Explore Arkham and Westeros Anew; Android, Too!

In an effort to ensure that Gen Con 2016 attendees spend no time anywhere but its booth, Fantasy Flight Games has announced two more Q4 2016 releases in the past couple of days, including Arkham Horror: The Card Game, the existence of which was leaked in May 2016.

This cooperative design by Nate French and Matthew Newman is for 1-2 players — which continues the trend of games including solo play as an option — with players three and four being able to join the game should you have a second Core Set, and at the mention of the words "Core Set", you should recognize Arkham Horror: The Card Game as a Living Card Game, that is, a game for which regular mini-expansions will be released in the months and years ahead. Here's an overview of the setting and gameplay:

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Something evil stirs in Arkham, and only you can stop it. Blurring the traditional lines between roleplaying and card game experiences, Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a Living Card Game of Lovecraftian mystery, monsters, and madness!

In the game, you and your friend become characters within the quiet New England town of Arkham. You have your talents, sure, but you also have your flaws. Perhaps you've dabbled a little too much in the writings of the Necronomicon, and its words continue to haunt you. Perhaps you feel compelled to cover up any signs of otherworldly evils, hampering your own investigations in order to protect the quiet confidence of the greater population. Perhaps you'll be scarred by your encounters with a ghoulish cult.

No matter what compels you, no matter what haunts you, you'll find both your strengths and weaknesses reflected in your custom deck of cards, and these cards will be your resources as you work with your friends to unravel the world's most terrifying mysteries.

Each of your adventures in Arkham Horror LCG carries you deeper into mystery. You'll find cultists and foul rituals. You'll find haunted houses and strange creatures. And you may find signs of the Ancient Ones straining against the barriers to our world...

The basic mode of play in Arkham LCG is not the adventure, but the campaign. You might be scarred by your adventures, your sanity may be strained, and you may alter Arkham's landscape, burning buildings to the ground. All your choices and actions have consequences that reach far beyond the immediate resolution of the scenario at hand — and your actions may earn you valuable experience with which you can better prepare yourself for the adventures that still lie before you.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game is available for demo games at Gen Con 2016.

• With Hand of the King, FFG will add another title to its stable of games based on the works of George R. R. Martin, with this design having neither realistic fantasy art nor screenshot stills from the HBO television series, but rather Eurocomic-style caricatures of the Westeros characters. An overview:

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The king has called for a lavish feast and tourney, the likes of which have not been seen in the Seven Kingdoms since the days of Aegon the Conquerer. What's more, the king has declared that at this feast, he will choose his new Hand — and you have a chance of rising to this lofty position. Of course, you're not the only one with eyes set on becoming the power behind the Iron Throne. In Hand of the King, you need to scheme and backstab to outwit your opponents, and you need the help of Varys, the Master of Whispers, to do it.

Hand of the King is a fast-paced card game of conspiracies and sudden twists of fate for two to four players, challenging each of you to gain the most support among the twisted intrigues of the King's Landing court. Each turn, you send Varys to do your bidding, moving through the court and inciting iconic characters from A Song of Ice and Fire to support your cause. With the help of some companions and crafty alliances with other players, you just might rise to become the king's new Hand!

In more detail, this Bruno Cathala design has players moving Varys in orthogonal lines in a 6x6 grid, stopping it on a character token, then collecting that token and any other character from that House that you passed over. Possess as many characters from a House as someone else, and you claim the banner from that person. Collect the final character from a House, and you immediately use the power of one of six companions; since the game contains fourteen companions, the mix of powers will differ each game.

As with the title above, A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King is due out Q4 2016 and will be available for demo at Gen Con 2016.

Will this be the final title FFG announces prior to Gen Con 2016? What else could be left?!

• Update, August 3, 11:30 a.m.: Well, here's what was left — the revelation of a 4-6 player, 120-240-minute game set in the Android universe by James Kniffen titled New Angeles, which will also be available for demo games at Gen Con 2016 ahead of its scheduled release in Q4 2016. Here's an overview of the game:

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The largest, richest, and most diverse city on Earth, New Angeles is home to the Space Elevator that rises along its buckyweave tether and connects us to Luna and its invaluable Helium-3 deposits. It is here, in New Angeles, that you'll find the global headquarters for the worlds' most powerful megacorps: Haas-Bioroid, Globalsec, Jinteki, Melange Mining, NBN, and the Weyland Consortium. And it is here, in this shining beacon of human achievement and advancement, that these powerful megacorps enjoy a uniquely fertile breeding ground for their projects and their rivalries.

In New Angeles, you gain control of one of these megacorporations, then you use your wealth and influence to create more wealth and more influence. To do this, you cut deals and forge temporary alliances. You leverage your credits and assets to gain financial superiority over your corporate rivals. All the while, you also need to keep an eye toward the masses, striking deals with the other corps as necessary in order to keep a lid on crime, disease, and unrest. If you want to maximize your profit, you need to keep New Angeles open for business!