A webcomic about board games and other geeky things.

One of a kind

September 10, 2018 Rachel 6 Comments

A few months ago, Fantasy Flight Games presented a new concept of theirs: unique games! Firstly announced was Keyforge. A card game of which not a single deck is the same. There is no deck-building, there are no booster packs, none of that. You buy a Keyforge deck and that’s it, that’s your deck! The decks even have their own unique card backs and a unique name. We’re really intrigued by this concept and are really looking forward to trying it. Later, FFG presented another unique game, Discover: Lands Unknown. This clearly is a step up being a board game instead of a card game with unique character combinations, environments, tools, etc.

And now we’re very curious how far FFG will take their new unique games concept in 2019. 😉

Last week we’ve been mostly playing Root. There is so much to discover in that box and we’ve been really enjoying it so far. We played a co-op game against the Mechanical Marquise and that almost felt as if we were playing Pandemic. And we finally continued our Gloomhaven campaign, our 13th game – hurray! My character is now level 5 and is able to do some really powerful stuff. Good times.

Are you excited about unique games?

Decision Tea

September 17, 2018 Rachel 6 Comments

Tea Dragon Society and Dinosaur Tea Party are two games that are on our ‘Need to check these games out at Spiel’-list! They are two totally different games, but they share the same incredibly niche theme. 😀 We can’t wait to organize a high tea game day with these two games and of course Marrying Mr. Darcy. We will totally cramp up our pinky finger because of holding it up in the air while sipping tea for so long. CAN’T WAIT. Preferably in cosplay. We’ll post a picture on Instagram when the time comes. 😉
We noticed that the list of games we want to check out on Spiel is growing rapidly. Luckily we will be there for the entire convention this time, so we might actually be able to look at all all the games on our list in real life. This is probably a terribly naive thing to think – we’ll see!

For those who don’t know, every week we try to post something extra on our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/semicoop) with the weekly comic updates, like the sketch of that week’s comic or other sketches I’ve made. By becoming a patron and you’ll receive a notification when we post something new so you’ll never miss anything!

And this coming Thursday we’ve got a surprise and an introduction of something new here on the website for you all! Definitely check back later this week, we’re excited because we’ve been working on this for quite a while already!

Dragons or Dinosaurs?!

Never a dull moment

September 20, 2018 Gil Hova No Comments

Hi folks, my name is Gil Hova and I’m a board game designer, publisher, podcaster, and teacher living in lovely Jersey City, right across the water from New York City. I’m best known for my board game The Networks (pictured above), but you may also have gotten to try my game Wordsy, a rare word game that benefits longer words.

I started designing board games in 2000, because I ultimately wanted to be a video game designer. As I researched board games, I discovered that I actually preferred them to video games, and it’s been downhill ever since.

I formed my publishing company Formal Ferret Games in 2014 as a vehicle to self-publish my games, and ensure that every detail was done correctly (if not quickly!), and I’m working on my next two releases – Bad Medicine, my first self-published game, will be re-released at the end of the year, and my new game High Rise will be on Kickstarter in February.

I’m also a podcaster! I am co-host of Ludology with Geoff Engelstein, and I co-founded Breaking Into Board Games with Ian Zang and Tony Miller. My first job out of college was working in sound post-production for film, so podcast editing is something I’m pretty comfortable doing. Dirty secret about podcast editing; as you get better at it, you don’t get all that faster at it. You just wind up editing more stuff out.

And yes, I am the proud owner of two ferrets; I’ve owned various ferrets for over 20 years, and I have to say they’re my favorite animals around.

Thanks to Rachel and Heinze for letting me take over their wonderful webcomic for a day! Next time I do this, I hope to work more pets into the strip.

A little message from Rachel and Heinze:
We’d like to thank Gil for commissioning a comic and we’re proud to have this as our very first sponsored comic. Sponsored comics is a new thing that we’re really excited about! Whoever does something board game related can commission a comic which we will publish on Thursdays, so as an extra comic besides the usual weekly updates on Mondays. This is a way for us to make more funny comics to discover and share new games with our audience. For more info, check our Info page or send us an email or message on any social media platform.

What is a show you love but everybody hates?

#superBlessed

September 24, 2018 Rachel 1 Comment

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From the few times that we played D&D in the past, this is something that happened to us and probably to others too. The DM is setting up a scene at the beginning of a session and players are enthusiastic and immediately react to – anything that could be important for an upcoming quest. And when players are convinced that something is up, there can be this typical chaos at the table of people looking up if they can do certain things or asking if this or that is possible. I have nothing but respect for DM’s in these kind of situations (overall respect btw, being a DM is hard work!). 😀

But so much for today’s comic! In case you missed it, we’ve launched a new thing last Thursday! Sponsored comics, meaning that game designers/publishers or whoever has a cool board game related project can commission us to make a comic about it! These sponsored comics will be published on our website as an extra comic and will not replace our weekly comic on Mondays. So that means more content for our readers and a way for us to produce more content. We already have another fun comic in store for you this coming Thursday, so keep an eye out for that! If you’re interested in commissioning a comic, you can always contact us through social media or send us an email at info@semicoop.com and we’ll send you more information.

Back to board games! The few spare moments that we’ve had last week, we’ve spent on playing Root. There is so much to discover in that box and we want to get a grasp on all the different factions before we start playing it with friends. It’s an exciting game and so far we’re having a lot of fun with it. And I can’t wait to make Root character fanart of our cats, I love the art style. :’D

What’s the biggest misunderstanding you ever had during a game?

Not the sound of silence

September 27, 2018 Pepijn van Loon 2 Comments

Hi there, I’m Pepijn van Loon, the designer and publisher of Heroes of Tenefyr and owner of Broken Mill.

I’m super excited to be launching my first game on Kickstarter, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of some wonderful people. Mainly the 4 amazing artists that I’ve found: Frank Attmannspacher, Emanoel Melo, Manolis Frangidis and Jimmy Nijs. It’s been a great working with them all.

You all know the other two artists who have been very supportive of me: Semi co-op. They even helped promote my game a bit at UK Games Expo! I actually met Rachel from Semi co-op about 14 years ago, back when we were all hyped about the Lord of the Rings movies. It’s a crazy coincidence that we both ended up in this industry after all these years.

Heroes on Tenefyr is live on Kickstarter right now!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brokenmill/2049614510?ref=571676&token=64a6e30d

It’s a cooperative deck-building game for 1-4 players with some push your luck elements.
The bard is actually a lot more competent in the game than in the comic, but his style of music is an acquired taste. Personally, I love some good bagpipe music, especially when it’s combined with folk or metal.

I’d like to close off with a big thank you to Rachel and Heinze for this, and all the other wonderful Semi Co-op comics that brighten our Mondays and Thursdays!

What’s your favorite fantasy class?

The Blinding

October 1, 2018 Rachel 1 Comment

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Board games have gotten so creative! And Nyctophobia is certainly one that deserves a mention. It’s also a game design with a story, it was designed by Catherine Stippell, who wanted to have a game she could play with her blind uncle. In this game, there is only one player who can see what’s going on on the table and he or she is a crazy hunter with an ax. The other players wear blackout glasses and can’t see what’s going on. They can only feel the game board while they are trying to make their way out of the maze and reach the safe zone.

We haven’t played the game, but we’re certainly intrigued by the concept of the game and the story behind it and we’re hoping that we can check it out at Spiel in Essen this year. 🙂

This weekend we also tried the game The Climbers at our FLGS. We only had a vague idea what to expect and it was a fun game to play! To us, it scratches the same itch as Santorini and Junk Art and therefore it’s not a game we will get for our already very big collection – but I do see us playing it at the store while enjoying a nice cup of tea. It looks fun and has a nice light strategic element to it. After playing a game called The Climbers we totally felt like climbing ourselves and went bouldering at our local bouldering hall. 😉

What’s your favorite horror themed board game?

Behind the Filter

October 8, 2018 Rachel 3 Comments

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We don’t actually have a board gaming room and often just play games at our kitchen table, but this is often how it goes, right? And not only in board gaming, people make a pretty picture and you have no clue what kind of mess is going behind the camera. And for fanatic board gamers, there’s the ‘issue’ of newly acquired games that’ll need a place on a shelve since they can’t stay in an evergrowing stack somewhere in a corner. Luxury problems, really – but probably recognizable for some readers of this comic. 😉

In other news: we’ve got a new design up in our merchandise store! We’ve already received a sample of the tote bag and we’re loving it. As we speak, we’re having a little contest on Instagram in which you can win a $10 voucher for our store with no minimum and it lasts until October 31. You just have to follow us on Instagram, like the post and tag a friend in the comments below the Instagram picture. We’ll pick a winner tonight at 8PM CEST. We’re also having a (pre)-Essen Sale right now that lasts until October 31, so if you’re looking for fun board game themed tote bags or shirts, you might want to take a look.

And there’s another contest going on that is related to our comic! On Twitter, KatiesGamesCorner has a giveaway going on in which you can win your own personalized avatar drawn in Semi Co-op style, by me! Click here to check out how you can join in the contest, which ends on October 31. If anybody is interested, you can always send an email to info[at]semicoop[dot]com if you wish to commission an avatar drawn by me.

Semi Co-op – Share the Love (promotion pack)!
We’re looking for people that are coming to Spiel in Essen and would like to drop off some of our bookmarks and stickers at their favorite local gaming spot. This could be on the counter of your local gaming store or at your board gaming cafe (with permission of course). We always leave a stack of bookmarks and stickers at our FLGS and we have to restock them every month and we thought it would be fun if we could spread them around the world! Every pack contains 50 stickers and bookmarks. If you’re interested and are coming to Spiel: please leave a comment down below so we can estimate how many we should order before Spiel.

If you like our comics and would like to support the work we do, we’re now on Patreon! Being a monthly patron gives you automatic entry in the seasonal raffles we hold on Patreon, in which you can win fun prizes like things from our merchandise store, sketches and more!

Do you have a dedicated board gaming room?

#WarGames are for everybody!

October 15, 2018 Rachel 2 Comments

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This week’s comic is dedicated to Katie from Katie’s Game Corner! Katie has a blog that is mostly about wargames. But what we think makes Katie special is that she really tries to shed another light on wargames, to give this game genre a lower threshold and she works hard to make the board and war gaming community an inclusive place for everyone without judgment or discrimination. These are things we full heartedly support and this lead to this week’s comic.

Katie commissioned us to draw her an avatar a while back and she liked it so much, that she’s having a contest on Twitter where you can win a commissioned avatar! Check that out if you’d like your own Semi Co-op styled avatar, the giveaway ends on October 31.

Good friends of ours got us a meeple cookie cutter and we’re loving it. From now on we can serve meeple cookies at gaming nights, yeah! Now we just need to find an amazing cookie recipe. And yes, one of our cats was cool enough to photobomb the picture. 😉

It’s almost time for Spiel! Exciting times! And a little less time for playing games in preparation before heading to Essen. Last week we only played Steampunk Rally, Bargain Quest and Star Realms. This week we might play another game of Root and hopefully, we can crack our brains at the second case of Detective. On the other hand: we’ll probably play more than enough games at Spiel, so maybe it’s a sensible thing to play a little less games right now. 😀

Do you play wargames and do you have any favorites?

Preparing for Spiel

October 22, 2018 Rachel 3 Comments

This week it’s time for Spiel and I don’t feel like I’m ready at all, to be honest! This is the second time we’re going to Spiel and the first time that we’ll be there every day. Even on the press day on Wednesday, that’s going to be interesting. 😀 We only have a few appointments, so we can freely roam the halls most of the time. We have a list of games we’d love to try if we get the chance!

From the top of my head:

Nyctophobia
Blue Lagoon
Princess Jing
Robin Hood and the Merry Men
Shadows: Amsterdam
Treasure Island
Dinosaur Tea Party
Cryptid

(There are probably a few more that I forgot) Those are some of the titles we would love to demo, see in action and maybe buy. Mostly we’re just going to wander around and be on the lookout for things we haven’t heard of before.

But Spiel isn’t just about games, it’s also about meeting new people and seeing friends again. We’re really looking forward to that. So you are at Spiel and by any chance see us walk by, don’t hesitate to say hi! We’d love to meet your and we’ll be carrying around some cool stickers and bookmarks that we’re giving away for free. If you don’t want to leave it to chance to meet us, we’ll be at the Instagram meetup at Fritz Patrick’s at 5 PM and we’ll also be at the GamingRules meetup in that same venue at 7 PM. We’ll be taking our ‘Share the Love’-packs with stickers and bookmarks with us to those meetings as well!

How do you prepare for board game conventions?

The Unplayed

October 29, 2018 Rachel 7 Comments

(We discovered that our comic plugin also supports GIFs. Gleeeee!)

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We’re back from a fantastic week at Spiel in Essen! This year has been slightly surreal, there have been so many readers saying hello to us and we’ve met so many interesting new people. And of course, we met up with friends we only meet once or twice a year. Thank you boardgaming community for being so awesome! <3

This year of Spiel might not have been so much about the board games, it was mostly about the people for us. We did play some games, but not that many and… we’re totally fine with that! Some of the games that we’ve played are Men at Work, Railroad Ink, Valparaíso, Realm of Sand, Faceless, Ceylon, Arraial, Dragon Castle, Untamed and Downforce.

Although Dragon Castle isn’t a new title, we did finally get a chance to play it and we loved it. Solid game! We had a great time playing Men at Work and we were very impressed by Valparaíso and Downforce. I’m not going to review all the games, because that’s not what we do. If you’re interested, you can check out our Instagram account. We often write our opinions about a game when posting a picture of it. 🙂

Heinze and I are both back to work today! Hopefully, we get to play some of the games that we took home with us in the evenings these coming weeks. I wish there was a booth on Spiel that sold time, that would have made this all a lot easier. 😉

How many unplayed games do you have?