Cryptozoic
John Kovalic, artist of Munchkin, Apples to Apples, and the comic Dork Tower has a game all of his own coming: ROFL! I’m not making fun of his game design abilities, ROFL! is the name of the game. It’s a party game where players compete to relay the meaning of a given phrase in as few characters as possible. Because “this game sounds very silly but I might enjoy it” is much more bother to write than “gm snd SILY, mebe gud” … and I’m sure that’s still too long to be a winner. Sounds like a lot of fun on the first play through the 170 phrases, but its staying power remains to be seen.
Catan / Kosmos / Mayfair Games
The latest preview for Settlers of Catan: Explorers and Pirates reveals that your settlers will also become fishermen. One of the missions included in the scenarios is to find the special fish tiles and deliver fish to the Catanian Council. What’s special about these fish is that they used to be whales originally, but were changed to fish to avoid the connection with modern day whaling, a decision I heartily approve of. Now I just have to find a non-German edition of the game: the German Kosmos-edition apparently will have plastic fish swarms to catch while other editions have real, wooden feeple. That’s fish meeple, for our new readers. Everything is better with *eeple.
Gamewright
One of my favourite cooperative games, Forbidden Island, is getting a sequel. I’m so excited! This time, designer Matt Leacock sends us into the Forbidden Desert, where our helicopter crashes and we have to assemble an ancient and mysterious flying machine to escape before the sandstorm buries us alive. While there is a thematic relation between the two games, Forbidden Desert has all new mechanics including a shifting and changing game board and the need to watch your water supply. Here’s the trailer.
Clever Mojo Games / GameSalute
Experienced gamers have raced pretty much everything: cars, horses, boats, spaceships. But I can’t think of any game yet that had the players racing elephants – until now, that is, because that’s exactly what you will do in Formula E by André Zatz, Sergio Halaban and Bruno Faidutti after it’s funded on Kickstarter. This card driven racing game has a few twists, though, the biggest being that you push other elephants in your way forward when you move, and you have to move if you can. Positioning will be an important factor, I can tell. Formula E will be played with elepheeple to race, plus mousple and cowple to mess with your opponents. And there’s mention of cobras and monkeys as well. This should be fun.
Fantasy Flight Games
What good is a city if you can’t go shopping? No good at all, basically, no one will go there for the landscape. The same holds true for Talisman: The City, one big reason to visit the city at all is its multitude of shops. Fro regular old weapon and armour shops to the Apothecary selling potions, the Sorcerer selling spells and the Menagerie selling pets, The City has the right merchandise for everyone, as long as your pockets are deep enough. If you need more details about Talisman: The City then you can find out pretty much everything you want to know from the rulebook now.
And because rulebooks are neat, the one for the outdoor expansion Mansions of Madness: Call of the Wild is also available.
Z-Man Games
2013 will be the year of Pandemic at Z-Man Games. The original Pandemic will see a rerelease with new art, two new characters and so-far unnamed new challenges. Pandemic: On the Brink will also have a new edition to match the new artwork of the base game and, most excitingly of all, the new expansion Pandemic: In the Lab will put you inside the laboratory searching for the cure. A new Pandemic expansion and a successor to Forbidden Island in one news post, this is going to be a good year, keep them coming Matt Leacock. (If you really haven’t heard of Pandemic yet, find out all about it here.)
Bézier Games
Ultimate just doesn’t mean much any more, does it? At least not in Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition, there is going to be a new edition of that. It should be called Ultimatest Werewolf: Even Ultimater Edition, but designer Ted Alspach missed that opportunity and left the name unchanged. On top of the new edition of what may be the world’s best-known hidden identity game, the mini-expansion Night Terrors is also coming back, together with the all new Urban Legends expansion, both with six new roles to include in your game, including mundane things like The Insomniac, but also exotic roles like the Chupacabra. Both expansion may or may not be included in Ultimatestest Werewolf: Ultimatanium Edition when you order it. (via BoardGameGeek News)
This week’s featured image was taken by Andrew Malone and shared with a CC-BY license. It shows the Necropolis of Pantalica near Syracuse, Italy, a burial ground with some 5000 tombs, most from the time of 1300 to 700 BC.