Blogs

The trading card game (TCG) concept still seems foreign to many board gamers and casual gamers. That's a bit surprising, especially considering how the first major TCG success on the market is still going strong. Why would you choose a trading card game over a different type of game? Ultimately I think it's a matter of control, but some other differences also seem to make their mark on the experience.

I have been looking forward to having Nitro Dice released at Origins 2011 for some time. Due to a delay with the printer it looks like we won’t have sales copies available :( so the people pre-ordering will be the first to get their copies. They might even have them before I get my copies depending on the speed of their local post office.

We will still have demo copies so those that are interested can at least try it out. If you are curious stop by the Minion games booth (#129) or in the open gaming area in the evenings where we will be demoing it.

I am planning on having a copy of For Science!!! ready on The Game Crafter at some point (hopefully by December), and have started pondering artistic design. The game is supposed to be very nerdy and science themed (the board is an international space ship for research), and I want that to come through.

However, for now I want to avoid hiring an artist, which means the designs can't be too complex. First of all, I think the “o” in For, rather than being a standard letter, will be a no-alien sign (like, a standard looking alien with a circle around it and a line through it).

Toren and crew, of Ice Pack Games are back from Balticon where they promoted a half dozen of their own games, and a bunch of games from other members of the TGC community. Ice Pack Games is the second member of our community to take us up on our offer to sponsor designers to go to small cons around the world.

I'm really missing the 3-dice system. I trashed the idea after I was told the dice system was too dice-y. In other words, the numbers swung too much. I don't know if I'll ever go back to fix it. "Real" wargamers want hard numbers. They don't want to leave attacks to chance even if the dice allocated are based on a stat.

I've since been working on the d12 system and I'm running into options and having to choose 1 route to take.
Attacker gets X dice. He needs to roll Y Number or higher to successfully hit/damage.