Board Game Review: Majesty: For the Realm

I have been learning a lot of cool new games so far this year. One of those is Majesty: For the Realm. It's a quick but fun little game from Z-Man Games, designed by Marc André. The premise of this game is that the players are competing to claim the crown. Players must manage the subjects in their domains to amass more power than their rivals.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this game at first, but in the end, I found myself quite enjoying it. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? Let's look at the numbers for this box of fun:

PinkFae Archive #33: Diversity Panel at Gen Con 2016: A Review

This week's entry is another installment from the PinkFae Archives. This one was first published on 11 September 2016.

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One of the panels I attended at Gen Con was 'Diversity in Gaming.' I expected it to be about ensuring an inclusive environment for all people in the games industry. Instead, it was three staffers from Paizo, the company that publishes the Pathfinder roleplaying game, discussing their company's policies on inclusiveness.

Not what I expected, but still worthwhile.

Board Game Review: Santorini

I realised recently, much to my surprise, that I hadn't yet reviewed Santorini, published by Roxley Games and Spin Master Games. Let's fix that right now, shall we?

This is a surprisingly deep and thinky-thinky game for as quick and simple as it is. It feels like it was designed as a kids game, and although the rules are simple enough that children can easily learn to play, there's enough strategic depth to satisfy most adults.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? Let's look at the numbers:

My Unusual Dice Collection

A couple of weeks ago, in my glossary of gamer jargon, I mentioned that I personally own some oddly shaped dice. I thought it might be fun to share some of those with you today. Of course, my collection is nowhere near as large as the amazing dice collection shown at dice collector dot com (warning: that site is very much stuck in the mid-90s, webdesign-wise). But I do like the small collection of odd dice that I have.

So, here we go.

Now, when I say that I have some odd dice, I'm not talking about dice that are just alternate shapes of 'normal' dice, like these two unusual d6s:

That's one that's a sphere (it has a small weight inside it, and ridges in which the weight can sit, so that it will always stop with one of the numbers on top, even though it's just a sphere) and one that's a length of hexagonal steel with 'pips' punched into the sides.

PinkFae Archive #32: Board Game Review: Oceanos

This week is another PinkFae Archive. It is the fourth of the articles I wrote about Gen Con 49, which took place in August 2016. This article is a board game review of one of the new games that was debuting at that Gen Con. It was originally published on 5 September 2016.

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One of the great things about attending Gen Con was getting to play new releases, or preview games that were about to be released. Oceanos is one of those games. It's a new release from Iello, the company that publishes the King of Tokyo line. In this game, players control whimsical submarines exploring the depths of the ocean to collect animals for their aquariums. You also gain points for other items, such as treasure chests and coral reefs.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning, by looking at the numbers for Oceanos.

Gamer Jargon

Recently, as I was writing an article, I found myself using the term FLGS. It occurred to me that not everyone will know what that means, so I decided to spell it out. And then I decided, as this blog is meant to be welcoming to everyone, there might be some people who need to know, for one reason or another, what many of the terms that are frequently used in gaming circles actually mean.

So I decided to create a glossary. This entry is going to be a list of terms used in tabletop gaming, either board games or roleplaying games, that are commonly understood by serious gamers, but perhaps not so well known to new gamers or people who are not as deep into gaming culture.

I imagine this will not be an exhaustive list. I expect I will add to it occasionally. If there's anything I've missed that you think I need to add, please let me know in the comments, and I will get it in the list as soon as I can.

Board Game Review: Churrascaria

A friend of mine, David Thomas, is one of the founding members of Absurdist Productions. This company recently produced, as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign, a game called Churrascaria. That word, pronounced CHEW-huh-scar-EE-uh, refers to a Brazilian Steakhouse. This game is about diners eating at a churrascaria, earning points for gorging on meat and losing points for eating sides and desserts.

Bear with me, I'll expound on that in a moment.

But much to my surprise, I recently realised that I have not yet written a review of that game! So, in order to rectify that error, I shall review it now. Starting, as we always start, with the numbers.