Space Games, The Final Frontier (October 2020 newsletter) (Patreon)

Hey folks, hope everyone is staying safe and sane today. Having voted already, I'm throwing myself into work to stay distracted from any particular events until tonight...we'll see how that goes. Anyway! The biggest news is that the Nemesis videos are up! If you're at the Rules Lawyer level you can watch both of them, otherwise just the base game video is available for now. Either way, go take a look. Nemesis surprised me by being the biggest single project I've ever worked on. 26 pages of script (not including shot notes), 56 hours of work (not including learning the game), and 1 mild electrocution (no I'm not kidding, yes I'm ok) went into these videos, so I really hope you all like them. My process may be a bit of a mess, but I like to think it yields results.

I'll have the usual strategy and other extra videos out in the coming weeks, but my eye is also turning towards Prophecy of Kings. I can't really show off the game before its release, but I can promise you that it looks very good. I doubt I'll be able to actually play it before putting up the rules video, but the mechanics are not terribly complicated, so it won't stop me from teaching it.

In the meantime, I've put out a few Rahdo videos this week. Probably the biggest project I worked on was Veiled Fate, which has a fascinating take on social deduction mechanics. I'm always hesitant to say it's unique, but I can't really think of anything that works the way this does. That being said, the cost of the game (with minis) seemed rather high. I don't know if late pledging is an option, but if so I'd recommend getting the affordable version. Of course, the artwork is pretty fantastic, so I wouldn't blame you for splurging.

I also played Brick and Mortar, and man am I bummed that they needed their review copy back after I covered it. This is a sharp economic game that can be played non-confrontationally, but when it gets going, man do the claws come out. It's not a game I would want to play all the time, but for when I would it's a very satisfying experience. The artwork is a little at odds with its cutthroat nature, but I actually found that to be endearing. This is something I would highly recommend checking out.

And for myself, I picked up the new Spirit Island expansion, Jagged Earth, and have been having a ton of fun trying out the new spirits. I haven't gone through all of them yet, but just about every single one I've tried has been a blast. Man I love this game that lets me be a weird angler fish-lizard or an angry boulder or just a flock of birds.

Board games are good.