▪️ I mentioned in early May 2026 that Looney Labs is celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of Star Trek by reprinting Star Trek Fluxx, Star Trek: The Next Generation Fluxx, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Fluxx, and Star Trek: Voyager Fluxx, with them returning to the retail market on October 20, 2026.
Well, those four titles will be joined by a fifth Fluxx title in the Star Trek universe, with the new game Star Trek Lower Decks Fluxx also due out on that date. The pitch for this title: "Join Boimler, Mariner, Rutherford, and Tendi, plus of course the bridge crew and even Cetacean Ops and Peanut Hamper, as they take on Creepers like the Pakleds, Badgey, and the most fearsome Moopsy. Is your helmet big enough to win you the game?"
As in nearly all Fluxx games, to win you need to have the right combination of Keepers in front of you to match the current goal, but keepers, goals, and rules change throughout the game, so you need to adapt to circumstances constantly.
Looney Labs notes that it won't be able to reprint these games, both old and new, presumably due to licensing restrictions, so if you don't want to wait for the 65ht or 70th anniversaries to find them, ask your retail store to order them for you.
▪️ Monolith Board Games is ramping up a crowdfunding campaign for a new expansion for Frédéric Henry's decade-old Conan board game — Tales of Tortage and Zamora — but to satisfy those who missed previous crowdfunding campaigns (and ensure maximum financial support for the upcoming one), Monolith is surveying fans (in both English and French) to ask which expansions, add-ons, and accessories should be reprinted.
As for the new material, the RPG features a sourcebook for the Tortage and Zamora regions, along with skills, spells, and a campaign, while the board game expansion will feature solo, co-operative, and Overlord scenarios, alongside new mechanisms such as "Blessings of the Spider-God".
Some day Conan will finally rest, but today is not that day.
▪️ I was surprised to see Mantic Games announce a crowdfunding campaign for Plants vs. Zombies: The Board Game, a tabletop adaptation of the George Fan video game design from PopCap. Isn't Plants vs. Zombies kind of, you know, old at this point? Out of date? Passé? Does anyone still have fond feelings for that game?
Then I realized that Plants vs. Zombies is the same age as my son, so I was being stupid. I still like him, right, despite his age? So why wouldn't people still be fans of Plants vs. Zombies? And many players of the video game (or one of its spinoffs) have discovered it only recently, just as many of my son's friends have discovered him only recently, not knowing him since birth.
In any case, Plants vs. Zombies: The Board Game is a miniature-based co-operative game for 1-4 players that recreates the challenge of the video game. Hordes of zombies are trying to get into your house, shambling in straight lines down your lawn toward the front door, and you need to plant defensive lines of specialized plants — Peashooters, Cherry Bombs, Wall-nuts, and more — to take them out.
The game includes a level-based campaign — as in the video game — in which you unlock new plants, zombies, and challenges, with the game's difficulty scaling based on the number of players.
