Kickstarter #5

Back on track

Yes, its back.  Same as before, I will look through kickstarter and bring you four (this time) kickstarters that I really like the look of.  Once more, I have not been given copies of these games or items (mores the pity), and so these aren't reviews of the items themselves, and so this basically comes down to the fact that these kickstarters have done a lot to catch my interest just through what is on their page.  While I'd like to back them all, sadly I'm on a tight budget, so I might not get the chance, but hopefully a few of you out there will pick these up based on them being on my blog.

Legendary Showdown: Gamer's Quest - Killer Robot Games

I've got no idea if this is based on the Legendary/Legendary:Encoutners type system.  I am going to guess so, but it really is a guess.

I suppose the thing that draws me to this game is the setting, because its the ctrl-alt-delete universe.  Which just has to be a good thing, and likely means that while this game is based on a competitive card versus card system, at least its going to be funny.  Certainly is the advertising video is anything to go by there is going to be a lot of tongue in cheek fun involved in this game.

I also really like the artwork, which is obviously by the ctrl-alt-delete team.  I think that will help with this game being a lot of fun, and I certainly think it will be nice for the fans to see the correct art work for each of the characters and powers that you get to use.

The rewards for picking this up over kickstarter are also quite interesting.  There are collectors coins, fridge magnets, and a few other silly bits and pieces.  Stretch goals include new characters, new cards, and some oversize cards as well.  Plus there is a collectors edition if you pledge high enough with even more stuff in it and a special unrevealed bit of box art.

Legendary is something we already play in our little gaming group, so something else along those lines would be really good.  However, I'm not sure if Showdown is the same type of game.  Will be interesting to find out.  It is here if you want a look.

Dreamwars - Royal Art Games

So... its steampunk, which is a win in my book.  Plus it has weird horror monsters for you to fight against.  I don't think there was any way I wasn't going to be interested in this at least a little bit.

Dreamwars looks like it has a lot going for it.  The artwork on the board alone looks really good, they have a "random encounter" style play book which means each game you get different things happening, you have a character card which allows you to track everything that is going on.  All in all this looks like a really neat game.

The big thing here for me, once you get past all the art and the style of the game, is that Ordeals book.  The fact that they have the ability to randomise the way in which the game progresses is really good, because a lot of these sorts of boardgames can lose interest once they get predictable.  While a lot of games are going for this "the board also plays" kind of mechanic, it never gets old on me.  Pandemic (with its infection deck), Betrayal (with its traitor book), etc etc mean that those cooperative games are infinitely replayable (well may be not Betrayal, because you do learn what each encounter does in the long run).  I'm hoping this comes up the same.

The miniatures for the heroes also look really good.  Stretch goals look really good, I really like the idea of Rose Black the Queen of Guns.  Have a look at it here.

Vikings Gone Wild - Lucky Duck Games

This is based on a video game I have actually no idea about.  I'm going to have to do research after this and find out more.

Vikings Gone Wild is a Versus deckbuilder game, where you use gold to by buildings and beer to by Vikings.  Makes a lot of sense to me.  Buildings, however, don't go into your deck to be played, they drop down into your pay area permanently and by the seems of things have effects on every turn you still have them.

Scoring is done by attacking your opponents buildings, which obviously also helps because you knock out any benefit the building has.  There are also cards you can only get once you have a certain number of points.

Deck building games are a little bit of a hit and miss for me, mostly because you don't actually get to interact with your opponent generally.  If someone is doing really well, if their deck is jelling really well, then you very rarely get to do anything about it.  I have a feeling this is going to be a little bit more interactive, which can only be a good thing.

There are a hell of a lot of stretch goals already open, but that might be because this kickstarter only has 6 days left to go.  I almost missed it, but thankfully not.  The art is a lot of fun too, plus there are decent organisation boards being made for it, so unlike some Deck Builders this should be easy to manage too.  It's here if you want to look, but go quickly.

Oligarchy - Gary Wareham

I remember the Illuminati game, by Steve Jackson Games.  I also have a copy of, though never played, Netrunner 2.0.  There is something about the style of these types of games that really plays into my Dystopian Sci-Fi nerdery.  Its the kind of Nerdery that knows exactly where my copies of Bladerunner and Fifth Element are on my DVD shelf.

Oligarchy seems to take the Dystopian future ideas which are in Resistance and Coup, and moves it into a CCG/LCG kind of arena.  Certainly looking at the play examples in the original advert video, it has a feeling of being along those sort of one on one card games (a bit like Magic, rather than Netrunner).  Players play as one of eight "organisations" and using characters, resources, events and many other types of cards, try to knock your opponent out of the game.

Art work looks good, but I think the big thing for me is that this is a market which is dominated by Magic, Yugioh, and L5R (all of which are fantasy based games), bringing in something with a different feel is really important.  You can get into this game for just £20, which is really good, and higher pledge levels will give you a decent range of boosters.  Have to say this is the sort of Kickstarter than I think a collection of card players at a local club should dive into.  It does look like a decent game, and that is always helpful.

It does look really good.  I also noticed, via photos because I'm not able to make it, that this is being demo'd at the UK Games Expo this weekend, so I really hope this picks up really well.  If you are interested in this, than have a look here.

Thats better...

So thats it this week.  Feels better to be back into the kickstarter searching.  I may look at if this is going to happen every week still or if this will be once every two weeks, simply because more options open up that way and finding four really interesting games should happen more often than now.  I will try and decide soon.  Have fun at the Expo if you are there folks.  Hopefully more soon.