New Game Round-up: Try Your Hand as a Pulp Detective, and Don't Get Overwhelmed by Hate

New Game Round-up: Try Your Hand as a Pulp Detective, and Don't Get Overwhelmed by Hate
Board Game: Dice Throne: Season One
• Designers Nate Chatellier and Manny Trembley ran a Kickstarter in early 2017 under their Mind Bottling Games for the dice-based combat game Dice Throne. Copies are being sent to KS backers now, and the game has a North American retail release date of January 24, 2018, with Roxley now having come on board as co-publisher of the game. An overview of what's coming now, while noting that two more Dice Throne sets are already in the works:

Quote:
Dice Throne is a game of intriguing dice, tactical card play, powerful heroes, and unique abilities.

It's a fast-paced 2-6 player combat game (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 2v2v2, or free-for-all). Select from a variety of heroes that play and feel completely distinct from one another. Attack opponents and activate abilities by rolling your hero's unique set of five dice. Accumulate combat points and spend them on cards that have a large range of effects, such as granting permanent hero upgrades, applying status effects, and manipulating dice directly (yours, your teammate's, or even your opponent's).
Board Game: HATE
• I've tweeted pics of Eric M. Lang's HATE from Gen Con, but not posted about it in this space. Strange. This large miniature-heavy design will be produced by the Blood Rage team of Lang, artist Adrian Smith, and publishers CMON Limited and Guillotine Games, and as is the case with many mini games from CMON, it will be funded on Kickstarter, with the campaign launching January 16, 2018.

What's less usual about this KS is that CMON is stating that the game will be available exclusively through Kickstarter. That's not entirely true as CMON states that it will also sell the game at conventions and the game will also be available to retailers who belong to the "CMON Play" promotional program, but aside from those sources, you won't find the game in regular retail stores. Why? As CMON explains in its press release: "Our ultimate goal with HATE is to offer a game that remains as true as possible to the source material: Adrian Smith's Chronicles of HATE graphic novels. As you might guess from the name, the world of HATE is not a happy or peaceful one and includes a lot of mature content. We know not everyone will find this type of experience pleasant, so instead of stripping out the atmosphere, we are going direct to those who will want this type of gaming experience, including our retailers through CMON Play." As for the gameplay, here's a short take on that:

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HATE is a highly kinetic, endlessly brutal campaign game of post-apocalyptic survival. Up to six players battle through a multi-game Chronicle where they use their unique clan to savagely plunder, mutilate, and demoralize their opponents. Death is permanent for clan members; once they die, they are out of the game. The player who most expertly uses savagery (gained by doing unspeakable violence upon their foes) to upgrade their warriors and resources (gained by plundering the land) to unlock powerful new abilities from their village will win the game, but only the player with the most hate will become the Tyrant and rule over the rest!
Board Game: Pulp Detective
• From that avalanche in the making, let's swing to the other side of Kickstarter, with a tiny project from Alban Viard Game Studios Plus: Pulp Detective by designer and artist Todd Sanders, which launches on KS on February 1, 2018.

In this one-player card-plus-dice game, you need to locate four clues and confront the criminal before you exhaust either your time or your stamina. Sanders created a two-player variant for the game after Viard signed the title in which rival detectives compete to solve the crime first, although as in life, both of them can fail with the criminal still escaping.

As always, Sanders kills it with his graphic design, with the art being licensed from pulp purveyors Steeger Properties:


Board Game: Pulp Detective


Board Game: Arkon
Arkon is the debut title from designers Casey Hill and Martin de Diego Sádaba and publisher Hill Gaming Company, with the game hitting Kickstarter in early 2018 ahead of a planned-for release later that year. Here's an overview of this card game:

Quote:
Arkon is a 2-4 player strategy card game in which players seek to bring four different clan cards, or four of the same clan card, into play to win. Each turn, players must decide whether they use their cards as actions, to further their board position, as counters or responses, to defend themselves, or as influence to win bids to move them closer to winning the game.

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