New Game Round-up: Spelling for Fame, Spelling for Shame

New Game Round-up: Spelling for Fame, Spelling for Shame
Board Game: Wizards Wanted
• The German branch of Mattel will continue its practice of adding hobby games to the market once per year with the late 2017 release of Wizards Wanted from Nick Hayes, with art by Djib. (Nick said the cover art is preliminary, but it looks ready to roll to me!) Here's a summary of the setting with only a hint of what's involved with the gameplay:

Quote:
Enter the magical workforce as a nomadic wizard, wandering the fields and valleys to complete spell jobs. What is the ultimate goal? The greatest reward of all: fame.

As one of these enterprising wizards in Wizards Wanted, you must gather magical experience and coins for your work. Resourcefulness is essential as you pick up helpful mushrooms, buy magical dust from tricky pixies, and navigate the twisted paths and teleportation stones. But don't meander too much. You need to be in good standing with the Royal Palace and earn your Spell License by the end of the game, so get to work!
Board Game Publisher: Pencil First Games, LLC
Pencil First Games' Unkindness of Ravens is a 2018 release — yes, we're looking to next year already — from Eduardo Baraf and Thomas Denmark in which players lay down letter cards in order to spell UNKIND, with each letter having a different effect when you play it. Corvid tokens allow you to block empty spaces in another player's word or increase the value of your played cards for various purposes.

• Another forthcoming title with unpleasant animals in the title is Trash Pandas from Michael and Lisa Eskue and their own Red Rook Games, with the players being raccoons who are pressing their luck to dig things (cards) from the garbage cans (via die rolls) so that they can collect shiny objects (which are worth points).

Board Game: Kronia
• In mid-2017, CMON Limited and Spaghetti Western Games will release Kronia from Halaban, Zatz and Seadha, with the design feeling similar in spirit to a different game designed by the first two-thirds of that team, Sheriff of Nottingham — not because of any specific gameplay actions, but more the atmosphere of trying to outthink and outbluff opponents as to what you're trying to do:

Quote:
It's time for a new leader to be selected by the gods to lead the nation. To help sway their decision, players must make offers to win their favor.

In Kronia, favor tokens are placed in three different temples, then players will make secret offers to these temples over the course of twelve rounds. Everyone starts with the same offer cards, so they must anticipate which Gods other players want to please. Deciding when to spend the more appealing offers and when to hold off can be the difference. In the end, the player with the most points from their favor tokens will be chosen to lead the nation into the future.
Board Game: Kronia
Non-final version shown at Gen Con 2016

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