New Games for October 7th, 2022 - Divination Science and the Whimdark Seance

Here’s what is new this week:

• Wandering the Whimdark
• Quest Over Coffee: Science Scmience Expansion
• Dice & Divination (Kickstarter Preview: Astrology Only)

https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games

Wandering the Whimdark

A steamboat chugs down the river, the music from the small band on it drifting through the trees of the swamp amidst the croaking of frogs and singing of birds. A tall man churns butter near a mill, his head shaped like a large rose blossom. He wipes sweat and dirt from his brown and stands up to look over his land. An old woman takes a deep breath, she raises a pair of ornate sheep shears and cuts a piece of thread and places it in a bowl. Smoke billows up from the bowl as her eyes turn milky white.

If you enjoy solo RPG experiences, you won’t want to skip checking out this one. It has such a whimsical setting that it feels like it’d be at home in a Studio Ghibli production. Seriously, some of the race options it provides include Scarecrow, Forest Spirit, Animated Tableware, and Puppet. Who would ever choose to be a boring Human or Elf when faced with those alternatives. With a system that uses part of a deck of cards, and places emphasis on storytelling in a whimsical setting, this promises to be a genuine delight to explore.

Quest Over Coffee: Science Scmience Expansion

As the popularity of the adventurers fulfilling quests reaches further parts of the world, their presence also brings with them turmoils of “being well known”. Cultures and technologies clash! Is this magic? No, it’s science! Science schmience, this is magic! Only you can wade through these petty fights and bring a fragmented fanbase together. Spoiler: it’s science.

A bigger expansion to your QOC experience. Brew a pot of java and grab this expansion, because it brings you new quests, new items, a shop, and a whole page of environments. That’s right, environments add a fun new element to the experience by adding an ongoing effect to the game that remains in effect for the entire game. Well, unless you choose to discard it when visiting the Shop. If you haven’t gotten hooked on this little game yet, now is the perfect time to take that plunge. And if you’d rather pour a cup of milk or tea instead of coffee…well, I guess I won’t hold it against you (this time).

Dice & Divination (Kickstarter Preview: Astrology Only)

Interpreting the stars is intended to be a peaceful and relaxing experience.

A delightful, quick roll-and-write experience, this is the perfect game to play for those who are either new to the genre of roll-and-writes, or for those looking for a low-stress experience to share with others. The dice rolled can be combined in a variety of ways, used to indicate a constellation to draw onto, or the number of segments to draw into the chosen constellation. With 3 being rolled each round, you will have a lot of ways to try and utilize those dice better than your opponents to score the most points possible.

Be sure the check out the full Kickstarter for more on this game, as well as the four others they are offering on the campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diceanddivination/dice-and-divination-a-roll-and-write-compendium?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=dice%20and%20divination 

Game of the Week: The Science and Seance Society ($4 this week)

You are members of The Science and Seance Society, a Victorian-era clandestine organization devoted to exploring the mysteries of reality. Two of you, each from opposing factions within the organization, have entered into a friendly wager. A particularly nasty bit of chaos has been summoned from the Void and must be dealt with, One of you will conduct a seance to eradicate it and the other will build a scientific engine to bring it to order. These methods are wildly different. The player employing the mystic arts must manipulate a set of double-faced tarot cards in hopes of arranging them correctly. The player committed to the scientific method must be meticulous in establishing order from chaos. They pull dice from a bag, roll them, and place them on engine cards, with specific dice needed for each.

Let’s be honest, if you aren’t already clicking to get this game after reading the opening part about both sides playing differently then I can’t help you? I absolutely love asymmetry, and to have something more than just an unique player power makes this game really stand out. And after reading through the rules, this sounds positively delightful in the most sinister and engaging way possible. Because not only are you taking differing approaches to the same problem, you have plenty of opportunity to affect and interfere with your opponent’s plans. Why are you still reading this? Go, be gone, get this game while you can and thank me later. And then come back to read about the other two you’ll need to get…