The Kraken - a gaming vacation - Schloss Neuhausen, Germany
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BOARD & CARD GAMES

Demo & Playtest Game with the Designer

Planet Apocalypse

Designer & Host: Sandy Petersen

It is the End Times, and the hordes of Hell are invading our world. You and your friends take the role of heroes defending earth from the influx of grotesque horrors. You build up your hero’s abilities over time by adding useful weapons and gear. Destroy the Hellgate & save our world!

Planet Apocalypse
The tasty looking design of the game box.

Hellhound
Hellhound, anyone?


Demo & Playtest Game with the Designer

Hyperspace

Designer & Host: Sandy Petersen

Hyperspace is Sandy Petersen's new Space Empire game. Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate the opposition in his fast-moving game of starships and alien civilizations.

Hyperspace!
Some known Usual Suspects around the current Hyperspace prototype.


Demo & Playtest with the Designer

Evil High Priest

Designers: Lincoln Petersen & Sandy Petersen
Host: Lincoln Petersen


Evil High Priest is a worker placement board game (similar to Agricola, Lords of Waterdeep) where you vie to be the most valuable member of your cult and thus become the Evil High Priest!

Evil High Priest
Take notice Krakeneers, the first game designed by a Spawn of Petersen.


Demo & Playtest with the Designer

Gloranthan Realms

Designer & Host: Gianni Vacca

Gloranthan Realms is a card & board game for 3 to 8 players. Each player represents one of the principal Gloranthan civilisations (Aldryami, Lunars, Orlanthi, Westerners, Uz …) vying for supremacy in our favorite fantasy universe. Each civilization uses Runes (the building blocks of Glorantha) to purchase cards that represent Gloranthan gods, lands, heroes etc. The first player who has displayed four cards (1 hero, 1 realm, 1 trade organization, 1 land) wins the game. HOWEVER the players are also simultaneously competing against Chaos … Don't let Chaos win by using too many Chaos Runes to slow down your adversaries!

Gloranthan Realms
Global situation during the game: The runes are face down in the center; so are the heroquest square cards. The deck of cards shows the ones that have been discarded. The Chaos Board has a gauge that increases whenever the players use Chaos Runes to purchase cards. If it reaches 20, Chaos wins — all the players have lost!


Demo & Playtest with the Designer

Siebenbürgen

Designer & Host: Gianni Vacca

Siebenbürgen is a civilization board game for 4 players. Each player represents one of the four historical nations who have inhabited Transylvania: the Magyars, the Rumanians, the Saxons, and the Szeklers. The game starts at the fall of the Roman Empire and ends at the fall of the Soviet Union. Players accumulate victory points by doing better than the other players in terms of the cultural, territorial and religious advancements of their nations.

Siebenburgen
Situation at the start of the game (Antiquity): The blue cubes represent marshland; the grey cubes neutral peoples. The players' cubes are mostly out of the map (on the small boards above the big map) at the start of the game. All players start at 0 resource points.


Demo & Playtest with the Designer

Trade Routes of the Ocean

Designer & Host: Gianni Vacca

Trade Routes of the Ocean simulates the commercial antagonism between the six major naval powers around the Indian Ocean and the China Seas during the 16th century. Players may win either by conquering three minor nations or by amassing more treasure than the other players. The commercial or military options are intertwined and open until the end of the game. Orders are secretly written and simultaneously executed, Diplomacy-like, giving way to big surprises …

Trade Routes of the Ocean
Overall view. Orange dots are land spaces; blue dots are sea spaces. Some spaces are both land & sea spaces.


Khan of Khans

Designer: Reiner Knizia
Artwork: Ian O' Toole
Host: Michael 'MOB' O'Brien

Each year, the Khans of the Tribes of Prax lead raiders against the clansfolk of the green and fertile uplands of neighboring Dragon Pass, seeking wealth, fame and cattle.

This year, the high priestess of Ernalda has decreed that whichever Khan brings back the most wealth from Dragon Pass in the form of cows will be declared Khan of Khans, the paramount Khan of Prax!

You each play one of the Khans in this competition. The high priestess has made special corrals made to keep your captured cows safe. Any cows still running with your herd at the end of the raiding season are still counted, but watch out for stampedes, squabbling among your tribal champions, and other players trying to steal them!

Khan of Khans

Khan of Khans

Khan of Khans

Khan of Khans


FROM THE SCHLOSS GAME LIBRARY

Axis & Allies: 1942 Second Edition

Designer: Larry Harris, Jr.
Hosts: Peter, Fabian & Rick


1942, the world is at war! Come and battle out WWII with Oberst Peter Küsell, Feldmarschall Fabian von Küchler and Admiral Rick Meints. Playing Axis & Allies is another great KRAKEN tradition. Will you be able to beat the combined management power of Chaosium, The Schloss and THE KRAKEN? The game will be set-up and then be run all KRAKEN. Turns will played in the gaming breaks. Yep, that is how we roll. This time we battle with the 1942 Second Edition, yeah. And transports will not have attack values again ...

Axis and Allies
Yep, a classic game ready to be played in a classic setting.


Official Playtest

CREDO

Designers: Chris Gidlow
Artwork: Kalin Kadiev
Host: Susan 'MOB’ O'Brien


CREDO is Chaosium's legendary game of dueling dogmas, the card-based recreation of Council of Nicaea.

After much consultation with St Epiphanius's popular 4th century work The Panarion (aka The Bumper Book of Heresies), Chaosium is bringing out an all new edition of the game, with updated mechanics, glorious new art (by Kalin Kadiev), and plenty of theological beard-pulling. The version at THE KRAKEN will be the current prototype. 

Come join Chaosium's board games line editor, Susan, in what we will style The First Ecumenical Council of Brandenburg.

Credo
Just a few of the Dueling Dogmas. Artwork by Kalin Kadiev.


Playtest with the Designer

Clan Wars

Author & Host: Mark Jarvis

A King of Dragon Pass inspired game where 4 players compete against one another to be the best clan.


FROM THE SCHLOSS GAME LIBRARY

Cthulhu Wars

Designer: Sandy Petersen
Host: You

Cthulhu Wars is a fun, competitive strategy game in which 3 to 5 players produce acolytes and monsters, build mystic gates and awaken Great Old Ones. The players earn spellbooks, try to destroy their enemies, and capture their bases. Each faction has its own unique set of monsters, spells, and its own Great Old One(s). The game features over 60 highly detailed monster miniatures and countless expansions. We plan to have some of the most fun expansions on hand.

Cthulhu Wars miniatures
Painted Cthulhu Wars miniatures looking back at you. Painted by Grégory Privat.


Official Playtest Games

New Chaosium Board Games

Designers: various
Host: Team Chaosium


Chaosium will bring a host of new board games currently in development to demo and playtest. Watch the KRAKEN Tafeln for more exciting information.

Chaosium mystery box
Well, it's a mystery. What board games will Chaosium bring to THE KRAKEN?


Uz

Designer: Simon Bray
Host: tbd


In Uz each of the 2-6 player takes the role of a Troll Leader trying to grow their tribe with plenty of Dark Trolls, but avoiding breeding vast hordes of scrawny Trollkin. As you grow your tribe you can expand your caverns, discover allies such as Troll Shamans, Mistress Race Trolls and Friendly Black Elves. You can also create temples to give magical powers to your tribe, such as turning your Dark Trolls into Berserkers, raising Zombies from the fallen and protecting your resources with Watch Beetles. However the tribe is under constant threat from raiding Dwarfs, Elves and Adventurers. Blights, plagues and monsters cause havoc, and if that isn't bad enough, get too many Trollkin and they will ransack your caverns, kill your Dark Trolls and flee off into the night!

Uz cards
Uz cards
Uz cards
Nicely illustrated playing cards of Uz. Art and pictures by Simon Bray.


FROM THE SCHLOSS GAME LIBRARY

Operation Market Garden

Designer: Louis Kolkman
Host: Gianni Vacca


Will Arnhem be captured by the Allies or can the Wehrmacht defend it?

Play Operation Market Garden in 20 minutes! September 1944, and you, and your brothers in arms, are fighting in the Netherlands. Montgomery has this plan to get to Arnhem, via all those bridges, and you are either the Allied Ground and Airborne troops, and have to try it, or one of two German Wehrmacht commands that have to prevent it from happening. Based on true history, as they say in Hollywood. You will move and fight with your units (Infantry, Tanks and Paratroopers) to try and get a tank unit into Arnhem, or prevent this from happening. In only four turns, you will have a chance to end the war before Christmas, or prevent an invasion of the sacred Vaterland. This is a team game — 2 to 16 people can play. Operation Market Garden was conceived as a fast game to teach teams of schoolchildren (age 10 – 14) from schools in the Nijmegen area about what was happening during that long week in September 1944.

Market Garden
The game was a HUGE success at THE KRAKEN 2015 & 2016. Louis is producing a smaller version for THE KRAKEN Games Library.

Market Garden
It is a very cool, fast paced game that could be played over one beer. Picture by Gianni Vacca.


Demo & Playtest with the Designer

Xaaress

Designer & Host: Alex Celler

Xaaress is a real-time simulation skirmish tabletop, ideal for multi-player and one-vs.-one. The rule-system is modular, it features unique and innovative game mechanics and should delight any gamer who missed something new over the past few years.


Demo & Playtest

Copper Town

Designer: Turkka Loimisto
Host: Topi Pitkänen


Copper Town is a Glorantha board game in the style of Dragon Pass. Each player controls a local clan that delivers copper to Copper Town. Or raids other players. Or explores the mythic landscape for magic. Or performs Heroquests

Copper Town
The only copy of this game in existence.






October 20-23, 2017