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12/18/2006
Ultimate Werewolf announced
 Ultimate Werewolf is a complete playing package, including cards and reference cards for up to 31 players. The kit includes illustrated cards (with English names and role descriptions right on the cards) that come in plastic sleeves with inserts to prevent accidental revealing to other players, detailed player and moderator reference cards, the Amulet of Protection, the ability to have custom cards added to your deck, and even nice little tents for players to write their names on. And it handles up to 31 people! All combined in a nice small box for easy storage and transportation. Ultimate Werewolf is shipping in January 2007. Details for pre-ordering are available here.
10/9/2006
Age of Steam Expansion: Disco Inferno/Soul Train and Age of Steam Sun/London are now shipping
Maps are still availabe for ordering (see their respective product pages).
10/3/2006
Start Player: A Kinda Collectible Card Game is now shipping
 Start Player: A Kinda Collectible Card Game is now shipping! Preorders for the Essen Limited Edition are completely sold out.
More details are at the Start Player website.
9/27/2006
Sun and London Rules now available
Download the complete rules pdf here.
9/18/2006
 Age of Steam player mats giveaway to the first 200 people to stop by the Winsome Booth on Thursday morning at Essen
I'll be giving away custom-designed Age of Steam player mats (one for goods, and one for scoring/shares/etc.), printed in full color on sturdy cardstock (heavier than the included AoS mats that come in the box) to the first 200 people who ask for them on Thursday, October 19th at the Winsome booth Hall 5, Stand 5-95, starting at 10am. No purchase is required, one per person please. No reservations will be accepted for these mats.
Not only are the mats in color, increasing clarity during your Age of Steam games, but they also include little faded-back circles for placing your markers during turn order bidding and action selection, making both processes much clearer and efficient. In addition, the mats have everything you need to play all Warfrog maps (like the Ferry action for Scandanavia) and a 7th player turn order circle for the Winsome maps released last year. These mats work perfectly with Ted Alspach's Age of Steam maps as well (Sun and London include custom mats).
If you absolutely have to have one of these full color mats and won't be able to pick it up at Essen, you can download the PDFs for them here. They will print to any color printer (I wouldn't recommend printing them to a black and white printer, as they're designed for color only).
9/12/2006
 Age of Steam Expansions: Sun and London announced
Bezier Games today announced two new maps for Age of Steam from designer J C Lawrence, to ship in time for Essen 2006. These new maps feature tight gameplay and some outstanding innovative mechanics that add dramatically to the Age of Steam experience.
Pre-orders are being taken now; ensure that you get a copy of these new maps by ordering now (see details here).
Both maps come with full color rules and custom playing mats, and each are printed in full color on double-sided heavy stock.
Age of Steam Expansion: Sun
Welcome to the exciting business of mining solar flares and sunspots for energy. Link the magnetic vortices of sunspots to drain their rich supplies of energy, creating new sunspots in the process. As a competing faction within the Solar Energy Commission, you are responsible for constructing the most extensive and profitable sunspot mining network; the comfort and decadence of billions of people depends on you. This Age of Steam expansion features the ability to create towns any time existing track is upgraded at any location on the map. There are only 8 cities in the game, but they can be moved to new locations via the Restation action. Players can increase their links capacity, allowing them to deliver multiple goods during a single delivery, and Instant Production causes goods to appear instantly after a delivery. See more details and images here.
 Age of Steam Expansion: London
From the outrageous real estate prices to the fees associated with the unions, building a railroad network in London is incredibly expensive, challenging veteran Age of Steam players to properly balance their debt and asset (track) investments. This Age of Steam expansion map features Union Overtime Fees, which are charged in addition to normal track building costs, and Instant Production, where goods from the production chart are immediately placed into a city where goods were either shipped from or received. See more details and images here.
9/6/2006
Disco Inferno and Soul Train Rules now available
Download the complete rules pdf here. Note the "singing penalty" in Disco Inferno!
8/29/2006
Age of Steam Expansions: Disco Inferno and Soul Train announced
Bezier Games is proud to announce two new Age of Steam expansion maps from Ted Alspach, designer of 1830's Pennsylvania and Northern California, to be available in time for Essen 2006. These two new maps actually share the same lower half of the board, and in a twist only found on Soul Train, the lower part of the board is flipped up and over and used again part way through the game.
Pre-orders are being taken now; ensure that you get a copy of these new maps by ordering now (see details here).
Both maps come with full color rules, and each are printed in full color on double-sided heavy stock.
 Age of Steam Expansion: Disco Inferno
This Age of Steam expansion takes place in a Disco Inferno, where “satisfaction comes in a chain reaction” and everyone keeps shouting “Burn, baby, burn” as you set up routes for disco dancers (goods cubes) to be shuttled between various discothèques (colored cities) on a map covered with flames. Unique features for this map include empty cities that “burn to the ground” when goods are emptied out of them, as well as the ability to “chain” deliveries together from one city to the next up to your total Locomotive strength. See more details and imagery of a game in progress here.
 Age of Steam Expansion: Soul Train
Souls are in jeopardy, and only you can save them! Build a train to carry souls (goods cubes) from Hell to Earth, and then deliver them to their final resting spot in Heaven. This Age of Steam expansion uses the bottom of the “Disco Inferno” board for the first part of the game as deliver cubes from Hell to Earth. Then you flip over the Hell part of the board to show Heaven, which is then placed above Earth, resulting in a linear delivery system that provides a strategic challenge to Age of Steam players. See more details and lots of images of the game in play here.
 How to Order:
Please order as follows: Cost for the two maps (Disco Inferno and Soul Train) is $25.00 plus shipping/handling ($5.00 US, $12.00 outside US for up to 4 map sets - please email for shipping costs for larger quantities). Payments may be made via paypal to orders@bezier.com (please specify quantity and shipping address).
8/17/2006
Ted on Episode 62 of the Dice Tower
 I had the privilege of being interviewed by Tom Vasel on the latest episode of the Dice Tower, and did the top 10 list with Tom! You can download the episode here.
The Dice Tower is a podcast about strategy boardgames. I believe it's the most popular of all the different podcasts on boardgames.
The Top 10 list is "the top 10 ways to choose a start player," and both Tom and I list 10 different ways that a game is started, with Start Player figuring prominently into the list.
8/15/2006
Start Player: A Kinda Collectible Card Game announced
The Board 2 Pieces characters are now starring in their own game! Start Player, from Bezier Games, is a game that you play to determine the Start Player for your next game. No, really. It consists of tons of cards with different criteria on them, and each card has a unique Board 2 Pieces comic panel on it. You can pre-order decks, booster packs and 2 special limited editions now; the game will be shipping by Essen 2006.
Check it out over at the brand new Start Player website!
7/31/2006
bezier is now bezier games
 This website has been renamed to bezier games to more accurately reflect what's going on within the site. The Age of Steam Expansions: 1830's Pennsylvania and Northern California are now being published by bezier games (they were previously published directly by Ted Alspach). Watch this space for announcements of a few new projects to arrive in time for Essen 2006!
7/27/2006
Seismic is shipping
 Seismic, designed by yours truly and published by Atlas Games, is now shipping! I've created a new set of pages here with all sorts of new content to support the game, and much more will be added over the next few days specific to Seismic, including variants, images, tips and strategies, and some interesting facts and other thoughts on the game.
The game should start showing up at online retailers within the next few days (currently Thoughthammer, Carhaus, Boulder Games, Fairplay Games and Funagain Games are online stores that I know about who are taking preorders), and at your FLGS sometime next week.
Yesterday evening was the weekly Silicon Valley Boardgamers meeting, and was a landmark for Seismic (at least personally), in that it was the last time I will probably ever demo the prototype to gamers. The prototype box can be seen here for the curious. This Saturday's Boardgame Addicts of the Peninsula meeting will be the first time I get to show the "real" game to a group...I can't wait!
7/25/2006
Boardgame designer album covers available
    Have you ever laid awake at night wondering what music from your favorite boardgame designers might sound like? Well, I certainly never did. But I did wonder what the cover art would look like if they produced an LP in the 60's or 70's. You can get these on a variety of gear at CafePress, at the Board 2 Pieces online store. As with most gamer-specific merchandise, these will have your non-gamer friends (for those of you unfortunate enough to have such folks around) giving you odd looks and strange stares. More than usual, that is.
Of the four here, my favorite is definitely The Theming Colovinis, both for the name of the group as well as the Cartagena-inspired album art. It has a mid 60's feel that is oddly compelling. The group "A Kramer A Day" sounds like a 90's indy band, but the art is very late 50's/early 60's complete with the requisite "featuring" label. And then of course The Kris Burm Project evokes the mid-70's heavy rock art aura - the sort of thing your friends would pile into the van to listen to. Finally, that playboy grin shown by Reiner Knizia and the Tile Laying Trio's album tells me that this early 60's crooner isn't all that upset by the wild nightlife he led when visiting the west coast, even if his return trip to Europe was a solo one.
These are all t-shirt ready over at CafePress, so pick one up and confuse your friends.
7/16/2006
South Bay Boardgamers gets a new logo, stuff on Cafe Press
 One of the best boardgame groups EVER gets a new logo designed by yours truly. CafePress has merchandise available with the logo, as well as one with an unofficial tagline "It takes balls to play boardgames in the South Bay." Visit the South Bay Boardgamers website too, and be sure to stop by when you're in the Bay Area!
6/28/2006
Welcome to the new games.bezier.com
The new site is up! Content has been updated throughout the site as well. Of particular interest is the new Board 2 Pieces site, which now features a set of pages for reading the strips in order, examples of some great cafepress and zazzle items, and more. You can see what the old site (ick!) looked like here.
4/15/2006
Now Available: Two new Age of Steam expansions by Ted Alspach
 Age of Steam Expansion: 1830's Pennsylvania and Age of Steam Expansion: Northern California, two new Age of Steam maps, are now available. Both maps include full color setup/rules sheets that clearly show the differences from standard Age of Steam rules as well as specific setup instructions. Both maps are sized the same as standard Age of Steam maps, and will fit nicely into your Age of Steam box. Pictures of these Age of Steam maps can be viewed here.
A limited number of maps have been produced; to ensure you receive a copy, please order as follows: Cost for the two maps is $25.00 plus shipping/handling ($5.00 US, $12.00 outside US for up to 4 map sets - please email for shipping costs for larger quantities). Payments may be made via paypal to orders@bezier.com (please specify quantity and shipping address) or by $US cash. Please print, fill out and send this order form if sending cash, and send a notification email to orders@bezier.com. Distributors and retailers please email orders@bezier.com directly for larger quantities.
 Age of Steam: 1830's Pennsylvania: This Age of Steam expansion takes place in 1830’s Pennsylvania, as the industrial revolution began, and the demand for coal to power locomotives and all manner of machinery started to peak. At that time, the railroad industry was driven by an abundant source of coal from the coal mines of Western Pennsylvania. Unique features to this map include coal-producing towns and cities in Western Pennsylvania, heavily-urbanized cities in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and special bonues for coal (black cube) deliveries.
 Age of Steam: Northern California: This Age of Steam expansion takes place in Northern California, focusing on San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Cruz and Sacramento, and the struggle to move goods across the San Francisco Bay Area. Unique features to this map include two bridges across the San Francisco Bay, the port city of Santa Cruz where goods line up for delivery, a three tile San Jose city with double goods growth, and the ever-changing destination of Sacramento, where the goods desired by that city are dictated by the flow of goods into Santa Cruz. This map is a redesign of the popular Age of Steam: Bay Area map (Essen 2005 Limited Edition), with modified cities and towns, with a map changed slightly in size to fit on a standard Age of Steam board.
3/20/2006
Seismic by Ted Alspach announced
Seismic has been announced by Atlas Games. The BGG page is here.
From the Atlas Games website: "The industrious yet short-sighted Seismic Asphalt & Paving Company -- located in the sleepy town of San Andreas, California -- has put you in charge of one of its many road crews. Your job is to build a network of roadways around San Andreas proper. But San Andreas is rather prone to earthquakes, which have a tendency to destroy the beautiful stretches of pavement you've been laying. After all the asphalt is put down, which road crew will end up connecting the most highway in between quakes?"
In Seismic, players place hexagonal highway tiles to build long, complete sections of highways, scoring points for each tile as well as bonus points for the ending "intersection" tiles in their routes. Scores aren't tallied until the end of the game, because at any time, earthquakes can occur, destroying tiles along the most-built direction leading out from the central "San Andreas" tile. Players constantly need to be claiming as many long roadways as possible while ensuring that their highways aren't the ones that are going to be destroyed if and when an earthquake occurs.
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