Today Hasbro announced HASCON, a massive event which will be held in Providence at the Rhode Island Convention Center and Dunkin Donuts Center from September 8-10, 2017. The convention will be three days packed with everything Hasbro has to offer from all their product lines, characters, and stories. There will be live interactive experiences, exclusive products, special guests, panels, and everything else you’d expect to find at a good convention. Being Hasbro, it’s a fully family-friendly event.

This is one party I’m going to make sure not miss!

For more information, and to get on the mailing list for first-notice ticket sales, visit http://hascon.hasbro.com.

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The “core part of the team” of Conquistador’s The Best Damn Gaming Coins Ever! campaign are back with a new metal-coins-for-games accessory they’re calling “The Best Damn Gaming Coins Ever! Two”. Included in this campaign are seven new coin sets, plus the original campaign’s thirteen sets: Chinese, Mongol, Perisan, Indian, Anglo-Saxon, and more. Already funded, if they hit the $30k mark, they will have paper (cardstock) bills with “famous women of history”. Also on the campaign page, a suggested pairing of sets and board games: Fresco with the Renaissance coin set? Don’t mind if I do! Five bucks gets you a handful of coins, twenty-five gets you an entire set of 78 coins, and fifty dollars for the deluxe collection of 117 coins.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned Will Hindmarch’s Patreon. Nathan D. Paoletta, Will’s co-host of the Design Games Podcast, also has a Patreon for people that wish to support his ongoing game design process. Nathan has developed indie roleplaying games like Annalise, carry, World Wide Wrestling, and more. “It’s part design journal, part Patron-participation, and part early bird access to all of my published work.” Suggested patronage levels begin at $1 per month.

I can’t count the number of times I found out about a crowdfunding campaign too late. Thankfully, IndieGoGo has an interesting feature called InDemand: campaign creators can opt to have a successful campaign extend past the campaign’s end. If you’re like me and miss a campaign’s funding period, you can still jump in on a successful campaign after that campaign has ended. Here’s two playing card decks that have ended but are still offering perks to backers.

How many male scientists can you name? How many female scientists — besides Marie Curie and Ada Lovelace — can you name? Any? Women in Science is a card game featuring 44 female scientists. Doubling as a standard playing card deck, the game itself features scientists, engineers, and astronauts with mini-biographies. It’s a simple rummy-like game with players creating labs (“melds”). $20 gets you a copy of the game.

EduStack Playing Cards for Math and Astronomy sounds like a very dry title for an extremely dull educational project disguising itself as a game, but no — these playing cards are really nice. There’s a deck about some math concepts for $10, but what really caught my eye was the Star Stack, a deck about constellations for $12. Bump that up to $42, and you get a lovely book with stories about the constellations (and scientific facts), a poster star map of the northern and southern hemisphere, and a sticker featuring the design on the card backs. Shipping to non-India locations is $8.

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Today, February 7th, marks the 6th anniversary of Purple Pawn’s launch! Congratulations to all involved—writers, editors, supporters, and you wonderful readers as well!

Six years ago, Yehuda Berlinger started Purple Pawn with the mission of publishing “game news across the board”. On that day, he began with articles about Ticket to Ride appearing in the Sally Forth comic strip and a charity board game event being held at Bowling Green State University.

Since then, we have published 6,187 articles and the site has been visited by over a million individuals! Over its 6 year history, Purple Pawn has had its ups and downs but the staff remains committed to providing you a source of news covering all types of games, and to work at making the site even better.

Thank you Yehuda for your vision. And thank you to my current colleagues Robert, Randy, Sam, and Thomas for keeping us going.

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Hey everyone! After doing battlw with cray schedules and technical mishaps, we are back with show 70. Rett was busy, attending Gama Trade Show (GTS) in Las Vegas and the ACD Open House in scenic Madison, WI. We talk about those shows as well as the importance of iPad/iPhone versions of games. We also ramble on about various other topics as well. All in all, a well spent 43 minutes or so for you, the listener.

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Hey everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know that Rett and I will be back soon. As soon as Rett returns from GAMA Trade Show later this week, we’ll be recording a new show. Until then, enjoy your favorite game with some friends or keep working on your own new game.

–Ben Clark

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On the eve of NY Toy Fair, Ben and Rett sat down to make their calls for the coming year in games. This was way back in the old days of this past weekend, when Popes didn’t retire. That said, you’ll have to listen to find out how accurate they are. And how entertaining. And witty. And handsome. (I probably shouldn’t be allowed to right my own press). In any case, listen in for this year’s takes on everything from the RPG market to Miniatures and Historicals as well as the manufacturing climate and everything in between.

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Did Ben and Rett do better than the Mayans at predicting the events of 2012? Find out as they go back through their predictions from last December point by point! And you can join in for 2013! Send us your 2013 predictions and we’ll include them on our next show. A perfect way to spend a cold January evening.

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Hello again! Like old friends or bad pennies, we have returned after a long absence. This week, Rett and Ben discuss GenCon, TAGIE, BGG.Con, and the Alliance Open House as well as Games Workshop’s latest legal maneuvering. Also, Rett’s new office chair is very squeaky and Ben is jealous that Rett has fans. Enjoy! We’ll have another show out later this month for our year end recap.

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Ya know… Rett and I got busy right after GenCon and we figured we’d miss the end of August show, but we also figured we’d record a new show as soon as we got a handle on things. Well, here it is mid-November and we are *still* without a new show. Yes, it has been that busy! The good news is that Rett is returning from BGG.con with all sorts of amazing news and insights and we’ll be recording a new episode shortly after Thanksgiving.

Thanks for your kind patience!

-Ben Clark

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Welcome to the calm before the storm. We are in the doldrums of summer, as manufacturers scurry silently towards Indianapolis – which means darn little news this week. Still, Ben and Rett make the most of it, discussing Gen Con and Origins dates out through 2020, dissecting some tidbits of news and answering reader mail about “expected value” and PDF product. We’ll see everyone next week at Gen Con. Drop us an email or post on the show notes or catch Rett at his home away from home (guess which booth?).

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