Tabletop publisher Modiphius, which just announced the creation of a Discworld RPG, also plans to produce a Mass Effect board game. The cannery focuses on fan-favorite companions Liara, Gallus, Tali, and Rex. They will all be made of 32mm plastic and will include two Commander Shepherds (Fem Shepherd and Bros Shepherd). (Presumably, all the bad guys are cardboard tokens or something.)

And with that, my resistance to tabletop games based on video games melted away. I have boxes full of expensive plastic like "Cthulhu: Death May Die," the re-released Avalon Hill version of "Hero Quest," and "Warhammer" because I need dwarfs: the Old World set has 90 skeletons in it. My craving is unquenchable. I just love the little guy.

"Mass Effect Priority Hagalaz," a co-op game for up to four players set in "Mass Effect 3," makes me wonder why Wrex is included and not EDI or James Vega. Actually, we know why he is not there. Poor, unloved Vega. The story of the board game is that Shepard's squad is investigating a crashed Cerberus research ship on the planet Hagaraz, just before a dangerous storm hits. The Cerberus guards and the creature they were experimenting on slow them down, and they find themselves in a race against time.

Each mission takes 45 minutes to an hour to play, and you can string together three to five missions in a branching campaign, with decisions made early on affecting later missions. You can also upgrade your squad in between missions, improving their abilities and equipment, in an attempt to really emulate the MassEffect experience - except, of course, to seduce them.

Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz was designed by Eric M. Lang and Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫 and will be released by Asmodee in 2024. At least this time there are only six of them.