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Some Actual Journalism: Licensed Games

[A feature we’ve always dreamed of providing is actual board game journalism. What might that look like?

Step forward Mark Wallace, board gamer, author and contributor to Wired and the New York Times. We let him off his news-leash to cover the economics of licensed board games. Are they good for the hobby, or crowding out our shelves?

These are his conclusions. If you like this sort of thing, please do drop a comment letting us know.]

Tabletop gaming may be touching new heights of innovation and engagement, but the industry is at pains to appeal to new customers. While bigger “independent” publishers like Fantasy Flight Games can make a strong showing of it, there are dozens more smaller publishers whose owner-managers must hold down day jobs while struggling to produce great games — games that are often ignored by retail outlets. In many stores, it can almost seem that tabletop board games are solely represented by TV and movie spinoffs.

Even if they’re lucky enough to find a well-stocked local game store, the potential audience for boardgames is at pains to tell one startlingly expensive game from another. And having been weaned on Candyland, Sorry, and the Game of Life, they are startled again at the different kind of effort that’s required to learn and play — much less enjoy — many contemporary games.

ZULUS ON THE RAMPARTS! is the battle cry of those defending the Mission Station at Rorke’s Drift. It is 22 January 1879, and the British invasion column moving into Zululand was disastrously defeated that morning at nearby Isandlwana. Now, fresh troops from the victorious Zulu iMpi (army) are advancing on your position. With your 140 British soldiers and auxiliaries, you must survive the repeated attacks of 4000+ crack Zulu warriors.

This States of Siege™ game puts you squarely in command of a desperate defense. As events unfold and heroes emerge, can you build up the barricades and fill the breaches before the camp is overrun?

As the Zulus relentlessly charge wielding their deadly spears and as British rifles overheat, can you keep cool and make the command decisions necessary to hold your position and repel the onrush of fierce braves until the Relief Column arrives?

The Battle of Rorke’s Drift saw more Victoria Crosses awarded than any other before or since. Can you write an equally glorious page in history as you confront these ZULUS ON THE RAMPARTS! ?

Designers

Joseph Miranda

Space Alert is a team survival game. Players take on the role of a crew of space explorers sent out through hyperspace to survey a dangerous sector of the Galaxy.The spaceship automatically maps the sector in 10 minutes. The crew’s task is to defend the ship until the mission is complete. Ifthey succeed, the ship brings back valuable data. If they fail… it is time to train a new crew.

Space Alert is not a typical board game. Players do not compete against each other. Instead, they work together against the challenge presented by the game. The difficulty of this challenge can be chosen by the players themselves. Completing the most difficult missions requires close teamwork. I have learned that the labels on some of the CDs have been switched. The information on the two discs is correct, just the labels are switched.

Quinns: The other week I was in a board game shop, doing my thing, when the girl I was with asked where the games were that weren’t oppressively nerdy.

Her and I aren’t talking anymore, obviously, which is annoying because this week’s news features NOTHING but games with approachable themes. Not so much as ONE grimy alien or breastplate in sight.

Impossible, you say? Hard to believe? See for yourself.

Quinns: Hi Tom! I understand you’ve had no electricity. That’s a fitting start for SU&SD’s iOS correspondent. Who’s the man you turn to when the lights are out? It’s TOM O’BEDLAM.

Tom: You’d think, but the batteries went out on my iPad five minutes into the powercut. Without electricity, the iPad is a very ugly mousepad.

Quinns: Awful. So, what have you been playing this week? Was it terrible? iOS ports of board games are terrible, right?

Tom: They’re not that terrible! Most are distinctly unterrible! Not all of them are Dominant Species! I’ve been playing the new iPad release of Stone Age, which has been ported by Campfire Creations. It’s gorgeous. One of the nicest looking ports I’ve seen so far.

Each age has its special challenges. The stone age was shaped by the emergence of agriculture, the processing of useful resources, and by the building of simple huts. Trade begins and grows and civilization takes root and spreads. In addition, traditional abilities like skillful hunting are in demand, in order to be able to nourish the growing population.

The goal of the players is to master all these challenges. There are many ways to do so, so everyone can work to achieve his goal in his own way.

Find your own way and learn at the end whether it was the best way.

A Warp rift has erupted near the Antian Sector, and under its baleful influence Chaos infestations and other abhorrent phenomena have surfaced. To face this threat, agents of the Imperium have come forth: Space Marine, Inquisitor, Commissar, Rogue Trader, and more. To succeed, such heroes will need skill and weaponry, courage and faith, and even the assistance of ancient and powerful relics.

Relic is a board game in which two to four players each assume the role of a powerful hero from the Warhammer 40,000 universe and bravely venture forth to shield the Antian Sector from certain doom. By completing missions and defeating enemies, characters compete to gain rewards and experience, furthering their chance of being the first to defeat whatever evil lies beyond the Warp rift.

Welcome to New Angeles, home of the Beanstalk. From our branch offices in this monument of human achievement, NBN proudly broadcasts all your favorite media programming. We offer fully comprehensive streaming in music and threedee, news and sitcoms, classic movies and sensies. We cover it all. Ours is a brave new age, and as humanity hurtles into space and the future with an astonishing series of new advances every day, NBN and our affiliates are keeping pace, bringing you all the vid that’s fit to view.

Android: Netrunner is an asymmetrical Living Card Game for two players. Set in the cyberpunk future of Android and Infiltration, the game pits a megacorporation and its massive resources against the subversive talents of lone runners.

Corporations seek to score agendas by advancing them. Doing so takes time and credits. To buy the time and earn the credits they need, they must secure their servers and data forts with “ice”. These security programs come in different varieties, from simple barriers, to code gates and aggressive sentries. They serve as the corporation’s virtual eyes, ears, and machine guns on the sprawling information superhighways of the network.

In turn, runners need to spend their time and credits acquiring a sufficient wealth of resources, purchasing the necessary hardware, and developing suitably powerful ice-breaker programs to hack past corporate security measures. Their jobs are always a little desperate, driven by tight timelines, and shrouded in mystery. When a runner jacks-in and starts a run at a corporate server, he risks having his best programs trashed or being caught by a trace program and left vulnerable to corporate countermeasures. It’s not uncommon for an unprepared runner to fail to bypass a nasty sentry and suffer massive brain damage as a result. Even if a runner gets through a data fort’s defenses, there’s no telling what it holds. Sometimes, the runner finds something of value. Sometimes, the best he can do is work to trash whatever the corporation was developing.

The first player to seven points wins the game, but not likely before he suffers some brain damage or bad publicity.

In the wake of the queen’s arrest, all the eligible young men of Tempest (and many not so young) seek to woo Princess Annette. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, and everyone must rely on those within the palace to bring their romantic letters to her. Will yours reach her first?

Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck, for 2–4 players. Get your love letter into Princess Annette’s hands while keeping other players’ letters away. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long and your letter may be tossed in the fire!

Enter a mythic world of dragons and sorcery!

Talisman, the classic fantasy adventure board game for 2-6 players, receives its most comprehensive update in Fantasy Flight Games’ critically acclaimed Revised 4th Edition.

This revised version of Talisman 4th Edition includes plastic figures for each of the heroes, and even new figures for the toads! Strength and Craft changes are even easier to track with the new stackable markers, and the addition of Fate Tokens gives players a bit of control of the randomness of the dice.

In Talisman, you’ll embark on a perilous quest for the ultimate treasure, the legendary Crown of Command. You’ll choose the warrior, priest, wizard, or one of eleven other heroes with powers both magical and mighty, and you’ll race your opponents through a perilous realm. Each player will roll a die to determine his movement around the regions of the board, where he will encounter dangerous foes and claim powerful rewards, all in preparation for his final climactic test.

Some Actual Journalism: Licensed Games

Zulus on the Ramparts! 2nd Edition

Designers

Space Alert

Games News! 15/04/13

The iOS Roundup! 14/04/2013

Stone Age

Relic

Android: Netrunner

Love Letter

Talisman (Revised 4th Edition)

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