Below is a selection of games that stood out to us while browsing kickstarter.com.
Backing a project can be a great thing, but please do the research on a game before you put money into it. Happy exploring!
Role-Playing Games
Miniatures Games
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@ Account Del –
yes, that is my name on the “Supernova Jump” scenario
🙂
Hey all!
With 8 days to go, the Kickstarter for BS 2nd ed is well over $100k and has unlocked 9(!) Stretch Goals and is charging hard towards #10.
Don’t miss out!
@ RedShirtRob
Kickstarter for Darkest Night ? …. When or where is that ?
Raiders of the North Sea was a surprise hit for us over the holidays and is a great Euro-but-not-too worker placement. Problem is I have no love for the core Carcasonne like mechanic of Explorers and really want the new cards for Raiders 🙁
Explores of the North Sea has my interest. I have the previous two games of the trilogy with Raiders really standing out as a game that my family enjoys. Explores also has a trilogy expansion (Runesaga) that will make playing the sequence of three games into a game. Receiving Raiders just before Christmas, I was surprised that the Explorers campaign was already up. It uses much of the same great art and was probably developed at the same time. If so, I am sure it was hard to wait and publish them slowly in parts.
As for the death of deckbuilders, I recently received a kickstarted one that was bought on impulse- Xenon Profiteer. I sort of regretted it when I got it. My family surprised me by taking to it. They love their Dominion and this has seen quite a lot of plays when we don’t want to haul out all the boxes.
I’m really surprised deck-builders are still coming out. Haven’t they run their course yet?
I am looking forward to the kickstarter for Darkest Night.
It’s not an actual game, but Death Ray Designs has a kickstarter up for some excellent table top terrain. If you are like me and play wargames or skirmish games OR like to play rpg’s with some moderate scenery, I suggest taking a look or checking out their website.
You didn’t include Overlords of Infamy? Why the snub? It has great reviews. I played it at Orccon last week. It’s awesome.
I am interested in Pugmire, Sentinels, Widowers Wood, and Explorers of the North Sea.
Have to get into Sentinels of the Multiverse. Looks like a great, fun game.
I’m loving how much the Sentinels of the Multiverse: OblivAeon kickstarter is crushing it. What a way to conclude the story arc! The ARG was such a great way to lead into it as well. I have no complaints.
I’m very interested in Too Many Bones. I’ve played Hoplomachus and the components were definitely quality. However, I have a hard time buying a game sight-unseen at this price point. I was signed up for a demo of it at GenCon last year, but they had shipping issues so we couldn’t play it. I’ll be on the fence for a bit, I think. Has anyone else had a chance to play it?
I’m not backing as much lately, but I am backing Neolithic as it looks nice and Small Box Games have a good track record (I have a few of their earlier games).
The other game I’m backing at the moment is missing from this list: a cute game of scaring people away from a haunted hotel called Ghostel (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/catlab/ghostel-the-board-game), which I backed after having it demoed by the designer at a local games day.
Phew… quite the list this week! Things are definitely picking back up on Kickstarter!
My project backing has slowed to a crawl as I’ve gotten more savvy to what kind of games will get played frequently in my house and which are likely to be forgotten. I’ve received rewards for around 200 Kickstarters, and it wouldn’t surprise me if 50% have never been played. Many of those sat out for a month or two, then got packed into storage and placed in the attic. Not a great use of money.
The only “automatic backs” for me nowadays are Cool Mini games, and not entirely for complimentary reasons. The business model Cool Mini has enacted is basically “buy the game on Kickstarter or don’t bother”, as so much of the content they produce is exclusive to that platform. I honestly couldn’t imagine buying anything from them retail, as so much of the game materials would need to be tracked down at a heavy mark-up on the secondary market. So it’s Kickstarter or never for CMON and me. On the complimentary side, I think their quasi-in-house designers are doing some of the most interesting things right now, particularly Thiago Aranha and Michael Shinall. Since one of them works on nearly all of their projects, I just back all of them.
So while I await CMON’s Masmorra in a few weeks, I’m backing the most automatic back in Kickstarter history, the Sentinels finale. I’m excited about the concluding decks, I’m excited about the box, and I LOVE that they’ve basically “un-promo’d” all of their previous promo cards by modifying the art and putting them out there for everybody to buy. It doesn’t seem to be inciting rage from the exclusives brigade (I guess having a card with different artwork is enough for them?), but will allow everybody to buy every card ever made for the game at a normal retail price. Still the best game ever (for me).
I’m also thinking long and hard about 4 others: Too Many Bones, Widower’s Wood, Evolution: Climate and Battlestations. At most I will back 2 of them, but can’t really decide which.
Most likely is Too Many Bones. I’ve really enjoyed Dungeon Dice, and this seems like a big evolutionary step forward (they’re from unrelated designers and companies, but similarly-themed and at their cores both light role-playing dice games). The most noticeable improvement is the attempt at some story structure. However… this thing is so expensive. I understand that Chip Theory Games prides themselves on the highest of quality, but I wish I had some experience with Hoplomachus to help persuade me.
I love Privateer Press. Everybody I’ve worked with there is great. Their RPGs and miniatures games are top notch, and their board games don’t disappoint. But I am a little bummed they’re bringing the follow-up to The Undercity to Kickstarter. When established, extremely successful publishers move to Kickstarter for the first time I always worry that they’re blinded by the occasionally exorbitant funding amounts but ignorant to the negativity it could expose them to. Privateer Press was going to make Widower’s Wood anyway… they’ll certainly register more pre-orders by offering exclusives through Kickstarter than they would by simply emailing their subscribers and letting them know pre-orders are open. But they’ll also leave behind a 10,000 post comment section heavy with complaints over lack of communication, or displeasure with adjusted timeframe for delivery, or the current complaints facing them – too much space between stretch goals and displeasure with the plastics used in the miniatures. To me, if I don’t actually need the money to produce the game I would keep it off Kickstarter just to avoid the preservation of negative comments about my product. That said, I like “The Undercity” and will definitely get this game to expand it into the swamps. If I get it now there are some exclusives but I pay more. If I get it later I’ll pay much less but loose out on the exclusives. We’ll see.
Battlestations has interested me since I read Chris’s review. I love long, thought-provoking games, but I don’t have time for RPGs or Twilight Imperium. While this seems like a great half-way point, I’m a little scared off by the 300-page(!!!) advanced rulebook. Again, we’ll see.
(and @Chris – is that little old you designing the “Supernova Jump” scenario??)
Finally, Evolution looks awesome, and I missed out on the first two Kickstarters. Climate is a less-interesting theme to me than those colorful animals, but it’s the “bird in hand”. I know I’ll like the game, so I either jump in on Kickstarter now or buy the original game sometime in the future.