The Game of the Goose is one of the oldest printed board games, dating back 400 years. It has spawned thousands of derivatives: simple race games, played with dice, on themes that mirror much of human activity. Its legacy can be traced in games of education, advertising and polemic, as well as in those of amusement and gambling - and games on new themes are still being developed. This book, by the leading international collector of the genre, is devoted to showing why the Game of the Goose is special and why it can lay claim to being the most influential of any printed game in the cultural history of Europe. Detailed study of the games reveals their historical provenance and - reversing the process - gives unusual insights into the cultures which produced them. They therefore provide rich sources for the cultural historian. This book is beautifully illustrated with more than 90 illustrations, many in color, which are integrated throughout the text.

There's nothing worse than inviting people over and having nothing planned for them to do. With The Best Party Game Book Ever you can make sure that never happens again! This book has everything you need to make your next get together a success! With 100 classic party games, including ice breakers, truth or dare variations, races and relays, trivia games, contests of strength and speed, minute challenges, and so much more, you can avoid awkward small talk and get your guests laughing, interacting, and having fun in no time!

How do chess players react in the line of fire? Are they able to remain calm in a storm? Defending against a threatening attack on your own king is one of the most difficult aspects to master in chess. Yet given the frequency of such offensives, it's certainly worthwhile investing a good amount of time on honing the ability to defend properly.
In this valuable and entertaining book, Angus Dunnington arms the reader with all the necessary skills to be able to cope with vicious assaults on his or her king. Using illustrative games, Dunnington investigates in depth defensive ideas such as blockading, giving up material, and the timely launch of counterattacks. Read this book and defend with confidence!
AS is commonplace with the renowned Starting Out series, there are an abundance of notes, tips and warnings throughout the book to help the improving player. Starting Out: Defensive Play is perfect for those who have previously honed their chess skills with the earlier books Starting Out in Chess and Tips for Young Players.
"Includes all aspects of defensive play
"Sharpens tactical and combinative awareness
"Ideal for the improving player

Don't ruin your next trip off world! Next time your players stumble upon some timeworn ruins on an unexplored planet, they won't have to wait while you draw every crumbling wall and collapsed structure. Starfinder Flip-Tiles: Alien Planet Ruins Expansion provides beautifully illustrated 6" x 6" map tiles that can be used to create the ruined remains of ancient alien civilizations, whether archaic and magical or more technologically advanced! Inside, you'll find 24 richly crafted, double-sided map tiles. This expansion set, along with Starfinder Flip-Tiles: Alien Planet Starter Set, allows you to create even more extraterrestrial environments for endless planetary encounters! So stop your sketching and start your flipping today! Suitable for experienced GMs and novices alike, this product fits perfectly into any Game Master's arsenal. Wet, dry, and permanent markers erase from the tiles! These double-sided city tiles come in convenient packaging for easy storage.

This book presents the history, rules and winning strategies for bridge, whist, hearts, canasta and many other games, with 200 photographs and diagrams. It is a compendium of the greatest card games from around the world, with clear diagrams of sample deals and hands providing an invaluable visual guide. It details the number of players for each game. It includes professional tips and expert guidance for advanced play in serious games of chance and skill. This beautifully presented compendium explores classic card games from every continent that many players will immediately want to add to their repertoire. The practical heart of the book details all kinds of advanced card games. For every game there is a full explanation of the rules, the type of pack required, card ranking, ideal age, playing and scoring. Diagrams of sample games in play make instructions easy to follow. This is a wonderful resource for all card game enthusiasts. The expert advice and lively background information will appeal to anyone wanting to settle a dispute about rules, find a new game or discover more about the incredible range of card games.

What is a video game? What makes a video game "good"? If a game is supposed to be fun, can it be fun without a good story? If another is supposed to be an accurate simulation, does it still need to be entertaining? With the ever-expanding explosion of new video games and new developments in the gaming world, questions about video game criticism are becoming more complex. The differing definitions that players and critics use to decide what a game is and what makes a game successful, often lead to different ideas of how games succeed or fail. This collection of essays puts on display the variety and ambiguity of video games. Each essay is a work of game criticism that takes a different approach to defining the game and analyzing it. Through analysis and critical methods, these essays discuss whether a game is defined by its rules, its narrative, its technology, or by the activity of playing it, and the tensions between these definitions. With essays on Overwatch, Dark Souls 3, Far Cry 4, Farmville and more, this collection attempts to show the complex changes, challenges and advances to game criticism in the era of video games.

Welcome to Locus-1, a research station on the frontier, using magic and science to study a strange cosmological phenomenon known only as the Locus. But the inhabitants of Locus-1 are far from civilization and they have a problem: pirates, led by a fierce vesk captain from her starship, the Executioner, terrorize the system from a hidden base, and the station's Science Council has turned to the Azlanti Empire for help. Now, deadly aliens are rampaging on the station, Xenodruids have gone missing, and the Azlanti have established an android labor camp on a nearby planet. Locus-1 needs heroes! Will you answer the call, facing both the Executioner and the Azlanti Empire in battle? The Liberation of Locus-1 is a complete Starfinder adventure for 4th-level characters written by Chris Sims and featuring strange new alien creatures, new spells and equipment, and details on Locus-1 and the surrounding worlds-a rich setting that will take players many game sessions to fully explore.

"This is the book I have been waiting for all my life. A delightful reminder of how real games with real people are just about the most fun you can have..." - Stephen Fry "Game On is literally the best book I could own. I must buy one and for everyone I know." - Olivia Colman Featuring over 50 classic and new games to make your get-togethers unforgettable. Game On makes your party, weekend escape or holiday more fun, with a range of classic games which everyone will know (but often don't remember how to play!) such as Mafia or The Hat Game, as well as an array of modern games that will soon become firm favourites with family and friends. Most games don't need any special equipment (occasionally items such as pens, paper or some playing cards are needed). With a sleek, fun and interactive design, clear instructions and guidance for number of players and possible modifications, this is the perfect gift for those looking for fun new ways to interact with friends and family, as well as for avid gamers.

Following on from the enduring success of one of the most important chess books ever written, Bobby Fischer: My 60 Memorable Games, and the recently released Magnus Carlsen: 50 Memorable Games, celebrated chess writer Andrew Soltis delivers a book on Fabiano Caruana, the Grandmaster set to rival current world champion Magnus Carlsen. This book details Caruana's remarkable rise from chess prodigy to one of the best chess player in the world, exploring how he acquired the skills of 21st-century grandmaster chess over such a short period of time. This book dives into how he wins by analysing 60 of the games that made him who he is, describing the intricacies behind his and his opponent's strategies, the tactical justification of moves and the psychological battle in each one.

Few video game companies have a history as long and impressive as Sega Enterprises. Long before it took the home video game console market by storm, Sega was already an arcade powerhouse that successfully transferred its experience making coin-operated amusement machines into the video game boom of the late `70s and early `80s. The combined efforts of Sega's American, European, and Japanese branches revolutionized the arcade industry in ways that are still widely felt today. Thanks to their work, Sega has continued to innovate and lead the industry in design and quality for more than 40 years, producing some of the most famous arcade titles in history. Based on interviews with former Western and Japanese developers, as well as hundreds of English and Japanese documents, this book follows the rise of Sega in the video game industry, from its electromechanical machines of the mid-1960s to the acquisition of Gremlin Industries and the rise of its world-famous AM Studios, and finalizing with its merger with Sammy Corporation in 2003. 62 of Sega's most popular and ground-breaking games are explored in detail.

Take your gaming campaign to the next level with this inspiring, easy-to-use collection of random encounters perfect for any fantasy RPG. Spark your imagination fast with this collection of fun, engaging, and inspiring random encounter prompts. These expertly written options are organized into popular themes and locations so you can find what you need fast, whether you choose from the list or use the dice to choose randomly. With fantasy hooks to fit every game from Pathfinder to GURPS to D&D, there are options for all of your campaigns. Whether you're playing from a game book or weaving your own homebrewed adventure, there's always a need for short random encounters in between set pieces. Featuring fun full-color illustrations, you'll engage more in your story and bring your game to life!

"Three Moves Ahead" shows how classic chess strategies address the #1 problem of Information Age executives: how to move quickly in the face of incalculable complexities and unexpected change. This witty and novel guide, written for non-players, is packed with scores of real-world examples showing how top CEOs use Grandmaster techniques to win on Wall Street. Readers will see how a "strong square" strategy drove Adobe's rise from niche player to industry giant, as well as Western Union's success through a hundred years of technology changes. They'll learn how AOL has played a crucial "exchange sacrifice" to revive its fortunes, and how Google is taking turf from Microsoft with a "minority attack." Most importantly these days, they'll find out "what to do when you don't know what to do," and avoid the fate of companies like Polaroid, Gateway, and our dearly departed Ma Bell.

"A fun ride from Apprentice to Business Grandmaster. Grab it "--Donald Trump

Bob Rice (Short Hills, NJ) was a long-time partner at Wall Street's prestigious Milbank, Tweed, Hadley, and McCloy. He left to start a software venture that was purchased by Viewpoint, a NASDAQ company of which he later became CEO. He is currently a Managing Partner of Tangent Capital, which structures financial products for hedge funds, and a member of the "New York Angels" venture finance group. Along the way, Bob served as Commissioner of the Professional Chess Association, founded the Wall Street Chess Club, ran numerous international chess events and produced a successful "Speedchess" series for ESPN.

Release the beasts! Heroes abound in the Age of Lost Omens, but for every great hero, there is an even greater monster. Lost Omens Monsters of Myth provides details on 20 of the most infamous and terrifying monsters from the Inner Sea region and beyond. Uncover the secrets of some of Golarion's greatest monsters from the Sandpoint Devil to Fafnheir, the Father of All Linnorms, and more. Monsters of Myth provides rumors, tales, and even treasures for the brave adventurers willing to face these legendary creatures!

A huge amount was published about chess in the United Kingdom before the First World War. The growing popularity of chess in Victorian Britain was reflected in an increasingly competitive market of books and periodicals aimed at players from beginner to expert. The author combines new information about the early history of the game with advice for researchers into chess history and traces the further development of chess literature well into the 20th century. Topics include today's leading chess libraries and the use of digitized chess texts and research on the Web. Special attention is given to the columns that appeared in newspapers (national and provincial) and magazines from 1813 onwards. These articles, usually weekly, provide a wealth of information on early chess, much of which is not to be found elsewhere. The lengthy first appendix, an A to Z of almost 600 chess columns, constitutes a detailed research aid. Other appendices include corrections and supplements to standard works of reference on chess.

How has a game brought together Americans and defined separate ethnic communities? This book tells the first history of mahjong and its meaning in American culture. Click-click-click. The sound of mahjong tiles connects American expatriates in Shanghai, Jazz Age white Americans, urban Chinese Americans in the 1930s, incarcerated Japanese Americans in wartime, Jewish American suburban mothers, and Air Force officers' wives in the postwar era. Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture illustrates how the spaces between tiles and the moments between games have fostered distinct social cultures in the United States. This mass-produced game crossed the Pacific, creating waves of popularity over the twentieth century. Annelise Heinz narrates the history of this game to show how it has created a variety of meanings, among them American modernity, Chinese American heritage, and Jewish American women's culture. As it traveled from China to the United States and caught on with Hollywood starlets, high society, middle-class housewives, and immigrants alike, mahjong became a quintessentially American game. Heinz also reveals the ways in which women leveraged a game to gain access to respectable leisure. The result was the forging of friendships within ethnic groups that lasted decades and the creation of organizations that raised funds for the war effort and philanthropy. No other game has signified both belonging and standing apart in American culture. Drawing on photographs, advertising, popular media, and dozens of oral histories, Heinz's rich and colorful account offers the first history of the wildly popular game of mahjong.

Digital role-playing games such as Rift, Diablo III, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning help players develop skills in critical thinking, problem solving, digital literacy and engagement. The author examines both the benefits and the drawbacks of role-playing games and their application to real-world teaching techniques. Readers will learn how to incorporate games-based instruction into their own classes and workplace training, as well as approaches to redesigning curriculum and programs.

Goethe once wrote, "Everything is both simpler than we can imagine, and more complicated than we can conceive." He could well have had chess endgames in mind. Endgames have fewer pieces on the board than middlegames but this does not necessarily make them "easier" to play or understand. Tactical expertise is, understandably, generally associated with middlegame (and sometimes opening) positions. However, tactics are also crucial in endgames - a point that is sometimes overlooked. Even some quite simple looking pawn endgames can feature complex tactical ideas. Tactics in endgames also tend to be very different to middlegame tactics. As well as the familiar themes of pins, skewers and forks, endgames also feature unique concepts that rarely occur in middlegames such as pawn breakthroughs, manoeuvring for zugzwang and active use of the king as an aggressive unit. In this book the highly experienced chess author and coach Cyrus Lakdawala guides the reader through the complexities of endgame tactical play. Lakdawala assembles positions that are most effective to improve tactical ability. Work your way through this book and you will undoubtedly see the results in your own games.

Since Dracula's rise to power a shadow has swept across the nation, but nowhere is it darker than in the Deep South. Throughout the plantations, swamps, and cities, rumours abound of grotesque rituals, hooded figures, and bizarre creatures. Most terrifying of all, however, are the whispers of ancient magic - unspeakable arcane rituals and occult powers that can lead those who wield them towards mystical supremacy. or reduce them to gibbering wrecks.

This new supplement for Dracula's America: Shadows of the West introduces two new factions: the corrupt cultists of the Church of Dagon and the Salem Sisterhood, occult practitioners whose history dates back to the early Colonies. New stealth rules allow for all manner of sneaky and underhanded tactics, while expanded rules for arcane powers offer glory but could cost you your sanity. Alongside these are a host of new scenarios, Hired Guns, monsters, skills, and gear to challenge or assist those who dare venture into the Deep South of Dracula's America.

Jacob Aagaard digs deep into the most complex area of chess thinking. The games and exercises in this book transcend regular chess skills, such as pattern recognition, calculation and positional analysis. Building on the two previous books in the Grandmaster Preparation series, this book challenges the reader to explore the complexities of chess, offering clarity and understanding through Aagaards straightforward approach.

The Open Ruy Lopez (also known as the Open Spanish) has always been a popular choice both at club level and at grandmaster level, where it has withstood the test of time after decades of close scrutiny. It offers both sides the opportunity for a sharp clash of forces in which the better prepared player will often come out on top. It is therefore no surprise that such fighting players as Victor Korchnoi and Jan Timman have always used the Open Ruy Lopez as an important weapon in their armory. Written by leading author Grandmaster Glenn Flear, this book explains the basic elements, strategies and tactics for both sides and offers an accessible, digestible blend of explanatory and theoretical material. (6 1/4 x 9 1/4, 160 pages, b&w illustrations)

The Grunfeld Defence is is a combative reply to 1 d4 which has been favoured by many world champions including those two legends of the game, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. It is an opening in the hypermodern style, in that Black generally allows White to build a strong centre early on in the expectation of being able to undermine it in the middlegame play. Opening Repetoire: The Grunfeld Defence book cuts through the dense theory that surrounds this opening and establishes a straightforward repertoire is based around consistent strategies and concepts. It has all the information necessary to enable the reader to begin playing the Grunfeld with confidence. There are also "Grunfeld-type" suggestions to counter White systems based on the English and Reti openings. In Opening Repertoire: The Grunfeld Defence, Nigel Davies guides the reader through the complexities of the Grunfeld and carves out a repertoire for Black. He examines all aspects of this highly complex opening and provides the reader with well-researched, fresh, and innovative analysis. Each annotated game has valuable lessons on how to play the opening and contains instructive commentary on typical middlegame plans. * A complete repertoire for Black against 1 d4. * A question and answer approach provides an excellent study method.

A set of wargames rules covering heroic adventure and dastardly villains during the early 20th Century. Enter a world of perilous adventure and explore steaming jungles, desert canyons, and arctic wastes! Brave the perils of nature and discover lost ruins, ancient treasures, and the secrets of forgotten civilizations! Race against rival adventurers and face off against diabolical villains! Take to the city streets and fight back against gangsters, spies, and sinister cults! Pulp! is a scenario-driven skirmish wargame set during the interwar years of the early 20th Century. Players build teams of bold explorers, daring archaeologists, hardboiled detectives, and costumed avengers - or criminal masterminds and evil geniuses - and dive into a world of fortune, glory... and menace. Pulp! contains all the rules needed to game globetrotting escapades in this rip-roaring era.