It’s historically been a very difficult project marrying together Euro-style mechanisms with the more thematic adventure game format. Despite many attempts, Legends of Andor and Lost Valley: The Yukon Gold Rush are the only titles that really managed prosperity. Trail Story: America is making a push for that short list. This Dan Manfredini design leans…
Brett G. Murrell’s Worldspanner Factions is effectively Duel of Ages III. The genealogy of this system stretches back 21 years to the original set. From the beginning, this game featured wacky competitive adventure full of oddball moments like Robin Hood riding around on a motorcycle wielding an assault rifle. It’s as nutty as it sounds.…
There’s this thing called Mass Effect. It’s a video game franchise that is kind of a big deal. It’s not a big deal to me. I’ve never played it. There’s this other thing called Mass Effect: The Board Game – Priority: Hagalaz. The story here is brand new, but the gameplay seeks to adapt the…
Alien as a party game. As David St. Hubbins epitaph reads, “…and why not?” Arriving at a perfect time alongside the excellent Alien: Romulus, designer Ivan Turner’s This Game Is KILLER presents a brutal and humorous take on Ridley Scott’s classic science fiction film. It does so in a violent 15 minutes while supporting up…
Burning Banners is a bit of a darling. Published by Compass Games, it’s an asymmetric fantasy wargame built upon the foundation of traditional hex-and-counter conflict simulations. It doesn’t boast an innovative action system, there’s no Euro-style engine building, and it includes zero miniatures. It’s progression through reinterpretation, finding expansive creativity in the well-tread mud of…
New York City is a walled maximum security prison. Breaking out is impossible. Breaking in is insane. Have you seen Escape From New York? It’s from another time, when movies were on film and John Carpenter still had creative juice. This gritty thriller has a unique vibe, populating its desolate environment with over-the-top characters while…
I’ve been thinking about semi-cooperative games again. These are of course games where players switch between modes of cooperation and competition, often incentivized one moment to work as a group, and another to secure a selfish victory. While many abhor this board game sub-genre due to its fragility and unreliable structure, they’re some of the…
Arcs is vicious. That was the subject of part one in my ongoing discussion of Cole Wehrle’s latest work. This space oddity’s jagged edge extends beyond the base experience and into the thorny recesses of the campaign. Here, mechanical additions emerge from their stasis with alacrity, the particles of grand stories shed from their animation…
Close your eyes for a moment. The rasps and clicks off at the edge of existence, that’s people talking about Arcs. As they should be. Arcs is designer Cole Wehrle’s eighth release and his third with publisher Leder Games. The supergroup of Wehrle, Leder, and artist Kyle Ferrin continues to astound. I assumed we would…
I’ve always been interested in moral philosophy. I once wrote an article about the ethics of semi-cooperative play. I’ve expressed anguish and confusion regarding police violence. I also shared regret in asking a group of friends to pretend to be German scientists researching the atomic bomb. My latest quandary is the ethical culpability of discussing…
Player Elimination 