Convention Report: New York Toy Fair 2007 - February 11, 2007 (Day One)
By W. Eric Martin
February 11, 2006
Rick must have been cursed.
That’s the only logical explanation I can imagine. For the past few years, Rick Thornquist has attended the New York Toy Fair only to encounter driving snows, terrible colds, and William Hung. This year, I took the train south from Poughkeepsie, walked from Grand Central to the cavernous Javits Center (noticing a crumpled newspaper with an article by my wife looking up at me from a gutter), and breezed through the press center registration process. The press center even had mounds of pastries waiting for starving journalists!
After scanning the floor layout and noting which publishers I had to hit, which showed promise, and which were complete unknowns, I headed to the lower level of the Javits to run through Game Zone, two-and-a-half aisles devoted to game companies. Not every company with games is squashed into this area, but enough are that I didn’t go elsewhere until the firehose washed everyone out of the Center at 6pm. Let’s check out the highlights of the day:
My first stop was the Z-Man Games booth, where president Zev Shlasinger was showing off several of his new games, including Dragon Parade, Escalation, and Ubongo—all of which will be released simultaneously at the end of February or beginning of March. Arne Junior, the first title in Z-Man’s KidFun line, will ship the first week of March. No Thanks and Silk Road will be back in stock around the same time.
Zev was also spilling over with information about a number of new titles from Z-Man, starting with the U.S. release of Prophecy, the Altar Czech Republic title by Vladimir Chvátil. Prophecy, first released in 2002, is a Talisman-style game in which players are fantasy characters encountering creatures and grabbing artifacts. If all works out, Z-Man Games will release Prophecy in August 2007, followed by the 1st expansion around December 2007 and the 2nd expansion in early 2008. The Czech guys are working on the 3rd Prophecy expansion right now, so that would likely be a joint release by Czech Board Games and Z-Man Games in mid-2008.
Z-Man has another Czech title in its line-up: Arena (Morituri te salutant), also by Vladimir Chvátil and Altar Czech Republic. Arena is a luck-free tactical combat game, primarily for two players but playable with more. Players choose characters such as swordsmen, orcs, and assassins and use them to attack opponents. When you attack, you choose a number within a certain range, such as 1-6. The type of defense played by the opponent gives that player a certain number of guesses: if he guesses which number you chose, then he escapes unharmed; if not, then he takes damage equal to the number chosen. Zev says that he discovered the game back in 2000 and is now in a position where he can bring the game out in the U.S. Arena will contain pewter figures, and Zev is aiming for a September 2007 release.
One final new release on the Z-Man agenda is Attribute, the Lookout Games title by Marcel-André Casasola Merkle. Lookout Games has previously released Attribute in English, but the game received distribution only in Canada, according to Zev. Z-Man will release Attribute in a Take Stock-sized box to give the game more shelf presence. Attribute will be released around June/July 2007.
Zev also talked about 1960: The Making of a President, and the game sounds like a great follow-up to Twilight Struggle. The game play is a bit lighter than TS—with games running only 90 minutes, even with a rules explanation—yet 1960 has the same level of player interaction, with card-driven play akin to TS and events that can be played by your opponent on your turn unless you spend momentum to stop them.
Black Industries was showing off the 4th edition of Talisman, which BI rep Vince Rospond says is based on the 2nd edition of the game, to “get back to the roots of Talisman.” As such, the game includes stand-up cardboard figures instead of molded plastic ones. Rospond also said that while the company has the basis for the expansions in hand, Black Industries has no plans to release expansions for now. “We have to concentrate on getting this out first,” he says. “If this goes rah-rah, then we’ll look further.”
The new Talisman will be released on October 7th and retail for $50. The game will be available in the U.S. only through Alliance Game Distributors, which might be an issue for game stores that don’t currently order through Alliance.
R&R Games’ Frank Dilorenzo was surrounded by a passel of monkeys—no, not trade reps, but monkeys from the company’s Hide & Seek Safari series. Frank says the series was R&R’s best-seller for 2006, and he plans to release a version of the toy for 2- and 3-year-olds in 2007.
As for games, R&R Games has three new titles in its 2007 catalog: Wazoo, Pressure Point, and Covert Action. Wazoo is a basic trick-taking game with a Nomic-like twist. The game includes two decks of cards: one with cards of different suits and numbers, which are also marked with words and photos; and the other with rules and photos of crazed looking individuals. (Frank didn’t have a prototype to show off as the photos in the artist’s first take on the game weren’t crazed enough!) As players go through the rounds of trick-taking, new rules are added to the game: If you address someone by his first name, you lose points; or you must keep your points in stacks of 10, and if you knock over a stack, you lose the round. Wazoo plays with as few as three, but Frank (who has played with eight players) says more is much better.
Pressure Point is a word category guessing game. The game comes with an electronic device a la Catchphrase that presents a random category, such as fast-food restaurants or local car dealerships. Starting with the player to the left of the active player, each person looks at the category, then secretly bets how many answers the active player will give for that category. The active player then names as many answers as possible in just a few seconds. Players win points if they guess correctly and lose points if they’re off.
Covert Action, which handles 4-18 players, is aimed squarely at the Werewolf crowd. Players are part of a covert team (red, blue, green) that must eliminate one member of an opposing team, but your target is a mystery. At the start of the round, players are randomly dealt a card that depicts one of four characters: sniper, agent, cleaner, mole. The sniper of one team must shoot the sniper of another team to win that round. Problem is, you have to figure out who to shoot without being shot yourself.
As for the other characters, the mole is secretly working for one of the other teams, the agent makes the other team lose if he is shot, and the cleaner must make the shot if the sniper isn’t a part of the team. (Two cards are randomly thrown out each round, so a team’s sniper might be out of play. The cleaner needs to figure this out by talking with his teammates, but since all discussion is open, they still need to be covert in their talk.) Members of the winning team (or teams, when three teams are in play) receive a score card, and the first player (or players) to receive four cards wins the game. Teams are randomly determined each round, so your back-up man one round may be your target the next. Covert Action sounds utterly simple, yet is difficult to describe succintly. I look forward to seeing how Frank makes everything clear in the rules.
Finally, R&R has one title in the works that’s not included in the catalog: Horse Fair, which is a new version of Trendy for the U.S. market. The game might be changed from previous versions, but the game is still being tested at this point.
Face 2 Face Games had smartly installed foam tiles in the floor of its booth, which is a great way to lure in game reps with weary feet and keep them from leaving. Bucket Brigade was on display, and the game will be available in March instead of February due to production delays. The wooden firemen figures included in the game are smaller than were promised by the producer, but faced with a choice of delaying the game until after Chinese New Year—which would have pushed back the game another month—or releasing the game and including the larger figures in later print runs, Face 2 Face co-owner Larry Whalen chose the latter option.
The artwork is starting to come back for Moai, one of Face 2 Face’s Essen 2007 releases, and Whalen says that it looks just as good as Wizard’s Brew, the company’s other Essen title. I’m excited to see Wizard’s Brew in print after staring at beautiful but tiny card images on my computer screen for the past twelve months, so if Moai is anywhere near as good as Wizard’s Brew, we’re all in for a treat. The first 300 copies of Moai sold at Essen will include a limited edition figure.
Two updates on Gone Cardboard items that have floated around without release dates: Metropolis will be officially announced at a later date, so it’s been removed from GC for now. The Boomtown Expansion will appear once Boomtown itself goes back to press for a second edition. The original Chinese printer of Boomtown has gone out of business since the game first appeared in 2004, so it makes more sense to print both items at the same time.
For those who haven’t had enough laser-filled fun with the Khet Eye of Horus Beam Splitter, Innovention’s end of summer release will be a welcome sight. The Khet Mezzanine—not its official title, but my clever appellation—is a second-story addition to Khet, which can be used with or without the Beam Splitter.
The Mezzanine is a six-by-six playing grid that’s placed on top of a mirrored column in the middle of the Khet board. Depending on how the playing pieces are set up on the board, a player’s laser might be directed up the column and across the upper level of the board. Moving one of your pieces up or down a level is now another option on your turn. The mirrors on top of the second level can be moved or turned in addition to the whole danged column supporting the Mezzanine!
Luke Hooper, president of Innovention, says that the game rules, price and name are all still being worked on. Players will likely be able to tweak the rules to their desired degree of complexity and brain-blowout.
Mayfair Games reports that both The Pillars of the Earth and Alchemist will ship the first week of March, barring weather problems in the North Atlantic due to storms that just passed through the northeast U.S.
In terms of new titles, Mayfair and Phalanx are co-producing three games: Age of Discovery by Viktor Alfred Schulz (which will be released in the second quarter of 2007); Vor dem Wind (Before the Wind), a card game set in the age of sailing for Q3 2007; and Phaistos: Monument of Antiquity, by Ostia designer Stefan Risthaus for Q4 2007.
China Rails has been on Gone Cardboard for many moons, but Mayfair president Larry Roznai has been testing and retesting the game, and it should be released before the end of 2007.
As far as Age of Steam goes, Mayfair and Martin Wallace are both aware of the issues surrounding the game’s name, playing board, and so forth, and when those issues are settled, they’ll let us all know what’s going on.
Titanic Games was showing off most of Stonehenge; all the bits are complete except for the plastic trilithons and other plastic components. Joshua Frost of Paizo Publishing, Titanic’s parent company, says that the manufacturer can produce only so many plastic bits a day, which is why the game won’t be released until May 2007. The titles of the games are:
- The High Druid, by Bruno Faidutti
- Magic of Stonehenge, by Richard Garfield
- Auction Block, by James Ernest
- Chariots of Stonehenge, by Mike Selinker
- Arthurian Ghost Knights, by Richard Borg
Aside from the basic five games, the May 2007 issue of Knucklebones will include a new game by Paul Peterson that uses the Stonehenge bits. The game, Stonehenge Rocks, will involve rock bands, if you can imagine that.
Titanic plans to offer a Days of Wonder-type online game design tool in which anyone can submit games that use the Stonehenge elements. Titanic will review the games, edit them when needed, and make them available online.
What’s more, an expansion for Stonehenge is already in the works, with Andrew Looney being one of the designers. The expansion will expand the game to six players and introduce another board element that all of the expansion game designers can use.
TableStar Games is expanding its HeroCard series into two new genres: fantasy and horror. HeroCard Orc Wars follows the HeroCard model of a base game that’s playable by two, with two expansion decks to bring the game up to four players. In Orc Wars, one player represents an elven hero while the other controls a whole mess of orc hordes, creating an uneven playing field. The game is scenario-based, so each player will have unique goals. Orc forces are made using stand-up figures, and individual units can combine their strength when adjacent on the board.
HeroCard Nightmare is the company’s other release, and this game presents players with an ominous premise: You are going to die. (Okay, we’re all going to die, so tell me something I don’t know.) Even more, you know which one of five killers will off you and in which of seven locations the deed will take place. The game is played similar to Clue in that players will bring a certain killer to a certain location that contains a dream figure, which represents all of the players in the game. Anyone other than the active player can choose to fight the killer; if no one does, then they must reveal the killer or location card they received at the start of the game if either one matches the current situation. If a player’s killer and location have been revealed, then they’re at risk of being killed, so players will often want to duel to keep information from being revealed. Naturally, a player can choose to duel to misdirect an opponent as to where and how his murder will occur.
Due to the nature of the gameplay, the base game of HeroCard Nightmare will be for 2-4 players and no expansions will be released. TableStar plans to release both titles at Kublacon, which takes place May 25-28 in Burlingame, CA.
I ran across a few other gaming oddities, but I’ll save those for a later report since this one is already full of goodies. I’ll end, though, with an item from the rumor mill: An American publisher will release English versions of both R-ECO and Traders of Carthage, most likely before the end of 2007. Even better, Susumu Kawasaki, the designer of both games, has three other titles under consideration with this publisher. Names named when the papers are signed…
| Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version | |
 | Publisher booths stretch to the horizon of the Javits Center’s upper level |
 | Z-Man Games’ president Zev Shlasinger and vice-president of everything Zev doesn’t do Paul Gerardi |
 | Black Industries’ Talisman 4th Edition |
 | R&R Games’ Frank DiLorenzo |
 | Face 2 Face Games’ Bucket Brigade |
 | The Khet “Mezzanine” in all its towering glory |
 | Stonehenge’s knobbly trilithons |
Posted by W. Eric Martin on Feb 11, 2007 at 08:30 PM in Special Features, Convention Reports, Convention Report: New York Toy Fair 2007 / 12376
Comments:
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Great report Eric. Nice to see that’s it not only Nurnberg where some cool new games are introduced this month. By the way, do you have any info on the availability of Talisman outside North America? Posted by Peter Hein van Mulligen on Feb 12, 2007 at 08:06 AM | #
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Eric - Great report. It’s great to be able to find out about all the new games at the Toy Fair without the misery of actually going there! :) Just kidding, I did enjoy my trips to the Toy Fair but it did seem I was cursed sometimes (the cold I had last year was brutal). I’m very much looking forward to future reports. - Rick Posted by Rick Thornquist on Feb 12, 2007 at 10:27 AM | #
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Eric - Great job with the in-depth news. Given the Czech-Z-man link, any news on Through the Ages being reprinted? Any word on what type of game Sherwood is, coming from Tilsit (also a Chvratil game)? Will Z-man be doing a US version? - Jonathan Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Feb 12, 2007 at 08:43 PM | #
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Jonathan, the Geek has a listing for Sherwood, and that’s all the info on the game for now. I asked the Czech Board Games guys about Sherwood, and they didn’t know anything about the Tilsit deal at all! Tilsit holds all the answers for now, so we’ll see what they say. While Through the Ages has the same designer as Prophecy and Arena, the Czech publisher isn’t the same, so those connections aren’t automatically there. In other words, let me find out more… Posted by W. Eric Martin on Feb 12, 2007 at 09:28 PM | #
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"Given the Czech-Z-man link, any news on Through the Ages being reprinted? “ Zev posted on BGG that someone else beat him to the reprint of this game. Posted by Kevin Wood on Feb 13, 2007 at 08:52 AM | #
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As Kevin notes, Z-Man is not reprinting Through the Ages. Another publisher is rumored to be doing so, and I’m doing the sniff test now… Posted by W. Eric Martin on Feb 13, 2007 at 11:08 AM | #
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Peter, the Black Industries rep was at Toy Fair only on Sunday, and the guys at the Alliance booth don’t do anything outside of North America, so the distribution of Talisman outside of NA is unknown. I’ll ask around, but the answer won’t be coming today. BI is a British company, though, so I’m sure the game will be available in Europe. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Feb 13, 2007 at 11:09 AM | #
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For Zev: Will the Prophecy expansions will be compatible with the first English (Blackfire) version of Prophecy? Will there be changes with the Z-man version of the base game? Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Feb 13, 2007 at 12:08 PM | #
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Someone asked me privately whether the Khet Mezzanine would come in a Deflexion version, and here’s the answer for all to see: Luke Hooper at Innovention said that while the Mezzanine is compatible with Deflexion (since the grid is identical in both Deflexion and Khet), there will be only one version of the expansion with graphics that match those of Khet. Oh, and while mysterious forces suggest that Funagain will indeed be bringing out a reprint of Through the Ages, this info has not been confirmed by Funagain, so I’ll let this “fact” remain buried in the comment section for now. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Feb 15, 2007 at 03:14 PM | #
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The editor of Knucklebones has said that the Stonehenge game by Paul Peterson will actually appear in the July 2007 issue since the release date of the main game was moved to May. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Feb 16, 2007 at 07:59 PM | #
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