On the subject of Liar’s Dice, Mr. B Games has secured a license to republish the original. Expect it in time for the holiday season at a retail price of $30.

Available now from the company is Prospectus ($60), a game about apprentice mages trading in potion ingredients—owl tears, troll sweat, frog juice, pixie dust, and goblin wizz. The prices of these ingredients vary by the results of a crystal ball-like device, in which cubes representing the ingredients may get stuck from round to round. Players, though, can also manipulate the market prices by casting spells.

Mr. B next is shipping Warquest ($120, September), an epic fantasy game with 100 plus miniatures that’s supposed to play in 2-2½ hours. Warquest has both war game and adventure game elements with conquering territory and completing quests both legitimate strategies to victory. Mr. B confirmed to this old-timer that the game drew some inspiration from the 1979 TSR game, Divine Right. Unique adventure locations and characters are interspersed among the larger territories around the map board.

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Kodama: The Tree Spirits from Action Phase Games is a reimplementation of designer Daniel Solis’ Kigi, with a bit of added sophistication. Scoring points in the game involves growing tree branches with contiguous caterpillars, flowers, mushrooms, or other features. But rather than its strategy or mechanics, Kodama’s major draw has to be its overall aesthetic. Laying down branch cards is really about cultivating a beautiful and tranquil home for the spirits.

The first of its kind in our Crowdfunding Highlights series, Chess Boxing Global is an equity crowdfunding project that seeks to build an international sports league for Chessboxing. A total of 10 percent equity is being offered for approximately €390,000 (not open to residents of the United States).

The team at The Mad Adventurers Society wants to help you run a better game. The one who calls himself The Angry GM really just wants you to know you’re doing it wrong. For the privilege of reading their blog and listening to their podcasts they also expect you really should donate to their Patreon campaign.

Current Kickstarter projects Fathoms and Rivals are both tactical miniatures games set in underwater worlds. Fathoms has more of a modern military feel, Rivals more a mythical or fantastical one. Fathoms’ monster miniatures are frightening; Rivals’ are delightful. Fathoms has mechanics for flooding of submerged structures. Rivals has “aether” for purchasing troops and fueling special powers.

Prospectus from Mr. B Games pairs market economics with magical potion-making. “A mage has to know when to cash in his troll sweat for some owl spit.” It also has this neat crystal ball device for determining market movements in all of the various components.

For all the talk of “platonic ideal,” “syntactical combinations,” and “Aristotelian categories,” Band or Album is just a social game that assumes any and every phrase works as either the name of a band or the title of an album, but never both. Back the project to receive a set of rules with some guitar pic-shaped coins, and argue to your heart’s content.

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