Gen Con 2018—USAopoly

Recent releases from USAopoly include Samurai Jack Back to the Past ($35), based on the animated series, Thanos Rising ($50), a Marvel comics cooperative dice game, and Blank Slate ($25), a family-friendly fill-in-the-blank party game.

Coming next month is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Gemstone Mining Game ($35). Based on Quartz, the push-your-luck game of collecting crystals from Passport Game Studios, this Disney version works with up to seven players, each as one of the dwarfs.

In October, USAopoly ships Harry Potter Codenames ($25), with art from the films and gameplay similar to Codenames Duet but multiplayer.

Later in the fall, we’ll see Fantastic Beasts Perilous Pursuits ($30), a cooperative dice game where the goal is to put the beasts back in the suitcase.

While it wasn’t on display at the show, I was told there would be another expansion for the Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle deck-building game sometime in 2019.

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Disney, Pixar, and Marvel Codenames

USAopoly is paring together a few of its existing licenses with a new one from Czech Games Edition to publish Disney, Disney Pixar, and Marvel versions of Codenames. The first two to hit retail will be Codenames Disney Family Edition and Codenames Marvel Edition this coming fall priced at $25.

In announcing the new games, USAopoly’s John Davis said, “We’re particularly enthusiastic about the artwork, as it includes a great mix of characters and locations that Disney, Disney•Pixar and Marvel fans will appreciate,” which I gather means we’re looking at licensed versions of Codenames: Pictures.

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Crowdfunding Highlights

crowdfunding-highlights-iconBitbox is a game storage system for taking the components for your game — boards, rulebooks, and all those little pieces — and storing them, cutting down on the space required for all those game boxes. A unit fits within an IKEA Kallax cube space, and the video shows fourteen different games (Stone Age, Concept, Reverse Charades, Splendor, Power Grid, Telestrations, Machi Koro, Survive, The Lord of the Rings TCG base set, Ticket to Ride, RoboRally, Codenames, 7 Wonders, and Kingdom Builder were shown) stored in that single Bitbox. $50 gets you a Bitbox and a carry-to-game-night box. If we knew about this thing before it launched, you could have had that for $30.

The Prince Valiant RPG just came on Kickstarter last week. This game, set in the time of King Arthur and designed by Greg Stafford, is a storytelling game designed to be accessible to younger players. If you’ve wanted to tell stories about noble knights, you can get a physical copy of the game book filled with gorgeous full-color artwork from Hal Foster’s comic strip for just $30.

220px-TheWarriors_1979_Movie_PosterWell, after our last look at Crowdfunding Highlights, I think we’ve covered all the modular-board scenario-based standalone miniature battle games up on Kickstarter and — are you kidding me? There’s The Warriors: Turf War, based on the 1979 movie where a gang is set up for murder and all the gangs in New York City are hunting them down. Included in the base game are several miniatures, including the comical Baseball Furies (just called “Furies” here). Let’s do the rundown from last time: “early bird stretch goals not completely sold out (hurry!), more than three dozen miniatures (46!), second-ever KS from the company, $105 normal price tag. Come out to play.

Jackson Robinson does cards. You’ve got less than 19 hours to get some awesome currency-inspired playing cards. The cards are based on American and Chinese currency. (I’ve got one of his Wasteland decks and they’re really fantastic.) $14 gets you one of these decks, $28 gets you two. Stop reading and go now! There’s just *gasp* 18 hours left now! Go! Go! Go!

ChinaCards

not cahHonestly, I can’t wait for the US Presidential election to be over. There are soooo many Kickstarters that are trying to capitalize on Trump or Hillary that we just know aren’t going to fund or, god forbid they actually do fund, won’t be fulfilled any time before the election. Case in point: What the Drumpf, which is Apples to Apples with questions and Trump-like quotes “and the debate leader picks the funniest, most racist or most insane answer”. They want 3500 GBP for this thing.

Last week: People Vs. Politics, the “CAH with uncomfortable political discussion” game — how did it do? Unsuccessful, with just under half of the $4800 goal made.

oregon trailPressman Games is releasing The Oregon Trail Card Game as a Target exclusive next week, but like Codenames Deep Undercover, Ticket to Ride First Journey, and Machi Koro: Bright Lights, Big City, the game has been showing up on shelves in some stores. The Oregon Trail, based on the video game, contains a laminated card where you can list the names of the members of your party and a card where you can transfer them to the tombstones when they invariably die on the journey. Fix a broken wagon wheel, obtain 200 pounds of rabbit meat, and try to ford a river by discarding sorely-needed supply cards or hope you roll well on a die or everyone in the party will DIE.

Codenames Deep Undercover is described as an “Adults-only” version of Codenames, geared towards the Cards Against Humanity crowd (with agent names like “Motorboat”, “Keg”, and “Commando”). Ticket to Ride First Journey appears to be a kids-friendly version of the popular rummy variant.

According to images posted on imgur, Codenames Deep Undercover retails for $19.99 and the new Machi Koro retails for $29.99.

Image from reddit user dwboso. Full gallery of The Oregon Trail images can be found on imgur.

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design

The winners of the 2016 Origins Awards, as given out by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design at the Origins Game Fair, are:

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