I bought Cartagena from our local game store last Saturday. The game had caught my attention on BoardGameGeek before and when I spotted it in the shelves the decision to bring it home with me was an easy one, as we had been talking about getting a new game with my wife P.

It's the type of game that I tend to like and search for, that is a light board game. It's for 2 to 5 players and the game time is estimated to be from 30 to 45 minutes. It's a race game where you try to get your pirates through the dungeons of Cartagena to the escape boat before other players. You move your pirates by playing cards. The game mechanics and economy are very neat: instead of picking up cards at the beginning of your turn you get extra cards only if you move one of your pirates backwards.

So far I've only played with two players and I can imagine that it will be a lot more chaotic experience with three or more, as the decisions of other players are bound to ruin your own plans. 

There was a story about playing playing rpg's over the 'net with OpenRPG in the Finnish role-playing magazine Roolipelaaja (issue 16). The issue was published about 3 weeks ago. It's a very good article, and why wouldn't it be, as it is written by Vellu from Alt+Games.

The article has a very personal point-of-view which is in part result of Roolipelaaja's editorial line. Vellu writes about our Star Trek: The Next generation game. I also wrote a small text about our online Dust Devils game Kingdoms in Flames. Get the mag if you can and check it out!  

Roughly a year ago I traveled to Tokyo, Japan for the DiGRA2007 Conference. During the trip I frequented Tokyo's numerous arcades - here's an article from my old blog republished to coincide with my friend Mika's month-long trip to Japan. Mika, if you are reading this, don't forget to visit the arcades!

I was really drawn towards the arcade / CCG games in the arcades I visited in Tokyo. Unfortunately, the language barrier (I must admit that I can't read a word of Japanese) combined the relatively high cost to start playing one of these games (1000 yen for the starter deck, 200 yen for the arcade card and 200 yen per game, totaling just under 15 dollars or 9 euros for your first game) prevented me from testing them so I just stood and watched.

I'm looking for (preferably Finnish-speaking) role-players in the Helsinki area to game with me in the Finnish version of this article .

Ever feel like playing board games, but don't have the company? Or just don't have the time to invite a bunch of people, wait them to show up? Do your friends diss that game you particularly like?

No worries, there are tons of free computer board game applications with AI players that you can game with. Sebastian Sohn has compiled a GeekList of them on BoardGameGeek called SoftBoard Games: Free, Commercial, and Abandoned Computer Version of Board and Card Games with Computer AI (Artificial Intelligence) Opponents with Screen Shots . Many other BGG dudes have contirubuted on the list as well. There's over 180 games listed so you are bound to find something you like there.

Of the games listed, I've played at least Space Hulk, Can't Stop, Wizard's Quest and Ra. Other notable mentions include Modern Art, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Blue Moon, Street Soccer, Samurai ... ok, there's too many to mention. Just check it out yourself!

When Gregor Hutton of the indie rpg publisher BoxNinja announced the publishing of 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars rpg on Story Games forum a couple of weeks ago , I was only mildly interested at first. Upon closer investigation, the theme of the game seemed similar to Starship Troopers and GW's Space Hulk, which seemed cool. I've also planned on running a soldier rpg of some kind for some time and 3:16 seemed to produce a different twist on that so I thought it might give my own ideas a boost too. When people started to lay hype on 3:16 in the Story Games thread, I had already kind of made up my mind. I ordered the pdf from Indie Press Revolution . The price was 10 bucks, not a lot for an european these days.

To quote the author: This high-octane Science-Fiction role-playing game for 2 or more players has your Space Troopers killing bugs all across the Cosmos. You’ll advance in rank, improve your weapons, slay civilization after civilization and find out who you are through an innovative “Flashback” mechanic.

Terra’s plan is to kill every living thing in the Universe to protect the home world. See where your tour of duty in the 3:16th Expeditionary Force takes you and your friends. Revel in the kill-happy machismo and enjoy a campaign of Carnage Amongst The Stars.

I've written a more thorughout feature of the game in Finnish. It seems like a cool and promising game. The lack of need for too much preparation combined with the promising flashback and intra-squad relationship mechanics makes it very interesting. I'll write more about 3:16 after we've had a chance to try it out next week.

In English you can find more information on the game through the following links:

• The Games's Official Pages on BoxNinja (With links to Actual Play reports and material)
• The Press Release of the publication on Story Games
• The game's page on Indie Press Revolution