Just like in an Indiana Jones movie, just when you think you’re out of the tomb, the floor collapses and you fall into bed of snakes.

Such is the concept behind the new expansion pieces for Escape.  If you haven’t heard of this popular Queen Game, it’s a real-time adventurer where every player goes at the same time, attempting to collect as many the tomb’s hidden gems as they can before the clock runs out.  Hitting stores after being given out as Kickstarter incentives, The Pit and Doomed are the first expansion pieces for the game.  Both provide new tiles which represent additional deadly rooms in the temple.  The Pit traps players down a deep hole after they’ve rolled five curses.  Doomed provides two new curses and one new tile, all with exciting properties.

The only option is Zombicide.

A co-operative survival game, Zombicide is a catch-22 run amok as players must kill more zombies to earn skill points, but killing zombies only results in more zombies.  The other tricky thing is that there will inevitably be more undead than you have bullets, so you’re really going to want to earn up those skill points to buy more ammo and weapons.  This popular Kickstarter joins and outpaces many of the other zombie games out there.  So, lock and load, folks.

All is fair in love and war.  AEG‘s Love Letter is a reality dating show dropped into the Renascence.  A group of eligible bachelors compete for the hand of a stunning princess who’s locked herself in the castle’s highest tower.  The only way you can lay your flirtatious mojo on her is through alluring prose delivered via letter.  Of course, all the other prospective suitors had the same idea, so you will have to find ways of intercepting and destroying their letters.  But don’t focus all your attention on the other players as your letters can be turned to ash just as quickly.  Start working on those pick-up lines, gentlemen.

The Tome of Blood is at your disposal, Lord Khorne.

The most recent hardcover edition to the Black Crusade line of Warhammer 40K RPG books details every tool you’ll need to praise the Blood God!  That includes four new Heretic archetypes, plus all the weapons, armaments, and Daemon Engines to empower them.  As another added bonus of pain and suffering, players of any alignment can develop Legacy Weapons and fight in Mass Combats.  Along with all this carnage comes new settings like the pits of Kurse, Furia’s savage oceans, Berin and Aspodel, as well as the War Moons of Talax.  Pile up those skulls, cause Khorne needs a seat.

Wallenstein is nothing like Frankenstein.  Word to the wise.

It is however very much like a good game.  This second edition of the game receives a rules touch up as well as the addition of two expansions for the game.  As players compete for points by controlling the largest amount of land and real estate, two years pass (don’t worry, in game time only) wherein shortages of food, peasant revolts, and any number of other hardships will beset your kingdom.  An interesting randomizing element is used to decide when and where these obstacles hit, that being a tower which you roll tokens down, some of which catch, some of which drop to the bottom.  These tokens then decide what happens where.  Players also carefully stratagize about how to use the action cards given them in order to obtain the most property.

Competing with Marvel’s Legacy Deck-Building Game, the new DC Deck Building Game lets players control one of seven famous DC characters.  That means you can be Batman.  Or Wonder Woman.  Or Green Lantern.  Each hero controls a special ability unique to them, giving them advantages toward certain card types.  Those other types include superpowers, heroes, villains, equipment, and locations.  During the game, each player vies cards which will assist their deck against the powers of the villains you all are fighting.  For instance, you might want to be bulletproof if you’re going up against Deathstroke.  Or have super speed if you need to race a bomb out into the ocean.  Basically, you get to play the comics you love.  Yeah, I’m picking up a copy, too.

 

Because we enjoy torturing our customers here at Pulp Fiction, allow me to wave some slick Warhammer 40K miniatures in front of your face then inform you they won’t be on sale until tomorrow.

Yeah, sorry about that.

However, if you are swinging by tomorrow you should look into the new Space Wolves and Necron miniatures for 40K. These include a Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf, Fenrisian Wolf Pack, the Thunderwolf Cavalry, and the new Tyranid Tyrannofex/Tervigon.

Showing its Dungeons & Dragons roots, Thunderstone Advance goes on sale today. Some folks out there may find that surprising to hear because the game isn’t officially scheduled for release until later in the month, but Pulp is allowed to sell the game early as a pre-release benefit. This redesign of the game refines many of the previous version’s elements. Mostly, the game works overtime to give players as many options to tailor their experience as they please. A new two-sided board lets players select the level of difficulty they wish to play as do the new monster card levels. If you’ve never gotten into the game before, but are a fan of D&D and/or Dominion, this is the time to start playing.

Triple the Dominion, triple the fun.

Following in the footsteps of Alhambra and CarcassonneDominion now has its own Big Box edition coming packed with three versions of the now classic deck building game. Those three versions, by the way, are AlchemyProsperity, and the original, base Dominion game. If you’ve never gotten into this hit card game, this is a great way to purchase three of excellent versions of the game for a cheaper price.

Today we also received a restock on some Indy RPGs that need a little love and affection. First up is Umlaut: Game of Metal, a storytelling, GM-less game akin to Fiasco where players create their own heavy metal groups then chart their rise to the top of the heap. On the darker side of things are Hot War and Cold City. Hot War is set after an apocalyptic Cold War-era nuclear barrage, giving gamers a setting of horrific violence and power-jockeying survivors to explore. Cold City is a companion volume set in Berlin after the terrors of WWII. Players command the Reserve Police Agency as they round up monstrous creatures risen from the ashes of the war.

 

Recruits has kept us on our feet constantly this weekend as we shift games back and forth between the store and Lee’s Summit High School.  Its been both fun and nuts!

Speaking of nuts, allow me to introduce this weekend’s first topic:  Nuts.  Have you got yours?

Usually, we’d throw up a description of the game in our own words, but the text on the back of the box is so perfect, we’re just going to go with that.

Grab your nuts!

Squirrels.  They love their nuts.  They’d do anything to get their paws on nuts.  They sometimes mess with each other to get their paws on each others’ nuts.  In the end, for a squirrel, it really is all about the nuts.

Get ready to protect your nuts in this fast and furious card game!  Try to gather and steal the best nuts for yourself, while doing everything you can to leave the other squirrels out in the cold!

Play with your nuts with cards like:

Keep your nuts safe.           Share your nuts.

Your nuts with both hands!     It’s tough to lose a nut.

Whose got the biggest nuts?     Polish your nuts.

Yup, that pretty much says it all.

Get excited if you love deck building games like Thunderstone, Dominion, and Ascension, because there’s a new kid on the block.  Nightfall is that kid.  Personally, this game sounds phenomenal!  Taking elements from Dominion and amplifying them, Nightfall revolves around purchasing cards from a pool and using them to attack opponents.  Not only is it more aggressive and interactive than Dominion, the game also adds a new chaining mechanic that allows players to build combos off of other player’s cards.  And remember those accursed curse cards from Dominion, here they are named “wounds” and are what you do not want to have an abundance of at the end of the game.  On the plus side, if your deck contains a number of wounds it runs faster.  On top of all those swanky confrontational additions, the game is horror themed, so vampires, werewolves, and other monstrous baddies abound.

Tannhäuser, the alternate reality Nazi-filled war game, adds three new expansion sets to the mix.  First up, a character mini named Hoss Harbinger.  This dude lives up the first part of his name.  As a descendant of Atlas, Hoss has incredible powerand abilities.  The pack contains the pre-painted figure, a character sheet, 24 game tokens, a rulebook for using the character, and a new scenario.  The second Tannhäuser expansion is Equipment Cards set.  These are invaluable for anyone who owns the base game and/or a number of the expansions!  All 200 of the cards included in the box detail each weapon and piece of equipment in the first thirteen releases.  Finally, there is Asteros.  Part man, part bull, all smashing and basing creature of doom.  Because he is so massive, Asteros is able to replace a trooper and a hero,while also being allowed to side with any faction.

Square Shooters is basically a game factory in a box.  Inside the full size box is a set of 9 square shooter dice which have numbers and suites on them so that you can play rummy, poker, and, obviously, the base Square Shooters game, a 52 card deck, rules for the main game plus six more, and a dice cup.  As for the base game, you attempt to roll dice to match the card that you pulled out of the deck.  Certain, special, cards called shootout cards can be used to assist you.  There is also a smaller version of the game that does not include the cup.

The Battle of Westeros rages on as House Tully gains a new expansion set in Lords of the River.  Like previous House Stark and House Lannister expansions, Lords of the River includes a brand spanking new Rules and Battle Plans book (w/ 3 new scenarios), 32 plastic figures, 12 banner poles (they come with stickers!  Yippee!), 30 cards, 12 terrain overlays, and 16 tokens.  The miniatures included within are available to use as supplements to aid other Houses in the game.  Three new commanders are included (BryndenTully, Edmure Tully, Marq Piper) to lead your troops.

After the world has been destroyed games apparently become super easy to play and learn.  They also become crazy cool.  51st State is set in a time when the world has been decimated and only four factions are left to fight for control.  They include:  traders, Appalachians, mutants, and New Yorkers.  Okay, let me explain the game:  location cards get turned over (radio stations, grocery stores, diesel trucks, etc.) and players choose to A) pillage it B) collaborate with it C) annex it.  That’s it, folks.  Violent, fight-y, and awesome.  Choose your faction and check it out.

The Commands and Colors series of games puts players in the role of strategist as they command the battle, deciding where, how, and when to move troops.  Napoleonics is the newest addition to this historical set of games.  Based around being able to choose which historical battle you want to reenact (Here there are 15, including Waterloo, Redinha, Salamanca, and more).  Offering extreme depth and versatility, Napoleonics will make giddy historical gamers giddier.

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