I note that this appears to be the same insert (Guard Tower) that was distributed as a pre-order item for those buying Ghost Stories at Essen....

Alex Yeager

But will the cards in the Expansion be the same size as the cards that came with the game? That is a problem with the expansions give out at Essen. Not all the expansion cards matched the base deck size. I had picked up 2 copies and the base decks in the boxes were different sizes.

Well shoot.  Why’d I bother pre-ordering then, if the bonus ends up in wide distribution anyways?  Sigh.

pk

Yeah, how dare they make the promos accessible to people outside the exclusive club of those who got to attend Essen this year?!?

*rolls eyes*

Pre-ordering still got you the numbered insert, and if you were willing to wait in line, the amazing “signature” of the designer and artist (which was “what piece of art from the game would you like drawn on your inside box lid?"… which for me was Dark Mistress).

Oh yeah, and playing it 6 times and counting since Essen…

In all seriousness, I applaud Repos for getting a bonus that very few people have access to out to a larger audience, especially since a tenth village space (albeit unplayed yet in my set) suddenly opens up a bunch of variability in boards beyond simply placement. I’m glad to have let them judge demand by pre-ordering, and I hope that this causes a few more people to consider Ghost Stories!

Matt, you miss my point, which is not surprising considering I was tired when I wrote my comment and didn’t make it very clear.

It’s got nothing to do with exclusivity, it’s to do with the fact that I have limited space and funds each Essen, and Ghost Stories ended up taking up a goodly amount of room and costing me easily 1.5 times what I’d end up paying for it at home - both things I was happy to deal with to get what I thought was a bonus that I’d have a devil of a time finding otherwise.

Now that that’s not true I’m lamenting not having waited for this excellent game (that I knew I was buying anyways) and maybe given something a little more obscure a chance instead.  I guess getting the T-shirt to go with it and being able to say I gave the money directly to Repos is some comfort. :)

Like Alex, I’m happy that more folks will get to have the bonus, I just wish it hadn’t been couched as a one-time thing originally.  It’s entirely possible that that interpretation was my own mistake too - so hard to keep track of all the bonus bits and pieces in the weeks before the fair.

pk

Silly question, but does anyone know if the cards via Spielbox magazine will be printed in English?

Oh, & Patrick, I’m in agreement with your original (tired or not) post but have to go do some online digging before I throw in my 2 coppers of support.

Alright, to begin with I’m REALLY glad to be a Boardgame News reader ‘cuz otherwise, I’d have missed this whole thing entirely.

For the record, I’ve pre-ordered ‘Ghost Stories’ from BoardsandBits.com since Essen isn’t like going down to the local college Con.  So I’m assuming my copy won’t have the mini-expansion.

I’ve also emailed Spielbox to ask if this will be in English as well as what size the cards are.

2 ways to go with ‘Limited Editions’ or promos that could get reprinted.  The 1st is to do what Z-Man Games did with animeeples for Agricola:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/334548

The 2nd is to follow the example set by 4 patrons of Wolfgang Baur’s inaugural Open Design project:
http://wolfgangbaur.com/opendesign/steam_and_brass.aspx

Which is right?  Well as much as I’m happy to get the mini-expansion, if I had gone to the trouble of pre-ordering, ‘signature’ aside, I’d be a little ticked at the expansion not really being limited after all.  But again, with that being said, I’ll happily take one now that its available to the general public.  :)

There is no language on the cards just icons

I suspect the reason these became available is because they had to reprint the cards since they didn’t match in size and while they were printing decided to do some extras…