Week of July 3, 2020 - The Queen Dung Beetle's Dynasty

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:

• Karmaka
• Queen's Landing
• SpaceShipped: The Dynasty Seal

This week's new games are all available at https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games

Karmaka

You each begin the game as a Dung Beetle, with cards in hand and a small, personal deck. When you run out of cards, your life ends and you reincarnate to a new life, hopefully one rung higher up the Karmic Ladder. Make sure you score enough points in each life, or you’ll have to repeat it. But don’t linger too long in each life, or your rivals may pull ahead. The first player to achieve Transcendence wins!

Score points, sow the seeds of your next life, and - if necessary - sabotage your rivals. But remember: What goes around comes around, and your actions have consequences in this life...and the next.

Ever wanted to be a Dung Beetle? Glad I’m not the only one! An interesting card-driven game simulating the theory of Reincarnation, you’ll be playing cards for one of three possible effects on your turn - including saving the card for a future life. One of the neat things here is when playing a card for its ability, your opponent has the option to take that card into their Future Life pile, meaning it can come back to haunt you later. With options for 3-4 players, including 2v1 and 2v2 modes, this game can cater to a good spectrum of player counts.

Spaceshipped: The Dynasty Seal Expansion

Some of the Emperor’s items are missing, and troops have assembled to find them! For some, this is a great opportunity for profit, but for others, it’s another reason to stay away from the Dynasty forces.

Love Spaceshipped? I do, too, and this is the ideal expansion for that game as it adds 6 new cards: 1 enemy and 5 multipurpose cards adding a lot of variety. How does that variety integrate? You separate out all of the non-starting cards into Crew, Ships, Equipment, and Enemy piles, shuffle them, and add a designated number of them into the deck. The rest are set aside. Dynasty items are interesting, as they cannot be sold the same turn they are acquired by the player - but that doesn’t scare off you smuggler folk, does it?

Queen’s Landing

Every town has it’s secret societies, the shadow rulers, and Queen’s Landing is no exception. You are the founder of one of those societies and your objective is to influence the Queen, the Bishop, and the Knight and to secure your secret position as the true ruler. The game is played over multiple rounds and the player with the most Influence Points at the end is the winner.

Welcome to Queen’s Landing.

Roll and claim? Roll and shade? I don’t know how to categorize this, apart from being certain it is fun for 2-4 players. There are three figures moving around the map based on die rolls, and you’re hoping they end by a junction you claim, granting you a favor which can later be used for really good things. Didn’t gain a favor during a turn? You get a coin as consolation, including during opposing turns. This one sounds really unique, which is hard to do in the roll-and-write fad we’re rolling through, and the artwork is really striking to me in this game. It sounds like there are plenty of ways to score some points, and even some costly ways to manipulate die rolls, so if you’re a fan of games with dice and writing/marking on papers, this one is bound to please.

Check out the new games here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games

Game of the Week: Someone Has Died

Someone Has Died is an improvisational storytelling game set at a will arbitration where players try to convince an estate keeper that they are the most worthy of someone's fortune. Identity, relationship, and backstory cards help players create wacky characters who must argue against one another for the riches and glory.

We’re treading into my realm of obliviousness here, as I am outside the target audience for large group games that rely heavily on player discussion, debate, persuasion, and more. I know plenty of folks that love these Social games, and this one is bound to be a hit for them. For 3-6 players, one person is the judge for the round and the others have cards identifying who they are and how they know the deceased person, and they are trying to be the most convincing person to gain the inheritance of the deceased. If that sounds like a fun time to you, it probably is and you’re probably the target audience. Oh, and it follows a pattern of opening statements, the judge player asking each player a question, a recess round with casual interaction where players can ask other players questions, and a final remarks round. Want to interfere? You can earn objection cards that can be played during another player’s turn to swing things in new directions. This might be perfect as game rooms open back up.

Check out Game of the Week here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week

We launched the Prototype Zone last week, and this week we are back with two new protoypes. One was designed by our writer, David Wiley!

This week we have 2 new prototypes:

Tiki Totem by Milan Zivkovic
Game Noir by Jitka Hausteinová

Check out all of the new protoypes here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/prototype-zone

Also, reminder of our New Heroes Scholarship - intended to recognize a standout member of the board game community who is among an underrepresented group.

For full details, including how to enter/nominate someone, check out our page at: https://www.pnparcade.com/pages/new-heroes-game-industry-scholarship

See you next week with more information on our newest print and play games!