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It’s been a good week for science fiction, with new ships for X-Wing (and sneak movie peaks), Dr Who coming to an old favourite, and Netrunner rebooting itself.
X-Wing previews ships from Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi
As Disney and Lucasfilm gear up for the release of Stars Wars Episdoe VIII, every single possible thing connected with it turns to promotion. So, Fantasy Flight haven’t just released pictures of two new ships for X-Wing, they’ve shown us what Kylo Ren will at some point fly in VIII, as The TIE Silencer has his name all over it.
It carries over a sharp aesthetic and will look good among normal TIE Fighters. The rebel B/SF-17 Heavy Bomber looks… well heavy (and is projected to cost more). As someone who grew up loving collecting things from the films, there’s plenty to be excited about here, but you won’t be able to buy these new X-Wing ships until after the movie is released.
Paizo guru heads for pastures new
James Sutter worked his way up from intern at Paizo, to co-creating RPG hit Pathfinder and being creative director of fast-selling follow up Starfinder. His life is good, but he has done something which surprised many: he’s leaving Paizo to go full time freelance. While he’ll be doing some work on RPGs still, and for Paizo, he wants to spread into other areas.
He blogged: “As much as there's still plenty more I'd love to explore with Starfinder, I can't escape the fact that I've been making RPGs at Paizo for my entire adult life, and it's time now to devote more than a few scattered hours each week to my other artistic loves – particularly fiction and comics.”
As a freelancer, all I can say is this is a brave decision and good luck.
Android: Netrunner is going to be turned off and on again
Fantasy Flight Games have announced that Android: Netrunner, a cyberpunk card game that lets you hack the future, will be rebooted. A new core box is coming out with revised cards that both push the story forward and secure the future of the game for another few years.
We’ve got an article going into these changes coming, so we’ll close this here with the lack of news that there’s no release date yet.
IGA Nominees: gotta play ‘em all?
The International Gamers Awards, aka The Gamers’ Choice Awards, are coming closer and we now have the shortlist of ‘General Strategy’ titles… and what a list! In alphabetical order, because why not:
- A Feast for Odin
- Century: Spice Road
- First Class
- Gloomhaven
- Great Western Trail
- Key to the City: London
- Lorenzo il Magnifico
- Magic Maze
- Scythe
- Terraforming Mars
- The Colonists
- Ulm
- Yokohama.
First glance shows some big names vying to take the crown off 2016 winner Mombasa. There’s more however, with a dedicated two player category: Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Caverna: Cave vs. Cave, Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft, Santorini and Star Wars: Destiny.
A Feast for Odin
Century: Spice Road
First Class
Gloomhaven
Great Western Trail
Key to the City: London
Lorenzo il Magnifico
Magic Maze
Scythe
Terraforming Mars
The Colonists
Ulm
Yokohama.
First glance shows some big names vying to take the crown off 2016 winner Mombasa. There’s more however, with a dedicated two player category: Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Caverna: Cave vs. Cave, Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft, Santorini and Star Wars: Destiny.
Viking Warrior Woman was buried with her board game
A Viking warrior has hit the news, over a century after their grave was found and dug up. When archaeologists discovered it they looked at the large collection of weapons and shields, plus the clear battle damage, and concluded it was a man, because sexism.
But now DNA tests have revealed it was actually a warrior woman… and she’s mentioned here because on the body was a board game believed used to develop real life war skills. Or maybe she just opened the envelope on the underside of the Legacy game that says don’t ever open.
Chess world arguing over… shorts
Grandmaster chess player Anton Kovalyov was stopped from taking part in a chess match just before it began because he was wearing shorts, and was asked to change into trousers. Unfortunately, as Kovalyov had played the preceding rounds in shorts, and hadn’t actually packed any strides because he’d grown out of them (really, he said that), he couldn’t and an argument ensued.
Kovalyov claims he was racially abused by the organisers and so stormed out. Canada, which Kovalyov represents, is thinking about a formal complaint. As they put it: “If you want to enforce a dress code, you do it after the game or at the beginning of the tournament. Not after he’s already played four games in the same attire.”
Small World expansion looks to the skies
Small World is getting bigger with a new expansion called Sky Islands that, well, err, has islands in the sky. Yes, as well as a tweak to the normal map rules, the expansion has extra territory that floats in the sky / sits on your table nearby and is attached by things like beanstalks. You’ll also get seven additional races and seven special abilities, and we presume a few of these involve flying.
Dr Who Fluxx is coming
A photographed teased it, and Board Game Geek got confirmation from Looney Labs: they have a Doctor Who licence and Doctor Who Fluxx is coming at the end of November. All your favourite monsters and companions will be present, unless you’re one of those weird people who can’t get enough of the Mechanoids.
We anticipate that Fluxx will be able to accurately represent the confusion of a typical Dr Who plot arc thanks to its style.