New Game Round-up: Trajan Returns, As Does Sword & Sorcery and Mystery Date

• U.S. publisher Renegade Game Studios is releasing a new edition of Stefan Feld's Trajan in partnership with German publisher HUCH!, which probably not coincidentally is releasing Feld's Forum Trajanum at SPIEL '18. Yes, HUCH! is locking in a Feld/Trajan monopoly that will inevitably lead to the release of Trajan: The Dice Game, Taking Trajan's Tricks, and of course Feld/Trajan Monopoly.

This new edition is identical to the original game released in 2011 aside from the cover image. For those not familiar with this design, which centers around a mancala-style action system in which choose which action you take based upon how you distribute pieces around a six-space personal grid, you can check out the Trajan preview I wrote in August 2011.

• Z-Man Games has announced that it will release Martino Chiacchiera's card game Party Bugs, released in mid-2018 by German publisher ABACUSSPIELE, in English in late 2018. (Here's a preview video of the game that BGG recorded at Spielwarenmesse in February 2018.)

In early 2019, Z-Man will release an English-language version of Daniel Fehr's co-operative card game Narabi, which I previewed in detail on BGG News in mid-2018.

• I'm not sure what to make of this. Hasbro has apparently introduced an adult line of games that are labeled "A Parody of the Classic", yet the line consists of actual games that you can purchase, with one of the introductory games being Mystery Date Catfished, which is labeled as being for adult players and which bears this description:

Quote:

Mystery Date Catfished is an adult party version of the classic Mystery Date board game that many people remember from their childhood.

This game brings you into dating in the digital age. By picking, swapping, and collecting the trait cards and action cards, you'll wade through a sea of weirdos as you search for love in the dubious world of online dating. Once it's time to open the door on the game board, prepare to meet the companion of your dreams and your dating scenario. But watch out! You just might get catfished instead!

Another title in this series is The Game of Life: Quarter Life Crisis, for which we still need to create a database listing. Weeeeird.

• Sword & Sorcery: Ancient Chronicles is a new campaign from Simone Romano, Nunzio Surace, and Ares Games that's set in the Sword & Sorcery world prior to the original "Immortal Souls" campaign. Ares plans to Kickstart the game in November 2018 for release in 2019.