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Games News! 25/08/14

Quinns: Morning, everybody! I’m not 100% sure what happened to me this weekend, but this vine exists so I suppose it was pretty awesome.

Once again our top story is the one with the prettiest image, again proving that SU&SD is as shallow and corrupt as a dwarven bidet. What you see above is Realm of Wonder, an upcoming Finnish game that’s caught the attention of indefatigable outlet BoardGameGeek News. Each player controls a fantasy character trying to complete a secret objective, then return to the king’s castle.

But there are problems! The two innermost continents of the board can be physically rotated, locking new paths in place and (hopefully) leaving your friends stranded in some faerie bog. And while Realm of Wonder can be played with young children, advanced rules add bluffing, the claiming of resource pools, magic spells, monstrous combat and the fantasy equivalent of road blocks.

Paul: OK. That title isn’t accurate at all.

Quinns: Yes, but “Our Favourite 7 Games From Gen Con ’14 and One Game We Were Disappointed By” sounds silly and doesn’t fit.

Paul: Fair enough. Wait, which game were we disappointed by? I thought everything was pretty great.

Quinns: You’ll have to click through and FIND OUT!

Paul: But I work here

Going to Gen Con? Meet SU&SD this Friday!

Quinns: Above is one of the many, many confusing Google Image Search results for Gen Con. Gamers who’ve given up on the concept of hotels and are just sleeping in halls. This will truly be our team’s most noble adventure.

Alas, our live podcast on Saturday is now sold out. But if you’d still like to meet us, we’ll be at the Tomlinson Tap Room this Friday from 8pm onwards as part of the Pretend Money collective, a group of amazing people (and also us) who want to make board gaming better through technology.

Come along! Drink a beer. Bring a game. Teach a game! Make Paul sign your copy of Fluxx. We very much hope to see you there.

Yes, we’re still playing the Star Wars: Edge of Empire roleplaying game! No, our intrepid gang of sob stories and space-wastrels hasn’t been arrested yet, and they await you in our podcast section. Or you can go here for all the sessions so far in one place. Do disinfect yourself after you visit with them, won’t you?

In session #3 the gang stretch their luck to the very limits by attempting a heist at the height of a terrible electric storm. And… oh, no. Are they really pretending to be musicians as a cover story? With no knowledge of music, and no musical paraphernalia at all?

Paul: No video today, as this week we were assembling 2200 of our Season 3 Gold Club bags! Also Matt had some kind of disease and may now be dead(?).*

Quinns: Next week will be a stomper, though, with coverage of Street Wars, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective AND Nations. Then the week after that our entire team will be reporting from Gen Con ’14 and trying to blag our way into the sold-out True Dungeon! Actually, if any of you guys have a spare ticket and want to let Brendan fulfill his destiny by becoming an actual bard, please email the address at the bottom of the site.

Now LIVE in our podcast section is part 2 of our entirely amazing Star Wars adventures! In this session our team of heroes arrive at a space station, kill an orc (kind of), succeed at crime (mostly) and (almost) begin working as a team. I’m calling it now. There is no way this ends well.

If you missed part 1, we should stress that we haven’t retreated into a child-like fantasy world and are in fact playing the new Star Wars RPG. Newcomers will definitely want to check out part 1 where our story begins.

The dramatic caper of the Crap Plastic Artifact will conclude next week!

Quinns: At the end of last year the rumbling around Russian Railroads became unignorable. Once a day I’d notice my mug of tea trembling as this game’s engine sped across the internet with a roar of hype. I decided to let it pass, though, knowing that if the rumours were true then this train, then progress itself would soon arrive at my sleepy flat.

Sure enough, Z-Man Games recently sent it over. Russian Railroads is a proud, barrel-chested member of a category called “Hard Euros”, and while that sounds like a DVD you’d find in the bargain bin of a sex shop* these are among the least sexy of games. Rather than forcing players to battle directly (which is RUDE), Eurogames offer a proxy-puzzle for players to simultaneously sweat over.

You might remember our review of T’Zolkin: The Mayan Calendar, with its dizzying, rotating gears, or our awe at the piglet maths of Castles of Burgundy, or our more recent video reviews of Caverna or Terra Mystica, each one an impressive eurogame. Today the industry is choked with these hale, rubust puzzles. Stepping inside the creaky carriage of Russian Railroads I had one question lurking at the bottom of my brain like cerebral sediment. “This game’s going to be clever and all, but do we need it?”

Paul: Brendan! That’s a fine flag there. What is that the flag of? An organisation? A cause? An idea? Please don’t tell me it’s the flag of those most arbitrary of constructions, the nation.

Brendan: This is the flag of the Brendovian Empire. You will respect it. You will honour it. You will put it on mugs and t-shirts and probably socks at some point. We have destroyed our enemies. Laid waste to continents. Far is the reach of Brendovia. No persons in the world match the might of our brave men and women. No foreign fiend can meet the ferocity of our will. Our national dish is lemon tart.

Paul: Is that… Is that the Brendovian flag on the news? Is that Panama? Has your empire invaded Panama!? I don’t understand. When did all this happen? When did you found an empire!?

Brendan: About eight minutes ago.

Paul: Oh no. I know exactly what you’ve been playing.

Quinns: Morning, everybody! It’s a very special edition of the Games News today as we’re joined by SU&SD accomplice Leigh Alexander, former news director of Gamasutra!

Now Leigh, that’s an impressive resume, but don’t worry if you can’t keep up with the salsa-like tempo of the Games News.

Leigh: Thanks, Quinns. I’m really looking forward to this unique and challenging opportunity and I hope to learn a lot as well as have a great time doing it.

Quinns: That’s a great attitude.

Leigh: A positive attitude is the first step to a successful career.

Quinns: Fantastic. Let’s keep that mindset as we move forward in this space.

Hello everybody!

With donations closing again in just 24 hours (at midnight EST, June 30th) we’ve got a last-minute addition to our third ever Gold Club bag. This season’s donors and all donors from previous seasons will get 2-4 weeks of early access to the SU&SD forum as we perform stress testing, ensure it doesn’t bring down the site and train our moderators in the rapid destruction of Quinns’ Netrunner threads.

If you hadn’t considered supporting SU&SD via the Gold Club, know that this one promises to be a doozy. It’ll have unedited RPG sessions, outtakes, Quinns’ Decks for the Aspiring Netrunner, a lovely bit of secret merchandise and a whole variety of limited-edition jokes. It’s basically an episode of SU&SD that you can have in your house, containing our actual fingerprints and DNA! So it’s kind of like we’re holding hands with all of you.

As always, a huge thanks to our donors. It’s amazing to be able to repay you guys, even if it’s in such a very silly way.

— Team SU&SD

Games News! 25/08/14

Our Favourite 8 Games From Gen Con 2014!

Going to Gen Con? Meet SU&SD this Friday!

Amazing Star Wars Adventures! Pt. 3

That’s all for this week!

Amazing Star Wars Adventures! Pt. 2

Review: Russian Railroads

Review: Eight-Minute Empire

Games News! 14/07/14

Gold Club 3 closes in 24 hours!

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