There are several board game–related Kickstarter projects currently in the works, and since I'm still getting caught up from a recent trip I figured I'd better tell you about them now before I forget and time runs out!
First up: a project that has already hit 740% of its goal with a month left to go, which means chances are you've probably already heard of it. But just in case you haven't, the Official Settlers of Catan Gaming Board solves the problem of the board hexes shifting around while you're playing the game. It's fantastic to have a modular board for that variety and replay value, but it means you can't easily pick the game up and go somewhere else with it — and when somebody bumps the table you have reposition everything.
This board (with the optional leaf for 5–6 players) will hold the island of Catan steady, with spaces for the roads in between. It comes in two halves that notch together, and if you play a lot of Settlers then you'll definitely want to add this to your game collection. The Catan folks liked the idea so much that it's officially licensed, and at $25 for the 3–4 player basic board it won't break the bank.
If you're a big spender, though, you can also pledge for the Seafarer boards, or the limited edition walnut board which will be engraved with your name and serial number. (#001 went to Klaus Teuber himself!)
Well, that's fine and dandy if you're a Settlers player, but what about that other awesome gateway game, Carcassonne? This game that consists of placing little square tiles is extremely prone to seismic activity, especially when you're trying to place a tile in a narrow spot. One careless move and you can shift an entire row of tiles, knocking over meeples and necessitating a break while everyone remembers whether they had farmers or thieves or knights.
Game Grids are designed to hold these tiles in place while you play. A nifty feature on these is the corner cut-outs, which let you easily pick up a tile in the middle of a layout by poking it in the corner to pop the tile up. The Game Grids will work with any game that uses the same sized tiles, like Alhambra, but I'm guessing it'll largely be used for Carcassonne. You can get a set of nine Game Grides for $25, enough to hold 144 tiles and sufficient for the base game of Carcassonne. If you're planning on throwing in the expansions you'll probably want a few more. Each grid holds 16 tiles, and there are lots of other options like LRF support and nice velvet pouches for your Carcassonne collection.
I've already mentioned The Keep, but here's a reminder in case you hadn't checked it out yet. They're reaching for a pretty big goal and they've got a week left. It's a system for transporting games without all the bulk of game boxes (which are typically 80% air anyway). Even if you don't need the high-dollar Keep itself, consider checking out the Magic Chamber, which is perfect for deck-builders like Dominion.
Next, here's a couple of board games to check out!
Dungeon Heroes calls itself your "lunch break dungeon crawl." It's a clever little two-player dungeon crawl, with one player as the Dungeon Master and one as the set of four heroes. The heroes are trying to get three treasures, and the DM is trying to kill them off before they do. I may have a longer review of this coming up soon, but in the meantime you can check out the Kickstarter page for more details. The DM places randomly-selected tiles throughout the dungeon, and the heroes (represented by a d10, d8, d6, and d4) attempt to disarm traps and kill monsters to get to the hidden treasures. It's an inexpensive, quick-playing game that would be great for a quick lunch break game — I just hope they put it in a small package to keep it portable, too.
I'll admit, I haven't actually played Salmon Run yet or even delved really deeply into the rules, but after hearing about it on the Dice Hate Me podcast a couple times I was really intrigued. It's a deck-building game, but it also has a modular board representing the river, and it's about salmon swimming upstream to spawn. How can you say no to that? Published by Gryphon and Eagle Games, you know the component quality will be outstanding, and they're closing in on their $20k stretch goal for a 5th player expansion — but this campaign is ending soon, so if you're interested you should take a look soon.
I reviewed Castle Dice earlier this month but they're not quite at their goal yet with less than two weeks left, so I wanted to give it another push. It's a worker-placement, dice-drafting game with really fun artwork and some interesting mechanics. The downside is it's a little pricey, but it's chock full of dice, which kind of makes up for that. Here's my review.
Okay, one last project and I'm done for today:
What is that, you ask? Why, it's the Build Your Own Laser Cutter. I know, I know, you're saying something like "Wait a minute, what does a laser cutter have to do with board games?" Well, for one thing, a laser cutter is pretty darn handy if you're making board game prototypes. I spent a good chunk of cash at my local maker space to get a bunch of hexes cut out for my game prototype — I could do it by hand with a matte cutter, but it takes a lot longer and isn't nearly as precise. Granted, I didn't spend $1,500 on it, but if I had my own laser cutter you can bet I'd be cutting and engraving all sorts of other things.
Also the BYOLC is just way cool. Jim Kelly, one of the GeekDads, is involved with the project as well, and I know from his other posts that he's a serious maker. I'm still on my way to claiming that maker merit badge, and a laser cutter would certainly push me a bit closer. I've got just under a month to save up ... You're all gonna come back my board game when it's done, right?
