Whups! Sorry for the delay, folks – This one’s on me.
This week’s Halloween spotlight, including all the news fit to print, features a crazy race across the Alps, a game of flipping interstellar real estate, a new edition of the classic pen-and-paper RPG, Paranoia, and yet more!
Steampunk Rally
by Roxley Games
Steampunk Rally, designed by Orin Bishop, is a racing game in which you take on the role of various (steampunk’d) scientists / inventors such as Nikola Tesla or Marie Curie in a race across the Alps. The catch, and what brought this game to my eye, is that you’re forced to build and modify your racing contraption on the fly, perhaps adding an Aether Lifter to cross some rough terrain, or something even more esoteric. You are a steampunk scientist, after all..
Finally! A true steampunk game featuring mountains of dice, famous inventors, and unique dice-placement & card-drafting mechanics.
Outer Earth
by Paul Tseng
We’ve had plenty of property management games set in decrepit and / or bustling metropolises, so this time, designer Paul Tseng decided to think bigger. In Outer Earth, our job isn’t to revitalize an ailing block or two, rather we’re in charge of bidding on and developing entire planets for colonization, or simply to flip them for a higher value. Featuring simultaneous bidding, you must keep an eye on what you’re willing to give away, as the cards you wager are the same ones used to give that planet a fresh coat of atmosphere.
In Outer Earth, each player controls a development company trying to establish themselves as leaders of the terraform industry by buying, building on, and selling planets for human habitation.
To turn opportunities into profitable victory points, players must practice lean resource management, shrewd strategic planning and gutsy foresight.
HELVETIA Cup + Team Expansions
by HELVETIA Games
Helvetia Cup is a simulation football (soccer!) game set in one of your standard fantasy worlds, featuring pre-painted miniatures, and two levels of rules and strategy for family or hardcore gamers alike. With the base game already in publication, this campaign is to add five additional expansion teams to the mix: Vampires, Ogres, (Were?)Bears, Dwarves, and Succubi.
There is no longer bloodshed amongst the people of Helvetia; they like to express their rivalry in another way. They do it by way of a new sport: the Helvetia Cup.
Cartography
by Jon Adams
Check out our preview here, written by our talented new member, Tiffany!
Players create and claim territory, and capture opponents, in an effort to control the map. The map changes as you play so you must keep your wits about you. Strategy is key and chance doesn’t determine the winner. Cartography is easy to learn and challenging to master!
Paranoia RPG
by Matthew Sprange
“Good morning, Friend Computer!”
“Good morning, Agent QTP-12. Please report to briefing room Gamma-Romeo-Echo-Echo-November for your assignment today.”
I’m rather torn on this project, I’ll admit. Paranoia is a classic, one of the most fun RPGs out there (if it’s your cup of tea in the first place, that is), and they want to give it a ’21st-Century’ spin, inserting terrorists in the place of the usual commie / mutant / traitor ‘adversaries’.
Personally, I’d say to pick up a copy of Paranoia XP, or the 25th Anniversary Edition of Paranoia, but it’s good to see that there’s still interest in the line from Mongoose.
Paranoia: A light-hearted game of terror, death, bureaucracies, mad scientists, mutants, dangerous weapons, and insane robots, which encourages players to lie, to cheat, and backstab each other at every turn.
