I know, it seems like I’ve got a Kickstarter Tabletop Alert every other day (and sometimes we do), but even then there are a lot of great projects out there that we haven’t reviewed here at GeekDad—most often because we didn’t find out about it until after launch, but sometimes because we just didn’t have time in our review schedules to coordinate a full review. Here are several projects that I’m following now.
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Trickster is a clever little trick-taking game designed by Daniel Solis. I’ve actually played a couple of other versions of the game, which Solis had previously sold on DriveThruCards. Each deck has its own theme (space, fantasy, steampunk…) and you can mix and match from different decks. This one, the first to be published by Action Phase Games, has a time-travel multiverse theme, and includes a variety of cards so that each time you play you can pick a different set of heroes to use.
One player leads with any card from their hand, and the next player (the “Trickster”) follows with any card—which then sets a pattern for the rest of the players. You may have to play the same color, or the same hero, or play cards that do not match any colors or heroes that have been played already. Each time you play a card, you also use its ability. And if you can’t follow with a legal card? You end up with a bunch of cards in your tableau, which count against you.
I haven’t played the Champions of Time set, but the other Trickster versions I’ve played in the past are excellent and, yes, tricky. This version, featuring artwork by Beth Sobel, looks fantastic.
Necroboomicon is the first expansion pack for Two Rooms and a Boom, a hidden-role party game from Tuesday Knight Games. Now, they did have a bit of a rough fulfillment for that Kickstarter a few years ago, but since then Two Rooms and a Boom has taken off—it’s particularly popular at conventions, because up to 30 players can play at once (and it’s best with a large group). The basic gist is that there are two teams, Red and Blue, and everyone is in two “rooms” where you can communicate with each other but not the other room. In a series of timed rounds, players talk to each other, potentially revealing their role card (or just the color), and trying to figure out who’s the Bomber on the Red team and who’s the President on the Blue team. At the end of each round, there’s a hostage exchange and some people change rooms. After the last hostage exchange, if the President and the Bomber are in different rooms, the Blue team wins; if they’re in the same room, the Red Team wins.
The full game throws in a slew of optional characters for advanced play—many of them are on their own teams and have victory conditions separate from the President/Bomber situation. Necroboomicon is a Lovecraft-themed mini-expansion that adds 9 new roles that make the game much harder—and also introduces more options when playing with fewer players, so that you can still play when you only have 6 people. And if you missed out on the original game, you can also get a copy through this campaign.
Superhot was originally a first-person-shooter video game in which time only flowed when you were moving, so you could dodge bullets, grab weapons out of somebody’s hand, and so on. I’m not sure how well that will translate in gameplay to a card game, but I’m intrigued—it’s a “micro deck-building” game and features a few different game modes.
Truck Off: The Food Truck Frenzy
You and the other players are competing food truck owners—each round you’ll pick two venues and hope to get as much business as possible. Some locations have the potential for a lot more customers, but if too many food trucks show up there, you’ll get a smaller share of them. And, of course, there are plenty of actions to play to help yourself or sabotage the competition. I’m really digging the cut-paper artwork by John Ed de Vera, too.
Sub Terra is a cooperative horror board game about being trapped deep underground. There’s a tile-laying mechanic for exploring the caves and tunnels, and you only have so long before your flashlights die… or the horrors catch you. Unfortunately, the prototype for this one didn’t arrive in time for a full review for the Kickstarter campaign, but I’m keeping my eye on this one and hope to try it when it’s published.
