Crowdfunding to buy a vowel: Paperback review (advance print & play version)

After being away on a holiday with more beaches than boardgames, I'm getting back into the swing of things with a preview of a card game due for release in the next few months. The kickstarter for Paperback: A Novel Deckbuilding Game was funded a few months ago and is due to ship in January, and backers were provided with print & play files to get playing right away (a thoughtful addition, especially given Kickstarter projects deserved reputation for delays). Paperback is a word building game like Scrabble, but folded into a deckbuilder format like Dominion. Those two things might sound weirdly incompatible, but despite some hiccups Paperback manages to blend them more smoothly than might be expected. This version is lacking only the colour cards and art, the rules are the same as the forthcoming commercial version.

Ragnarok around the clock: Yggdrasil review (iOS Version)

Yggdrasil
Designer: Cédric Lefebvre / Fabrice Rabellino
Published by: Z-Man Games
Players: 1-6
Yggdrasil for iPad on the App Store


Yggdrasil is a cooperative game where players race against time to fend off monsters of Norse mythology and avert Ragnarok. Taking the role of one of a pantheon of gods, each player takes turns raising armies of vikings, forging magical weapons and battling the evil gods. Loki the trickster leads the charge, with great mythical beasts such as Fenrir the wolf and Jormungandr the world serpent joining the fight to destroy the gods and their works. If you hold the line long enough, you all win collectively. Allow too many enemies to advance too far, and you all lose as the cosmos falls to ruin and darkness. Great job.

D99 Problems: Dungeon Roll review

Dungeon Roll
Designed by: Chris Darden
Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games

Dungeon Roll is a dice game that began life on Kickstarter. A light 'dungeon crawler' themed push your luck game, Dungeon Roll has you rolling dice to create a party of adventurers to take on the monsters of the dungeon. It's a cute, well presented little game and a Kickstarter success story. But how does it play?

Zen and the art of bamboo garden maintenance: Takenoko review

Takenoko
Designer: Antoine Bauza
Published by: Bombyx / Matagot
Players: 2-4

When trying to smooth out rocky diplomatic relations between two great nations, what gift best reflects your respect and admiration for a foreign Emperor? If you guessed a giant animal that rampages through his beautiful gardens devouring the colour-coordinated bamboo, Takenoko is right up your alley. Take on the role of a courtier in imperial Japan caring for the exotic panda and trying not to make a mess of the Emperor's gardens in the process.

Killer Filler: Love Letter & King of Tokyo double feature

Every good game collection needs a few light offerings that you can break out for a quick session between longer games. Or maybe while waiting for people to arrive, or just to play with families or those not keen on a more complex and time consuming game. Today we look at two games that deliver just such an easy to digest experience in 15-30 minutes.

The spy who loved me: The Resistance review

The Resistance & The Resistance: Avalon
Designed by: Don Eskridge
Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards
Players: 5-10

If you've ever played a party deduction game like Mafia or Werewolf that pits a hidden handful of players against the others, racing to work out who's on your team before it's too late, you've got the basic idea of The Resistance. Now what happens when you take out the unfun bits like player elimination and the need for a sidelined moderator to run the game, and add tidbits of information that make decisions an interesting, agonizing deduction instead of arbitrary guesses? You get teamwork, betrayal, and a whole ton of fun. Welcome to The Resistance.

From The Wheel to Robot Rebellion in 10 easy steps: Innovation Review

Innovation
Designer: Carl Chudyk
Published by: Asmadi Games
Players: 2-4

Guide your society from humble stone age beginnings to the dizzying heights of the internet and self aware robots through new technologies, ideas and innovations as you fight your neighbours tooth and nail to be the first to claim the glorious spoils of progress. Innovation is a card game of civilization building and merciless conflict that offers a surprisingly engaging experience for players willing to dig past the superficially random and unpredictable gameplay elements.

Serious Threat, Zone Red: Space Alert Review

Space Alert

Designer: Vlaada Chvátil

Published by: Czech Games Edition

Players: 1-5

Space exploration. The theme of a crew boldly going to and fro across space is immediately familiar to most of us. It calls to mind visions of intrepid explorers and alien worlds, daring captains commanding sleek vessels in graceful combat among the stars. Spaceship crews can be the noble officers or the roguish pirates, masters of their tiny domains floating through the vastness of space.

Space Alert, however, is less a grand space opera than a wonderful space comic tragedy...