7 Wonders is one of my all-time favorite games, and Antoine Bauza is one of my all-time favorite designers. So I was eager to try 7 Wonders Architects, which was released in the past few days. The game has a few hallmarks of its award winning predecessor, but is notably lighter. In fact, it is so light that, at a convention I recently attended, it became a bit of a running joke that it was the children’s version of 7 Wonders. The result is a game that I’ve enjoyed playing, but which will leave my collection shortly.
Trick taking is a hot genre in gaming right now. After the success of The Crew, gamers have a renewed interest in this classic card game mechanism. We’ve seen growth in the Trick-Taking Guild, which now has hundreds of members.
But while Europe and North America continue to churn out a few trick takers each year, the real innovation is coming from Japan, which sees the release of dozens of titles annually. And perhaps no Japanese designer has affected trick taking (and climbing games) as much as Taiki Shinzawa, who has generated considerable buzz with innovative titles such as Ambiente Abissal, Time Palatrix (being released as Ghosts of Christmas), Maskmen, §egment Trix, and Zimbabwee Trick. He’s a trick-taking rock star, recently becoming the first designer to be nominated for back-to-back Golden Trickster awards by the Trick-Taking Guild (with American Bookshop Card Game being nominated last year, and §egment Trix being nominated this year). Whenever one of his new trick-taking games gets announced, a few of us who are fans take note.
American Bookshop Card Game itself has been a hit among fans of trick taking. There have already been a few printings, including a new version in Brazil called Corta. But it has been notably difficult to get a copy in the United States, as is often the case with small-print Japanese games. But the game is now on Kickstarter, so I thought I’d write a review.
It’s the time of year again. Today I’ll give an overview of sorts for games that will be released in Japan in a matter of hours at the Fall Tokyo Game Market (TGM). I’ll talk about games I’m looking forward to, games I wish I could play, games that stun me with their production, and games that delight me in their quirkiness. (The images used below are promotional images from the designer/publisher’s Twitter page, website, Game Market website, etc., unless otherwise noted.)
As usual, it won’t be the same post that I had planned months ago: I had hoped to be there! “Tickets” to TGM are traditionally offered as part of a catalog for the show, and entry to the fair is a stream of folks holding a copy aloft for the staff to observe as they enter the fair. These catalogs are usually available on discount afterwards -as the show is over and the information dated- so I grabbed one for cheap in the Spring, as I wanted to know what the insides were like. There’s only about 1 page that’s in English, which is about what I expected, but as Japan’s tourism policies forbid entrance right now, I haven’t dug into it with any seriousness. My plans to attend are on hold until April now, but for that anticipation post, you may get something a little different from me, as with any luck it’ll be a bit of a travelog. (And an overview of what the catalog is like.)
But that’s next year. Let’s talk about some of the titles releasing this weekend that excite me.
Gone with the Beans (サ01) Designer: Kentaro Yazawa Publisher: HOY GAMES
I want to start out as I usually like to, with the title at the top of my spreadsheet. Normally, that sheet stays in mostly chronological order of when I heard about a game, but this year’s has undergone some transformations for the people who’ll be picking up some titles for me, and those titles that I’ve reserved a copy of have slid to the top -and this is the first one I reserved.
It’s a 1-99+ player roll-and-write…about beans, and closer to the Hadrian’s Wall end of the genre than the Qwixx end. The game comes with 50 copies of 4 different game boards. Players start at different provinces, and in each of 15 turns, a provost sort of character wanders the board. Each turn players will gain some income and then have a number of actions to choose from, such as building facilities or achieving milestones.
One of my favorite up-and-coming publishers is a bookstore, that while new-ish to the board game scene, has been publishing other things longer, Twin Lions Do. They published the first (and second) editions of American Book Shop Card Game, and are releasing Pastiche tomorrow, a reprint of Laminate Rummy from rikatti -with another stunning production. (They do things under a few different imprints, such as this one.)
But what I wanted to talk about was something I found in the reservation form for Pastiche that I hadn’t been aware of. It is a sort of “choose-your-own-adventure” self-guided tour of Vienna! (With one for Bremen announced for the Osaka Game Market in the Spring.) How cool is that! I’m including a cover shot below, and a shot from inside.
Wondering around the landscape searching for an adventure, or pub, or who knows what a Rouge, a Fighter, a Wizard and a Beast might be looking for (some fast food?) KaBOOM! A fireball whizzes past exploding a nearby conifer into tiny bits of tinder. The group takes a defensive stance as arrows zip by, one sticking into the Fighter’s shield. Lightning rips from the Wizard’s fingertips into the direction the projectiles are coming from. The Beast roars. Enemies slowly emerge from the forest, encircling the group. The battle begins!
A couple of months ago, as my daughter Amy and I finished up our last game of Pandemic Legacy: Season 0, our mood was somewhat melancholy. Part of that was due to the result of the game: after achieving partial or complete wins during the first 11 months of the campaign, December gave us our first loss. And given the theme of the game, it isn’t much of a spoiler when I tell you that things didn’t end well for the citizens of 1962.
But it was more than that. This was our last game of the Pandemic Legacy franchise ever. Designers Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau have made it abundantly clear, in multiple interviews, that Season 0 will be the last game of the series. They’ve done the present, the future, and the past. They have nothing more to say, so rather than milk this extraordinarily successful series of games, they will go out while on top.
And that made Amy and I sad because we have enjoyed this group of games so very much. Playing it has been a highlight of our visits together for almost 6 years. It was like saying goodbye to a dear friend.Continue reading →
The quick and dirty from the rulebook – Being a witch is all about wielding powerful magical ingredients. The more powerful, the more brilliant magic they can produce. But be careful, a witch can only wield so much power before everything blows up in their face. This is a fact you’re willing to use to your advantage when you’re trying to destroy your nemesis. However, while you’re brewing the ingredients to get the job done, someone else is trying to do the same to you!
