Stonemaier Newsletter: April Fool’s Edition – Stonemaier Games

Stonemaier Newsletter: April Fool’s Edition

I normally send out our monthly e-newsletter on the first of the month, but April 1 isn’t a good day to send out actual news. So I send out the newsletter a few days early–you can view the web version here.

However, I love April Fool’s Day, so below is a special edition of our monthly newsletter to commemorate this fine occasion.

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Treasure Chests 2-4: Resource Tokens That Look, Feel, Smell, Taste, and Sound Like the Real Thing

In 2014, we brought you the Stonemaier Games Treasure Chest, a box of realistic resource tokens that looked and felt like their real-life counterparts. But that wasn’t enough for us–we wanted to further blur the line between games and reality.

So we’re excited to announce that our next three treasure chests will contain resources that not only look and feel real, but also smell, taste, and sound like the real thing.

main imageThe Food Crate contains micro-cuts of Angus Porterhouse steak (we’ll upgrade to Kobe beef if we reach the $50k stretch goal), coffee beans, baby corn, and tiny loaves of bread that are baked to order.

The Resource Vault is comprised of small buckets of water (please keep them upright so they don’t spill), tiny balls of wool that smells just like a dirty sheep, and a thumb-sized barrel filled with Kentucky bourbon.

Finally, the Energy Box–while not edible–comes with a hazmat suit to handle the uranium, natural gas, coal, trash, and oil tokens.

These special treasure chests will be on Kickstarter on April 14!

HypnotistEuphoria’s Second Printing Replaces Non-Icarite Factions with Icarites

The long-awaited second printing of Euphoria has finally arrived, and with it some subtle changes. There are now more commodity and resource tokens in the box, a quick-reference guide, and 60 wooden authority star tokens.

Also, due to the in-game demand for Icarite recruits, all recruit cards in the game are now Icarites. Gone are the Euphorians, Subterrans, and Wastelanders–all 48 cards are Icarite recruits.

My Kickstarter Book: Movie Deal Signed

One week after pre-orders for my crowdfunding book went live, my publisher announced that they had signed a deal with Lionsgate to bring the thrilling story to life on the big screen.

A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide: Rise of the Werewolves will deviate slightly from the plot of the book, but the essence of building community, establishing trust, and forging relationships will be retained. Just with werewolves instead of crowdfunders.

UPDATE: As I was writing this, I heard from my publisher that they’ve optioned the book to Disney for an “on ice” version. You can look forward to seeing A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide: On Ice at your local hockey arena in 2017.

Russian retiredScythe: A Game About Pronouncing the Word “Scythe”

Scythe was originally designed to be a game about the intersection of farming and war in an alternate-history 1920s Eastern Europe (with mechs), but we learned through playtesting that the most interesting aspect of the game is the pronunciation of the title.

Thus we’ve completely redesigned the game as a light party game about pronouncing words in silly ways. It plays in about 20 minutes for 4-10 players ages 8-80.

Quick Notes

  • IMG_3081 (2)Between Two Cities: In response to a backer poll of people on the internet, we’ve decided to retheme Between Two Cities to a game about felines. Since there is no obvious rhyme, we’ve decided to call it Between Two Cats. Due to the worldwide talent search for the right cats, we’re delaying delivery of the game until March 2019.
  • Viticulture/Tuscany: We recently announced that the third edition of Viticulture will remove all elements of randomness and variability previously present through the visitor cards. The third-edition rules require players to place all 108 unique visitor cards face-up on the table at the beginning of each game. Instead of drawing from a deck, players will select a visitor card of their choice and place it in their hand.
  • Gen Con: Due to the shortage of booth space at Gen Con this year, the best space we could afford to rent is the third stall in the men’s bathroom next to Exhibit Hall D. The stall will feature demos of our games, an opportunity to pitch games to us, playtesting for Scythe and other upcoming titles, and a few tournaments. We’ll keep the stall open from 10:00-6:00 pm every day, with occasional bathroom breaks.

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Happy April Fool’s Day!

10 Comments on “Stonemaier Newsletter: April Fool’s Edition

Leave a Reply to Jamey StegmaierCancel reply

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  1. Mm. There is a place for it (e.g. It just about works in Dominant Species, possibly on account that it’s a heavy game with tons of down time so ‘taking time to pick up cards to read them before putting them back’ is something that while you’re doing, the other players are thinking ahead), but you really shouldn’t be doing it with hobbit cards. (Yes, I know you used those to reduce the table space of the game. Works for that, but that doesn’t mean I have to like having a hand of the buggers.)

    The ‘pick one from this market’ works best when the stuff is simple to distinguish; clear icons, colours, etc, rather than lots of little text. Suburbia, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Ticket to Ride, and the like. Small World gets away with it via player aids to clarify what the various verbs and nouns do, and even then breaks down to pass the instructions when playing with expansions. With lots of text you’re probably better off with a drafting mechanic so that everything’s easy for the players to read.

    Loved the ‘how to pronounce scythe’ gag [Congratulations, I think making a game where there’s debate on the internet about how to pronounce the name makes you a ‘real’ Euro publisher. Anyone for a glass of refreshing Agri Cola?], by the by, and appreciate the fact this is an april fool’s gag that works when you go into it knowing it’s an april fool’s gag, but I tend to prefer surreal pranks to tricking people pranks.

    1. Stephen: Those are exactly my thoughts why Viticulture cards should be in a deck, not on the table. :)

      I’m glad we’ve reached that goal of being a real Euro publisher!

  2. Not a joke: wonder if a small drafting queue of summer and winter visitors would be a neat variant? Say, four of each season of visitor cards face up. When your turn to draw one, take one of the face of cards and the fill it back to 4. Just an idea.

    1. IIRC Barry Doublet (v. interesting perspective of the game, imo, on account that he works in a vinyard) suggests using such a houserule in his review of it, though with three and the option of picking from the top of the deck. I think he might have mentioned doing the same/similar with vine cards and wine orders as well.

      1. Yeah, my joke here is making fun of that idea (not at you specifically, but at the many different people who have suggested it on BGG). Having to read tiny words on multiple tiny cards from across the table isn’t something I’d encourage designers to do with their games or mine.

  3. wait you re-themed Between Two Cities to a game about cats, and you didn’t call it “Between Two Kitties”? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

    1. Yeah, we just couldn’t think of anything that rhymed with “cities,” as there’s obviously no obvious rhyme there. :)

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