Kickstarter Focus—Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition

By Firestone With less than a week to go, Ted Alspach's Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe Edition is crushing it on Kickstarter. For fans of deduction games, Werewolf games, and things with the words ultimate and deluxe in the SAME TITLE, you should check it out before it's gone.

Yes, it's another Werewolf game. But this one supports 75 people! That sounds like the most insane thing in the history of time to me, but you know someone will get a 75-player game going at GenCon, or something...

Anyway, the game comes with 75 base cards, and thanks to stretch goals, they've unlocked a Classic Movie Monsters expansion, Night Terrors expansion, Urban Legends expansion, and the Wolfpack expansion. And some others are close to getting unlocked too.

In addition, a bunch of board game artists signed on to create artwork for some of the game's cards, and you can add those artpacks onto your pledge.

You get the whole shebang for $25--which includes a shipped copy of the game--with the expansions--along with a Getting Started Guide, a Moderator Guide, a Team-Building Guide, scenarios, a Moderator scorecard, and one of the artpacks of your choice. You can, of course, up your pledge to get more stuff.

The campaign ends Monday night. And you might be too delirious from the Broncos' Super Bowl victory to remember to back it. So go check it out now!

Thanks for reading!

Z-Man Games Announces a Vikings Reprint!

This is GREAT news for people who like GREAT games. Z-Man has announced they'll be reprinting the OOP Michael Kiesling classic Vikings in 2014.

Sell 'em if you've got 'em, because this 2007 game has been fetching big $ on the open market.

It's an auction and tile-placement game. There's a cool "table" that acts as the market for buying different viking-and-tile combinations to place into your kingdom. As vikings/tiles on the lower-cost end of the wheel are bought, the wheel will spin, and those that were expensive are now cheaper. Or, you can just buy that tile/viking combo you really need at the higher price. And there are marauding enemy ships that you're sometimes forced to buy and deal with. And because of the way the wheel works—which is much too complex to explain without showing you—you can set it up so your opponents are forced to buy tiles they don't want or can't use. It's devious and wonderful!And there's an advanced version that adds even more complexity, but also some more interesting decisions.

No news yet on whether this will be a straight reprint or not.

Trust me on this: Vikings is a TERRIFIC game, and if you don't have a copy, make sure you snatch up this reprint.

Another Beginner Box for the Star Wars RPG

By Firestone Just as they did with Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Fantasy Flight Games is coming out with a Beginner Box to kick off the the next stage of their hit roleplaying game set in the Star Wars universe.

The Star Wars Age Of Rebellion Beginner Game is being called "An introduction to roleplaying for 3-5 player." It includes Takeover At Whisper Base, an adventure that teaches the fundamentals as you play. There are four pregenerated characters: a human ace pilot, a Mon Calamari engineer, a human soldier, and a Duros spy.

The game comes with...

• 1 32-page Adventure Book, 1 48-page Rulebook, and 1 Introduction Sheet
• 4 Full-Color Character Folios
• 1 Full-Color Double-Sided Foldout Map
• 14 Custom Dice
• 9 Destiny Tokens, 33 Character Tokens, and 7 Vehicle Tokens

Look for it in the second quarter of 2014.

Has anyone played the latest version of the Star Wars RPG? I think my kids (and I!) would love it, but I'd really like to get other people's opinions. So what do you think?

The New Podcast is Here!

Yeah, so...we're behind on podcasts. We have good reasons for it, but you don't really care what they are. Just know that we're back in the groove, and a new podcast just dropped.

AND, we have another one in the hopper, so look for that soon! (ish)

You can find the new one here. Or if you've already subscribed, then just go look! Because it's there!

We talked about some of the newsworthy stories coming out of the gaming world. Then we introduced a fun new segment called  Fill In the Blank! (Complete with impromptu theme song.) And we had an interview with Lance Hill about his recently Kickstarted game Kings Of Israel. Plus, we introduced another new segment, called Fire & Eis! And finally, we reviewed Mayfair's recent viking game Asgard's Chosen. That's a bunch!

Thanks for reading and listening!

Fantasy Flight is Bringing Back 1st Edition Descent. Kinda.

A couple of years back, Fantasy Flight decided to reboot their popular dungeon-crawling, RPGing franchise Descent. People who had the 1st edition could still use their monsters and heroes—they just had to track down a copy of the Conversion Kit that Fantasy Flight put out. Well, now they're making it easier to bring those 1st edition items into your 2.0 game.

According to their Web site, Fantasy Flight have decided to release Hero and Monster collections. Well, right now it's just one collection, but if this sells well, expect to see more of them.

The first collection, Oath of the Outcast, will have three monster groups and four heroes that were only available in the 1st edition. The baddies are bane spiders, beastmen, and razorwings; and the heroes are Trenloe the Strong, Laurel of Bloodwood, Elder Mok, and Shiver. They're also including two new quests.

These aren't just repackaging of old pieces, though: The art and sculpts are both brand new. They haven't said how much the expansion will cost, but look for it in the 2nd quarter of 2014. We'll give you more information as it becomes available.

Thanks for reading!

Kickstarter Weekly - Jan. 9, 2013—errr...14

Hey everyone! We're getting things back up and running in the new year, and we certainly hope that you and yours had a magnificent time during the holidays. We're back this week with this year's first Kickstarter Weekly! Should all acquaintance be forgot? NOPE! There are a lot of exciting things happening on Kickstarter with some perennial favorites launching campaigns this very day! So sweep up that confetti, put the lampshade back on the lamp, and stop writing 2013 on your checks... Seriously... Who uses checks anymore!? It's time for Kickstarter Weekly!

Featured Campaign

Tiny Epic Kingdoms - Gamelyn Games

This campaign comes from our good friends over at Gamelyn Games. This is the first title from Gamelyn that hasn't been designed by founder Michael Coe. Gamelyn has a successful history on Kickstarter with their charter campaign of Dungeon Heroes delivering what backers wanted and more! TEK is a mini 4x game that has been all the rage over social media as of late.

The Campaign ends on Feb. 8 and a pledge of $16 get's you the base game and $24 will score you a deluxe copy. Find all the info on the campaign, right here!

Burgoo - A Pay-What-You-Want Game of Community Stew - Tasty Minstrel Games

Hot on the heels of  their ridiculously successful Pay-What-You-Want campaign for Coin Age, which is quite possibly the microest of micro games, Tasty Minstrel Games is at it again with Burgoo. A game about building stew. The rules seem simple enough: Manage to get all of your ingredients into the stew and win.

The recommended pledge is $5, but a $3 pledge will get you a copy of Burgoo, sent to anywhere in the world!! The campaign ends Jan. 25 and you can find out all the details: Right here!

Ultimate Werewolf - Bezier Games

Another take on the classic game. Ultimate Werewolf supports up to 75 players... Yes, seven-five. This campaign adds a ton of new features, updated art, lots of new variants, character roles and so on. If you're into Mafia and Werewolf and the like you should check this one out!

The campaign ends Feb. 3, and a pledge of $25 will get you a copy of the game. Click here, for all the details!

Spearpoint 1943 Eastern Front - Collins Epic Wargames

The third in the Spearpoint series, Eastern Front brings unit cards for the Russian forces and more German forces units as well. I (Jeremiah) got to play the original Spearpoint 1943 back when it released at Origins a few years ago. It's a fun lightweight card combat game for two players. It allows for customization of decks, but only within the constraints of what you get in the box—much like  an LCG, there's no card-chasing here!

The campaign for Eastern Front ends on Jan. 20, and a pledge of $29 will score you a copy of the game. You can find out all the details, right here!

Fantasy Flight Announces a New Deluxe Expansion for Netrunner

In their never-ending quest to separate me from my money, Fantasy Flight has announced Honor & Profit, a new expansion for Android: Netrunner—this time a deluxe expansion.

This one focuses on the Jinteki Corp, and the Criminal Runners—though you're free, of course, to use these cards in any deck you'd like. Though it'll cost you...

There are also some new neutral cards. The 165-card expansion is scheduled for release in the first quarter of next year.

IOS Sale—Small World 2: 50% Off

Here at Theology Of Games, we're big fans of the game Small World. And you can now get the iOS version of Small World 2 for a small-er price!

It's only $4.99, down from $9.99.We have no idea how long this will last, so go, go, go!

Just think: For the holidays maybe you travel west, to stay with your in-laws on their uncomfortable "antique"bed (which is code for uncomfortable), and you wake up ridiculously early because of the time change and the uncomfortable bed and because you drank three glasses of egg nog and you REALLY have to pee. Now you'll have something to do while you wait for other people to wake up! You're welcome.

Christmas Present Idea: Geeky Ice Cube Molds

How cool is this?! Thinkgeek is selling some fun ice cube molds—one is a d20, and one is the Death Star.

They're two-piece molds; here's how they work:

To freeze: Fill bottom half of mold up to seam. Put top half of mold on (match notches). When frozen, remove from freezer. WITHOUT removing the top, fill the rest of the way (but leave a little space) and put back in freezer. Because of the magic of water molecules (and how they expand when frozen), this method prevents the mold from leaking.

Dishwasher-safe. Relatively cheap. Super-geeky.

Here's the D20, and Here's the Death Star one.

Thanks for reading!

Amazon Lightening Deals - Smash Up! - Rise of Augustus!

As an act of public service we're giving you a quick update! Today at 3:00 PM EST Amazon is running a lightning deal for two popular board games!

First is Smash Up! The shuffle-building game that started it all! On Amazon the price is only $22.99, but when the clock strikes three, Amazon will knock off even more from the MSRP. So clickety-click RIGHT HERE! To see what you can save!

Next up is Rise of Augustus from Asmodee - We haven't reviewed this yet, but the customer reviewers on Amazon call it "Fancy Bingo", and say it's a great gateway game for folks. Check it out RIGHT HERE!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for our last installment of our 2013 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, which is coming tomorrow!

Remember these are "Lightning Deals," which mean they don't last forever, so act fast!