Yep, just the minis. And while they’re excited about them, I’d skip them. Not just because I’m not a minis guy (although I’m not), but because I’ve had barely any use of the minis addons for their past two coop games and this one doesn’t look like they’d matter much more to play. (I ended up with the minis addons because they were in all-in gameplay pledges.) I mean, that said, they do imaginative sculpts and it’s decent quality, but…yeah.
I think I would want the minis. For verisimilitude. And, uh, science.
Badass, which one was that again?
Ha, I just got an email from Gamefound telling me I had $5 to spend on the ISS Vanguard kickstarter because I had signed up for the service previously (though I don’t remember doing so). Well, I guess somebody’s trying to tell me something.
me too, I think it was when I late pledged Etherfields. Other than that I have no connection to Gamefound.
I just got this update from the Saviour Kickstarter, and it breaks my heart to read it.
Posted by Dan Adelman
Dec 18, 2020
Shout out to a completely unrelated Kickstarter campaign
This is Dan Adelman. I work on the business development and marketing side of Savior. Kickstarter creators often give shoutouts to other ongoing campaigns that their backers may be interested in, but this one may seem a bit random. I’d like to call your attention to Kitty Claw: Catnip Infused toy for party cats. What does this have to do with a game with cinematic parkour movement, Punch Out!-inspired combat, and an epic storyline that forces us to examine our core beliefs? Well, pretty much nothing.
This is a personal shout out. When my daughter (now in college) was in pre-school a million years ago, she was part of a toddler group where all the kids (and more importantly the parents) could hang out from time to time. We lost track of most of those kids through the years, but my wife reconnected with one of the mothers when she found out about a tragedy that had befallen her son, Kenta. Just before the pandemic hit, Kenta was hanging out on the roof of his 4-story dormitory with a friend when he dropped his portable speaker. He tried to grab it, lost his balance, and fell off the roof. Thinking that an ambulance would be too expensive, his friend called an Uber to take him to the hospital. He is now paralyzed from the waist down. Barring some advance in medical science that doesn’t yet exist, the condition is permanent.
Kenta is trying to stay motivated and upbeat, so he put together a Kickstarter campaign for a project he could deliver on while adjusting to his new life. And I want to support him in that. So if you have cats or know someone who does, please take a look at his campaign and consider backing. And now we return to our normally scheduled programming…
anyways - I just felt like posting it here, in case anyone has cats and feel this is a worthy kickstarter to join.
I think O-Neb might be at risk of overdoing it the throwing stuff at the game here. But they have just added another add-on, called Villages and Hamlets, to the Vindication KS campaign which you can add with no extra shipping charges.
Because the game is so modular and add-ons can be switched in or out very easily, I’m tempted to get it. Though who knows what it will do to the game dynamics of exploring the same island and blocking each other off from cool locations.
The treachery one sounds good. The existing treachery cards add some player interactivity and minor take that to the game which, we think, adds a bit of flavour and tension for our wretched characters. So I’m pretty sure that one will get its day on the board too.
But, really, if you are backing the game for the first time, do not overspend. The base game on its own is already fantastic and that’s what I would start with.
I’ll probably go all in on the principle that some of that stuff might not be available later. And I always hate missing out on cool toys for my boardgames. I’d personally probably miss out the Treachery content if it weren’t a module of the base game, though. That’s not really the sort of stuff I usually want in my games, and I don’t anticipate playing with it often if at all.
That’s the beauty of it. You aren’t missing out on anything by not using the treachery pack. Just a dozen or so take that cards spread around the decks. The game is really good at accommodating the way you want to play.
As for going all in, bear in mind O-Neb love that game and are supporting it well. There will be reprints of the KS and they have more plans for that game world. Also, they are very vocal about making sure that FOMO is not a factor for the game. So it really would not be much of a risk to go base game only before deciding which expansions would enhance the gameplay for you.
It is one of our favourite games and I’ll happily give each expansion a look. Does the all-in have decent discounts? I haven’t looked. But that might be a good reason to go that way.
But if you want to know whether the game is for you, the base game only would also be a great choice. The game doesn’t need any cool toys. It just keeps bringing more modular expansions. And, honestly, the base game (with its own included mini expansions) has been the absolute best part of the experience for us. So far…
Oh, I’m confident I’ll enjoy it from the playthroughs I’ve watched, and more so with more stuff to play with. But I’m only pledging for the base game at the moment, I’ll up to all-in (or some subset of that if it works out to be cheaper to ditch the addon minis I don’t actually care about) in pledge manager. (One such playthrough did - accidentally - include Treachery cards, so I am confident I’m unlikely to use them. But yes, the modularity is great.)
So I decided to take a quick look back at my end of 2019 / 2020 backs on Kickstarter. I’m actually very happy with how restrained I was this year and what I picked. I’m done adding random stuff to my shelves just because it has cool minis.
October 2019
- The blurb: An immense, open-world, storybook game from Ryan Laukat.
- Original ETA: May 2020
- Delivery: Containers have landed. Fulfilment due to start January 2021 .
- Backing pledge: $70
The last pre 2020 campaign for which I’m still awaiting delivery. Feeling really good about this one. A how-to-play has just been posted. The adventure seems like it will deliver plenty of content. It’s going to be one for my wife and I to play through.
2020
- The blurb: A sandbox survival game in the bizarre and wondrous reaches of deep space by Orange Nebula.
- Original ETA: October 2020
- Delivery: Estimated Q1 2021 .
- Backing pledge: $134 (effectively all in)
Another one I’m feeling great about. I was chatting with the O-Neb team yesterday during the end of Vindication campaign AMA and they felt really good about the game and how people will receive it. They stressed it’s very different to Vindication but that they think the storytelling and co-op aspects really came nicely together. We shall see. But I’m looking forward to it.
- The blurb: The card game that brings the Periodic Table to life.
- Original ETA: April 2020
- Delivery: April 2020.
- Backing pledge: £13 ($17.50)
Rowan Clark is a British PhD in chemistry who designed a card battling game. And delivered it on time! I was planning to play it at monthly boardgame meets with more casual players. But we all know what the world was like by April. It’s now on my shelf of shame. Looks cute but will not be an all time favourite for me I’m sure.
- The blurb: A thrilling board game adventure on a runaway train headed for Paris! Can you identify the Saboteur in your midst and avert disaster?
- Original ETA: December 2020
- Delivery: November 2020.
- Backing pledge: £34 ($46)
It’s 1942. The 19:05 is rushing towards Paris with a bomb and saboteur on board. Can the other players stop the train on time and fulfil their personal objective? Yes, it’s a hidden role game, but with a cool setting. You might already have had enough of those, in which case, this one can likely be skipped. The mix of theme and presentation work for us.
The game plays quickly (+/-20’), which allowed us to play 3 times in a row the first time we tried it. I’m really looking forward to trying it at a boardgame meet with 5-6 players post covid. We can only play with 3 in our household, which is one less than the minimum recommended count. It still worked well though.
Vindication Chronicles expansion
- The blurb: A deep narrative journey in the Vindication world.
- Original ETA: January 2022
- Delivery: ???
- Backing pledge: $58 (Chronicles expansion, hamlets expansion, winter pack promo cards)
I love Vindication. After trying out Leaders and Alliances today and finding it a nice addition to the game, I’m looking forward to this one. Not worried about o-Neb not delivering the game.
Misc
I spent about $17 supporting a boardgaming channel’s KS and getting a D&D 5E source book. We will see whether the latter is any good next April.
The damage
Total 2019 (incl. Vindication, In the hall of the mountain King, Sleeping Gods): $293.50
Total 2020: $290
So, for the past 2 years, I have spent an average of $24 a month on KS. And I’ve gotten some pretty awesome games out of it and no campaign failures. Here is looking forward to continuing that trend in 2021!
What’s your KS damage?
Just got my Anachrony Infinity Box. It’s…large.
That I can believe! 😄
Hm, that made me think, what am I still waiting on from the past year or so? And at least on Kickstarter, I’m holding out for:
Car Wars Sixth Edition
Unsettled
My Work Is Not Yet Done
Pulp Invasion
Tiny Epic Pirates
Intrepid
Mission Catastrophe
Not too much, all things considered. But then there’s ISS Vanguard over at Gamefound which should probably be included. And it’s my biggest so far, since I basically went all in. So I should probably cool it for a while, at least until someone announces a new spacefaring/exploration boardgame. They’re my kryptonite.
I was kind of expecting something like the Trickerion big box. The Anachrony box is like…40-50% larger in at least height and possibly also length. It’s bigger than Gloomhaven.
Yep. ISS Vanguard definitely counts. Fastest funding and biggest amount pledged for a campaign on GameFound. And also only campaign posted on brand new AR owned Gamefound. :)
It looks like a big one for sure. I’ll be interested to hear how you find it. But I wasn’t ready to pledge $179 on the Commander pledge for a single game.
Sounds like you aren’t waiting on much either on KS, which is always a good feeling.
I get that. I’m clearheaded enough to recognize that this is me pushing my hopes and good wishes onto what I hope this turns into. But hey, that’s kind of what kickstarting is all about right?
One interesting answer O-Neb gave during the AMA yesterday was to the question: What do you think about Unsettled and Vanguard getting compared?
Their answer was that the games have absolutely nothing in common besides being narrative games in space. But they are backing Vanguard. And they reckon it just goes to show the world needs more cool narrative games set in space. They strike a chord and there is definitely an appetite for them that doesn’t quite get fulfilled at the moment.
I agree. I’ve been tempted to get First Martians to fill some of that gap. But I’m afraid it’s still a bit of a mess and it’s more a puzzle than a narrative game, it seems.
This is definitely the case for me. I backed the two games for the same underlying reason - I definitely want more narrative games set in space and, even more specifically, games set in space that aren’t focused on conquest or combat. Not that I dislike those things, I love Twilight Imperium as much as anyone, but that seems to be the go-to theme for space games - you see an alien, you shoot the alien. I have the same problem with video games really, and I feel like folks who want to put the mystery back in, the sense of awe and the feel of exploration really deserve my money and backing. So, what the heck. I’ll give them their shot.