We're less than a month out from our biggest sale weekend of the year, both with the heavily discounted campaign for our new game, Power Creep [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jasongreeno/powercreep] as well as the big Black Friday sale at PNP Arcade with hundreds of games on sale, along with giveaways and more.
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:
- The Great Pyramid
- Ham Fisted
- Gamma Guild
- Dangerous Space: Thaydiss, Eliminate Mission
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
The Great Pyramid
The Ahau (King) summoned the strongest people to gather the materials and the most skilled to craft and carve the beautiful blocks of the Great Pyramid. Each ajawlel (city) sent their best ixiko’ob (women) and winiko’ob (men), as the Ahau would reward them with many cacao beans and jade beads for each block placed. The ah chembal vinic’ob (workers) seek the most beautiful materials to decorate the blocks of the Great Pyramid, for the more beautiful the block and the higher it is placed, the greater the reward they receive.
An interesting spatial game of buying tiles, and placing them to create a pyramid that is 5x5 in size for the base, and then building upward until the pyramid peak is placed. Your turns are simple, having you buy or place tiles, and each round you MUST place at least one tile with your two available actions. Gain coins for the value of the tile placed, and spend those coins to buy new tiles from the market or bag. While it isn’t a race to finish, it is a competition to see who earns the most money, so placing higher valued tiles will serve you better as you push toward the top of the pyramid.
Ham Fisted
In Ham-Fisted, you’re a butcher on your way to the renowned Porkshire Market when disaster strikes - your van breaks down! Now you must carry as much of your precious produce as possible. Choose wisely and make every cut count.
An in-hand game with a slight dexterity element, you’re arranging meats as you pick them up, aiming toward having the highest-scoring hand at the end. Each meat has different criteria, such as being the only instance of that meat in a row or column, and once a card is placed it cannot be readjusted - although new ones can go over, behind, or between existing parts of cards. The trick here is that, at the end of the round, your hand of cards must be held within your index finger and thumb, and remain intact even when your hand is inverted. Furthermore, any dropped cards, whether mid-game or at the end, are no longer part of your hand of cards for the round. If you enjoy balancing strategy with skill, you will want to check out Ham Fisted.
Gamma Guild
As the guild master of the Gamma Guild, your reputation has taken a hit due to a misunderstanding involving your guild and the Queen at the capital. The guild alliance threatens to revoke your guild status unless you complete 12 quests in 12 days - a task many deem impossible. Rally your guild members, prioritize quests based on their strengths, and utilize your guild perks to save your guild from dissolution.
Work to be efficient as you assign your members to complete quests, placing all 4 of your members each day. With quests, you must keep in mind both its level requirement that you need to surpass, but also a lead type requirement meaning a majority of members used must match that lead type. Between these and the perks system, plus the variable order in which both quests and members appear, there’s a lot of various ways to approach the gameplay as you work toward an eventual victory. Can you plan well and adapt as needed when new information arrives?
Dangerous Space: Thaydiss, Eliminate Mission
‘Lightbulb’, has earned his seat on the dropship. His willingness to cold-dive without a vacuum seal has made him a respected member of the crew.
A new week and a new character this time for your Dangerous Space adventures. As always, we’re looking hard at the threats to kick this off, since there’s a boss here. The Elite Wolven is quite an interesting threat, as the final one not only does more damage, but it makes walls in the room when you roll a 1 on the evil dice. The Cocky Psychic is going to try and force you to fight it, as it reduces all your dice if you haven’t attacked it yet. And the boss, the Strategic Leech, not only makes you lose time when you do not attack it, but it also can purge all odd dice in your pool if it’s react roll is high.
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Game of the Week: Fire in the Library on sale for just $5!
Despite the best efforts of you and your fellow Librarians. A fire threatens the sum of all human knowledge. You must save as many precious tomes from the flames as you can before the consuming inferno collapses the Library forever.
Fire in the Library is a press-your-luck game about saving books from being burned. Push the odds and channel your courage, earning Knowledge Points and Bravery Points, which are needed to win the game. The player with the highest combined point total when the game ends is the winner.
Let’s be honest, I’m the sort of person that would run into a burning house to save something silly like a book (or board game). So when I play Fire in the Library, I can imagine I am actually doing the selfless deed of saving important works of writing...but I am horrible with knowing when to push my luck and when to stop. Which is probably why I am bad at this game, yet I absolutely enjoy this game. If you haven’t tried it before, this one is sure to delight you, and it even has a pretty good solo mode in there. This scales up to 6 players, and is great for family, friends, spouses, and even children to enjoy together for a bit of fun pressing your luck trying to save some books. Plus, that art from Beth Sobel is absolutely stunning.
Check out Game of the Week here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week
Astral Dreams
A mysterious land teeming with dangers demands great heroes. The gods grant the noblest of these adventurers an eternal place among the constellations, to serve as a beacon of light for those in need.
A game steeped in role playing, this offers you character cards that can be used to inspire your character creation, and you’ll come up with their characteristics, background, and attributes to share. After everyone has their character ready, you’ll face off against 8 tasks, determined with die rolls as well as role-playing the resolution based upon success or failure. Each progressive task gets a little harder, and if you can beat 5 of them, you’ll become constellations in the night sky and get to draw and name your constellation, holding their legend in your minds going forward.
Check out the new Button Shy releases here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
See you next week with more information on our newest print and play games!