Con You Help Us Out?

We here at TOG, love gaming cons... Well at least I (Jeremiah) do. Firestone often sulks from afar because most of the major cons happen states--if not time zones--away. Anyway, while there are some large staples in the gaming con universe: GenCon, Origins, Spiel Con, BGG Con, today we thought we'd make an open place for folks to inform others of the diamonds in the rough. It seems that unless you peruse the bulletin boards at your FLGS you won't hear much about the local cons in your area.

So here's where you come in. We'd love to hear from you, especially if you've attended a smaller local con that you think is worth checking out--just let us know down in the comments below. Let us know all the vital details: date, location, any special guests, events, and of course cost for admission. Feel free to include links or twitter accounts, and contact info as well. Remember, this is the internet and our readers are spread out everywhere, so don't hold back--the more cons listed the better!

So sound off, gaming folks: Where do you get your con on?!

Thanks for reading and contributing!

Fantasy Flight Announces the First Force Pack for Star Wars: The Card Game!

It's official, we're excited. And as if the eminent release of Fantasy Flight's Star Wars: The Card Game wasn't enough, they've already announced the first Force Pack for the game. The game's first expansion cycle with be the Hoth Cycle, with the first Force Pack being  "The Desolation of Hoth." It's a little surprising they're jumping ahead in the saga to an Empire theme; I'm chalking it up to Fantasy Flight wanting to start out strong. And I wouldn't be surprised if they have the schedule lined up to continue through and drop them right in line with the upcoming release Episode VII. (There's four words I thought I'd never type!)

Over on the official Fantasy Flight page they are giving some great detail and overview of the pack. You can check it out here!

It's an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan, and a gamer; look out as worlds are about to collide, again!

Thanks for reading!

What You Missed

It's been a busier week than usual here at TOG; here's a quick look back at this week's posts! Monday's news: Or maybe this wasn't really news, but we brought you a little more info about the new reboot of Wizkids Pirates of the Spanish Main.

Tuesday we brought you a special Election Day review of Pixel Lincoln!

Wednesday we didn't have an interview for you, but there was some exciting news about the new data pack for Fantasy Flight's Netrunner.

Thursday's Kickstarter Weekly this week featured Lost Legends.

And today we brought you a bonus review, which is also our first Double-Take Review, of the Kickstarter project Ruse!

Thanks so much for reading; feel free to write us if there are any games you'd like us to review.

Have a great weekend!

Fluxx On Your iPhone!

This just in: Looney Labs has announced that a mobile version of their hit card game Fluxx will be available on the iOS platform. The mobile version will feature local play (Pass and Play) as well as solo mode vs. AI, and asynchronous support for online multi-player support. Looney Labs has hinted at a streamlined experience, with most likely fewer rules in the "deck." It appears that the game will be the original version of the game and not one of the themed decks. You can read our full review of the original Fluxx right here. You can check out the official news from Looney Labs about the iOS version right here.

Hail to the Chief! An interview with Pixel Lincoln and Jason Tagmire

It is with great pleasure, and an extreme sense of patriotic pride, that we bring you this week's interview, with not only Jason Tagmire, designer of the Kickstarter smash hit "Pixel Lincoln," but today he's brought along his close personal friend the pixelated President himself, Pixel Lincoln!

Jason, Mr. President, thanks for taking a few minutes to answer some questions for us today. Jason, could you explain a little bit about how you approached the President about creating a card game based on his adventurous life?

JT: I didn’t at first. I saw his shiny face on a penny and decided to use it as a token in a prototype. Eventually that penny became the main character, and I had no other choice. I made a few phone calls, pulled a few strings, and the rest is history.

Mr. President, tell us about your first meeting with Jason.

PL: He came into my office with a prototype of his game, Pixel Lincoln. Now, this was not the deckbuilding game that we all know about. This was a terrible little card game where you roll a die and move a penny around the cards. I told him to give it another shot and we would talk about it.

Jason, so Pixel Lincoln is a deck-building, side-scrolling card game; how does that work? And what’s different about this deck-builder than the others out there?

JT: It’s deck-building in that all players start out with the same basic cards in their deck, and throughout the game the players will obtain new cards, making a better and better deck.

It’s side-scrolling in that you have a meeple that moves throughout the cards that are available, simulating a side-scrolling video game.

And it’s different in that it takes a very different approach to the style of game, and will probably be compared to Megaman before it’s compared to a game like Dominion or Ascension. I designed it to first and foremost feel like a video game. The cards that are available for purchase are only available for a certain amount of time before the screen scrolls, or they are purchased/defeated by other players. There are checkpoints and boss battles that come in after so much time passes. Players can switch between levels for a different experience, with completely different cards available.

Mr. President, can I call you Link? Nevermind... Did you sign off on the game, and if so, how historically accurate did you find the game play experience?

PL: The game is 100% accurate. This was the story of my life that I always wanted people to know, but the government is pretty good at covering things up. I signed off without hesitation, and I can’t wait for the truth to get out there.

Jason, you’ve been creating games for about 5 years now, which of your previous releases still holds a warm spot in your heart?

JT: Famous Missions. It’s a game where one player provides a mission (“Dismantle A Bomb”) and the other players choose their 3 best celebrities to complete that mission. Some celebrities may be helpful in these scenarios (Chuck Norris, Albert Einstein, Mr. T.) and others less so (Paris Hilton, Donald Trump, Carrot Top). After players choose their teams of three, they get to argue on their behalf, and the judging player chooses the best team for the job.

The game is always a good time, especially with a creative group. After a few years of self-publishing it, I listed it on Kickstarter in Sept 2011 and it failed miserably. There are a few reasons why, and I’ve learned so much since then, that it turned into a very positive experience for me. But as for Famous Missions, I’m not going to give up on it. It’s too much fun to forget about. Plus it was my second game with my good friend Lincoln in it.

Mr. President, do Mary and the boys know about the game? What do they think of your pixelated adventures? I bet the boys think it’s cool that you’re also going to be the star of a video game too!

PL: Shhhhhh. I haven’t told Mary yet. She is not a big fan of the video games. But the boys are very excited about it. Although you can’t get their hands off of Borderlands 2, they do love the classics. Battletoads is a big hit in our house. That level 3 is impossible!

Jason, speaking of the video game version: What format will it be available on? Am I going to have to break out my old NES system for it? (Because I will!)

JT: It was originally being developed for DS, which was as close to NES as we could get, but we’ve switched over to Steam. It will initially be PC and hopefully Mac will follow, because I do not have a PC and I want to play! If it’s successful, we can make the transition from Steam to PS3/Xbox 360 to 3DS.

This question is for both of you. What are your top 3 games right now?

JT:

Alien Frontiers Cosmic Encounter Battle Beyond Space

I guess I’m going through a space phase right now.

PL: Food Fight Junta: Viva El Presidente Chrononauts

Jason, outside of designing games what inspires you to “carpe diem”?

Definitely my family. My wife and I have a 4 year old daughter, and 2 year old twins, and they are all crazy. We’ll play and make games together, but more often we’ll just take off and see where we end up. It’s not unusual for us to drive 3 states away just to go to some silly little burger stand.

The next set of questions only requires a one word (or phrase) response!

Jason -

Favorite time travel movie? 12 Monkeys

Favorite snow creature: Wampa or Bumble? Wampa

Who wins in a fight: Iron Man or Hulk? HULK SMASH!

Best sandwich EVER? The Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh.

Favorite A-Team member? It’s hard to top Mr. T, but I do love B.A. Baracus.

Mr. President -

Favorite non-confederate state? New Jersey

Favorite Gilligan’s Island castaway? Thurston Howell III

Favorite vampire slayer? Simon Belmont

Favorite campaign slogan? Where’s The Beef?

Captain Kirk or Captain Picard? Captain Kirk

Thanks again for taking time to answer our questions! If you want to check out Pixel Lincoln the game you can visit their Web site right here! And while you're there you can pre-order your copy of Pixel Lincoln, which is due for release this year! Thanks again for reading!

Power Up! King of Tokyo Expands!

The hit dice roller King of Tokyo, created by Magic the Gathering designer Richard Garfield is slated for an expansion titled Power Up! There aren't a lot of details about the expansion except the contents. It looks like they are adding another monster Pandakai, and over 50 evolution cards to give your monsters more options to power up and become King of Tokyo! See our review of King of Tokyo by Firestone - Right here!

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

It's been a busy week here following Gencon (which we didn't go to...). So once again we've wrapped up all of our posts from the week and put a pretty bow on them for you! Here they are! Monday we checked in with those who DID go to Gencon!

We also took a look at some exciting news coming from Fantasy Flight Games!

Jeremiah took a cheap shot at a kids game.

We discovered that Dominion was being digitized!

Jeremiah reviewed the audacious "We Didn't Playtest This At All!"

Firestone brought us some news about the new Resistance!

The Heartland Hauling Co. Hit its first stretch goal and we got to peek at their meeples!

And Jeremiah reviewed the spaghetti western card game BANG!

It's been a busy week, but a great one! Thanks so much for all of your support and for reading our little blog! We've got more reviews, news and an interview with Ben Rosset, designer of "Mars Needs Mechanics" coming at you next week! If there are any games you would like us to review, or find more news about feel free to leave 'em in the comments below! The weekend is coming, what games are you playing?!?

Coming Soon!

We here at Theology of Games are certain that the public is clamoring for a behind-the-scenes sneak preview of what they can expect from TheologyOfGames.com. So we thought we'd take few minutes to introduce ourselves and quell your insatiable curiosity.

Theology of Games is a blog, written by two friends who are followers of Christ, and happen to also be passionate about board gaming. You can expect to see frequent game reviews, along with gaming news, and our general thoughts on gaming and other features that we hope you will find humorous. Theology of Games is a blog for anyone, in any walk of life. Whether you're an avid gamer, a parent or friend of an avid gamer, or someone who works in ministry and wants to know what those gamer kids are playing, this blog is for you.

TOG is written by: Scott Firestone IV - A magazine editor and writer, so him make words more gooder. He's also a lay leader in his church's youth ministry. and Jeremiah Isley - A Youth Director from Northeast Ohio who has been in Youth Ministry nearly 9 years, and a gamer for... well a lot more than you can imagine.

Check back on July 1st when we officially launch this thing. It'll be epic!