Podcast #10: Pirates & Politics

What’s this? A scant three weeks since the last SU&SD podcast, a new one has slipped into the world like a newborn babe: Dirty, noisy, desperate for attention and a little bit intimidating. We’ve got so, so much chatter in this one. We’ve got new releases like Dread Curse, Cube Quest and Legends of Andor. … Read more

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Nothing Personal

Nothing Personal

The Capo is getting old and about to retire. You think. Maybe it’s time for you to make your moves from behind the scenes, to put the gangsters into play that support your goals. Will you gain the most respect?

Nothing Personal is a game for 3-5 players. Players attempt to gain the most respect in five turns (five years) by amassing respect amongst the mafia through influence, negotiation, blackmail and bribery.

Players take turns playing influence cards to take control of gangsters and work them up the chain of power. Each position and gangster has their own special abilities that give players the edge they need to accrue the respect they deserve – to become the Boss of Bosses.

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Game Salute: A New Kind of Publisher?

Game Salute: A New Kind of Publisher?

Since our last foray into Actual Journalism was so well received (It was? — Mark.), we’ve decided to give it another go. This time, we take a look at Game Salute, a company headquartered deep in the hinterlands of New Hampshire, a state that somewhat resembles in shape a standard reference pear.

Game Salute styles itself as a new kind of publisher, one that does much more than handle marketing and fulfillment (fulfillment meaning “getting the game out to customers”, from receiving, to warehousing, secure storage, picking, packing, shipping, tracking, sales to stores globally and customer service).

Among the flexible services they offer are solutions for other publishers, and, intriguingly, managing Kickstarter campaigns, boasting such success stories as Alien Frontiers, as well as unique titles ranging from Chicken Caesar to Pixel Lincoln.

It was started as a response to the many pain points its CEO Dan Yarrington saw in the board game industry. To find out how the cure compares with the disease, we sent Actual Journalist Mark Wallace off to have a good long chat with Yarrington, and he came back (from a phone call, not from New Hampshire) with this exciting and informative Q&A!

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