Game Caveman not smart enough for Power Grid.  Game Caveman CAN play First Sparks!

Okay, that’s enough of you Cavey. That’s right, though, folks, a new version of Power Grid, The First Sparks releases today!

A standalone edition, The First Sparks maintains most of the original game’s mechanics, but transports the gameplay to the first days of human existence. Keeping with the theme of early man, the game moves faster than the original, while also adding new elements of play. Players work to build better equipment for hunting and surviving in the wilderness while also attempting to keep the rest of their tribe alive. So, in the words of Game Caveman: Rrrrrgggghh, game good.

A bit of trivia for you folks out there, Clint Eastwood’s classic western, A Fistful of Dollars, was originally titled A Fistful of Penguins. Sergio Leone changed it, though, for fear that audiences wouldn’t get the inclusion of an Arctic animal in the desert. Luckily, the new A Fistful of Penguins game reclaims the title. Another dice game in a series of popular dice rolling games like Zombie Dice, BEARS!, and Martian Dice, this time around players are attempting to collect various animals for their zoo. Be forewarned, though, each animal comes with their own benefit and flaw. Having a fistful of penguin tokens, however, will always help you gain more dice. A fun, quick little game for the family, A Fistful of Penguins takes the best of dice games and Zooleretto, binds them together, and delivers a good time for all.

Captain’s log 4458. WizKids has yet again released an appealing miniatures game, this time based around the ships and battles of Star Trek. For the record, there are two ways to collect and acquire these prepainted ship miniatures. One, would be to pick up a Star Trek Heroclix Tactics box set, which comes with four key ships, including the Enterprise. Two, would be to beam up one or more of the individual Star Trek boosters, each coming a single, random ship. Both are perfect for use with any Star Trek miniature game, such as Expeditions or Fleet Captains.

And speaking of Expeditions, it should be noted that a new expansion set for the game also shipped today. Containing three new characters (Sulu, Scotty, and Chekov) and their character cards, when playing with this expansion the game will now be able to accommodate up to five players at once.

As the Apostasy Gambit reaches its climax, the third chapter in the Dark Heresy adventures RPG makes its entrance. This supplemental edition, Chaos Commandment, presents four new chapters for gameplay, all focusing on the Acolytes and their effort to save the Calixis Sector.

Anyone who doesn’t like pandas has no heart. It’s just a fact, people. So, if you have a heart, love pandas, and want to see them thrive, then Takenoko is your game. Players raise and care for bamboo crops, of various varieties, in an effort to feed and keep the emperor’s panda happy. Colorful game pieces, artwork, and miniatures combined with fun, easy to learn gameplay, make Takenoko quite the enjoyable experience. That and pandas.

Ecpecto gamtronum!

Though Wiz-War is indeed about wizards, they are not the cutesy, lovable kind from Harry Potter. These wizards are greedy and desperate to beat their opponents into the pavement. To do so, two to four players compete with spells of varying types across a segmented board. Updated from the classic game created by Tom Jolly, Wiz-War is the newest version of the classic wizard battle game.

PROCESSING….PROCESSING…

FIRST GAME IS POWER GRID: THE ROBOTS. IT IS 10110011! HAHA! ROBOT HUMOR!

THIS EXPANSION IS COMPATIBLE WITH TWO PLAYERS, BUT IF DESIRED, YOU MAY PLAY WITH UP TO 5. EACH ROBOT PIECE IS COMPRISED OF TILES. THESE TILES EXPLAIN THE RULES AND ACTIONS OF EACH ROBOT SO THAT PLAYERS MAY USE THEM AS INANIMATE OPPONENTS. DO NOT LAUGH AT ROBOT, THEY ARE SERIOUS OPPONENT. THEIR SPECIAL ABILITIES GIVE THEM BENEFITS THAT OUTWEIGH NORMAL PLAYERS. ALSO…

DESTROY ALL HUMANS! DESTROY! DESTROY! DES…***

Sorry about that. Some times he gets overworked.

So, anyway, back to just us humans.

Well, humans and hobbits and elves and orks, anyway. Releasing its second edition, War of the Ring finally returns to the shelves today. What used to be a scrictly two player game has now expanded up to four (don’t worry, though, you can still play one-on-one), but the gameplay of Free Peoples versus Sauron’s legions is still intact. One side plays the “good guys” attempting to battle Sauron and get the ring to Mordor, while the other side plays Sauron’s forces, searchig across the land for beings to slaughter. The 205 miniatures included along with the board have been updated with intricate detail and design.

But don’t kick yourself if you’ve already bought the first edition and are feeling left out. Ares Games has you in mind. In fact, they’ve created a special conversion kit just so you can keep using your copy of the first edition. Coming in a sturdy tin container the kit comes with all the good and evil forces cards you will need to update your game along with specially sized sleeves to protect all of them. Now that’s thinking ahead.

Well, guess that’s all…wait, no, don’t…Aaaagggghhh!

EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! GAME STUFF ROBOT WILL EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANS!

With all proceeds going to Harvesters, Pulp is holding a raffle for $1000 worth of pre-built Necron army.

Tickets are $5 (has to be paid in cash), you may enter more than once, and it will end at the April 1st 40K tournament.

Begin!

If that sounds a bit too effeminate for your grizzled uncle (or aunt; no judgement here), then maybe the new Memoir ’44 Campaign Book Volume 2 will light all the right fires. Picking up where the previous volume left off, volume 2 continues to create scenarios (forty six, in fact) that build off of each other, effecting the game during your next play. Along with the new scenarios the collection also includes 50 punchboard tokens, advanced campaign rules, and new special events that contain information for battles across the Pacific all the way to the frontlines of Germany. So, if you’ve got that wargame loving relative in your clan, put a big smile on their face this season with a new Campaign Book.

Still not dark and grizzled enough for you? Okay, then I’m afraid I’m going to have to pull out the big guns.

That’s right, the new Mansions of Madness: Forbidden Alchemy expansion. Adding on to the Lovecraftian exploration game that’s half-RPG, half-board game, Forbidden Alchemy expands on the dark twisted adventure with loads of new gruesome swag. Included within that heading are not just cards and tokens and things, but all new monster and investigator miniatures. As with the base game, they are beautifully detailed. But don’t let them take away from the over 150 new cards and tokens. That’s new mythos, trauma, and combat cards, folks, along with map tiles, horror tokens, and puzzle pieces. If you’ve survived the slithery, slimy things of the first Mansions of Madness and are ready for round two, Forbidden Alchemy shouldn’t stay forbidden for long.

More of a restock than a new item, but, by golly, it just needs mentioning. From the creator of Dominion (if you don’t know what that is, for shame!), Kingdom Builder brings a similar satisfaction as games like Carcassonne, Samarkand, and Small World, in that it’s a middle skill level game that the whole family can learn and master. Players compete against each other through the strategic building of settlements across a large, hex-filled board. Building adjacent to certain locations (i.e. lakes) gains a player more points. But the rub comes in that building is controlled by sets of cards that players hold in their hands and place on their turn. Each game is different, though, as players select random board pieces and cards at the start of a session. If you’ve played Ticket to Ride or Carcassonne to the breaking point, give Kingdom Builder a try.

Originally written in German (the headquarters of all things board game), The Settlers of Catan by Rebecca Gable takes the general premise of the game and expands it to a Lord of the Flies-style epic that follows Candamir and Osmund as they attempt to construct a society amid conflict with the locals on the island of Catan.

Heroclix has been branching out from the superhero genre this year, the newest edition of which just happens to be Lord of the Rings.  Making it simple to drop into the game, Heroclix has released an Epic Campaign Starter Set that gives prospective players everything they need to get into the game.  That means eight miniatures, maps, rules, tokens, dice, and character cards.  But if you want to continue on from there, you can expand your miniature forces by picking up individual blind booster boxes.  With 21 possibilities in all, you can find yourself being Lord of the Rings…cause Heroclix have ring bases…get it…huh?

Get your space jam on with Star Hero, the newest everything sci-fi edition of Hero System.  Within this volume you’ll find all the rules and structural elements to create the very best space, sci-fi, futuristic game you’ve ever taken part in.  That includes (as they say on the back) sections on creating characters, fleshing out your universe based off the latest real world discoveries, technology and weapons, and psionics and time travel.  You’ll be hunting down intergalactic smugglers in your Mark V star cruiser in no time.

It’s that time again.  Time for another Resident Evil Deck Building Game expansion.  This time Bandai has dubbed it Resident Evil: Nightmare.  Like previous expansions, Nightmare needs to be combined with the base game or Alliance for it to be played.  What it adds to either version of the game are new actions, characters, weapons, and infected cards.  This time around these include the Mine Thrower, Luis Serra, and the infected boss Osmund Saddler.  Along with the new cards, this expansion is contained within a box big enough to fit every previous edition of the game while also including dividers to separate your cards.

If you’re one of those Pathfinder players who wishes the GM would skip over all those boring story beats and, instead, get to the fighty fighty, then Conflict Games has granted your wish.  Completely compatible with the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and any 3.5 system, Conflict Roleplaying is a battle game that allows single players or teams to face off against each other in vicious combat.  This base edition includes maps pre-generated characters, maps, and rules for play.  Combine with the recently released Pathfinder miniature set for the complete package.

The trains are running on time thanks to the new expansion for Steam.  Steam Barons adds two new maps to the base game along with the ability to expand the game for five or six players.  More than that, the expansion adds a complete new set of rules that add a stock market element to the game where players can buy or sell shares in the railway companies.  On top of all this, the expansion also includes a mass of train miniatures.

Incorporating elements from video games, Risk Legacy introduces new elements to the game as you complete objectives, not over the course of one game, but every game you ever play.  That’s right, each time to play a game of Risk Legacy the rules alter, factions are removed or added, and the map is reshaped.  What you choose to do in one game may effect a future game.  Primarily, this comes into play with the LOCKED rules cards that stay sealed until you complete the objective written on the front.  A Risk game unlike any other, Risk Legacy gives the power to not just conquer the world, but reshape it.

Asara lets players explore their inner architect as everyone races to create the most awe inspiring towers in the  city.  Pull your building blocks from various rare materials in an effort to build the most embellished structure, thus gain prestige and the favor of the ruling class.  But construction isn’t your only concern as you can also thwart your fellow architects from completing their masterpieces.  A family game at heart, Asara should fall in with the likes of Samarkand, Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne.

How about a little restock blurb to mix things up?  The first expansion to the base game, Okko Yakuza Hazu Akai offers nine new playable characters (mostly Yakuza mercenaries) to be played in the base game as well as their matching player stat cards.  Five new equipment cards are also included.

Wealth of Nations: Clouds of War is yet another expansion (kinda the trend tonight), this time for the original Wealth of Nations game.  Running off the second edition rule set, Clouds of War introduces a slew of new tiles among various rule options for faster play, two player games, and optional game alterations.

Want to know your fortune?  That’s what the new Harrow Deck for Pathfinder Chronicles will tell you.  Both a deck of cards for telling fortunes in any roleplaying setting as well as a gambling-based card game, the Harrow Deck includes 54 harrow cards and 5 divination reference cards.

The most recent deck expansion for the Legend of the Five Rings card game, Second City features three new clan decks.  These three include decks for the Scorpion, Dragon, and Mantis clans.

Here’s the low down gents and ladies:

Points:  1750

Entry Fee $5

Date:  Sunday December 4th

Registration:  Begins at 10 AM

End Time:  Tentatively 7 PM

Game Mastery has deposited in our laps two new wonderful accessory products.  First being the Magic Academy Map Pack.  It’s maps for the Magic Academy, nothing more to say.

Second is the Warehouse Flipmat.  Again, self explanatory.

Also on the quick mention list is the new Small World: Tunnels mini-expansion.  This allows you to combine the boards for Small World and Small World Underground.  But you will have had to purchase a copy of either game at the store to get it.

Super Dungeon Explore is happy good time fun!  Amendment to that last part: especially if you’re an avid fan of 8-bit games and dungeon crawling.

Combining the two, Super Dungeon Explore has players selecting a party (like from a video game select screen) then exploring a multi-roomed dungeon collecting treasures and bashing monsters.  Coming with some absolutely snazzy looking cartoony miniatures, if you’ve got two or more players, this game will supply a good time.

Thinking about getting into Warmachine?  Well, much in line with the Assault on Black Reach box for Warhammer or the Beginner Box for Pathfinder, the new Two-Player Battle Box has everything you’ll need for two folks to get into the game.  That “everything” includes a rules primer, dice, ruler, and 17 miniatures between the Khador and Protectorate of Menoth factions, along with their stat cards.

Put your elves, dwarfs, and gnomes to work in the worker placement game known as Belfort.  This quaint fantasy burg needs some reconstruction, which luckily each of the previously mentioned creatures are uniquely able to provide.  Gnomes can run the city, dwarfs can supply wood, while combinations of these guys can result in other point-earning activities.  From Tasty Minstrel Games (makers of Martian Dice), who have been producing some addictive games of late, Belfort could be considered a Carcassonne on crack.

Heading back to the world of Warmachine, the new Hordes: Domination rulebook brings the new freshness.  Including new rules and information on warlocks, the Hordes saga, and new Theme Forces.  Keep pace with the cool kids and pick up a book!

Speaking of books containing dark, deadly, bleakness, here’s the new Deathwatch: First Foundry hardcover.  This book contains a lot of nines.  Nine Space Marine Loyalist chapters.  Nine Traitor Legions as well.  There’s also four chapters left out of the previous Deathwatch editions.  Futuristic pessimism has never looked so good.

Finally, we end on the first expansion for the popular Quarriors! dice/deck building game.  Rise of the Demons introduces 20 new dice and the corruption mechanic (think curse cards in Dominion) where players attempt to clog up their opponents dice bags with a bunch of useless corruption dice.  It’s on now, peoples!

-Doorbuster: 40% off superhero and anime action figures

as well as Superhero Heroclix until noon.

-15% off Statues.

-15% off Wargaming Miniaturess and accessories.

-Clothing: buy 1 get 1 at 1/2 off

General Disclaimers:

*Discounts do not combine.

*Certain items from the above categories may not be discounted, ask an employee for details.

Okay, that could be construed in a creepy way.

Skipping that, here’s some totally sweet, exclusive Munchkin product.  Emphasize exclusive there, because Pulp is the only store IN THE COUNTRY to carry these items currently.

The first of these oh-so-special items are two Munchkin Dice Bags.  Both bags have a special game rule printed on their sides (“When you take a Munchkin D6 out of [this bag] and roll it, the Munchkin head counts as a 7, not a 1″), in classic Munchkin style.  One is pink, one is tan; the tan one also comes with the benefit of two promo cards, Blind Chance and Bag of Hoarding.  The second Munchkin goodie is this year’s Christmas booster pack, Reindeer Games.  Like the previous Christmas booster expansions, this one includes 15 new cards to be played with the base Munchkin game.  And we have it waaaaay before anyone else.

Another member of the exclusive Pulp Fiction VIP super club of awesome (named it myself), the Steve Jackson Zombie Dice Dice Bag.  Carry the most addictive dice game known to man in style with this matching dice bag.

Another two-fer shout out, this time from Dungeons & Dragons, Heroes of the Feywild and the Dragon Miniature Collector’s Set.  The first has a unicorn on the cover.

Oh, you needed to know more?  What more could you want to know?  Okay, okay, the Feywild is a wonderous, luminous setting that suits happy-go-lucky gamers who desire less doom and gloom in their campaigns.  This hardcover entails every detail DMs and players will need to know about character creation (races, classes, powers, feats, etc.) as well as numerous details about the inhabitants of the world.

And if horned ponies ain’t your thing, turn your gaze to the Dragon Miniature Collector’s Set.  As the D&D Miniature series has been discontinued, the only way to grab hold of any miniature offerings these days is with a collection such as this.  As the title declares, this set comes packed with five of the famous dragon colors (green, blue, red, white, black) and their coordinating stat cards.

The Necrons have risen from their slumber.  You’ve been waiting for it, bidding your time with Space Marines and Imperial Guard, counting the seconds.  Well, wait no more.  Tomorrow the new Necron miniatures are here.  That means the Codex, the Necron Warriors, the Necron Immortals, the Doomsday Ark/Ghost Ark, C’tan Shard of the Nightbringer and C’tan Shard of the Deceiver, plus a whole Monolith more.  They’ve got a new look, a new rule set, and a new bag.

Stare at you own peril.

Seriously, dangerous.

Another of Terry Pratchett‘s beloved stories has been transferred to the world of the board game.  This time around it’s Discworld:  Ankh-Morpork.  Players battle over control of the titled city, minus its former ruler, Lord Vetinari.  No one knows what the other players are attempting to do to win, so everything is in chaos as players slap down cards to decide where their minions are placed and where buildings are erected.  Cards and characters are pulled directly from Pratchett‘s popular series of humorous novels, so fans of the series will surely get some joy out of the cameos and references.

Gambling?

I’m in!

As is the new Red Dragon Inn expansion of the same name (Gambling?  I’m In!).  Famous for its adaptability as a drinking game, Red Dragon Inn can now become even more scandalous with the nine different mini-games included in this expansion.  All nine games can be played stand-alone, if desired, or combined with the base game to replace the Rounds of Gambling.  The box also includes all the Rogues and Warriors cards that will be required to play these games of chance.

Flagons up!

Pulp is starting up a continual Warhammer 40K event called an Escalation League beginning next Sunday.  The concept is simple:  players begin the first Sunday with an army totaling 750 points then grow it by 250 points each consecutive Sunday, eventually reaching 2000 points on week six.  It’ll look a little something like this…