August 2021 Update

Last night, the Crab Fragment Crew played a fun game of Copper Creek. This simple city-building game has been hiding on the shelf since at least 2006. It lent some game mechanics to games like Capital City and Lords of Vegas, but it never found its own time in the sun.

This clever little game has been hiding for too long. However, the only copies are on paper, because the rest was lost years ago in a hard drive crash. It would be a great project for the fall; read more about all the projects below.

TTN Has Bailed: Tabletop Network, James Ernest’s only excuse to get out of the house in mid-November, has canceled its 2021 dates for pandemic-related reasons. This means that James won’t be attending either TTN or the adjacent BGG Con in Dallas. Just one November convention remains on the precarious travel schedule, GobbleCon in SF, on Thanksgiving weekend.

Projects in the Hopper: Despite the ongoing lockdown, Crab Fragment is working diligently to bring new game content to you. Here’s a refresher on the status of some of these projects.

Agents of the Crown: In case you missed it, we’ve posted a brand new game called Agents of the Crown since the last blog post. This game uses a standard poker deck, and it’s a bluffing game for 4 players about defending the Realm from threats inside and out! Learn more about this game on the Agents of the Crown page.

Tresotti: This is a new trick-taking game for the Fairmarket Deck, introduced in June. It’s one of several games we hope to make for this unusual deck. At some point they will all be consolidated into a player’s guide. If you haven’t tried Fairmarket already, please give it a go!

Letter Boxing: This two-player word game has been kicking around in the background for a few years, under several working titles (Wordsmith, Fightin’ Words, etc). The game just requires a deck of letter cards, and an update to the rules. We should be able to post a Print-and-Play before the end of August!

Vines is a new suite of trick-taking games, played with a five-suited deck, and set in the world of Carrisor. If you’ve been looking at the other offerings at Crab Fragment Labs and wondering “but where is the five-suited deck?” Vines is the answer. It was a secret project for several years, awaiting input from various publishers and partners.

Now we’ve been cleared to release the game in a public beta, and our friend Cheyenne Wright will be illustrating the face cards. His first four sketches are shown below. The artwork will take a while to complete, and we hope to finish this deck and release the rules sometime in the fall.

Copper Creek is a tile-based game about building an old Western town. Players take turn placing new buildings and buying control of those buildings, and once in a while there’s an election where everyone scores points. Copper Creek is mechanically solid, but needs a new set of components. Like Vines, we expect this game will still take a few months to get to open beta.

So Much More: James Ernest’s archives are brimming with half-done games. It’s sometimes a challenge to figure out which to work on first. If you want to keep up with all the ongoings at Crab Fragment Labs, please consider subscribing to our email newsletter, by clicking here.

Thanks for your support, and keep playing games!

Vines sample art by Cheyenne Wright