I’ve been playing a few fun games that have upcoming Kickstarter campaigns, but there are (as always) a bunch out there that I won’t get to review myself. Here are a few ongoing tabletop-related projects that I thought were cool and worth checking out.
Some games have great life counters (or score tracks), and some require you to find your own way of keeping track. One great solution is spindown counters, dice with numbers in numerical order rather than statistically randomized across the faces. But the thing about using dice as counters is that they’re easily bumped. G10 is making small trays that hold two 10-sided spindown counters (from Q Workshop)—$25 will get you 5 trays and dice sets in different colors. But the campaign is almost over, so take a look quickly if you’re interested!
And while we’re on the subject of accessories, how about a dice bag that looks like Cthulhu? I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to lift up Cthulhu’s head and reach into his neck cavity to retrieve their dice, right?
This tactical strategy game about robots combining into bigger robots to do battle is back on Kickstarter, this time with a lower base price and funding goal. (Last time, there were two separate base boxes, so the initial buy-in was higher.) I haven’t played the new version to see what differences there are this time around, but if you like robots that combine into bigger robots, check it out!
This one’s another relaunch—originally it was called Tiny Swords Tactics, and it didn’t quite make its funding goal the first time around. The game has gotten a few tweaks and is back for Round Two. The game is a free-for-all battle, where you try to defeat your enemies or just shove them off the edge of the table, and each faction has its own set of abilities. The game uses a fun tile-sliding mechanic that lets you flip, shove, and smash tiles. One new feature added in the relaunch are Block tiles, which are used when your faction has been eliminated from the game: you get to use Block tiles to wreak havoc on those who are left, so you’re not totally left out if you lose.
A few years ago, I Kickstarted a game called Emperor’s New Clothes that was—at least in part—a box of components that you could use to prototype your own game, along with two sets of rules for games that I had created to get you started. The White Box is put together by Jeremy Holcomb, who teaches game design at DigiPen Institute of Technology, and this box contains a pile of components that can be used to design games with up to 6 player colors, accompanied by a book of essays that help you take your game from initial idea to publication. This one is in its last two days, so don’t delay!
Button Men is a remake of an older game that’s been around since 1999. Designed by James Ernest and published by Cheapass Games, the characters were originally on buttons (thus the name), but will now be printed on cards. (I guess “Card Men” doesn’t have the same ring to it). You can still get buttons, too, if you like those, but I think the cards will make it an easier game to transport. Pick a character, roll dice, and beat each other up.
Okay, I’ll be honest: I don’t know a ton about this game, other than that I’ve seen one of the designers talking about it on Facebook, it’s from a company with a proven track record on Kickstarter (Indie Boards and Cards), and it features amazing artwork by Beth Sobel. It looks to be a huge empire-building game with lots and lots of bits. I’ll take a closer look at it soon to decide whether it’s a game my group would like, but it’s definitely intriguing.
This dexterity game has you drafting cards to indicate what pieces you’ll need to use in your tower, and then build your tower as tall as possible, moving your architect up in the tower to score points—without knocking things over, of course. If you like balancing/building games, go check out this project! We’re hoping to have a full review of this one soon.
