SU&SD - Shut Up & Sit Down

Games News! 23/06/14

Quinns: Hello Quintin’s kittens, or my quiddens! Is that a good intro? It’s the worst, isn’t it. Let’s never do that again.

Our big news this week is that Days of Wonder has unveiled the box and artwork for Five Tribes, and you can see it above! We covered this classy collaboration with Bruno Cathala, designer of such unapproachably perfect games as Shadows Over Camelot and Cyclades, back in February. And as you can see above…

(The turn order tokens look like penises. Don’t say that. But what else can you say? It’s the elephant in the room, except it’s a neat row of penises pointing RIGHT AT ME)

…the board is, um… ah…

(DON’T SAY IT, QUINNS. YOU’RE BETTER THAN THAT)

HELLO! You all probably know how the Gold Club works by now. If you like SU&SD you can support us with a donation, and we can have fun mailing you a little packet of joy.

With just 12 days left on the current season, we can proudly reveal that in addition to the usual papery surprises and a limited edition physical object (which is our favourite one so far), Gold Club 3 will contain Quinns’ Guide For The Beginner Netrunner! Downloads for the full audio for our Star Wars RPG evenings and any other RPGs we play for the next three months, which is literally dozens of hours of content! And a gut-busting compilation of outtakes, following on from where the last one left off.

If any of that tickles your pickle, our donate page awaits.

Sincerely,

— Team SU&SD

Amazing Star Wars Adventures: The Prologue

And now for something a little different.

We want to provide an exhaustive review of the new Star Wars: Edge of Empire Roleplaying Game, which means we’re going to have to spend lots of evenings being crap in space. So why not let you guys in on it? Presenting… SU&SD’s Amazing Star Wars Adventures! The prologue of which has just arrived in our podcast section.

Starring Leigh Alexander as Beetle, wannabe bounty hunter! Quinns as ZB-33, her jury-rigged protocol droid! And Matt Lees as Fuse, a grumpy fish with lots of bombs. Our first session was mostly character creation and puzzling over rules so we’re calling this instalment a “prologue”, but it features a very dramatic moment where we successfully open a door. Enjoy, everybody!

[Following Pip’s escape from a room and Quinns’ attendance of the Betrayer’s Banquet, we’re continuing our coverage of event games with 2.8 Hours Later. A disturbingly real zombie apocalypse for you and your friends to survive. Huge thanks to friend of SU&SD Steve Hogarty for writing this up for us.]

Steve: “Don’t run into traffic.” That’s typically the warning you’ll get from the last out-of-character member of the 2.8 Hours Later team you’ll speak to before the game begins. “The zombies can’t hurt you, but the 47 to Shoreditch can.”

It seemed very unlikely to our assembled group of survivors that we might all at once shed our collective common sense and dash out in front of a lorry, that we’d be wholly consumed by some primitive fear at the first sight of a zombie actor and run screaming across a dual carriageway like startled fawns. Fawns that scream. But that’s almost precisely what ended up happening.

Brendan: Quinns? QUINNNNS. Where is he? He’s always late. Once again I have five crates of the finest Indian silks sitting in front of me, ready to buy — ready for transport! — and once again I can’t do anything with them because Quinns is late. He’s the one with all the camels! He should know by now to be ready! Where could he be?

Quinns [panting]: Sorry. Sorry! Whoo. Sorry.

Brendan: Just tell me you have the camels.

Quinns: Oh no, I traded those camels in ages ago. But don’t worry because – look! We have all these leather rags now.

Brendan: Hang on. Since when do you and I work as merchants in India, perched atop teetering camels, our saddlebags overflowing with rubies and saffron? I mostly remember us uploading penis jokes to the internet.

Quinns: This is a written review of Jaipur, Brendan! Anything is possible!

An astonishing thing has happened! We’ve again succeeded at dispatching literally thousands of Gold Club packs around the world, full of limited edition jokes, swag, downloads and behind-the-scenes tidbits. If you’ve not received yours yet, you will soon.

If you feel like supporting the work we do and getting some swag mailed to your doorstep, donations are now open for next season, which will close June 30th! That’s last season’s bag you can see up there. Doesn’t it look nice? Go on. Treat yourself, and help us spread the good word about board gaming!

ALSO, we’ve a question for you. Quinns, Paul, Matt, Mike and Brendan will be attending Gen Con ’14 in America’s fashionable state of Indiana. To help cover the flights we’re considering selling a very limited number of seats at a sit-down dinner with us at the convention, as well as an intimate gaming session. If you’re breathtakingly wealthy and this excites you, please say so using the forms stuck right there in the pledge levels.

Thanks again, everybody.

— Team SU&SD

Matt Lees: Paul, do you like temples?

Paul Dean: I don’t really know much about temples and I don’t come across them much in Lewisham. The last templeish thing I saw was the Grand Lodge of the Freemasons in San Francisco. It had some pretty unusual sculptures outside and I was too scared to go in, so I took some photos really quickly and then scurried off.

Matt: How many points do you think it was worth?

Paul: Pardon?

Matt: How many points? How many levels was it? Are they winning?

Paul: Oh I get it, this is a Babel review.

Assembly of the 2nd Gold Club Bag has BEGUN!

HOT NEWS, everybody! If you noticed the site was a little quiet this week, it’s only because we’re assembling our second ever run of Gold Club bags. 1,900 hand-stamped envelopes, every one of them full of all manner of affordable prizes, as well as the actual fingerprints of team SU&SD.

Phew! The really crazy part, though, is that we’re getting the hang of it. If you missed this one, we’d definitely recommend you get in on the next. We’ll be re-opening donations in just a short while.

Thank you all so, so much. Oh, and those full episodes we promised in our first pledge drive? They’ll start arriving this month. The forum’s getting very close, too. Eee!

— Team SU&SD

Paul: Hi Brendan!

Brendan: Paul.

Paul: Would you like to get together and review Hey, That’s My Fish!? I am not incredulous, it’s just that the title of the game ends with an exclamation point and then I wanted to add a question mark because I am asking you, Brendan, a question.

Brendan: What is your question?

Paul: Why is your hood up? I am asking you this question to highlight that your hood is up because our readers, at home, cannot see how you have decided to array your attire.

Brendan: My hood is up because it is cold. It is cold because we have been playing Hey, That’s My Fish, which is a game set on some melting ice. Melting, probably from global warming, but still cold.

Paul: That’s good! Because I just asked you if you wanted to review it would you get with the program please okay I’m going to insert a page break and we’re getting down to this and I want a lot less of your attitude today because frankly-

[Following on from last month’s interview with Eric Zimmerman, we dispatched intergalactic bounty hunters to next track down Geoff Engelstein, the man behind SU&SD favourites Space Cadets and Space Cadets: Dice Duel. With two expansions and a new Space Cadets game on the horizon, we needed details on the future of this runaway brand, and how it came to be.]

Quinns: Wake up! Alright “Geoff”, you can earn your freedom by answering no less than eight questions.

Geoff: What? You wanted an interview? You could have just asked.

Quinns: Oh, you’d have liked that, wouldn’t you. NOW: The year of Space Cadets, eh? Does the prospect of continuing to work with the Space Cadets license exhaust you at all? No new and fair pastures for Mr. Engelstein?

Games News! 23/06/14

Announcing our 3rd ever Gold Club bag!

Amazing Star Wars Adventures: The Prologue

Review: 2.8 Hours Later

Review: Jaipur

Donations have been re-opened!

Review: Babel

Assembly of the 2nd Gold Club Bag has BEGUN!

Review: Hey, That’s My Fish!

An Actual Interview: Space Cadets

Feeds