Star Runner and General Games Update

It occurred to me that it has been 11 days since I last posted.  There is a good reason.  No, I wasn't at Gencon or anything exciting from a game perspective.  Real life is happening, job interviews and such, and that's kept me busy.

Some news of note.  I received a pre-release copy of Wits and Wagers Party from Northstar Games.  No, I haven't hit the big time of getting free games to review.  It was a thank-you from the folks at Northstar Games for my efforts in playtesting in the summer of 2011.  Seeing the lid of the game signed by the designer was a cool thing.  I finally got a chance to play it on Friday and had a good time.  I played with a couple people who had played W&W in the past, and some who hadn't.  We liked the 7th round ability to wager the chips you already had, not that it made a difference as one player kinda ran away with things.  I liked the question variety, the chips are great in the game, but the best part is the pens with erasers on them.

This last week, I got a new prototype from Northstar to test out, so I look forward to giving that a go.  More on that to come soon.

Like I said earlier, I got a chance to play games on Friday.  That was a great thing because it was my first gameday all month.  August has just been kinda weird for games.  People are on vacation, doing summer projects before school starts, and all that.  We played more Tsuro, and I won the first game, and then was in the final 3 who all died on the same tile, so that's kinda a win.  At the end, I got a chance to show off my revisions to Star Runner, which was fun.

Speaking of revisions to Star Runner, here's the breakdown of what's changed.  I now have indented dice with stickers, rather than using standard dice and a conversion chart.  The map shape has stayed the same, but the breakdown of it is a lot simpler.  It also goes together in about 30-90 seconds as opposed to around 5 minutes.  Contracts have been revised and further balanced.  The scavenging deck has been tweaked slightly, and there's something new to the game that's yet to be tried.  I'm not sure if it will stick, or become something for an expansion/different way to play, but I want to try it out.  The game is actually coming together.  I'm kinda shocked by how quickly SR has come together.  I know there's still a lot of testing to do, and a lot to tweak, but the core mechanics feel solid, and it feels like a fun game.  I can't wait to get some of my readers a chance to try it and tell me what you think.

While we're on random musings, you can now find us on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/bitsboardgames

Head over there to see some polls, other info, and to ask some questions and get feedback asap.