New Game Round-up: Revised Versions of Descent, Wiz-War & D*ne, Even More Munchkin & Irongames for Spiel

• At Gen Con 2011, Fantasy Flight Games sprang details of three upcoming titles – all of them more new-ish than new – starting with a second edition of Descent: Journeys in the Dark (announced simultaneously on the FFG website) that features eight new heroes, 38 new monsters, a revised experience system for upgrading your heroes, more detailed hero summary cards, and more. The best part of the announcement is this line:

Updated rules will have you battling evil in minutes

I hate when I have to wait an hour or more before battling evil.

To bring ye olde firste editione Descent and expansions up to speed for this new edition of the game, FFG will release Descent: Journeys in the Dark - Second Edition Conversion Kit with "Second Edition-compatible cards for every monster and hero ever produced". Both items are scheduled for release in 2012.

Two items from FFG due out before the end of 2011 are Rex: Final Days of an Empire – FFG's revision of Eon's Dune – and yet another edition of Tom Jolly's Wiz-War. Fantasy Flight first announced that it had licensed the game system used in Dune at Gen Con 2007, along with a potential release date of Q4 2008, but obviously development took longer than initially anticipated. Cover shot here on BGG. (I interviewed Eon's Peter Olotka in September 2007 about the history of Dune, and that article has been reprinted on BGG News.)

FFG's Wiz-War is a gussied-up version of the Tom Jolly design created nearly three decades ago, with a player count of 2-4 and miniatures of all the player figures. Cover shot here on BGG.

• Gen Con 2011 announcements from Steve Jackson Games revealed Munchkin: Conan for release Q3 2012 (box mock-up here), Munchkin 8: Half Horse, Will Travel (for early 2012) and the existence of drafts for two expansions for Zombie Dice (via a tweet from designer Steve Jackson).

• Designer Bernd Eisenstein has opened preorders for two new titles from Irongames: PAX and Pergamemnon, with rules in English, German and French being available for both titles.

PAX has players as escaped slaves in Roman times, with the players trying to increase their strengths in various categories to outdo their Roman rulers – well, unless you as a slave secretly side with Rome to work against your fellow slaves. PAX is for 1-4 players, with the game being playable with up to eight if you have two copies.

Pergamemnon is "a deck-building game of direct conflict" set in ancient times with each of the five nations in the game (Egyptians, Persians, etc.) having a special power.

• Take a glance at who (or what) awaits you in Ghost Stories: Black Secret – the Gravedigger, the Landscaper and the Seeker, three minions of Wu-Feng, who also makes an appearance in one of his many incarnations.

• English rules (PDF) for Sake & Samurai are now available on BGG.

• Eye-Level Entertainment has released full-color English rules (PDF) for Nature of the Beast: Polar vs. Prairie, with those also being compatible for earlier NotB releases.

• Spanish publisher nestorgames has released a nice version of 9tka from Adam Kałuża, the game previously being available only in a print-and-play version. English rules for 9tka are available on the nestorgames website.

• In addition to the forthcoming Rattus: Africanus for Spiel 2011, Dutch publisher White Goblin Games has released a promotional card for the game sold only through the BGG store – Rattus: Jester, featuring BGG's Ernie and allowing the Jester's owner to airdrop two cubes onto the game board from a height of two feet.