I, on the other hand, am completely objective and have no personal motives whatsoever. I learned my lesson last month, so I am going to write with clinical sterility and present only facts and information. With that, I will select games that I have no personal feelings on. Let's get started...
• I am probably infringing on ios Newman's territory here, but I think the intention of Game Scorpion is to launch a hybrid ios/physical TCG. It is off to a slow start, but I have determined mathematically that any game with a name as awesome as Armies of Riddle will surely succeed. (KS link) Frankly, I have no idea what the game is about and the art is...okay, but who cares! The game clearly rules. Go give it tons of money.
• Kickstarter first-timer Jason Washburn is seeking funding for Hooch. (KS link) Per usual, no one knows anything about anything when it comes to KS. I know crowdfunding can be a fickle mistress, but I started seeing info about Hooch on Twitter a few months back and everything I saw looked cool. The game looks fun, but it is struggling to gain a foothold in the ever-changing and expanding KS landscape. Hopefully it gains some good momentum down the stretch or, at worst, builds some steam for a relaunch. Either way, check it out.
• Crash Games is back with a game that I have actually played and that is one of the few games this side of Linko! that both W. Eric and I have played and liked. (KS link) Dead Drop is the latest game from all-around good guy Jason Kotarski. Dead Drop is just a dang fun way to spend ten minutes. It is a clever deduction and memory minigame. If that isn't enough to convince you, go look at the super awesome art. There are a TON of crazy awesome decks. I like the monsters and spy kids (see below) the best.
On a player's turn, you must choose one of the following actions:
• Share Info: Trade one card from your hand with one card from any other agent. The target agent must trade and may not look at the card she is being given before handing over her card to the active agent.
• Hack the Cache: Trade one card from your hand with one card in the cache. The card from your hand becomes a part of the cache and should be face up.
• Sell Secrets: Reveal two cards from your hand to another agent, who must then answer "yes" or "no" to reveal whether or not she has a card equal to the sum of those cards. If she says "yes", she must hand a card of that value to the active agent in exchange for one of the cards shown. The active agent chooses which card to hand over.
At the end of a turn, after performing a regular action, the active agent may choose to...
• Grab The Drop: Place two cards from your hand face up next to the card in the middle of the table. Then, secretly look at the card in the middle to determine whether this card is equal to the sum of the two face-up cards. If you guessed correctly, you win the round; if you're wrong, you're out of the round. (In a three- or four-player game, if an agent is eliminated, she must place her cards face up in front of her. Other agents may trade with an eliminated agent's cards by placing the card traded from their hand face up in place of the card they take.) The first player to win three rounds wins the game.
Quick Hits
My favorite theme of the month goes to Goblin's Breakfast from Midnight Campaign. (KS link) "In this card game, players take the role of goblins at the breakfast table, scrambling to eat as much food as they can, while simultaneously keeping food from others. Players choose actions, selecting which food and makeshift weapons they are going to snatch in a small arms race of theft and chaos. Eat the most, so that you can be the biggest goblin!" This game has a solo variant called "every person at Old Country Buffet".
Going, Going, Gone
Eh, I got nothing. Busy month, so I didn't actually pay much attention to the goings-on of KS and BGG. (Ed. note: Ha ha! Thanks to the miracle of slowness, Riddle now has two listings in this section. —WEM) Oh, the Galaxy Trucker app is awesome.
• Party games are certainly not my thing. I do not particularly enjoy them. Give me a dry, thinky, soulless Euro any day of the week — BUT if you are so inclined, check out Knee Jerk from Andrew Federspiel and Knapsack Games. (KS link) Looks like a clever enough idea and people have responded to it so far. Party games are usually just an excuse to make people say silly or embarrassing or clever or funny things and Knee Jerk looks chock full of that. I wonder if that is why I don't like party games very much. I asked noted game designer T.C. Pettty what he thought: "I ALWAYS say funny and clever things, so I hardly notice the difference except now I am forced to listen to other people be less clever and funny than me when it's not my turn. Boring." Wow, thanks for the perspective, T.C. I think he just called everyone reading this boring and lame. You should never buy a game of his again. You should consider backing Knee Jerk even if T.C. is a big meanie.
The fastest player to shout a valid answer wins the point, but you have to outwit your friends; if two or more players answer, the host player picks his or her favorite. The games moves rapidly, switching from scene to scene in seconds, from Your First Date to A Haunted Mansion to Outer Space! The first player to gain three points is the winner.
• The very prolific Jason Gray of Grey Gnome Games is back with Of Dungeons Deep. I backed his last game, Dig Down Dwarf, because it looked neat-o. This one is not really my thing, but it is doing well, so go take a look. (KS link) I am not picking on Jason, he is a really good dude and he has a lot of successful projects under his belt, but I am always curious how backers feel about backing a new game before they have the previous project in hand. I know project owners rely on those repeat customers. Once you have done several successful projects like Jason, you have a strong customer base to draw from as opposed to one project's worth, but it still seems like it would bother backers potentially. Does it? Let me know what you think.
• Bluffing and Blind Bidding. Players are attempting to destroy the nasty creatures below in the dungeon to gain fame by playing cards face down and revealing simultaneously. Each enemy has a set number of hit points based on the number of players. There are three enemies to deal with in each level of the dungeon, so strategy, tactics, and bluffing are a must. There is also two rounds of bidding so players gain insight into what other players are up to.
• Deck Building. When a player defeats an enemy, that card is rotated 180 degrees and then added to the player's discard pile. The bottom of each monster card indicates what item the enemy is carrying. These items add power to your character in future rounds, and act as an organic and thematic way to show that your characters are advancing.
• Draft Your Unique Party. Before play begins, players complete a draft in order to create their starting hand of twelve cards. Each player gets one Hero and one Henchman. All characters are very unique and play quite differently from one another. This sets the bar high for replay value!
• No Downtime! Since all play is done simultaneously, no players are ever waiting on others for very long. This makes Of Dungeons Deep! one of the fastest dungeon delvers out there.
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