NEWS | Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!: A Discworld Boardgame

I found this bit while researching a boardgame I wanted to buy and thought plenty of you would be interested. Guards! Guards! is actually the second Discworld board game after Thud from a 2004, which was more of a chess type game. Here is the info that has been released by Z-Man games so far who are also the awesome makers of Pandemic so I'm expecting good things for this game.

Upcoming - Guards! Guards!, designed by Leonard Boyd and David Brashaw.

Guards! Guards! A Discworld Boardgame is for 2 to 6 players; it can be played in around 2 hours.

The Discworld is the setting for a large collection of books written by author Terry Pratchett. His books have won many awards and sold many millions of copies. Guards! Guards! is a game that seeks to draw the players into the seedy and varied streets of Ankh Morpork, the Discworld's “oldest and greatest and grubbiest of cities”. The many types of volunteers, items, spells and the way players interact throughout the game are all elements that create an atmosphere soaked
in the muddy waters of the setting.

Guards! Guards! Is not just a game for fans of Terry Pratchett's books however, it is an enjoyable, chaotic and interactive game with plenty of opportunities for clever plans, bitter reversals of luck, and miraculous comebacks.

Eight Great Spells have been stolen from the hallowed halls of the Unseen University. The players, dauntless members of Commander Vimes' famous City Watch, infiltrate the guilds of Ankh Morpork in the hope of finding support in the quest to return the spells to the Unseen University before disaster befalls the Discworld.

In so doing they will need to recruit help from the lowest to the highest ranks of Ankh Morporkian society, from the gilt-ridden nobility to those lacking any sense of gilt. Players will compete to the be the first to return their 5 assigned Great Spells to the Unseen University. To do so they will need to charm or bribe volunteers to help them, as well as make use of spells, curses, magic items and other odds and sods. While running around the streets of Ankh Morpork they must also beware of other players, as Saboteurs, Great Dragons, the Luggage (of course) and many varied other things can wreak havoc on even the best laid plans.

On their turn a player will move, may take actions such as buying scrolls, equipment, bribing or charming a volunteer, collecting money, going to the hospital to be cured and many more, and then resolve any special effects. At times players will want to co-operate with one another, and at other times they will be doing their utmost to foil, trip, harangue or otherwise confabulate each others' plans.

The player who manages to successfully return their assigned Great Spells to the Unseen University will be regarded a hero of Ankh Morpork!

A full review of the prototype version of the game is up over at boardgamesgeeks along with pictures of more of the pieces and board. Looks like a heck of a good time.  Guards! Guards! A Discworld Boardgame should be released around July 12th if things hold to plans with Z-Man distributing in the US and Esdevium in Europe.

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Hmmmm...  Looks okay so far, but I'm far from sold...

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For the gamers out there

Ever since I was a wee child I've been fascinated by games of all stripes, but I usually gravitate towards those with dice. For years dice have been those bone white blocks with black dots thrown into boardgames or those soccer shaped ones used in your Dungeons & Dragons game. Over the last 15 years there has been an explosion in colored dies used mostly for Dungeons & Dragons. I have some friends who get a new color for each new character they create. But no one has really reinvented dice at all. Well that changes with Dice Age, which I'm backing on over at Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is this really amazing platform designed to help fledgling people with making their dreams come true. Usually it involves a product or art piece of some kind, but it could just as easily be a book. I've been spending a fair amount of time and money of there lately - probably too much on both counts.

From the moment I saw Dice Age I had to be part. Just to figure out what that damn rocket does in a game that is supposedly a mix of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, and a touch of Uno. The complete starter set has 23 different dice grouped into colors giving them different attributes depending on the color such as Light (yellow), Warfare (orange), and Might (red). You can start with a set of 10 random dice, which is enough for 2 people to play, but I went for the whole shebang because I couldn't help myself .

The keep with the cannon on top called "Movur's Outpost" is something I'd probably pay money for all by itself, but I always like to vary my games and with 23 pieces a four player game is well worth it for $50 since the replay-ability seems high. The random 10 set is only $25 or 5 for $15, which if you get a friend to do the same will give you each enough to play against each other. Even for people who just like the shapes can get in on the action with a $7 pledge to get two random dice when they are available. There are also plans for another 100 original dice that if the project is a hit will be released over the years to come expanding the game.





Setup of the Game:

Once upon a long time ago...
You belong to the Gods that rule on top of the cosmos. You hold in your hands the ultimate might to create new planets, new dimensions, in their every detail from the infinitely small to the infinitely vast: Your power is only limited by your imagination. You practiced combining energies; the positive, negative and multicolored. And at last, you have been chosen for the highest challenge: the Crown of Gods, the divine joust to the mastering of entropy and chaos. The competition will be tough, and you will have to summon up your most advanced creation skills. But you have a secret weapon: you control hazard!

Components: 10 dice (of one cubic inch volume each), 1 Rulebook (20 pages), 1 awesome dice pouch with the Dice Age logo on the back.

Also, the rules for the main Dice Age game "The Crown of Gods" are up, but there are apparently at least two other games players have designed themselves. To learn more about this game visit Dice Age's Kickstarter page and don't forget to click on the update link as it has loads more descriptions of individual dice.

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