Biblios Review

Biblios, designed by Steve Finn (presumably the mild-mannered alter-ego of the intriguing Dr. Finn)  and published by IELLO Games (Welcome To Dungeon), is a very cool card drafting, set collection, auction-based hand management game…but nowhere near as complicated as I make it sound, just now.  It combines these game types into a unique whole, as players-

Jess:  Wait, why does the box look sort of like a book?

Andrew:  Oh, because we are playing as the heads of medieval monasteries, each competing to have the most desirable library.

Jess:  THIS IS A GAME ABOUT BEING A LIBRARIAN?!?

Andrew:  Whoa, geez, calm down!  It’s not about being a librarian!  The game itself is actually pretty abstract, but really, because the theme is about preserving ancient tomes, it’s really more about being a chief archivist rather than a-

Jess:  EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

This game may be hitting a *little* close to home for our own archivist…

IELLO Gets Literary With Patrick Rothfuss and Their New King of Tokyo Monster!

During Gen Con, IELLO Games debuted their new King of Tokyo monster, Draccus, that comes straight from Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles! If you are not familiar with the books, stop what you are doing and go buy them right now. I’ll wait…

You’re back? Cool.

So apparently our pals at IELLO are as big of fans Patrick Rothfuss as I am. When they discovered that the Patrick loved King of Tokyo, IELLO collaborated with him to bring his monster to cardboard life. Draccus was illustrated by Régis Torres, the artist behind both King of Tokyo and New York. You can pick up your own scaly city-crusher on Patrick Rothfuss’s online store: The Tinker’s Packs. All of the proceeds will go to support Rothfuss’s charity Worldbuilders. The charity raises money for Heifer International that works to end world hunger and poverty.

This is a super cool way to help save the real world whilst devastating the cardboard one. Go buy a Draccus today and get some good karma points!

Welcome to the Dungeon Review

Andrew:  Originally released by Oink Games (purveyors of fine games in tiny boxes) as Dungeon of Mandom in Japan, Welcome to Dungeon is a recent release by IELLO.  This small box game (though slightly larger than a typical Oink title) is designed to play 2-4 players in under 30 minutes.

Jess:  Really, 30 minutes?  That seems like a lot, actually.

Andrew:  Yeah, it can be played in half that time, if people are decisive.

So come with us as we check out this neat little game that manages to combine push-your-luck, bluffing, and just a little bit of take-that into a very tight package!

Seriously, it’s a small box. Not as small as most Oink Games, but IELLO managed to avoid cramming too much dead space into this one, and we love them for it!

IELLO Introduces Welcome to the Dungeon & 3 Guardians’ Chronicles Expansions

IELLO has a lot of exciting news! The have released Welcome to the Dungeon as well as three Guardians’ Chronicles expansions!

Welcome to the Dungeon is a mini-dungeon crawler for 2-4 players, where players build the dungeon as they go. Each player gets a character with equipment and on their turn, players will draw cards and add them to the dungeon or keep them. If you keep a card you have to take off a piece of equipment and place it on the card. This goes on until all players pass on drawing cards. Whomever was the last to pass becomes the delver and faces the challenges that lie in the newly created dungeon with whatever equipment they have left. You’ll have to plan carefully about how you stock the dungeon or you might just end up facing it yourself. Welcome to the Dungeonis 14.99 in the IELLO store.

IELLO’s Upcoming Lineup & Why We Need a Microphone

 Andrew: Yet another snippet of the New York Toy Fair!  This time, we got to check out some stuff from IELLO, makers of the always-entertaining King of New York as well as Biblios, an excellent light-weight set-collection game.

Also, we need to invest in a microphone.

Haunted Dice & Possessed Cards – Our 1st Halloween Special

Greetings, my fellow ghoulish gamers!  It’s that magical time of year once again; when the days grow short, the shadows grow long, and all things frightening come crawling out from the corners and cracks of our world. And best of all, the games of our nightmares come out to be played!

Standing in for the Alien deck building game is this unhelpful yet adorable cat.

Rob: Dude. Laying it on a little thick, aren’t we?

Andrew: You’re a little thi-

Jess: YAY HALLOWEEN! Spooky movies and monsters and candy and games and dressing up without having to go to a convention or be questioned by the authorities! I love this time of year! … what were you guys talking about?

Andrew: …

Diana: … She just saved your butt.

Andrew:  … I know.

Ahem. As I was saying. Here at Gameosity, we love the frightening time of year when we get to indulge in all the creepy movies we like and all the candy that we can eat because we’re (allegedly) grownups and no one can stop us! And in order to get everyone into the mood, we’ve chosen a selection of terrifying games, both in tone and difficulty, which we think are the perfect accompaniment to any Halloween game night!

So come check them out… IF YOU DARE.

(No but seriously, please do dare. They’re great games and I promise the cat isn’t in every shot.)