It's New Game Friday! David Wiley (Cardboard Clash) is here to tell us about the new games.
Here’s what is new this week:
- Dust and Void
- Push SRD
- Pentaquark Bosons
- Pentaquark Gluons
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Dust and Void
The last humans lie past the edge of the solar system, frozen in Cathedral, an interstellar spacecraft designed to travel to another star. Cathedral can not be completed in a generation, so her architects founded The Pale Crescent, an order tasked only with completing construction. Two hundred years later, the pilots who scour empty space for materials don’t remember Earth. They only know that if they don’t meet their quota, they may lose their craft, and live out their days on construction duty.
If you like rolling dice and allocating them, this is a great game for you to consider. You have twelve rounds to explore as much of the map and upgrade your ship as you can, in order to maximize your points. The delight here is, of course, that all four dice you roll get assigned to a different action, which is something I always enjoy in a game because of the decisions it provides for you. Well, unless you get really lucky and roll the same number on all four dice each time. While this is promoted as a solo design, this can also be played as a group with everyone using the same pool of dice and, with how they are allocated, can lead to some really different end results!
Push SRD
Push is a lightweight, story-driven RPG system designed for cooperative, action-packed adventures. This is a genre-agnostic engine that you can use to create your own games about extraordinary characters embarking on perilous quests through fantastic worlds. A single core mechanic powers the whole system, pushing the story forward through emergent complications and inviting players to assume higher risks and use their imagination.
We’ve seen a good share of RPG systems come over the years, with many of them trying to offer something new and different from what is already out there for players. Push It accomplishes this really well, as the system does away with stats completely and enables the players to operate under the assumption that, in most instances, they are able to determine whether they succeed or not at a task. Uncertain? Consult the Oracle, which is where the name comes into play! Roll a d6, and on a 1-4 you have a weak success and a 5-6 a strong success. But no one really wants to somewhat succeed, right? So you can push, on that 1-4, to roll another d6 and add it to the previous roll. However, if the sum is 7+ you get what you don’t want. Not failure, but something unexpected and detrimental! If that isn’t brilliant in its simplicity, I don’t know what is, and best of all you can also use that Oracle to determine the answers to questions in a similar manner. If you want the focus more on the stories being told, with the ability to spend more time on scenes you’re enjoying and move quickly past the parts that aren’t as fun…this is a system you won’t want to miss.
Pentaquark Bosons Expansion
Bosons is a 3-card micro-expansion for Pentaquark that brings a new level of complexity to the game. Played like event cards, when a Boson card is drawn it is used to change the flavor of a quark in play.
Pentaquark Gluons Expansion
Gluons is a 3-card micro-expansion for Pentaquark that brings a new level of complexity to the game. Played like event cards, when a Gluon card is drawn it is used to change the color of a quark in play.
Pick up all the new games here:
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Game of the Week: Four Against Darkness (Benefit Promotion)
We are featuring Four Against Darkness this week to support the designer Andrea Sfiligoi as he lost his game studio, equipment and software in Ukraine because of the Russian invasion. All proceeds from the sales will go directly to Andrea as PNP Arcade will be donating our portion of the proceeds to Andrea and Ganesha Games.
Four Against Darkness is a solitaire dungeon-delving game. No miniatures are needed. All you need is the book, a pencil, two six-sided dice, and grid paper.
You choose four character types from the classic classes (warrior, wizard, rogue, halfling, dwarf, barbarian, cleric, elf), equip them, and start adventuring in dungeons created by dice rolls and your choices. When you enter a room, you generate its content on a series of random tables. You will meet monsters, fight them, hopefully defeat them (or decide that discretion is the better part of valor!), you’ll manage your resources (healing, spells, life points, equipment), grab treasure, dodge traps, find clues, and even accept quests from the monsters you meet. Your characters can level up and become better at what they do, but it will not be easy.
Here it is, folks. The base game for Four Against Darkness. If you’ve been holding off on trying this one, now is the time to sharpen your swords..or pencils, and dive into the dungeon for some solitaire adventure. While you might question if an elf is a class or a race, the game itself has enough fans to be certified as a solitaire must-try and is unlike most games you might experience out there. Plus, if you get hooked, there’s only about a bajillion supplements out there. So while your wallet won’t thank you for getting hooked, you can enter the world of 4AD knowing there’s tons of adventure and new classes out there to discover after the core experience.
Check out Game of the Week here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week
See you next week with more information on our newest print and play games!