Last July, creator Chris Cieslik, in collaboration with Asmadi Games, launched a Kickstarter campaign for a newspaper based game called Penny Press. Nearly a year later and after a very successful campaign where the company surpassed their goal by about $58,000, Penny Press is finally shipping to board game stores.
The game has players choose one of the lead newspapers to run during the heyday of yellow journalism in early 19th century New York. Send reporters out on leads, get the scoop, and go to print before your opponent to become the number one paper in the state.
Players have five reporters to send on assignment. News is generated by draw cards with stories covering five beats, War, Crime & Calamity, New York City, Politics, and the Human Condition. Players roll dice to see who can claim a story.
When you have all the stories you need to run a top-notch paper, go to press by laying out the design (which story gets the front page?). After the stories have all been grabbed up by various newspapers, the player with the best front pages and most interesting stories, based on stats on the draw card, will score the most points, increase their circulation, and win the game.
Penny Press supports two to five players and takes between 45 and 60 minutes to play. The game retails for $50 and should be arriving at your local board game store very soon.