For all of you who’ve been reading all of my posts and tweets about Vast: The Crystal Caverns but missed all the opportunities to get a copy, here’s your chance to set things right. Leder Games launched a Kickstarter campaign today to fund a second printing of the game, along with the long-awaited plastic miniatures.
So here’s what you need to know.
What’s Vast?
It’s a totally asymmetric board game in which 1 to 5 players take on very different roles, each with its own set of rules and gameplay. There’s the Knight, Goblins, Dragon, Cave, and Thief. You can read my full review here. Pledge at the $60 level for a copy of the game.
What’s different in the second printing?
The Kickstarter page says some components are changing slightly in size or material but will be fairly similar. The big difference is in the rulebook—there are a few more pages with gameplay examples, a list of rules that you might forget, and the player aids have been improved. If you already own a copy of the first printing, you can either pledge $10 for an upgrade pack, which will come with the new rulebook, player aids, and player boards, or print your own copy. (If you’re already familiar with the game, you may not need the upgrade pack, but take a look at that link and see for yourself.)
How about the minis?
The game comes with cardboard standees for the characters and some wooden meeples, but this campaign also has a set of plastic miniatures for a $25 pledge. You can see the designs for the Knight and Dragon above—the Goblins and Thief are still in the works, and they’re designed by Chad Hoverter, of Mice and Mystics.
Note that the game and upgrade packs are expected to ship in March 2017, and the miniatures will take a little longer, with an estimated delivery date of May August 2017. (Updated: sorry, the post was written based on the Kickstarter preview but I didn’t know it had been changed.)
[UPDATED] What’s this about a Ghost?
There’s an add-on available for $12 for a sixth role, the Ghost, who needs to collect the remnants of her mortal life so she can finally escape her curse and leave the cave. Like the other roles, the Ghost will be available to play in any combination from solo up to 6 players. The miniature for the Ghost will only come with the Ghost add-on, not with the other set of miniatures.
Why Kickstarter?
Patrick Leder has explained in more detail elsewhere, but when he started taking preorders for the second print run, he took payments via Paypal—which then put a hold on the assets because they needed to be reserved for refunds. But those funds were needed to, you know, actually print the game and send it to people. He had planned to run a campaign for the miniatures in December, but decided to go ahead and combine the two so he can get started on manufacturing the game (since the files are all ready) to avoid the manufacturing delays that occur during Chinese New Year.
What do I pledge for?
Basically all the variations are there: upgrade pack only, miniatures only, upgrade + miniatures, game only, game + miniatures. (If you get the game itself, you don’t need the upgrade pack.)
Seriously: Vast is one of my favorite games, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. If there were still copies available, I would have put this at the top of our tabletop games gift guide, so do yourself a favor and check it out!
New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer, and visit our curated page for more projects we love.
This looks like a great game. I’m just conflicted…do I get the first printing which looks to be releasing in January or do I back this to get the updated version in March. Decisions, decisions. Of course, I kind of would like to get the miniatures too…but my wife probably wouldn’t be too pleased at the price tag. It’s not easy making decisions as a Geek Dad!
I don’t know where you saw something about the first printing in January … it actually released this year at Gen Con, and the first printing (from what I was told) sold out very quickly, so this is probably the best way to get a copy unless you find one from the first printing in stores somewhere. Yeah, the miniatures are very cool-looking, but they’re not crucial to playing the game.
CoolStuffInc, Miniature Market, and some guy on ebay claim that they’ll have the first printing back in stock in January. It makes more sense that it’s sold out. I think I’ll back the second printing. Thanks for clearing that up!
Ah, I see. My guess is that those are based on original estimates when Leder Games was taking preorders after Gen Con, but they ran into issues with Paypal not releasing the funds, which is why they ended up going this Kickstarter route. The only other possibility is that they’ve got some remaining stock that they haven’t sold, but that seems unlikely—I would guess they’d sell it as soon as they had it. Hope you enjoy the game!