In gaming news, here’s an item of general interest. The Jack Vasel Memorial Fund is a non-for-profit with the goal to help specifically gamers that have fallen on personal hardship. The fund was started by Tom Vasel (known for his games website / podcast The Dice Tower) after the tragic loss of his son Jack and the generosity of the boardgame community in helping out with the associated medical costs looming on top of the devastating personal loss. The Fund’s annual auction on Boardgamegeek is now online with the sole purpose of collecting money for the Fund and help more gamers in times of need.
Z-Man Games / Feuerland Spiele
Were you one of the approximately 10.000 people who came to the Feuerland Spiele booth in Essen only to be disappointed by their entire stock having sold out already? And now you’re sitting at home, depressed that Terra Mystica is only available in Germany? Cheer up! Z-Man Games has obtained world wide publishing rights for an English language edition of the fantasy game where dwarves, mermaids and many other try to find new space to live in.
Fantasy Flight Games
Star Wars: The Card Game is trying to give an interesting twist to deck-building: you won’t create your deck from single cards but from so-called objective sets, each with 6 cards to add to your deck. It sounds like an oversimplification of the whole deck building process, but it’s an old saying that restriction breeds creativity, maybe that holds true here, too. At least that’s what Nate French, Senior LCG designer, says about it.
Visible Hand Games
We talked about Michael R. Keller’s City Hall before, a role selection game that places you in the mayoral elections of New York City in 1933. You’ll not only decide your own political future but also the future of the city, because a big part of gaining votes is bringing people to the city and growing the right neighbourhoods for your own success. Now City Hall is on Kickstarter, waiting for your vote.
Portal Publishing
Have you played your Essen copy of Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island yet? Because you should, it’s awesome. We spent most of the weekend on it and still keep dying miserably, but I’m sure we’ll get better. You can now do something about the plain, wooden pawns, too, with the sticker set for download. Have a good time on the island!
Brotherwise Games
8-bit video games make a brilliant theme for board and card games, don’t they? Maybe it’s just me because I grew up with those – but then, so did a whole bunch of other people, as proven by the 800% funding the Kickstarter project already had. Boss Monster: the Dungeon-Building Card Game is double awesome: not only is it 8-bit themed, you also get to build a dungeon to attract heroes and then kill them. That’s right, you get to be the boss monster. How cool is that.
This week’s featured photo, taken by David Merrett, shows the Beguinage of Bruges in the Flemish part of Belgium. It’s part of the cultural heritage site Flemish Beguinages – every city in Flanders has one or had one, at some point, apparently. The photo has a CC-BY license. Thanks, David!