Rob Daviau has worked on many games for Hasbro over the past several years, including (to one extent or another) Heroscape, Star Wars Epic Duels, Risk 2210 AD, the Game of Life Card Game, and the Battleship Card Game.

Q: What's your favorite recently played (for the first time) game?

Rob Daviau: I've been in a horrible non-gaming part of my life lately, not by choice but by circumstances. I've fallen woefully behind on new games. So let me sort of cheat this question.

I played Vinci last week for the first time in about four years and only the second or third time total. So that feels like a new game. I liked the brevity of the rules but how it led to an organic, natural game. I also like that I won on the very last turn by just a few points. I liked that it felt like it had theme, that I couldn't just change it to something else, like indigo trading.

Did I mention that I won?

Q: What game do you want to play most that you haven't played yet?

Rob Daviau: Right now I want to play Arkham Horror. I worked a lot on Betrayal at House on the Hill a few years back so I wrestled with the questions of how to turn a horror narrative into a game. I'm curious to see how someone else did it.

I will play this by GenCon, if not before. Probably "at" as I'll have to see if Kevin Wilson wants to trade some Heroscape stuff for his game...

Q: What can you tell us about the new Heroscape expansion Orm's Return?

Rob Daviau: It's out. Sort of. It's in a few stores but it will have wide distribution around mid-August. This does not mean the other stores are late; it means some stores are early.

This is the first release in the new, mid-range price point of $20 to $22. Orm's Return features five large creatures that would not fit into a booster pack. The Road to Forgotten Forest, also out, integrates new terrain -- roads, walls, and trees and has one figure in it. I don't know who Orm is or where he/she was but I'm glad he/she's returned. I was worried about him/her.

Q: Given your choice of all the characters in the base game, and all of the expansions, which characters would you choose for a 300-point army in HeroScape?

Rob Daviau: If we did our job right, there is no one answer to this. How many players? What's the scenario? What's the map like? What are my goals? Are there any special rules that affect things like flying or range or something? What glyphs are out? What has my opponent drafted?

Me holding a hill for 5 turns is different frome me racing across a water-filled map to get to a destination. Two players is different from four, etc.

But you usually can't go wrong in including Raelin. Everybody Loves Raelin.