bigbeargames-blog

[bigbeargames-blog]

Oh man. This is bad. I just discovered Merchants and Marauders. It pretty much sounds like the best parts of #AssassinsCreed #BlackFlag. Oh man, I’m crushing hard. Has anyone played this #boardgame from @asmodee_fr and #ZManGames. ##### Merchants & Marauders lets you live the life of an influential merchant or a dreaded pirate in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. Seek your fortune through trade, rumor hunting, missions, and of course, plundering. Modify your ship, buy impressive vessels, load deadly special ammunition, and hire specialist crew members. Will your captain gain eternal glory and immense wealth - or find his wet grave under the stormy surface of the Caribbean Sea? In Merchants and Marauders, players take on the role of a captain of a small vessel in the Caribbean. The goal is to be the first to achieve 10 "glory" points through performing daring deeds (through the completion of missions or rumors), crushing your enemies (through defeating opponents and NPCs in combat), amassing gold, performing an epic plunder or pulling off the trade of a lifetime, and buying a grand ship. While some points earned from performing various tasks are permanent, players earn points for amassing gold, which can be stolen or lost (or at least diminished) if their captain is killed. Points due to gold are hidden so there's some uncertainty about when the game will end. A big component of the game is whether (or when) to turn "pirate" or remain as a trader or neutral party. Both careers are fraught with danger: pirates are hunted by NPCs (and other players) for their bounty and blocked to certain ports while traders are hunted by non-player pirates as well as their opponents and generally have to sacrifice combat capability for cargo capacity. Although players can kill each other, there is no player elimination as players may draw a new captain (with a penalty) so it's possible to come back from defeat. #boardgames #boardgame #tabletop #tabletopgames #boardgamer #pirates #games (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Sketching out a new Frankenstein Lifeguard for #CampCatchawitch. Not finished. #cardgames #boardgame #halloween #illustration #boardgames #tabletop #tabletopgames #tuesday #games #cartoon #comics (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Playing with some color. I'm a huge fan of flat colors and presentation (think of the lack of shading in Disney's Robin Hood) so working in this space is funky for me. #CampCatchawitch #boardgame #boardgamedesign #boardgames #tabletopgames #halloween #illustration #halloween #cardgames #games #developer #indie (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Fooling around with Life Guard turned Frankenstein for our board game #CampCatchawitch. Not sure what I think yet. Just wanted to share! Have a good night internets! #boardgames #boardgame #boardgamedesign #tabletop #tabletopgames #friday #cartoon #illustration #games #playtesting #halloween (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

We got so much accomplished in our playtest tonight this photo is already showing you information that will change in the future. Goodbye version 2, hello version 3! More info with link in bio. #CampCatchawitch #boardgamedesign #boardgames #boardgame #tabletop #games #developer #indiegame #indie #indiegamedev #tabletopgames (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Of course the camp lifeguard would be turned into Frankenstein at #CampCatchawitch. Link in in bio! #boardgame #tabletopgames #boardgamedesign #tabletop #games #boardgame #tabletopgame #cardgame #gamedeveloper #indie #halloween #monster #halloween (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

In Development: The Legend of Camp Catchawitch

The Legend of Camp Catchawitch is a cooperative adventure card game in development by Big Bear Games. The fabled Witch of the Woods has turned campers and counselors into her Minions and Monsters. You, and the few campers who haven’t turned (yet), must team together to reverse the curse. 

Choose from multiple campers, with their own strengths and weaknesses, to play the game. Will you stay together or spread out? Each has their own risk and rewards... The campers must hurry though, the clock is ticking!

Explore multiple locations that are randomly selected each game. Locations will have certain behaviors that will hurt or help your gameplay. They will also have cards to help your fight against the Minions and Monsters of the camp. Your objective: Hunt the Monsters that haunt the campgrounds. Take their trophies so you may use them against the Witch of the Woods at the end of the game. Will you and your friends banish the Witch of the Woods and save the camp from a life of ghoulish servitude? Or will you end up as a stone statue, outside of her Creepy, Creeky Shack?

We are heavily playtesting the game and lovingly, handcrafting all the illustration as well as digitally painting each one. We will share more content soon! We are eager to launch this game on Kickstarter when we believe it is ready.

Thank you for following us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for the latest Camp Catchawitch news and more!

Big Bear Games’ purpose is to make unique, memorable tabletop games that are easy to learn and fun to play. Brett Thurston and John Toves are brother-in-laws who have a passion for storytelling, creativity and fun.

[bigbeargames-blog]

We have decided on a name for our first game! Teaser graphic and name announce coming soon! Enjoy your S'more. #boardgames #tabletopgames #boardgamedesign #games #boardgame #tabletop #tabletopgames #gamedesign #mobileal #alabama #monday #gulfcoast (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Can't fault us for a lack of trying. #cardgames #tabletopgames #tabletop #boardgame #boardgames #games #fun #gamedesign #boardgamedesign #tabletopdesign #mondaymotivation #monday (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Rough sketch of Russell, one of the playable characters in our yet-to-be-named adventure card game. More content to come! Thanks for following, everyone. #tabletop #tabletopgames #boardgames #boardgame #cardgames #tabletopgames #friday #Hurricane #baseball #camp #camper #camping #games (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Developing an adventure card game while illustrating and designing all on your own can be unBEARable. Not really, this is a lot of fun! What games are you working on? #tabletopgames #tabletopgamer #boardgames #games #boardgame #boardgamedesign #tabletopdesign #tabletop #saturday #illustration #bear #sketch

[bigbeargames-blog]

Waiting on #HurricaneNate to arrive tonight in the #GulfCoast. We want to know, what #tabletopgames are you playing at your #Hurricane party? #alabama #florida #mississippi #boardgames #boardgame #cardgames #games #smashup #mobilewx #pensacolawx #mobileal #pensacolafl (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Affordable & Fun Games We Like

Gaming can be expensive! Here’s a list of fun affordable games to add to your collection (or start one off)! All games listed are under $25 each. Which ones are your favorite? Let me know if I left any out! 

Forbidden Island

6.9 Avg. Rating at BGG.com

$11.99 Amazon

This Gamewright game designed by Matt Leacock is an ingenious co-op adventure tile game. It’s a race against the clock as the island is slowly sinking into the sea. Will you make it out before everything goes under?

Via BGG,com: Dare to discover Forbidden Island! Join a team of fearless adventurers on a do-or-die mission to capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of this perilous paradise. Your team will have to work together and make some pulse-pounding maneuvers, as the island will sink beneath every step! Race to collect the treasures and make a triumphant escape before you are swallowed into the watery abyss!

Loot

6.3 Avg. Rating on BGG.com

$12.99 Amazon

This is a quick and fun card game to play in between games. You are pirates trying to steal each other’s gold pieces. Attack merchant ships and defend your own. Watch out for the captains! They trump everyone (but the dreaded Admiral).

Via BGG.com: The cards show trading ships and pirate ships, with pirates and an admiral. Players send a trading ship of value on a voyage in which it must survive a round of attacks from other player's pirate ships. You defend your traders with your own pirates and collect the spoils of your attacks elsewhere.

Dungeon!

5.9 Avg. Rating on BGG.com

$17.16 Amazon

Dungeon! has been around for a while. It’s a DnD game translated to a board game. Play with your friends, collect the loot, beat the dragon! 

Via BGG.com: In many ways Dungeon! is similar to Dungeons & Dragons, although much simplified and transformed into a board game. Players explore a dungeon that is divided into levels of increasing difficulty, fighting monsters for valuable treasure. As players venture deeper into the dungeon, the monsters become more difficult and the treasure more valuable. Several character classes each have slightly different fighting abilities – most notably the wizard, who can cast spells. Combat is simulated using dice; players roll the dice to attack a monster, and if unsuccessful, the dice are rolled to determine the effect of the monster's counter-attack.The winner is the first player to bring a certain amount of treasure back to the Dungeon's entrance.

Welcome to the Dungeon 

6.7 Avg. Rating on BGG.com

$13.33 Amazon

iello’s dungeon crawler in a box invites you to come in...if you dare! Dare your buddies to dive deeper into the dungeon. 

Via BGG.com: Welcome to the Dungeon — first released as Dungeon of Mandom — is a push-your-luck dungeon delve in which 2-4 players take turns essentially daring each other to go into a dungeon with less equipment than they start off with while filling the dungeon with monsters. Players can win the game by winning 2 rounds or get eliminated from the game by losing 2 rounds. Each player has a 2-sided players card that has a white side and a red side. The first win taps the player card and the 1st loss flips the card over to the red side. A 2nd loss will have the player turn the card back into the box.

Munchkin

5.9 Avg. Rating on BGG.com

$18.29 on Amazon

This was my first glimpse into the world of board games outside of Monopoly and Clue. Munchkin is a versus game where you kick the door down, loot the room, kill the monsters and stab your friends in the back (in no particular order). This game holds a special place in my heart.

Via BGG.com: Go down in the dungeon. Kill everything you meet. Backstab your friends and steal their stuff. Grab the treasure and run.

Admit it. You love it.

This award-winning card game, designed by Steve Jackson, captures the essence of the dungeon experience... with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff. You and your friends compete to kill monsters and grab magic items. And what magic items! Don the Horny Helmet and the Boots of Butt-Kicking. Wield the Staff of Napalm... or maybe the Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment. Start by slaughtering the Potted Plant and the Drooling Slime, and work your way up to the Plutonium Dragon...

Video review from Starlit Citadel

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

7.3 Avg. Rating on BGG.com

$12.91 Amazon

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a social deduction game. A murder has occurred at night at the players must convince one another they aren’t the werewolf....perhaps one of them is? The free companion app to this is absolutely delightful too!

Via BGG.com: No moderator, no elimination, ten-minute games.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fast game for 3-10 players in which everyone gets a role: One of the dastardly Werewolves, the tricky Troublemaker, the helpful Seer, or one of a dozen different characters, each with a special ability. In the course of a single morning, your village will decide who is a werewolf...because all it takes is lynching one werewolf to win!

Because One Night Ultimate Werewolf is so fast, fun, and engaging, you'll want to play it again and again, and no two games are ever the same.

One Night video review at Dice Tower.

Smash Up

6.9 Avg. Rating on BGG.com

$21.99 Amazon

Smash Up is a card game that asks the question what would happen if Robot Dinosaurs fought Pirate Ninjas? Each player combines two unlike factions to make a force to reckon with! It’s a fun numbers game that I think is a must-have.

Via BGG.com: The "shufflebuilding" game Smash Up starts with a simple premise: Take the twenty-card decks of two factions, shuffle them into a forty-card deck, then compete to smash more Bases than your opponents! Each faction brings a different game mechanism into play – pirates move cards, zombies bring cards back from the discard pile, dinosaurs have huge power – and every combination of factions brings a different play experience.

Smash Up video review at Dice Tower.

Sheriff of Nottingham

7.3 Avg. Rating at BGG.com

$22.99 Amazon

A fun game where you lie to your Sherrif because gosh darn it we’re taxed enough already!

Via BGG.com: In Sheriff of Nottingham, players will not only be able to experience Nottingham as a merchant of the city, but each turn one player will step into the shoes of the Sheriff himself. Players declare goods they wish to bring into the city, goods that are secretly stored in their burlap sack. The Sheriff must then determine who gets into the city with their goods, who gets inspected, and who may have their goods confiscated!Do you have what it takes to be seen as an honest merchant? Will you make a deal with the Sheriff to let you in? Or will you persuade the Sheriff to target another player while you quietly slip by the gate? Declare your goods, negotiate deals, and be on the lookout for the Sheriff of Nottingham!Sheriff of Nottingham is the first game in the Dice Tower Essentials Line from Arcane Wonders.

Sheriff of Nottingham video review at Dice Tower.

The Resistance

7.4 Avg. Rating at BGG.com

$11.84 Amazon

What if you took the traditional card came Mafia and combined it with the classroom game Heads Up 7Up with Dystopian flare? You’d get The Resistance! This is a fun who-dunnit party game. Good liars are good players in this game. Bargain and bicker your way to the end!

Via BGG,com:  The Empire must fall. Our mission must succeed. By destroying their key bases, we will shatter Imperial strength and liberate our people. Yet spies have infiltrated our ranks, ready for sabotage. We must unmask them. In five nights we reshape destiny or die trying. We are the Resistance!

The Resistance is a party game of social deduction. It is designed for five to ten players, lasts about 30 minutes, and has no player elimination. The Resistance is inspired by Mafia/Werewolf, yet it is unique in its core mechanics, which increase the resources for informed decisions, intensify player interaction, and eliminate player elimination.

The Resistance video review at Dice Tower.

Sushi Go!

7.1 Avg. Rating on BGG.com

$8.69 on Amazon

Make the best sushi roll ever and win! Sign me up. Om nom nom nom.

Via BGG.com: In the super-fast sushi card game Sushi Go!, you are eating at a sushi restaurant and trying to grab the best combination of sushi dishes as they whiz by. Score points for collecting the most sushi rolls or making a full set of sashimi. Dip your favorite nigiri in wasabi to triple its value! And once you've eaten it all, finish your meal with all the pudding you've got! But be careful which sushi you allow your friends to take; it might be just what they need to beat you!

Sushi Go! video review at Dice Tower.

Pandemic

7.7 Avg. Rating on BGG.com

$21.60 Amazon

Z-Man Games runaway hit Pandemic puts you and your friends in the cockpit of a world wide pandemic. You each take on roles to help treat and cure people around the world to stop 4 deadly diseases. Will you cure all 4 diseases before the world goes up in biohazard flames?

Via BGG.com: In Pandemic, several virulent diseases have broken out simultaneously all over the world! The players are disease-fighting specialists whose mission is to treat disease hotspots while researching cures for each of four plagues before they get out of hand.

The game board depicts several major population centers on Earth. On each turn, a player can use up to four actions to travel between cities, treat infected populaces, discover a cure, or build a research station. A deck of cards provides the players with these abilities, but sprinkled throughout this deck are Epidemic! cards that accelerate and intensify the diseases' activity. A second, separate deck of cards controls the "normal" spread of the infections.

Pandemic video review at Dice Tower.

7 Wonders Duel

8.1 Avg. Rating at BGG.com

$24.99 Amazon

Heads up with civilization vs. civilization. 

Via BGG.com: In many ways 7 Wonders Duel resembles its parent game 7 Wonders as over three ages players acquire cards that provide resources or advance their military or scientific development in order to develop a civilization and complete wonders.

What's different about 7 Wonders Duel is that, as the title suggests, the game is solely for two players, with the players not drafting cards simultaneously from hands of cards, but from a display of face-down and face-up cards arranged at the start of a round. A player can take a card only if it's not covered by any others, so timing comes into play as well as bonus moves that allow you to take a second card immediately. As in the original game, each card that you acquire can be built, discarded for coins, or used to construct a wonder.Each player starts with four wonder cards, and the construction of a wonder provides its owner with a special ability. Only seven wonders can be built, though, so one player will end up short.

Players can purchase resources at any time from the bank, or they can gain cards during the game that provide them with resources for future building; as you acquire resources, the cost for those particular resources increases for your opponent, representing your dominance in this area.

A player can win 7 Wonders Duel in one of three ways: each time you acquire a military card, you advance the military marker toward your opponent's capital, giving you a bonus at certain positions; if you reach the opponent's capital, you win the game immediately; similarly, if you acquire any six of seven different scientific symbols, you achieve scientific dominance and win immediately; if none of these situations occurs, then the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

7 Wonders video review at Dice Tower.

Codenames

7.9 Av.g Rating on BGG.com

$12.79 Amazon

Spy team vs. Spy team in Codenames. It’s a word association game where you’re trying to identity the double agent on the table. Be careful not to hit an innocent bystander!

Via BGG.com: Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their CODENAMES.

In Codenames, two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin.Codenames: Win or lose, it's fun to figure out the clues.

Codenames video review at Dice Tower.

[bigbeargames-blog]

#wednesdaywishlist Dice Forge by @asmodee_northamerica. A fantasy game where I can build my own dice to roll with to defeat the epic obstacles before me? Yes please! Also the art direction is freaking gorgeous. Have you played it? ### Heroes, stand ready! The gods are offering a seat in heaven to whichever hero defeats their rivals. Your courage and wits will be your most precious allies as you use divine dice to gather resources along the road to victory. Your divine dice are exceptional, with removable faces! Customize your dice to make them more powerful as the game progresses. Sacrifice gold to the gods to obtain enhanced die faces. Upgrade your dice to produce the resources you need. Overcome ordeals concocted by the gods to grow in glory and earn rewards. Skillfully manage the luck of the dice and take charge of your destiny. Only the greatest will ascend to the heavens! #tabletop #tabletopgamer #tabletopgames #cardgames #asmodee #diceforge #boardgame #boardgames #fun #wednesday #fantasy #boardgamegeek (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

We had a great play testing session! Looking forward to version 3.0. This game is really fun btw. Prototyped graphics for now, but I'll be illustrating all the artwork as well. More content to come soon. Until then, enjoy your S'more campers. #boardgame #boardgames #tabletopgames #cardgames #playtesting #bigbeargames #cardgames #indiegamedev #gamedesigner (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Is Magic in your gaming rotation? O played it a very long one ago. Just think it'd be cool to have a set of cards to play with friends. Having said that, how could I make a living card like game with specific Magic cards? I just have this unfounded opinion that Magic is a rich man's game. Can a bunch of gamers with no intentions of buying more cards enjoy it? #cards #magicthegathering #boardgames #tabletopgames #games #ccg #cardgames #tabletop #tabletopgamer (at Mobile County, Alabama)

[bigbeargames-blog]

Early morning playtesting before the wife and little one wakes up. This morning I'm headed to a creepy summer camp! Wish me luck! #boardgames #tabletopgames #boardgamenight #boardgamegeek #boardgames #playtesting #cardgames #geek #gamedesign (at Mobile County, Alabama)