Osprey Publishing, the venerable publisher of military history/reference books, showed off its latest offering, the “Raid” series. “Raid” books each focus on a specific military raid in tremendous detail. “Raid” looked interesting and the art diverged a bit from the usual ink and paint of other Osprey titles to a more digital look. Here is one of the upcoming titles.

Osprey Raid Cover

Osprey also had several samples of their “Field of Glory” miniature combat game books on display as well, in addition to the literally hundreds of historical titles.

A non-GTS interlude: I purchased an Osprey title “Saracen Strongholds” a few weeks ago and the review will go up next week.

Additionally, while writing this post I noticed a 20% off sale on all their “campaign” titles over at the Osprey Publishing web site, good until 4-30-09. I do not make any referral cash off sales, this is just a public service announcement.

Numbskull Games

Numbskull had a clever little card game involving psychiatrists treating patients in an asylum called “The Looney Bin.” Did not get to play it, but the cards were a riot.

Steve Jackson Games

“Chez Goth,” the goth answer to “Chez Geek” hits stores in August 2009. Tagging along is a 15 card expansion for “Munchkin” called ” Munchkin:Fairy Dust” It has the cutest little fairy on the front cover, with a carefully concealed warhammer behind her back. Every card is full color with “glittery pink and silver fairy dust effects.” Considering we are talking about “Munchkin,” this new addition is slightly disturbing…

Acrylicos Vallejo

I am not a miniature painter, but I thought some of the oxidized and distressed colors on display here were pretty interesting. Worth a look for miniature painters.

Arcane Legions

“Arcane Legions”  from “Wells Expeditions” is a newcomer to the miniature wargame world and has an interesting premise. Magic erupted onto the world and three factions now compete for superiority, the Romans, Han Chinese and Egyptians. Here is a shot of the game board and 25 mm miniatures. The miniatures are early prototypes and not painted. Take note of the plastic peg-board on the left side.

Arcane Legions At War!

“Arcane Legions” is a massed combat game with a twist. The peg-boards you see in the photo above have templates placed on them. The templates define what type of units go on the board. Moreover, they also determine attack/defense/speed characteristics depending on where miniatures are placed on the board. It is difficult to see in my image, but there are different icons on each “peg” location on the template. These define what characteristic the miniature in that particular hole receives. For example, all of the occupied holes in my image give combat bonuses, but nothing to movement. During the game players change formations for different effects.

Units move as a group, using the movement tool included in the base kit. It is the plastic “T” in this image.

Arcane Legions Movement Tool

More interesting to me was the business model for “Arcane Legions.” Subscribers to the “Centurion Club” site have access to special resin miniatures and the ability to create and print their own templates. There is also a system for verifying the authenticity of the template through a serial number. This prevents photoshoppers from creating “illegal” templates. The miniatures are relatively inexpensive, with the base set of 110 figures only $34.99. In a smart move, “AL” has three options for adding additional units. Army packs have a random assortment of 40 unpainted figures, faction specific per box. There is no guessing when you buy as to what you get. Cavalry packs are the same setup, with 15 mounted figures, also unpainted. Booster packs contain 1 rare, painted figure, a base card/template, two additional rare/uncommon units and five additional base cards for use with the booster/army packs. These additional sets are priced between $11.99 and $14.99. I was never a fan of the random, blind miniature purchase business model. I like the fact that randomness is only a small part of the army building process.

“Arcane Legion’s” reps indicated that the game probably releases at Gen Con this year. I will post any updates as I get them.

Wells Expedition's Kiosk at GTS 2009

Tasty Minstrel Games

Tasty Minstrel had two prototypes on display “Homesteaders,” a city-building game and “Terra Prime,” a game of interstellar exploration. Neither game is released yet and are scheduled to ship in Q3 2009.

Konami

I sat down with the Konami demo team and played a round of “Blue Dragon.” Konami calls BD a “Role-Playing Card Game.” Many of the mechanics are CCG standards, but “Blue Dragon” adds a “level up” component. As you discard spent cards, they accumulate and you can “spend” them to upgrade your primary monster. It made discarding an actual tactic, as opposed to just a side-effect of playing cards. “Blue Dragon” clearly skews to the younger gaming crowd, but was fun.

One3 Productions

One3 Productions had a very cool, multimedia booth dedicated to their prototype game “Fury.” The game premise is that a treatment center for anger management actually puts the patients into gladiatorial pit-fights and watches the blood fly! The game plays in 3 dimensions and sounded like a blast to play. The combat system was relatively simple and the game board was…interesting.

One3 Production's "Fury" Board Game

Here is another view.

Fury, The Board Game

“Fury” was looking for a publisher at the show and it appeared that some were interested, but I did not hear if it sold or not. I will update this post if I get any firm release dates on this game.

Enough blogging for a work night. I am off to do real-world necessities.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Bandai

Bandai’s main focus was on their new “Battle Spirits” CCG imported from Japan. The basic set comes with 10 plastic gems for tracking actions during the game. Launching an attack costs X gems. If you run out, then you cannot take that action. I am oversimplifying greatly, but that is the basic idea. The cards were nice and the addition of the gem mechanic will make this game popular among the younger gamers.

Battle Spirits Game Mat

Days of Wonder: Small World

I played this game at the PSI open game night for demos. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out I had played this “new” game before. It is a remake of “Vinci.”

Small World Game Board

Small World Box

The primary difference is that “Small World” has fantasy creatures. I played a rampaging skeleton horde…and lost to the halflings. Oh, the shame!

Catalyst Game Labs

Catalyst had several new products and prototypes at the show. I got my first look at the 20th Anniversary Edition of Shadowrun.

Shadowrun 20th Anniversary Cover

This is the actual cover and under the cover was the printer’s proof of the book, held together with rubber bands. I flipped through it briefly and was impressed by the art. I am anxious to get a closer look at this item. I am a big Shadowrun fan, but lapsed in recent years. This book might bring me back into the fold…er…net.

Catalyst also had an early version of “Balance of Power,” a new board game. I know it looks a little like “Risk,” but the mechanics are very different. A modified “rock,paper,scissors” system based on unit types (general, banker, king) determines victory.

Balance of Power Board Game Prototype

“Leviathan” is a new miniatures game set in a fantastical 19th century. Nikolai Tesla develops technology allowing mighty battleships to take flight and do battle for the great powers of Europe. Here is a shot of the cover.

Leviathan Miniature Game Drawings

The art was very well done and I look forward to seeing what the miniatures look like.

Catalyst also has a Reiner Knizia card game coming out called “Merchants.” I did not have a chance to play it, so I will end my comment there until I can actually get in a game.

Reiner Knizia's "Merchants" Prototype

White Wolf

This was a bit surprising. White Wolf, one of the oldest RPG companies shows up at GTS with a new board game based on the EVE MMORPG. Production values were excellent and I utterly failed to get a picture of the board that was setup. Sorry. I direct you to Boardgame geek for some images.

Atlas Games

“The Antarctic Express” is the classic children’s story, “Polar Express,” as done by H.P. Lovecraft (Kenneth Hite actually). I  flipped through the book and it was hysterical. Young boy gets on a plane in his pajamas and arrives in the Antarctic by plane, only to meet some hungry…things at the “Mountains of Madness.” Good times.

The Antarctic Express

Game Science

Words fail me. Just look at this die.

The D-Total

Sorry for the fuzziness, best I could do with the basic camera setup I have. This 24-sided die (the “D-Total”) is big, about the same size as a d100, maybe a big bigger. Each side has multiple die shapes on it with numbers in the shapes. If you use the included, complicated directions, you can simulate rolling many types of dice (d2, d4, d6 etc)  with this one die. I am very skeptical gamers will ever give up the bags of dice for this gimmicky item, but it looks interesting.

That is all for today. I have some more items going up this week, but real-world demands are draining my time. I will post when I can and hopefully will complete my GTS coverage this weekend or early next week.  As always, I have the list of exhibitors and links to their websites up at rpgseek.com.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Wood Expressions

This California-based company had one of the more interesting booths at the show. It was floor to ceiling with wooden board games. Chess mostly, but they also had a nice assortment of more unusual games like Mancala and Ur. I know it is not exactly cutting-edge games, but the elegance of a simple wooden game appeals to me. I think they just look cool. They do not sell to the public, only to retailers.

Wood Expressions UR set.

Chess Sets Aplenty!

Randolph Rose Group

“Big Sunday” is a football simulator/board game. The mechanics involve offense and defense choosing pre-packaged plays and then resolving the play based on their choices. Not my cup of tea, but the game looked like fun for a football fanatic.

Out of the Box Publishing

Out of the Box has an array of family and party games for all occasions. I played a quick demo of “Word on the Street.” It involves moving letters back and forth across a “Street” by using the letters in words. It seemed more educational than a party game, but I could see how some adults might get a kick out of it.

Word on the Street

Studio 2 Publishing

Studio 2 had a nice display regarding their new Deadlands: The Flood supplement. It contains information about the west coast after a devastating flood consumed the land. It also adds rules for martial arts.

Games Workshop

Miniatures are not my thing, but I know GW’s products have a rabid following, hence this entry. I chatted a bit at the GW booth and they mentioned that there is a new empire army coming out soon, as well as 3 new classic armies. I did not get the names of the armies, sorry. A friend also sent me to GW’s booth in a quest for “greens,” but none were available. I am such a GW novice that the kind gentlemen at the GW booth had to explain what a “green” actually is (it is a prototype epoxy version of an upcoming miniature). I was also instructed to ask about the potential of Thunderhawks in plastic versus resin. The booth had no information on this subject. They also discussed the upcoming Warhammer 40k Planetstrike rules. It went a bit over my head, but I think it boils down to rules and such for running planetary invasions.

Upperdeck

A new “World of Warcraft” miniature set is on the horizon. There are 51 new miniatures in the set and it adds rules for equipment on the miniatures to enhance their abilities when fighting. The date for all this miniature carnage is May 5th, 2009. They were also passing out an “Ethereal Crypt Raider” promo miniature.

ImagiGrafx Games

Imagigrafx is not a game company, it is a game printer. Juan Mendez, IG’s VP discussed how IG can do almost everything from printing and assembly to graphic arts for the aspiring publisher. The printing samples on display were quite attractive. I include it because I know there are aspiring game publishers out there that could really use an integrated printing service like IG.

Shard Studios

Shard Studios had a very nice booth that featured the “Shard,” the role-playing game. I was able to take a look at the main book, some supplements and an elaborate map of the world.

Shard: The Role-Playing Game

Shard: The RPG Map and DM Screen

The production quality was excellent on everything. All maps for “Shard” come in a tube, so no creases. A nice touch. The Shard book itself is massive and beautifully illustrated. All the pages and artwork are in a sort of washed-out, sepia tone color scheme. Art is top notch throughout and has a unique look, rather than the screaming, action-packed images in your average WOTC offering. I look forward to this release in the near future.

I am off to complete real-world demands. Come back tomorrow for my pick for “Best of Show” from GTS 2009.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Royal Chess

Royal Chess’ booth had a simple chess set setup and some cards with chess pieces printed on them on either side of the chess board. You have a hand of 5 cards and you have to play cards to move your chess pieces. If you do not have the card, you cannot move the piece. It simplified the game and added a layer of bluffing to the dynamic, since you never knew what pieces your opponent could move.

Royal Chess

Warball

Duncan YoYo offered this variation on the CCG. The game combines cards with marbles, excuse me “warballs,” to resolve combat. The marbles were nice and some of them had little creatures imbedded in them that reflected the various card creatures. There is some actual physical skill involved in shooting the marbles, so it is a bit more challenging than a standard CCG. The images below are of the organized play arena setup. This does not come with the basic set.

Warball Tournament Table

Dragonfire Signs Lasercrafts

Dragonfire produces a line of laser-cut and etched cards, buttons and tokens. Their latest offering is the licensed Traveller ships below for the venerable RPG game. The laser also added shading to the plastic and gave these ships a nice overall look.

Dragonfire Signs Traveller Ship

Reaper Miniatures

Reaper goes resin! The thing that caught my eye at the Reaper booth was the “Dark Maiden” below. Releasing in July for $129.00 retail, this is a massive piece. The “Dark Maiden” used to inhabit the prow of a pirate ship, but something went horribly wrong and now she is…annoyed.

Reaper Mini Resin "Dark Maiden"

Battle Foam

Battle Foam was new to me, but then again I am not a miniature player. They had some nice miniature carrying cases, but their major offerings are the custom foam blocks for odd sized miniatures that go in the cases. They support Warhammer, Blood Bowl, AT-43, Flames of War and several other army types off the shelf. Should you need a custom cut piece of foam, they can do that also. There is a helpful video on their website on how to create a template for their cutting machine. The fully loaded cases cost between $100 to $200.00, but given the cost of the miniatures in the case, it is probably a bargain.

Battlefoam Samples

Small Battlefoam Case

Looney Labs

The always reliable Looney Labs did very well at the show this year with “Traitor.” Coming out in June, 2009, this is a modified version of the classic party game “Werewolf.” “Traitor” involves wizards, keys and, of course, a traitor. The goal is  to get a magic key to the “good” wizard. Problem is no one knows who the wizard is and there is an identical evil wizard that also wants the key. Sadly, I did not get in a game of this, but it looked like all the participants were having a great time.

Mayfair Games

Haaldaar, my co-blogger is a huge Catan geek. He sent me specifically to the Mayfair booth with a mission to discover new Catan information. I pressed for deep, dark secrets of upcoming Catan releases and came up empty. Although I did get a look at “Catan Geographies: Germany.” The shots below are from that game. There was also a new release called “Pack and Stack” that involved stacking blocks on trucks. Very Tetris-like, but with board game mechanics. Martin Wallace has a new entry in the “Age of Steam” board game series entitled “Steam: Rails to Riches.” There is also a 350 limited edition version of the game coming out for collectors.

Mayfair Games "Steam: Rails to Riches"

Mayfair Games "Catan Geographies: Germany"

Asmodee Games

Asmodee’s latest offering is “Giants.” You have to move Easter Island Moais around to score points. Even though this game is out already, I had to mention it because I have a soft spot for giant statues.

Asmodee Giants Game

More to come! Remember, a list of all the exhibitors are available on RPGSeek.com.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The show is a chock full of gaming goodness. There were some truly exciting games and prototypes on offer that promise great things to come in the gaming industry. It was refreshing to see some new, smaller companies entering the market with fresh ideas ( I will write more on those in the days ahead). I also saw some new games from established companies like Green Ronin and Steve Jackson games. I have a huge amount to write about, some tasty stuff will go up in the next couple of days, stretching into next week.

Now for the bad news. I felt the show attendance was low, given it is one of the biggest trade events for gaming. I checked with previous attendees and they also said attendance was down. I chatted with a distributor that wished to remain anonymous who stated that new clients were significantly off from previous years.

There is also a rumor floating around the show that some of the larger companies might not attend next year. It is strictly a rumor, but telling and I would not be surprised at all if it comes to pass.

There was one disappointment that I thought worth mentioning. “Wizards of the Coast” has a nice array of new products coming out this year, but it all had a distinctively stale air about it. Their main push was in regards to the “2″ books (their term, not mine) MM2, PHB2 and DMG2. There was also a mention of the “Player’s Handbook 3″ in 2010. 4E, for good or ill was exciting at release. Now it seems like WOTC is copying movie studios trying to squeeze yet one more sequel out of the franchise. 4E is successful, no question, but I would like to see WTOC branch out a bit and try something new. WOTC has the talent, marketing and financing to take a little risk.

I am going to wrap up so I can catch up on email. There is more coming about GTS 2009 this weekend, but if you would like to see what exhibitors attended, check out the GTS 2009 Exhibitor List on rpgseek.com.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

I had went to the PSI demo event last night. Playing games with half-blasted gamers is always amusing. Saw some interesting stuff, including some prototypes not releasing for a couple of months.

So far, the high point of the show is Exillis which is a new tabletop miniature/computer game. No, that is not a typo. It is both.  I will have a full report on that tomorrow.

That is all for now, I just did not want anyone to think I was slacking.  More later

Gods, trade shows are hard work!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

See you in Vegas!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

GAMA GTS 2009 Trade Show Book

The book does not contain links to the various exhibitor’s websites, but I have a link list over at rpgseek.com.

List of GAMA GTS Exhibitor Websites

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

GAMA, The Game Manufacturers Association‘s annual trade show (GTS) starts on April 14th-17th 2009. This is the primary trade show for publishers to show their new games to retailers and “earn” some shelf space.

I am attending on the 14th and 15th, so my question to my readers is; what should I blog about at the show? The reason for my question is that I believe I am the only member of the rpgbloggers.com network attending. (Oops, almost forgot the Pulp Gamer guys, so not totally alone.)   So I am  (nearly) alone at the show and the amount of material I can blog about is potentially vast. I need to pick my targets carefully to make efficient use of my time. That and I want to try to cater to the needs of my readers. ;-)

I will cover the usual suspects, like new game releases and demo session reports, but I am open to any special requests from my readership. If there is a game, game developer or publisher that you, my readership, believe deserves special attention, please mention it in the comments. I will do my level best to accommodate your requests. Do not feel limited to role-playing games either. I play board games also, with a fondness for the German imports, so just about any game related request will be considered!

Here is the list of companies that will be in attendance at GTS 2009. If you prefer a hyper-linked list of exhibitors, I put one together on rpgseek.com.

Hyperllinked GTS 2009 Exhibitor List

GTS 2009 Exhibitor List

AAA Anime
ACD Distribution
Acrylicos Vallejo
Alliance Distribution
APBA Games
APE Games
Asmodee Editions
Atlas Games
Bandai
Bastion Studio
Battlefront Miniatures
Bucephalus Games
Bullet Hole Games
Bunky’s Enterprises (in the GPA booth)
Cactus Game Design (in the PSI booth)
Catalyst Game Labs
Chessex Manufacturing
Cloud Kingdom (in the GPA booth)
Crystal Caste
Cynergy Data
Darkson Designs
Days of Wonder (in the Alliance booth)
Department of Homeland Security
Dragonfire Lasercrafts
Dream Pod 9
Duncan Toys
Dustgame Ltd
ElfinWerks
EOS Press (in the GPA booth)
Family Games
Flying Buffalo Games
Flying Frog Productions
FRED Distribution
Gale Force 9
Game Publishers Association (GPA)
GameBuyer Magazine
Games Workshop
Gamestation, Inc.
GHQ
Gorilla Games
Greater Games Industry Catalog
Green Ronin Publishing
GTS Distribution
Host-Party.com
Hero Games (in the GPA booth)
Inner City Games Design (in the GPA booth)
JLB Studios
Konami
Koplow Games
Looney Labs
Magazine Exchange
Mayfair Games
Mazology
MindWare
Mongoose Publishing Ltd
North Star Games
Ody-See.COM Ltd
Offworld Designs
Osprey Publishing
Out of the Box Games
Pegasus Hobbies
Playroom Entertainment
Pokemon USA
Privateer Press
Publisher Services Inc
Pulp Gamer
Randolph Rose Group
Reaper Miniatures
Screenlife
Silvergate Distributors
Smirk & Dagger
Squires, Margy/David
Steve Jackson Games (in the PSI booth)
Strategicon
Studio 2 Publishing
Tablestar Games (in the PSI booth)
TC Digital (Chaotic)
Three Sages Games (in the GPA booth)
Ultra Pro
Upper Deck Entertainment
Wells Expeditions
White Wolf (in the PSI booth)
Wizards of the Coast
Wood Expressions
WorldWise Imports
Xtra Innings

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

I cannot find links for the following vendors:

Bastion Studio
Family Games
GHQ
JLB Studios
Squires, Margy/David–I found this link, but it leads to a vitamin retailer. Is there anything game related about this vendor or are they crashing the party?
Wells Expeditions
Xtra Innings

Rather than shoehorn the 90 links into a blog post, I created a new category over at RPGSeek.com’s directory with the links. This makes them readily searchable and I have added them to the  search engines on the site’s front page, where applicable.

2009 GAMA Trade Show List of Exhibitors with Links

I expect additions to the list in  the next couple of weeks as publishers finalize their plans. I will update the list and notify you of any changes as GAMA updates their site. I have not added deep descriptions of the exhibitors as yet. If you are an exhibitor or an interested fan that would like to update a link entry in the directory, just submit a new entry with the improved description to the “new submissions” category and I will update the entry.

Hope to see you in Vegas!

Trask, The Last Tyromancer