April 4, 2010: The Sky Isn't Falling, But It Sure Moves

The Stars Are Right is a fascinating game -- equal parts pattern recognition and strategy, with a theme that hits the sweet spot between cute and sanity-crushing. And I'm not the only one who thinks so: TSAR has received an Origins Award nomination! Congratulations to Klaus Westerhoff, Goomi, and the entire Pegasus Spiel crew!

Of course, we knew this game was special. That's why we spent a great deal of time last summer teaching people to play it in game stores, at conventions, and during trade shows. Along the way, we came up with a couple of play aids.

Invocation Symbol Counters are a handy way of tracking how many Flips you've converted into Pushes, and how many Swaps are left. They're very useful for teaching the game, or if you've got a particularly complex series of Powers to utilize.

The Scoring Track absolutely does what you'd expect -- track a player's score. But since the creatures are all visible, you could just glance around the table. No, the real reason to use these tracks is because they're illustrated by Goomi -- and for fans of his Unspeakable Vault (of Doom), that's enough reason right there.

Both these play aids are free PDFs, and you can find links on the TSAR page and on e23. Or, come to think of it, in the preceding two paragraphs!

-- Paul Chapman