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Mice and Mystics: Heart of Glorm

Evil stirs Within the Castle.

Prince Collin and his friends defeated Vanestra, and thought evil had been banished from the castle forever. But deep within those scorched and shadow-haunted halls, something is moving that should not be. A malicious presence has taken root, and it has hatched a scheme that will ensnare the Prince and his friends, and forever change the course of history for the mouse-town of Barksburg.

A New Storybook For Mice and Mystics!

The Heart of Glorm storybook picks up right after the events of Sorrow and Remembrance, letting you and your friends continue the story of Prince Collin, Maginos, Tilda, Nez, Filch and Lily. Included in this expansion are new plastic figures, cards and counters, as well as a new series of chapters sure to test your mettle! And joining the heroes is Neré, a wild mystic who brings her powerful magic and knowledge of alchemy to the battle.

This expansion set requires Mice and Mystics: Sorrow and Remembrance to play.

For literally our entire lives, Paul and I hadn’t played Mice and Mystics. Then we played Mice and Mystics. Then it was out of stock!

But this month will see a new printing of the much-discussed game scurrying onto shop shelves the world over. A game of daring-do and wild adventure! A story of tiny heroes with huge hearts. A tale… of cheese.

And so it was written that Shut Up & Sit Down would perform “The Review”, and take a quick peek at Mice and Mystics: Heart of Glorm, too.

In the Old West, sly snake oil salesmen had the special talent of getting even the most skeptical customer to buy the most dubious product. In Snake Oil, that’s exactly what the players get to do! One player draws a card and becomes the Customer while the other players each select two Word Cards from their hands to create a product to pitch to the Customer. Laughter erupts as each player attempts to persuade the Customer that their item is the best! The Customer picks their favorite item and that player is awarded the Customer Card. The player with the most Customer Cards wins!

Brendan: Hey, Paul. Would you like to buy some of this?

Paul: What is it?

Brendan: It’s Snake Oil. It is made from snakes and it is an incredibly potent remedy for all sorts of ailments, from headaches to baldness.

Paul: I’ll take ten!

Brendan: But wait because all is not as it seems. You see –

Paul: Twenty!

Brendan: No Paul, because Snake Oil is not actually –

Paul: Just take my wallet, my PIN is 1234! Now give me that!

Brendan: No, Paul, stop! Just listen to me for one second! Come back. I need that box. It’s a board game I’m supposed to review. Paul! Paul? Nope, he’s gone.

Quinns: I used Uber for the first time last night, which is a great service if you want your life to stop making sense. Summoning a car out of the ether like a fat metal pokémon? Chatting to the driver and getting a five star rating as a passenger? Madness. Naturally, my thoughts this morning are all polite chauffeurs and luxurious leather interiors, so I’d like to invite you all into the Games News Taxi.

‘Ello there! Where you off to? Kickstarter Plaza, is it? Lot of dodgy blokes down there, mate. Lot of chancers. You look like a classy sort, not that it ain’t not none of my business, mate.

Oh, look up there! That’s La Nuit du Grand Poulpe, that is. It’s comes out in English later this year. Normally I feel funny about all these foreign games coming along, taking our shelf space, but I wouldn’t mind if they all looked this good, eh! Wouldn’t mind having a rummage around her inlay.

Theseus: The Dark Orbit puts players in the heart of a conflict between five factions trapped on the eponymous space station in deep space. Only one can survive…

Command the marine forces! Use deadly weaponry, setting traps and mines in corridors to defend the human race.

Command the alien race! Use secret passages and ventilation ducts to launch surprise attacks and grow small aliens to take control of the station.

Command the scientists! Use computers and technological devices to gather data and record information about other inhabitants of the station.

Command the Greys race! Use their mind powers to control the enemy and use them for your own purposes.

The fifth faction? It’s a mystery. It’s precisely why you made the trek to Theseus, and it’s precisely why you will die…

In Theseus: The Dark Orbit, players move their pawns around the space station and activate the abilities of different rooms. Every move you take changes the movement possibilities of your opponent. On your turn, you need to think about which room you want to reach and (in addition) how to mess your opponent’s movement, which leads to great choices and meaningful decisions.

Rooms abilities change during the game as players install trait cards that give rooms new abilities and skills. Players create Theseus during gameplay by placing traps, smart guns, secret passages and many other features. In every game Theseus looks different; in every game it’s deadly for you in a new way…

Rules for team play allow players to engage in incredibly emotional 2-vs-2 battles. With perfectly balanced factions, players will be able to fight engaging and deadly battles as a teams. Each faction has a unique deck of cards, and before the game starts, you discard ten cards from the deck. In basic mode you discard at random, while in tournament (master) mode you choose cards and build your deck. With five factions and 110 cards, the game can provide years of unique experiences.

What’s this? Looks like your donations weren’t enough, everybody. Paul and Quinns are now moonlighting as space marines. No way this could go wrong! Especially not in the spooky space-lanes of Theseus: The Dark Orbit.

This was one of the trickiest reviews we’ve done in some time. If we have any designers reading this, do you think you could make your games a little less distinctive, nuanced, rich and basically a bit worse? As critics, we’d really appreciate it.

EDIT: Audio gremlins now fixed!

Assembly of the 2nd Gold Club Bag has BEGUN!

HOT NEWS, everybody! If you noticed the site was a little quiet this week, it’s only because we’re assembling our second ever run of Gold Club bags. 1,900 hand-stamped envelopes, every one of them full of all manner of affordable prizes, as well as the actual fingerprints of team SU&SD.

Phew! The really crazy part, though, is that we’re getting the hang of it. If you missed this one, we’d definitely recommend you get in on the next. We’ll be re-opening donations in just a short while.

Thank you all so, so much. Oh, and those full episodes we promised in our first pledge drive? They’ll start arriving this month. The forum’s getting very close, too. Eee!

— Team SU&SD

Quinns: No question what story we’ve got to lead with. Esteemed French board game developer Bruno Faidutti, developer of such silly yet sharp games as Mascarade and Red November, has released the above image on his blog.

A prototype of a game he calls “Emotion”, we know absolutely nothing about it, but look at it! Note the stopwatch around Bruno’s neck. The anguish he’s conveying. The disdain on the woman’s face. It’s either the game we were born to review, or the one that’ll kill us.

The same post informs us that Formula E, his gorgeous-looking elephant racing game, is almost upon us. How could we not love Monsieur Faidutti? You want emotions, he’s got ’em. You want elephants, he can provide. You want something else? Stop being so picky c’mon elephants are good and so are emotions

Pandemic: On the Brink is an expansion to our popular cooperative game, Pandemic, where players take on roles to work together to find cures to 4 diseases.

In this expansion you will find seven new roles; eight new special events; and several challenge kits to be added to the basic game play.

Virulent Strain Challenge: makes one disease become particularly deadly in unpredictable ways.

Mutation Challenge: adds a fifth (purple) disease that behaves differently than the original four.

Bio-Terrorist Challenge: one player plays against the others!

You may also play with 5 players and play on Legendary level!

Mice and Mystics: Heart of Glorm

Review: Mice and Mystics

Snake Oil

Review: Snake Oil

Games News! 05/05/14

Theseus: The Dark Orbit

Review: Theseus

Assembly of the 2nd Gold Club Bag has BEGUN!

Games News! 28/04/14

Pandemic: On the Brink

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