What's New This November At Gamescape

Hello and welcome to the November edition of the Gamescape Newsletter. We are going to be talking about some general board game terms and events, exciting TCG events for our Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon lovers, and the award-winning Omicron Protocol board game developed in our very store.

Board Game Phrase of the Month

This month's term is going to be discussing the difference between board game developers and board game designers. Both work together to bring the game to shelves, and sometimes, the differences can be blurry.

Generally, the board game designers work to create the core mechanics and ideas behind the game, bringing it to life. Then, the developers take this shell, refining and balancing the game that is put onto shelves.

You can think about this like writing books, the author is the designer who builds the world, while the developer is the editor who gets the novel ready for shelves. Generally, designers design the game then developers edit and develop it to what goes to shelves. If you are interested in the process of creating board games you should check out our Protospiel Night, where you can get involved in the process by playtesting games that aren’t quite ready for shelves!

This month's term was suggested by members of the community. We are so excited to be getting people involved with store projects. If you have any ideas of what we should talk about, fill out this form.

Pokémon Cup

Attention all Pokémon trainers, we have an upcoming Pokémon Cup! For those unfamiliar with Pokémon Cups, these events grant you a higher opportunity to get League points and win extra prizes. As always, you are able to win booster packs and League packs. First place even wins a special Champion Playmat!

To win these prizes, you will need to play, and hopefully win, a series of matches in a swiss style tournament. The rounds will be 50 minutes long, and are a best of one and to be able to play you will need a 60 card standard deck that official deck requirements.

This event will be held off site at the Daly City Lincoln Park Community Center on November 11. Registration begins at 10 AM, and the rounds will begin at 10:30 AM. Make sure to get there early so you don’t miss the chance to play!

Pokémon Cups are a great chance to meet other players because anyone may participate, and we expect to see players from around the Bay Area, not just the Gamescape community.

Make sure you get your tickets soon!

Painting Classes

Don’t worry miniature painters, we haven’t forgotten about you! We are going to be hosting another set of Scale75 painting classes. These will be hosted on December 9th and 10th for some fun holiday themed painting. All you will need for these painting classes is your favorite brush; all of the fantastic Scale75 paints will be provided. In these classes, you will get to choose from two different merry miniatures, and paint them alongside a miniature painting master.

The instructor is the president of Scale75 USA himself, Brian Howard. Brian is a fantastic painter who knows Scale75 better than most and will be able to show you the ways of painting these festive figurines. Other than running a fantastic paint company, he also has written five books on painting and has one of his models displayed in the Gettysburg Museum of History. Make sure to give him a warm welcome and check out these classes!

New MTG Set: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan

Magic The Gathering: Lost Caverns of Ixalan prerelease pack    
Moving onto another popular TCG — Magic: The Gathering! A new set is coming to stores. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is an action and adventure themed set where there isn’t a specific focus. The set includes everything from Dinosaurs to Vampires, so if you like mythosapiens of all sorts, check this set out!

We are hosting prerelease weekend tournaments for this set where you will be able to play before the cards are officially released. You can either come to an In-Store Prerelease or an In-Store 2-Headed Giant. During prereleases, you build a deck from a prerelease kit that consists of 6 draft boosters from Caverns of Ixalan and a Foil Rare from the set. Then you compete in a Swiss-style tournament to win extra prizes like booster packs. 2-Headed Giants are where you and a buddy team up and get two Prerelease Kits to make two decks before competing in a Swiss style tournament. Either way you play, you’ll have loads of fun!

If you just like cool cards, Caverns of Ixalan is bringing back the “Neon Treatment” that originally showed up in the set, Kamigawa Neon Dynasty. The card “Cavern of Souls” is printed in 6 different neon colors. Will you collect them all?

If you want to check out the events, you can sign up here, and you can preorder the cards here.

Board Game Night

Board Game Nights are a great opportunity to play new games and meet new people. Our board game nights are perfect for either joining a group or coming with a group. We have an extensive board game library available for all participants. Come in on Wednesday evenings to discover new favorites!

We are adding something to Wednesdays for those who want a little extra help when learning games. Wednesday afternoons are now Learn to Play Family Games! This is a parent and kid event to help youngsters who enjoy family games receive some dedicated space to gain experience with a game. Come in to ensure that you always bring your best on family game nights.

Both of these events are great opportunities to connect with new gamers in your community. It's so easy to fit yourself in and start playing your favorite games with new friends. Something that we cherish at Gamescape is our community and the connections that can grow from them. Come and check out Board Game Night and Learn to Play Family Games at our webstore.

Window Displays

If you are unsure of what games to play at Learn to Play Family Games, you should check out our newest window display, “Family Board Games for Board Game Families.” This display offers a wonderful selection of Board Games that are slightly more complex than your typical family game like Scrabble or Yahtzee, making them perfect for more experienced board game families. After attending a Board Game Night or Learn to Play afternoon, these will be at the perfect level.

Our favorites include Ticket to Ride San Francisco and Kites:

 
Ticket To Ride San Francisco is a lighter version of Ticket to Ride that has all the same strategy with a more rapid playtime and additional objectives. It’s also themed beautifully with a map of all of your favorite SF locations, except Gamescape unfortunately, as well as cable cars instead of the typical Ticket to Ride trains.

Kites is a hilariously chaotic cooperative game where you just want to keep all of your kites afloat. Playing cards allows you to flip over hourglass timers, but if any of them run out, then your kite has fallen and the kite show is ruined! Work together to keep all your kites in the air. Designer of Kites Kevin Hamano is a local who has dropped by the store. We love showing off local games to the community! 

Protospiel Night

Protospiel Night is a fantastic event where the community can connect with the people who create the wonderful games that fill our shelves. Protospiel gives game creators the chance to playtest their games that are still in progress. We’ve been running a protospiel night the last Wednesday of every month for the past few months, and have loved seeing it grow and seeing all of the new games in development. Gamescape has such a strong game creator community and we are so enthralled to be fostering the creation of the next generation of tabletop games.

This is a fantastic event that we are excited to see grow over the next months and years to come. Some additions we are hoping to implement soon include a section of our webstore devoted to games that were developed and playtested at our lovely store. This will help players find that game they played at protospiel when it is released to shelves. Another piece of content we are hoping to produce are videos featuring the different games being play tested to help get the word out about these fantastic games. If you are a board game creator who wants to get involved with these events make sure to fill out this form.

Lunar Rush & Omicron Protocol

Last edition we talked about Lunar Rush and how it was awarded the Dice Tower Seal of Approval. Their previous game, Omicron Protocol, just was granted the honor of this award soon after Lunar Rush. The company behind these games, Dead Alive Games, used our lovely store as a headquarters for development and playtesting. We love hosting community members to create these fantastic games.

Since we talked about Lunar Rush last time, we are going to give some love to Omicron Protocol. If you love fantastic sci-fi miniature games that keep that board game feel, you should pick up Omicron Protocol. This skirmish style board game can be played by 1-4 players and takes 45-90 minutes to play, with a solo mode available. The game can be played either cooperative or competitive depending on what you prefer.

Come check out Lunar Rush, Omicron Protocol, and all of the games made by creators local to the store!

Thank you so much for tuning into the November edition of the newsletter. As the newsletter team expands, we are hoping to improve the newsletter. If you have any ideas for things we can add, please let us know here or email us at newsletter@gamescapesf.com!