Kickstarter Odds and Ends

It seems like more and more often there are more and more games being brought to market through Kickstarter. Today I thought we'd take a quick peek at a few up-and-coming titles, and some that are giant successes already! The first is the quirky "Salmon Run" a modular board/deck builder that recreates the epic struggle of fish to make babies... Designed by Jesse Catron.

Airborne in Your Pocket which only has a few hours left, is flirting with the $100,000 mark! That's $70,000 OVER the funding goal! The game is a co-op tile=laying WWII action game. It looks fun, but a little pricey too.

Heroes of Metro City - Another deck builder with a role-playing twist. Looks a bit like Dominion in spandex, with some fun superpower action tossed in.

Get Bit! Deluxe  Mayday Games is Kickstarting a new pirate themed version of their 2012 Origins award winner, with new graphics and dismemberment. And it comes in a nifty tin too!

There are just a few short hours left in the Resistance: Avalon campaign.

And don't forget, Mars Needs Mechanics! Nevermore games is still in the middle of their campaign for their second title. We interviewed designer Ben Rosset, and Nevermore games' co-founder Bryan Fischer, click their names to find out more about what's going on at Nevermore games!

And we watched Dice Hate Me Games' Great Heartland Hauling Co. roll in hitting their last stretch goal with seconds to spare! Read our interview with designer Jason Kotarski here!

So, what Kickstarter campaigns are you backing? Leave 'em in the comments!

Don't Fear the Ripper--A Review of Letters From Whitechapel

By Firestone I’m not sure what the fascination is with Jack the Ripper. Is it because the murders were so gruesome? Probably. Is it because he was never captured? Almost certainly. All I do know is he’s been the genesis of some good books, stories, and board games. Letters From Whitechapel is the latter.

One person plays Jack, while the other players are detectives trying to track Jack down. The board is a map of London that has nearly 200 individual circle spaces that Jack uses—along with at least as many black squares that act as intersections the detectives use. At the beginning of the game, Jack secretly picks a space as his hideout. His goal is to commit a murder each night for four nights, and then make his way to his hideout. The detectives are trying to ferret out his hideout and make an arrest.

While a simple game, it would take a long time to explain exactly how a turn functions. Basically, Jack has a few turns to delay murdering a woman, but he eventually has to. Once he does, he has ~15 turns to make it back to his hideout. We weren’t quite sure why Jack would want to delay, unless he really needed the extra time to make it back. On nights one and two he kills one victim (it’s completely abstracted). On night three, he kills two, so you’re not sure which one he’s starting his Run from. And on the final night, he’s back to one murder. Jack has a couple of unique movement options that help hide his trail a bit.

Each turn, the detectives each move, and then they either make an arrest on an adjacent spot, or they look for clues on a spot. If Jack has been on that spot during that night, he has to say so. That’s how the detectives are able to slowly tighten the net around Jack.

There were some clever and interesting decisions to be made as the detectives. There’s lots of trying to figure out where he could be and where he couldn’t. There was a narrative feel, as toward the end we knew we were in the right area, but we just couldn’t be quite sure where his hideout was. There’s just a lot of tension. (I never played Jack, so I can’t comment on how “fun” that was.)

I’m not thrilled about the length. The box says it plays in 60 minutes. THE BOX LIES. With good players, I could see this going at least two-and-a-half hours—probably more. There are also times when one or more detectives will end up WAY away from where the action is. One great house rule I’ve read about gives detectives the option to move three spaces (rather than two), if they’re not going to look for clues. That just seems clearly better.

Gameplay aside, it’s hard to ignore the subject matter. Someone will be Jack, and that someone will be “killing” someone. It’s abstracted completely, but it’s still there and it’s still morbid. I can’t really say this is a great family or youth group game. It simply has a darker feel than other Jack the Ripper games, such as, say…Mr. Jack.

It’s a clever and unique game that might be the best deduction game I’ve ever played.

Thanks for reading!

Hail Caesar - an interview with Bryan Fischer

If you went to Gencon this year, there's a good chance you heard the buzz about Chicken Caesar. Or you may have been lucky enough to sit in on a demo of Nevermore Games big box game of Roman/poultry politics. More than a tasty salad, Chicken Caesar is hitting hobby stores this month and the buzz has gamers waiting with baited breath to see what the excitement is all about. So we had a little chat with Bryan Fischer, co-designer of Chicken Caesar, and co-founder of Nevermore Games about Chicken Caesar, Nevermore Games, and life in general. Take us through the story of how Nevermore Games got on the map?

My friend, Corey Phillips, and I started Nevermore back in 2010. He was the business guy and I was the creative guy. It wasn’t long though before I realized we really needed another creative guy, so we brought John Sizemore on board. I had been working on Chicken Caesar at the time and pitched it to John. We ran with it and started Nevermore’s mission: to facilitate friendships through strategic and innovative games.

For those of us who didn’t make it out to Gencon, can you give us a quick overview of Chicken Caesar?

Sure thing! In Chicken Caesar, players represent chicken families who are sending their roosters into coop politics, which of course are modeled after the Ancient Roman Government. Through deal making, breaking, bribes, and manipulation, players will compete for legacy.

There are five offices in the game where roosters have actions they have to complete. The roosters in the Aedile’s office decide the tax rate for the round, which in turn determines how upset the coop guards are (and how many will betray the coop by letting the fox in to gobble up politicians). The roosters in the Praetor’s office decide where loyal and traitor guards go. The Censor can exile people, and the Consuls can take bribes to “rewrite history” and give roosters additional accolades they never earned in life. And of course there is Caesar, who gets the all-powerful Veto token and makes lots of corn (money).

So which came first, the Chicken Caesar or Nevermore Games?

Chicken or the egg, huh? Well, both. They happened simultaneously really. I had been designing games for years and about the same time that Corey and I started Nevermore, I was also toying with Chicken Caesar. Of course, Chicken Caesar didn’t really take the shape of its current form until John came on board.

When and how did the idea for Chicken Caesar hatch? (Okay, I promise that’s the last chicken pun!)

These puns are getting pretty fowl ;)  Actually, my wife came up with the name. She was eating a Chicken Caesar wrap, and I was of course annoying her with talk of game ideas I had and she said “Why don’t you call a game Chicken Caesar?” We both had a good laugh. Little did she know I was seriously storing that one away.

What were the pros and cons (if there were any) to co-designing Chicken Caesar instead of going it alone?

For me, co-designing is the ideal situation. I don’t think any game in history has been designed entirely by one person. Whether it’s through co-authorship or not, game designers have play testers and friends, critics and spouses who influence the design process and often come up with ideas for mechanics and theme. Having people to bounce ideas off of is a huge necessity in game design.

John and I make a great design team. He’s a walking economics textbook and calculator rolled into one. It compliments my theme-centric approach to gaming and I believe that’s the greatest pro of co-designing games. Complimentary designers can take collaborative game design efforts to a new level. That being said, John and I argue a lot. That’s what happens when you spend so much time together trying to get something right. It can be stressful, but ultimately the arguing leads to better communication and therefore better game design. I guess that would be a con that turns into a pro.

What’s the one element of Chicken Caesar that makes you all giddy?

Well, mechanically it’s the Suffragium (the voting marker) that makes Chicken Caesar unique in its approach to luckless negotiation and shrewd bargaining. But really, for me, it’s that moment when a player about to be passed the Suffragium suddenly realizes… “I’m going to be deciding the fate of someone else’s rooster; I have the power, and I can be bought!” that gets me. Well into the testing of Chicken Caesar, players were discovering new ways to bribe each other and get epic revenge. Fantastic!

How do you balance being a person of faith and a big geek?

It’s funny how faith and being a geek interact sometimes. Some geeky endeavors, like science fiction, beg answers to questions of morality and truth. They present impossible and (often) unnatural circumstances where people have to make decisions often alien to us. It’s fascinating. Fantasy can often blur the lines for people of faith through use of magic and divination, but it’s not always the case. Look at Tolkien for instance. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is touted as a great Catholic work by many theologians. C.S. Lewis was much more overt. Read A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. and you’ll see how faith can only make a science fiction experience even deeper.

I find the best way to reconcile something that might be offensive to my faith is to first learn about it. If it’s a game, I’ll look at the rulebook or play it. If it’s a film, I’ll usually watch an excerpt or do some reading about the story. There have been times when, after researching something, I have still found it offensive. And the opposite has also been true.

What has been most surprising to you about the response to Chicken Caesar from the gaming community?

The fact that people know of the game! It’s been incredible. At GenCon we had the game set up in a number of places and people walked by and said “Oh yeah, it’s that Chicken Caesar game!” On top of that we met a ton of our Kickstarter backers there and sold out every demo event for the game through Saturday. John and I walked over to the Asmodee booth one morning and while chatting with a French guy working the booth, he says “Wait, you two are the Chicken Caesar guys?! Very cool!” So cool.

So, we've been following the Mars Needs Mechanics Kickstarter; beyond that, what's in the future for Nevermore Games?

We actually have quite a few things lined up for the future. We're working with some really awesome designers to bring the world an awesome, big game next Spring. We have some others in the lineup for after that, so expect plenty of games in 2013 from Nevermore.

Okay, the 1-word 5! Give us your 1-word answers to these questions. (For names we’ll allow 2 words!)

Favorite doctor? (In the BBC Series Doctor Who, please don’t tell us your dentist’s name!)  David Tennant

Who shot first, Han or Greedo? Greedo

Favorite salad?  Potato

Favorite game?  Lifeboat

Cylons or Sleestaks?  Caprica-Six ;)

If you'd like to place your pre-order for Chicken Caesar you can do so RIGHT HERE!

You can also find out more about Nevermore Games RIGHT HERE!

And of course they're on Facebook and Twitter as well!

A big thanks to Bryan for spending some time with us, and as always a big thanks to you for reading!

Mage Knight - These Aren't Your Big Brother's Clix!

by Jeremiah

In the year 2000, Wizkids hit the market with their debut to the "Clix" system with a miniatures game called Mage Knight; it was a hit. Spawning Mech Warrior and the still-popular Heroclix titles for the company. Several years and multiple expansions later, Wizkids decided to release Mage Knight 2.0 and deem every figure previously created null and void in tournament play. Exit Mage Knight as we know it, and the eventual demise of Wizkids.

Wizkids is back up and running, and really hitting some home runs as they slowly but surely reboot titles that were gaming staples for much of the first decade of the 21st century. Which brings me to this week's review: Mage Knight the board game.

The overview—Think 40K, D&D, MTG, and any LCG all mixed up together. It sounds schizophrenic, but it works. The base set comes with 4 characters that players choose from; you then embark on a scenario (1 of 11 included, or if you're daring you can create your own or scale up or down your own) and into a land that is revealed as you explore. Along the way you encounter baddies, keeps, monasteries, dungeons...well, you get the idea. Killing a monster, conquering a keep, exploring (adding a new tile to the board) etc, will earn you "fame' (Experience Points, the ultimate goal in most scenarios is to have the most fame) which allows you to level up, which gives you stronger stats, allows you to gain new skills, control more allies...sound familiar?

Here's where the game takes on a different spin, and becomes very intriguing. You control all of your actions through your "Deed" deck. You have 5 cards in your hand (you get a higher hand limit as you level up), and these cards dictate what you can do on your turn. There is no intricate time-based system to keep track of; there is no Dungeon Master telling you what you can or cannot do. There is a board that consists of tiles that are revealed as you explore, and your own deck of cards. You also cannot die—taking wounds doesn't take away hit points, it only fills your deck with wound cards that clutter up your hand and inhibit you from taking more actions on your turn. Play continues in turns and rounds. A day round followed by a night round and so on. Day and night rounds have different effects on traveling across certain terrain and your ability to see what a certain baddy is before you jump into battle with it.

The Mechanisms—They're actually fairly clean and easy to learn—on the other hand, the multitude of combat rules and special abilities for your foes can be a little much to swallow when you first jump in. Playing cards to do anything and everything is a unique twist on a game like this, and you can really come up with some great combos to accomplish a lot on your turn, but it takes some good base knowledge of the gaming system and the cards in your deck.

I really enjoyed this game, but be warned: If games such as Battlestar Galactica are a marathon to you, Mage Knight is an Iron Man race! The longest scenario included is estimated to be about 8+ hours! It's definitely geared for a multiple-sitting experience.

Beware—As with most games of this nature that take place in some sort of "fantasy realm" the use of darker magic and spell casting is highly prevalent. But there's no flavor text on the cards, so as the game is played it feels pretty innocuous. About two rounds into the game I was informed that my character was a "Blood Cultist." It didn't really have any effect on the game play or the cards in my hand; all the players have the same cards—only different amounts of certain ones. I happened to have a few more cards that were more aggressive in nature, but as I leveled up I could easily select skills and cards that were geared more for healing and being a nice guy. But if casting spells and fighting wizards in towers and such gives you pause, it's best to steer clear of this one.

All in all, it's a deep gaming experience, with nicely tuned mechanisms to help take out some of the randomness of most card-based systems. I'm hoping for expansions to come soon that will offer more characters that are of a less evil persuasion.

Thanks for reading!

Mars Needs Mechanics--An Interview with Ben Rosset

Last week, game designer Ben Rosset took a few minutes to answer all the burning questions we had about himself, his new game Mars Needs Mechanics, and the meaning of life. How did you become interested in designing board games?

I always loved playing board games from a young age. In junior high school, I asked my teacher if I could design a board game about a book instead of doing a book report. She said yes, and the game was a big hit! More recently, though, I need to credit my good friend Mike Swiryn, an amazing designer. We had been hanging out and playing games quite a bit (this was about 4 years ago). Then one day, he said, “Dude, check this out. I designed a game!” And that was it. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to get into board game design. I went home that night and wrote down some rules for an idea I had, and I was on my way. I haven’t stopped since.

What sparked the vision for Mars Needs Mechanics?

My goal was to make an easy to learn Economics game where players could only indirectly control the market price of goods, and where players would have to predict the behavior of everyone else in order to be successful. That led to the “Sales Order Line,” the driving force behind Mars Needs Mechanics. It’s a unique timing mechanism for controlling the price of the game’s components (Boilers, Wire, Lenses, Piping, etc), and it's what makes the game hum. People really love it. Its something new, and it’s a very simple system.

So, the Berkeley Breathed book and subsequent Disney film Mars Needs Moms didn't come into play? Or are you tired of being asked that?

No, Mars Needs Moms didn't come into play. To be honest, I didn't even know about that film (which I hear was a flop) before I named the game Mars Needs Mechanics. However, I did know about the 1967 film Mars Needs Women. It was more a play on that than the Disney film. And yes, people ask me this question a lot, but its ok...we invited the question when we decided on the name. If anything, its helped to spark a bit of interest in the game.

How did you land at Nevermore Games?

I was a slow-comer to social media, but I must credit Twitter here! Twitter recommended that I follow Nevermore Games. That’s how I first connected with them, about 3 weeks before PrezCon in February 2012. I met Bryan and John at PrezCon, they played the game, they loved it, and a week later they called me to say they wanted to publish it.

Mars Curiosity, legit, or TV studio production?

Legit all the way. I have faith that Curiosity is really on Mars. It would be too big of a production to fake it. They’d never keep everybody quiet. I’m now following the Curiosity Rover on Twitter, but I’m also following the Sarcastic Rover, a spoof of the real thing. They’re both great.

What are the top 5 games you're playing right now, and why?

With all the time we’ve been spending with Mars Needs Mechanics, I haven’t had much time to play other games. So I’ll give you three. First, I’m playing States: After the Fall. It’s an unpublished game by Mike Swiryn, Aaron Winkler, and David Golanty. I won’t give too much away about the game, but I know it's received tremendous feedback from publishers at conventions, and I suspect it will get picked up by a publisher very soon. After that, I’ll say For Sale, by Stefan Dorra. This is a game that has been on my list to try for quite a while, and I finally did a couple weeks ago. Short, simple, and addictive, I loved it right away. Third, Agricola is always on my list. Its still my favorite Euro game, and it's hard to imagine it ever getting knocked out of my top 5!

Is Mars Needs Mechanics your first game design, or are there others we should be checking out?

Its my first design that’s being published, but stay tuned. I’m working on others, and hope to be lucky enough to have more games published soon!

Other than "42," what is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?

Wow, this is a great interview! I’m quite confident that I will get closer to the answer to this as I get older, though I’m humble enough not to believe I’ll ever know it all. But for me, the meaning of life is to contribute as much as we can toward the increasing of peace and happiness, and as much as we can toward the cessation of suffering in the world.

Ok, the next 5 questions only require a one word response. The answer will explain it all!

Star Wars, or Trek?

Spaceballs

Favorite color?

Green

Marvel or DC?

DC (because I live there)

Aslan or Gandalf?

Aslan

Favorite pizza topping?

Artichokes

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Mars Needs Mechanics launches a Kickstarter campaign on midnight Aug. 31! As soon as we have a link, we'll post it here for you! But for now, click here if you want to check out Mars Needs Mechanics!

Our thanks goes out to Nevermore Games and Ben Rosset, you can follow them both on Twitter, @BenjaminRosset and @NevermoreGames. And of course we thank you, our readers, for your support!

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

Well, we tried something new here with a 2-player-focused week. we hope you enjoyed it; we had a lot of fun  making our lists of favorite games. Here's what you might have missed...We reviewed Reiner Knizia's brilliant Battle Line.

Jeremiah continued the Dead CCG series with a piece on Star Trek The Customizable Card Game.

We told you all about one of the great Spouse Games: Lost Cities.

Jeremiah shared his Top 5 games for 2 players.

And finally—because I couldn't decide on only 5—I told you my Top 10 games for 2 players.

We hope you're enjoying the blog, and have a great weekend. Thanks for reading!

Our Favorite 2-Player Games [Firestone]

I’m part of a large gaming group, and I have a wife who doesn’t particularly enjoy board games, sooooooo...I don’t find many opportunities to play games with only one other person. But I’ve played my share of them, and here are my 10 favorites—in no particular order. (I apologize that some of these are practically impossible to find now; invent a time machine.) Battle Line—It might be the best pure 2-player game I’ve ever played. I couldn’t believe how good it was the first time I played it. Check out our review here.

Memoir ‘44—This is a very light WWII wargame. It comes with plastic miniatures, and cardboard terrain you put on a plain map to create specific places. There are lots of real-life scenarios to play through—one side as the Axis and one as the Allies. My oldest loves this game. Any shortcomings it might have just disappear when he’s fully engaged with this, peppering me with questions about WWII.

Blood Bowl—This game gives new meaning to fantasy football. You have a team of Orcs or Skaven (rats) or Undead, or any of the many other choices—filled with players with unique skills and abilities—and you square off against an opponent. There’s chaos, dice, injuries, deaths, and thrilling, last-second heroics as your tiny rat receiver slips through the defense, runs down the sideline, and rolls the exact number he has to to catch the ball in the endzone. If you can get some other players and a full league going, it’s some of the best board gaming ever.

Heroscape—A few years ago Hasbro had an insane idea for a turn-based squad game where people and creatures from all over time and space came together to fight for supremacy. You might have dragons, samurai, robots, orcs, and a cowboy all on your squad. It also came with interlocking hexagonal terrain that allowed you to build amazing and epic and creative maps. AND IT WAS AWESOME. I’ve played this many times with my 8-year-old, and it’s created some great stories. "Dad, remember that time my cyborg gorilla killed your giant robot? That was awesome..." I’m looking forward to my youngest being old enough for us have some epic 3-player games.

Jambo—This card game is part of the Kosmos line of 2-player-only games. You’re a merchant in Africa, and you’re trying to make more money over the course of the game than your opponent. You have special items, people, and animals to help you.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game—Jeremiah talked about this one yesterday. It has gorgeous artwork, it’s expandable, and it’s just lots of fun. Yes, sometimes the draw of the cards means you just auto-lose, but that feels okay when you’re playing with someone against the game itself. I’ll continue to buy this game as long as they print it…

Fjords—I feel bad talking about this one because it’s long out of print. It has tile-laying similar to Carcassonne, with some area control thrown in for scoring. Plus it’s small, portable, and plays really quickly!

Lost Cities—You can read our review here. At least part of my love for this one stems from the fact that it’s the first game my wife played with me—and one she’ll still play on occasion.

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation—Here’s another one that's out of print—though it’s possible they’ll reprint it with the new Hobbit movie coming out this winter… Anyway, it’s kinda like Stratego, in that you have pieces that only face you, so your opponent's not sure who’s who. Each piece is a character, and each character has special abilities. The good guys are trying to get Frodo across the board to Mordor, and the bad guys are trying to kill Frodo. Superb game.

Mr. Jack—Who would have thought a 2-player game of deduction would ever work? Well I’m glad designer Bruno Faidutti did… One player is Jack the Ripper—who’s trying to remain undetected and escape, and one is Scotland Yard—who’s trying to figure out which character is Jack. I can’t explain the mechanics in such a short space, but it works, and it’s fast, and it’s fun.

Well, those are our lists. What are some of your favorite games to play with two people? Leave a comment below, and thanks for reading!

To Be Continued...

We've had a great first month of blogetty blogging here at TOG, and we wanted to take a second and say thanks to all of you who have read, shared, liked, retweeted, and commented on our posts here on the blog, as well as our other social media outlets! We sincerely appreciate it, and humbly ask for your continued support! We also thought we'd take a few seconds and give you a sneak peek at what we've got planned for month 2!

So here we go!

We've received a handful of review copies for some games, and we'll be reviewing those soon!

Walls of Light

Glory to Rome

and soon Zombie in my Pocket!

We'll also be reviewing some classics and new games:

Fluxx

Bang!

Mage Knight and more!

And look for our interview with Heartland Hauling Company's designer Jason Kotarski!

All that plus more news, deep thoughts and we'll talk more about our favorite dead CCGs too!

Thanks again for all your support! See you next week!

More X-Wing News!

So, we're pretty big Star Wars geeks when it gets right down to it. And we're excited to see more news about the upcoming release of X-Wing. Fantasy Flight rolled out some more info on their upcoming X-Wing miniatures game this week, this time they gave us some info on the first expansion for the title. I'd say it's more of an add-on than an expansion. It features one T-65 X-Wing. It also has some ship cards, two new pilots (including the ever-so-skilled Wedge Antilles) and a few other customizable features. The ships themselves look fantastic and the buzz is pretty good surrounding this game. Although there's no word on when this single-fighter expansion will release, my guess is they'll be getting them to market pretty quickly to capitalize on the release-date fever.

If you're heading to GenCon to play X-Wing, be sure to check back here and let us know what you thought of it!

Thanks for reading! You can see Fantasy Flight's full post here.

Alcatraz Pre-Order from Z-Man Games

If you're quick, witty, and underhanded enough you can escape from Alcatraz, you can also pre-order the new board game from Z-Man Games. The game releases at Gen-Con next month and they're only taking pre-orders until tomorrow (Fri, July 28). Alcatraz - looks like another game in the vein of Battlestar Galactica or The Resistance, only this time players are cooperatively planning a prison break from the Rock. Only to find out one of them is going to get left behind in order for the plans to succeed! I just read up on the game this morning and it has me pretty geeked out right now. And the best news: There's no hint of Nicolas Cage, anywhere.

I would, however, suggest playing it with close friends who will be willing to patch things up after you punched them in the nose for stabbing you in the back. Or, I'd suggest you remember it's only a game!

Sadly, neither of us here at TOG have plans to attend Gen-Con, which is tragic news for us. But we'll be working to get our hands on this one as soon as possible!

If you're going, and you get a chance to play this, please let us know how you liked it—leave your comments here! What other games are you looking forward to playing at the Con?