Spin Master has singed a 3 year licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products for DC comics properties. The agreement covers games, puzzles, action toys, remote control and robotic vehicles, and water toys beginning in spring 2020.

PlayMonster (5 Second Rule, Yeti in My Spaghetti) is partnering with Audax Private Equity to finance additional expansion through “organic growth and add-on acquisitions.”

Goliath continues to grow, acquiring U.K. based Vivid Toy Group and moving in to the Italian market through a partnership with distributor MacDue. With the acquisition of Vivid, Goliath plans to launch 20 new games in the U.K. market next year.

Drumond Park has signed on with Tomy UK as exclusive distributor for all the former’s games in the U.K. and Ireland.

NSKN Games (Dice Settlers, Teotihuacan) and Board & Dice Games (Beet Empire, Dice Brewing) are merging. The combined company will continue operations under the Board & Dice name.

With the passing of designer Greg Stafford and earlier Stewart Wieck, of the games’ latest publisher, Nocturnal Media, the RPGs King Arthur Pendragon and Prince Valliant have been transferred again to Chaosium.

After a couple of messy PR situations involving insensitive or extremist material in game books, Paradox Interactive is stepping back from the publishing business but not abandoning the World of Darkness altogether. Instead, Paradox is moving to a licensing model and integrating White Wolf’s operations in to the parent company. Modiphius Entertainment, which was already handling distribution, is taking over development and publication for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. This will include production of various supplements (such as The Fall of London Chronicle and Players Guide), as well as oversight of other licensees (Onyx Path Publishing, Elderwood Academy, Dogmight Games, and others).

Impressions Game Distribution Services is being acquired by Flat River Group. The latter is a toy and game distribution company with business in e-commerce and crowdfunding fulfillment. Impressions founder Aldo Ghiozzi will continue with the combined company.

Scientific Games and Hasbro have extended their license agreement through 2025. The agreement covers the use of Hasbro properties, including Monopoly, Battleship, Clue, Yahtzee, and others for lotteries, slot machines, online gaming, and now also table games.

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Monopoly Pizza Game substitutes pies for property. Players collect slices while trading toppings, from traditional mushroom and pepperoni to contemporary pineapple. Monopoly Pizza comes in a delivery box with player tokens that include a cheese grater, rotary slicer, and delivery bicycle.

The depressing box-cover slogan on Monopoly for Millennials is: “Forget real estate. You can’t afford it anyway.” Instead of cash, players collect experience points by visiting such exciting destinations as a vegan restaurant or their friend’s couch. The tokens in this one include sunglasses, a bicycle, and a pound or number sign (also known as the hashtag symbol).

Monopoly Cash Grab drops all the pretense, along with random dice rolls, negotiation, board, and extended game play. It’s a battery-operated toy gun that shoots Monopoly money, with some interspersed Chance cards, rapid-fire in to the air. The Chance cards may allow players to do such things as exchange their wad with another player but, otherwise, the goal is simple. Grab as much as you can.

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Streamer PlayingBoardGames is giving away Sonic The Hedgehog Crash Course from IDW. Tweet and follow required.

A Games & Puzzles bundle at Humble Bundle includes …For Dummies books on Poker, Chess, Dungeons & Dragons, and more.

Everything is 30% in Victory Point Games’ Christmas Sale.

Mom’s Choice Awards is giving away Blurble from North Star Games.

Family-friendly RPGs are discounted in DriveThruRPG’s Teach Your Kids to Game Sale.

Pangea Games on Facebook is giving away Scythe from Stonemaier Games.

Iello is giving away Decrypto.

Save on a variety of games in Eagle-Gryphon’s Stocking Stuffer Sale, plus an additional 10% with orders of $50 and 20% with orders of $99.

The Family Gamers is giving away the Home Alone Game from Big G Creative this evening.

Bundle of Holding has two Cyberpunk offers from R. Talsorian Games, Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Boost. The latter includes the game’s third edition core rulebook. Also at Bundle of Holding is a Warhammer RPP 1E offer with this game’s first edition rulebooks and Enemy Within campaign.

Board game deals at Walmart include:

• Founders of Gloomhaven from Cephalofair Games for 54% off.
• Twister from Hasbro for 53% off.
• Rubik’s Race from University Games for 55% off.
• Monopoly Gamer from Hasbro for 55% off.
• One Night Ultimate Werewolf from Bezier Games for 48% off.
• Perplexus Rookie from Spin Master for 49% off.

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Just in time for PAX, Ares Games’ launched to retail Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles ($60). It’s a spaceship miniatures combat game in some ways similar to other such games on the market. Movement is facilitated by templates. There are cards for various pilots. And draw tokens to determine damage.

Like its namesake television show, however, the game features an added level of realism for spaceship movement. Ships carry momentum from round to round. They can face and fire one direction while moving in another. And the game even carries rules for elevation. Kinetic energy and other maneuvering factors are tracked for each ship on a small, individual plastic control panel.

Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles starter sets come with four prepainted plastic ship figures, two Colonial Vipers and two Cylon Raiders.

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North Star Games has brought to the American market The Quacks of Quedlinburg ($55), winner of the 2018 Kennerspiel des Jahres (Connoisseur’s Game of the Year) award. Nothing to do with ducks, the game is about concocting miracle cures from such fantastical ingredients as toadstools, mandrake, spiders, pumpkin, and crow skull.

Each round, players draw ingredients from their personal bags and place them around the swirling spaces of their cauldrons. Depending on how far they’ve gone that round, and assuming they’ve managed to avoid blowing up the concoction, they’ll score victory points and purchase additional ingredients.

Some of the ingredients also allow for special actions when placed in the cauldron. For example, crow skulls may allow a player to draw bonus ingredients and mandrake may help prevent blow-ups. Alternate ingredient books are included with the game to vary these impacts.

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Brain Games’, who’s big hit is the penguin-flicking Ice Cool, has remade Curse of the Mummy (previously published by Ravensburger) also with a penguin theme. Game-play is essentially the same. Pyramid of the Pengqueen ($30) has a two-sided, vertical, magnetic game board. On one side, a group of players move penguin pieces around the pyramid to collect sets of treasure. On the other, one opposing player moves the mummy piece trying to catch the penguins with its magnet.

Passing on the penguins, Brain Game’s Orc-Lympics ($15) goes with a fantasy theme. Players draft teams of human, goblin, dwarf, elf, halfling, djinn, and orc contestants for a variety of sporting events. Each group has strengths for certain of the sports but at the end of the draft, each player can keep representatives from at most three of the fantasy races.

Pikoko ($30) is a trick-taking card game where players wager on the number of tricks they can take. There’s a twist, though. Instead of seeing one’s own hand of card, players only get to see everyone else’s cards.

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Hollandspiele’s Hollandays Sale includes all the company’s games. Additionally, use discount code “MONSTERDEAL” for 10% off orders of $100 or more.

Michigan Savings and More is giving away Utter Nonsense Family Edition from PlayMonster.

Auroch Digital’s Steam games are on-sale. Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is 20% off and Ogre is 50% off.

At DriveThruRPG:

• Goodman Games’ Holiday Modules for Dungeon Crawl Classics are 40% off.
• WarDrumRPG’s isometric mapping tools are available in an Epic Isometric Bundle at 50% savings.
• Shadows of Esteren titles from Agate RPG are 66% off.
• Raging Swan Press’ Christmas PDF Megabundle is priced at a savings of 93% and the Christmas Print Megabundle is priced at a savings of 33%.

Amazon roleplaying game deals:

• Mouse Guard Boxed Set for 54% off.
• Paizo’s Starfinder Core Rulebook for 53% off, Armory for 54% off, and Alien Archive 2 for 55% off.
• WOTC Dungeons & Dragons’ Player’s Handbook for 55% off; Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual for 58% off; Starter Set for 40% off; Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for 58% off; Dragon Heist for 58% off; and Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica for 58% off.
• Paizo’s Pathfinder Bestiary 4 for 40% off and Pathfinder Unchained for 43% off.

Amazon board game deals:

• New York 1901 from Blue Orange Games for 58% off.
• Dominion and Dominion Intrigue from Rio Grande Games for 37% off. Dominion Prosperity for 41% off.
• Broom Service from Ravensburger for 39% off.
• Betrayal at House on the Hill from WOTC for 47% off.
• Terraforming Mars from Stroghold Games for 36% off.
• Above and Below from Red Raven Games for 46% off.
• Pandemic Iberia from Z-Man for 54% off.
• Battle Sheep from Blue Orange for 38% off.
• Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game from Cryptozoic for 44% off.
• Massive Darkness from CMON for 45% off.
• In the Year of the Dragon from Ravensburger for 58% off.
• Santorini from Spin Master for 38% off.
• The Rose King from Kosmos for 46% off.
• Dice City from AEG for 43% off.
• Survive Space Attack! from Stronghold Games for 45% off.
• Abaddon from Toy Vault for 75% off.

Renegade Game Studios is giving away a new game every day on Twitter though December 18th.

USAopoly is also giving away a new game every day, through December 12th, but the winner must follow the company on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Get a free Christmas-themed miniature for every $40 of order from Reaper through the 16th.

Use promo code “GAMEAWARDS” for a free 25 card set in Magic: The Gathering Arena.

Try Small Things is giving away Googly Eyes, Mastermind, Wordsearch, and Sequence from Goliath Games and Pressman Toy.

Enter to win a weekly giveaway by Asmodee UK.

Terraforming Mars upgrades are 15% off at Top Shelf Gamer.

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Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have announced a major new esports initiative for Magic: The Gathering, one that seeks to more closely integrate the game’s tabletop and digital competitive scenes. The companies are launching a Magic Pro League (MPL) with 32 people being offered play and streaming contracts totaling $75,000. Another part of the initiative is a new series of flagship competitions, Mythic Championships, for both tabletop and electronic play.

Mythic Championships will feature Magic Pro League players facing challengers qualified through play on Magic: The Gathering Arena. Details on how the ranking system will work are promised for January.

The first of the new tournaments, a $1 Million Mythic Invitational, will be held at PAX East in Boston (March, 2019). For the whole of 2019, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are more than doubling the overall prize pool to $10 million across digital and tabletop platforms.

Pro Tour events previously scheduled for Dallas and Sydney are being cancelled, while those in Cleveland, London, Barcelona, and Richmond will become part of the Mythic Championship series with prize pools of $500,000 each.

Nationals, World Magic Cup, and Team Series events are also being eliminated. However, the 2019 World Championship will bring together players from both MtG Arena and tabletop. And partner-organized tournaments, such as the Grand Prix circuit run by ChannelFireball will continue with increased prize support.

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Winning Moves’ newest games include an original abstract and two revived classics.

The abstract is Triple Cross ($20), which has players filling a vertical device with orange and green pieces to score the greatest number of three-in-a-row sets. The pieces slide in to horizontal rows and can be used to push an opponent’s pieces out the other side. Or a player can snap a clip on the end to fix that row.

Clue Master Detective ($30) is a super-sized version of the classic deduction game, with additional rooms, weapons, and suspects. The mansion board also has snoop spots, which allow a player to look another player’s cards.

A Milton Bradley title from the early ’90s, 13 Dead End Drive is kind of the inverse of Clue. Players divide up the game’s 12 characters in secret and then try to kill off all but their own. Each turn they can move any of the characters around a three-dimensional game board. When they manage to maneuver a character pawn in to one of the various danger spaces, they can press a little lever or switch and literally topple a statue or drop a chandelier on the piece to kill it. 13 Dead End Drive is exclusive to Go! Calendars & Games until January.

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At PAX Unplugged, AEG previewed Tiny Towns (April, $40), a title that pairs resource collecting with polyominoes. Players take turns calling out a resource type for everyone to place in one space of their 4×4 town board. Resource combinations that match specific patterns can then be replaced with a building type—all of the resource pieces are removed and the appropriate building is placed in one of the emptied spaces. Play continues until no one can possibly make another move.

Buildings score victory points, as well as potentially providing some benefits during play. In addition to those available for everyone to build, each player has their own secret building type (referred to as a monument), tougher to fit on the board but with greater benefits.

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