At its core, Horrified: Greek Monsters is a game about collecting objects and performing certain actions before you run out of time. To slay Medusa, you need to set up four mirrors and lure her into a garden. To take down the Chimera, you have to put each head to sleep. To defeat Cerberus, you have to open the gates to Hades and push him in. Slaying the Cockatrice means blessing a different item in four different temples.

While racing around the board attempting to complete these quests, you’ll occasionally meet the great heroes of legend and attempt to escort them to certain locations on the Island of Elysium. However, if either you or one of those heroes is slain by a monster, the time-tracker moves one space. Luckily, such a defeat is temporary; you’ll just reappear at the temple of Nyx. That said, if the tracker moves seven times, the game is over and the monsters are victorious.

You usually face multiple monsters at a time, and when it’s the monsters’ turn to take an action, you’ll draw a card. Most monster cards put new items to collect on the board and give actions to monsters that have certain features. For instance, the card might activate all winged monsters, or all monsters that have the Rampage keyword. Because of this, the draw of a card might activate only one monster, none of the monsters, or, in the worst-case scenario, ALL of the monsters.

The monsters also possess special abilities. For instance, the Siren can force all the players on the board to move one space closer to her. The abilities are thematically appropriate and add a lot of replayability, allowing you to face different synergies depending on which particular monsters you’re facing.

Horrified: Greek Monsters can entertain between one and five players, and a game takes about an hour to play. If you’re a fan of the Horrified games (Greek Monsters is the third in the series), you’ll absolutely want to pick this one up to enjoy the new wrinkles they’ve added. Fans of Greek mythology will also enjoy the way the monsters’ legends have been translated into game mechanics. Head over to your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy today and speak to the legendary staff about adding Horrified: Greek Monsters to your collection today.

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Summer is incoming and it’s time to enjoy a day or two of outings before bunkering down to escape the Texas heat. That means it’s the perfect time to grab a good stack of comics! We looked through 14 weeks of upcoming new comic titles and compiled our top picks to keep your eyes on.

Adventure Time Pride Special: PB & Marcy’s Infinite Mixtape – One-shot releasing 6/3
Rosie Knight & Evgenia Vereli
THE FIRST-EVER ADVENTURE TIME PRIDE SPECIAL IS A BALLAD TO BEAT! Congratulations! You’re a top listener of the Scream Queens, and we have a special treat: lead singer Marceline the Vampire Queen and her girlfriend, Princess Bubblegum, have created a brand-new, never-before-heard mixtape commemorating their anniversary! But what happens when a rewind through memory lane makes them realize that they’ve been looking at things through rose-colored glasses? Are they really that out of tune—or is someone else playing them like a fiddle?

M1: Monster Racing League – Releasing monthly starting 6/10
Robert Windom, Lily Windom, Jae Lee
Seventeen-year-old Dev loves nothing more than racing. When she and her father move to Japan, she has to adjust to a new normal away from what she’s most passionate about. But it turns out her life will be far from anything normal when she stumbles into an underground world of illegal street racing in Japan, where speed is power and bodily mutation wins championships. This high-octane sci-fi drama set in a near-future Tokyo burns neon-hot and never looks back.

Jeff the Land Shark: Superstar – Five-part series starting 7/8
Kelly Thompson, Tokitokoro
JEFF HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED! Mojo is determined to create the latest hit show… and sends the Marvel Universe into an UPROAR when he KIDNAPS beloved pet-slash-friend of heroes, Jeff the Land Shark — and his klepto companion Ken! But Jeff’s not the only star of the show — prepare to meet the all-new, all-wild cast of X-Men, including the likes of DAZZLE STORM, MAGIKHOT, WOLVERINE-MAN, RAMBIT and MORE!

Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #1 – Six-part series starting 7/8
Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Fran Galán
AHEAD OF DC STUDIOS’ CLAYFACE MOVIE, WITNESS BASIL KARLO BRING THE MUD AND THE PAIN BACK TO DC COMICS! Before he was Clayface, Basil Karlo was one of the hottest stars in Hollywood. As he breaks out of Arkham once again, he’s ready to stage his comeback, but there’s just one problem: Someone already beat him to it, and Basil Karlo is already a massive star. But if that’s true, what’s next for the real Basil? And what does his predicament have to do with young women disappearing in Los Angeles and a new supplement causing hideous transformations in its users? Acclaimed horror writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle and rising star artist Fran Galan join forces for a bold new miniseries that’s equal parts body horror and Hollywood glamour.

A Mischief of Magpies – Three-part series starting 7/15
Simon Spurrier, Matías Bergara
Mar has a secret. Sometimes, without warning, he falls out of the world. This would be an inconvenience if his life wasn’t already such a drag. When he’s gone, he finds himself in an extraordinary city. A city which is also a machine, endlessly crossing a shoreless ocean. The Wandering City beckons, and Mar has answered its call. Tasked with eliminating the baleful Moray King, who haunts the underside of the machine-metropolis, Mar takes every opportunity to dive deeper into the depths of this astonishing fantasy world… though it comes at a high cost to his life in the real world, and to those who try to love him.

This summer has a great lineup, we broke a sweat narrowing it down to a short list of 5. Here are some honorable mentions:
The Deadman by DC, releasing 6/3
Absolute Catwoman by DC, releasing 6/10
Power Rangers Unlimited by BOOM!, releasing 7/1
Sonic the Hedgehog x Godzilla by IDW, releasing 7/15
Midnight X-Men by Marvel, releasing 8/5

The post The Summer’s Most Anticipated Comics appeared first on Dragon's Lair: Austin Store.

How do you know that the thing you love is becoming a pop culture phenomenon? How do you know it has broken out of the niche for which it was written, and is now getting ready to rampage through the zeitgeist? There are signs: a catchphrase dropped into casual conversation, a T-shirt spotted in the wild, your older relatives asking you “what do you know about this?”. This is how I feel about the absolute madcap spectacle that is Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

Here’s the pitch. A 20-something former Coast Guardsman named Carl is playing video games in the early morning hours of a winter night in Seattle, Washington. His ex-girlfriend’s show cat, Princess Donut, decides this is the ideal time to go out the window. Carl, wearing a leather coat, boxers, and slipping into the wrong shoes, quickly goes after her. This is when Earth is conquered by aliens. Instantly, billions die around the world as all buildings with a roof and all vehicles are sucked into the ground. The survivors are told that the new owners are instituting the 18-level World Dungeon to provide a method to get the planet back. Carl and Princess Donut enter and are registered as Dungeon Crawlers. This is just the tip of the high-octane video game insanity that this series becomes. It is by turns hilarious, action-packed, and horrific.

The last five years has seen the popularity of the series skyrocket, fueled in large part by the amazing audiobooks narrated by Jeff Hays. Dinniman and Hays were even guests at Brandon Sanderson’s Dragonsteel Nexus convention last year, which was amazing to see one of the current top fantasy writers rally behind DCC. The future is bright for these books, with an original graphic novel, a collection of the popular webtoon, an RPG, a few board games, and a television adaptation in the pipeline, breakthrough stardom awaits. Parents, please take note that these books are intended for a mature audience. Come on down and grab a copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl today!

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The core of Spirited is your Road. At the start of your turn, you’ll add two Clan cards to your Road. You need to be careful with this, however; have too many cards of the same Clan on your Road, and you are Overrun. Being Overrun means you lose all the cards in your Road and in your Camps.

This is a disaster because the cards in your Camps are what you use to build Allegiances. An Allegiance is 3 or more cards of the same Clan. The more Cards in your Allegiance, the more powerful the Allegiance is, measured in Medals of Bronze, Silver, and Gold. However, Allegiances can be stolen from you by players who build a more powerful Allegiance with the same Clan.

You can also build Wonders. These can’t be stolen, but you must have one card from all twelve Clans from the cards in your hand, your Road, and your Camps to build it. Wonders all have effects that are played as soon as they are built, many of which allow your opponents to do things, but Wonders can’t be stolen and give you a lot of Spirit.

Clan cards can also be played for the effects on the cards. These allow you to do things like swap cards from your Road with the other players’ Roads, add or remove cards to your Road, and other cool effects. In addition, an active Allegiance also as special effects, like changing how many cards from a Clan result in being Overrun.

Occasionally, a Battle will result. This allows players to convert the Medals of their Allegiances into Spirit. However, this makes the Allegiance weaker and makes it easier for another player to steal that Allegiance.

This is a game of ever-shifting realities on the board. As players add and remove Clan cards from their Roads, forge Allegiances, and build Wonders, the situation changes not only for themselves, but often for the other players. This is not a game where you slowly build one or more engines to win the game; this is a game where you are constantly shifting your strategy to account for the current state of the board. This means the game isn’t the sort where one player has won the game by turn three and then you play out the rest of the game in hopes of something changing. In this game, things are constantly changing, and you’ll be kept on your toes the whole time, looking for opportunities to make the best of an ever-shifting set of circumstances.

Spirited is also a game that rewards multiple play-throughs. The first few times you’ll play, you’ll have the fun of discovering the different ways the cards, Clans, and Wonders interact. Once you have a firmer grip on the possibilities, you’ll be constantly shifting your strategy based on the cards in play at any given time. In short, replayability is what Spirited is all about.

Spirited can be played by up to six players, but also has a very clever solo-play mode. A game typically takes about an hour to play, so you can expect to get in multiple plays in a single evening, especially as it doesn’t take long at all to set up. If you like games that keep you constantly needing to shift your strategy, or to come up with a Plan B for when Plan A doesn’t survive contact with the enemy, you absolutely need to check out Spirited. Talk to the spirited board-game experts at your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® today about adding Spirited to your board game collection.

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In each game of French Toast, one player acts as the Toastmaster, drawing a Secret Word that you and your friends have to guess. The catch? The Toastmaster may only communicate by repeating your guesses back to you! Each time someone makes a guess, the Toastmaster must decide whether that guess is “closer” to their Secret Word than the “closest” previous guess. If the new guess is closer, the Toastmaster repeats it back to you. If the new guess isn’t closer, the Toastmaster repeats the closest previous guess instead. Keep making clever guesses to get closer and closer to the Secret Word, until you can guess the Secret Word itself! What makes one guess “closer” to the Secret Word than another? It’s completely up to Toastmaster! They can use whatever criteria they think will help you guess the Secret Word- and hopefully the rest of you can figure it out!

French Toast comes in a tiny box, but it packs a whole lot of excitement- releasing this week, it will retail for $20(+tax). If you would like a copy preordered for you, let us know here. Happy guessing-games to one & all!

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Most of the new edition of Munchkin is going to look familiar. The game (mostly) plays the same as it always has: flip a door card, kill the monster, and grab the sweet loot it drops. It’s the raw basics of dungeon adventuring, “with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff.”

The 2nd edition of Munchkin has all new cards, with a friendlier design, but it’s still corny humor and cheesy puns, all illustrated by John “Dork Tower” Kovalic.

The new cards will be compatible with your old cards, so you don’t need to toss anything; just add the new, 2e cards to your existing decks.

There are a few new mechanics, including stronger balance between the character classes, coins (so you can get change when you sell magic items, and so you can bribe the other players), and a way to share the victory. Your hand size is also limited; you must have only five cards in your hand when you end your turn. These rules promise a faster game, easier set-up, and won’t end up with everyone stuck at Level 9 forever.

If you’ve never played Munchkin before, you owe it to yourself to check out this classic game. If you’re a big fan of the game, you’ll want to check out the brand-new card art, layout, and icons designed to make the game easier to play. Talk to the high-level gaming experts at your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® today about getting your copy of Munchkin 2nd Edition.

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In today’s world, who doesn’t want to get lost in a magical adventure with captivating art and a whimsical story? Thankfully Kamome Shirahama‘s Eisner Award winner, Witch Hat Atelier, is here to whisk us away.

You might have seen buzz around Witch Hat Atelier recently with the release of its first anime season, a production that took nearly 4 years of meticulous care to replicate the magic felt from the manga. After years of dedication and delays, the studio BUG FILMS was finally able to start releasing season 1 last month. But why would they go through all that trouble for a seemingly cute coming of age story? Open page one of the manga and you’ll immediately understand why this story would be adapted with such love.

Coco is the kind and daydreaming daughter of a dressmaker who aspires to become a witch, but because only innate magical users can practice magic, she’s forced to give up on her dream. One day she meets a witch named Qifrey, and after she witnesses how he uses magic (by drawing complex runes with magical ink), Coco accidentally casts an unknown spell that encases her mother and house in crystals.

Not knowing what spell she cast, Qifrey takes Coco under his wing to help her undo the magic cast on her mother and fulfil her dream- all while trying to track down an ominous coven possibly behind the incident. As Coco immerses herself into this new, wondrous world, a sinister plot begins to thicken around her.

Kamome Shirahama, author & artist, brings a special flare to every page and layout she’s ever put out. Her style stands somewhere between Art Nouveau and Art Deco, with every line having purpose to what is needing to be conveyed. One of my favorite things about the manga is how Shirahama structures a page- she’s not afraid to leave space, which gives breathing room to the gorgeous details that fill every panel.

Whether this is your first time hearing about Witch Hat Atelier or you’ve been catching the release of the anime, we hope that you will give it a chance to spark a little bit of magic in your heart. While the regular Volume 1 is a great place to start (priced at $12.99+tax), we would be remised to not recommend the newly released Grimoire Edition (priced at 49.99+tax), which combines volumes 1-3 in a oversized hard cover. Perfect for appreciating the artistry of the story and great for anyone who has already been cherishing the manga series.

If you are interested in seeing what all the hype is about, let us know here by ordering with us. Safe casting witches!

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Hope & Fear is a massive expansion to the game. It just about doubles the number of adversaries the GM has to throw at the PCs. But a lot of the goodies are for PCs.

First, there’s a whole new Domain, the Dread Domain that allows players to play with the Fear points that are usually solely the domain of the GM. It also has many powers that inflict Stress on adversaries. To showcase the new Domain are two new Classes. The Witch communes with nature and unnatural spirits alike to power their magic. They can Hex those who harm their companions or consult the spirits of the dead for hidden knowledge. The Witch, of course, comes with two subclasses. The Hedge Witch is about supporting their allies with practical folk magic, boosting healing and offering protection to their allies. The Moon Witch, on the other hand, is all about beguiling foes with illusions and glamour, as well as buffs that aid multiple allies at once.

The other new Class that uses the Dread Domain is the Warlock. These are like the Warlocks of D&D, making pacts with otherworldly beings for their power.

But that’s not all the new classes. We also get the hand-to-hand Brawler, who can be a tanky Juggernaut or a Martial Artist; and the Assassin.

We also get six new Ancestries (what Daggerheart calls Races) which include four based on the classic elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water (like D&D’s genasi); the divine answer to the tiefling-like Infernis in the Aetheris; and Gnomes.

And we get six new Communities, basically your character’s social background. These include the sheltered Hearthborne, those who grew up surrounded by conflict in the Warborne, and the Freeborne, who once knew great adversity but have escaped it. Finally, the Frostborne come from lands of ice and snow, while the Duneborne hail from desert terrains.

But maybe the most intriguing is the Reborne, the classic amnesiac character who no longer remembers their roots and is on a personal quest to either to reconnect with their forgotten past or completely sever those old bonds.

And as if that wasn’t enough, players and GMs get a brand new mechanic to play with: Transformation. These are six new additions to your character that each come with a perk and a drawback. Some of these, like Vampire and Werewolf, can be gained through play. Others, like Shapeshifter and Demigod, might be part of your character’s creation. And both the Ghost and the Reanimated might be a way to prolong your character’s involvement in the campaign after their untimely death.

And there’s still more to talk about: new Environments for GMs like the Masquerade Ball and Campaign Frames, like the gothic horror Dark Heart of Andaloria (which leans heavily into the new Dread Domain and the Transformation mechanic) or the modern day high school meets high fantasy of Castle High. If you’re looking to infuse some Old School flavor into your Daggerheart, the Journey to the Horizon Campaign Frame is designed to support Hex Crawls and West Marches style gaming.

In short, the Hope & Fear box is as packed with fun new options and additions to the game as it is with physical goodies. You can order either the standard or deluxe versions from your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® today!

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Whether you want the basic or deluxe box, both will be available to pick up in your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® on August 25th. But don’t sit on this! Come by or call to set up your pre-order today to make sure you get the set you want as soon as they come out.

Coming up next, we’ll have more info on the rules content of the first big expansion for Daggerheart.

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The game comes with five Investigator decks. Roland Banks is an officer of the law who can acquire valuable clues by defeating enemies in combat. Daisy Walker is a researcher whose powers depend on what books she has in play. “Skids” O’Toole is an ex-con man with the ability to play a lot of actions at once, but is very fragile, especially against the more esoteric dangers of the game. Agnes Baker has access to arcane powers fueled by collecting Horror tokens, tokens that represent your character losing their cool in the face of eldritch wrongness. Where most characters treat Horror as a purely bad thing, Agnes can use it to dispatch enemies quickly. Wendy Adams is a slippery survivor with all sorts of useful deck-manipulation tricks that allow you redo certain actions or draw extra cards when you fail at something.

Each of these Investigators is defined by four stats: Willpower, Intellect, Combat, and Agility. If the Investigator’s stat is equal to or higher than what’s needed to succeed, the Investigator succeeds and reaps the rewards. However, tokens drawn from the Chaos Bag might modify (usually lower) an Investigator’s stats. Each Investigator also has at least one Weakness card in their deck which can also modify their abilities when it comes into play.
A Scenario is defined by a deck of cards that includes Encounters (usually enemies to defeat or evade), Locations, Agendas, and Acts. Agendas tell you what you need to advance through the Acts deck, and the Acts deck ratchets up the tension up until the end of the game.

Fantasy Flight describes Arkham Horror: The Card Game as a “Living Card Game.” By this, the mean that they’ll be releasing more card sets to define new characters you can play, as well as new scenarios to pit your characters against. There won’t be any randomizing of the contents, so you’ll know exactly what you’re getting, allowing you to create your own investigators or scenarios by mixing up the different sets.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a cooperative experience you can play alone, or with up to four people. It encourages a role-play experience, making it an excellent choice to fall back on when you don’t have enough players show up for your regularly scheduled RPG sessions. It’s also nice for scratching that RPG itch between sessions, and fans of eldritch horror will enjoy tackling the different scenarios in the boxed set with different combinations of Investigators and personalized decks to see how things turn out differently. You can play the scenarios as single-shot events or combine them to create a campaign. Talk to the helpful and totally-not-cultists-devoted-to-eldritch-horrors people at your local Dragon’s Lair Games & Fantasy® today about getting your hands on Arkham Horror: The Card Game and learning what expansions will be coming out for it soon.

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