He’s Z-Man: Catching Up with Zev Shlasinger and Z-Man Games

Knucklebones: November 2007This is a reprint of an article written in June 2007 for first publication in the November 2007 issue of the now-defunct Knucklebones magazine. Because of its origins, this article is more introductory and (hopefully) more polished than many of my online writings. Despite the original source of this article, this blog is in no way associated with Jones Publishing or Knucklebones Magazine.

November 2007 was also the first month that Knucklebones opted to accept two different articles for me; the other was an article on pirate games, which was featured on the cover. I wrote it a few weeks earlier, in May.


Z-Man Games has been publishing games for eight years, but with their early focus on collectible card games and roleplaying games, many board game players didn’t know about them. That should now be changing, because in 2005 Z-Man Games burst onto the board game scene with a collection of high-quality Eurogames and American originals.

CCG Origins

When Zev Shlasinger started Z-Man Games in 1999 it was solely to keep the collectible card game (CCG) Shadowfist in print. Shadowfist, a quick and quirky game of Hong Kong-style action, had some top-notch design and was well-loved by many fans — of which Zev was one. So when previous publisher Daedalus Games went out of business, Zev picked the line up. He’d done his research and was pretty sure that he could break-even with sales, and that’s all he was really concerned with, because in the process he’d also get a lot of fun new cards to play with. Z-Man published Shadowfist from 2000-2004. At the time Zev figured it would be Z-Man’s one and only game … but things never work out quite like you expect.

Being a game publisher means that you often get sent game prototypes by aspiring designers. That’s how Zev ended up with Grave Robbers from Outer Space, a card game designed by Stephen Tassie where players put together props, characters, and locations to form B-movies. Though Zev hadn’t planned to expand his business beyond Shadowfist, he was won over by Grave Robbers. He explains the appeal by saying, “It made me laugh. It made everyone else laugh.” As a result, he decided to have Z-Man publish the first of what are today eight different B-Movie games.

Over the next few years Zev published an eclectic collection of games and other publications that interested him, including several Shadowfist expansions, more B-movie games, a cartoon roleplaying game called Cartoon Action Hour, a book-based wargame called Warchon, and a humorous book called Baby’s First Mythos. Z-Man also tested the wider markets when Zev published a political board game called Ideology and an Arthurian card game called Camelot Legends. However, Z-Man generally stayed closer to the roleplaying and collectible card game niche, and thus it was 2005 before he suddenly exploded into greater prominence among more casual game players.

Eurogame Futures

Though Zev had an interesting collection of games out by 2005, Z-Man Games was still pretty small. He wanted to expand his company, and he had a plan to do so. He says, “I knew I had to do something different because I was ‘new’ in the field … So I decided to find an older game that people liked but was not published in the English-language market.” Zev finally decided upon Primordial Soup, a strange game of amoeba evolution that had been published in Germany as Ursuppe. The design was by Doris Matthaus and Frank Nestel, indie designers well known for their colorful, well-designed games such as Mü and More and Frank’s Zoo.

Remarkably Ursuppe had never been released by an American publisher, and Zev was able to secure the rights. Word of this got the buzz going and soon Z-Man Games was receiving attention from players interested in other Eurogames.

Since then Zev has produced a number of foreign games. Notably, he hasn’t restricted himself  to traditional German designs, but has also been co-publishing and reproducing games from all across the world, creating a remarkable number of partnerships and releasing a colorful mixture of games in the process. Feudo and Il Principe are among the Italian designs that Z-Man has published; these games tend to be more intricate strategy games with complex, interrelated systems. Fairy Tale, Owner’s Choice, Stack Market, and Masquerade are all from Japan. Currently Zev is one of the only American publishers bringing these use Japanese designs into the American market. Prophecy, one of Z-Man’s newest games, is uniquely from the Czech Republic. Throughout all these publications Zev has demonstrated any uncanny ability to find some of the best games that hadn’t been published in the United States—though he’s now forming partnerships for new releases as well.

The benefit of having so many different styles of play is that Z-Man games increasingly appeal to a very wide audience, from children and families to the most serious gamers; you just need to find the right game from Z-Man’s catalog. The appendices contain a quick guide to nine of the best games that Z-Man has produced to date, which should help you discover the one most likely to appeal to your gathering of friends.

Looking to the Future

Z-Man Games had a very active release schedule in 2007. Recent publications include: Attribute (an Apples-to-Apples-like party game), Bushwacking Varmints Out of Sergio’s Butte (the newest B-Movie game), Duel in the Dark (a two-player aerial wargame set in World War II), Feudo (a Medieval conflict game), Masquerade (a hidden role card game by the author of Fairy Tale), Owner’s Choice (a stock market game), Stack Market (a dexterity game with a financial theme). Scheduled for this month are: 1960: The Making of the President (a 2-player card-driven political confrontation), Gumball Rally (the first in a new line of kid’s games), Prophecy (that translated Czech adventure game), and Shazamm! (a wizardly card game).

If past performance is any indication, some of these will end up being among the best of 2007.

Appendix I: The B-Movie Games

Z-Man Games has put out at least one B-Movie game a year since they founded the line. They’re all still in print and available for $19.95 for each double-pack of cards. The first six games were: Grave Robbers from Out Space and Grave Robbers II: Skippy’s Revenge (both horror/science-fiction cinema), Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom (pulp cinema), Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island (asian cinema), Bell Bottomed Badasses on the Mean Streets of Funk (‘70s cinema), and Berserker Halflings from the Dungeon of Dragons (epic fantasy cinema). Last year’s release, The Scurvy Musketeers of the Spanish Main (swashbuckling cinema), would be a perfect game to play on Talk like a Pirate Day (see “Yo Ho! Yo Ho! A Pirate’s Game for Me!” for more great pirate games). The newest release, Bushwhacking Varmints out of Sergio’s Butte (western cinema) should be in your stores now.

All of the B-Movie games are fairly random, centering more on making fun and unlikely movies than strategy. Besides putting together unusual collections of props, characters, and locations, you can also send “creatures” — be they traitorous musketeers or the big monster who turns out to be misunderstood — after your opponents.  The result will probably make you laugh, just as it did Zev when he decided to publish the game.

Appendix II: Z-Man’s Best Casual Card Games

If you’re looking for “filler” games which can be played when you have thirty minutes or less, then Z-Man’s casual card games will fit the bill. Each one lasts thirty minutes or less, but they nonetheless provided enjoyable gameplay.

Fairy Tale ($15.00) is a Japanese game where players try to collect complementary sets of mythology cards such as elven warriors, werewolves, and children of the dragon. However the “card drafting” method used to collect these cards is fairly unique. From an initial set of five cards, each player must select one and pass the rest around the table, with this play continuing until each player has accumulated a set of five cards, one at a time. Players must balance taking good cards for themselves with giving good cards to opponents.

No Thanks ($10.00) is one of the simplest games ever designed, but nonetheless a terrific 5-minute filler. Each player is given a handful of chips and then one at a time numbered cards come into play. On his turn a player can either place a chip on the current card or else take that card, with all the chips on it. The whole crux of the game is that chips are worth points and cards cost points — unless they’re part of a sequence of a numbers. The result is a great mixture of card valuation, set collection, and brinkmanship that’s brutal but simple.

Saboteur ($14.99) is a team-based game for 3-10 players. Most of the players are trying to build tunnels to retrieve a gold nugget, but a few of the players are instead saboteurs, trying to keep the players away from the nugget. The catch is that the roles are all secret, and thus you never know for sure who’s who until the end of a round of play. The gameplay is very social — with every move coming under scrutiny — and it’s a great party game as a result.

Appendix III: Reiner Knizia’s Casual Card Games

Among their Eurogame releases, Z-Man has put out three original Reiner Knizia games. They’re all very light card games.

Dragon Parade ($24.99) is probably the best of the Knizia releases, though a bit on the pricy side for a light card game. It’s a clever analysis and bidding game where you try and guess where a dragon being moved through card play will end up.

Escalation! ($10.00) is a game in the card-climbing family, with “rolling tricks” going on until someone can’t play higher than the last card. It features a somewhat silly urban warfare theme.

Sudoku: The Card Game ($15.00) centers on playing cards in a grid following the standard rules of Sudoku play. It was one of several Sudoku games released in 2005.

None of these games are among Knizia’s most clever games, but anything he designs tends to have solid mechanics, and it’s notable that Z-Man has gotten to premiere three of his games.

Appendix IV: Z-Man’s Best Casual Board Games

If you’re looking for games to play with kids and families, the following are all excellent choices.

Castle Merchants ($39.99) is a clever racing game of castle merchants delivering goods to five different castles. To do so players construct a terrain that they then move around through the play of cards. Its greatest success comes from a mixture of simple rules with real strategic depth. Clever play can speed a player along and hinder his opponents.

Midgard ($39.99) is the most complex of these strategy games, but still something playable by most casual gamers. Vikings are settling new lands, but Ragnarok is coming! The result is a very evocative game of terrain control where players constantly move Vikings into new territories. However because this is a tale of the last days, Vikings are regularly being raised up to Valhalla as well. Both terrain control and going to Ragnarok offer points, creating a neat balance between long-term board position and short-term point gain.

Ubongo ($39.99) is an excellent game of pattern matching and spatial relations with very little theming. Each round a player is given four Tetris-like pieces which he must arrange on a grid. There’s constant time pressure because players who finish quicker get better choice of the gems which determine victory, and players who can’t beat the clock don’t get anything at all. The result is tense and entirely addictive. Each playing board is also double-sided, supporting two different play difficulties.

Appendix V: Z-Man’s Best Serious Board Games

If you’re looking for serious strategy games, Z-Man has imported the best from European and designed some of their own as well. Most of these games run two hours in length.

Parthenon ($49.99) is a Z-Man original game that started out as a team-building tool. It’s a colorful game of trade, resource-management, and city construction set in the Aegean. Players must brave the seas and trade in order to get the resources they need for their island capital. It feels in some ways like an advanced version of Klaus Teuber’s classic The Settlers of Catan since it centers on acquiring resources, then using them in specific combinations to build new things.

Primordial Soup ($49.99) was Z-Man’s first German import. It’s a delightful game of evolving amoebas that’s reminiscent of a computer simulation called “The Game of Life”. Amoebas multiply and are move somewhat randomly from place to place, all at the mercy of their environment. Their only chance for survival lies in the mutations that their players decide to buy them.

Reef Encounter ($49.99) is one of the most beautiful games ever produced. It’s a clever tactical game where players build up coral reefs, and then try to quickly devour them with parrotfish. The result is very thoughtful, allowing for extremely clever moves. At the moment it’s out-of-print from the publisher, but many game stores still have it in stock.


Author’s Notes: Over the years I’ve gotten pickier about what games I’m willing to keep on my shelves. Despite that, I still have six of these nine “best” Z-Man Games from the mid ’00s: Fairy Tale, No Thanks, Saboteur, Midgard, Ubongo, and Reef Encounter. In fact, I played my Ubongo last night, before I even looked at this article today. Parthenon probably would have made the cut too, if a friend didn’t have a copy that played faster because he’d tricked it out with Poker chips. 

Meanwhile, Z-Man hit the big time just a year later with the release of Pandemic, one of the best and most popular cooperative games on the market. Zev then sold the company to French Canadian publisher, Filosofia, in 2011. Things seemed rough Z-Man Games for about a year afterward, according to rumors due to cash flow problems resulting from the purchase.

However, Z-Man Games was probably helped during this time period by Rio Grande’s slow move out of the market, as they cut their catalog down to mostly Dominion. That was the major factor that let another perennial seller, Carcassonne, move over to Z-Man in 2012. Z-Man has since put Pandemic out in attractive new editions in 2013, and it looks like things might be back on an even keel for the company that might have already replaced past giants Rio Grande and Mayfair as the top seller of eurogames in the US. —SA, 8/22/13.

In 2016, Asmodee, the creature devouring the entire eurogame industry ate F2Z Entertainment, the merger of Filosofia and Z-Man. —SA, 7/10/18.

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