April 2006 - Posts

• Two big reprints from Splotter

  I'm not a news source, nor do I have any "inside sources" to industry events.  What I do have is an email client and a proclivity for being in the right place at the right time.  So I'm happy to present a tasty bit of news I received in an email response from Splotter.     I asked about the possibility of reprints, and according to the response, both Roads & Boats and Antiquity are going to be reprinted this year. The only details in the email from Splotter said that sales would be taken by preorders and the games were to be shipped in June.  Seeing how it's already late April and the announcement hasn't been official yet, that seems a bit ambitious to me -- though I'd love to see it happen.  Splotter also indicated that details would appear on the website within a couple of weeks. I've been looking to find a copy of Roads & Boats for a number of months, but the eBay prices get ridiculously expensive.  I'm very, very excited about the reprint.  Antiquity is one I had tried to import from Germany, but I could never locate a copy.  I do feel a bit bad for those die-hard fans who have paid the $300+ US for a copy of R&B, but such is the risk of game collecting.  I was bitten by the Die Macher reprint, having paid close to $100 for my 2nd edition copy.  (Though judging from the early artwork of 3rd edition, I'm very glad I bought the 2nd edition when I did.  Yuck!  That's a topic for another day.) Anyway, I hope this news excites a lot of people.  And thanks to the folks at Splotter for letting me share this with the rest of the web.  I look forward to preorder! Posted Apr 26 2006, 09:09 AM by Jeff with 1 comment(s) Filed under: General Gaming, Boardgames

• Pizza Box Football - Alternate Rules

  Last month I got the chance to play my first game of Pizza Box Football with Jay.  I bought this on my last big Thoughthammer purchase.  I have a few beefs with the game, but my biggest complaint is how much time it takes considering you're just rolling a bunch of dice and not making a lot of interesting decisions.  So I've come up with an alternate set of rules to use with the game.  I've included two handy charts that I came up with while in a meeting at work today.  I'll present them here, along with my alternate rules.  If anyone wants a nice, professional copy of my alternate rules, I might be persuaded to send them to you for $10 + shipping. Pizza Box Football Alternate Rules Step 1 - Choose a starting player To make things easy, use rock / scissors / paper, or roll a die to see who the starting player is. Step 2 - Play Rock / Scissors / Paper The next step in Pizza Box Football is for the offensive player to select a play type, and for the defense to select his defense type.  Rather than wasting all sorts of time with that, just play a quick game of Roshambo.  This step replaces the "Run / Short Pass / Long Pass" step of the game. Cross-reference the throw using Table A and appy the result as a modifier for the starting player. Table A - Rock / Scissors Paper Result Table Step 3 - Starting Player Die Roll In the final step, the starting player rolls a single d6, applies the modifier from Step 2, and looks up the result on Table B to determine the results of the game. Table B - Final Result Table That's it!  These rules really streamline the game, and make the time investment really match up with the skill level needed to play Pizza Box Football.  After all, if you're going to have a meaningless dice-fest, why not make the game length match the fun factor? I hope these alternate rules bring you minutes of fun the next time you get together with a buddy to play your next game of Pizza Box Football! Posted Apr 19 2006, 03:24 PM by Jeff with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Boardgames