Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! The National Museum of Play gets a massive donation of games from Mayfair founders, Harry Potter and Choose Your Own Adventure coming to a tabletop near you, Dresden Files coming to your digital devices, a lot of segues, and more!
The Strong National Museum of Play received its largest single donation in the museum’s history. The collection comes from Mayfair Games, which announced its closure last month with its intellectual property assets going to Asmodee, and features over four thousand games and eight thousand library titles. Donated in the name of Mayfair founders Darwin and Peter Bromley, this collection represents one of the most extensive in gaming history and features strategy games, wargames, science fiction magazines, near-complete libraries of White Dwarf, Dungeon, and Dragon magazines, and a roleplaying library that includes two Dungeons & Dragons original White Box releases. Peter Bromley passed away in 2016 and left his collection to the museum, and his family requested donations to The Strong in lieu of flowers in his obituary. The Strong National Museum of Play is a museum dedicated to the preservation and study of the history of toys and games, which recently launched a Twitch channel with bimonthly streams focusing on classic video games.
Speaking of classic games, many gamers struggle to explain what a “role playing game” is and, if you’re close to my age of thirty-*cough*, you probably also went to the same cultural touchstone: the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Z-Man Games announced that they are publishing the new Choose Your Own Adventure board game based on the book House of Danger. The game will be designed by Forrest-Pruzan Creative, the developers of the Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle deckbuilding game (published by USAopoly…more about them in a moment). The book features a detective (the second-person protagonist reader choosing their adventure) investigating the dark history of a former Civil War prison and can shift genre via time travel, alternate dimensions, and more. This book was chosen specifically for adaptation due to its genre-bending nature, explained in this quote from associate publisher Melissa Bounty:
The game will be out by the holiday season this year, though no price has yet been announced.
Speaking of Harry Potter, USAopoly announced several big adaptation games for their Harry Potter license. The first game being rethemed around the license is the Spiel des Jahres winner Codenames where, in Harry Potter Codenames, players will work together to uncover messages from the Order of the Phoenix while trying to avoid the Villain and Dark Guard squares. Also announced is Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle Dueling Club based on the Hogwarts Battle deckbuilder focused on one-on-one competitive play. Fantastic Beasts: Perilous Pursuit will be an original press-your-luck set-collecting dice game where each player competes to be the first to capture five magical beasts. Finally, Harry Potter Munchkin Deluxe. Yes, that’s right, not a parody version, but actual licensed Harry Potter Munchkin. It will also be the first Munchkin set to use photographs (taken from the feature films) rather than artwork for each card.
Speaking of licensed properties featuring wizards named Harry, The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game has come to digital platforms thanks to Hidden Achievement. Available on Steam (from the link above) as well as for iOS and Android through their respective app stores, the game is based on The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game tabletop version from Evil Hat and allows from one to five players (locally or online) to join together and defeat the big bad based on the novels. The first five books plus expansions from Side Jobs are included with the base game with DLC expansions on the way for more and already available for additional cards and characters. The PC version is available for $19.99, while the mobile versions are $6.99.
Speaking of licensed games some more, Cryptozoic announced Pantone: The Game. Okay, all the art students, graphic designers, and layout artists reading are about to demand new keyboards from me due to laughter and the rest of you are wondering what the joke is now that I’ve mentioned it. For the latter group, Pantone is a system for naming colors held by Pantone Inc. that labels colors based on the CMYK color model for the specific purpose of naming each and every color combination possible using a numerical system. The game will be a party game for two to twenty players with one player being the “artist” who picks a card with a character from pop culture and has to choose from a color swatch to communicate using only colors to the other players which character it is. The game is due out in the “second half of 2018”.
Speaking of…okay I’m out of segues for the moment. If you’ve ever been curious about the EN Publishing roleplaying system What’s OLD is NEW, now may be the perfect time to check it out as the current Bundle of Holding happens to be all about the WOIN System. The $9.95 Starter Collection includes O.L.D The Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying Game, Modern Core, Modern Equipment, Action Careers, and The Ills of Hengistbury and the current threshold price of $25.79 will also get you N.E.W The Science Fiction Roleplaying Game, Xenomorphs: The Fall of Somerset Landing, Starship Construction Manual, Starship Recognition Manual, and three articles from WOIN Magazine. The value of the Start Collection is $43.50 and the entire set $67.00, and ten percent of each purchase goes to Doctors Without Borders.
Speaking of bundles that benefit charity (see, they came back), Humble Bundle currently has two bundles of interest to gamers. The first is the Humble Comics Bundle: Dynamic Forces 25th Anniversary. In addition to some amazing comics books, this includes Art of Atari poster book and artbook focusing on the history of the amazing artwork on classic era Atari games. Oh, it also features the trade comic book version of The Dresden Files: Fool Moon if you want a callback as well as a digital exclusive Vampirella/Witchblade crossover by Jim Butcher. This bundle is available until April 4 and supports the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. On the more instructional end, the Humble Book Bundle: A.I. by Packt features books on developing artificial intelligence with many books focused directly on game design and development. This bundle is available until March 26 and benefits Code for America.
Emissary Lost is a campaign module for the 2017 ENnie Judge’s Spotlight roleplaying game Coriolis: The Third Horizon from Free League Publishing (who you may also remember from the highly successful Tales from the Loop). This two hundred plus page book sets up two major storyline scenarios that throw the player characters into a conspiracy that threatens the entire Third Horizon. The PDF is available for a SEK200 pledge (Approx. $24 / €20 / £18) while the physical book is available for SEK350 (Approx. $42 / €34 / £31) with a starter pack available that includes the core rulebook in print for SEK650 (Approx. $79 / €64 / £57). I’d also like to thank Free League Publishing for doing all that currency conversion on the project page as it made my job so much easier. This project is quickly running out of announced stretch goals to unlock until it funds on Thursday, April 5.
Have you ever looked at those amazing leather-bound notebooks and thought they were the perfect place to make notes for a game, but always got cold feet because you worried about ruining it with a bad idea? Gametee has launched the second edition of their refillable leather-bound gaming journals. Each one is custom designed for gamers with places for pens and pencils, cards, and more with removable brass D20s with four internal notebooks (lined, grid, plain, and craft) that can be replaced with any half-letter-sized notebook (specifically, A5) available in four different colors and styles. You can purchase one for £55 (about US$78), two for £105 (about US$149), three for £155 (about US$220), or four for £200 (about US$283) with further price breaks and possibly some early bird discounts available. This project is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, April 17.
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming crowdfunding news by following our Kickstarter news tag, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I will be suffering through whatever video games my new computer should now be able to run for your amusement, follow Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history and Let’s Plays, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
The Strong National Museum of Play received its largest single donation in the museum’s history. The collection comes from Mayfair Games, which announced its closure last month with its intellectual property assets going to Asmodee, and features over four thousand games and eight thousand library titles. Donated in the name of Mayfair founders Darwin and Peter Bromley, this collection represents one of the most extensive in gaming history and features strategy games, wargames, science fiction magazines, near-complete libraries of White Dwarf, Dungeon, and Dragon magazines, and a roleplaying library that includes two Dungeons & Dragons original White Box releases. Peter Bromley passed away in 2016 and left his collection to the museum, and his family requested donations to The Strong in lieu of flowers in his obituary. The Strong National Museum of Play is a museum dedicated to the preservation and study of the history of toys and games, which recently launched a Twitch channel with bimonthly streams focusing on classic video games.
Speaking of classic games, many gamers struggle to explain what a “role playing game” is and, if you’re close to my age of thirty-*cough*, you probably also went to the same cultural touchstone: the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Z-Man Games announced that they are publishing the new Choose Your Own Adventure board game based on the book House of Danger. The game will be designed by Forrest-Pruzan Creative, the developers of the Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle deckbuilding game (published by USAopoly…more about them in a moment). The book features a detective (the second-person protagonist reader choosing their adventure) investigating the dark history of a former Civil War prison and can shift genre via time travel, alternate dimensions, and more. This book was chosen specifically for adaptation due to its genre-bending nature, explained in this quote from associate publisher Melissa Bounty:
“The title is a cult favorite because it embodies what many people remember about Choose: off-the-wall wackiness, the unexpected, and true excitement. Notable characters in the book are Genghis Kahn, human-sized Venus fly traps, a time-traveling group of Civil War prisoners, hologram chimpanzees, and an ending where you turn into a baby. I can’t tell you exactly which of these artifacts appear in the game, but the zeitgeist will be maintained.”
The game will be out by the holiday season this year, though no price has yet been announced.
Speaking of Harry Potter, USAopoly announced several big adaptation games for their Harry Potter license. The first game being rethemed around the license is the Spiel des Jahres winner Codenames where, in Harry Potter Codenames, players will work together to uncover messages from the Order of the Phoenix while trying to avoid the Villain and Dark Guard squares. Also announced is Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle Dueling Club based on the Hogwarts Battle deckbuilder focused on one-on-one competitive play. Fantastic Beasts: Perilous Pursuit will be an original press-your-luck set-collecting dice game where each player competes to be the first to capture five magical beasts. Finally, Harry Potter Munchkin Deluxe. Yes, that’s right, not a parody version, but actual licensed Harry Potter Munchkin. It will also be the first Munchkin set to use photographs (taken from the feature films) rather than artwork for each card.
Speaking of licensed properties featuring wizards named Harry, The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game has come to digital platforms thanks to Hidden Achievement. Available on Steam (from the link above) as well as for iOS and Android through their respective app stores, the game is based on The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game tabletop version from Evil Hat and allows from one to five players (locally or online) to join together and defeat the big bad based on the novels. The first five books plus expansions from Side Jobs are included with the base game with DLC expansions on the way for more and already available for additional cards and characters. The PC version is available for $19.99, while the mobile versions are $6.99.
Speaking of licensed games some more, Cryptozoic announced Pantone: The Game. Okay, all the art students, graphic designers, and layout artists reading are about to demand new keyboards from me due to laughter and the rest of you are wondering what the joke is now that I’ve mentioned it. For the latter group, Pantone is a system for naming colors held by Pantone Inc. that labels colors based on the CMYK color model for the specific purpose of naming each and every color combination possible using a numerical system. The game will be a party game for two to twenty players with one player being the “artist” who picks a card with a character from pop culture and has to choose from a color swatch to communicate using only colors to the other players which character it is. The game is due out in the “second half of 2018”.
Speaking of…okay I’m out of segues for the moment. If you’ve ever been curious about the EN Publishing roleplaying system What’s OLD is NEW, now may be the perfect time to check it out as the current Bundle of Holding happens to be all about the WOIN System. The $9.95 Starter Collection includes O.L.D The Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying Game, Modern Core, Modern Equipment, Action Careers, and The Ills of Hengistbury and the current threshold price of $25.79 will also get you N.E.W The Science Fiction Roleplaying Game, Xenomorphs: The Fall of Somerset Landing, Starship Construction Manual, Starship Recognition Manual, and three articles from WOIN Magazine. The value of the Start Collection is $43.50 and the entire set $67.00, and ten percent of each purchase goes to Doctors Without Borders.
Speaking of bundles that benefit charity (see, they came back), Humble Bundle currently has two bundles of interest to gamers. The first is the Humble Comics Bundle: Dynamic Forces 25th Anniversary. In addition to some amazing comics books, this includes Art of Atari poster book and artbook focusing on the history of the amazing artwork on classic era Atari games. Oh, it also features the trade comic book version of The Dresden Files: Fool Moon if you want a callback as well as a digital exclusive Vampirella/Witchblade crossover by Jim Butcher. This bundle is available until April 4 and supports the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. On the more instructional end, the Humble Book Bundle: A.I. by Packt features books on developing artificial intelligence with many books focused directly on game design and development. This bundle is available until March 26 and benefits Code for America.
Emissary Lost is a campaign module for the 2017 ENnie Judge’s Spotlight roleplaying game Coriolis: The Third Horizon from Free League Publishing (who you may also remember from the highly successful Tales from the Loop). This two hundred plus page book sets up two major storyline scenarios that throw the player characters into a conspiracy that threatens the entire Third Horizon. The PDF is available for a SEK200 pledge (Approx. $24 / €20 / £18) while the physical book is available for SEK350 (Approx. $42 / €34 / £31) with a starter pack available that includes the core rulebook in print for SEK650 (Approx. $79 / €64 / £57). I’d also like to thank Free League Publishing for doing all that currency conversion on the project page as it made my job so much easier. This project is quickly running out of announced stretch goals to unlock until it funds on Thursday, April 5.
Have you ever looked at those amazing leather-bound notebooks and thought they were the perfect place to make notes for a game, but always got cold feet because you worried about ruining it with a bad idea? Gametee has launched the second edition of their refillable leather-bound gaming journals. Each one is custom designed for gamers with places for pens and pencils, cards, and more with removable brass D20s with four internal notebooks (lined, grid, plain, and craft) that can be replaced with any half-letter-sized notebook (specifically, A5) available in four different colors and styles. You can purchase one for £55 (about US$78), two for £105 (about US$149), three for £155 (about US$220), or four for £200 (about US$283) with further price breaks and possibly some early bird discounts available. This project is fully funded and runs until Tuesday, April 17.
That’s all from me for this week! Find more gaming crowdfunding news by following our Kickstarter news tag, and don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enworldnews.com. You can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse where I will be suffering through whatever video games my new computer should now be able to run for your amusement, follow Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube featuring videos on gaming history and Let’s Plays, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
