Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein

Plaid Hat Games have suddenly a plethora of games coming out. Super Punch Fighter and Quirky Circuits have our interest piqued but it’s Abomination that has us super interested. 2 to 4 player competitive monster building? Awesome!

From the publisher:

It’s been twenty years since Victor Frankenstein died on a ship in the Arctic, but his vengeful creature lives on, as does Robert Walton, the sea captain who vowed to kill the fiend before mercy stayed his hand. It’s now 1819, and a sinister darkness descends upon the city of Paris. A mysterious benefactor of gigantic stature has emerged in the scientific community, never showing his face, claiming to possess the late Frankenstein’s research. He sponsors a grand competition, offering an even grander prize: unlocking the mystery of mortality!

Renowned scientists from around the world come to take part: some drawn to solve this eternal riddle, others coerced against their will. But a certain captain comes as well, one deeply suspicious of the secretive patron, hoping to finally fulfil his vow.

Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein is a competitive game of strategic monster building for 2-4 players, inspired by Mary Shelley’s classic novel of gothic horror. In the game, the creature demands your help to accomplish what his own creator would not: to bring to life an abomination like itself, a companion to end its miserable solitude. Through worker placement and careful management of decomposing resources, you’ll gather materials from the cemeteries and morgues around the city, conduct valuable research at the Academy of Science, hire less-than-reputable associates, and toil away in your lab — all in an effort to assemble a new form of life and infuse it with a “spark of being”. Do well, and the creature may reward you during one of its surprise visits; do poorly, and you may come to regret not putting forth more effort. Narrative elements come into play throughout the game, guided by your decisions, leading to potentially unsavoury outcomes.

The game ends when you succeed in bringing your creation to life or when the Captain kills the creature, whichever happens first. Then the player with the most points fulfils Frankenstein’s dark legacy, becoming his heir, for good or ill…

Sleeping Gods

Ryan Laukat continues his story-driven series of games with Sleeping Gods, a wonderful looking game with an interesting game time listing! 60 to 2500 minutes! Wow.

From the man himself:

“Are the stars unfamiliar here?” she asked, and the sky grew suddenly dark, the star’s patterns alien and exotic. “This is the Wandering Sea. The gods have brought you here, and you must wake them if you wish to return home.”

In Sleeping Gods, you and a friend become Captain Sofi Odessa and her crew, lost in a strange world in 1929 on your steamship, the Manticore. You must work together to survive, exploring exotic islands, meeting new characters, and seeking out the totems of the gods so that you can return home.

Sleeping Gods is a campaign game. Each session can last as long as you want. When you are ready to take a break, you mark your progress on a journey log sheet, making it easy to return to the same place in the game the next time you play. You can play solo or with a friend throughout your campaign. It’s easy to swap players in and out at will. Your goal is to find at least fourteen totems hidden throughout the world. Like reading a book, you’ll complete this journey one or two hours at a time, discovering new lands, stories, and challenges along the way.

Sleeping Gods is an atlas game. Each page of the atlas represents only a small portion of the world you can explore. When you reach the edge of a page and you want to continue in the same direction, you simply turn to a new page and sail onward.

Sleeping Gods is a storybook game. Each new location holds wild adventure, hidden treasures, and vivid characters. Your choices affect the characters and the plot of the game, and may help or hinder your chances of getting home!

Welcome to a vast world. Your journey starts now.

We can’t wait for this one. It seems to combine Above and Below and Near and Far together to create one beautiful and intriguing game.

Time Chase

Renegade Games are pumping out games like no tomorrow. Hot on the heels of The Terror Below, comes a time travelling trick-taking game that looks and sounds very interesting.

From the publisher:

You’ve done it! You’ve cracked the code to unlock time travel! Your breakthrough invention has the potential to revolutionize the world as we know it, and undoubtedly your genius will be celebrated across the globe. However, it appears that some of your scientific colleagues within the laboratory are trying to use your invention to travel back in time and claim the credit for themselves. You must stop them and claim your rightful place in history!

Time Chase is a trick-taking game with a twist. You are allowed to travel back in time to previous tricks, known as events, and change their outcome. The first player to control three events in the timeline wins!

Potemkin Empire

Kickstarter time! A city building bluffing game? Count us in! You can back this wonderful game right HERE!

Russia, 1787: Empress Catherine the Great is taking a surprise trip down the Dnieper River to survey her new kingdom. This will take her directly past your old, unremarkable village. You don’t have the time or money to make your village impressive, but with a few pieces of timber and some strategically placed facades, you could certainly make your village seem impressive. More impressive, at least, than all the villages around it. What’s behind the riverfront doesn’t matter, after all — only the opinion of her Imperial Majesty.

In Potemkin Empire, you play the role of a mayor of a small Russian village. You attempt to impress Empress Catherine by convincing her that you have the most prosperous and stable village in the land. But with her visit quickly approaching there’s no time to really fix your village, so you’re just going to have to make it look as impressive as possible. That is to say, you’re faking it. You’ll accomplish this by drafting interior cards that are either real or fake, then combining them with facades to construct an imposing, if flimsy, kingdom.

You score points by producing goods in your industrial buildings, exposing opponents’ fake buildings with spies, constructing government and cultural buildings, and passing off fake buildings as real ones. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins!

A really interesting take on both city building and bluffing games!

See you all next week!