At Gen Con, Gamewright debuted Forbidden Sky ($40), a much-anticipated sequel to Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert. Also a cooperative game, Forbidden Sky is set on a platform floating in a storm. While the winds blow their pawns about, the players must construct a circuit to bring power from lightning rods to an escape rocket. The game is electrified, the circuit is real, and the rocket lights up when the players succeed.

Other recent additions to the Gamewright’s lineup include Sneaky Cards 2 ($10), with more actions to play on the street and with strangers, This Game Goes to Eleven ($15, Target exclusive), a family game of sticking others with your cards, and Trash Pandas ($13), a push-your-luck game, where the players are raccoons collecting scraps from garbage cans.

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In October, Dude Games is coming out with Kids Magic Maze ($50), a fast-play cooperative game where the goal is to collect a set of potion ingredients but each player can move the game pawns only in one direction along the map-board paths.

Also in October, the company is shipping three versions of Penny Papers Adventures roll-and-write games ($20 each). All share essential mechanisms but with graduating difficulty levels from The Temple of Apikhabou to Skull Island to Valley of Wiraqocha.

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The Humble Digital Tabletop Bundle features a number of derived-from-tabletop digital games, including Ticket to Ride, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Mysterium, Pathfinder Adventures, Carcassonne, and Talisman.

Save 50% on admission to the Chicago Toy & Game Fair via Groupon.

Tinkerbot Games is selling Ghostel for 20% off with free worldwide shipping this month. Use coupon code “PURPLE20” to get the discount and Purple Pawn will get a small bounty too!

Save 25% on Hasbro games at Target with promo code “HASBRO25”.

Board Game Exposure is giving away a pledge level for Eagle-Gryphon’s Infamous Kickstarter project.

Marco Arnaudo is giving away Raids from Iello.

In honor of Labor Day, all of Gypsy Knights Games’ Clement Sector products with character-building elements are 30% off at DriveThruRPG.

Also at DriveThruRPG, there’s a sale on d100 system products.

To save 15% on orders of $100 or more in Litko’s Labor Day Sale, use coupon code “LABOR2018”.

Through Tuesday, save 25% at Miniature Market on discontinued games Arcane Legions, Golem Arcana, and AT-43.

A bundle of 3E and 4E Eberron products at Dungeon Masters Guild is currently 53% off.

Bundle of Holding is offering a deal on the Beasts & Barbarians campaign setting for Savage Worlds.

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There seems like there is no end in site to the boom of IP games. Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid Board Game is a 2-5 player co-operative game. Based on the hit kids T.V. which ran longer than you think it did (it’s still on T.V. now). Base on the original team, you will be tasked with defending Angel Grove from Rita Repulsa and her foot soldiers. Each Ranger comes with a unique combat deck representing their particular skills and fighting style which makes each character unique. In each game, you’ll protect four combat zones that are being targeted. Every round enemies will invade these zones, and your mission is to defeat them. With six days to go this Kickstarter is shy of $500,000. You can fund the game here.

Crazier Eights: One Thousand & One Nights is a card game based on the premise of crazy eights. I know your scrolling down on this already, but hear me out. Players take turns drawing a card, discarding a card, and playing a card for an effect. The first player with zero cards wins. Despite being light in nature, two things make this game shine, the asset cards and the art. The asset cards can give you special powers or even change the end game conditions. And the art is AMAZING! There have been a couple of versions of this game (first edition, Camelot) and the art is always incredible. The price point is $14 and can be found here.

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Cards Against Humanity is recruiting part-time joke writers. Work is remote. Applications due by the 31st.

Iello is recruiting for an Executive Assistant to its COO in Goleta, California. Tasks range from administrative to customer service but the work is part-time.

Goliath Games has several openings in Plano, Texas: Website/Video Coordinator, Contract Recruiter, and Director of Marketing.

There are two openings at Panda Game Manufacturing: one for an Accountant in Hong Kong, one for a Contract Software Developer working remote.

Southern Hobby Supply is looking for a Corporate Buyer for miniatures, roleplaying games, and board games, remote but in the Nashville area. The job involves following trends, setting up new products, maintaining relationships with vendors, and working with marketing staff.

Forrest-Pruzan Creative in Seattle needs a Production Manager to handle suppliers, vendors, costing, scheduling, and everything that goes in to the manufacturing of board games. Previous experience requires, as is a willingness to travel internationally for extended periods.

For its soon-to-open board game cafe in Tempe, Arizona, Snakes & Lattes needs a Front of House Manager.

Have at least 5 years of experience pitching consumer products? Check in with Brilliant PR, who’s looking for a Senior Account Manager. I believe the company represents HABA, Educational Insights, and Learning Resources.

The Game Design and Development Department of Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario is recruiting for a Research Associate to “lead research efforts on reducing cultural bias in escape room design.” The position is funded by Red Bull for 2 years.

Among a number of other jobs open at Spin Master, there’s one for a Project Manager (Queens, New York) to drive execution in games portfolios, and one for a Bakugan Community Development Manager to engage Bakugan players and connect them with the company’s brand teams.

ThinkFun (Alexandria, Virginia) is looking for a Junior Product Designer, who’s responsibilities would include preparing product specifications, communicating with manufacturers, developing game concepts, play-testing, and model making.

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Humble Bundle is offering a collection of The One Ring RPG from Cubicle 7. Pay what you want but at $15 or more that’s $270 worth of digital books plus a 30% off coupon for the Cubicle 7 store.

Bundle of Holding has the universal RPG system OneDice in a starter bundle with the core rulebook and supplements for fantasy, urban fantasy, cyberpunk, steampunk, and pulp at $8. The bonus collection adds pirates, dragons, airships, space, supers, B movies, and Robin Hood for $15.

Also at Bundle of Holding are two offers for the Deathwatch Warhammer 40,000 RPG from Ulisses Spiele. The Essentials bundle includes the core rulebook and key supplements. The Missions bundle includes additional sourcebooks and scenarios.

Deep Water Games is giving away three copies of Welcome To….

Noble Knight Games is running a Moving Clearance Sale.

This weekend, The Broken Token is selling dice at 50% off.

More than 100 print-and-play wargaming models from Dave Graffam Models are currently discounted to $1-2.

At some Walmarts, some copies of Splendor come with keys to download the Splendor app on Steam for free.

Here We Go Again… Ready? is giving away Domino Junior Friends Deluxe, I-Top, and Pop Rocket from Goliath Games, each to a different winner.

Everything Board Games is giving away Eminent Domain: Battlecruisers from Tasty Minstrel Games, Grand Master, and some Age of Sigmar: Champions card packs.

Many board games are on sale at Think Geek, up to 60% off.

For 10% off Pwork Wargaming mats, use discount code “SUMMERSALE”.

Hipsters of the Coast is giving away a set of Magic: The Gathering promo planeswalkers from San Diego Comic Con.

Fundamentally Children is giving away five Gibson games (UK residents only).

Board Game Revolution is giving away a Dungeon Derby Kickstarter pledge level from Rabbiteer (not on Facebook but must be a Facebook group member to enter).

The Giveaway Geek is giving away No Escape from OOMM Games and MYnd Kraft.

Unfiltered Gamer is giving away Fire of Eidolon from Magic Meeple Games.

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Five new games from Goliath but one is not like the others…

The Oregon Trail Game: Journey to Willamette Valley ($40, available now exclusively at Target) is the third of Goliath/Pressman’s titles based on the classic computer game. This one has players laying out trail tiles, hunting, trading supplies, selling goods, and moving their wagons across the board. Along the way, they must endure various calamities and, of course, always keep their families fed. The winner is the player who reaches Willamette Valley with the most money. Family members who die en-route drain a player’s resources. The earlier in the journey, the more it costs to bury them.

50 Shades of Shit ($20, due this fall) is an expansion for the company’s Shit Happens party game and is focused on sexual situations.

Tossed Salad ($15, now) is a word-guessing party game of double entendres. In the first round, those giving the hints can say anything. In the second round, they can use at most three words. And in the third round, they can use only Charades-like motions.

Friend or Faux ($20, now) is more a get-to-know-you activity that involves asking revealing questions. In rounds four and five, the questions get more adult.

Sip It ($20, fall) is a card-based drinking game. Some of the cards are truth-or-dare like; others have action challenges.

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Making their way in to retail over the next month from Breaking Games are Rise of Tribes and Expancity.

Rise of Tribes ($50 + $25 for a deluxe component upgrade) is a somewhat abstracted civilization building game that plays in about an hour. Four actions are always available on a person’s turn: grow, move, gather, and lead. But how effective those actions would be are determined by dice rolled by the player at the beginning of their turn, as well as dice held over from previous players’ turns. Points are scored by completing goal cards and building villages. The first to 15 is the winner.

Expancity ($60) is a city building game with a striking table presence. Players add tiles to the city both as locations for new buildings and as modifiers for adjacent buildings. The buildings are made by stacking plastic pieces vertically and then capping them off to score. The result is a table that looks like a downtown area packed with high-rises.

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Besides Holding On at Essen Spiel, Hub Games will be releasing Blankdemic, a small expansion ($6) meant to showcase the flexibility of the company’s customizable card game, Blank. Blankdemic cards, designed by Matt and Colleen Leacock, provide a more tactical game experience and are obviously inspired by Matt’s earlier board game, Pandemic.

Then for the UK Games Expo, Hub is planning Mega Cities, which combines Euro-style and dexterity elements in a city-building game. The goal, to satisfy certain building contracts, is accomplished by stacking odd-shaped pieces, made from a variety of materials, over foundation spots marked on platform tiles. To score, players must slide their tiles across the table, over to the city, without knocking down their buildings.

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This game is something else! I saw many fun games at Gen Con but Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr from Hub Games pairs gameplay with a meaningful experience, such as I haven’t seen before.

At the basic level, Holding On is a cooperative worker-placement game, where the players manage hospital staff as they work with heart-attack patient Billy Kerr.

At a deeper level, though, gameplay presents the opportunity to learn something about modern medical care. Each game round represents 1 day and consists of three work shifts. During each shift, the players have to decide between allocating resources to physical care, addressing Billy’s direct medical needs, and palliative care, making him more comfortable and establishing a closer, trusting relationship with him.

But that’s not what this game is really about. What Holding On is about is the troubled life of Billy Kerr. And that is revealed, slowly, through 10 scenarios, during which the players are able to help the patient recover memories of his earlier life. Partial-memory cards with limited text and hazy images can be replaced with clarifying overlays if the right choices in care are made. And while I wouldn’t (in fact, can’t) spoil the whole story, I can reveal that Billy’s history is a complex one involving The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The story, I’m told, is based on real facts and paints an honest picture of a complex character.

The game, then, promises to give players a lot to think about.

Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr should be available at Essen Spiel for $40.

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