Spielmasons

This story is the tale of Cretaceous Rails, a game whose beginnings started not in the Mesozoic Era, but with the Spielmasons of Spielbound. Players travel back in time to the Cretaceous period, build a rail network, and take time-traveling tourists to see their favorite dinosaurs in the wild. Local designer and Spielmason Bryce Ann Journey created, and play tested the game during the Tuesday night Spielmason meetings. All the hard work paid off and the game will launch September 26th on Kickstarter. Keeping it local, the game is being developed and published by another local Spielmason Alex Wolf of Spilcraftgames, while the artwork was done by local artist Graham Burkum. Alex commented that “This game is being published as a direct result of playing it at a Spielmasons’ meeting.”

Bryce Ann, Alex, and some others recently traveled to the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH to promote the game and launch. This included a banner in the main walkway that was visible to everyone that came to the convention. The game was demoed to convention attendees garnering lots of acclaim for gameplay, theme, and components.

Spielbound is excited for Cretaceous Rails and if you would like to get more information on this quick-playing mid-weight Euro game you can subscribe at spielcraftgames.com.

Cretaceous Rails: 1-4 players, medium weight Euro, 30 minutes per player

Travel back in time to the Cretaceous period, build a rail network, and take time-traveling tourists to see their favorite dinosaurs in the wild. After going on safari, tourists can relax at your resort where they can enjoy your latest and greatest attractions, including the dinosaurs you have on display.

This quick-playing mid-weight Euro game utilizes an innovative dual-action worker placement system, route building, and resource management. It’s a race to exploit the resources of the Cretaceous jungle and use them to build the optimal combination of attractions for abilities and scoring.

During June 1st-3rd, Omaha will be hosting its first Protospiel board game convention at the Sheraton Omaha Hotel. The convention, sponsored by Spielbound and The Spielmasons (Omaha’s board game design organization and part of Spielbound’s non-profit outreach program) is part of a national chain of board game conventions that focuses on playing

What is Protospiel Omaha?

Protospiel Omaha is a convention that brings together board game designers and players to play test unreleased prototypes which are under development. We are excited to bring you Omaha's first Protospiel June 1-3, 2018 at the Sheraton Omaha Hotel!

Designers Get Crucial Feedback.

Protospiel events are conventions for game designers to test their prototype games. If you have a work-in-progress prototype you'd like to get feedback on, this is one of the very best ways to do it. This is also an ideal way to get last looks before setting a meeting with a publisher or launching a Kickstarter campaign.

Here's what to expect: A bunch of designers and playtesters in a room of open-play tables, informally taking turns playing each other's games and providing feedback. There are no assigned tables or schedules. Just bring your games and get them played, then reciprocate by playing other designers' games.

Players Have So Much Fun.

If you're a gamer and would love a chance to play new games and shape their direction before you can buy them, sign up to be a Spielbound, the only nonprofit dedicated to improving communities though play of board games. Spielmasons is Spielbound's game design group and has several members who have already published games and won a number of game design competitions. They meet weekly in Spielbound's game library and invite all to present and/or test original game designs for constructive feedback. As frequent attendees of board game design conventions, we are excited to host the inaugural Protospiel Omaha and provide both designers and playtesters with a great experience.

Christmas themed mini Meeple Jam! Artwork by Daniel Kokesh.

Join Spielmasons for this special Christmas design event:

Spielmasons will be meeting from 7:00 PM until 11:00 PM on December 16th for a Christmas themed mini Meeple Jam! We will be designing games in small groups from 7:00 until 9:00. At 9:00 we will be testing all designs and selecting a winner. Feel free to bring game-related white elephant gifts for the winners as well as snacks and cookies for all to share.

As always, anyone and everyone is invited to join in the design and testing for this event. Contact spielmasons (at) spielbound.org with any questions.

Spielmasons 'Power Barons' Challenge!

Hi all!

The Spielmasons announce a new design challenge. The Spielmasons ‘Power Barons’ challenge is a component challenge in which the only requirement is that components from the 1986 Milton Bradley game ‘Power Barons’ are utilized in the design.

In addition to our standard post-assessment scoring, entries will be scored on the proportion of Power Barons components that play a significant role in the design. All entries will be scored during our November 4th and November 18th meetings.

The winner of this challenge will have their version grace the shelves of the Spielbound library with their picture on the box!

Join the Spielmasons at our next meeting on September 23rd from 8PM to 11PM at Spielbound.

Neil