So, I’m going to do what I did with Frosthaven when that was announced and talked about on videos, I’m doing a video breakdown. This Fantasy Flight In-Flight report is normally a big deal, kind of a kick-off for Gencon to find out what Fantasy Flight has coming up. This time they had to do it digitally and while that didn’t work properly, we do have the video up on Youtube.

We start off with basically a video package of all the games that Fantasy Flight has and has had and is working on fairly actively.

Then we get an introduction to the video by Chris Gerber, the head of FFG Studio.

We’re getting deep dive live streams starting today for the new games, expansions, etc. now through Sunday.

John Shaffer was up next talking about miniatures games.

• Updated Points for building team for X-Wing
• Working on solo rules for X-Wing
• New ships coming out in September
• New Tie-Fighter and Rise of Skywalker ships in October
• Four new ships from the Clone Wars, including Jango Fetts ship, available in November
• X-Wing product stream today at 3 PM Central

• Two force wielding characters, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Maul for Legion
• Release for the characters in November
• More options for Clone Wars teams as well
• Four new droids for core units
• Republic gets more clones to add to their side
• These have a January 2021 release date
• Legion Live stream Saturday at 4 PM Central – GenCon Twitch Channel

• Announcing Clone Wars coming to Armada!
• Cool little teaser video for what is coming
• Obviously we are getting Galactic Republic and Separatists
• Faction specific pack for Galactic Republic, kind of an introductory box for new players if you want.
• Republic Fighters expansion pack
• Separatists fleet starter as well
• Separatists Fighters as well
• Dials pack basically is the additional stuff you might need for a bigger set
• Upgrade card pack to standardize their upgrade cards
• All to be released in December
• Live Friday at 9 AM Central

That’s it for miniature announcements, that’s a lot of them. And now I’m very tempted by the Armada Clone Wars Starters.

Now board and card game announcements –

• Talking about Mass Mutations which was just released and talking about the features in that
• Keyforge Dark Tidings is announced, a new Keyforge Set
• 250 brand new cards in it
• Introducing a new house, The Unfathomable, sounds
• Replacing House Dis
• High and Low Tide Mechanic to add a new mechanic
• Will be a push pull to keep the High tide on your side
• Evil Twin Decks, dark reflections of an existing deck
• Altered evil twin versions of the normal cards from the existing deck
• Dark Tidings is coming February 2021

• Arkham Horror Time
• The Arkham line is going to Innsmouth
• Underdark Waves and Innsmouth Conspiracy for Arkham Horror and Arkham Horror LCG already announced
• Announcing Arkham Horror LCG mythos packs announced
• Bless and Curse tokens in Arkham LCG
• Vehicles added
• Begins in November
• War of the Outer Gods scenario pack
• December release date
• Aconyte Books releasing more stories, mentioned in this section

• Journeys in Middle Earth time
• Talking about Shadowed Paths Expansion that’s already been released
• Two new products
• Haunting of Dale digital campaign is going to be available in the app
• Dwellers in Darkness figure pack
• Both are set for release in October
• Hinting that in 2021 Middle Earth is Going to War

• Legend of the Five Rings
• Temptations Cycle Announced
• Resolves around each clan having something that they’ll go after no matter the cost
• Adding in a Dire keyword
• Starting in November for the release cycle
• Two new Role Playing Products
• Fields of Victory and Blood of the Lioness
• Rules for mass battle for military themed campaigns in Fields of Victory
• Blood of the Lioness is an adventure book
• March 2021 for the RPG release
• These will be the last two released by FFG
• More on that on Noon Central on Friday stream

• Marvel Champions, what I have been waiting for
• Reminders that Hulk is releasing in August, plus Rise of Red Skull in September, and October Kang
• New Heroes, following Kang release
• Ant-Man, Wasp, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch
• Ant-Man and Wasp – Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch synergize
• Next campaign expansion, Galaxy Most Wanted
• 5 new scenarios and Rocket Raccoon and Groot
• The Collector and Ronan the Accuser n Galaxies Most Wanted

• Expansion for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
• Prophecy of Kings
• This is new mechanics and things
• 7 New Factions
• Forty new system and hyperlane tiles
• Player count can expand up to 8 players
• 3 new leaders for every faction
• And new mech units adding fire power to planetary battles
• And many new extra cards
• November release date
• More information Unboxing Friday at 3 PM Central

• New Marvel game announced
• Dice game to complete missions, showdown against villains, etc
• Mutants in the game as the characters you’ll be playing
• Marvel X-Men: Mutant Insurrection is the name of the game
• Cooperative game for 1-6 players
• It has Gambit in it, that’s all you really need to know, or at least I do
• Rogue, Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine and More
• 8 different plots, each featuring an iconic X-Men threat
• Release in Q1 for 2021
• Demo Sunday at 9 AM Central live stream

• The End?
• Massive massive massive massive Descent Box! Descent 3rd Edition Teased!

So, clearly there is a lot that’s been announced, including two new games, though the one was just teased with Descent at the very end, in a fun way. But I’m excited mainly for more Marvel Champions and Marvel X-Men: Mutant Insurrection as well, because I want to play Gambit.

What announcement has you the most excited? I’m really tempted now by some of the new Armada stuff announced, and all of this makes me want to get Arkham Horror LCG and regular Arkham Horror back to the table to catch-up to where they are now. And if you don’t have time to watch the video, at least look at the last few seconds to see how massive that Descent box is!

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These are all games that Fantasy Flight has taken from a license and turned into a ton of products. I’m pretty sure I’m evening missing a game. There are also other games like the Game of Thrones living card game or the new game that came out from CMON, Song of Ice and Fire. There’s a whole system of games, the Legendary Encounters based off of Marvel Legendary (another licensed property) for Alien, Predator, Firefly, Big Trouble in Little China, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and now X-Files. The point of writing all of that was that there are a ton of board games that have cool properties behind them and there are more coming out all of the time.

Unlike Robin Hood and Lovecraft’s work which can be slapped on anything because they are public domain, there are a lot that need to be licensed. So, what are some of these other stories that I can to see board games made out of?

I’m going to give the title of the book, TV show, movie, and some description of what I think would make it an interesting game or how I might go about building a game. I’m also going to be avoiding things that I know are already board games, you might not know there is a Kung-Fu Panda game, but there is, so I won’t be making my own for that.

R.I.P.D.

R.I.P.D. is a movie and comic about a cop who dies and then becomes a cop in the after life taking crazy bad guys. I like the theme for this one and think that with a bunch of minis and different cops who you could play, it could be a fun game playing against a scenario(s). You’d be trying to defeat different bad guys, or maybe a scenario would have you get information while trying to survive long enough to get back out. There’s a good number of stories that you could do with it, and while it is a lot of the current meta, I’d lean into the supernatural. Give the players and monsters abilities that they can use that are a bit game breaking, but come at a cost to the monsters of the players. That would then give the game a unique feel as compared to other scenario based games because it’s the last ditch sort of move instead of other variable player powers.

Kingkiller Chronicle

Now, there is something coming out that can have some tie in to this series by Patrick Rothfuss, but I want to take it in a different direction than that game. That one looks like it is more about the whole fantasy world, and like I said, it isn’t an actual game on the series, it just has a module for it, so it counts for me. I’d focus on the time at the university. People could take on different students, doing different things for different classes and the game would be split into four or five parts which would be different years at the school. Each turn you’d take an action to either study, go to classes, make money, or if you are playing a character who has money, just get money. You’d play as different characters who are studying at the university and at the end of each round you’d score points and depending on how you did and your income, you’d get your tuition set for the next year which would take money from you, and you’d repeat the process. If you didn’t have enough money, you’d be limited to actions in town or going and taking out a loan to be able to stay in school, but that would be costly for you. I think you could make this game interesting by having characters increase in skills, do sneaky things, and complete missions for teachers. I think I’d then have the players try and get as many points as they could in completing their education or at least advancing in it.

Killjoys

Killjoys is a space television series about a crew who picks up criminals and turns them in and deals generally with all the problems that are going on in their world. I don’t think I’d make my game as dramatic as the show, but I do think I’d set it up so that it really focuses on bringing in those criminals like the earlier part of the show does. It would somewhat be a pick-up and deliver game where you fly to a planet, pick up what you need, and deliver it back for money. However, the longer you go, the more troubles you are going to run into completing missions and also the more events and worse events that will be happening to the Quad, the area of planets you are working in. In the end, the winner would have the most money at the end of the game from bringing in criminals, but you have to decide how to use it because you might want to upgrade your ship, weapons, or crew to make the jobs easier.

Stranger Things

I’m a little surprised I haven’t heard of one besides some company branding an ouija board with Stranger Things, because of money. For those who don’t know, Stranger things is about a girl who escapes from the grasp of an evil company that is messing around with her abilities and is also looking into another dimension, the Upside Down where there are monsters that start bleeding over into this small town. I would make this as an asymmetric game for up to five people as that’s about how it works in the game. There are the kids, the teenagers, the adults, the company, and the upside down. The upside down and the kids would be required to play the game, but the rest could be optional. As the kids, you are trying to keep Eleven safe and close the portal to the Upside Down, as the Upside Down, you are trying to capture all the kids or get enough monsters into the world that you win. If you were the adults, your goal would to find one of the kids who gets lost in the upside down, and as the teens your goal is to kill as many monsters as possible. Finally, as the company, your goal would be to keep Eleven alive, but have her under your control, and not have anyone else win for a certain number of rounds. I could also see cutting it down to three factions and having the people of the town, adults, teens, and kids, all be the same person. But I think it could be interesting, each group having their own special powers and goals that they are going for in the game.

What are some stories that you think would turn into a good board game? What are some of your favorites that are already board games?

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