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Kickstarter Board Game Roundup July 28th, 2015-August 3rd, 2015

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Beardsmith

Beardsmith

© HaleFire Games

In Beardsmith you play as one of the beardsmiths in a dwarven city. Since dwarves love their beards this is a prestigious job.

Beardsmith is a tile placement game where each player is given a certain number of beard tiles. Players play tiles onto the game board to extend the beard already on the game board. Players receive points for each tile played. Players need to keep the beard tidy though since tile of their color that has an open end, loses a point. Players can also play pieces of gum or scissors in order to mess with other players’ strategies.

While Beardsmith doesn’t seem to add a lot of new mechanics to the tile placement genre, you can’t deny the quirky theme. The game seems easy and quick to play and should work well as a filler game. If you are unsure about the game you can always try out the free print and play version of the game on the Kickstarter page.

Beardsmith is being made by Benjamin Hale and MaryAnn Hale from HaleFire Games. The campaign is trying to raise $8,000 and will end on August 29th, 2015. Kickstarter Campaign

Central City Heroes

Central City Heroes Kickstarter Game

© Clover Games Inc

In Central City Heroes you play as a superhero who has to work with the other players in order to defeat their Nemesis and save Central City. Central City Heroes appears to mix a card game with many other mechanics.

What stands out about Central City Heroes is the attention to detail. Central City Heroes looks really well put together. The artwork looks fantastic, the miniatures look quite detailed, and it looks like a lot of effort was put into making the game. The game also seems to add some interesting ideas like giving each character a secret identity.

While the game looks really well put together, the game is not cheap. In order to receive a copy of the game you need to pledge at least $90 to the campaign. That is quite a bit of money to pledge for a game that hasn’t even been released yet. The Kickstarter page does provide a lot of information though so you can do your research before making a pledge.

Central City Heroes is being made by Clover Games Inc. The campaign is looking for $40,000 and ends on August 27th, 2015. Kickstarter Page

The Contender

The Contender

© The Contender

Take the simple play of Apples to Apples and add in some political debate and you have The Contender.

In The Contender one player is the debate moderator while the rest of the players are political candidates trying to win over voters. To start each round a debate topic is chosen. Instead of actually debating the topic, players use cards from their hand in order to form the most compelling argument for their side. The cards used in the debate include facts (rarely used in actual political debates), attacks, and distract cards. Players can play one card or play several cards together in order to form their stance on the subject. After everyone has made their argument, the moderator will choose which argument was best/funniest and award that player with a point.

While there have been a lot of Apples to Apples type games put on Kickstarter lately, The Contender looks quite good. The final game will depend on how funny it is. The game seems to have a solid foundation though and could be very entertaining for Americans who will be spending the next year dealing with the never ending presidential race.

The Kickstarter campaign runs until August 30th, 2015. The game has already met its’ initial funding goal so the game will be printed. If you want a copy of the game you will have to pledge at least $25. Kickstarter Page

Geoengineering 101

Geoengineering 101

© Alfred Twu

In Geoengineering 101, you must work with the other players in order to stop the apocalypse. You need to balance the well being of your own people while trying to reduce carbon emissions around the world. While everyone wants to look out for their own people, players need to work together or everyone will end up losing. If there is too much hardship around the world or there are no habitable places left on Earth everyone will lose the game.

I really don’t know what to think about Geoengineering 101. Looking at the theme you worry that the game may be preachy with a save the world message. I believe that we can do more to save our planet but I don’t really want to play a game that focuses more on being educational than fun.

The game intrigues me though since it kind of looks like Pandemic and other cooperative games. The game has elements of self-interest as well as cooperation which can lead to some interesting gameplay. If the game focuses more on the gameplay than the message I think Geoengineering 101 could be a solid game.

Geoengineering 101 is being created by Alfred Twu. The campaign runs through September 4th, 2015 and is looking for $300 in funding. Kickstarter Page

Henchmen!

Henchmen Card Game

©DFLGames

In Henchmen you take the role of a middle manager in the world of evil. As a middle manager you don’t want to get your own hands dirty so you need to find some henchmen to do the dirty work for you.

The Kickstarter page claims that Henchmen! is a semi-cooperative card game. Players individually build their own groups of henchmen which they use to get cash for themselves. Since cash is the ultimate determining factor in the game, each player is trying to acquire as much cash as possible. Occasionally players need to work together to complete one of “Da Bosses” jobs in order to prevent the Super Jerk from appearing which will hurt all of the players.

Without having played the game I can’t really comment on the gameplay. The gameplay looks interesting but the biggest challenge will be differentiating itself from other similar card games. From what I do see though I think the game is trying to go the humorous route which is not that surprising since you are hiring a bunch of Henchmen after all. In particular I love that one of the Henchmen appears to be an evil Furby. The game seems to draw heavily from nostalgia which may work.

Henchmen! is being made by Zodiac Universe. The campaign is currently looking for $5,000 and the campaign runs through September 26th, 2015. Kickstarter Page

Lobotomy

Lobotomy

© Titanforge Games

In Lobotomy you play as a group of metal hospital patients that need to work together in order to escape the mental hospital that is crawling with various monsters and demons.

The game seems to play like a dungeon crawl game that features a lot of miniatures. The game also utilizes dice, cards and some special powers which appear to come from your character losing their mind.

Not being a huge fan of the horror genre, I don’t think Lobotomy will be for me. I have to give the game a lot of credit for what appears to be a very well thought out game. The miniatures in the game look fantastic and should appeal to horror fans and fans of miniature games in general. The game also seems to have done a great job creating a horror atmosphere.

Lobotomy is not a cheap game though since you need to pledge at least $90 in order to receive a copy of the game.

At this time Lobotomy has already reached its’ initial funding goal. The campaign runs until August 31st, 2015 so there is plenty of time for it to reach many of its’ stretch goals. Kickstarter Page

Res Publica: 2230AD

Res Publica 2230AD

© Mage Company

Regular readers of Geeky Hobbies are probably quite familiar with Reiner Knizia. For the few of you who are not familiar with him, Reiner Knizia is a board game designer from Germany that has designed around 500 different board games. We have reviewed quite a few of his games on the site and have quite a few that we will be reviewing sometime in the future. While not all of Knizia’s games are gems, you can almost that they will be at least average.

Reiner Knizia’s name being attached to the project was what got me interested in the game. After watching the introduction video I actually lost quite a bit of interest in the game since it looked like a pretty standard set collection game. There are so many other set collection games and the video didn’t make the game look particularly unique.

After skimming through the rule book, the game actually looked quite a bit more interesting. The game has several different mechanics which could lead to an interesting experience. The mechanic that looks the most interesting is trading. Most games struggle when it comes to trading since everyone always wants to get the better half of a deal which leads to trading rarely ever happening.

In Res Publica trading is a requirement in the game. During their turn players can either ask for certain cards or offer up cards for trade. All of the other players then make one offer. The current player can choose one of the offers or deny all of them. If they deny the offers though they will not be able to make another offer during their turn. I am curious how well these mechanics will work with encouraging trade in the game.

Res Publica is being made Mage Company. The game was looking for $4,000 and this goal has already been reached. If you would like to back the project still, the campaign runs until August 19th, 2015. Kickstarter Page

Shuffle Heroes

Shuffle Heroes

© Czech Board Games

For the most part Shuffle Heroes looks like a normal card game where you compete against another player by playing cards that either attack the other player’s heroes or help your own heroes.

What is unique about Shuffle Heroes though is that instead of doing damage to your opponent, you can instead decide to destroy you opponents’ cards removing them from the current game. This mechanic is called deck de-construction and is the main reason I am interested in Shuffle Heroes. Since the attacking player gets to decide which card gets discarded, this mechanic has a lot of potential as players could form strategies of taking certain cards from an opponent stopping them from pursuing certain strategies.

In addition to the de-construction mechanic, Shuffle Heroes has an interesting theme. The theme of the game is supposedly a mix of steampunk and Lovecraftian horror. The artwork shown on the Kickstarter page already looks really nice so fans of these two genres might really like Shuffle Heroes.

My only concern with the game is that the Kickstarter page doesn’t really show much about the gameplay other than the de-construction mechanic. As long as the game does more than just the de-construction mechanic to distinguish itself, I think Shuffle Heroes could be a good game.

Shuffle Heroes was made by Jan Vaněček and is being made by Czech Board Games. The Kickstarter campaign is trying to raise $5,500 and is already over halfway there. The campaign runs until August 25th, 2015. Kickstarter Page

Time Jockeys

Time Jockeys Game

© Baksha Games

If you created a time machine would you use it for good or would you use it for greed?

In Time Jockeys you are a time traveler that works for a company that has chosen to do the later. The company that you work for is in the business of stealing items or taking videos of artifacts or structures that no longer exist in the modern world. Unfortunately the time travel technology has a catch where each person can only spend 15 days in the past or they will be destroyed. So you need to spend your time in the past wisely and acquire as much money as possible.

While I don’t have a great grasp of how the game will end up playing, it seems like an interesting idea for a game. First of all the theme is interesting since I love a good time travel game. Mechanic wise the game seems to borrow from several different genres which include card management, bidding, and even dice rolling. The game also seems to have some interesting risk taking mechanics where you can choose different ways of stealing the artifact with some taking longer but being safer while others are riskier but they take less time to complete.

Time Jockeys is being created by Baksha Games. The campaign is looking for $7,000 and the campaign ends on August 28th, 2015. Kickstarter Page

You Dirty Rat

You Dirty Rat Board Game

© Copyright JackSmack Games

In You Dirty Rat you are a crime lord who is tasked with creating a crew of specialists in order to complete various heists. You are not alone though since the other players can attack you or can mess with your plans.

In the game you use the various specialist cards in your hand in order to do things around town. The game uses a cooldown system where cards will be in play for a while but will eventually be returned to your hand so you can play them again.

Players can play multiple specialists together in order to form a heist team that can then perform a heist. While performing a heist can tie up a lot of your cards, if you complete several related heists you will receive bonus points at the end of the game.

After quickly looking through the rules, the game looks interesting. The mechanics seem pretty easy to understand. The game seems like a mix of a set collecting game with a card game where each card has a special ability. I like the theme of the game since for some reason I am a fan of heist movies. The real test will come down to actually playing the game. The Kickstarter page for You Dirty Rat does have a link to a print and play version of the game so you can try it out before purchasing.

You Dirty Rat is being made by JackSmack Games. The campaign is currently looking for $10,000 and runs until August 31, 2015. Kickstarter Page