Tag / ultimate werewolf legacy

by thecampaignlogger

News: September 2018 Edition

September, that month between Gen Con and Essen where we are so overwhelmed with all our new games to play that we have little time to hear about the news.  Thankfully, you have me!

REVIEWS (OR RATHER, REVIEW)

Still working on being more frequent with reviews, but it was a busy month for both work and games!  I did get one review done:

Duct Tape Won’t Fix It: A MacGyver The Escape Room Game Review (4 out of 10)

NEW GAME RELEASES

Not a lot of new releases this month, as most big titles either already came out at Gen Con in August, or are coming out in October at Essen SPIEL.  But there are a couple to report on.

Ultimate Werewolf Legacy
Designed by Ted Alspach and Rob Daviau
Published by Bezier Games
Players: 9-16
MSRP: $59.95

Ultimate Werewolf Legacy hit retail in early September after a couple hundred copies were sold early at Gen Con.  Ultimate Werewolf Legacy is, as the title suggests, a legacy version of the classic social deduction game Werewolf, co-designed by Ted Alspach and Rob Daviau.  Players take on the roles of villagers in a New England village in the late 17th century that is plagued by werewolves.  Over the course of the 16-game campaign, aspects of the game will change based on the win-loss ratio of villagers from chapter to chapter, as well as story decisions that villagers must vote on.  Due to the high player count, I don’t think I will ever get it played, but I did buy a copy and read through the diary to see how the campaign plays out and evolves.  I may do spoiler-free writeup of that in the future.

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare
Designed by James Sheahan
Published by Modiphius Entertainment
Players: 1-8
MSRP: $79.99

The core set and several expansions for Modiphius’s Fallout tabletop miniatures game finally hit retail in late September.  The game can be played competitively or solo/co-op against an AI opponent, and can be played in a campaign mode where you build up a settlement from game to game.  The base game comes with a scenario book including 5 scenarios that link together, but it feels like for the most part its up to the players to build out their own campaigns and storylines.

Folklore: The Affliction 2nd Edition
Designed by Will Donovan and Nick Blain
Published by Greenbrier Games
Players: 1-5
MSRP: $69.95

The second edition of Greenbrier’s Folklore: The Affliction was shipped out to Kickstarter backers this month (along with the second edition of the Dark Tales expansion), and should hit retail soon.  Folklore is an DM-less “RPG in a box” boardgame in a gothic horror setting.  Players take on the roles of flawed anti-heroes and villagers trying to stop the supernatural afflictions plaguing the land.  The game is a hybrid of a pen-and-paper RPG game where you read through a story making choices and skill checks, and a tactical skirmish game for resolving fights in the story.  The game comes with 6 stories that players can make choices in how it plays out, and characters can be leveled up and carried from story to story.

 

CLOUDSPIRE FIRST DETAILS RELEASED BY CHIP THEORY GAMES

Chip Theory Games have been teasing their next game, Cloudspire, for months (including sending all Too Many Bones: Undertow backers with a promo chip with the Kickstarter launch date on it).  But up until very recently, little-to-nothing was known about the game aside from that it was going to be their take on tower defense games.  Chip Theory finally gave us a little more of a peak behind the curtain this month in their blog.

Cloudspire is inspired heavily by tower defense video games, and can be played competitively, cooperatively, or solo.  The game takes place in the floating realm of Ankar, featuring four unique factions that will have some degree of asymmetry among them.  The solo mode will feature a narrative campaign broken into episodes that follow each of the factions, telling the story from multiple viewpoints.

Cloudspire will be coming to Kickstarter soon on October 16.  Pricing details have not been announced yet, but they say this game is similar to Too Many Bones in its scope and depth, so it will probably be just as pricey.

 

ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD OF VENICE SNEAKING ONTO KICKSTARTER NOVEMBER 2018

Triton Noir is re-envisioning their stealth WW2 co-op V-Commandos in the Assassin’s Creed universe.  Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice is a simplified and streamlined adaptation of V-Commando’s stealth mechanics, focusing more on short range and melee combat.  The game will feature a narrative campaign of 20 branching scenarios, including sealed envelopes that players will unlock over the campaign containing new content (not a legacy game, everything can be reset).  Between scenarios, players can upgrade their equipment and headquarters.  As inferred by the name of the game, this takes place roughly during the events of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and it is teased that Ezio will make an appearance in the story.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice will launch on Kickstarter in November 2018.

by thecampaignlogger

Gen Con 2018: Top 10 Hype List

The doors to Gen Con 2018 are just minutes away from opening, and while I won’t be there (#GenCant), this is the shortlist of games that I am most excited about that will be available for sale or demo there.   I waited so long to make this list because I knew there would be a number of really interesting titles that wouldn’t get announced until this week.  3 of the games on this list were just announced in the past 72 hours.  My list is limited to just campaign/narrative games, but there are plenty of other games I am excited about as well!

 

#10 – ARKHAM HORROR THIRD EDITION
Designed by Nikki Valens
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
Available for demo at one of Fantasy Flight Games’ booths 

To be honest, I was a little disappointed in Fantasy Flight’s Gen Con announcements this year, but Arkham Horror Third Edition did pique my interest a little bit.  The big difference that I’m seeing beside the modular board is that the game is scenario-based with branching narrative paths to them.  Based on the initial images, the branching narrative system looks similar to how Fallout: The Board Game handled it with a deck of cards that you seeded based on the choices you made.  A prototype version is available for demo at Fantasy Flight’s booth, and will hit retail in Q4 2018.

 

 

#9 – ULTIMATE WEREWOLF LEGACY
Designed by Ted Alspach and Rob Daviau
Published by Bezier Games
Available for sale at Booth 431, MSRP $60

Rob Daviau + Legacy = Interested.  A legacy campaign version of Ted Alspach’s “ultimate” version of the classic social deduction game Werewolf.  The game focuses heavily on a journal that guides the moderator and villagers through a branching narrative based on the choices of players and outcomes of games.   The game requires a minimum of 9 players to play, so I don’t know if I’ll ever actually have the opportunity to play this, sadly.  Only 300 copies were flown in to Gen Con, but the game will hit retail later in the month.

 

#8 – 1001 ODYSSEYS
Designed by Chris Cieslik
Published by Asmadi Games
Available for playtesting at ICC Room 142

1001 Odysseys is an episodic space adventure game inspired by choose your own adventure books.  Chris has been developing this game for a number of years, and at one point was a hybrid tabletop/app game, but it appears that the game may have moved back completely into the analog space.  1001 Odysseys tells the humorous story of humanity’s first foray into a sector of the galaxy full of “fascinatingly weird” aliens.  Asmadi Games will be demoing a special episode at Gen Con, at time of writing this they only had 9 seats available for demos.  1001 Odysseys is planned for an October 2018 Kickstarter, pending feedback from playtests at Gen Con.

 

#7 – THE RISE OF QUEENSDALE
Designed by Inka Brand and Markus Brand
Published by alea and Ravensburger
For sale at Booth 2113, MSRP $80

Legacy Euro-style game by German designer power-couple Inka and Markus Brand.  I love their EXIT series of escape room games, and I know they also have some pretty highly-regarded strategy games as well.  This game has been out in Germany since March, and early reviews have said that the core gameplay is really solid.  My only major concern with this one is that since the campaign ends when a player wins 9 games, it could take as many as 25 or 33 games in a 3 or 4 player game respectively.  Not sure my friends would be willing to commit to something this long.

#6 – COMANAUTS
Designed by Jerry Hawthorne
Published by Plaid Hat Games
Available for demo at Booth 1537

Just announced last week, Comanauts is the second title in PHG’s Adventure Book series, building on the mechanics and systems introduced in Stuffed Fables, but for a more mature audience (not sure if they mean “mature” in terms of complexity or content). I love Psychonauts and Inception, so I’m sold on the theme of exploring a dreamscape.  Game comes out later this year, but they’ll have it available to demo at Gen Con at their booth.

 

#5 – DETECTIVE: A MODERN CRIME BOARDGAME
Designed by Przemysław Rymer, Ignacy Trzewiczek, and Jakub Łapot
Published by Portal Games
Available for sale at Booth 1850, MSRP $50

I’ll be honest, after First Martians, I was a bit skeptical about Detective.  But the initial reviews and impressions of this game seem to be overwhelmingly positive, so I’ve slowly warmed up to it to the point of being excited about it.  I am a fan of mystery/puzzle games, and I’m curious to see how the digital integration works with it.  Portal Games will have copies for sale at Gen Con, and will hit wider retail later this month.

 

test

#4 – FIRE FOR LIGHT
Designed by Walter Barber, Ian VanNest, and Andrew Zimmerman
Published by Greenbrier Games
Available for playtesting in the First Exposure Playtest Hall

Just announced on Tuesday in Greenbrier Game’s newsletter, Fire For Light is a dark adventure game about survival and exploration.  The game is set during a nuclear winter, centuries after whatever initial incident caused it, and players take on the role of two sisters who leave the shelter of their home to explore their harsh surroundings.  The game uses an app  that handles as the storybook as well as tracks players choices throughout the games.  The story of the game is large in scope, but told in smaller quest-sized chunks in individual game sessions.  An early prototype was shown at on Twist Gaming’s stream on Tuesday (at the 3:11:00 mark), and the artwork has a cool comic book feel to it.  This one is still a little ways off, with a Kickstarter in February/March 2019, but they are doing playtesting at Gen Con.

 

Game Mockup

#3 – GEN7: A CROSSROADS GAME
Designed by Steve Nix
Published by Plaid Hat Games
Available for demo at Booth 1537

Just announced this week on Monday, Gen7: A Crossroads Game is the long-awaited Crossroads followup to Dead of Winter.  Players take on the roles of officers aboard an international colony ship to a distant star system.  A terrible mystery has emerged that threatens the entire mission, and the fate of humanity rests on the choices you make.   The game is played across a 7-episode campaign with a wildly branching narrative.  No release date has been given yet (probably Q4 2018), but they will have it available for demo at their booth.

 

#2 – SCYTHE: THE RISE OF FENRIS
Designed by Ryan Lopez Vinaspre and Jamey Stegmaier
Published by Stonemaier Games
For sale at Booth 3019, MSRP $55

The final and biggest expansion to Scythe features 11 modules that can be added to Scythe, similar to what Tuscany did for Viticulture.  The expansion also comes with an 8-episode narrative campaign that lets players unlock the modules similar to sealed content in legacy games, but there is no permanent changes to components and the entire campaign can be replayed infinitely.  I really enjoy Scythe, so I’m excited to play through this campaign and unlock all the surprises.  Hopefully I can play through it with friends, but if not, I can play solo with the automa rules provided.  The game will hit retail August 17th.

 

#1 – KINGDOM DEATH: MONSTER – SCREAMING GOD AND BLACK KNIGHT
Designed by Adam Poots
Published by Kingdom Death
Available for demo at Booth 3003

Adam Poots is a very secretive man, and Gen Con is really the only one time a year that he makes a public appearance.  He’s kind of like if Willy Wonka was into body horror, miniatures gaming, and RPGs.  We have heard little from him in the past half year, but we do know he well have two upcoming expansion monsters, Screaming God and Black Knight, available for demo at his booth!  People have also confirmed that he is selling a promo mini-expansion, Echoes of Death, that adds a couple extra Fighting Arts to your game if you can complete specific achievements.  He should hopefully also have a lot of other sculpts and assets from upcoming expansions on display at his booth.  Kingdom Death: Monster is one of my favorite games, and I can’t wait to hear more information about The Gambler’s Chest and Wave 4 expansions!  And a life-size King’s Man statue!