I just booked my flight and hotel for the GAMA Trade Show 2012 and noticed something odd. Assuming you are staying at the site of the convention (Bally’s), you can use the convention code (SBGAMA2) to get a $114.00 per night rate. All well and good, but the rate discount does not seem to work when you use the code on the Bally’s website reached from the GTS hotel page. It defaults down to rack rate for the hotel and says no rooms available at that rate for the week of the trade show.

The Calendar of Misinformation

Save yourself some major cash and call Bally’s directly. The reservation agent happily applied the code to my room for the week and I got the $114.00 rate. Otherwise my stay was $199.00 per night! This completes my good deed for the day.

See you in Vegas!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Stuart and I got in a nearly complete game, save for a ship combat mechanic that was not ready just yet (the Clix bases were non-functional on the ships).

Here is a shot of the board.

The “Enterprise” image at the top is the central transit site for transporter movement. Players may beam up once during their turn and then beam down to any place on the planet (the cards with tokens on them). Alternatively, players move one space for each action expended. Players get a random number of actions for each round based on the event card draw (these cards are under the hand on the image’s left side.) Besides actions, there are events on the cards that resolve immediately if applicable. The top of the board has the ship combat tracking path. Various events and actions move the ships and bad things happen if the Klingons advance too far. The track at the right is the turn tracker. Some events take place after a certain point on the track, so moving faster is better.

During a turn players may exchange items, beam up/down, pick-up items (the square tokens on the board), attempt to complete a challenge (visible on the board as the cards with red, blue or gold numbers), draw cards or use a special ability. I played “Uhura,” so my special ability was drawing a card and then giving to a nearby player in one action.

The main resolution mechanic are the various challenges on the board. In the image there is a “24″ command challenge at the center (its gold, blue for science, etc) that I will use as an example. To beat the challenge, one or more players enter the square, add whatever bonuses from cards or crewmen (red-shirts that give bonuses for various actions) and their own skill to a dice roll. All the characters have comparative advantage in the various skills. While everyone has the same skills, if you want to beat a command challenge, send James Tiberius Kirk. Need something analyzed? Send Spock. That said, given a little luck and the right combination of bonuses anyone can defeat a challenge. Our Captain Kirk player successfully cured a plague, so anything is possible. Players do take damage from cards or challenges. You cannot die, but as you take damage the Clix base reduces your skill numbers until you finally drop and retreat to the Enterprise for some Dr. McCoy quality time.

The challenges often have two levels of success. You can get by with a 20 dice roll, but a 24 gets you better results. Specifically, there is a chart (just visible at the top of the board and to the right) that tracks success. The low success gets you one point on a track, while the higher gets three. This is something of an issue because organizing challenge attempts takes time and some time just getting it done is more important than the larger point benefit. The lesser success also changes how you draw event cards for the various tracks. A low success on a “command” challenge might mean that the command plot line (deck) increases in difficulty or the rewards go down. Choose wisely.

The success tracker also indicates how you did at the end of the game. To win, you must move all three tracks as high and as fast as possible. You could focus on only one track, say the Klingons and defeat them, but the planet descends into anarchy because the rebels won.

If you have not already guessed, this is a cooperative game, so team work is essential to success. Ego by players will result in defeat.

The mechanics are fun and the game quite fast (under one hour). The cards, board and Clix miniatures all were of good quality. Most importantly for me though was the “feel” of the game. The Wizkids! representative indicated that Reiner wanted the game to play like an episode. I thought he was just trying to sell us on the game, bu it actually is true. As you play the game, you almost have “acts” like a TV show. Things start going well and then BAM!, the plasmatic ferangulator device fails and you need to find some dilithium crystals or you are all going to die!

I truly enjoyed Star Trek: Expeditions, but I have a reservation. The plot lines and events required to make the game “episodic” might limit the re-playability of each scenario. Yes, the cards and tokens appear randomly on the board, but after 4-5 runs of the same scenario the excitement level might run dry since repeated players know the best path to completion. That said, this game begs for add-ons and supplements and I expect them in the near future.

These are my thoughts on Star Trek: Expeditions and my reasons for giving it the “GTS 2011 Best of Show” title.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

P.S.,

Stuart chiming in here. I had the same reservation as Trask. The game is GREAT, but it will need to be supplemented with additional stories to use to increase re-playability. I also hope for an expansion to bring in more of the Star Trek personnel as Kirk, Spoke, Uhura, and Bones were the only player options. We need Sulu, Chekov, and of course, Scotty! But this game was a fun game, especially for Trekkers and as it was designed by Reiner Knizia, you won’t go wrong.

You can play the game solo, or up to four players. It has a run time of about an hour. and it is set to release in mid-June.

Stuart

Green Ronin

Green Ronin had a nice spread of all there recently released books.  And they seem to have new stuff around every corner.  Most exciting (to me at least) was the Dragon Age RPG: Set 2. Expect full coverage of this when it comes out. Also coming soon is the 3rd Edition Mutants & Masterminds Game Master’s Guide, DC ADVENTURES: Heroes & Villains, Vol. I, and exciting things for the A Song of Ice and Fire RPG.

The Green Ronin Booth

Bandai

Bandai has the Naruto CCG set #20 that just released (I love the tag line.  ”Where the fiercest ninjas are also the sharpest dressers) , #21 in May, and Chibi Tourney Pack #3 in July (great artwork on this one). Their hottest new release, Resident Evil [Deck Building Game] is not starting to come back in-stock at retail stores after selling out their initial run. There will be a new expansion coming out this month, and another in June (in this one, if you die you can come back as a zombie).

Resident Evil by Bandai

Three Sages Games

TSG’s has a new addition to their plastic (foam backed) mapping tiles Mystic Woods (outdoor encounters, small cabin, skeleton of a dragon) and a Gigantic Cavern set. And of course, all of the sets use the same background so they mix and match well with their previous sets.

Gamers Rule

Gamers Rule has a new expansion for their Dungeon Deck Quests cards. If you are not familiar, this is a seven deck system that can create an adventure on the file in 30 seconds for any Fantasy RPG with dungeon delving. You flip the first card for a lure on why the PCs are there, the 2nd is the entrance card that describes the approach, the 3rd card is the overall atmosphere of the dungeon, the 4th card describes the rooms, the 5th card has a map, the 6th card is the challenge involved, and the final card is the treasure.  You just have to add the appropriate combat stats for the challenge card depending on what game you are playing. Their first expansion adds more advanced (high level) challenges.  The second expansion is just more cards for the decks.

Cactus Game Design Company

Cactus focuses on Christian Games. They have built up impressive partnerships, having Christian/Bible versions of Catan, Blink, Apples to Apples, Guesstures, Outburst, Scattergories, and more.  Their newest game is Bible Taboo. The Redemption Trading Card Game has a new booster coming out at their national tournament in August.

The next post on Monday is the “Best of Show” announcement! Stay tuned!

Mayfair Games

“Vikings of Catan” is a new metal miniature token set for the legendary tile game. The release date on this set is hopefully Origins 2011, but definitely by Gen Con 2011. A new train game,” 1830″ is on the horizon as well.

Cryptozoic

“The Walking Dead” board game box and trading card prototypes were on display, but by request of Cryptozoic I could not take any pictures.  No firm release date yet, but zombies are red hot now and I expect the halo effect from the very good tv series will drive big sales. “Fringe,” “The Vampire Diaries” and “Big Bang Theory” had licensed trading card set on display as well.

The “Penny Arcade” licenses were new at the show. A deck building game using the theme and characters of the Penny Arcade universe is under development. Yes, I asked and the “Fruit Fucker”  is in the game.  A PA game without him is simply not acceptable. A newer PA property “The Lookouts,” gets its own board game. “Lookouts” was a short series on the PA site involving kids tromping through a hostile fantasy forest learning how to fight and survive.

Finally, a new card game “Food Fight” uses clever cartoon characters of various food as your foot soldiers. My weapon of choice is “Flapjack the Ripper. ”

Wizards of the Coast

Rather than re-hash the Wizards GTS 2011 Seminar, please check out the liveblog I did of the event.  This covers most of their releases. Hasbro also had a space-themed (and heavily modified) version of “Battleship” that WOTC demoed at the show.

Wizkids!

“Quarriors” is a fresh take on the very crowded deck-building genre. Rather than cards, the entire game uses dice. 130 of them!

Here is a shot of the demo table.

The blue “teardrop” dice represent Quiddity (cash) that you use to buy dice from the common pool and then use those dice to achieve victory.  Nice idea and the dice are much easier to deal with than the endless card shuffling of Dominion. I will definitely giving this one a closer look.

After seeing a prototype at Gen Con 2010, I finally played “Star Trek: Expeditions.” Stuart and I played a nearly complete game with two other hardy souls. We took the roles of Kirk, Spock, Uhura and Dr. McCoy in this cooperative board game.  The characters beam down, gather items, defeat enemies and complete goals. Each player has a special ability that matches their role on the show. Kirk is the best at command/diplomacy missions and Spock is a science god.  There is risk as you take damage (tracked on Heroclix-like bases) from events and bad rolling. Though not operational in the prototype I played, the track at the top tracks some attacking Klingons in orbit.

Note: This game is not Heroclix compatible!

Game was a great time and the components were top-notch. I expect great things from this game.

One more post tomorrow and then we are on to the “GTS 2011 Best of Show” announcement on  Monday!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

42 Games

42 Games was showing off their newest game, Orbit: Rocket Race 5000. Orbit is a fast-paced strategy card game where you try to match colored sides together to play them, going around in an “orbit” around the board. They are going to move into production on this game in the next month or so.  Orbit was a successful kickstarter.com project, and we congratulate them for that. Please note, the picture below is a prototype version of the game. The production version is even better.

Orbit by 42 Games

Stronghold Games

Stronghold had a recently released title called Survive: Escape from Atlantis! This game is actually a reprint. It was published by Parker Brothers / Hasbro in 1982 (and sold 1.5 million copies back then). There was actually two different versions of this game. The the US, it was titled Survive. Overseas, Escape from Atlantis! Here, it is both, and not just in title. There where small differences in the game and pieces, and Stronghold has included both rules and pieces so you can play either way. The basic idea of the game is that people are on an island that is sinking, and you have to get your peeps off the island.  Of course, with sea serpents, whales, and sharks, it isn’t very easy. Being out of print for over 10 years, it is good to see this classic back!

They also have a new title coming out soon called Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War. You are a nations cold war spy organization trying to capture the important briefcase of doom. The gameplay on this is very interesting, it is almost like a backwards Stratego. You move your guy, not knowing a spy’s power, and your opponent tells you if it legal. And by non-legal moves, you try to deduce what you have on the board. Of course, be careful.  There is a double-agent.

Also 3rd quarter this year, they have a reprint of the 90′s game Outpost from TimJim Games and  Crude: The Oil Game (also known as McMulti).

Survive: Escape from Atlantis! by Stronghold Games

Heartland Games

Heartland Games had a nifty new game called Square Shooters. Square Shooters is a dice game where the dice represent each card in a full 54 deck of playing cards. They designed them in a way where the cards are distributed in such a manner, that you can still get all the common poker hands. The game has a basic set of rules where you draw a card that has a hand on it, and you have 3 rolls of the dice to match the hand. But it is a card game and a dice game, so there are many creative ways you can use these dice outside of the base game.  The came comes in 3 varieties. A Blister pack that has the 9 dice only. a Basic set that has the dice, some poker chips, the game cards, and a storage pouch. Finally, the deluxe set, that has everything in the basic plus a dice cup, more chips, and a pack of standard playing cards.

Square Shooters also had the best booth of the show.  They made it look like a little piece of the old west.  Kudos and good luck to them.

Square Shooters by Heartland Games

Cleveland Kids

Cleveland Kids has a new game called Donkey: It’s A Kick!. This game has an interesting story. When he was a kid, the owner’s mother developed a game where you still played once you were out, to keep it enjoyable for everyone to the end. They had several variations of this game, but that had a direct influence on the development of Donkey. And that spirit remains in this game. The card game is one of those fun, unpredictable, party style games. And once a player is out of the game, they are a Donkey. And their sole purpose is then to cause chaos and dish out revenge. I did not get a chance to play this game, but there were many time that you could hear the sound of hooting and hollering coming from the Donkey table.

Donkey by Cleveland Kids

Battle Foam

Battle Foam’s biggest thing right now is there Mantic bags coming sometime this summer. They have also going to be working with Heavy Gear Blitz. They have also just signed on with Spartan Games.  So, you will see bags coming for Dystopian Wars, Firestorm Armada, and Uncharted Seas. These are also planned for this summer, but they still need to get things finalized. And of course, they are always putting out new trays for the new miniatures coming out from their partners.

And we continue tomorrow…

Dream Pod 9

“Heavy Gear” met Battlefoam this year with the release of a “Heavy Gear” branded bag and foam trays. The bag is available now on the Battlefoam site. I also saw the “Heavy Gear Arena” two -player starter kits, going for $65.00. The starter kit uses unpainted, pewter miniatures and two small-format rulebooks.  This is not a legal squad, it is strictly for new players to pick up the game quickly. Future releases will include 10 figures for a legal squad and two small-format rulebooks as well.  The ”Heavy Gear  Blitz Field Manual” also released as a companion to the base rules.  This manual is going to be the new standard of play for the Heavy Gear Blitz game.

Atlas Games

“Crime Scene Instigation” is a new supplement for the  ”Let’s Kill” card game that adds even more carnage! Cthulhu takes a humorous term with “Clifford, The Big Red God” based on “The Dunwich Horror” from Ken Hite.  Gloom, the card game also gets a boost with the “Charles Dexter Ward” supplement. It is a play on words, “Ward” means a hospital ward. I chuckled.

Zoki Games

“Arithmo” is a Sudoku-like game that uses basic mathematical operations (add, subtract, etc) to reach specific numbers and clear a grid. There is an online and Android/Iphone app version as well. I am not a Sudoku fan, but the game looked like casual fun. The web site has an online version if you would like to try it out. Registration required.

Giant Tree House

Giant Tree House specializes in large-scale games for indoor/outdoor play.  Some of their products include “Hello Kitty Bowling,”  ”Penguin Bowling” and “Fishin’ Frenzy.”

GlowFly Games

A family game maker. Offerings include “Alphabet Soup,” a sudoku-like tile game, “Hecho” and the “The Impossible Machine,” that allows players to create Rube-Goldberg machines.

Closet Nerd

Closet Nerd had three new games on display for release this year, “Cambria,” “Hibernia” and “Balance of Power.” Cambria and Hibernia are small strategy games designed for portability and easy-to-learn rules, but with deep strategy. Cambria uses a “surround and conquer” mechanic and Hibernia requires the conquest of specific regions by color. At $19.95, they have a low price and seemed interesting as well in terms of game mechanics. Both have a June release date.

“Balance of Power” is a strategy game involving placing three kinds of tokens and squaring off using a rock-paper-scissors mechanic.  No dice or luck involved, just strategy. “Balance of Power” has a Gen Con 2011 release date.

And the march continues tomorrow…

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Offworld Designs

T-shirt vendor for the geek in all of us!  New shirts include a Cthulhu-Batman logo, “Halo  Kitty” and my personal favorite “Oh, Yeah!”

Wildfire LLC

Creators of the Cthulhutech RPG discussed some of their current and upcoming releases. “Unveiled Threats” reveals some of the dark secrets of the world Also included in the book,  and this is a quote,  ”lots of gun porn.”  Remember, the only way to survive the mythos is to carry bigger guns…

“Burning Horizon” is setting material for Cthulhutech that releases in June. This was described as a “DM Toolkit” supplement. August brings the “Dead Gods” book release. “Dead Gods”  allows PCs from the wrong side of the Mythos, including Deep Ones as PCs! “Cthulhutech: The Shadow War” supplement also comes out in August. Shadow War is a miniature skirmish game!

I previously reported on “Chthonian Stars,” a Traveller supplement that brought horror to the venerable Traveller universe.  Well, there were some changes since then. Specifically, the Traveller support is gone and the game is now called “The Void.”  Wildfire created its own system, designed with ease of use and accessibility in mind. Tentative release date is July 2011. The book is in a 6×9 full-color, soft cover format and contains a massive 416 pages for $30.00.  A “Creative Commons”  license is also under consideration. Art looks really good and Cthulhutech’s quality gives me hope that this will be a candidate for RPG of the year.  I will update you of any further movement on this product.

Eclipse Phase

There is a third printing of Eclipse Phase coming up that incorporates all the errata and streamlined some of the rules. Eclipse Phase: Panopticon tentatively releases at Origins 2011.  Panopticon covers life in habitat, surveillance and security, habitat design and uplifting animals. There are upwards of 40,000 words per section.  Just as an aside, I asked them about the creative commons license and how well it worked for them. In 18 months, Eclipse Phase sold 6,000 books and had 20,000 downloads through the torrents system.  Just a tidbit I found interesting.

Gale Force 9

A large miniature seller, GF9 had a wide assortment of products. Notably their “Battlefield in a Box” line of pre-painted terrain. This stuff was massive and quite heavy/durable. The sculpt quality also impressed me.   In Flames of War news, a very nicely done Polish armored train released. I got a couple of shots below of the box and the miniature itself. With the metal fittings, it weighs a ton!

Southern Hobby Supply

Distributor of hobby gaming supplies to retailers.

Decision Games

An old-school historical war game producer that caters to the Grognard audience. Though simple in appearance and design (lot of cardboard chits), the games are strategically complex.  The “Folio” line of games trades complexity for faster games designed for beginners or elder gamers looking for  quick action.

CCGstuff.com

CCGStuff sells card sleeves and the like, but their most impressive item was a series of limited edition mats for playing Magic: The Gathering. Each neoprene mat is 24×14, printed in full color and of a limited run. Once they run out, they are gone forever. MTG artists were commissioned to do the work and they turned out very well.  Price point is $14.95.

And the slog continues….see you tomorrow.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Looney Labs

The Labs were showing off three new products. First is Pirate Fluxx, which released in February. As the many other Fluxx flavors, this adds Pirates to the game. There are a couple new rules (Plunder and Being Captain), but other then that, it is Fluxx.

Second is Seven Dragons. If you are familiar with their game Aquarius, the gameplay is similar. If not, it is a domino style game (with cards) were you try to connect side of the cards together. Also, this game features original artwork by the venerable Larry Elmore. This game will be released in June.

Last, but not least, is IceDice. If you are familiar with Treehouse, this is another game utilizing the pyrimads. In fact, Looney Labs is designing a whole system around these Looney Pyramids. The IceDice is actually the primary game in the set, but it comes with a bonus games to play with the pyramids as well.  They will be selling other sets, expansion sets, and will even have a website were people can post new game they created with the pyramids. They are basically turning there pyramid pieces into a deck of cards, where you can play countless games. And it all starts with IceDice (and Treehouse), coming in June.

IceDice by Looney Labs

Chivalry Games

Last year at GTS, we covered a game, CHAOSTLE, a game under construction since 2005 (they had sample pieces on display). They have experienced pretty much every problem you can experience working with manufactures. However, I was very pleased to walk past their booth this year, and see a huge stack of CHAOSTLE board games ready for sale (it will be in game stores very soon)! The game mixes tabletop miniatures with board gaming in a sort of race/defense feel. I actually won a copy of the game in their raffle, so you can expect a full detailed review of CHAOSTLE in the near future.

Me, Mark Jacobs, and CHAOSTLE by Chivalry Games

Digme Productions, Inc.

Digme was showing off many games in prototype. However, there one game that is in production now is Strike, Spare or In the Gutter. This is a 21+ drinking game (though you could play it Pepsi if you want). It is a simple game. You roll the dice on a Strike, you drink. On a Spare you pass. In the Gutter, you get a card that has some zany activity that you have to perform (do the robot dance), or a question you have to answer (roll a die and name that many NFL Quarterbacks), to the satisfaction of the group. If they do not approve, you get a penalty.

Strike, Spared, or In the Gutter (and other Prototypes) by Digme Productions

Flying Buffalo

It wouldn’t be a GTS without Flying Buffalo. 2010 was their 40th anniversary. Congratulations to Rick Loomis, and everyone at Flying Buffalo, for creating a gaming dynasty.

Arcane Tinman

The main thing at the Tinman booth was The Spoils. The Spoils is a pop culture CCG with a more adult and a more tongue-in-cheek theme. The game has been around for a few years, and is gaining popularity as a tournament game. They also have a new line of Board Game sleeves.

WorldWise Imports

WorldWise Imports is mainly known for two things. Party (mostly murder mystery) games and beautiful varieties of classic board games (mostly chess). They always have a new and interesting chess board coming out. And this year, they were showing off Dragon Chess. Dragon Chess adds two dragons (and two pawns) to the ends of the classic chess board.  The board also has two extensions out the side. This creates some interesting new strategies (and hiding places). This is a great game for the chess buff who isn’t a purist.

Dragon Chess distributed by WorldWise Imports

More tomorrow…

Konami

Last year’s winner for best of show returned with Yu-Gi-Oh, but added a new CCG “Super Heat.” In this CCG players use cards to do skateboarding tricks and earn points towards victory. Card art looked good and production quality appeared solid. Remains to be seen if this more “realistic” CCG style will catch on.

Hobby-Q

Hobby-Q is the new name of Reaper Miniatures and Asylum Miniatures.  They stated that the original names were not “friendly” enough for some toy and game stores.  Besides their Master Series Paint line, some quite nice miniature kits recently released. The boxes are themed with several unpainted metal miniatures inside a hard-plastic carrying case.  Here is a shot of the new cases without miniatures.

Not custom cut foam, but still a nice bonus when buying miniatures.

Hobby-Q also offers a line of museum quality animal replicas under their “CollectA” banner. Mostly dinosaurs, but that is ok because as a kid I could never have too many large plastic dinosaurs. Hard to tell from the photo, but the construction and paint on these figures/toys is quite good.

Twisted Entertainment

Twisted Entertainment is a GTS newcomer with a new CCG. Rather than the usual mechanics, the game uses a rock-paper-scissors combat system and stickers. Yes, rather than cards it uses collectible stickers. This allows children to play anywhere with minimal preparation time. An online challenge component is under development as well as a “home base” registration feature designed to get players in to game stores for tournaments. This game has a May 19th, 2011 release date.

Out of the Box Publishing

“Shake and Take” and “Faux-cabulary” were the latest family releases from Out of the Box. Faux-cbulary involves rolling dice with parts of words and generating a new, fake word that every agrees best matches a definition on a drawn card. A family game, it played a round and found it amusing.  Shake and Take is a spoons-like game with a “capture the alien” theme. Players grab for aliens as they appear on the alien die.  Plays fast and looks like a fun, light party game.

Outrider Hobbies

Outrider had a wide assortment of cut foam and cases for miniature transport.  I got a kick out of the hot pink miniature case. That takes a very confident, manly gamer to walk into a 40K tournament with his Eldar in a hot pink transport case.

Besides a plethora of pre-cut foam, Outrider has a large catalog of pre-designed  foam trays for a variety of miniatures (40K, Wings of War and many others). Bryan (the owner) is also branching out into foam trays for board games.  You can see the “Dungeonquest” tray in the image above. This is still under development and there will be further announcements about the board game line.

Chessex

Chessex makes dice and they add new colors regularly. Simply not a lot to say about this company, they make great dice and produce them in lots of colors.  Check out their site for more information about options. There are literally thousands!

And the march continues… More tomorrow!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Gary Games was showing off the first expansion to the Ascension deck-building game. This new expansion, called Ascension: Return of the Fallen, adds new mechanics (Fate cards), support for more players (up to 6),  and 120 new cards. This product will be $29.99 and will be out in June.

Ascension: Return of the Fallen by Gary Games

RPS Games

RPS was showing off their new game, Ro-Sham-Bo. This game is Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) put into a family strategy board game form. You use RPS when you encounter your opponents on the board. This game will be shipping in July. It is for 2-4 players.

Ro-Sham-Bo by RPS Games

Ovation Productions, Inc.

Ovation was displaying The Tower of Mystery, a competitive interactive board game. This game is focused on having a big social component, and would be great for family game night. A word of warning though, this game isn’t for the hard-core strategy gamers who want to try to control everything. The game can change very rapidly, and has a heavy injection of random events. One thing I really liked about this game, is that even when it is not your turn, you are still very involved with the game. Bathroom breaks will require a game-pause. This game is for 2-8 Players, target ages 8+. Each game takes about 30 minutes times the number of players. But there is a rule that you can implement to accelerate toward conclusion at any point in the game.

The Tower of Mystery by Ovation Productions

Greater Games Industry Catalog

The GGIC is a reference catalog for all hobby gaming products (over 45,000), as well as some articles of interest. Availability is limited to retailers, publishers, buyers, and distributors, but if you happen to be one of them, Trask is a regular contributor in the articles section.

MerchantOS

MerchantOS is a POS/Inventory Management system that is Internet-based. One cool thing with this product, is that they pre-load the SKUs for most of the game stuff out there. So if a retailer gets a new game into their store, it is ready to be scanned with the bar code reader, no information entry needed.

North Star Games

NSG has two new games for 2011. First is Say Anything: Family Edition. Similar to what they did last year  with their Wits and Wagers to Wits and Wagers Family crossover, it has the same mechanics as the original Say Anything, the questions are just more geared toward younger players and families. Also, they have a new party game coming out in August called Crappy Birthday. It is a good ice-breaker/get to know you type of game with similar mechanics to Apples to Apples. Everyone gives you cards to try to be the “worst gift possible” and you pick which one is worst for you, and they get a point. Expect a lot of laughs.

Say Anything Family Edition by North Star Games

GameBrotherz

GameBrotherz, another new vendor at GTS this year, is a Canadian company focused on Kid/Family games. They have three new games coming out this year. Mister Mailman Junior (2-4 player, ages 8+) is a revamp of the original Mister Mailman with greater simplicity in the rules and gameplay.  In this game mailmen race around the neighborhood delivering mail. BOO (1-6 playres, ages 5+) is an adventure/race game.  Spuzzle (1-4 players, ages 4+) is a puzzle building game.

More tomorrow!