Re-Roll: This Week’s Tabletop Game News for the Week Ending September 3, 2021

by admin

Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending September 3, 2021.

Gaming News

  • Gen Con is in a few weeks, and this week they once again made it clear that masks are required at all times for all attendees, stressing that attendees “will be removed from the convention if you do not wear your mask properly, or try to avoid doing so.” The approach of Gen Con is also slowing down the games news cycle as companies get ready to go to the convention.
  • Renegade Game Studios announced the upcoming release of the G.I. Joe Roleplaying Game and is currently taking preorders on the core rulebook. The game is built on Renegade’s Essence20 system, which is also being used for their upcoming Power Rangers and Transformers RPGs. Originally, the Power Rangers game was going to be built on the 5th Edition Open Game license from D&D, but the company decided during development that creating their own system made more sense for them. The Essence20 system is built on a “core mechanic for resolving a roll is for the player to roll a d20 along with their Skill die (ranging from a d2-d20). The result of the d20 and skill die must exceed the difficulty of the test in order to succeed. Characters with a specialization in the skill being tested get to roll their skill die and all dice below it, and pick the highest result to add to their d20 roll, increasing their odds of success! What’s more, a max value roll on ANY die is a critical success, leading to more chances for crits and more opportunities for great roleplaying incorporating them.” I’m sure more details on the system will follow as the release date of the games nears.
  • Floodgate Games has released Vivid Memories, a tile-drafting game by Ben Harkins where players “collect fragments of childhood memories” and earn points by “matching the imagination behind each moment.” The game had a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. 
  • Unstable Games is taking preorders for Tic Tac K.O. Dragons vs Unicorns, a card game that “puts a diabolical twist on Tic Tac Toe” (hopefully allowing a player to actually win).
  • Board & Dice has released Tekhenu, a dice-drafting game set in ancient Egypt where players compete to work on the Temple of Amun-Ra. 
  • Sequoia Games has released starter sets and the first booster set for Flex NBA, a “trading tile” game that combines collectible tiles with augmented reality components to bring NBA games to the tabletop. Players can use an app to point their phones at the tiles to see 3D models of the players. I’m not at all into basketball, but I have to say that the preview of the game makes it look pretty cool. 
  • As we all know, everyone’s favorite English soccer football team, Richmond AFC, changed sponsors earlier this season after a controversy with their old sponsor’s parent company. Now, Leyton Orient FC, an EFL League 2 team, has announced that they too are getting a new sponsor: Wizards on the Coast. Leyton players will have “Magic: The Gathering trademarks and logos across their training wear kits” (“kit” is English for “uniform”) for the 2021/2022 season. As of this writing, their online store doesn’t have any of the new designs available. 
  • JoJo Siwa, a dance-pop icon (I honestly don’t know what that even means), is bringing her colorful brand to Monopoly, courtesy of The OP. Apparently, she’s also going to be appearing this season on Dancing With the Stars. 
  • The Queen’s Gambit: The Boardgame is coming soon from Mixlore Games. The game lets players program three turns in hopes of capturing more chess tiles than their opponents. It’s good to see the Netflix series finally get a game adaptation, and hard to imagine any other board game that might have been a more obvious fit for it. According to the game’s BoardGameGeek page, its actual title is The Queen’s Gambit: Das Damengambit. I don’t have any further details, including when (or if) an English edition might be available. 
  • Members of the Champion Beer Club will soon be able to trade wheat (beer) for an IPA with the limited edition Catan collection. Unfortunately, the only way to get the beverages is to sign up for the club at $50/month, and then wait for them to include the themed beer in a shipment. Each of the game’s resource types is represented by a beer, so no doubt you’ll still end up with more rye beer (the pasture equivalent) than you could ever want or need. 

GeekDad & GeekMom Reviews

Here’s what we reviewed this week:

What We’re Playing

Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:

  • Jonathan Liu played Dunhuang: Pearl on the Silk Road.

  • Paul Benson played Unmatched: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (our featured image this week) and Shadows of Brimstone: Forbidden Fortress.

  • Michael Pistiolas played Unmatched, Yahtzee, Rallyman GT, Hanabi, Uno, Barnyard Bunch, Sword & Sorcery, Unicorn Glitterluck: A Party for Rosalie, Cauldron Quest, and Can’t Stop.

  • Michael Knight played Fantasy Realms, High Noon, and Evacuate.

  • Z. played Dungeons & Dragons: Curse of Strahd.

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