(or here’s a list of what launched yesterday that might deserve a closer look)

Project: Crypto Collector

Designer: Takanari Yamaguchi

Artist: Hara Celeb

Publisher: Smart Ape Games

Genre/Mechanisms: auction / bidding, card game, set collection

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “Players participate in auctions as collectors of digital art, aiming to own more valuable art than anyone else. The game is played over 7 rounds, with 2 phases in each round. An auction is held to acquire the Owner Cards needed to purchase Art Cards. At the beginning of the game, six Art Cards are lined up in a row and a number of Owner Cards corresponding to the number of players is arranged in a horizontal row, face down. Players then bid on an Owner Card, buy one Art Card, and can sell an Owner Card won previously for revenue. In the Revenue phase (only in certain rounds), each player earns the total amount of revenue indicated on the icons of all Owner Cards held by the player.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $62

All-In (w/shipping): $93

Campaign Ends: 2/18

Game Ships: June 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 38% with 24 days to go.

Project: Perdition’s Mouth back to the USA

Designers: David Hladky, Thomas Klausner (Black Hat, White Hat), Timo Multamäki (Black Hat, Factory 42, The Phantom League), Kevin Wilson (Arkham Horror: Third Edition, Cosmic Encounter, Descent: Journeys in the Dark: Second Edition, Fury of Dracula: Third/Fourth Edition, Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game)

Artists: Matthias Catrein (Dominion, Dominion Second Edition, Dominion: Intrigue, Incan Gold, Imperial), Jere Kasanen (Eclipse: Second Dawn of the Galaxy, Flamme Rouge, Nations, Nations: The Dice Game), Jamie Noble-Frier (Forged in Steel, Hands in the Sea, Smiths of Winterforge), Juha Salmijärvi (Black Hat, Iron Sky: The Board Game, White Hat), Tanja Ylitalo

Publisher: Dragon Dawn Productions (Factory 42, Maeshowe: an Orkney Saga, The Phantom League)

Genre/Mechanisms: action points, campaign / battle card driven, card play conflict resolution, cooperative game, dungeon crawler, fantasy, hand management, horror, miniatures, puzzle, rondel, solo / solitaire game, variable phase order, variable player powers

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: heavy

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “A dungeon crawl that embraces the European school of game design with clever and elegant mechanisms and emphasizes strategy while minimizing luck. Cooperation, planning, and the enemy response deck eliminate the need for chucking dice, creating a tense combat environment with meaningful decisions. The rondels provide another tactical layer, including the enemy’s devious and challenging AI. A typical game round lasting less than ten minutes, even with up to six players, but deep, strategic cooperation will be required for your band of heroes to make it through to the Abyssal Rift and maybe even come out alive. Perdition’s Mouth is designed to be played as a story-supported campaign over several gaming sessions. In the campaign, you have to fight through at least six increasingly challenging scenarios and the level of success during each adventure has a direct effect on the rest of the story.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $159

All-In (w/shipping): $159, same as above

Campaign Ends: 2/3

Game Ships: June 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 175% with 9 days to go.

Project: Trolls & Princesses

Designer: Pim Thunborg (HUNGER: The Show)

Artist: Edu Valls (Bitoku, Block and Key, Tiny Turbo Cars)

Publisher: Game Brewer (Chimera Station, Gentes, Gùgōng)

Genre/Mechanisms: action points, fantasy, humor, set collection, tile placement, trolls, worker placement

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “Trolls & Princesses is a ‘worker movement’ game. You play as one of four troll clans and to get the mountains king’s favour, you try to impress him. The players get favour (in the form of victory points) when they do what trolls usually do: swap changelings, ‘hire’ humans, tear down church bells, kidnap princesses, build their cave, and use troll magic. To succeed, the players must collect resources and move around their trolls to do different actions. The player with the most victory points at the end can crown himself the ultimate troll clan leader.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $80

All-In (w/shipping): $102

Campaign Ends: 2/17

Game Ships: Oct. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 115% with 23 days to go.

Project: Wiz-War, Tom Jolly’s Classic Boardgame Returns!

Designer: Tom Jolly (Battle for Rokugan, The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire, Warhammer: Diskwars)

Artist: Phil Foglio (Magic: The Gathering, Pairs, RoboRally)

Publisher: Steve Jackson Games (Love Letter, Port Royal, Revolution!)

Genre/Mechanisms: deck construction, dice, dice rolling, dragons, fantasy, fighting, grid movement, hand management, interrupts, line of sight, map deformationmodular board, monsters, pick-up and deliver, player elimination, standees, take that, variable set-up

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “In Wiz-War, wizards wage no-spells-barred magical duels deep in an underground labyrinth. This classic board game of magical mayhem for 2-4 players, created by Tom Jolly in 1983, pits players’ wizards against each other in a stupendous struggle for magical mastery. Win by stealing other wizards’ treasures and hauling them back to your base, or just score points by blasting the other wizards. The last wizard standing always wins. Staying true to the spirit of the game that has entertained players for years, as well inspiring an entire genre of games, Wiz-War caters to the imagination and the funny bone. Casting an enriched array of spells, your wizards race through an underground maze, avoiding fireballs, werewolves, and psychic storms. Subtle game enhancements by Kevin Wilson and Tom Jolly promote faster play and clarify card effects.”

The ninth edition, now published by Steve Jackson Games, is a pared-back version compared to previous editions, featuring standees instead of miniatures and regular dice instead of polyhedral dice.

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $32

All-In (w/shipping): $134

Campaign Ends: 2/16

Game Ships: Dec. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 4.174% with 8 days to go.