Crowdfunding Round-up: Peppers, Druids, Dragons, Dynasties and Proof that Even Google Thinks W. Eric Sucks

The town of Scoville likes it hot! Very hot! That means they love their peppers – but they're too busy eating them to grow the peppers themselves. That's where you come in.

You've been hired by the town of Scoville to meet their need for heat. Your role as an employee of Scoville is to crossbreed peppers to create the hottest new breeds. You'll have to manage the auctioning, planting, and harvesting of peppers, then you'll be able to help the town by fulfilling their orders and creating new pepper breeds. Help make the town of Scoville a booming success! Let's get planting!

A round of Scoville consists of a blind auction, which determines player order, a planting phase, a harvesting phase, and a fulfillment phase. Each round, the players plant peppers in the fields. Throughout the game, the available opportunities for crossbreeding increase as more peppers are planted. When harvesting, players move their pawn through the fields, and whenever they move between two planted fields, they harvest peppers. If, for example, they harvest between fields of red and yellow peppers, they crossbreed those and harvest an orange pepper. Harvested peppers are then used to fulfill the town's peppery desires!

Lagoon: Land of Druids is a game in which 2-4 players each lead a circle of druids to shape the fantastical world of Lagoon by harnessing the power of its magical lands to bend destiny. The landscape bristles with three divine energies. Every player action alters the balance of power among those energies, and thus the players collectively determine Lagoon's destiny. One divine energy shall inherit Lagoon, and the player who best served it wins!

The world is built using hexagonal tiles, and a new tile is drawn from a bag each time a druid explores a site. Site tiles are double-sided, and each side represents a different mystical site offering a unique magical power to the druids. Each site is also enchanted with one of three divine energies: Elemeen, Vowelon and Deonin. Since the two sides of a site tile are always linked to different energies, every site explored presents a choice of which energy to advance over the other two, as well as what magic will be put into the world for use by the druids. Players also strategically deploy their druids to unravel sites aligned with an energy they choose to oppose, removing such sites from the world and tipping the balance of power towards the other two energies.

The energy with the most sites in play at the end of the game becomes Lagoon's destiny, and the player who most supported that dominant energy is the winner. Support is tracked in two ways. First, whenever exploring a site and expanding an energy's reach in Lagoon, the exploring player gains a divine seed token matching the explored site's energy. These seeds can be spent in various ways over the course of the game, but any seeds of the dominant energy remaining in a player's supply at the end of the game are worth 1 point each. Secondly, whenever a player unravels a site, it is removed from play and placed in front of that player. At the end of the game, unraveled sites not matching the dominant energy are worth 2 points each.

Draco Magi is a card game designed by Richard Launius and Robert Burke. To start, each player selects an apprentice dragon mage he wishes to play. Each mage receives a deck of dragon cards that includes multiple copies of four different chromatic dragons (Green, Red, Black & Purple), four different metallic dragons (Gold, Silver, Brass & Bronze), and two special dragon cards (the Battle dragon and the Polar dragon). Each dragon has a different strength, weakness and special ability. Players will send their dragons, one at a time, to capture gems on different battlefields; each battlefield offers a different effect that may give an advantage or disadvantage to certain types of dragons.

Players alternate playing dragon cards on battlefields until they have played all eight of their Dragon cards. Each player can play a maximum of three dragons on a single battlefield. When a dragon is placed, it may make a ranged attack. Not all dragons have a ranged attack breath weapon, but those that do have a breath weapon icon with a number. The number indicates the number of battle cards the player may reveal when attempting to hit with a ranged attack. A defender may defend with the number of cards equal to the dragon's shield value. A ranged attack can take place immediately only when the card is played against an opposing dragon. If a ranged attack is not used at this moment, the ranged attack is forfeited for the current round.

After all dragon cards have been played, the melee phase of the battle begins. Each dragon has a "melee attack" value printed on its card which represents the number of battle cards the player can draw for the battle. The melee battle mechanism is a unique attack and counter system that provides opportunity for deduction, subtlety, and deadly combos. Players will also earn advance battle cards that build up their decks over the course of the game. The player with the most dragons present on a battlefield wins that gem. In the case of a tie, the dragons and gem remain for the next round.

Draco Magi is a fast game heavily connected to its theme that incorporates area control, bluffing, hand management, deck building and deduction.

In Query, each card has a Query beginning and four real Query endings. The dealer reads the Query beginning aloud and players come up with their own endings, write them down on whiteboards, and submit them to the dealer.

Meanwhile the dealer chooses a real Query ending that he thinks nobody will guess from the card and writes it down on a whiteboard. The dealer reads all the endings aloud, including the one he chose. Players then take turns guessing which is the real ending.

Eternal Dynasty is designed for 2-5 players and generally takes 60-150 minutes to complete (20-30 minutes per player). Each game will run for a number of Generations (Rounds of Play) equal to the number of players. At the beginning of each Generation, players will select a Ruler who will have different inherent bonuses for Military or Political Influence, a specific number of cards to play for their Generation, and a unique Ability. Players take on the role of feuding clans and will fight over control of the 18 provinces of ancient China. As the Generations progress, players will be able to adjust their strategies on the fly or continue reinforcing their current strategies as they change to a new Ruler.