Designer: Frederic Gerard (Clash of Rage, Ilos, Titanium Wars)

Artist: Anthony Wolff (King of Tokyo, Montana, Zombie 15′)

Publisher: La Boite de Jeu (10′ to Kill, Montana, Outlive)

Genre/Mechanisms: card drafting, resource management

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, It’s a Wonderful World is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 9x the initial funding goal.

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: A card drafting and engine-building game with 2 additional and separate “Heritage” campaigns that are fully re-playable, but also unlock additional components into the base game after being played for the first time.

How It Works:  Games are 4 rounds each, with each round including a Drafting Phase, Planning Phase, and Production Phase. Drafting consists of picking 1 card from an initial group of 7 and then passing to the left or right, depending on draft direction. After the Draft Phase, each player will have 7 cards in front of them. During the Planning Phase, players decide which cards to slate for production, and which cards to convert into resources. Be watching the other players so that your choices can be informed by theirs! During the Production Phase, players generate Materials, Energy, Science, Gold, and Exploration resources. The player who generates the most of each type of resource during each round also receives a Supremacy Bonus and corresponding Character. Each time a player has 5 of any resource in their Transformation Area, it converts into uber-resource Krystallium. Unlike other resources, these can be held onto at the end of a round until the player is ready to use it. At the end of the game, players earn victory points from cards in their tableau, combo bonuses for chained cards, and points for Generals and Financiers. The Heritage campaigns add in variable conditions, bonuses, cards, and objectives, and can be used in group or solo play. The expansions also add additional components into the base game after their first play; and they’re not legacy-themed, so nothing is destroyed and they’re fully repeatable, kind of like Scythe: The Rise of Fenris.

Comparisons: A few other games that rely heavily on resource production and management with card play are Century: Spice Road/Golem, Terraforming Mars, and Wingspan.

What Should I Pledge?:
$39 Base Pledge: core box plus applicable stretch goals.
$65 Heritage Pledge: the Base Pledge with a thicker “Heritage” box that also includes the 2 Heritage campaigns, “War or Peace” and “Leisure & Decline.”

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives:
A dozen “Easter Egg cards” that pay tribute to other famous board games; deluxified resources (semi-transparent acrylic cubes instead of solid-colored plastic cubes) with containers. The larger Heritage box is also an exclusive, as is the entire Leisure & Decline campaign. This leads me to believe that the War or Peace Heritage campaign will either be included in retail copies or sold separately at retail, but that Leisure & Decline will not be available at retail, period.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $65 for the Heritage Pledge and $7 in shipping for a total of $72.

It’s a Wonderful World completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, May 30th and tentatively ships in February 2020.