New Game Round-up: Sins and Redemption, Wu Feng and Boomtown Return & More

Let's start with a "You want theme? I'll give you theme!" challenge:

• On his State of Play blog, Thomas L. McDonald gives an overview of Alf Seegert's The Road to Canterbury, coming in Q3 2011 from FRED/Gryphon Games. An excerpt of the game description:

Quote:

In The Road to Canterbury, you play a medieval pardoner who sells certificates delivering sinners from the eternal penalties brought on by these Seven Deadly Sins. You make your money by peddling these counterfeit pardons to Pilgrims traveling the road to Canterbury. Perhaps you can persuade the Knight that his pride must be forgiven? Surely the Friar's greed will net you a few coins? The Miller's wrath and the Monk's gluttony are on full public display and demand pardoning! The Wife of Bath regales herself in luxury, the Man-of-Law languishes in idleness, and that Prioress has envy written all over her broad forehead. And the naughty stories these Pilgrims tell each other are so full of iniquity they would make a barkeep blush! Pardoning such wickedness should be easy money, right?

Anyone looking for a theme previously untapped should be keen to hear more about this one.

• On Jeux sur un Plateau, designer Antoine Bauza gives a ten-minute video overview of Ghost Stories: Black Secret en français. Lots of new stuff going on, but I won't pretend to have understood everything I heard on the video. One thing Bauza notes in the article accompanying the video is the Black Secret completes Ghost Stories, with nothing planned for the future except perhaps fun one-off cards like Chuck No-Rice.

• Designer Bruno Faidutti has announced a new edition of Boomtown from him and Bruno Cathala – but only in Polish for now. Check out the Piraci page on Faidutti's website for the new graphics that go with a new theme from this Egmont Polska release.

• In the annals of high-minded game presentation, I'd be hard-pressed to name something that tops the approach taken by designer Rui Alípio Monteiro and design company Criações a Solo for his Trench. I feel enriched having looked over the website, pondered the many quotes and watched the metaphorically-rich video presenting the game – but I still don't know how to play the darned thing...

• Fantasy Flight Games has produced an elaborate video tutorial for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Fantastic atmosphere created by the voice-over artist!

• Another day, another few expansions from FFG: The publisher is releasing a new version of the Arkham Horror expansion The Curse of the Dark Pharaoh. Details on what's being added to the expansion in this [url=news post on the FFG website. FFG will also release The Horned Rat Expansion for Chaos in the Old World (details) and a Legends Expansion for Warhammer: Invasion – The Card Game (details).

• Brett Gilbert compiles pics of LEGO's forthcoming Heroica series of games.

• Munchkin Zombies and two expansions for Summoner Wars – the Jungle Elves and Cloaks reinforcement packs – all have a U.S. street date of March 30, 2011. My Kind of Town from Your Move Games is headed to U.S. stores, as is The Heavens of Olympus from Mike Compton and Rio Grande Games.

• New entries in the BGG database include Liberator (an expansion for Mali Powstańcy from designer Filip Miłuński and publisher Egmont) and Drôles de Mamans, in which you "collect and assemble parts of moms". And don't go thinking anything weird, mind you – it's a kids game!