Pulp Fiction Comics & Games

Do you like reading?  I sure hope so, because tonight’s entry is, like, the novelization of New Game Stuff.  Seriously.  Long.

What are we waiting for?  Let’s get to it.

Yomi is possibly the biggest entry today.  Created by a former fighting video game designer, this card game plays like a Street Fighter or Tekken.  Players hold a number of cards that have actions on both sides.  They choose when to throw them down based only on what they assume the other player is going to play.  You choose a character just like you would at the selection screen of a fighting game.  By all accounts, Yomi has perfectly rendered the fighting video game genre into a board game format.  And all the card decks can be used as playing cards, too!  Giggidy-giggidy.

One for the wild west RPG fans out there:  Devils Gulch.  Made to work in conjunction with the Basic Roleplaying system, this booklet is filled with every option a GM would need to build an actual western scenario, a futuristic west, a post-apocalyptic world, or any other desolate-type setting.  NPCs  are included along with building descriptions, combat, skill, and other characteristics rules.  Load up your horse’s saddlebag with this one before heading out on the trail.

Yaaarrrrr, maties!  Pirate Fluxx ahoy!  Yes, adding to Monty Python, Zombie, Martian, and all the other Fluxxes is now Pirate.  If you’ve played any of the other Fluxx games, you know what you’re getting:  a game where the rules change every turn.  In this one’s case, the theme is just pirated-up a bit.  Cards include, Long Live the Captain, Mutiny, and, the new card addition to the game, Surprise cards that give you a specific benefit for playing them out of turn and a different for during your turn.

Floating along next, another card game, Rowboat.  Like the box says, if you like Spades, you’ll like Rowboat.  The game works off of the dynamic that there are a number of cards in the center of the table (you keep putting them out until you have one of each suit) and then pass the same amount of cards to each player.  Players then bid on how many rounds they will win.

From boat to train.  First Train to Nuremberg is a retooling of the previously released Last Train to Wensleydale.  Like a combination of bidding/selling games with Ticket to Ride, First Train has players build railroad lines and make profit off of them as you transport people and goods.  Eventually, you’re going to want to sell off your lines, but the key is to do it at the perfect time, before the value drops.  A 2 to 4 player game, First Train has a double-sided board that features the new game board and the old one from Wensleydale.

A new expansion to the Eclipse Phase RPG, Gatecrashing, arrives this week.  Based on the D100 system, this sci-fi game plays with the ideas of the Avatar movie, i.e. moving your mind from one body to another, exploring alien worlds, as well as saving one’s consciousnesses to be uploaded later in case of death.  The game is not class based, which allows for ample specialization.  Fans of Avatar, Stargate, and Battlestar Galactica should find some bliss in Eclipse Phase.

If you’re gearing up for our Summoner Wars tournament (Saturday Feb. 19 @ 12:00, quick plug) you’re going to want to check out the two recent deck releases, Grungor’s Charge and Rakar’s Power, along with the Premium game board.  The Grungor pack has cards for Goblins and Dwarfs while the Rakar pack has Orcs and Elves.  The Premium board is a thick cardboard play surface that is designed for easy travel and designed to suit two players.

For more card-based antics, there’s the new The Twilight Beckons Asylum Pack for The Call of Cthulhu card game.  The first pack in the Ritual of the Order cycle, Twilight introduces 20 new cards that include criminals, lunatics, Cthonians, and Ancient Ones.

Since we’re discussing card games, I feel this is the perfect time to talk about the Perfect Fit Sleeves that Pulp carries.  For any cultured gamer out there these bad boys keep your cards safe, sharp, and un-dented.  How you use them (I know, there sleeves, should be easy to figure out) is that you slide them your cards and then insert the card into any other sleeve.  Basically, they keep the cards from sliding out, give them an extra layer of protection, and help to offer more friction for shuffling.

Okay, last one.

If you like the Risk series of games or, especially, the Dust games (since they made this, too), you’re going to dig Magnifico:  Da Vinci’s Art of War.  A conquest, army game, Magnifico has opponents attempting to conquer Europe using not just armies of soldiers but also financial wealth and, most awesomely, Da Vinci’s inventions.  Players use cards and soldier minis to do battle with other players as they move across European countries.  A simplified version of Dust, Magnifico offers conquest game fans a new theme and set of rules to mix up their battling escapades.