There is something called the World Domino Open happening in Las Vegas at the Hilton. $50,000 in prizes. (source)

And here’s a video of the successful world record domino toppling from last Friday. 4,345,027 fallen.

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The 38th Chess Olympiad opened Thursday in Dresden with 156 open teams and 119 women only teams. Each day will see 550 games.

The Olympiad occurs every two years, and is organized by FIDE and the IOC, so is also subject to the latter’s ridiculous doping laws.

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Frankford, DE: Nine people, including an 8 year old, robbed at gunpoint while playing cards. (source)

Inman, SC: Losers in a card game rob the winner and flee. (source)

Austin, TX: Card game robbery leads to high speed car crash and shootout. (source)

Barangay Mariblo, Philippines: Wife of police officer caught smoking pot at an illegal card game. (source)

Baton Rouge, LA: One man dead, and an elderly woman wounded, in double shooting over a card game. (source)

This is old news, but I’m only just catching up on my Rolling Stones. From the October 2nd issue:

Youngston, OH: D&D players make off with $8.4 million dollars, only to be caught three days later after leaving their new address in the abandoned car near the robbery. (source)

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Last year, Darf brought us Funagle, the board game that you play with your dog. Pick a card and gain points if you can get your dog to do the activity named on the card.

Darf continues with their line of pet games with Do You Mind?, a dog dice game, and Muttheads, the card game version of the previous board and dice games. Fine and dandy.

But now Darf has Catfeats, the dice game you’re supposed to get your cat to play. Roll the dice and try to get your cat to do the activity.

Are you kidding me? Trying to get cats to do something is like trying to manage programmers. Does the game come with antiseptic?

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Ruckus and Pile It are the two curent card games offered by Funstreet Games. Both games involve simultaneous play by all players.

In Ruckus, you keep getting new cards. Whenever you see a pile that matches your card, you slam the card down and take the pile. The last to do this will end up with the pile, but if someone goes out of cards first, you may get stuck having never used the card. Sounds violent.

In Pile-It, each player has to sort and stack their cards in three different ways as quickly as possible. Sounds like an aptitude test.

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Circa 1966 (What Shall I Be?), 2008, Oil and enamel on copper, 9 5/8 x 18 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches

The artist Tim Liddy’s exhibition “Stratagem” at the William Shearburn Gallery in San Fransisco contains reproductions of period board game box covers. November 7 to December 19.

He chose to reproduce not simply the pretty game box covers, but the ones that shower the changing American cultural values through time.

(source)

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Richard Berg, designer of classic war games such as Pax Romana and SPQR, is designing Godzilla, the board game to be released next year.

Playtests and reports are going on at BGG, and io9 reports on the mechanics: “Players split a set number of action points per turn between their monsters and military units. Monsters collect victory points by trashing buildings, stomping tanks and beating each other up with fists, nuclear breath, claws and other attacks. Monster-on-monster combat involves playing a series of attack cards that define how many dice you roll. Everyone rolls a pile of dice and figures out how many hits they’ve scored.”

There have been numerous other Godzilla games, including the usual fare from Mattel, a CCG, and the classic Pink Godzilla Dev Kit.

(source, image)

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Sen So Ninja was supposed to be a ninja game, but ended up as a ninja, zombie, aliens, vikings, etc, etc, combat game.

There are no random elements, but the game is played with blind “bidding”. Each player locks in his upcoming move on the previous round, and the move he will make next round on this round. In other words, one round ahead is programmed.

You score points if you strike where your opponent is. Here are more detailed instructions:

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8,000 people are expected at the ACBL”s Fall Bridge tournament, held over eleven days in Boston, Nov 20 to 30.

Get ready to play, be a caddy, or just kibbitz. There will events at all levels including beginner, free speakers, and local tours.

Says one of the spokesmen: “This is not your grandmother’s card game.”

(source)

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Wholesale Board Games is offering a holiday special.

Essentially, buy $X, and get a coupon giving you $X off your next purcahse of $2X. So, if my math is correct, that’s about 33% off. Not too bad.

They’ve got all kinds of games, including Euros, RPGs, electronic, and so on. Use the code Early08 and place an order in December.

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