New Games for September 29th, 2023 - Hark! Snake Ahead of Neverending Troll Letters

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:

• Hark! The Neverending Stairs of Umbar
• Letter Snake
• Dungeon Pages: Drok, Lyrical Troll

https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games

Hark! The Neverending Stairs of Umbar

You are the Exiled Prince. Catching your breath, halfway up the neverending stairs of Umbar. Your sword is broken yet your heart still beats under your breastplate. So many steps beneath you. So many yet to climb… You look down the chasm and see the spiraling flights of stone-carved stairs, like a pale serpent, intertwined with the hard, grey rock, until they vanish, deep in the darkness below. You mourn your cursed fate. Then, you compose yourself, knowing that if you will ever reach the bottom of your despair, and have no more Tears to shed, then you will be lost. A husk of a man, in this husk of a world. It is time to go. You need to push upward. The only way out of this is upward. You cannot take a single step back.

If you enjoy a game that encourages you to craft a narrative, you won’t want to miss this little game. The premise is simple: survive 100 floors. Every 2 floors, you roll to see what you encounter, whether a monster, a trap, a feature, or even a denizen. Balance your attributes of Blood, Sweat, and Tears as you try to survive the lengthy venture through the stairway. Can you survive? Either way, it’ll spark your imagination along the way, requiring this booklet, some dice, and an optional journal to chronicle your journey. Dare ye ascend the Stairs of Umbar?

Letter Snake

Letter Snake is a roll-and-write word game. Roll the dice and slither around the grid by inking in words. Complete the objectives shown on the sheet to win the game.

An interesting take on the word games and roll-and-writes. There’s a grid full of letters, and the die roll will tell you what you need to do from your current letter, whether moving a space, or writing in a word. The die will tell you how long the word has to be, and it can go in any direction from your current letter - and only that first and the last letter it arrives at matters (unless a letter along the way has already been filled in) so, even if you start at S and have to make a 5-letter word, if one space 5 away has a T in it you can fill in START, even if the letters between look like it should spell SFLYT. How long can you keep going before you are unable to make a word when required? Check this one out and find out!

Dungeon Pages: Drok, Lyrical Troll

Is it so much to ask that Drok wants to sit by a fire and play his music? To not have to swing his hammer one more time and remember those he has lost? Yes? Well then, prepare for a different song - one of battle.

Leave it to the troll to be a really cool new hero to play with. You’ll enjoy his special, allowing you to reroll evil dice each turn. His items are pretty awesome, including a Pixie Thief that lets you grab an item from a completed dungeon. How cool is that, right? Add in his Lute, which can negate some damage depending on dice in the pool, and you’ve got the makings of a memorable champion. Unfortunately, the boss needs doubles in your pool to damage it…meaning you could have some trouble dealing with the threat if you get really unlucky.

Game of the Week: Ahead in the Clouds on sale for just $2!

The citizens of Empacta skies long for the days where everyone, not just the wealthy, can ditch their masks and breathe the precious air that they call their home. As an industrialist, you will collect dust particles from the air and water vapor from the clouds to convert to hydrogen and oxygen. By collecting, converting and selling these precious resources, you can provide your family with the breathing room that you need to keep your business afloat and go home at night knowing you made a difference to the world with fresh air.

A delightful little game that feels like a euro within the compact design of 18 cards. There’s a lot of tense push-and-pull as you try to eek out just enough of an edge to outmaneuver your opponent to a scoring goal. If you tend to enjoy games where you manage resource generation for scoring opportunities, you won’t want to miss this one as you could probably pull it out and play it in the time it’d take to set up a much longer euro game. It provides a very rewarding game experience in such a small space and short time, and is one I really need to pull out more often.