News Bits: 4/22/2013

Lots of good stuff to read this week. Thus, the NEWS:

Indie Boards & Cards funding a rerelease of Coup in the Resistance universe [Link] In my review of the first edition of Coup, there were three main cons I noted about the game: nonstandard card size, bigger box than necessary, and limited availability. Indie Boards & Cards is fixing all of these. While I like the minimalist art of the first edition, the new, future-chic art is cool too. And, as Josh Edwards noted on Twitter, this new edition of Coup will still benefit the charity in Maine that the original game supported. Overall, I'm hard-pressed to think of a better value for $15, especially considering the promos that will be included in this new edition (support for up to eight players, a new, optional character, and Merlin/Assassin promos for the original The Resistance game). The coins, I've learned, will also be upgraded from the flimsy plastic chips to cardboard chits.

DeNile Is the First Stage of Sheaf (a review of Nile Deluxor)

 [Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house eurogamer, @Farmerlenny, and his deadly enemy the thematic space-loving @Futurewolfie.  Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

At Christmas when I was a kid, I always wanted to unwrap the big presents first. My line of reasoning went like this: toys are in big boxes, clothes are in small boxes. There are some toys small enough to fit in small boxes, but these aren't as cool as toys that come in big boxes. If I open the big boxes first, then I'll have something to play with once all I have left to open is small boxes.

Sometimes we don't grow out of these things.

It's easy for me, now that my toys are disguised as board games, to continue in the "bigger is better" mind-set. Bigger box: better bits. But this is not always the case, which brings me to Nile Deluxor.

What did I think of this small-box game? Check out the review below!

The Name on the Box Top: Reiner Knizia

My favorite Knizia game. Indeed, one of my favorite games.

I am almost certain that those who participate in the board gaming hobby who have tried to tell others about it have, at one point or another, been met with a response of, "Oh, is that like Clue and Monopoly?"

What separates hobby board games from the majority of mass-market titles, aside (arguably) from fun, is the name on the box top. Like the byline on books or the signature in the corner of a painting, hobby board games typically bear the name of their creator. But more than their name, hobby board games typically bear the style of their creator as well. Just like you might expect different things from a book by Kurt Vonnegut than you would from Graham Greene, you can expect different things of a game depending on whose name is on the box top.

The Name on the Box Top may become a regular series about game designers, their trademarks, and what I think of their designs. Or it could die here. In any case, I want to talk today about one of my favorite designers: Reiner Knizia.