Boardgames on Kickstarter: They Need You!

Recently I've learned about the Kickstarter site/project. In case you haven't heard about it yet, here's a quick summary: Kickstarter lets you advertise the project of your dreams to the internet public, asking them to fund it. You set a funding goal (let's say $10,000) and if enough people chip in and your project reaches the goal in 30 days, you get the the full amount of funds that might be well over your goal. In case the amount of money doesn't reach your goal, you get nothing, the money goes back to the people who chipped in.

You, however, don't need to have a project to participate in Kickstarter. You can browse hundreds of ongoing funding requests and if any catches your eye, you're invited to help by spending any amount you think is right. Projects usually have several levels and spending certain amount of money usually gets you something from the project owner. For $1 you might get a mention in the credits, for $10 you might get the mention and a promo poster mailed to you, for $20 you might get the product itself. There is anything from Fashion, Computer games, Music, Comics, Film to, what is the focus of this post, Board Games.

I've watched several projects for some time and here is a selection of several Board Games that deserve your attention.

(I am in no way related to Kickstarter or any of the projects. This is merely an enthusiastic post about something really really cool.)
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Race to Adventure: The Spirit of The Century Exploration Game
funding ends on 24th July 2012, game delivered by December 2012

Race to Adventure is a short adventure game where you play as one of the members of The Spirit of The Century club who each participate in a race to visit dangerous and fascinating locales around the globe. The first to get a stamp from every each of nine locations and return to the base of the club (in New York) wins the game.

From the rules explanation video it seems the game is really aimed at casual players (though there is a variation for experienced players too). The rules are easy and the game itself takes about 30 minutes. Each turn the players choose a mode of transportation (could be a biplane, a blimp or a jetpack) an item (like a lightning gun) from a common deck of cards and use that item to move around the board or obtain the stamp from a location they already are at. You can only get the stamp from Himalayas if you use the jetpack to perform a mission there and you can only get a stamp from the Atlantis if you use a lightning gun to fight off enemies there.

The game is in style of pulp adventure novels, somewhat reminiscent of Jules Verne's stories, with hardboiled adventurers, cunning inventors and a talking ape. The game comes at $40.

Check its Kickstarter page here.
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Do Move Say
funding ends on 29th July 2012, game delivered by August/September 2012

While not exactly a board game, Do Move Say seems like a lot of fun. A social game for more than 10 people is a great way to break the ice at a party or even in a group of people who already know each other.

Essentially, each player receives a card that describes his new persona. They are told what to Do, how to Move and what to Say (hence the game). Most of the players are regular townfolk, each quirky and entertaining to play but there are two special characters - the Mastermind and the Detective. The Detective's job is to find out who is the Mastermind by observing the behaviour of the people around them. The Mastermind's task is a little bit more difficult - he/she has to disable (pinch the elbow of) three victims, pass a note to an accomplice, which he/she needs to find too, and find a secret key.

The complexity of the game can be modded by adding special characters - so-called Mods. These Mods each behave in a specific way, for example The Jealous Lover must find and disable a specific person, or The Decoy who tries to confuse and mystify the Detective by acting like the Mastermind but cannot pass notes or disable anyone.

For at least $25 dollars you get the game in the original package and printed on durable cards but what's really interesting is that for as little as $5 you will be e-mailed a PDF of the game so you can print it out on your own.

For more information head to this Kickstarter page
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FANTASTIQA
funding ends on 9th August 2012, game delivered by October 2012

Looking like a mash of Dominion and Pokemon, FANTASTIQA lets you travel between various fantasy themed locations and fight magical creatures that join your party if you defeat them. Each creature has an ability and a weakness shown by little symbols on their card. If you can play cards with abilities matching the weakness of the foe, the foe is defeated. For example, a dragon's ability is two swords but its weakness is two magic wands. Playing card from you hand that in total give you two magic wands lets you win the battle. The dragon then can join you and give you two swords in your later fights.

Aside from visiting mist-shrouded forests and forgotten valleys and fighting monsters, you will go on quests that require you to combine abilities of several Poke... excuse me, creatures that have joined you. There doesn't seem to be any form of levelling up but each quest yields grail points and the first player to reach 10 of those wins the game.

A deck-building games always require some deep thought strategy but the designer of FANTASTIQA promises the game to be easy to understand for new player and to have a special mode for advanced gamers too. The illustration look nice and call back to... uhh, the 18th century (very Neil Gaiman's Stardust, a pre-Tolkien fantasy, as the wikipedia nicely puts it) and the modular board does promise replayablity. For around $60 it could be yours.

Interested? Learn more here at its Kickstarter page