Sentinels of the Multiverse - A Review

I may be required to relinquish my nerd membership card for saying this, but I have never really been able to get into comic books. There was a time when I was a kid that I had a passing interest; mostly through the exquisite Frank Miller limited series “The Dark Knight Returns”, and I’m probably dating myself by admitting that, but I really haven’t experienced comic books since then. It’s definitely not for lack of desire, but whenever confronted with the overwhelming number of reboots, spinoffs, story arcs, crossovers, and alternate universes found in comics today, my eyes tend to glaze over trying to figure out where to start, and I decide that tackling the rules to Advanced Squad Leader may be a simpler proposition.

However, even though I am not a comic book enthusiast, I am not oblivious to the worlds and characters that live inside their pages. Superheroes have taken a firm grip on American culture (and more so in geek culture specifically), and no mere mortal has the power to wrest it free. Every year brings new blockbuster movies featuring superheroes, antiheroes, villains, and vermin straight from the comics. Music and literature reference comics, and pay homage to them by building on their familiar themes and character archetypes. This cultural love of comic books is not a new development, either; half of a century after the first comics were produced, superheroes and adventure filled my childhood, as I sat in Spiderman Underoos, glued to the television during the magic that was Saturday morning cartoons.

Despite this saturation of superheroes in the media, I am aware that my knowledge of the comic hobby is analogous to someone who immediately thinks “Monopoly”, when I mention my board game hobby. It was for this reason that I was a bit hesitant when I picked up Sentinels of the Multiverse, the first release from the indie publisher Greater Than Games. I was concerned that maybe I wouldn’t “get” the game, or that the theme would fall flat, because I didn’t have the background to fully understand it. I am happy to say, however, that my concerns were unfounded, and I had quite a lot of fun playing Sentinels of the Multiverse.  

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a cooperative card based game set in a fictional world of superheroes and villains. Full of tongue-in-cheek humor, it embraces the multitude of different types of environments, heroes, and villains found in comics. Sentinels of the Multiverse does not work too hard to tie these environments and characters together into a cohesive world, but this juxtaposition of characters and locations is where much of the game's enjoyment comes from.  Heroes may find themselves under the waters in the lost city of Atlantis, or battling evils on an abandoned base on mars; or facing off with villains that range from the sci-fi themed alien space conqueror “Grand Warlord Voss”, to the communist threat of “Citizen Dawn”, and her legion of art deco minions that hearken back to the Red Scare.

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Letters from Whitechapel - A Review.

Between the years of 1888 and 1891 a series of brutal slayings captivated the media of Victorian England. Unsolved to this day, the murders that shocked and terrified the downtrodden Whitechapel district, were perpetuated by a man who, in his shocking letters to the police, assumed the pseudonym “Jack the Ripper”. To this day, the unsolved nature of the crimes and the taunting correspondence from the infamous serial killer invoke a morbid curiosity in people, generating an unending stream of novels, movies, and speculation about what really happened under the soot filled skies over a century ago.

Letters from Whitechapel is a deduction based board game, designed by Gabriele Mari and Gianluca Santopietro, illustrated by Gianluca Santopietro, and published by Nexus Games. In the game, one player assumes the role of Jack the Ripper, who commits crimes, and attempts to avoid police detection through a mechanic of hidden movement across the winding labyrinth of streets and alleys. The other players portray the police detectives historically assigned to the Whitechapel Murder cases, and attempt to search out, and apprehend Jack through the use of logic and deduction.

The game takes place over the course of four nights, with a total of five murders committed. Although these numbers make for a tense and exciting game, they certainly aren’t arbitrary.  Of all of the murders that actually took place in the Whitechapel district while the police case was open, only five of them are considered to be canonically associated with Jack the Ripper, and of those five, two occurred on the same night, dubbed the “double event” by Jack’s own hand - and faithfully represented in the rules for Letters from Whitechapel.

This attention to detail in both the rules and components of the game makes it engrossing on a visual and intellectual level. So many of the rules and components have a solid grounding in the history of the Whitechapel Murder cases, and this adds greatly to the macabre theme of the game. From a mechanics standpoint, Letters from Whitechapel could have been a simple cops and robber themed game, but the art, components, and rules really bring 19^th century Whitechapel to life, and really pull the player into the history.

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2011 Spiel des Jahres - The Nominees

Earlier this week, in Germany, a jury of board game critics selected and announced the nominations for the 2011 Spiel des Jahres award. The prestigious Spiel des Jahres (translated: “Game of the Year”) has been awarded every year since 1978 to showcase outstanding games that have made their debut in the German market over the preceding year.  Although it is an award that focuses on the German market, the Spiel des Jahres has gained more global exposure and relevance in the past fifteen years as “Euro Style” games began to permeate the hobby, a trend that was quickened by the domestic release of The Settlers of Catan – the 1995 Spiel Des Jahres winner.

Historically, the Spiel des Jahres award has focused on accessible family games which offer a low barrier to entry, yet contain compelling and innovative gameplay.   This centralist view rewards those games which appeal to the masses, but tends to exclude gamers outside of this range, on both sides of the spectrum. In 1989, the Spiel des Jahres made a step to bridge this gulf, by creating a new award to be offered alongside the original.  This award, named the “Kinderspiel des Jahres” (translated: “Children’s Game of the Year”), was created to praise the outstanding children’s game of the year.

For over 21 years, the Spiel des Jahres and Kinderspiel des Jahres have been awarded side by side. But, with the board gaming hobby growing in size, and the market becoming more international, there have been complaints that the Spiel des Jahres is becoming less relevant as time goes on. Many gamers that were introduced to the hobby through Spiel des Jahres winners have found that they have outgrown the simpler mechanics typical of the award. In 2008, perhaps foreshadowing changes to come, a Special Jury Prize for “complex game” was awarded to the meaty worker placement game Agricola. This year, we see the Spiel des Jahres making another fundamental evolution, with the introduction of the “Kennerspiel des Jahres” (Translated: “Aficionados’ game of the year”), a full-fledged award category for complex games.

Games are considered for the trio of awards by a jury panel, based on the following criteria: The originality and playability of the core game ideas; the structure and clarity of the rules; the graphical presentation of the game; and the design and workmanship of the components.  Aside from the main awards, the Jury also issues several “recommendations” for each category. These recommendations are games that the jury feels are outstanding, and deserve recognition, but may not fit the parameters of the greater award.

Because the Spiel des Jahres is based in Germany, many games on the list do not have English translations, and can only be acquired by import. On the flip side, at least one game in this list has been available in North America for several years, and is only now seeing release in Germany. Regardless of when and where it was first published, if a game ends up nominated for, or winning the Spiel des Jahres, it’s almost a certainty that the title will see a global release in the near future.

2011 Spiel des Jahres Nominees (Game of the Year):

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Playing the Tables – My Experience with Geek Chic

Being a gamer dad with four kids can be a blessing and a curse. It's nice to have gaming slaves a built in gaming group, but at times my children seem to have more in common with devastating natural disasters than human beings. When you add three insane cats into the mix, any game on the table teeters on the brink of destruction if you step away for even a moment.

Last February I decided to take steps to rectify the situation. I embarked on a quest to find a gaming table that would allow me to play those epic, marathon length games that I've always longed to play, but still be The Sultan table.

able to put my adventures on hold and take care of real life whenever it beckoned. After sifting through the glut of pool tables, poker tables, and ping pong tables which didn't really address my needs, I started to feel a bit defeated. I even entertained the notion of learning carpentry to build my own table, but the childhood memories of the misshapen birdhouse deathtraps I built during arts and crafts brought me back to reality. Thankfully for me (and my limbs), I discovered Geek Chic, a company that builds heirloom quality, made to order furniture specifically for tabletop gamers.

I originally learned about Geek Chic when reading an article about their "Sultan" table, the game table equivalent of a Rolls Royce. It is made of solid hardwood, sports a dropped gaming surface, and has desks, drawers, and all sorts of hidden compartments. I flirted with the fantasy of owning one, but with the cost of the table easily reaching the $10,000 mark, the idea was exactly that: a fantasy. My daydreams led me to www.geekchichq.com, the company's website, where I discovered a whole line of tables that were much friendlier on the wallet.

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Nightfall - A Review.

In the not too distant future, the earth has been plunged into darkness. Supernatural creatures are rising to power in the eternal moonlight, and the human race is being hunted like game. Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghouls are locked in a mortal battle with the Human “Hunters” who dare to defend mankind. They all fight to claim the inky darkness of this changed world as their own... or so they think. Unknown to all, there are unseen hands pulling the strings from behind the curtain of darkness, making and breaking hidden alliances between both friend and enemy clans. In this land of Nightfall, you are the puppet master, and these creatures your unknowing minions.

Nightfall is a competitive Deck Building game created by first time game designer David Gregg, and published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)...

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