New Releases: Early September
September 1st, 2010 | Published in Board games, General announcements, New releases, Role-playing games

Smallville: $39.99
Every hero has a beginning… The SMALLVILLE Roleplaying Game lets you experience all the superpowered action and coming-of-age drama of the hit show on the CW Network. Whether you’re struggling against your heritage, your humanity, or your heroic responsibility, you’ll need the support of friends and family in order to embrace your destiny. Players may choose to take on the role of Clark, Chloe, Lois, Oliver, or their own original characters in the world of SMALLVILLE.
Easy-to-learn rules and full-color pages bring the show to life for new and experienced gamers alike.
Cthulhutech is back! Cthulhutech Core Book: $49.99
This book introduces the core CthulhuTech story and Framewerk game rules engine. Join humanity’s struggle against the invading Migou, the devastating Disciples of the Unamable, the cancer of the Chrysalis Corporation, and the predations of the Esoteric Order of Dagon in the Aeon War. The CthulhuTech Core Book contains everything needed to play, including stories to kick off any game.
Ancient Enemies: $39.99
This book delves behind the scenes to explore the Shadow War between the Eldritch Society and the insidious Chrysalis Corporation. It goes into the shadows to reveal the inner workings of the mysterious Eldritch Society and adds additional details for Tager characters. Also included are rules to customize Tager manifestations and for the coveted (and often dreaded) Metamorphosis – where Tagers grow in connection with their symbiont and in power. It also goes behind the scenes of the Chrysalis Corporation, showing its inner workings and exposing the cancer of the Children of Chaos. Not coincidentally, Ancient Enemies includes guidelines and rules for designing Dhohanoid Characters and creating Chrysalis Corporation stories for your game.
Eclipse Phase – Sunward: $39.99
Sunward details the inner regions of the solar system, from habitats in the solar corona to transhumanity’s largest population centers on Mars. Stations and plot seeds are provided for each of the inner worlds and the factions that occupy them. Background and information on the Planetary Consortium, the most powerful political and economic force in the solar system, is also provided.
Eclipse Phase – Gamemaster Pack: $24.99
This four-panel landscape gamemaster screen is made of sturdy cardboard stock and features all of the tables an Eclipse Phase gamemaster needs in one place for handy reference. The booklet features a complete starting adventure where a group of Firewall agents investigate a missing comrade.
Blowback RPG: $28.00
Blowback is a game where you play spies blacklisted after a job goes awry, and the people who care about them. You can play this game with 3-5 people, and while playing it as a single game session is fun, it’s designed for long term play. It’s heavily inspired by the American television show Burn Notice and movies like the Bourne trilogy. As much as Blowback is about pyrotechnics and car chases, it’s a fish-out-of-water premise: spies stranded without their agency, normal people swept up in intrigue. And, like all multiplayer games, it’s about relationships— how much can you ask of someone, how much can you disappoint them before they turn their back on you?
Hamlet’s Hit Points: $20.00
Hamlet’s Hit Points presents a toolkit that helps make storytelling in any RPG easier and more fun by classifying story beats and letting you track their ups and downs from hope to fear and back.
Armed with these tools, you’ll be equipped to lay compelling track for an emotional roller-coaster that will keep everyone at your game table involved, excited, riveted.
In these pages, you’ll find definitions of nine critical story beats. You’ll read about the relationships between those beats. You’ll also find complete analyses of three stories you know already—Hamlet, Casablanca, and Dr. No—to show you how the system works.
Written with roleplayers in mind, Hamlet’s Hit Points is an indispensable tool for understanding stories, in games and everywhere else.
Ascension – Chronicle of the God Slayer: $39.99
Designers: Brian Kibler, John Fiorillo, Justin Gary, Robert Dougherty
Number of Players: 2 – 4
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Ages: 13+
Ascension is a deck-building game where players spend Runes to acquire more powerful cards for their deck. It offers a dynamic play experience where players have to react and adjust their strategy accordingly. Gameplay appears similar to other deckbuilding games, with the player adding cards to their deck by purchasing them from a central deck, which has the top six cards revealed and available for purchase. When cards are removed, they are replaced with a new one from the top of the deck. Victory points are gained by defeating monsters with a power resource featured on several of the cards. Contents: 200 cards, game board, storage tray, 50 deluxe honor tokens, and rulebook.
Axis and Allies – Europe 1940: $90.00
Designer: Lawrence H. Harris
Number of Players: 2 – 6
Playing Time: 210 minutes
Ages: 12+
A deluxe edition of Axis & Allies: Europe.
This game will include neutral countries which can be invaded. There will be true neutrals as well as pro-axis and pro-allied neutrals. mechanized infantry and tactical bombers will be included. mechanized infantry will be represented by half-tracks. France will have national tokens and dedicated (blue) infantry units. The board measures 35 inches wide by 32 inches high (89 x 81 cm).
This game is designed to be joined with Axis & Allies Pacific: 1940 Edition to create a six player game on a map measuring 70 inches wide by 32 inches high (178 x 81 cm).