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Fog of Love widens its focus this week, as Spirit Island expands, Achtung Cthulhu re-formats, and Lords of Vegas and Level 7 return to life.
Level 7 [Omega Protocol] Returns
Level 7 [Omega Protocol] has been out of print for a couple of years and the prices have risen to match. However, there’s now a Kickstarter to bring Level 7 back in a second edition and provide a sequel come expansion called [Extreme Prejudice]. It’s already passed a relatively large funding goal of £75,000 and there’s still two weeks to go if you fancy its ‘Aliens’ mixture of co-op marines fighting horde of aliens in a dungeon crawl style.
So, we’re not entirely sure what second edition means yet, but at least new line of sight rules and plenty of physical goodies like new miniatures, tiles which – and full marks for this – are all available for first edition owners via a special upgrade pack. The target release date for this new version of Level 7 is summer 2019.
Spirit Island Expands into Controversy
The critical hit Spirit Island is getting a large expansion in the form of Jagged Earth, which has already funded on Kickstarter. There is two new attacking forces (Russia and the Austrian based Habsburg Empire), eight new spirits and the ability to have two extra players.
There’s a lot more too, but there’s been some controversy about the Kickstarter as the basic expansion is $59 and the delivery estimate isn’t until May 2020. Of course, many people feel this is worth it (over four thousand at time of writing.)
Arraial: Party Time
Arraials are Portuguese street parties and a publisher from there is releasing a game all about them. Mebo will be launching ‘Arraial’ before Pandasaurus Games follow with a global release, and fans of Barenpark and Patchwork need to take a look as there’s a strong ‘shaped tile laying’ element.
Of course, there are twists, so you’re aiming to score with party staples like food, music, balloons etc. There’s also a strong sense of Tetris as the game board rotates to change your shapes. You’re looking at 30 minutes a game for this family title. Release date is Essen.
Z-Man takes over Lords of Vegas; Expansion on Cards
Mayfair recently joined the Asmodee stable and there’s some signs of reorganisation as Lords of Vegas, which Mayfair used to run, will now be coming out through Z-Man Games. Firstly, we’re promised the old stock will be sold, and while we wonder if that means a new edition will follow (the Z-Man team have mentioned “potential future opportunities”) we do have the definite news that the long planned Underworld expansion is back in development and should see our tables. This will bring a series of characters to the game (we mean gangsters) and Z-Man have the designers on board.
RIP Greg Stafford
Greg Stafford was a true titan in the world of role-playing games, creating not just Glorantha and RuneQuest, but also Pendragon and the publisher Chaosium, of which he rode to the rescue in 2015. It’s been said that if you played a RPG that wasn’t derived from D&D then you must be playing one derived from Greg Stafford. He died peacefully on October 11, aged 70.
Achtung! Cthulhu Mutates
Achtung! Cthulhu is getting a second edition which develops from the Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds base of first edition to into Modiphius 2d20 system. The game is one of the leading collisions between the horror of HP Lovecraft (well, the one that’s spun off from it) and the Second World War, and the second edition promises more fluff, including more beasties. The release date is early 2019 and there are plans for a Call of Cthulhu (the RPG) tie up to follow.
Fog of Love Brings more Love
Fog of Love has brought in more advice and designers to revamp itself so it recognises far more of the wide spectrum of love between humans. The flashy outer part of this is a new set of box covers which aren’t just a heterosexual couple, but there are far deeper changes with an expansive rewriting of the old content and new material (with more coming soon) to have as much love as possible.
Time to Buurn
Do you like auctions and notionally getting very warm and sweaty? Publisher Morning are planning a release called Buurn where players compete in auctions to buy the hottest ingredients to make a killer sauce… There’s a demo at Essen and a release in 2019. Curry nights optional.
Lucky Duck signs Ganymede
Tableau building sci-fi game Ganymede had a European release via the interestingly titled “Sorry We Are French” but has now signed up for an American release via the equally interestingly titled Lucky Duck Games, aka the team behind Chronicles of Crime. Here’s the PR:
“Ganymede is a development and tableau-building game in which players are corporations specialised in sending settlers to colonise the universe. To do so, you will recruit settlers on Earth, use shuttles to transport them to Mars, then to Ganymede where the settlers’ ships launch base is located…The game ends when a player has launched four settlers’ ships into space. Players score VP from their launched ships and from their reputation track.”
Challenge of the Superfriends
Cryptozoic are releasing a superhero themed card game using their Gryphon engine and there’s a DC theme. But it’s not the DC heroes of the recent films or even the old ones, it draws on the Superfriends cartoon series and feels very, very old school (which is no bad thing). It’s a swift game and is coming March 2019.
Res Arcana: Race for the Dragons
Tom Lehmann created Race for the Galaxy, and now he’s going to mix that card-based game up with a fantasy world in Res Arcana. There’s a hint of Magic the Gathering, in that you have a deck of forty cards and you’re using them to battle an opponent by summoning creatures and collecting magical essence but, and it’s a big but, you only use eight of those cards every game, and you can play two to four players. This will be Sand Castle Games' first release, and will not be Kickstarted; release date is February.