• In a Facebook post looking for graphic design support, Dutch publisher Splotter Spellen mentions that its next release — Horseless Carriage — will ideally be ready for release at SPIEL '21. For an overview of the game, you can listen to designers Joris Wiersinga and Jeroen Doumen in this interview with Edward Uhler of Heavy Cardboard.
• U.S. publisher Thunderworks Games has revealed its 2021 line-up, with the most anticipated title possibly being Jordy Adan and John Brieger's Cartographers Heroes, a new standalone map-drawing game due out in August 2021 that can also be combined with Adan's 2019 Cartographers, with "persistent" monsters and heroes being introduced in this design, along with new edict cards, ambush cards, and so on that can be used in the original game.
Additionally, Thunderworks will release three map packs — each with various twists and new scoring cards — that can be used with either of the standalone Cartographers titles: Nebblis – Plane of Flame; Affril – Plane of Knowledge; and Undercity – Depths of Sabek. Even more map packs are scheduled for release in the future.
• I said "possibly" above as Thunderworks' most anticipated title might actually be Roll Player Adventures, which the company Kickstarted in 2020 for release in July/August 2021.
Roll Player Adventures builds on the world of Roll Player from company founder Keith Matejka. In that earlier game, you'd compete against other players to create the ideal fantasy adventurer. (Candice Harris covers the game in detail in this June 2020 BGGN post.) In Adventures, co-designed by Matejka, Peter Andrew Ryan, and James William Ryan, you now work together with other players as follows:
Navigate your missions with care. It's up to you who to befriend and who to battle. Will you slay the giant troll or attempt to make peace? Will you do the vampire's bidding or defend the mysterious cultists he wants to destroy? Will you remain loyal to king and country — or side with the enemies of Nalos? Whatever choices you make, someone will remember and respond.
Roll Player Adventures is a co-operative storybook board game for 1-4 players set in the world of Roll Player. Players inhabit characters, face challenges, and make decisions that will change the story as they progress through eleven core adventures and a replayable side quest.
Adventures does not require the Roll Player base game or any of its expansions to play. Pick from one of six pre-generated characters, or import a favorite Roll Player character and take them on a heroic journey. If you do import a character you've built in Roll Player, any number of expansions and any number of promo cards/boards that were used may continue to be used in Roll Player Adventures.
Each storyline explores a unique backstory from the Roll Player universe. Your decisions will change your alignment and steer the fate of the land of Nalos.
At the end of each year, rewards are given to the player with the fairground that best exemplifies certain raw emotions, and after five years the player with the most VP tokens wins!
• Finally, we come to Eric Mosso's 1-4 player game Cape May:
Build cottages, develop them into Victorian homes, and upgrade them into historic landmarks. Establish shops and grow them into profitable businesses. Carefully move around the city, and make strategic use of activity cards. Complete bonus goals, then take some time to relax and spot wildlife in the best place for birdwatching in the Northeastern United States.
Whoever best balances their income, development, movement, and personal goals will go down in history as the most successful developer of Cape May!