Asmodee Group announced that it is in talks to acquire Rebel, the publisher and distributor of games in Poland. Rebel already distributes many of Asmodee’s games, including Ticket to Ride and Dobble.

Asmodee UK, formerly Esdevium Games, will be taking over distribution of Bananagrams and other games from the Bananagrams company in the U.K. as of April 1st.

Van Ryder Games has acquired the U.S. and Canadian distribution rights for English-language versions of Makaka Editions’ series of French graphic novel game books. Expect a Kickstarter project for these in March.

Pegasus Spiele is partnering with Frosted Games to distribute some of the latter’s titles on an exclusive basis and other titles on a non-exclusive basis. Those games under the exclusive arrangement will get a Pegasus Spiele logo on the box. Among these is Augespielt! (“Game Over!” in English), a murder-mystery game set at the annual German SPIEL game convention.

Pegasus Spiele is also expanding its relationship with Portal Games, taking over exclusive distribution of the latter’s products in Germany.

Renegade Game Studios and Hunter’s Books are partnering to copublish the latter’s roleplaying games, including the upcoming titles Kids on Bikes and Outbreak Undead. Renegade will handle marketing and distribution to hobby retailers.

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Expect a Sonic the Hedgehog board game on Kickstarter soon. The game was announced by Shinobi 7, previously a joint venture with Ninja Division Publishing but recently acquired in its entirety by Seven Seas Entertainment. Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers, based on the SEGA video game series, will allow players to choose between Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Tails, and Dr. Eggman, each represented with 40 mm painted figures.

Up on Kickstarter now is Highlander: The Board Game from River Horse. This one naturally comes with a 32 mm figure for each immortal and has players dueling to the last.

All Things Equal, publisher of Loaded Questions, has acquired a license from NBC Universal to produce The Big Lebowski board games. At least two are planned, with details expected around New York Toy Fair.

Billing it as the first in a series of X-Files games (even though the company previously published one in 2015), IDW recently announced Everything is Connected: The X-Files Conspiracy Theory. As a story-telling party game, Everything is Connected has players inventing theories to explain case evidence and then attempting to convince the others of their theory’s plausibility. It’ll also include an alternative game mode, based on the episode “From Outer Space”, in which the players take turns trying to weave together in to a sensible narrative the invented eyewitness testimony provided by the other players. Everything is Connected is supposed to ship in March.

Pegasus Spiele has announced plans for a series of four new games based on Games Workshop’s classic title, Talisman. The first, due later this year, will be a children’s game. Following that, are planned an expandable card game, a roleplaying game, and a dice game.

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Cabot Creamery is running a board game recipe contest. Three winners will each receive two tickets to the BGG@Sea 2018 Alaska cruise.

The Dungeon Masters Guild New Year, New Campaign Sale means a 25% discount on all tier 1 (levels 1-4) Dungeons & Dragons adventures, as well as some rulebooks.

Parenting in Progress is giving away two games from Goliath, Greedy Granny and Jumping Jack.

For The Love To is also giving away a Goliath game, Doggie Doo.

Promo code “GAMES2018” is good for savings of 25% on games from HasbroToyShop but only until midnight ET tonight.

Plumpy Thimble is giving away Torres from IDW.

MyMBuzz is giving away three Magic: The Gathering Rivals of Ixalan Bundles (box, 80 lands, and 10 boosters each).

Board Game Revolution is giving away Valeria Card Kingdoms plus expansions and accessories from Daily Magic Games.

USAopoly is giving away three sets of promo cards for Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle.

Buy one, get one 30% off on HexBug Battle Ground toys.

Through February, Noble Knight Games is offering free domestic shipping on all orders over $149.

The latest at Bundle of Holding is Oone Blueprints, maps for RPGs.

Unfiltered Gamer is giving away something from Mayday Games.

Name Dropping is giving away Stranger Things games.

Sentient Cow Games is giving away some miniatures.

Rolling Solo is giving away UBOOT: The Board Game (pending Kickstarter funding and production).

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Clue Chase, which operates several escape rooms in Midtown Manhattan, is launching Escape-To-Go, a live puzzle activity that can be played at the customer’s location. For Contagion, the first story-line offered, actors provide guidance to individual teams as they work to solve puzzles that represent finding and disabling devices armed with deadly pathogens.

Clue Chase says its Escape-To-Go service can support groups of to 500 people split into teams across multiple tables. Each team is given a central item, such as “specially rigged devices [or] briefcases with hidden compartments”, and a variety of puzzles. The event is timed to last 70 minutes.

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The Creativity Hub, the Irish firm responsible for publishing Rory’s Story Cubes and The Extraordinaires Design Studio is shifting focus from the educational market exclusively to tabletop games. With that comes a new name, Hub Games.

What the company will keep doing, however, is producing products with a unique sensibility.

Hub Games aims to publish games that foster discussion between players at the table and beyond; games with heart. By encouraging self-expression through play and having gamers reflect on the choices they make, Hub Games looks to push past the idea of games being simple entertainment.

Its two latest releases are Blank and Untold: Adventures Await. Blank is a card game reminiscent of Uno, except that the cards and game rules are modified by the players with each play. Thus, over time each card deck becomes a reflection of the people who’ve played with it. Untold: Adventures Await is a storytelling game, a kind-of cooperative RPG in which participants describe a series of adventures using Rory’s Story Cubes in a structure of scenes, episodes, and seasons.

The rights to Rory’s Story Cubes were sold by the company last year to Asmodee.

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DriveThruRPG is running a New Year, New Game Sale, with discounts on over 5,000 items.

Steve Jackson Games is previewing cards for the upcoming Munchkin CCG, opening booster packs on video and then giving them away.

Toys “R” Us in the U.K. is closing stores, which is sad, but no sense in wasting a good closing-down sale.

Used game trader Cheap Cheap Games wants feedback on its website and service. Complete the company’s survey to get $5 in store credit and possibly $150 more.

At Amazon:

• First Martians from Portal Games is 65% off.
• Fantastic Gymnastics from Hasbro is 56% off.
• Rattlebones from Rio Grande Games is 72% off.
• Let’s Go Fishin’ from Pressman is 61% off.
• Ultra Dash from PlayMonster is 60% off.
• Doggie Doo from Goliath Games is 57% off.
• Star Wars Loopin’ Chewie from Hasbro is 56% off.
• Sons of Anarchy, Men of Mayhem from Gale Force Nine is 76% off.
• Mag-O-Mag from Thames & Kosmos is 82% off.
• The Phantom Society from Iello is 70% off.
• Venetia from Passport Game Studios is 56% off.
• Warhammer Diskwars core set from FFG is 62% off.
• Chew: Cases of the FDA from IDW is 63% off.
• Helvetia Cup from Asmodee is 80% off.
• Starship Merchants from Toy Vault is 71% off.
• Attila from Blue Orange Games is 56% off.
• Time ‘N’ Space from Stronghold Games is 68% off.

The Cape Cod Times is giving away a game. I’m not sure which but you can enter the giveaway by email or old-fashioned postal delivery.

Think Geek is holding a major sale on board games. Some are even 50% off.

Passport Game Studios is giving away an unspecified game from its back catalog. To enter via Facebook, comment with your favorite game night snack food.

Renegade Game Studios is giving away Castell.

At Bundle of Holding, the Hellfrost Essentials deal includes the Savage Worlds setting’s core books and the Hellfrost Atlas deal adds more recent supplements. There’s also a deal for Car Wars, the autoduel board game from Steve Jackson Games.

Complete ThinkFun’s customer survey to be entered in the company’s monthly game giveaway.

Subscribe to The Bridge World magazine and get a free book, Playing Suit Combinations.

EverythingBoardGames is giving away Montana from White Goblin Games and Warriors of Jogu: Feint from Monsoon Publishing.

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CMON is giving away two 3-day passes to the CMON Expo (May 11-13 in Atlanta). To enter, post your New Year gaming resolution to CMON’s Facebook page, but do it by tomorrow.

Save 20% on Geeknson game tables through the end of the month.

Also through the end of the month, Rogue Genius Games is offering a bundle of all the company’s Pathfinder RPG ebook products for $29.87, a discount of 98%.

Renegade Game Studios is giving away a prize package that include every game and expansion in its North Sea series. That’s six boxes in all.

Save 20% on all purchases through the 12th in Victory Point Games’ New Year’s Sale. Save an additional 10% on Gem Rush and High Treason.

Featuring the first edition World of Darkness is Bundle of Holding’s Chronicles of Darkness offering, now $28 for the rulebook and eight supplements (maybe more).

Coupon code “holiday2017” will get you 30% off orders placed before the 31st from the Jon Brazer Enterprises Shop.

Save 18% on orders from Mayday Games with discount code “welcome2018” but only until 11:59 MT tonight.

Compass Games is holding a Holiday Sale. Preorders and recent releases are 25-30% off. Select other games are 40% off through the 15th with coupon code “HOLIDAY17”.

Flying Pig Games’ Post-Holiday Sale means 30% off for Old School Tactical Volume I, ’65 Squad-level Combat, and Night of Man.

Buy two card sets from Strat-O-Matic, get one free.

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Pathfinder enters the mobile CCG market with Pathfinder Duels, a new head-to-head battling game with simultaneous turns and cards decks built around the iconic characters of the Pathfinder RPG. Available now for Android and iOS.

Dire Wolf Digital has added a solo scenario for Clank! In Space! to its Renegade Game Studios Companion App (Android, iOS).

Hasbro has launched a game-show style version of Trivial Pursuit played with Amazon Echo Buttons.

Metro, Queen Games’ tile-laying title about Paris rail-lines, has arrived on iOS and Android, with AI opponents and online play.

The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game materialized recently on Steam. Evil Hat and developer Hidden Achievement say that mobile versions will follow on the 7th.

Asmodee Digital put out a new version of Carcassonne with a 3D look to Steam and Android.

There’s also a new version of Catan in the electronic game space. Catan Universe is available for PC, Mac, iOS, and Android and allows cross-platform play. Previous mobile versions of Catan have been renamed Catan Classic and owners of those versions are eligible to receive certain content in Catan Universe for free.

Set in the “Catan universe” but not the traditional board game, Catan Stories is a new scenario-based text adventure game from Asmodee Digital (Android and iOS).

APBA Go, the online version of APBA Baseball, has added solitaire play.

Referring to it as “everybody’s favourite board game,” Ubisoft announced the release of Hasbro’s Monopoly on Nintendo Switch. The game includes three themed boards (Classic City, Amusement Park, Haunted) and dice rolls that players can feel with the Switch’s HD Rumble.

Also now on Nintendo Switch from Ubisoft is the card game Uno, with themes derived from video games, Rabbids, Just Dance, and Rayman.

Kinkajoo, which already produces a Rummikub game app, now has out a free Rummikub score tracker and timer (Android and iOS).

Other cardboard-to-computer ports:

• 7 Wonders to Android and iOS by Repos Productions.
• Renegade Game Studios’ Lotus to Android and iOS by Dire Wolf Digital.
• Tokaido to Steam (Windows & Mac) by Funforge.
• Hasbro’s Battleship to Facebook Messenger by CoolGames.
• Fowers Games’ Burgle Bros. and Paperback to Windows/Steam.

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Mikkel Bertelsen will hand-deliver an extra-large Klask anywhere in the world to the person who’s Facebook comment earns the most likes by 8:00 PM CET January 1st.

SahmReviews continues its 5 month series of daily giveaways.

North Star Games is giving away Evolution: Flight.

Gozer Games is giving away Codenames: Deep Undercover from CGE.

Blog and podcast giveaways:

• By The Mama Maven, Happy Salmon from North Star Games.
• By A Small Village, Catch the Fox from Goliath Games.
• By Backstage Pass, War of the Ring Anniversary Edition from Ares Games.
• By Boards Alive, Near and Far from Red Raven Games.

A bundle of Tony Petrecca’s DM’s Guild products is available now at more than 50% discount but disappears tomorrow.

Save 10% on anything from Strat-O-Matic through the 3rd.

Discount code “MERRY17” is good for 20% from Rebel Minis but only through tomorrow.

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The Fantasy Trip, a roleplaying game series from the late 1970s, should return to publication as early as next year. Steve Jackson Games announced that rights to several products in the series—Melee, Wizard, Death Test, Death Test 2, Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, In the Labyrinth, and Tollenkar’s Lair—have returned to their original author, Mr. Steve Jackson. Until now, those rights were held by Metagaming. However, an element of U.S. copyright law, allows the author to reclaim rights 35 years after last publication.

While specific plans for publication of The Fantasy Trip are still being considered, Jackson suggested that the first new release is likely to be Melee (via Kickstarter), with minimal rules changes but “a fully modern presentation.”

[Image note: Those are the original games that I played with during my junior high school days.]

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