Pandante Kickstarter (Reboot)

Pandante is back! The new kickstarter is up right now. It features the same great gameplay as before, this time with much less expensive poker chips. The chips are now clay, and the deluxe set costs $100 rather than $300.

There's also a travel version of the game now, as well as the print-and-play version. And there's kickstarter-exclusive cards, a $5 savings off MSRP for the standard version, and stretch goals that unlock more free stuff. You can even unlock FREE Blivand Yomi decks of the characters "Panda" and "G.Panda" if we raise enough. So please share the kickstarter with your friends to make that happen.

Pandante Gameplay

We've all heard about gambling Pandas, but I didn't realize how much fun their games were until I saw them myself. They play this game called Pandante that's sort of like Human Poker, but it's a lot more about lying. You lie about what's in your hand and you lie about which abilities you have access too. (There's only a few abilities and they're pretty simple.)

Everyone pretty much knows that tons of lying is going on, so that adds quite a bit of fun factor. And there's not much folding in Pandante, at least not nearly as much as in Human Poker. There's also no Panda elimination. I found that all of that has great synergy because it means everyone is participating most of the time, so that's more opportunities to lie about stuff (and laugh about it). That said, it's also playable as a really serious gambling game for real money. I really liked that it could be a really social game as well as a highly competitive one, so I decided to bring it over from the Pandalands for everyone here.

I hope you enjoy the game as much as these kids. :)

Head on over to the kickstarter page for lots more pics, video, and info about the game and components!

Yomi Beta Decks

Some physical Yomi beta decks are available right now in small quantity. The print-and-play versions of those same characters are also available at that same link. This is a small, print-on-demand run so note that the cardstock is different from other Yomi cards, but it's still fine. These decks have all the real art and are in a polished state of balance. If any balance changes happen later on, the good news is that it's easy to make just the changed cards available because of the print-on-demand nature of this run.

The expansion characters available right now are Quince, Onimaru, BBB, and Troq. Also, there are updated versions of Grave, Jaina, Midori, and Setsuki available. All characters have cooler looking character cards now, a new stat summary card, and all abilities now have a timing tag like "draw phase" that lets you quickly see when the ability can trigger.

All these characters are also playable free online. If you'd like to learn more about the new characters, here are some articles by Thelo (programmer Yomi online):

Quince article
Onimaru article
BBB article

Keep in mind that you get free shipping within the US on any order over $25 at sirlingames.com. So you can get just one deck, but if you combine that with some other items then you'll be able to reach the free shipping threshold. Enjoy the new decks!

High Level Chess

There's a feature article on businessinsider.com about Chess 2. Well actually it's about original chess, but it sort of reads like an ad for Chess 2. It explains how in original chess that draws are more and more of a problem and that high level play is becoming less and less interesting.

This quote is especially distressing:

So Anand encountered a "mild surprise" in the opening moves that left him "flying blind" (meaning the board was in a position with which he had not previously studied) and because of that he decided to not keep pursuing the game. He just engineered a draw.

Most real people are "flying blind" after the first couple moves of the game, and it's the challenge of trying to solve a puzzle against a live opponent (who is also flying blind) that makes the game so fun. At the highest levels, Grandmasters go very deep into the game in positions they have studied exhaustively, and then the moment they feel uncomfortable they search for the emergency brake, and consider themselves happy to escape with half a point.

Intuitive understanding of the game and moments of brilliant improvisation are the most exciting aspects, and yet memorized lines of play are so deeply entrenched now that when a top player encounters anything outside of memorized, studied lines he heads directly for the draw. It's really the opposite of what you'd hope.

Another unfortunate quote:

They have several games yet to go where they can produce some fireworks. But if these first two games are indicative of future play, then this match won't do anything for the world of chess. Instead it will do the opposite of promoting the game. It will be a reminder that at the highest levels, chess is a bore that you don't need to pay attention to.

Oh well, at least there's an alternative coming.