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.

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 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.

Blue Moon Legends - All Expansions Included

Reinier Kinzia's Blue Moon is a 2-player card game where players struggle to gain allies, raise an army and earn the favor of the elemental dragons to establish their claim to the throne. Gameplay can be complex as players must learn to use leadership and booster cards, all the while remembering to keep enough power in their hands to ward off attacks.

Fantasy Flight Games recently announced the upcoming release of Blue Moon Legends. At a MSRP of $49.95, Blue Moon Legends will include every deck expansion ever released for the Blue Moon game. This will give players the option of playing any of the nine pre-constructed "people" decks or constructing their own deck from a collection of almost 300 "people" cards.

Blue Moon Legends contains one game board, one basic rulebook, one Advance Concepts booklet with rules for deck customization, close to 350 bridge-sized cards, three plastic dragon figures, and nine plastic crystals.

Star Wars RPG: Edge of Rebellion

Fantasy Flight Games will release a limited edition beta-test rulebook for Star Wars: Age of Rebellion soon. The book will be available through Fantasy Flight Games' webstore and participating retailers. The Star Wars: Age of Empires beta-test rulebook will consist of 224 pages and will be softcover. It will be retailed at a MSRP of $29.95. The beta period will end on October 8, 2013.

There are three planned cross-compatible Star Wars RPG systems from Fantasy Flight Games. The first is the recently released Star Wars RPG: Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook. The first adventure for this system - Beyond the Rim - shouldbe released before the end of the 3rd Quarter. Star Wars: Age of Rebellion is the second system and Star Wars: Enter the Unknown the third.  Star Wars: Enter the Unknown is expected to be released during the 4th Quarter of 2013.

Star Wars: Age of Rebellion allows players to take the roles of Rebel Alliance members fighting the Galactic Empire during the Rebellion time period. Unlike the final version, this book will have much less art and background material because, being a beta, it is intended to generate feedback. For the same reason, the information on adversaries, equipment, and vehicles is abbreviated to focus on the playtesting.

Eldritch Horror - Bringing Arkham Horror To The Real World

Fans of Cthulhu rejoice!  Fantasy Flight Games plans to release Eldritch Horror sometime in the last three months of 2013. Set in the same universe as Arkham Horror, Elder Sign and Mansion of Madness, Eldritch Horror has 1 - 8 players assuming the role of a world-traveling investigator working to solve the mysteries surrounding one of the Ancient Ones. There are 12 different investigators to choose from, each with differing abilities, and several different Ancient Ones, each with its own Mystery and Research deck. Players work cooperatively as they fight monsters, search for clues and sometimes even go out on expeditions, as they attempt to save civilization and prevent global destruction by one of the Ancient Ones.

Eldritch Horror shares some of Arkham Horror's mechanics, but adds a few new twists. It is not an expansion to Arkham Horror or a reboot of a previously released title, but a separate game of its own that takes place in our world (click the image of the board). Eldritch Horror will feature over 250 tokens and more than 300 cards. It will also have three levels of difficulty, allowing players to customize their level of gameplay.

If you are in Puerto Rico, Bad DM recommends you visit The Gaming Pit, in Guaynabo, or Paladin Books & Games, in Isabela and Mayaguez, to reserve/preorder your copy of Eldritch Horror.

'Blood Bound' Board Game

October should see the release of a new party board game from Fantasy Flight Games: Blood Bound.

Set in the tradition of games like Mafia and Werewolf, Blood Bound is a large party game that combines deduction, bluffing and betrayal. Played in team format, the players are members of one of two rival vampire clans and must work with their clan-mates to capture the opposing group's leader. Matters are complicated by the fact that all identities are hidden. Therefore, players must use their unique character abilities in combat to force other players to reveal information about their identities, although bluffing and outright lying are allowed. From there, players build alliances (or resort to treachery and deceit) to uncover and capture the rival clan's leader. Of course, if the wrong vampire is captured and identified as the clan's leader, the rival clan wins.

If you have an odd number of players, no one need step out of the game. There is a variation that adds an Inquisitor. This player goes solo against both clans. Although I haven't played the game yet, it seems to me that the Inquisitor will probably be having the most fun as he pits players against each other while they vie for his loyalty.

A game for 6 - 12 players, aged 14 and up, Blood Bound plays in about 15 - 30 minutes. Included chrome consists of 54 cards, 65 tokens, 1 cardboard dagger, and a rulebook.  MSRP: $19.95.

Android Netrunner LCG: Creation and Control Expansion - New Release

Creation and Control is the first deluxe expansion for Fantasy Flight Games' Android: Netrunner The Card Game. In Creation and Control, a new wave of enigmatic Shapers competes against the latest and greatest of Haas-Bioroid's developments in artificial intelligence, efficiency and security. With 165 new cards, Creation and Control instigates dramatic new strategies and high-stakes battles between corporations and runners for the control of valuable files and the futures outlined within them.


Creation and Control focuses on the struggles between the executives at Haas-Bioroid and those Shapers who are driven to tinker with their programs and hardware by an almost religious compulsion, but fans of every Android: Netrunner faction will find plenty of great uses for their influence, as well as twenty-seven neutral cards (three copies each of nine individual cards) that can sharpen the focus of any deck.

If you are in Puerto Rico, Bad DM recommends you visit The Gaming Pit, in Guaynabo, and Paladin Books and Games, in Isabela and Mayaguez, for a copy of the Android:Netrunner expansion Creation and Control.

Planet Steam - New Release

The discovery of valuable ores and other resources has led to the founding of a new colony, a veritable boomtown hidden away in an untouched corner of a steam-powered world. It won't stay untouched for long, however; entrepreneurs from all over are boarding their airships and then risking a trip across the Boiling Sea to stake their claim. Can you outbid and outbuy your rivals to acquire the most wealth?

Planet Steam is a board game in which two to five players race to assemble equipment, claim plots of land, extract resources, and accumulate riches. Each player assumes the role of an entrepreneur trying to reap the most profit through resource mining. Players extract resources from their zones using tanks and converters, and they buy and sell those resources in a volatile and ever-shifting market. The player who earns the most income will, in the end, be victorious. However, only through shrewd resource management and clever manipulation of supply and demand will any one player reign supreme.

An engaging economic and bidding game, Planet Steam stands apart due to its stunningly illustrated steampunk setting. Massive airships, mechanical wonders of their time, patrol the sky over a steam-grey landscape that's dotted with massive extraction tanks. During the course of a game, players will bid on this resource-rich territory, purchase and upgrade their extraction equipment, manage the storage of their newly acquired resources, and buy and sell their resources on the open market.

Outwit and outmaneuver your rivals! Create shortages or flood the market with resources to stymie your opponents! Are you canny enough to turn a handful of credits into a fortune?

Letters From Whitechapel - The Search For Jack The Ripper

Fantasy Flight Games recently released a newly revised edition of the board game Letters from Whitechapel - a game based on the gruesome murders committed in Victorian London by Jack the Ripper. In Letters from Whitechapel, one player takes on the role of Jack the Ripper while up to five other players work together as detectives trying to pursue and stop this notorious serial killer.

Letters from Whitechapel lasts a total of four rounds and has been described as "an engrossing game of cat-and-mouse".  In each turn, the player acting as Jack selects a victim, murders her, and then attempts to flee to his secret hideout before any of the detectives can apprehend him - pretty much like it happened in real life.

Originally released by Nexus Games in 2011, the 2013 Fantasy Flight Games edition of Letters from Whitechapel, has been revised after listening to player feedback about the original version. Among the revisions, the "Jack the Ripper" screen that allows the player controlling Jack to hide his movements has been improved - it also features the chart of Special Movement tokens so as to make consultation with the Rulebook less frequent; the women/victims, patrol, and time of crime tokens are now made of durable wood, color coated plastic markers to make them stand out better; and the Letters' effects are now describe in detail on the components themselves, hopefully eliminating more consultation with the Rulebook.

The deluxe version of Letters from Whitechapel includes a deluxe game board, improved Jack the Ripper screen, a Rulebook, 6 reference sheets, 4 Jack's letters sheets, 5 investigator tokens, 5 special movement tokens, 16 wooden tokens, 12 wooden pawns, and 27 plastic markers.

I haven not found a video review of the revised version, but the reviews of the original are very good. I understand that The Gaming Pit, in Guaynabo, P.R. will sponsor a demo of Letters from Whitechapel sometime during the week of August 5, 2013. While I don't think they will be making a video review, I will update this blog with my comments on the game after attending the demo.

Balance Of The Force: Star Wars TCG Expansion

According to Fantasy Flight Games, the fourth quarter of 2013 will see the release of Balance of the Force, the second deluxe expansion set for Star Wars: The Card Game.  The expansion will introduce two multiplayer formats and new objectives sets for the game's six affiliations.

The multiplayer formats allow two-versus-two team play, as well as a format where as many as three players to team up against a single threat.    The new objective sets allow the use of new mechanics and characters that can be used in both head-to-head play as well as in the new multiplayer formats.

The Balance of the Force expansion will contain 154 new cards, including Jerjerrod's Task (a dark side challenge deck), The Hunt for Skywalker (a light side challenge deck), 6 new objective sets, 1 multiplayer Death Star dial, and new rules.

Nazgȗl, Or... 'Kill Those Hobbits!'

Maybe you are like me.  You loved The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings when you read it.  You still enjoyed it when you read them for the third time.  Then...  came the movies.

You still liked the movies but you found that Frodo's frailty may have been exaggerated...  a lot.  That Sam seemed way too needy of Frodo, and that Frodo seemed way too comfortable with that neediness.

In fact, by the the time The Return of the King hit the theaters, you outwardly wished for the success of Frodo and his friends, but inwardly...  silently growing somewhere inside a small dark corner in your heart...  was the hope that Peter Jackson had prepared a surprise ending that deviated, oh, so little, from the original story...  a surprise ending where those two little walking mounds of frailty and neediness became Nazgȗl feed...

If so, on May 30, 2013, Fantasy Flight will be releasing the board game that you - and I - have been waiting for:

"The dark lord Sauron is pleased that you have... chosen... to champion the true destiny of Middle-earth. Some prefer the hopeless cause of men and their miserable allies. Theirs is a fool's choice! You show no affinity for such delusions. You seek glory for Sauron, and your rewards shall be great!

You are one of Sauron's most powerful minions: a Nazgul! You must work together with the other Nazgul to stop the cursed hobbits and destroy the resistance of men. But at the same time, you must strive to prove your own worth to the dark lord. After all, there are rumors that even the Witch-king can be killed, and Sauron may soon need a new leader for the Nazgul. 

In The Lord of the Rings: Nazgul Board Game, you are faced with three Campaigns that you must conquer before the Ring-bearer carries The One Ring to Mount Doom. If you cannot complete them in time, all players lose! Along the way, you will earn Victory Points; and if the group succeeds in its duty, the player with the most VPs wins!"

Expansion Packs for Star Trek: Attack Wing

In March, WizKids announced plans for Star Trek: Attack Wing, a new board game in its Star Trek Heroclix line.  Expected to be released in August during Gen Con Indy, the game uses miniatures and the same FlightPath maneuver system as the Star Wars X-Wing game from Fantasy Flight Games.

Games will be played on Star Trek space maps distributed via an organized play program and will be sold in non-blind configurations with three-ship starter box sets. However, despite sharing the same mechanics system, the Star Trek: Attack Wing game is not compatible with Star Wars X-Wing.

Just this past Monday, WizKids announced eight single-ship expansion packs for Star Trek: Attack Wing.  The first expansion packs for the game are:

1. Federation U.S.S. Reliant Expansion Pack.
2. Federation U.S.S. Enterprise Expansion Pack.
3. Romulan I.R.W. Valdore Expansion Pack.
4. Romulan I.R.S. Apnex Expansion Pack.
5. Klingon I.K.S. Gr'oth Expansion Pack.
6. Klingon I.K.S. Negh'var Expansion Pack.
7. Dominion Kraxon Expansion Pack.
8. Dominion Gor Portas Expansion Pack.