whimsygames.ca

The game bundle winner is…

Roberta — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:16:55 +0000

Congratulations to to Devin Kerr, whose number was chosen by random and eldritch means. Devin, I will be emailing you directly to get your shipping address, and the games will go in the mail early this week. I hope you have a lot of fun with them.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Sherwood Showdown- One Year Anniversary & Draw

Roberta — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:23:56 +0000

WOW! I can’t believe that it’s been a whole year since the truck backed up and delivered 22 cases of games to us. People all over the world have purchased, played and enjoyed my little game- I have shipped games to so many countries, including Australia, China, Brazil, and Singapore. The rules have been translated into Korean and Spanish, and I’m told that German rules are also on their way.

Over the past year, a couple of rules questions have come up and been answered, mainly over on BGG, and one kind soul has even created and shared a thoughtful set of house rules, which totally look fun to try. I’ve also posted a 3 or 4 player variant here on this blog which has been well received.

To mark this anniversary, I’m going to have a giveaway. Up for grabs will be a copy of Sherwood Showdown, bundled with a copy of my newest game, Octopus’ Garden AND 1 Octopus’ Garden mini-expansion. International entries are welcome.

Here’s how to enter: Comment on this post to be entered once. Share this post on your blog and I’ll count the trackback as another entry. And, if you already own Sherwood Showdown, post a picture of the game being played on the Sherwood Showdown page on BoardGameGeek to earn 3 bonus entries. On July 9th I will close the contest sometime in the morning, and choose a winner using a yet-to-be determined random method.

*For those of you eyeing the shelves in the background, there are 5 other games by the Game Artisans of Canada. These guys rock!

Octopus’ Garden update

Roberta — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:13:19 +0000

It’s been quiet here on the Whimsy Games blog, largely because winter is best for hibernating. But it has been exciting to finally get my hands on my own copies of Octopus’ Garden- the finished game is so lovely. Kudos to Valley Games and my producer, Brent Lloyd.

I spent a week visiting my parents early in the new year, and it was a lot of fun teaching my mom to play the game. If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy yet, here are some pictures of it in all its’ glory.

Sherwood Showdown at GottaCon

Roberta — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:06:30 +0000

Fellow Game Artisan Max Xuereb ran a Sherwood Showdown tourney at GottaCon, Victoria’s boardgaming convention, a few weeks ago. Here are a few pics of the event…

Buy Octopus’ Garden

Roberta — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:43:57 +0000

As we speak, Octopus’ Garden is shipping to retailers all over North America, and maybe even the world. For those of you without a local game store, it is also available from the Valley Games webstore. As soon as my author copies arrive, I’ll post some shots of the game- Valley did a gorgeous job with the game, and I’m really excited to share it with you!

Here’s a nice shot of the game in action, taken from the box back, to whet your appetite:

Octopus’ Garden unboxing

Roberta — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:23:25 +0000

Youtube user The2d6 has uploaded a lovely little video of the unboxing of his copy of Octopus’ Garden- if you’re curious about what’s in the box, look no further:

Korean Rules available

Roberta — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:31:29 +0000

Thanks to the kind efforts of Yang-seop Jeon, the rules to Sherwood Showdown are now available in Korean. How cool is that?

And the winners are…

Roberta — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:29:24 +0000

Our contest is over, and I’m pleased to announce our winners. I’ll begin with the winner of the random drawing:

And, for the Designer’s choice award, well, this one was a lot harder. There were a lot of great ideas- I was really impressed with the cards thought up by so many of you who have not yet had a chance to play the game. In the end though, I had to choose one, and so I picked an entry which took a unique approach and which I am super-excited to try out. The winning entry is for a unique Traveller card, the Caravan. It was suggested by:

who wrote:

Traveller “heroes” (well, special travellers)! They are worth quite a lot but make winning the melee for the stronger player a little harder and have a strength value themselves. The strength value is added towards the currently weaker player’s value. This can end in draws but they are worth more than normal travellers so the risk can pay off.

…

Traveller caravan:
Worth: 2-4, strength accordingly 2-4
Special: When the caravan is on the table, the winner of a melee gets both the caravan and the other traveller.

What I like about this card is the way that it makes the fight topsy-turvy, as the traveller may potentially switch sides several times during a melee. Depending on which card follows it, it could be worth a lot, and upping the stakes adds fun tension to a melee.

I loved every entry, and many of them made me laugh, or want to pull out a deck and start to play. Honorable mentions go to Mark Lewis for the Disguise, Jan Karell for the Welsh Bowman, Eric for the Skarn Beast, and Sharon Noullet for the Mother. Thanks to everyone who entered, and I hope that you all pick up a copy of the game and try out some of these fun ideas yourselves!

Sherwood Showdown with 3 or 4

Roberta — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 03:02:20 +0000

There have been several folks asking if it is possible to play Sherwood Showdown with 3 or 4 if you own two decks, and so we decided to find out. An impromptu 3 way duel in our dining room suggests that yes, you certainly can, if you don’t mind a bit of awkward sorting at the end (or marking up one of the 2 copies so you can tell the outlaws apart).

What we did was this: Each player takes 1 outlaw deck. Put one game’s travellers in the centre of the playing area, leaving the other set of travellers and any unused outlaws (in the case of a 3p game) out of the game. Play as normal, rotating lead around the table, with the following exceptions:

-you may not sell travellers until each player has won at least 1

-any cards which say to rob your opponent allow you to rob any opponent(s) who also took part in the melee

-the Fair Maiden lures the weakest outlaw of any one opponent of your choice, not the weakest outlaw on the table

Please keep in mind that this is not an extensively tested variant; if you have any suggestions or comments based on playing it in this manner, please post them here or email me, as I’d love to hear how it went for you!

Win a copy of Sherwood Showdown

Roberta — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:49:32 +0000

Well, as Shamus Young’s game giveaway has ended, I thought that it was high time to have one here, on the Whimsy Games site. I’m going to ask folks to do a bit of work to earn their entry. As anyone who has purchased a copy of Sherwood Showdown already knows, the game comes with 4 blank cards- 2 full, like the outlaws, and 2 half and half, like the leaders.

To enter this giveaway, just use the comments to tell me one character you would create, and what your character’s special ability is if they have one. There will be 2 winners- one randomly drawn and one Designer’s choice, chosen by yours truly. So you can trust to luck, or you can imagine something fun and amazing and WOW! me to increase your chances. The contest is open to anyone living anywhere on earth, and will remain open until July 27th at 3pm Mountain Standard time.

*edit- as requested by commenters, here is a quick summary of the cards in the game with special powers- all the rest are simply strengths 1-10:

Special outlaws include a Thief and Pickpocket who steal ransoms from the opponent if you win the melee, a Healer who allows you to return 1 card from your discard pile to your hand, and the Bugle Boy, who allows you to draw an additional 3 cards at the end of a melee.

Leaders include the Fair Maiden, who lures the opponent’s weakest outlaw to your side; Maid Marian, who gives each of your outlaws an additional 2 strength; Friar Tuck, who returns all weapons played in a melee to your hand at the end; Robin Hood, who may be played along with any other outlaw as a sidekick; a Fighter who may use 2 weapons; and a Giant, who is just big.