Hasbro is partnering with Epic Games to produce Fortnite-based toys and games. Of course, there’s to be a Fortnite Monopoly (due this fall) but also other unspecified games.

Shinobi 7 announced acquisition of the Conan license for tabletop games. Two products are planned. The first, a miniatures game via Kickstarter project. The second, a direct-to-retail card game.

With a license from Sony Interactive, Steamforged Games is pursuing plans for a miniatures-heavy Horizon Zero Dawn board game via Kickstarter. Pledges already total more than $1 million, though Steamforged estimates delivery not until March 2020.

Things from the Flood is a just-launched Kickstarter RPG project that’s a sequel to Tales from the Loop and based on another of Simon Stålenhag’s art books. The new one from Free League Publishing is more grim and bleak than its predecessor.

Coming to Kickstarter on the 1st of October is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay from River Horse.

Then scheduled for November 13th is Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice from Triton Noir. The company promises a cooperative miniatures game focused on stealth mechanisms.

WizKids recently announced a licensing arrangement with WWE. The company will add WWE wrestling personalities to HeroClix and Dice Masters and create WWE board games.

Available now from WizKids is Star Trek Galactic Enterprises, a game in which you play as Ferengi.

Also available now at retail is Munchkin Starfinder. It’s the Munchkin grab-the-loot card game from Steve Jackson Games, based on the Starfinder sci-fi RPG from Paizo Publishing.

Next up for Munchkin is Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 based on the property from Games Workshop. I love the meta of this previewed card, Unpainted.

But Steve Jackson isn’t the only company with a new Warhammer 40,000 license. Devir has made a racing game, Gretchinz, out of the property. WizKids has adapted Warhammer 40K to Dice Masters in Battle for Ultramar. Ulisses did Wrath & Glory, a Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game. And USAopoly has made Warhammer 40,000 Monopoly.

Based on Warhammer Age of Sigmar, PlayFusion recently launched Champions, a collectible card game with an online play option. A non-collectible card game, Warhammer Doomseeker is available from Ninja Division.

EN Publishing, under license from Rebellion, is launching a Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD roleplaying game on Kickstarter.

IDW will ship to retail this coming February Nickelodeon Splat Attack!, as well as an expansion, Reptar Rampage. The game represents a food fight between teams of characters from various Nickelodeon shows, including Spongebob Squarepants, Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, and Invader Zim.

IDW also signed on with Toei Animation for a series of Dragon Ball games. The first two are due in stores this holiday season. Dragon Ball Super: Heroic Battle has players flicking tokens at each other, while Dragon Ball Z: Over 9000 is supposed to provide a more strategic gameplay experience. In 2019 (after a planned Kickstarter campaign), IDW will release a Dragon Ball Z miniatures game.

Coming this fall from USAopoly is the Dragon Ball Z Power Up Board Game in 3D. Also scheduled to deliver soon is a new Disney Chess Set celebrating 90 years of Mickey Mouse. Available now is one celebrating 25 years of Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas. The company’s latest Monopoly games include Five Nights at Freddy’s Monopoly, Ren & Stimpy Monopoly, and BoJack Horseman Monopoly.

Looney Labs recently released Mary Engelbreit Loonacy, a matching card game with the artwork of Mary Engelbreit.

Dog Might Games is now making officially licensed Vampire: The Masquerade dice trays, storyteller screens, and storage boxes, each with a choice of clan symbol. Orders ship with exclusive V5 loresheets tied to the new Geek & Sundry show, LA by Night.

Elderwood Academy is taking preorders for a Vampire: The Masquerade Spellbook gaming box made from walnut and leather. It also ships with LA by Night loresheets.

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These are some weird games!

Pimple Pete from Spin Master is a game in which the players take turns pulling squishy pimples from Pete’s face until one triggers the Mega-Zit on his nose to squirt.

Another from Spin Master is Silly Sausage. It’s a pattern-matching action game meant for kids ages 6+, “Twist Me, Stretch Me, Poke Me…”

It’s not the first dexterity game involving chopsticks but Flying Sushi Kitchen from Redwood Ventures challenges players to catch ping-pong balls as they float on air jets coming out of bamboo stalks. The balls are supposed to represent sushi but for some reason are painted with smiley faces!

And then there’s WizKids’ A’Writhe, which is basically… Cthulhu Twister!?! Players contort their bodies to put hands and feet on location mats in specific patterns to summon the great old ones.

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Gamers near Plano, Texas have an opportunity to practice their crafting skills with Goliath Games. The company is looking for a part-time Prototype Maker.

The U.S. Chess Federation is searching for an experienced Director of Development. A new position with the organization, the Director of Development’s role will be to “create and implement a comprehensive development plan for short- and long-term revenue growth in support of the US Chess mission.”

WizKids is looking for an experienced Product Manager in Hillside, New Jersey to develop long term plans, develop packaging, and interface with operations on the company’s unpainted miniatures line.

Ludo Fact needs Machine Operators and Assemblers for board game manufacturing in Lafayette, Indiana.

For production of miniatures, Privateer Press needs a Metal Caster in Bellevue, Washington.

Topps has multiple openings at its locations in New York City and Scranton, Pennsylvania, among them a New Product Development Associate with drawing and modeling skills and a Brand Manager for non-sports entertainment properties.

Hasbro’s 100+ openings include:

• Games Brand Writer to write copy for games packaging and to “produce accessible, friendly, and accurate rules.”
• Product Design Manager for the kids gaming category, which includes Jenga, Simon, Bop It, Connect 4, and Twister.
• At Wizards of the Coast, Manager of Global Brand Marketing for Dungeons & Dragons.
• Also at WOTC, Technical Product Manager to focus on the company’s product development process.

TCGplayer has numerous openings in Syracuse, New York and Atlanta, Georgia. Lots for Software Engineers and Product Engineers. Also for finance and data analytics and shipping. Two individual positions are worth highlighting, though. There’s one for a Digital Marketing Manager to be responsible for online marketing campaigns. And the company is looking for a General Manager of Seller Services, who will be a member of the executive leadership team and responsible for the company’s line of business supplying software tools to retailers.

ACD Distribution has several warehouse opportunities in Middleton, Wisconsin and Fresno, California. Also sales positions in Wisconsin.

Alliance Game Distributors is looking to hire a Sales Specialist in Roseville, Minnesota, specifically to work with Asmodee North America. The company also has openings for a Sales Trainee and an Administrative Assistant at its home offices in Maryland.

Asmodee North America, itself, is recruiting for a Trade Marketing Manager to support the sales team with PR, media relations, trade shows, and merchandising.

Games Workshop has many openings for retail work at various locations worldwide, also for a variety positions at headquarters in Nottingham, UK, including:

• Middle Earth Product Manager to coordinate production, promotion, and consistency with the source material.
• ‘Eavy Metal Painter for Forge World products including Horus Heresy and Middle Earth miniatures.
• Managing Editor for White Dwarf magazine.
• Games Developer for Warhammer Age of Sigmar products.
• Games Developer for Warhammer 40,000 products.
• Armies and Battlefields Painter for products to be showcased in Codexes, Battletomes, and other publications.
• Games Developer for specialist brands, such as Blood Bowl and Necromunda.
• Model Designer for specialist brands. Experience preferred but the position may be offered at a trainee level.
• Concept Artist to be part of the Citadel Miniatures conceptualiser team.

Gamerati in DuPont, Washington is looking to hire a full-time Social Content Creator/Community Manager for the company’s services to game publishers.

Board game-related freelance jobs posted on Upwork include:

• Design and production for an employee-training game ($3,000 fixed price).
• Rulebook-writing for a historical board game.
• Production of an animated instructional video for an adult card game.
• Social media management for an upcoming Kickstarter project: Facebook and Twitter.
• Graphic design for a game’s box, cards, and tokens.

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WizKids has announced an expansion of its licensing agreement with Wizards of the Coast to include Magic: The Gathering. As a result, the company is planning a Magic board game, as well as a series of MtG pre-painted plastic miniatures representing token creatures. In the board game, players will take on the role of Planeswalkers exploring Dominaria for mana sources.

Both the board game and minis are scheduled for release in the fall of 2018.

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WizKids has announced a license for Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe. With initial products releasing mid-2018, WizKids is planning games in “multiple categories”, including dice-building games and and two board games. WizKids is also working with GW to republish Fury of Dracula and Relic.

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CMON is developing a miniatures board game based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series (that’s the novels, rather than the A Game of Thrones television show). To make that game, CMON is of a fashion borrowing the A Song of Ice & Fire license from Dark Sword Miniatures, which has been producing related minis for some time (in PR terms, they’ve entered a partnership). CMON, though, is working on a complete tabletop game, which the company promises will handle scenarios ranging from small skirmishes to large-scale battles with hundreds of figures.

IDW Games has licensed three early video game titles from Atari: Missile Command, Asteroids, and Centipede. IDW says the line of board games will be “fun, intense and fast-paced.” The first out will be Centipede this fall.

IDW is also publishing a game based on the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie. It’ll be a cooperative adventure game in which players take on different aspects of Colonel Taylor’s personality trying to figure out the history of humanity.

WizKids has renewed its Star Trek license with CBS Consumer products. And with that renewal came several new product announcements. The company is launching two new products for Star Trek: Attack Wing—Card Packs that have just new cards and tokens for existing ships, and Faction Packs that include four ships at reduced cost. WizKids will also be offering unpainted Star Trek minis, an expansion for Star Trek: Frontiers, more Star Trek Tactics ships, and Star Trek characters for HeroClix.

Fragor Games has secured a license from Aardman Animations for a Wallace & Gromit game.

Cubicle 7 is releasing its licenses for the Yggdrasill, Qin, Kuro, and Keltia roleplaying games back to French publisher Le 7eme Cercle. Cubicle 7 said that the extensive work involved in translating the games prevented a reasonable economic return.

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While Dice Masters has been around for quite some time I had never actually played it until recently. My interest in the game increased dramatically when I saw the TMNT and Heroes in a Half Shell boxed sets. Figuring now was the time to get in on the DM action I emailed WizKids to see if they’d send over a set. They were kind enough to shoot me over a Heroes in a Half Shell boxed set and I was off to the races.

Dice Masters feels very much like a Deck Builder, except you’re rolling dice to earn resources to buy new dice, activate cards, and put out combat units. Dice move through various pools as you spend resources, attack the other players, and block incoming attacks. It’s a great game and I’m sorry I didn’t start playing it sooner.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Masters: Heroes in a Half Shell boxed set comes with enough dice, cards, boards, and bags for 4 people to play the game. For $35 it’s a great way to get into the game, especially if you’re a TMNT fan. This set, unlike the previous TMNT set that focuses mostly on the new cartoon, has 8 different characters with artwork from the original cartoon. Being a Dice Masters game, this set can be combined with any other Dice Masters sets.

For an in-depth look about how to play the game, check here.

I’ve become an instant fan and am now ready to pull the trigger on the other TMNT boxed set. Maybe even some Marvel or Yu-Gi-Oh boosters…or dice lots on eBay.

I may have a problem.

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WizKids has launched two lines of unpainted, fantasy, plastic miniatures, one for the Pathfinder RPG, one for Dungeons & Dragons.

The Deep Cuts line for Pathfinder includes 20 different blister packs, the Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures line for Dungeons & Dragons 33. Each pack has 1-3 figures—monsters and characters in both lines—at a retail price of $3.99.

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WizKids has a packed booth at Toy Fair with lots of items from their Dungeons & Dragons line on display as well as more Heroclix items and some standalone games.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the wall of unpainted Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. In the first wave of miniatures (this month, $2.99 each), sixty different miniature packs are available with some coming in with multiple figures. Also planned: Pathfinder miniatures! (No date or price on those as of yet!)

But if you like painted miniatures, they’ve got you covered with the Adventurer’s Campsite as part of the Icons of the Realms’ Monster Menagerie II line. This $50 box comes with a painted covered wagon, two saddled horses, three treasure chests, two kegs (of course), and all the little things: sacks, camp fires, bedrolls, spellbooks, scrolls, bags of holding…

And just released the day of the show, Assault of the Giants. This newest entry into the line of D&D boardgames comes in a standard edition for $80 or a premium edition with fully-painted miniatures for $130.

Coming soon in Heroclix are two new lines: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Return and Marvel’s Deadpool & X-Force. TMNT will come in blind bags for $3 each. Deadpool & X-Force will be available in a brick of boosters for $130, which is probably your best bet at obtaining that Deadpool riding the unicorn ultra-rare piece (one is available in approximately every four cases).

Recreating a classic oversized comic book I had when I was a kid, the Heroclix Superman vs. Muhammad Ali set comes with a boxing ring, the greatest, and a Superman wearing boxing gloves. Debuting in March, this set will retail for $50.

Three new games were also shown: The Banishing, Tower of London, and Tournament at Camelot. Relasing in March, the Banishing is a difficult strategy cooperative game where you’re banishing creatures. Tower of London is a zone control game available in April. Tournament at Camelot, a May release, is a trick-taking game with box artwork inspired from illuminated manuscripts. All three games will retail for $20.

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Look out this May for the Dungeons & Dragons Mind Flayer Trophy Plaque from WizKids. This is a follow-up to the company’s Red Dragon Trophy head and should be similarly priced, around $400. It’s no small tchotchke, though. The plaque weighs around 15 pounds and WizKids recommends professional installation.

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