Crowdfunding Round-up: Eight Minutes of Dystopian Superhero Martians & Other Odd Creations

The Martian attack of 1898 brought terrible devastation to the city of London and set the course of human history upon an altogether unexpected path. Amongst the ruins of the greatest metropolis on Earth, the Martians had – in the end – faltered and perished. Everyone now knows that these invaders were overcome, not by the might of Queen Victoria's armies, but by nature's own forces of disease and decay. Against these mere microbes, the Martians' superior minds could muster no defense. Where mankind had failed, the smallest and least significant of all Earth's organisms had triumphed.

Few even noticed the arrival of the second wave of Martian cylinders that fell to earth sometime around the end of 1908. By the time the Martian presence came to the attention of the governments of Earth, it was already too late.

All Quiet on the Martian Front is a 15mm battle game in miniature set during the second Martian War, circa 1910. After their first defeat a few years earlier at the hands of stiff British resistance and unexpected environmental factors, the Martians have returned. This time they have started their invasion from the New World and they have well established themselves before surging forward in an unstoppable tide of destruction. The game begins on the Mississippi Defense Line, with America desperately trying to hold back the Martian advance. Super weapons by Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison are being rushed to the front.


President Roosevelt leads the nation against the blood sucking Martians and their incredible machines. Henry Ford works feverishly to produce as many of the new steam powered tanks for the front as possible. J.P. Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller work together to make the fearsome new Land Ironclads a reality. The United Kingdom, experienced with anti- Martian war, sends the British Expeditionary Force to help. France and Germany, untouched by any Martian machines yet, gather forces and build armies, but for what purpose?

Black Dust, Heat Rays, tanks upon tanks as well as miles and miles of trenches and traps...they all form the backdrop for Tripods vs. Tanks with lightning guns, Rough Riders on early Harleys, and lots more.

In Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, you lead a team of workers (dice) and recruits (cards) to claim ownership of the dystopian world. You will generate commodities, dig tunnels to infiltrate opposing areas, construct markets, collect artifacts, strengthen allegiances, and fulfill secret agendas.

Euphoria is a worker-placement game in which dice are your workers. The number on each die represents a worker's knowledge – that is, his level of awareness that he's in a dystopia. Worker knowledge enables various bonuses and impacts player interaction. If the collective knowledge of all of your workers gets too high, one of them might desert you. You also have two elite recruit cards at your disposal; one has pledged allegiance to you, but the other needs some convincing. You can reveal and use the reticent recruit by reaching certain milestones in the game...or by letting other players unwittingly reach those milestones for you.

Your path to victory is paved with the sweat of your workers, the strength of your allegiances, and the tunnels you dig to infiltrate other areas of the world, but the destination is a land grab in the form of area control. You accomplish this by constructing markets that impose harsh restrictions of personal freedoms upon other players, changing the face of the game and opening new paths to victory. You can also focus on gathering artifacts from the old world, objects of leisure that are extremely rare in this utilitarian society. The dystopian elite covet these artifacts – especially matching pairs – and are willing to give you tracts of land in exchange for them.

Three distinct societies, each of them waiting for you to rewrite history. What are you willing to sacrifice to build a better dystopia?

Hero Brigade is a fast-paced, two-player, non-collectible card duel game with a comic book hero theme with one player in the role of the valiant Heroes (Hooray!) and one player in the role of the dastardly Villains (Boo!). Players take turns recruiting Mercenaries and other assets from the common Resource Deck, deploying characters to form their Party, and playing cards for one-time game effects. Each character card can be played in three different ways (deployed to your Party's Front Row, deployed to your Support Row, or used for a one-time game effect). At the conclusion of the Play Phase, the players enter the Fight Phase and take turns beating each other up!

I also wanted to flip a few standard gaming conventions on their heads. In most card games, drawing extra cards is amazing and has neglible or absolutely no drawbacks. Hero Brigade enjoys a Mo' Cards, Mo' Problems approach. Each time you have to reshuffle your deck, you have to permanently remove the top card of your deck from the game. You also permanently lose cards off the top of your deck when your Party's characters are defeated. You lose the game if you can't draw a full hand of four cards!

This also greatly affects the standard practice of trying to permanently remove all of your terrible starting cards from your deck. After all, you want a smooth deck experience full of bombs and power cards, right? Yes, you can do card-drawing to pull extra threats and solutions in Hero Brigade. Yes, you can remove unwanted cards from your hand and discard pile from the game. But don't come crying to me when you run out of cards. I will gladly drink your delicious tears. If they are of a particularly fine vintage, I will bottle them for later consumption.

"Hello. My name is (famous person). You (verb) my (noun). Prepare to die!" Create the most hilarious combinations to win!