Before that though, I wanted to mention Unpub 5, from which I have just returned. If you are an aspiring game designer or just like to play still-developing games, check out Unpub and get out to an event. Sure, W. Eric gets to go to Essen and BGG.CON and Nürnberg...and I went to Baltimore. It was great, though, with tons of new and established designers showing off protos and getting feedback — absolutely great. Now on to business...
• First up is Trickerion: Legends of Illusion, a self-published title that has really caught on on KS. (KS link) My first reaction was weird name and the cover art magicians are a little...off — BUT it looks neat mechanically and I love the board. The stage area is super cool-looking. It's weird to me that magicians have become cool. When I used to try to practice magic tricks during lunch in middle school, I would get wedgie-ed and swirly-ed. By my teacher. Now though, magicians are cool! Fear not DMs — your day too shall come!
Inspired by movies like the ''Prestige'', ''Now You See Me'' and the Houdini mini-series, we created a world where magic and illusion are part of people's everyday lives. Most of the magic tricks in the game are part of the repertoires of real world illusionists, past and present, but a pinch of supernatural was also added to the mix – just so you can never be sure whether those spiritual tricks are really merely illusions...
Each turn, you will visit Magoria's various Locations – the Downtown, the Market Row, the Dark Alley and the Theater – to expand your team, learn more and more intricate magic tricks, get components for them, and prepare them in your Workshop. Each turn concludes with a Performance phase in the Theater, when players may perform a breathtaking magic show for Fame points and money. After the sixth Performance phase, the player with the most Fame points wins the game, and becomes the next Legend of Illusion.
•Next up is the bestest game ever, Floating Market from Eagle-Gryphon Games and designers Matt Riddle and Ben Pinchback.(KS link) Ya! I mean, there is no way I could possibly be objective or even not completely annoying discussing this game, so I will keep it brief. It has great art, top notch production values, and a huge pile of really neat polyhedral dice all for $29 + shipping! Polyhedral dice in a euro?! I know, right!
There is a trend I like on KS. I give credit to Tasty Minstrel Games for doing it first (at least that I noticed) and that trend is the "discount". KS projects from established companies ultimately end up in retail – most of the time — and as a backer and a project creator I constantly see the following COMPLETELY legitimate complaint: "What the #@$! I paid $45 for this game on KS and two weeks after it delivers, it's only $35 on Amazon, Coolstuff, MM, etc.” Yup. That is annoying. Sure, stretch goals...but still. I am glad more companies seem to be taking the discount route, including Eagle-Gryphon with Floating Market. I remember the first time I walked into Origins or Gen Con three years ago. I was shocked that all the games were MSRP. I assumed that buying straight from the publisher would be cheaper. False.
In Floating Market, players each control customers (Ama's grandchildren), which they will assign to fruit boats (to collect fruit) and to buildings (to receive special abilities). Each player will also add a die to the dice pool each round in an attempt to influence a die roll that determines which fruit boat will hand out fruit. Players race to collect mango, banana, papaya, guava, grapefruit, rambutan, and the famous starfruit – from the constantly shifting boats around the Khlong Damnoen Saduak Canal of Thailand.
• First-time publisher Phoenix Rising Games has launched Rolling for Amusement, which is off to a bit of a slow start. (KS link) It looks fun, and designer Garrett Herdter is a good dude. His table was near mine at Unpub 4. Hopefully this catches on.
Before rolling begins, your opponents can try to undermine you by playing cards from their hand that will make your attraction harder to roll. If you succeed, you can push your luck and try for more parks (and your opponents can play even more dirty tricks on you) or pass the dice and keep what you have built. If you press your luck and fail, you lose all progress you have rolled this turn.
Play continues until the desired number of rounds are over. Players add up points earned for all completed attractions, and the player with the highest point total wins!
•Overworld Game is back with Good Cop Bad Cop: Bombers and Traitors, an expansion to the very popular Good Cop Bad Cop. (KS link) Good Cop Bad Cop really started picking up buzz last year. It is a great deduction and hidden role card game for a larger group. It is a small box, inexpensive game that is fun and has good replay. The expansion add more roles and new gameplay.
In addition to adding new gameplay experiences, Bombers and Traitors expands Good Cop Bad Cop to support as few as three players. Since the base game is required for this expansion, we are looking forward to a stretch goal that will increase the size of the box so that it has enough room to hold a first-edition copy of Good Cop Bad Cop. It holds all cards either sleeved or unsleeved.
Quick Hits
• Pretense from Jason Tagmire is a "meta game" game with very nice art. (KS link) In his words, "It's a game that you play throughout the course of the ENTIRE game night. You pass out role cards when everyone arrives, and then you tally the score when everyone leaves. As a player you have one job: fulfill your duty as stated on your card. Maybe you are the Glutton. All you need to do is make sure someone hands you food or drink. It's easy enough to say 'Can you pass me those chips?', but at the same time is it too obvious to say that? Other players can call you out, which will eliminate you from the game, so you better be slick about it. It's all about setting up your agenda in an unsuspicious way. That's Pretense for you."
• I am interested to watch the progress of Capture. I can't tell if there is a BGG entry because a TON of games are called Capture. (Ed. note: Matt is either lazy or inept as not that many games are called "Capture", the full name is Capture: A Medieval Wargame, and you can always search for a publisher's name, then sort the titles by year of publication. —WEM) The reason I am intrigued is because it looks neat, but it's from Game Salute and people HATE Game Salute. It is also catapults and people LOVE catapults. (KS link)
• My favorite name of the month goes to Goblin's Breakfast. (KS link) Here's a short description: "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 select which food and makeshift weapons they are going to snatch from the table in a small arms race of theft and chaos. Eat the most, so that you can be the biggest goblin! The game plays 2 to 6 players with the base deck. It takes only about five minutes to learn and only about 15 minutes for a single game."
•Epic Dice Tower Defense has a TON of cool dice in it. Check it out as it's a strategic, all-dice game that combines your craving for dice rolling and your love of tower defense games with over 120 dice. (KS link)
•Queen Games is back with Kansas Pacific. I am not really a train game guy, but the train meeples they show are very cool. (KS link)
•Happy Mitten Games has launched its first project with Aether Magic. The art is sooooo gorgeous, and the game looks fun, so take a look. They also have a great podcast. (KS link)
Going, Going Gone
January was HUGE. Even taking out the insanity that was Exploding Kittens from the equation, Orleans made a lot, Tiny Epic Galaxies made a ton, and Conan made a metric crap ton. Crazy month for Kickstarter...
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