New Release Round Up - 9th September 2009

Boardgame Round-Up

It's a good week for board game releases. Fantasy Flight continue to push out some great games and first up is Ad Astra. It's the first game of a new Designers Collection which will feature original games by bestselling authors. Bruno Faidutti and Serget Laget have put together this light game of space exploration. Players are trying to create the greatest galactic civilization and to do this they must play cards each turn. The interesting mechanic is that all players must choose and play a card simultaneously and are then resolved. Each card then affects all players, but the card player determines the specifics, such as good produced.

The Descent Quest Compendium introduces 16 new quests for you to pit against your team of adventurers. These have been created by a number of award winning designers and promise to add hours of gameplay to an already rich game. Also for Descent are 6 new miniatures to represent the overlords lieutenants.

There are also 2 releases from Z Man games this week. First is Endeavor which was released at Gencon earlier this year. This is a lovely looking game of exploration and civilization. Play starts out in the Mediterranean but moves on to other areas of the world as shipping lanes are opened. It's a mid weight game with some economic mechanics but the game starts out slowly with more options added as the game progresses.

In contrast Order Up is about delivering pizzas. Players must collect the ingredients for the pizza orders then race to deliver them. It's a light family game and part of there KidFun range.

RPG Round-Up

After last week's modest set of releases, the start of September sees a cornucopia of new RPG products, with no time to waste, there's Damnation View, a sourcebook for CthulhuTech covering changes to the setting as well as new equipment and character options and four ready to run storylines. Chaosium release In Search of the Troll Slayer a classic dungeon crawl adventure using the BRP system, as well as Mysteries of the Worm, a collection of twenty tales set in the Cthulhu Mythos by Robert Bloch.

New in for BattleTech is Strategic Operations a rulebook that brings the bigger picture to BattleTech and featuring everything you need to play out the conquest of an entire solar system! Add to that Jihad Hotspots: 3076 which continues the Jihad plotline begun in Blake Ascending and it's nice to see more mechs on the horizon (so to speak). Speaking of mechs, Green Ronin give us Mecha & Manga, a sourcebook that takes Mutants & Masterminds into the world of manga. It includes new character options and new rules to reflect the over- the-top action of a manga setting. At the same time Green Ronin have also released Pocket Ultimate Power, the guide to superpowers in the Mutants & Masterminds RPG, which is back in a handy new pocket sized edition. Continuing the superheroes theme, for Savage Worlds fans we have Dawn of Legends, a complete superhero setting for the Savage Worlds RPG. It includes additional rules and material for better using Savage Worlds as a superhero system.

Mongoose have provided a suite of new titles this week including The Gamemasters Companion for Earthdawn which offers new game mechanics, extended setting material and much more - also The Players Companion for Earthdawn expands on the rules found in the Players Handbook, taking characters from 9th to 15th Circle in their Disciplines. With new character options, background information and more. The 25th anniversary of Paranoia is celebrated by Troubleshooters new rules to ignore, and new missions to be excited by, all dedicated to those staunch defenders of Alpha Complex! Fantasy Craft comes from the creators of Spycraft 2.0 and is a new all-inclusive fantasy roleplaying game containing everything you need to begin adventuring in a world of your own creation. Last from Mongoose but by no means least, a new Judge Dredd roleplaying game, including everything you need to run games set in the 2000 AD comic series.

Paizo continue support for their new Pathfinder RPG with the release of two 1st level adventures: The Bastards of Erebus and Crypt of the Everflame. Cheliax, Empire of Devils is a Pathfinder companion sourcebook which covers the hell-bound nation, its dark capital of Egorian and its shadowy ex-capital of Westcrown.

For GURPS there's the return of Ultra-Tech, including rules for all manner of science fiction equipment for your GURPS 4th edition campaign. Psionic Powers focuses on the powers of the mind for the GURPS rules system, presenting ready to use packages built using the Powers system.

Rounding out this week's releases we have Survivors, a supplement for the Desolation RPG which features a host of new characters options and setting details including three new player- character races, The Encountered Vol. 1 containing over 200 new creatures for the Alpha Omega RPG and finally something for dice fans, a Dice Tower (in Stone Finish) - featuring three internal baffles so your rolls are truly random!

CCG Round-Up

The regular monthly instalment for the King’s Landing expansion for A Game of Thrones has arrived. Tales from the Red Keep is the fourth chapter in the expansion and adds 40 cards to your collection, expanding on the King’s Landing ‘Shadows’ mechanic. On a side note for Game of Thrones fans, Lena Headey has been cast as Queen Cersei in the upcoming TV series.