Grey Fox Games will release the Second Edition of Martin Wallace’s A Study in Emerald, based on a short story written by Neil Gaiman, in December.

Neil Gaiman’s award-winning short story provides the plot and core concepts of this board game from veteran game designer Martin Wallace (Brass, Age of Steam, Railways of the World):  a mash-up of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.  Set in an alternative 1882 earth that is ruled over by the monstrous deities of Lovecraft, a resistance group known as the Restorationists has discovered that the newly invented dynamite has the power to destroy the Old Ones.

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The game uses deck-building and auction mechanics to represent the struggles between various factions trying to control the cities of the world.  Each player has a secret identity, either fighting for the Restorationists or loyally defending the Old Ones, which determines how each player scores points during the game.  But, a player can only win the game if their side is victorious, forcing players to try to deduce one another’s allegiance so they can support their "allies" and undermine their rivals.

This new edition of A Study in Emerald features new artwork by Ian O’Toole and Tatiana Kuzilova.  The revised rules have been streamlined from the first edition version, released by Treefrog Games in 2013.  The game is for 2 - 5 players, ages 13 and up, and plays in about an hour.  MSRP is $59.99.

Grey Fox Games was recently spun off from its former parent company CoolStuffInc (see "CoolStuffInc Spins Off Grey Fox Games").