Designers:  Isaac Childres (Forge War, Founder of Gloomhaven, Gloomhaven), Noah Cohen (Betrayal Legacy, Dilemma), Rob Daviau (Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Betrayal Legacy, Cthulhu: Death May Die, Downforce, Heroscape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie, Heroscape Master Set: Swarm of the Marro, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, Pandemic Legacy: Season 2, Risk Legacy, Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit), Justin D. Jacobson (Downforce, Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-kar, Stop Thief!), Brian Neff (Betrayal Legacy, Fidget Factory, Hey Brother)

Artists:  Tim Burrell-Saward (Beasts of Balance), Garret Kaida (Football Highlights 2052), Qistana Khalidah

Publisher:  Restoration Games (Downforce, Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-kar, Stop Thief!)

Genre/Mechanisms:  adventure, area movement, cooperative game, electronic, events, fighting, push your luck, random production, scenario/mission/campaign game, sudden death ending, trading, variable player powers, variable setup

Funding Status:  At the time of this posting, Return to Dark Tower is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 3.5x the initial funding goal, with 7 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count:  1-4

Solo Mode:  yes

Complexity:  medium-heavy

Risk:  HIGH

What It’s About:  “Return to Dark Tower is a cooperative game for 1 to 4 heroes who undertake epic quests, fight fearsome foes, and test their mettle against the looming darkness of the titular tower. Each player controls a unique hero with their own starting inventory and special abilities. Along the way you gain helpful items, powerful virtues, and trusty companions to help you achieve your goal: Find a way into the Tower and defeat a powerful adversary.”

How It Works:  “The players win the game by accessing the tower and defeating the adversary within. The players immediately lose when any one of the following situations occurs: any hero gains their third corruption, a skull must be dropped in the tower but there are none available, or the six month has ended.”

“The game is played in a series of rounds, known as months. The game will end in a loss at the end of six months. The start player takes the first turn of the first month, then players take turns in clockwise order from there. The number of individual turns in each month is determined randomly by the app, but the average is eight turns per month. You can gauge roughly how many turns are left in the month by the tower lights; the faster they pulse, the closer you are to the end of the month. After a certain number of turns, the app will inform you that the current month has ended. At the start of the month, a new quest from your ally and a new quest to thwart the adversary will be available. Players should read those and place markers on the board to note where the quests are. When the current month ends, the app will reveal the outcome of any current quests that the heroes failed to complete during the month. Read this outcome out loud and carry out any instructions indicated by the app. When the next month begins, play resumes with the turn of the player who is next in clockwise order from the player who took the final turn of the previous month.”

“At the Start of your turn, you may use your banner ability once. Using your banner ability is optional; you are not required to do so. However, this is your only chance to use your banner ability; you cannot use it in a later step of the turn. Your banner ability, which is unique to your hero, is listed on your hero board.rutal Warlord. If you have other abilities or effects which occur ‘at the start of your turn,’ you may carry those out before and/ or after using your banner ability; you decide the order.”

During the Middle of your turn, you may Move your Hero, Take a Heroic Action (including Cleansing, Battling, and Questing), and Reinforce a Building. Moving your Hero can be split into parts around your other actions.

At the End of your turn, you must drop a skull from the supply into the Tower.

Comparisons:  Well, if you’re old enough, the original Dark Tower, published in 1981. If not, picture a dudes-on-a-map style game, with an electronic Dungeon Master in the form of a swiveling, electronic Dark Tower in the middle of a spherical board the players must travel around before returning to their home territory and then on to defeat the mysteries of the Dark Tower. Absolutely no affiliation with the Dark Tower of Stephen King’s stories… that is, unless he secretly used the board game as a part of his inspiration.

What Should I Pledge?:
$125 Charge the Tower: the base game, PM access, and all unlocked stretch goals.
$225 Askol’s Fortune: everything in the Charge the Tower pledge, plus the Alliances Advanced Game Expansion, Dark Horde Miniatures Pack, and The Coffers token upgrade.

Add-Ons:
$65 Dark Horde Miniatures Pack: includes 59 plastic miniatures
$25 The Coffers: plastic tokens upgrading the Warriors, Spirit, and Influence tiles found in the base game
$5 Coin of the Realm: deluxe active player marker
$35 Neoprene Board: to replace the game’s standard board; also increases shipping costs
$20 Gold Foil Art Prints
$20 Custom Card Sleeves

KS Exclusives:
While it has not yet been determined if the game will make it to retail at all, it’s extremely unlikely any of the various add-ons will. But there’s also a good chance that even the base game won’t make it to retail apart from those outlets pledging for copies as a part of this Kickstarter campaign. So the short answer here is some, and perhaps all, of Return to Dark Tower will likely end up being KS-Exclusive.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $225 for the Askol’s Fortune pledge, $35 for the Neoprene Board, $20 for the Custom Card Sleeves (we’re excluding both the Coin of the Realm and Art Prints as part of the All-In Total), and $32 in shipping, for a total of $312.

Return to Dark Tower completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, February 4th and tentatively ships in February 2021.