The Blue Blomber Hits the Table!

Jasco Games announced on Facebook that they’ll be publishing a Mega Man board game via Kickstarter.  Now, Mega Man hasn’t been treated with the most respectful hand lately, but the folks over at Jasco are no strangers to marrying tabletop and video games.  They currently publish the Universal Fightng System Card Game which incorporates franchises such as Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Tekken and King of Fighters.  There aren’t any details yet, but the following placeholder on Jasco’s website at least looks promising –

In 2013, Capcom and Jasco Games became licensing partners for the exciting property of Megaman! Megaman, who is celebrating his 25th anniversary, is already making his way to debut into the Universal Fighting System universe, with collectible tins that feature both Megaman and Protoman. However, not too far in the near future, Jasco Games will be producing a board game for Megaman. You’ll take control of your favorite hero, and battle Dr. Wily and his forces of evil robots!

Now excitement is natural because, c’mon…  It’s Mega Man!  But as with every other Kickstarter campaign only time will tell – and if Bass isn’t a playable character they won’t see a single red cent from me.

The Legacy Continues…

Way back in 1957, the classic game of world domination known as Risk hit the scene.  Over the last several decades, the game has seen dozens of iterations, but in 2011 Rob Daviau shocked many gamers with the concept of a version of Risk that would change and grow from game to game.  The result was Risk Legacy – a game which sees players regularly destroying unused components, writing on the board and creating something unique with each game.

I could go on for ages about the merits of Risk Legacy, but I’ll save that for another time.  I bring it up here only to grant context to the latest announcement from Plaid Hat Games for a new Legacy game from Rob Daviau and his game company, Ironwall Games – Seafall!

SeaFall is a 4X game (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) set in an age of sail world that is reminiscent of our world.  In SeaFall the world is just starting to claw its way out of a dark age and has just begun to rediscover seafaring technology.  Players take on the role of a main land empire who each consult with a consortium of advisors to discover new islands, explore those islands, develop trade, send out raiding parties, take part in ship to ship combat, and more.  In fact that ‘and more’ may be the biggest understatement I’ve ever made.  Just as in Risk Legacy, SeaFall will evolve as player play it.

If you’re as intrigued and excited as I am, you can check out the latest episode of the Plaid Hat Games podcast for the official announcement from Rob himself.

Dark Powers Gather in Roseville, MN

With Halloween around the corner, all manner of dark and sinister forces work to sow evil.  Of course, shortly after that Fantasy Flight Games will be hosting their annual Arkham Nights weekend at the Event Center in Roseville, MN.  As in past years, attendees will be spending their time playing games inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft such as Arkham Horror, Elder Sign, Mansions of Madness and the Call of Cthulhu Card Game.  As an added bonus, demo games of the recently announced Eldritch Horror will also be available!

Tabletop Term of the Week

In honor of Risk, I thought I’d define the game’s primary mechanic – area control.  Many games use area control mechanics in a variety of ways.  The name is pretty self explanatory, but  basically players use their in-game resources to dominate the board in some way.  In games like Risk or Small World, area control is the primary means of victory, but games such as Setters of Catan use area control as a means of gaining resources to be used later.  Regardless of how it is used within a game, area control almost always has players fanning out to take as much territory as possible without spreading oneself to thin.