120,000 goal.
Antimatter Matters is a beautiful, brightly colored board game about quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, from what I can tell by watching half the 16 minute how-to-play video, it’s basically roll-and-move with terminology based on particle physics and a little card play thrown in. $33,000 is being sought. $19,000 has been raised so far.
Too late…
Dominion Storage Case is probably the best option I’ve seen yet but if you haven’t already backed it, you’re too late. The project owner is trying to keep his initial production run small and has capped orders. I admire his restraint.
The skunk…
Get QRunk, a low-brow trivia drinking game, featuring cards with QR codes and a bleep-filled promotional video.
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Thanks for the shout-out, David!
We’re excited about our Scopa project and with enough support, it will be the first in a series of forgotten classic card games reintroduced to a modern audience.
Hey,
Looks like I made the skunk list. I was very excited about this post when I seen it for several reasons. First,
it gave me some real perspective on how others may perceive my project. Second, it gave me some insight on what I was doing wrong. Third, it taught me humility. Thank you for criticism. Since then, I have cancelled the first project, revamped it, and re-launched it. I am a graphic designer and animator at heart and I do realize the first project video was horrible!!! I have redone the project with a video of myself so maybe its more in touch instead of a cussing donkey head. None the less I’m sure my video still isn’t up to par with others that have already been successful in this field and have huge budgets to operate under. I think maybe you have missed the whole point of this game and why it was created. Low-brow, maybe or yes it is. You see, I was once a college student and even a huge party fanatic that spent a lot of time learning extensive knowledge that would put your brain in overdrive. So I would do what almost every student does and that is called dumbing it down. We drink it up like crazy people only wanting to kill some of those fragmented useless brain cells while playing senseless drinking games that have no point or purpose but to get you drunk and have fun doing it. This game is not for kids or the average game fan. Its for those who want to dumb it down with stupid, comical, and tasteless fun. I hope you will review my project again or hell even attempt to play it with the downloadable version and see it in a different light or even make it the skunk again. Skunk does rhyme Qrunk. <—-(some low-brow pun) Here is the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2025948377/get-qrunk-0
Thank you for your help once again,
John Hahn
No, I got the point. I just don’t think much of it—the humor, the game, or the technology.
But good luck. I wish you success.
I’m glad you feel that way, cause I was going to say the same about your blog, but was trying to by politically correct. When I did finally come across this post it took 30 days to even show up on googles third page. Which tells me this site has a very very small following or just some very bad seo settings. I’m guessing it is both. So, of coarse I did some research and it looks like you have been on Facebook for 4 years now with only 222 followers which also tells me that your site is highly unsuccessful. So, I do get the point as well. I accept your comments, cause the comments you left only reflect your success. Which is absolutely none. Best of luck. Hope you succeed one day as well.
So at first my opinion was invalid because I didn’t understand the humor. Now it’s invalid because we don’t have enough Facebook followers.
Your opinion is of coarse your opinion, not invalid at all. Not trying to invalidate it. Just stating the obvious that you named my creation a skunk, when in fact you should also name your website a skunk among all the others out there. Thats all.
Good day.
Oh, but you did. You said, “You have missed the whole point of this game,” and, “The comments you left only reflect your success. Which is absolutely none.”
So let me explain something to you. I welcome debate on the subject matter of the article. You are free to report that other people like the humor of Get Qrunk. You can describe something interesting about the game mechanics or explain why the QR codes make a difference. But this space is NOT for insulting Purple Pawn. Comments not on topic will be deleted.
Not trying to insult purple pawn, just stating my opinion as you did. Maybe next time before you post someones project as a skunk you should get some insight from the creator first. So, yes Get Qrunk does have its niche when it comes to humor, the same niche that made urban dictionary so popular. It does have mechanics that have never been used in card games before by using dynamic qr codes that will change the content to what ever the base of users believe is funny in the future. There is no other game like this now and I see the future of some card games start to merge some analog features with digital content. We already see this working with advertising and its only a matter of time until it is seen in this field. I of coarse would love to be on the forefront of that movement.
Thank you again for your consideration,
John Hahn
I stand by my assessment, which was based on your presentation.
Also, the integration of printed QR codes with an online trivia game has been done before and is not particularly compelling.
Since you suggest talking to the creator, let me ask you… How do you intend to print, package, and ship a deck of 54 cards all for $5?
Sure it has been done before, but not dynamically. It is all not trivia either. It is trivia and challenge based. Trivia games stay the same, this will always change. It will change on multiple levels. The cards game play will not stay the same if the QR code links change. The QR code links will be always changing and so will the content.
Cost of the deck printed and retail ready is $2.99 per deck and an average of $2 to $3 dollars for shipping in US. But of coarse you have to reach a minimum order to achieve that, which is why my goal is at $5000. All the leg work is done by me. I might eat some shipping in US, but that is a risk I willing to take and have saved my money for. All kickstater projects need to be for profit or break even to get the first orders out. This one could go either way or none at all.