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You Say You Want a Revolution?
Stonehenge, the world's first Anthology Board Game, is about to arrive.
If I had one word to describe Stonehenge, the brand-new board game from Paizo's Titanic Games line, it would be "revolutionary."
I mean, sure, everybody likes to say that their products are the next big thing, and they'll set the bar for everything that follows, and they deserve to be worshiped from coast-to-coast by small but gregarious animals, so when you hear a company call their own product "revolutionary," you have to take it with a grain of salt.
Not in the case of Stonehenge. Stonehenge genuinely isn't like any other board game. If anything, it's more like a deck of cards: When you buy that pack, you don't just get one game—you get many, many games. You get a host of games that you know, and the promise of new games that you don't know. And so it is with Stonehenge.
When you buy Stonehenge, you get a big box of cool-looking parts. You get a board, and a deck of cards, and more than a hundred plastic pieces in lots of different colors and shapes. But with Stonehenge, you don't just get one game to play with those parts. Instead, we start you off with five great games from five of the industry's top board game designers. And these games aren't just variations on a theme—they're totally different games.
While
Stonehenge looks pretty good and I could totally see myself giving it a try, I feel it must be pointed out that the "not a game, but game equipment" concept isn't new.
Looney Labs'
IceHouse is the exact same sort of product and has been around for years. The
IceHouse Games wiki lists 174 different games you can play with an IceHouse set. So while I would be pleased as punch if
StoneHenge set off a new boardgame revolution, I feel props have to be given to
IceHouse for being their first.
Goodman Games, my favorite 3rd party publisher, has released another Judges Guild classic refurbished for 3.5 play. I've never seen the inside of the original
Citadel of Fire, but I'm a huge fan of the old JG modules and Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics line. These two publishers go together like peanut butter and jelly. And the cover design is wicked awesome!
Goodman Games, my favorite 3rd party publisher, has released another Judges Guild classic refurbished for 3.5 play. I've never seen the inside of the original Citadel of Fire, but I'm a huge fan of the old JG modules and Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics line. These two publishers go together like peanut butter and jelly. And the cover design is wicked awesome!
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Posts
I know it´s completely irrational, but I´m angry at the JG adventure.
ReplyDeleteI´m running in the wilderlands, and have already found the small text on this hex very intrigueing and inspiring.
In true Wilderlands manner, I came up with more stuff on it, included it into my campaign.
Now I have to read this has already been done back in the day, and there´s even more to come.
I´m not gonna buy it, because I feel betrayed by this setting creep.
Stupid, but that´s my feelings about it.
Icehouse isn't the first [modern] multi-game "component set," either, though it does have the distinction of being the only one with sticking power and wide-scale success.
ReplyDeleteWhat strikes me as very odd about Paizo's adcopy is that I'm 99% certain they know better. I mean, they've got [Icehouse's] Andrew Looney designing one of the games in the expansion set, according to what I've read ... So it's doubly confusing.
Set: I can totally understand the feeling. I get that way sometimes too.
ReplyDeleteIcehouse isn't the first [modern] multi-game "component set," either, though it does have the distinction of being the only one with sticking power and wide-scale success.
I just knew someone would know of a precursor product the moment I caled Icehouse the first such thing!
And the weird adcopy uses the first person, but no one has signed the emailed. That's poor form in my opinion. If you're gonna go with the first person, you need to take ownership of those words and sign the damn thing.
Setting creep? How old is your campaign, because Citadel of Fire is like, c1978.
ReplyDeleteMy copy is 1980, but it's the third printing.
I'm trying to remember, but there was something odd about the original...
OH - the Boss (evil wizard) isn't always in the same place. CoF was the first module to have bad guys not always be fixed to a spot.
:)