Crowdfunding Tabletop Roundup

Okay, I know I just posted three full Kickstarter reviews earlier this week (and I’ve got one a week lined up for the next several weeks) but there are always a bunch more that I’m curious about. In today’s roundup: some new takes on familiar worlds, and a couple new creators I’m not as familiar with.

New to crowdfunding? Check out our primer.

The Adventure Store from Inside Up Games

Last year, Inside Up Games launched a campaign for three games set in the Twisted Realms fantasy universe: Tug of Roar is a two-player lane battle, Crits & Tricks is a trick-taking game where your polyhedral dice determine the values of your cards, and Thieves of Eldris is a hidden-movement game. (I’ll be working on reviews of those when I have time!) Now they’re back with The Adventure Store, which combines deck-building with trick-taking: win tricks to earn crowns, which you’ll use to purchase equipment that gives you stronger attacks or lets you modify your cards. (The campaign includes options to get the other games in the Twisted Realms series as well, in case you missed those last time.)

Clank! Cube of Holding and The Forgotten Vault from Dire Wolf

Clank! remains one of my favorite deck-building games, with tons of fun fantasy tropes and a press-your-luck race to grab treasure and get out before the dragon catches you. Since the introduction of the base game, there have been several expansions, a sci-fi version (which was our 2017 Game of the Year), and even two legacy games. Now, for the 10th anniversary, there’s a monster of a campaign for some new goodies.

The Cube of Holding is a massive storage cube that will hold all the Clank! and also includes a pile of miniatures representing the heroes, the artifacts, and the various dragon bosses. The Forgotten Vault is a new expansion set with a double-sided map. Finally, everything is getting an update in the Master Thief editions, which will eventually replace the older editions at retail: the health trackers get their own dual-layered board, and the maps will get a corresponding upgrade, along with various tweaks to the card design. (For those who already own Clank!, there’s an upgrade option available as well.)

Ace of Aces: Handy Rotary and Flying Machines from Mr. B Games

Ace of Aces is a reprint of an old game about WWI dogfighting. Each player has a book, and the page shows you the view of your opponent from your cockpit, along with the different maneuvers you can make. Each player chooses a maneuver, and the books use some mathematical magic to determine which page you both go to next, presenting the new views. Line up a shot, and you can fire at your opponent. It’s a pretty brilliant system, and Mr. B Games’ editions are deluxe versions, full-color illustrations and slipcases. They funded the first set, Powerhouse, two years ago, and this campaign is for the next two sets, Handy Rotary and Flying Machines, each adding another pair of books. There are separate tiers for the two sets, or another to get both sets together. (Powerhouse is currently available from Mr. B Games.)

Tend: Hive & Cellar from IV Studios

Tend is a massive flip-and-write-and-stamp-and-draw-and-scratch game from IV Studios. You’re settlers on an alien world, and you’ll tend fields to grow alien veggies and raise alien livestock. But you’ll also chop your way through a forest and dig your way through a mine (using a scratch-off sheet), share resources with your neighbors to build up your social rewards track, and stamp little icons into your warehouse grid for points. I’ve gotten to play the original and it’s a doozy (especially for a roll-and-write style game), but I’ve enjoyed it. Some players have compared it to Stardew Valley because you just do a little bit of everything, or you can focus on one aspect and really chase a particular goal, but with an amusing corporate dystopia vibe.

This Gamefound campaign includes two expansions for Tend, plus an opportunity to get the base game in case you missed it the first time around. You can also get the big box that will store everything—though I’ll warn you, it’ll be massive! The original base game was already quite hefty because every player gets two full-sized sheets plus a scratch-off card, as well as fancy custom markers that have a drawing tip on one end and a stamp on the other.

Baba Is You and Party House from Bitewing Games

Baba Is You and Party House are both videogames getting a tabletop treatment from Bitewing Games. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about Party House (which was from the UFO 50 collection), but I’m a big fan of Baba Is You. It’s a bizarre little sokoban-esque logic puzzle, where you not only push objects around but also the words that make up the very rules of the game.

For instance, usually the game begins with the rule “Baba Is You” so you control Baba, the little rabbit-ish creature. And then you might have a rule like “Flag Is Win,” so you win by getting Baba to the flag. However, there are other words on the screen and you can shove them around. Maybe “Rock Is You” so then you move the rock around instead. Or perhaps you change it to “Rock Is Win” because it’s easier to get to the rock than to the flag. As you make your way through increasingly difficult levels, you’ll encounter rivers that might drown you (unless you can float), things that may kill you, walls that may or may not block your progress.

The tabletop version is a 2-player game, where both players are trying to manipulate the rules so they can win the level. There are multiple worlds, each with their own set of new words and rules. I haven’t gotten to play this yet myself but I’m really intrigued!

Organism by Elephant Laboratories

Organism was designed by Ryan Spangler, who also co-designed Sol: Last Days of a Star. Sol was a phenomenal game that really felt quite different from anything I’d played before, and I’ve been eager to see what Spangler would come up with next. Well, here it is: Organism is one that he’s been working on for a long time—I’d seen some very early prototypes years ago at GameStorm—and I’m excited that it has finally launched.

You play as a small organism with three possible actions: eat, move, and grow. You’ll gain power by occupying the center of the board or winning conflicts, but you can also win the game if you manage to split into three separate organisms. It’s abstract and weird—kind of like Sol—and I can already tell it’s the sort of game that will reward a deep dive into all the various possibilities.

The Unheist of Hearthburn House from Zero Strategy Games

I happened to see an ad for this one and just really liked the theme: you’re kobolds who stole a bunch of stuff from a dragon’s estate, but now the dragon is waking up and you’re trying to put things back before you get caught. You’ll get paired up with two other different players, and you’ll want both of your teams to do well (kind of like Between Two Cities), as you lug things around and get them arranged just right. If you’re quick enough, you’ll get bonus points for putting things onto the stand, but if all else fails you can just dump the item onto the floor so at least it’s in the correct room. I’m not very familiar with Zero Strategy Games (though I did mention one of their earlier campaigns last year for The Sheep, a comedy horror game).

Siclen Valley from Siclen Studios

You know I love a good deck-building game, and Siclen Valley‘s stunning artwork caught my eye a while back. You play as couriers, exploring a poisoned Earth to fulfill contracts for the survivors remaining on the orbital space station. There’s also a novel in case you want to dig deeper into the story of the world. This is another publisher I’m less familiar with, but I look forward to seeing how this one turns out!

Murder of Crows from Michael Endo Weil

So I don’t generally play RPGs but if somebody wanted to run a game of this for me, I’m in. Murder of Crows is a murder mystery where you play as crows, investigating the murder of a crow. But unlike many murder mystery games, the culprit and other suspects don’t just sit around and wait for you to do their thing. If you take too long, the killer might run away or destroy evidence or even kill again. Questioning the same suspect over and over may make them get fed up with you. Plus, the artwork looks fantastic!