Collect Seashells in Sanibel, Defeat Your Nemesis in Talisman, and Feel Betrayed in Derry | BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin

▪️ Avalon Hill announced a few new titles at a press event on May 21, 2025, one of which — Reiner Knizia‘s Cosmolancer, which debuts on June 1, 2025 — I already covered in October 2024 after a sneak peek at SPIEL Essen 24.

Three other titles were new, though, such as Elizabeth Hargrave‘s Sanibel, which will be on display at Gen Con 2025 ahead of its January 1, 2026 release date. Here’s an overview of this 2-4 player game:

In Sanibel, players walk up and down the beaches of this Florida island city, collecting a wide variety of seashells and carefully adding them to their bags — with your “bag” being a personal player board. As you collect shells, you “drop” them in the bag, letting them fall to the bottom Tetris-style. Focus on the types of shells and where they land, since they score in a variety of ways. Be sure to collect shark’s teeth, too, as they’re small and can fit in tiny spaces.

Non-final graphics

Movement on the beach is represented by player tokens that start in a line, with a multitude of tiles splayed into zones on the beach. Whoever is at the back of the line takes the next turn, advancing as far as they wish, then collecting tiles. At the halfway point, players loop around and head back to where they started. At the end of the game, players earn points based on which seashells they picked up and how carefully they arranged them in their bag.

Avalon Hill went all out in a promotional announcement video that looks at how the game originated, what went into the art and look of the game, and Hargrave’s relationship to Sanibel itself.

You’re with a group of friends who survived It’s last feeding frenzy in the town of Derry when you were kids. Now, It has stirred again after 27 years, and you’ve been drawn back to the Neibolt House to confront the savage shapeshifter. As you explore the house and experience nightmarish events, will you turn on your friends? Or will you band together to beat It once and for all?

Inspired by the It Chapter Two movie based on Stephen King’s novel It, this expansion features five terrifying haunts and includes three highly-detailed character figures, new rooms to explore, new card, tokens, and more!

▪️ Another Avalon Hill title seeing a new expansion is Talisman: The Magical Quest Game – 5th Edition, for which Talisman: Nemesis – Call of the Hunt will be released on November 1, 2025, and unlike the 2-6 player base game, this expansion is solely for 3-6 players. Here’s why:

The Nemesis commands frenzied beasts, leaving destruction in their wake. The heroes must answer the call of the hunt and take the beasts down!

Get ready for one-vs-many gameplay in the Talisman: Nemesis – Call of the Hunt expansion. The hero players must work together to overcome three perilous trials, each with its own unique adversary and villain characters. To win, they need to defeat each adversary before the Nemesis player wipes them out. The Nemesis’ objective? Each trial brings a new one. As players complete trials, they’ll open boxes and discover new cards and figures to add to their game.