New Game Round-up: More Penny Arcade Games, Cthulhu Gets Gloomy & More

Another sampling of what's new, newish and too new to actually exist:

• Want an overview of Waldek Gumienny's Teutons? Michał Ozon of Phalanx Games Polska — which will publish Teutons — has finally finished his months-in-the-making Tannenberg 1410 AAR (after action report) loaded with images of this 90-minute game that has taken more than six months to document – kind of like a movie production company in reverse, come to think it, with six months of work compressed to an hour-and-a-half of screen time.

• U.S. publisher R&R Games expects to release Stephen Glenn's Pigskin in 2011, possibly in Q3, although the release date probably won't be set until April. Here's a brief game description from R&R's Frank DiLorenzo:

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Welcome to the game! Pigskin pits two football teams in a classic gridiron match. Players call plays using the cards available in their hands. Yardage gained or lost is determined by the roll of the dice, and strategic play-calling makes all the difference as to which dice you get to roll for each play. The right offensive play might get a lot of yardage...unless the defense sets up correctly to stop it. After that, it all comes down to the roll of the dice...

Fumbles, interceptions, sacks, penalties, deep passes, breakaway runs...it's all here. The game comes with three Running Dice, three Passing Dice, a Defense Die, a Play die, a Referee Die and a Penalty Die. Card decks include 60 Offense cards and 60 Defense cards.

Playing time for Pigskin is 60 minutes, and DiLorenzo says that four "division" packs, each with six unique expansion teams, will also be available for the game.

• U.S. publisher Atlas Games will release Keith Baker's Cthulhu Gloom – which is both a standalone card game and an expansion for Gloom – in August 2011. Players try to drive their own characters to insanity and death, while keeping opponents' characters chipper and (at worst) alive, through the play of modifier and transformation cards as well as by claiming story cards in play from the start of the game.

• Cryptozoic Entertainment will release The Lookouts Board Game in 2011, The Lookouts being characters from Penny Arcade. Here's a brief description of the game from the Cryptozoic website, which also features sample images:

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With this hybrid role playing and board game, you can make your own Lookouts character and experience the magic of the Eyrewood forest. Each player will gain abilities and skills based on the merit badges they earn, becoming more powerful as they cross difficult terrain, face menacing creatures and encounter other challenges. Do you have what it takes to survive?

Cryptozoic will also release Penny Arcade Deckbuilding Game – previewed on Cryptozoic's website with no release date set – and Food Fight – also previewed on the Cryptozoic website, with a Q4 2011 release date. Here's an overview of Food Fight:

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Food Fight is an exciting step for Cryptozoic as the company begins to develop its own unique worlds and characters. The game will release concurrently with a digital version for the iPhone, iPad and Android. Both will be available this fall.

Plan out your meal and prepare to battle your opponents. Enlist Major Weiner and Private Pancake to team up with Mean Burrito...but will they stand a chance against Bad-Ass Bacon? With Food Fight, up to six players draft entrees and side dishes to build a meal that will devour the competition. As their "troops" go into battle, garnishes and condiments can provide back up. But beware: if a Dog enters the melee, your meal could be in jeopardy!

• Seth Jaffee writes about a possible late 2012 release from Tasty Minstrel Games.

• Designer Jeffrey Neil Bellinger describes how Killer Bunnies and the Conquest of the Magic Carrot, due out late April 2011, came to have the structure it does and previews Morden's Metals Exchange, a stock market element in the new game.

• Fantasy Flight Games has posted rules (PDF) for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

• Steve Jackson Games plans to release Munchkin Deluxe in June 2011 – which includes a game board and nice pawns with the basic Munchkin game – and more Munchkin items throughout the remainder of eternity. Details and pics on GameSalute.com.

• Recently released games in North America include Pamplona: Viva San Fermín! from new Canadian publisher Tartan Grizzly Productions, 51st State from Toy Vault, Spring Fever from Filosofia, Carcassonne: The City (the new version in a cardboard box), Letters from Whitechapel and Dakota from Nexus Games, Munchkin 7: Cheat with Both Hands, Say Anything Family and from Fantasy Flight Games Battles of Westeros: Lords of the River and Runebound Essential Collection.

• New games added to the BGG database that caught my eye include Ouro de Tolo (due out April 1, 2011 in Brazil), Equilibrion (from the designer of Onirim), Ascension: Return of the Fallen (which can function as a two-player game or an expansion for Ascension), Proch i Stal (a cooperative game about an interesting event in 18th century Poland) and Fortune and Glory, The Cliffhanger Game, another big release from Jason Hill at Flying Frog Productions.