GAMA Trade Show 2010 Report–Part 4

This Part 4 of my ongoing coverage of the GAMA Trade Show 2010! Check back tomorrow for more or subscribe to the Livingdice.com RSS feed and not miss a single post.

Trask

Alderac Entertainment Group

AEG had a plethora of new stuff on display at GTS 2010. First off is the interesting CCG  “Phase.” It plays like any other head-to-head card game, but each card is double-sided. This means that you can choose between the “good” and evil” sides of each card. That, coupled with a “flip the entire deck mechanic” means there is a lot going on in terms of strategy when playing “Phase.”

Also in the card arena, “Thunderstone,” the AEG Dominion-like non-collectible card game has a new supplement coming out, “Wrath of the Elements” in May.

For board games, AEG had a funny little game called “Abandon Ship.” Rats try to advance up the ship before they drown. The board actually shifts on each turn. This is a  reprint of a Reiner Knizia game.

City of Thieves is a card-based board game that places the players in charge of various thieves’ guilds in a medieval city. Each one competing for treasure and control of the underworld. This is not released yet and production starts in late June or early July. Hopefully at Gen Con, but October is also a possibility.

AEG also announced that the 4th edition of “Legend of the Five Rings” should be out by Gen Con.

“The Adventurers” is a strategy board game in the vein of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Players try to escape a temple before a large ball either rolls them over or seals them inside forever.

The new “Dust: Tactics” tactical miniature war game  also was on display.

Paradigm Concepts

Paradigm Concepts discussed their new “Arcanis” release at Origins this year. The world of Arcanis is no longer 3.5 OGL, but uses an original system developed by Paradigm. The new system is highly flexible and does not rely on character classes for PC development. Drew Baker is doing some of the artwork for the release as well.

Living Arcanis returns at Origins 2010 as well. The story arcs will be shorter and an “Arcanis Campaign Guide” will come out every year to discuss what happened in the living campaign. I am a fan of Arcanis and will definitely follow-up on this as the release date approaches.

APE Games

Ape Games is back with more ducks! “Duck, Duck Safari” is a new release that builds on the original “Duck, Duck Go” board game. Safari includes a “Ducktor Livingstone” duck and five visible random ducks. I found it interesting that the box uses the same pieces for five different games, meant for different age levels. A very simple game for small children, up to some more advanced versions for older children. This game has had a recent price drop and is now $24.95.

Ape also had “Ducky Booster Boxes” available if you wanted to increase your duck options.

The “Order of the Stick” book is also getting a 5th printing.

Alliance Game Distributors

Alliance games is a large distributor to game retailers. They were very excited about a re-issue of “Betrayal at the House on the Hill” in the fourth quarter of 2010. Apparently there was a lot of demand for this game and it was out of print for several years.

This post is getting a bit long. To keep it a manageable size, I will cut today’s report short. Check back tomorrow!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

If you find this series of posts on the GAMA Trade Show 2010 useful, please consider supporting Livingdice.com when you shop at Amazon

. Just click on the banner below and a percentage of every purchase goes towards making Livingdice.com the best gaming site on the internet!
0 Shares

trask

Trask is a long-time gamer, world traveler and history buff. He hopes that his scribblings will both inform and advance gaming as a hobby.