Players are notorious and sneaky villains who are watching for opportunities to steal gold or money. At the beginning of the round, choose your target building secretly, making it your identity for the round. You will get clues of an opponent's identity over multiple turns and you can use these clues to put your opponent out of the battle — or your rival will kick you out. If you survive after four turns, you have a chance to rob the bank! Welcome to a thrilling western world full of shootouts!
• I'm not familiar with any games that originate from Singapore, so let's spend a moment on Wongamania from designer Xeo Lye and Capital Gains Group. Here's an overview of the gameplay:
Each economic quadrant has a unique characteristic which reflects the real world. For example, it's often cheaper to buy stocks and properties during the recession or recovery stage, while the best time to sell them is during the stagnant stage. During the recession stage, players who still own stocks and properties will lose money if they are still holding to them as the cycle changes.
In the real world, economic cycles can often be unpredictable and volatile. To simulate that, Wongamania includes global cards that move the economic cycle in a different direction, just when you least expect it to happen! The global cards consist of real-life political and economic events, which help players understand more about the implications of the various geopolitical events and government policies.
To add to the spice, Wongamania has a series of incident cards that reflect some of the personal triumphs and woes that players face in their everyday lives, events such as accidents, illness, vacation, further education, and a leaky roof, which players can use to either move themselves ahead or slow down opponents through a series of deviously plotted events and accidents.
The game ends after a player accumulates three trust funds, which each cost 8 Wonga.
• In an update on its massive Ogre Kickstarter project, Steve Jackson Games' Phil Reed mentions that Ogre: Pocket Edition is nearly out of print and floats the notion of Pocket G.E.V. — presumably a new edition of G.E.V. in an old size — appearing in late 2015 or 2016.
• I'm not sure whether the next item qualifies as a game or not as the description from Gamewright is somewhat brief, but the concept is intriguing and it's certainly game-like, so here's an overview of Sneaky Cards: Play It Forward, due out Q3 2015:
In some ways, Sneaky Cards is akin to Jason Tagmire's Con Crud but on a much larger scale and with more variety as to what the participants will be doing. I'm curious to take pics of the cards at NY Toy Fair and find out more about what's in the box.