![Crowdfunding Round-up: Exploring the Past in All Eras, and Adventuring in Lands Old and New](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/o7hKYZ_I6PVVKwtTLY1gDw__medium/img/_RRcWnM3l9iJ8SZrQGY2b8ey4eY=/fit-in/500x500/filters:no_upscale():strip_icc()/pic2597432.jpg)
• Jeff Siadek's Battlestations from his own Gorilla Games is another established title that's being reborn in a new edition, with one player serving as the enemy while everyone else works together to control different locations within a starship and coordinate their efforts to complete whatever mission they're currently facing. (KS link)
• Privateer Press has something similar on Kickstarter as Widower's Wood, a co-op adventure game from David Carl and Will Schoonover, is the second board game set in the company's Iron Kingdoms fantasy world. Given all of the miniatures included in the box, Plastic Kingdoms might be a more appropriate setting, but perhaps that's coming in another few years. (KS link)
• In the Name of Odin is another KS project from an established publisher, NSKN Games, while also being the debut design from Krzysztof Zięba. While at Spielwarenmesse 2016, BGG met with NSKN Games and recorded an overview of gameplay. As you might expect from the name, Vikings are involved. (KS link)
• Staying in the same part of the world, we run across Shem Phillips' Explorers of the North Sea from his Garphill Games, with this being the third title in a North Sea trilogy — and should you have all three such titles you can then make use of The North Sea Runesaga expansion that will have you sailing, raiding, and exploring for hours. (KS link)
• If you're familiar with Van Ryder Games only from the 2015 release Hostage Negotiator, you might not have expected to see Robert Couch's Saloon Tycoon — a tile-laying game in which you develop a town in three dimensions — with the VRG logo, but owner A.J. Porfirio's goal is to bring "immersive board and card games" to market so that's the connective thread between one release and the next. (KS link)
• The connective tissue that links Artana titles is the gorgeous graphic design work of Heiko Günther, seen this time on Corrupted Kingdoms from Raymond Chandler III and Artana's Dirk Knemeyer. These kingdoms, although run by fantasy creatures, function like corporations, and players need to use their minions to complete deals that work toward their secret agenda. (KS link)
• To turn to less established companies, we have the RPS-based Heartcatchers from Emma Larkins and Brooklyn Indie Games, with each of the two players trying to catch hearts from the other while playing Secrets to determine what those hearts will be worth later. (KS link)
• Simon Junker's self-published Heldentaufe is an adventure game in which players move their heroes through both an upper world and a netherworld, while also controlling the monsters of the netherworld that threaten other players. One amazing thing about this project is an online demo tutorial set up by the designer that includes a gameplay overview in eleven languages. The design team is Swiss, though, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by the multilanguage efficiency. (KS link)
• Overlords of Infamy from David Zuckman and Obscure Reference Games features a different take on the adventure game genre as the overlord players want their subjects to be as miserable as possible, which will require efforts against adventuring heroes (not to mention other overlords) who want to clean up your realm. (KS link)
• John Clowdus of Small Box Games regularly kicks out small, interesting-sounding games that are almost entirely card-based, as is the case with the two-player Neolithic, which has players using multi-function cards to perform one of five tasks (thereby acquiring new cards) or returning played cards to hand in order to add cards to their village to score at the end of the game. (KS link)
• Villages of Valeria from designers Rick Holzgrafe and Isaias Vallejo and publisher Daily Magic Games is set in the same world as 2015's Valeria: Card Kingdoms, but the focus here isn't to explore the world. Instead you're building in it, with players using a Puerto Rico-style action system in which someone chooses an action and others can follow with the same action at a higher cost or less powerful result. (KS link)
• The Arsenal: Arena Combat – Centauri Belle expansion from Shane Butler adds a new mech of that name to the existing choices in Arsenal: Arena Combat. (KS link)
• Victoriana from newcomers Benjamin Gailey and Brad Lawrence has players working together in Victorian London to uncover the three elements of a conspiracy before time runs out. (KS link)
Editor's note: Please don't post links to other Kickstarter projects in the comments section. Write to me via the email address in the header, and I'll consider them for inclusion in a future crowdfunding round-up. Thanks! —WEM