In September and October, other radical Bakugan being released include:

• Two core Bakugan that split when landing on a gate card—Sky and Gaia, which transforms in to two separate creatures, and Dartaak, which when activated, half of it shoots forward.
• Three core Bakugan that have buttons for “double-strike action”—Blitz Dragonoid with fists that spring from the sides, Phantom Dharak with two large pincers, and Aksela with wings revealed around a central eye.
• Four Super Assault Bakugan—Quakix Gorem winds up to rumble on the battlefield, Ziperator spins in to battle charged by a zip line, Irisca has a rotating LED eye, and Gyrazor has spinning mandibles.

Oh, the latest issue of Mongoose’s house magazine also has flora and fauna for Earthdawn, horror scenes for Traveller, and a preview of Cthonian Stars (a Lovecraftian setting for Traveller). Signs & Portents #84 is available as a free download.

Published by Alauna through Marina Games.  Contains 300 cards, and costs $15. Contains a die, for some reason.

(source)

PASH stands for Print and Shipped Board Games. Like Cheapass Games, its founder David Bush believes that people should print and scrounge for the easy components of a game, and only have to pay for components that are unique. He’s looking for a half-dozen designers to try out his publishing system.

His first game effort is the game he was trying to publish (but which was rejected by three major publishers), Lies & Spies, which he publishes under the brand Payper Board Games. L&S is part trivia game, part Clue. One player plays a CIA agent, and the other plays a terrorist intent on blowing up a US embassy. Give clues to the other player until he or she can guess your country, famous person, and mammal (all of this makes sense, somehow). Win by guessing all the clues and then being the first to get to the embassy.

The PASH system is to supposed to make things cheaper. However, unless I grossly misunderstand his model, David wants to charge $10 for three sets of clue cards, which would allow you to play the game a whopping three times before exhausting the game play. Each additional set of three plays is another $10. I’m guessing that you should be able to create your own, pretty easily.

Games range from 1 to 3 players. The deck lends itself to storytelling games, as well as a small amount of combat mechanics (RPS). I think it’s still undergoing beta testing; anyway, there’s no way to buy a deck, just yet, except to ask to be a play-tester.

Gametasia is part of a trilogy of works by Mel, which also includes the book Octilogy, the world “Planet Millennium”. All are free to print and play. The game requires you to scrounge up some additional pieces, such as Chess pieces and tokens. The game site, rules, board, and cards are all part of the same mythological new age structure, designed to invoke the mythology, and not designed for purposes of clarity.

I say game, but actually it’s a series of a dozen games, revolving around cards, Chess pieces, dice, and so on, where the games range from pure luck to some kind of Chess. I have no idea if they are worth playing, but I don’t think that’s actually the point.

The winners of the 2009 Dice Tower Gaming Awards are:

• Game of the Year — Small World
• Best Family Game — Small World
• Best New Game Designer — Colby Dauch for Summoner Wars
• Best Game Reprint — Tales of the Arabian Nights
• Best Production Value — Space Hulk
• Best Small Publisher — Plaid Hat Games for Summoner Wars
• Best Party Game — Dice Town
• Best Game Expansion — Pandemic: On the Brink
• Most Innovative Game — Tobago
• Best Game Artwork — Small World
• Best War Game — Richard III

Personally, I’d been staying away from Small World as I did not particularly enjoy its predecessor, Vinci. But the positive talk about this game has kept pretty steady; I probably should give it a try.

Thwart Poker. Flip cards face up, each player secretly selects which cards to play with. Any cards chosen by more than one player become worthless. Highest poker hand wins.

The Hunger Games: Training Days. From Wizkids/NECA. One BGG reviewers says it’s poor quality components and a poor game.

Back to the Future card game. From Looney Labs, based on the Chrononauts engine. Looney Labs is a successful company, but their games just don’t inspire me. Sorry.

Chess

A Chess computer will actually be a commentator (not a player) in the next Chess Olympics. (source)

World number 1 chess player Magnus Carlsen takes on the world in the Raw World Chess Challenge. (source)

Carson City, NV: Caesar’s Palace fined $250,000 for allowing a Baccarat player to dance on the table during a game. (source)

Ahmedabab, India: 14 arrested for gambling on cards. (source)

Memphis, TN: Man shot and robbed while playing dice. (source)

Srinagar, India: Police open fire on men playing a board game, killing an 11 year old boy. (source)

Ogema, MI: One man stabs another twice in the chest in an argument over a card game. (source)

Tahoma, WA: Detectives look into the possible connection between online D&D and murder, since the murderer indicated that he went to relax by playing online D&D after the murder. (source, via)