Games
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From Curt Covert of Smirk and Dagger:
Thought I'd keep you abreast of goings on here at Smirk and Dagger - as summer con season is here.
First up, our new 'push your luck' dice game, SUTAKKU, will be launching in August 2011 with a preview at Gencon.
Sutakku literally means, "to stack", in Japanese and describes the dice stacking element of game play.
For, in this quick-playing, push-your-luck dice game, you attempt to create the tallest stack of dice in order to gain the highest score per turn. It's addicting and a bit of a departure for us at Smirk and Dagger. We're known for our 'stab a friend in the back' style game play, but in Sutakku, there's more of a 'screw yourself' vibe as you try to pull ahead or catch the current leader.
The general rule… Roll three dice and add two of them to an ever-climbing stack of dice. You can choose to stop rolling and score your stacked dice at any time, but pushing your luck will net you more points if you succeed. Continue as long as you dare. But like the Stonecutter of legend, who was never satisfied, you may find yourself with naught, right back where you began. The wise will distinguish ambition from reaching beyond one’s means.
We felt it was important that we really up the ante on game components -- to craft the game with classic Japanese design aesthetics and authentic art. Chiyo Nagahara Romei is a very gifted brush artist and painted the Japanese and English letter forms for the logo, box art and the dice themselves. Speaking of the dice, we made our own and went all out. They are engraved with Japanese brush character numbers and are much larger than most dice. They are a hefty 3/4", which makes them ideal for stacking into towers reaching 12 dice high (which sounds easier than it is). But it isn't a dexterity game. The difficulty in stacking them comes from the laws governing your ability to do so. Still, smaller dice just didn't have the same appeal or stability.
Aside from the art, the game itself is steeped in Japanese folklore, as SUTAKKU was originally developed to teach the common man the foibles of wishing for more than he had. There is this great Japanese folktale, which is echoed in many other cultures as well, about a Stonecutter, who makes a wish to be more than he is, has it granted and can never be satisfied. He becomes a wealthy man, a prince, the sun, the clouds, and even the rocks of the mountain, each one better than the last, until he hears a man chipping away at his mountainous base and wishes himself back to his original state, with nothing - but wiser and happier for it. This game mirrors that lesson.
The game includes 12 premium dice, a cloth dice bag, stacking board and scorepad. The rules are printed in English and come with the full background of the game including the Japanese folktale which inspired it.
Nice filler / party game (and works well with adult beverages too)
I've loaded a bunch of images onto the BGG page, if ya wanna take a peek.
In other news, Run for Your Life, Candyman!, our twisted parody board game of cookie v. cookie cartoon violence, is currently back on press with a Second Edition - with a few changes to enhance game play. You can look forward to shorter game play, a few updated/added rules, sexy new die cut tokens with art unique to each cookie character and 18 new cards. The box will be labeled as Second Edition and is graphically covered in black licorice, so you can easily see this is the new game. Happily, we'll be able to keep the same price point. And yes, for those who have a copy of the original and just want the extra card set, I'll have a limited supply of cards for sale. The current edition is sold out completely - and the 2nd edition should be available by September/October.
Plus, Cutthroat Caverns will have another Adventure Module for August, "The Daggers of Strife" by Jonathan Lavalee and two mini adventures written by yours truly. The long awaited Fresh meat will hold til 2012. Still trying to make it gooder-er.
