It’s time for another tabletop roundup! Here are a few titles that are currently crowdfunding that caught my eye. This time we’ve got campaigns on Kickstarter, Backerkit, and Gamefound!
New to crowdfunding? Check out our crowdfunding primer.
Gloomhaven Grand Festival from Cephalofair
I’ve already mentioned the Gloomhaven Grand Festival in my Frosthaven review, but I wanted to give it another mention because it’s not just Frosthaven. There’s a second edition of Gloomhaven with some tweaks—possibly not so much that you’d buy it again if you already own it, but it is supposed to be a little easier entry than the original. There’s a Gloomhaven role-playing game as well, in case you want to dive into the world in a more traditional RPG fashion. There are tons of miniatures for all of the games in case you want to upgrade from the standees for all of the monsters and summons.
Finally, there’s Buttons & Bugs, a new stand-alone game that was announced last week. This is a solo game that is much more compact but has the same feel as Gloomhaven. It has a funny story: there’s a recluse Aesther that is tired of wannabe heroes barging in, so she set up an enchantment that miniaturizes anyone who enters. You’re one of these heroes, and you have to make it through a series of scenarios to get changed back to your original size. Sounds like “Honey, I Shrunk the Gloomhaven!” For a closer look at Buttons & Bugs, check out this update.
Shards of Infinity: Saga Collection from Stoneblade Entertainment
Shards of Infinity is a deck-building game by the same designer as the Ascension series, and while it does have some similarities (a dual-currency system for attacking vs. buying, four primary factions each focusing on a particular type of ability), I really like the leveling up system in Shards, and the direct conflict between players makes for an engaging goal. I’ve ended up buying both the base game and most of the expansions so far for myself—they add asymmetric player roles, a cooperative campaign, and some other cool features.
This campaign is for a big-box collection that includes all of the existing expansions, plus a new Saga mode that unlocks additional secrets as you play through it. The downside is that there isn’t a way to get just the stuff I don’t already have, so I’d be basically buying the game again. (They will offer a $10 credit toward your pledge if you show proof that you own the game already.) I’ve got my eye on this one—just have to decide if I like it enough to buy it twice!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shelfcare/shelf-care-a-tabletop-coloring-book
Shelf Care: A Tabletop Coloring Book from Violet Daisy Games
This is exactly what it sounds like: a coloring book filled with artwork about games, drawn by board game artists! There are about 20 different artists included, and the finished book (available either in digital form or physical form) will be between 70 and 100 pages, so you’ll have plenty of pictures to choose from. It’s just a fun idea for those who like to relax with a bit of coloring.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coyoteandcrow/wolves-0
Wolves from Coyote & Crow Games
Coyote & Crow Games is a game company run by Connor Alexander, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, with a goal to highlight Indigenous voices in tabletop gaming. Their first project was the eponymous Coyote & Crow role-playing game that raised just over $1M, set in a near-future world where the Americas were never colonized. Wolves is a semi-cooperative board game where players will need to manage collecting and gifting resources to sustain the community while trying to raise their status to become the chief, and it’s intended in part to address the misconceptions about the “two wolves” allegory often misattributed to the Cherokee people.
Planet Unknown: Supermoon from Adam’s Apple Games
Planet Unknown is a fantastic polyomino game that I first got to try back at Gen Con in 2019. It was funded through Kickstarter in 2020 and then quickly sold out, and was the Strategy Games winner of this year’s American Tabletop Awards (of which I’m on the committee). I’ve been meaning to get a full review here on GeekDad as well, but … things got hectic. This current Gamefound campaign is both for the Supermoon expansion and a reprint of the deluxe edition of the base game. If you like polyomino tile-placement games, this one has a really great terraforming theme and a lot of fun twists!
