Element Promo Cards Now Available!
The promo card packs that came with Element during the pre-order phase are now available through the Boardgamegeek Store!
These sets include 4 cards, each depicting a different color sage as a reminder of which sage you are trying to capture in three- and four- player games. Remember: if you capture the wrong sage, you’ve won the game for another player!
The background of the cards also features a visual reminder of the Rule of Replacement. This rule allows you to replace each element in play with a different element stone in a specific order. One more helpful way to help you master of the elements and gain victory over the other sages.
Order a set for your favorite Element player!
Element is available at your Friendly Local Game Store and in our web store!
Trading Gets Wild in Hafid's Grand Bazaar
It started innocently enough with a group of five players, four who knew each other and a fifth stranger (spoiler: he didn’t stay a stranger for long!). The cast of this story is Corey (nephew), Jacqueline (niece), Steve (uncle), Ruth (aunt), and Daniel (stranger, for now).
In round two, the imaginative trading started and it was the first time real money had entered a game for us. Corey really wanted a card representing Linen in the Textiles category and put up a Finished Goods card, a commemorative Gen Con 50 die, AND all the change in his pocket for it. Daniel agreed to terms and they made the trade.
Table talk is highly recommended in Hafid’s Grand Bazaar and Daniel (our non-related player) fell into an easy camaraderie with the other players. There was a lot of laughter and joking as the players discovered a shared love of the show Parks & Recreation and there were a lot of quotes thrown around, particularly quotes from Ron Swanson. Daniel told the group about St. Elmo’s Steakhouse (just across the street from the convention center we were in), how good their steaks are, and that they filmed some scenes for the show there.
The conversation kept returning to food and those St. Elmo’s Steakhouse steaks were on everyone’s mind.
The final round progressed with everyone furiously trying to make the best deals they could to score big one last time in the Selling Phase. Steve had been a pretty even keel player throughout the game, not buying into any of the crazy deals the other players were offering, and remaining a shrewd bargainer making sure he got the best end of each deal he made.
The table got quiet for a moment while Steve mulled it over. Jacqueline tried to talk him out of the deal. Ruth stated she should get something from Corey as well since it was their money that would be spent on the steak. It turns out Steve REALLY wanted to win so he could hold that over Corey for years to come, and despite the protests and counter offers Ruth, Daniel, and Jacqueline tried to make Steve ultimately agreed to the deal.
The rules of the Negotiation Phase are 1) You can’t lie, 2) You can’t steal, and 3) You must honor the deal. This group came by our booth on Saturday with photo proof that Corey DID get his milkshake and steak dinner and that he was satisfied with the deal. And in true Hafid style, Steve negotiated with our show staff to get to take one of our demo copies of Hafid’s Grand Bazaar home with him after the show. That is what we call dedication to a theme!
Gen Con 50 Success for Rather Dashing Games
It has been a full week since we got home from Gen Con 50 in Indianapolis and we are still riding the high of such a successful show! Thank you to everyone who came by our booth to say hi, check out our games, and give many of them good homes.
Element continues to be a solid hit for us and all three demos setups were slammed the whole weekend! A lot of new players out there now, it should be easy to find a group to play with. Check out this demo video from Team Covenant from the show.
This Belongs in a Museum was the favored co-purchase with Element. People really enjoy this “simple” tile-laying game loaded with layers of strategy.
Our fans are so dashing! Check out these dapper fellows!
Pre-Order Hafid's Grand Bazaar!
To get you up to speed before the game releases September 20, we will be running demos of Hafid’s Grand Bazaar in booth 1439 at Gen Con and we have a few slots left in our full play-through events scheduled in the evenings after the exhibit hall closes.
To sign up for an event, visit the Gen Con Event Page and you can either search by Title under Board Game events, or use the following event IDs
Thursday, August 17 (7–9 PM) Event ID: BGM17122300
Friday, August 18 (7–9 PM) Event ID: BGM17122301
Saturday, August 19 (7–9 PM) Event ID: BGM17122302
Take advantage of these opportunities to learn from our design team, Michael Richie and Grant Wilson! At least one of them will be on hand for every event.
Brush off your bargaining skills and get ready to wheel and deal to become the greatest merchant in the land in Hafid’s Grand Bazaar! Pre-Order Today!
Getting Ready for Gen Con 50!
Looking for a bit more than a quick demo of Hafid’s Grand Bazaar? There are still a few slots open in our full play-through events! This is a unique chance to get to play a game before it is released and our team is excited to introduce you to this lively game of bidding and negotiation.
You can sign up for a slot in the following events by visiting the Gen Con Event Finder page.
Thursday, August 17 (7–9 PM) Event ID: BGM17122300
Friday, August 18 (7–9 PM) Event ID: BGM17122301
Saturday, August 19 (7–9 PM) Event ID: BGM17122302
Take advantage of these opportunities to learn from our design team, Michael Richie and Grant Wilson! At least one of them will be on hand for every event.
You will also want to grab one of our 2017 collectible “I Am Rather Dashing” buttons while supplies last!
Got little ones? We are providing activity pages featuring our characters from This Belongs in a Museum to the kids area. We’d love to see your child’s artistic skills, so swing by booth 1439 with their completed art to show us!
RETAILERS: We will have copies of the Quick Start Demo Guides for Element and This Belongs in a Museum for your stores. You can stop by and ask any booth staff member for a couple for your stores and sign up for our mailing list and store locator map!
We can’t wait to see you all in Indianapolis! (Cue the Benny Hill music!)
Unboxing Hafid's Grand Bazaar
Hafid Marker – this 3-D representation of Hafid, the market’s grand master, is passed around throughout the game to indicate the leading player for that round. The game is played in a series of rounds equal to the number of players (for a 2-player game you play four rounds). Each player gets a turn to go first in a round and this marker helps you keep track of which player is leading the bidding that round.
Bidding Cubes – Each player will get 6 bidding cubes to use each round to bid on the various Caravans, Customers, and Influence. Once a cube is bid in a round it is forfeit for that round, even if you get outbid by another player, but you do get them all back at the end of the round for use in the next round. Use them wisely to maximize your access to lucrative goods and information!
New Rather Dashing games sell out at Origins
Beware the Mummy!
Mummies can be moved off the Tomb Tile when an Action Tile is placed in play in lieu of taking the action allowed by the icon on the tile. Mummies can be moved to any unoccupied space on the active game board, except base camps.
Players can move any color mummy, not just their own color.
TIP: Use another player’s color mummy to block movements and your color mummy to steal points.
When moving an archeologist, players cannot move through sections that are occupied by a mummy. This applies to the entire connected section of the same color, and not just the single temple space on which the mummy sits. Mummy influence does not extend past mountains, rivers, or airports. In the image below, an archeologist could NOT move through section A, but could move through section B, even though the two sections are connected via the mountain tile.
TIP: Placing a mummy in the path of an opponent’s archeologist can force them to take multiple turns worth of movements to collect a single artifact or spend an action tile or airport tile prematurely to get around a mummy.
At the end of the game, any section occupied by a mummy claims the points for that section for the archeologist of the same color as the mummy. In the image below, the entire connected green section that would equate 6 points would be taken away from the green archeologist and given to the blue archeologist because the blue mummy is inside that section. Note: you get the points for the entire section, not just the single temple space. Mummy influence for stealing points is limited by rivers and mountains.
Did these tips help you develop some new strategies? We hope you are eager to get back to the table and try new combinations. This Belongs in a Museum is available now at a Friendly Local Game Store near you and online through our web store!
Making Connections in This Belongs in a Museum
Multiple tiles of the same color laid next to each other with at least one quarter touching the same color are considered connected. You can create large or small sections of connected tiles by placing the tiles next to each other or using the action icons to rotate, swap, or replace tiles so that your colors are touching.
Some of the tiles have terrain segments representing rivers and mountains. Separate sections of the same color that can be traced back to each other through rivers and mountains are considered connected to each other and count as part of your network.
In the image below, the green sections are connected by a mountain and the blue sections are connected by a river.
There are six airport tiles in the game that allow you to move your archeologist around the board more quickly by jumping from airport to airport as a single space movement. Airports connect to each other, so any tiles connected to an airport are considered connected to networks that have a connection to another airport in a different location in play.
Lastly, if you have a section that is not connected back to your base camp by any rivers, mountains, or airports, it is still considered connected if your archeologist is in that section at the end of the game. This is a way to utilize your movements once you have collected all your artifacts to connect a stranded section back to your network.
Each archeologist has their color represented on two tiles featuring artifacts, if an artifact space with your color background is connected to your network, you receive three (3) points for that space instead of the one (1) point you receive for each of the temple spaces.
With the myriad of ways to make connections, this game truly never plays the same way twice and you have many strategies at your disposal to maximize your score.
See more about This Belongs in a Museum on the official game page, including a How to Play video and testimonials.
Rather Dashing Games available soon in Denmark, New Zealand
Great news! Rather Dashing Games will soon be available in two new countries.
We’ve recently received orders from Vengeful Games in Denmark and Pixel Park in New Zealand. If you’ve been wanting to get your hands on our games in these countries, check in with your local game stores to see if they’re in yet! If not, be sure to ask them to stock our games.
We’ve been thrilled about the overseas demand for our games, especially our award-winning abstract strategy game Element, so we are so pleased it, and our other fine games, will be available soon in Denmark and New Zealand. We’re working on more distribution channels as well, so stay tuned.
In the U.S. and Canada, Rather Dashing Games are available through ACD, GTS, Southern Hobby, Peachstate, Aladdin and Universal. New distributors and retailers interested in ordering from us can email us at sales@ratherdashinggames.com.
