Shadows Of Brimstone Tops $1.3M

Another successful Kickstarter project, Flying Frog's first KS project Shadows of Brimstone raised $1,341,305 in a funding period that ended Sunday. A cooperative western horror dungeon-crawl board game, Shadows of Brimstone apparently hit enough hot spots to appeal to over 4,700 backers. The amount raised places Shadows of Brimstone into the top 10 tabletop Kickstarters of all time.

Promising backers a release date of August 2014, Shadows of Brimstone may be one of the first games announcing a release date to coincide  with Gen Con 2014.

Smash Up: Sci-Fi Expansion

Alderac Entertainment Group plans to release a sci-fi expansion to its hit card game Smash Up. Expected in March, Smash Up: Science Fiction Double Feature will bring four new decks to the game.

The Science Fiction Double Feature expansion comes with 88 cards and can be played right out of the box by two players. It also comes with a VP token sheet and a rulebook. It plays in 45 minutes and has a SRP of $19.99. Combine it with any Smash Up set and the game can be played by up to four players.

Each of the four new factions brings new abilities to the game. Time Travelers allow players to use their cards repeatedly. Cyborg Apes take actions that take players' minions to a whole new level. Super Spies can use their espionage skill to plot out not only the player's future but also the opponent's. Shapeshifters could be anybody.

The Smash Up base game was featured in Wil Wheaton's TableTop  and made ICv2's Top 10 Card/Building Games for the Fall of 2012.

More Bad Machinery

Bad Machinery Volume 1: The Case of the Team Spirit was recently named one of Publishers Weekly's best children's fiction books for 2013. Following on its heels, Oni Press announced that it will release the book's sequel, Bad Machinery Volume 2: The Case of the Good Boy, around March 12, 2014.

John Allison's webcomic also won the 2012 British Comic Award for Best Comic for The Case of the Fire Inside. Now, Bad Machinery Volume 2: The Case of the Good Boy will bring together another round of mysteries for the investigative children of Griswalds Grammar School in Tackleford, England.

Wondering if Bad Machinery Volume 2: The Case of the Good Boy is a good fit for your child or someone you know? Well, John Allison has shared a meta version of Bad Machinery with someplot details:

Ender's Game Battle School Board Game Available Soon

Based on the epic movie from Summit Entertainment and director Gavin Hood (from the Orson Scott Card novel) comes a board game of combat in the null gravity arena of the International Fleet’s Battle School. Two fierce rivals square off to see who has the best strategy and the steadiest trigger finger: Ender Wiggin and his Dragon Team or Bonzo Madrid and his Salamander Team. Characters maneuver around the null gravity arena with various amounts of control over where they will end up each time they move. When you move, you don’t stop until something, or someone, gets in your way. Teamwork is key! Win by capturing your opponents’ gates or by freezing all of his units with your laser-light guns. Dice are used to resolve combat, but strategy and tactics will rule the day.

Action Figures Continue Their Decline

Since 2009, the reduced power of movies to move sales of action figures and other factors have caused a decline in the sales of action figures, from around $1.6 billion per year to an estimated $1.2 billion in 2013. 

A report from TD Monthly lists a number of factors that may have contributed to this decline. One of them may be the increasing number of movies with action figures lines. As the number of such films increases, they may be cannibalizing action figures sales from each other.

Another factor may be the increase in movie streaming. The report mentions a correlation between the decline in movie attendance by kids and the increase in home streaming of movies. It may be that while the same number of people are seeing the movies, they may be viewing them at times that do not match the release of the associated action figures.

Finally, Disney's recent foray into the action figures market and the growth of its Skylanders toys have also been a factor. In 2013, Skylanders accounted for about $500 million in sales. That is more than the decline in action figures sales in the past four years.

'Robotech RPG Tactics' Delayed

On Monday, Palladium Books announced that Robotech RPG Tactics will not ship to Kickstarter backers until February 2014.

According to Palladium Books' announcement, the scale and complexity of the project as well as "numerous additions and tweaks to sculpts, and additional cost and engineering considerations for mold-making and manufacturing" will result in delays to shipping. Final mold engineering and mold-making is still in process, leaving manufacturing, transportation, and distribution of Kickstarter orders to take place before trade distribution can commence.

Star Wars VII - In Theaters December 2015

Disney officially announced yesterday that the seventh and latest Star Wars film in the series will premiere December 18, 2015. Director J.J. Abrams also confirmed that the reason he and Lawrence Kasdan took over the screenwriting was due to the time pressure exerted by Disney to have the movie roll out in 2015:

"It became clear that given the time and given the process and the way the thing was going that working with Larry in this way was going to get us where we needed to be and when we needed to be."

The question in Bad DM's mind now is, will the quality of the Star Wars: Episode VII script succumb to Disney's pressure to meet a self-imposed deadline? Will Star Wars fans be let down yet once again? Please, share your thoughts with us.

FFG's Store Championships

Running from February through March 2014, Fantasy Flight Games announced a new tournament level for organized play: the 2014 Store Championships. This new "premier tier"  format is the result of the reduction in the number of FFG-run Regional Tournaments. Through these new Store Championships, local stores will be able to host "high level" events that are a few steps below a Regional Championship tournament but bigger than the "standard 2014 tournament kits."

Stores that host successful Store Championship events will be considered as candidates to host one of the Regional Championship events later in the year. The six games for which Store Championships will be available are:

1. A Game of Thrones: The Card Game;
2. Android: Netrunner The Card Game;
3. Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game;
4. Star Wars: The Card Game;
5. Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game;
6. X-Wing

The event kits are a step up from FFG's standard 2014 tournament kits. Besides exclusive prizes, they also include prizes for the champion, finalists, Top 4, and participation prizes for up to 32 players. The living card game kits feature a championship plaque and deck box for the winner, a deck box for the runner up, four custom "Top 4" playmats for the top four participants, and 32 alternate art cards with full-bleed graphic design as participation prizes. The X-Wing kit will include a championship plaque and card box for the winner, a card box for the runner up, four acrylic range rulers for the top four players, and 32 Ten Numb ship cards featuring movie still art as participation prizes.

This is not the same format as FFG's Game Nights.

Third "Desolation Of Smaug" Trailer

Warner Bros. released a new trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug that contains almost three minutes of new footage. See it below in HD:

Top 5 Non-Collectible Miniature Lines - Summer 2013

Top 5 Non-Collectible Miniature Lines
1.  Warhammer 40k (Games Workshop)
2.  Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures (Fantasy Flight Games)
3.  Warmachine (Privateer Press)
4.  Warhammer Fantasy (Games Workshop)
5.  Hordes (Privateer Press)

* This chart of the Top 5 Non-Collectible Miniature Lines (hobby channel) reflects sales in Summer 2013.  The charts are based on ICv2 interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.

Top 10 Board Games - Summer 2013

Top 10 Hobby Channel Board Games
1.  Ticket To Ride (Days of Wonder)
2.  Settlers of Catan (Mayfair Games)
3.  Pandemic (Z-Man Games)
4.  King of Tokyo (Iello)
5.  Small World (Days of Wonder)
6.  Carcassone (Rio Grande Games)
7.  Mage Knight (WizKids/NECA)
8.  Decent (Fantasy Flight Games)
9.  Agricola (Z-Man Games)
10.  Arkham Horror (Fantasy Flight Games)


*  This chart of the Top 10 Board Games (hobby channel) reflects sales in Summer 2013.  The charts are based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.

Top 5 RPGs - Summer 2013

Top 5 Role Playing Games
1.  Pathfinder (Paizo Publishing)
2.  Star Wars (Fantasy Flight Games)
3.  Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast)
4.  Iron Kingdoms (Privateer Press)
5.  Fate Core System (Evil Hat Productions)


*  This chart of the Top 5 Roleplaying Games (hobby channel) reflects sales in Summer 2013.  The charts are based on ICv2 interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.

Top 10 Card/Dice Games - Summer 2013

Top 10 Hobby Channel Card/Dice Games
1.  Munchkin (Steve Jackson Games)
2.  Marvel Legendary (Upper Deck)
3.  Android: Netrunner (Fantasy Flight Games)
4.  Quarriors! (WizKids/NECA)
5.  7 Wonders (Asmodee)
6.  Smash Up (AEG)
7.  Bang! (daVinci Games)
8.  Dominion (Rio Grande Games)
9.  DC Deckbuilding Game (Cryptozoic Games)
10.  Star Wars LCG (Fantasy Flight Games)


*  This chart of the Top 10 Card/Dice Games (hobby channel) reflects sales in Summer 2013.  The charts are based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.

Top Collectible Games - Summer 2013

Top Ten Hobby Channel Collectible Games
1.  Magic: The Gathering (Wizards of the Coast)
2.  Yu-Gi-Oh! (Konami Digital Entertainment)
3.  Marvel and DC HeroClix (WizKids/NECA)
4.  Pokemon TCG (Pokemon USA)
5.  Cardfight!! Vanguard (Bushiroad)
6.  Star Trek Tactics HeroClix (WizKids/NECA)
7.  Kaijudo (Wizards of the Coast)
8.  World of Warcraft TCG (Cryptozoic Enterainment)
9.  Star Trek HeroClix (WizKids/NECA)
10. Weiss Schwarz (Bushiroad)

Top 5 Mass Channel Collectible Games
1.  Magic: The Gathering (Wizards of the Coast)
2.  Pokemon TCG (Pokemon USA)
3.  Yu-Gi-Oh! (Konami Digital Entertainment)
4.  World of Warcraft (Cryptozoic Enterainment)
5.  Kaijudo (Wizards of the Coast)

Top 5 Collectible Games Overall
1.  Magic: The Gathering (Wizards of the Coast)
2.  Yu-Gi-Oh! (Konami Digital Entertainment)
3.  Pokemon (Pokemon USA)
4.  Marvel and DC HeroClix (WizKids/NECA)
5.  Cardfight!! Vanguard (Bushiroad)




*These charts of the Top 5 Collectible Games Over-all, Top 5 Mass Market Channel Collectible Games and Top 10 Hobby Channel Collectible Games reflect sales in Summer 2013.  The charts are based on interviews by ICv2 with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.