Exclusive Peek at Munchkin CCG

Munchkin CCG ArtAt Gen Con, Steve Jackson Games gave me permission to share with you this exclusive first peek at some art for the upcoming Munchkin CCG [click it to get the full size].

The company will launch a public playtest for the game at BoardGameGeek Con in November.

I was told, though, that the game features a bluffing element unique among CCGs. When a player sends a monster to attack an opponent, they place the monster card face-down with some amount of gold on top. Ostensibly, more gold means a tougher monster. And since the opponent would have to commit more hirelings or more loot to defend against such a monster, more gold encourages them (regardless of what type of monster, if any, is on the card) to run away instead.

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SJG1533EDIT 4/13/16 – 9:23am – It has come to my attention (see comments section below) that these AREN’T just blank cards. They’re cards with rules, and with a blank space for an illustration. SJG does still have completely blank cards for sale if you’re looking for some.

“Let’s charge people $20 for them to make their own Munchkin game!”

I can’t imagine the thought process for Munchkin: Sketch Edition going any other way. This is a deck of blank Munchkin cards for you to draw, write your own stuff, and play…and it costs $20.

Really, though? I can’t say my kids wouldn’t eat this up in a second, as they already use any bit of paper and cardboard to try and make their own cards. I can also imagine this would be really attractive to those who frequent conventions. Why not have someone famous make you a Munchkin card?

OK…maybe I do need a set before I hit Connecticon this year. It’s a shame this won’t be out before I hit PAX East next weekend.

Leave it to me to convince myself this might actually be a good product before finishing this article.

Excellent! A Bill & Ted Board Game

Bill & Ted's Excellent Board GameSteve Jackson Games has announced plans for a board game based on the 1980s movie, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The game will have players careening through time, collecting historical personages, and bringing them home to pass a high-school history report.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Board Game is due sometime next year at a retail price of $20.

 

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Mostly Munchkin

stevejacksongamesNearly at the end of 2015, Steve Jackson Games has issued its Report to the Stakeholders for 2014. The report, a tradition for privately held SJG, provides a behind-the-scenes peak in to the company’s performance and plans.

Most notable for 2014, though by no means a surprise, is the importance of Munchkin games. Among SJG’s top-20 products ranked by sales, only two were not Munchkin: Zombie Dice at number 3 and Zombie Dice Deluxe at number 18. Even among the next 20 ranked were only four not-Munchkin.

On the subject of sales, the company reported total gross income for 2014 of $8.5 million. This was, technically, the first time annual income declined for SJG since 2005—it was down down $300,000 compared to 2013. However, 2013 was also the year of the Ogre Kickstarter project, which alone brought in $1 million. Excluding that one-time event, the company’s income in 2014 was up $500,000.

Despite the overwhelming importance of Munchkin to Steve Jackson Games, it’s clear from the report that the company remains committed to a diverse product line. It republished (in 2014) 20 year-old Knightmare Chess, now has a full-time staff member dedicated to reviving Car Wars, and continues to explore options for GURPS despite a very difficult market.

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Munchkin Oz

Munchkin OzA new Munchkin game based on the Oz stories by L. Frank Baum is hitting retail. Exclusive to Target stores, Steve Jackson Games’ Munchkin Oz features 168 John Kovalic-illustrated cards and a six-sided die for a suggested price of $25.

Steve Jackson Games will also be distributing related promo cards and other “goodies” at conventions, as well as through the company’s online store, Warehouse 23.

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While there wasn’t much new for me to see at Connecticon this year, I did manage to get a peak at an advance copy of Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe. The game is just what you’d expect, a re-themed Munchkin. This time around, however, the art is done by Phil Foglio. Since it’s a deluxe version there’s a great board in there, which really seems to have become a necessity lately when playing Munchkin.

Steve Jackson games is currently still working on production, but Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe will be priced at $29.95 when it comes out. The box will contain: 168 cards, 12 standies, gameboard, rulesheet, and a six-sided die. It’s a pretty sweet looking set, and I’ll probably pick it up since my kids have gone a bit Munchkin Crazy lately.

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Car WarsPhil Reed, CEO of Steve Jackson Games, has published the first public look at the status of the next Car Wars game. The card game, developed by Scott Haring, still features the solo fun of car building (this version uses vehicle component cards to quickly assemble a vehicle), but the emphasis in the new version will be “speed and destruction [rather] than on physics and math.” Actual play of a two-vehicle battle took about a half-hour. While the company is aiming for a $25 to $30 price point, Mr. Reed said that they’re looking at a slightly larger box to support four players, which might bump up the MSRP.

Playtesting continues, but you probably won’t see it in public at Gen Con, writes Mr. Reed. “Things aren’t quite at the point [where] we’re ready to open everything to a public playtest in the booth.”

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munchkinsteampunkdeluxeLast fall, Steve Jackson Games announced that its most popular title, Munchkin, would be getting an old-timey Victorian makeover in the form of Steampunk. This week, the company officially announced the upcoming limited release this August with a wider release in October.

Renamed Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe (there is no non-deluxe version), the game comes with 168 cards illustrated by Phil Foglio, 12 standees, six player cards, a gameboard, the rulebook, and a six-sided die.

For this release, Steve Jackson Games decided to offer an exclusive early release to hobby shops in the form of a promotional Launch Kit, which includes three copies of the game, three Munchkin posters and three stacks of new promo cards. Hobby shops that signed up for the early release Launch Kit will get their wares by August of 2015.

The game will have a wider release two months later, again exclusive to hobby shops. By January of 2016, the game will be globally available through mass-market distribution.

Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe will retail for $29.95.

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Terrorist Nuke: INWOThe Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a partial list of documents found in the Abbottabad compound where Osama Bin Ladin was discovered in 2011. Down at the bottom of the list of “English Language Books” is a curious note: a printout of an article from ICv2.com titled “Website Claims Steve Jackson Game Foretold 9/11”. The article at ICv2 summarizes another website’s conspiracy-laden article about how Steve Jackson was able to foretell “the actual plan of the Illuminati to propel the world into the New World Order….[He] knew the Plan so exactly he got a surprise visit from the Secret Service, who tried their best to shut him down and prevent him from publishing his game,” reads the article published in 2004.

ICv2’s reaction: “What?”

 

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Crowdfunding Highlights

The Siblings Trouble
Of note this week, The Siblings Trouble calls back to the halcyon days of summer vacation adventures. This card-driven storytelling game is part Goonies, part Hardy Boys, and part Studio Ghilbi. You and family and friends have a grand adventure featuring trolls, the Rat King, and Big Secrets before rushing back home in time for dinner. This game looks insanely cute and fun and I have a feeling I’ll be backing it before it’s over.

I’ve already backed Cucu Dice, a set of a dozen (as of this moment) 16mm dice that are designed to work well with Fantasy Flight Games’ various Lovecraft-themed games. With one red face, two green, and three blue, these dice are designed to easily read successes in these types of games where a six-sided die is used for binary success/fail resolution. A full dozen dice is about $13 shipped to the US. (Honestly, I’ll be using them for my Shadowrun game.)

The Titans SeriesCalliope Games’ Titan Series is a subscription-based casual game series featuring well-established game designers such as Richard Garfield, Mike Selinker, Rob Daviau, James Ernest, and eight other prominent game designers. With a minimum of nine gateway games (plus three more as stretch goals), backers can subscribe to the entire series or pick and choose the games they want to pick up. Games will run from 2-8 players (various player counts on different games) and have a play time of 60 minutes or less. This campaign continues for another month and a half and is nearly funded as of this writing.

Playroom Entertainment’s Sitting Ducks Gallery Deluxe funded within a day of launch. The game is an update to the award-winning (Games 100, Golden Geek, and more) 2005 version. The theme echoes shooting duck galleries on a carnival midway, with players taking out their opponent’s ducks with humorous action cards and trying to be the last duck in the pond. It looks to be goofy fun.

car wars card game It’s a Car Wars Kickstarter, but not the all new version of Car Wars Kickstarter I’ve been waiting for. If you already have Steve Jackson Games’ recent Car Wars Classic (or your set from the ‘80s), you’ll want to pick up Car Wars Arenas, collecting five different arenas from early in the product line now published for the first time at Classic scale. But what excites me about this campaign is they just announced an updated version of Car Wars: The Card Game to be released this summer. Pledging at the $65 Pro Duellist level will get you CW Arenas, CW Classic, and the card game. The updated 150-card game will retail for about $25.

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