![New Game Round-up: Journey North in Andor, Create Stories of Doctor Who and Bugs Bunny & Learn About Matt Leacock, Knit Wit](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/-8DmfRT7SOoYM7JG88jtGA__medium/img/Eo99UTX4N4wAuWs5mPvGyrjT_VQ=/fit-in/500x500/filters:no_upscale():strip_icc()/pic2855668.png)
To start with the new, two German releases — Klaus and Benjamin Teuber's Smugglers and Phil Walker-Harding's Imhotep — will be released in the U.S. in, respectively, June and August 2016.
Michael Menzel's Legends of Andor: Journey to the North, first released in German in 2014, is also due out in August 2016 in English. This title will be preceded by English-language editions of Rudi Hoffmann's Tally Ho! and Dirk Henn's The Rose King, the first ever English edition of this title that first appeared in Germany in 1997.
Maybe we'll even see Flowerpower reappear in the future at this rate...
• Following the introduction of Batman and Moomin themed dice sets in 2015, in 2016 The Creativity Hub plans to release three new themed sets of Rory's Story Cubes, this tie with images from Doctor Who, Looney Tunes, and Scooby Doo.
In addition to these larger sets, The Creativity Hub has three mini-sets for 2016: Powers, Medieval and Rescue. All of these sets can be combined with one another or with existing Story Cubes sets.
• On Jan. 18, 2016, I posted a teaser image of Matt Leacock's Knit Wit, due out March 2016 from Z-Man Games, and now I can explain how the game is played, which will reduce the cryptic nature of that initial image.
Knit Wit is a word game along the lines of Scattergories, with players trying to think up unique answers to particular categories in order to score points, but players (kind of) generate their own categories while playing the game.
To set up, each player takes numbered spools and looped strings based on the number of players, along with an answer sheet. A number of bonus buttons, which have 1-4 holes, are stacked on the table, again based on the number of players. Going clockwise around the table, each player (after the first) places one loop on the table so that it surrounds exactly one spool, then draws a word tag from the box and attaches it to this loop, then places one spool in one section of loop(s) that has no spool in it. (Think of a Venn diagram; two overlapping circles form three sections, with one section having both circles in common and two sections being part of only one circle. I believe the playtest name for this design was "Venntertainment".)
Once all of the spools have been placed, everyone races to think of words, names, or phrases for each spool based on the word tags associated with that spool. If a spool has three loops around it, for example, it has three words associated with it, and your answer must relate to those words in some manner.
As soon as someone has finished or can't think of more answers, they grab the topmost button on the stack (the one with the most holes). Once the final button is grabbed, players can't write more answers. Players then compare answers, crossing out those they have in common with someone else, then scoring points for the remaining answers; each answer is worth as many points as the number of loops around the spool with the same number. Buttons are worth as many points as the number of holes they have, and whoever has the highest score wins.