Designer:  Shem Phillips (Architects of the West Kingdom, Explorers of the North Sea, Paladins of the West Kingdom, Raiders of the North Sea)

Artist: Paul M. Tobin (GKR Heavy Hitters)

Publisher:  Arkus Games

Genre/Mechanisms: deck, bag, and pool building; hand management; variable phase order

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Shelfie Stacker is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total almost 2.5x the initial funding goal with 3 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode:  yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About: A dice-drafting and dice-placement game where “players compete to accumulate the most illustrious board game collection, by carefully filling their shelf with their most recent purchases.”

How It Works:  Shelfie Stacker is played over 7 rounds, with each round consisting of the following 5 phases: Fill the Boxes, Select Your Character, Collect Your Dice, Place Your Dice, and Clean Up.

During the Fill the Boxes phase, a player draws and places 3 Dice onto each of the Delivery Boxes. Then all players Select a Character from their hand for the round, which also determines player order that round as well as a character ability that may be used during the round… and reveal them simultaneously.

In the turn order defined by each player’s Character card, players take turns selecting all 3 Dice from any one Delivery Stack (there is always one more Delivery Stack than the number of players). Players then Place Their Dice, obeying a few rules on their individual “Big Shelf” player boards: columns must be of the same color dice, dice must be placed at the bottom-available space in a column, and the value of a die must always be greater than that of the die below it in a column. If a player can not legally place a die, then it must go onto their Shelf of Shame.

During Clean Up, all players return their Delivery Box to the center of the table, and the 3 leftover dice from the unclaimed Delivery Box are returned to the draw bag.

Every game includes 3 unique Reward Cards: the Shelfie Sidekick awards points to the first player who places a certain number of a certain color of dice on their Big Shelf; the First to Claim card awards points to the first player to place dice in the pattern shown on the card; and the End of Game Bonus lists a condition that rewards players for a certain type of placement during end-game scoring.

During end-game scoring, in addition to the End of Game Bonus, players will also score 6 points for each column with 5 dice, 3 points for each column with 4 dice, 1 point for each column with 3 dice, 1 point for each pip on the die at the top of each column, and negative 2 points for each die on their Shelf of Shame. The player with the most points wins, with ties broken by the player with the lowest-valued character card still in their hand.

Comparisons: A few other games that also include dice/tile selection and placement, and points based on patterns, include the Azul series, The Isle of Cats, Kingdomino, Sagrada, and the upcoming Gorinto.

What Should I Pledge?:
$40 Shelfie Stacker: a copy of Shelfie Stacker with all applicable stretch goals.

Add-Ons:
$10 Deluxe Delivery Expansion

KS Exclusives
The Deluxe Delivery Expansion is a Kickstarter Exclusive that will not be available at retail.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $40 for the Shelfie Stacker pledge, $10 for the Deluxe Delivery Expansion, and $12 in shipping for a total of $62.

Shelfie Stacker completes its Kickstarter on Friday, July 10th and tentatively ships in March 2021.