Cardboard Children - September Board Game News
News about boards
Hello youse!
Oof! Just made it under the wire for the September Board Game News update. Honestly, I keep hoping against hope that there will be at least one month where there's no board game news, but it just keeps on coming at this point. Games, games and more games, flowing at us like a cardboard river. And I just can't fight the current. It's too strong! I'm –
SILENCE OF CTHULHU
Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game is coming to an end. Aw! After about ten big expansions and a whole bunch of card packs, over many years, the line is at an end. Development is complete. It is over. No more officially sanctioned Fantasy Flight Tournaments. It is DONE. It is an ex-LCG.
It's always sad when a game ends. For you PC gaming people, I suppose it's like when an MMORPG shuts down. Remember when Tabula Rasa shut down? It didn't really matter that the game wasn't good – it was still sad to watch a world end, leaving its small group of players bereft. Of course, Call of Cthulhu is a GOOD game, so this is even more sad. Actually, it's less sad, because the game isn't going anywhere. It's still on the shelves of the people who love it, and they can play it forever if they want – until the real Cthulhu wakes up, at least.
There's a really lovely farewell post over on the Fantasy Flight site. I love this, from Nate French, one of the game's developers:
“This, I believe, is the legacy of Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game — it is a game with an audience who loved it so deeply, they would not let it die, and the evidence of their continued support spawned the conceptualization of the game-changing LCG model.”
Yeah! Call of Cthulhu did prove that the LCG set-up would work (an LCG (Living Card Game) differs from a CCG (Collectible Card Game) in that it makes all the cards easily available – no blind buying) and it was a bit of a trailblazer for everything since.
Man. How sad and wonderful. Maybe it would be worth picking up a few sets before the regular printing is over.
SCYTHE
Oh my goodness. Sometimes just the idea of a game gets you going. This game is coming to Kickstarter in October, and it's a farming game-
WAIT! COME BACK!
It's a farming game set in an alternate 1920s where factions are using giant mechs to assist in the cultivation of the land. And the art looks ab-so-lutely amazing. Let me speak on something right here.
See, when people ask me why I love board games, I always make it clear that I love them both as things to play and just as things. I love them as objects of loveliness. A great board game, with beautiful art, is a beautiful thing to have. It's a great thing to lay out on a table, just to see. So it's important when a game with some beautiful art comes along. There's not enough of it really.
And art can just grab your attention, right? It can get your imagination whirring. And these old-timey farmers out on the fields with big mechs chugging along behind them? That has got me sittin' up straight!
Direct from the Stonemaier Games site:
“Scythe (2-5 players, 60-90 minutes) is a board game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor.
In Scythe, each player represents a fallen leader attempting to restore their honor and lead their faction to power in Eastern Europa. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.”
Did you get that? “Broken hearts.” “Innovation and valor.” “MONSTROUS MECHS.”
Here's a little video overview of the game:
Look out for the Kickstarter in October.
LOOPIN' CHEWIE
I just want to make sure you all know about Loopin' Chewie. I think I've mentioned before that I love Loopin' Louie, the MB action game about a little biplane pilot attacking sheep. It's a brilliant family game, where you tap these little levers to defend yourself from Louie as he swoops down towards your sheep. As you get better at the game, you can make skillshots with your lever, sending Louie down to attack your opponents. It's such fun.
Well, Loopin' Chewie is a Star Wars re-theming of Loopin' Louie. It's Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon, swooping down on Stormtroopers.
Sorry, I need a lie down.
Sorry, back. How great is that?! A Star Wars action game, based on an absolute cracker of a family belter, with the Falcon and Chewie and oh just get this on your family's Christmas list right now for God's sake.
3 Monkeys
Bruno Faidutti (Citadels, Mission: Red Planet) is one of my favourite designers, and I'm very excited about his newly announced game “3 Monkeys”. It's an “emotions game”. Check this out, from Bruno's blog:
“I had the idea for this game after learning from a friend whose son has autism that autistic people usually try to avoid eye contact. Since they don’t look at other people’s eyes, they focus more on the rest of the face, and mostly the mouth, to judge of their mood and emotions. As a result, people with autistic relatives learn, more or less consciously, to overplay their mouth expressions. This was the starting point for my emotions game, soon to become Three Wise Monkeys.”
I think the conception of this game is fascinating, and I love any game that makes players really communicate with each other. The point of the game is to express different emotions while covering ears, then eyes, then mouth. I imagine that expressing “rage” with your mouth covered is probably more difficult than any of us realise. Expressing surprise without your eyes? Tricky, right?
Ah, it's a lovely idea. Go have a read of this fine designer's blog. It's great.
NEXT WEEK
That's just a handful of the news. Most of it is Kickstarter stuff, to be honest. That's the world we're living in now, folks! Next time I'll have some BRAND NEW GAME action for you. A review of one of the hottest releases of the year. Yes! See you next time!