Designers: Dr. Hans Joachim Höh (Götterdämmerung), Maikel Cheney, Tobias Immich

Artists: Hendrick Noack (Glen More II: Chronicles, Glen More II: Highland Games), James Churchill (Hogs of War: The Miniatures Game)

Publisher:  Funtails (Glen More II: Chronicles, Glen More II: Highland Games)

Genre/Mechanisms: acting, bluffing, card game, deduction, grid movement, hidden roles, miniatures, pirates, role-playing, team-based game, voting

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Feed the Kraken is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 5x the initial funding goal with less than 2 days to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 5-11

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About: “A hidden role deduction game, with three asymmetric factions. All players may be sitting in the same boat, but they want to navigate in different directions. The loyal sailors must bring the ship safely to mainland, whereas the pirates crave to secretly maneuver the ship into the Bermuda Triangle. Meanwhile a crazy cultist is busy convincing parts of the crew to help him summon their dark lord —the Kraken— from the depth of the sea to save them all.”

How It Works: Players are divided into 3 groups– Sailors, Pirates, and the Cult Leader. Sailors want to guide the ship into Bluewater Bay on one side of the board, whereas Pirates aim for Crimson Cove on the other side. Each location has 3 qualifying hex spaces. The Kraken, in between the two, only has one space where the Cult Leader can win the game. However, there are also 2 Kraken tokens on the main board. When the ship encounters a Kraken token, the Captain must choose one crew member to sacrifice to the sea and the Kraken itself… and if he happens to choose the Cult Leader as the sacrifice, the Cult Leader immediately wins the game.

As with many social deduction games, after assigning roles randomly and secretly, all players close their eyes, and then there is a short amount of time where the Pirates open their eyes and identify each other. The Cult Leader, then, is essentially a rogue member of the Sailors, since his identity remains unknown to the Pirates. Neither the Sailors nor the Cult Leader are allowed the opportunity to identify other members of the crew.

Players then play a series of rounds. At the beginning of each round, the Captain assigns the Lieutenant and Navigator badges. Next the entire crew votes on the trustworthiness of the Captain, placing plastic gun tokens into their hands if they are in favor of a mutiny. Once revealed, if the mutiny vote receives at least 4 guns, the Captain role is reassigned to the player who voted with the most guns. Then the Lieutenant and Navigator badges are reassigned by the new Captain, and another mutiny vote is held. This continues until the vote passes without a mutiny.

In the final phase of each round, the Captain draws 2 Navigator cards, and selects one, discarding the other. The Lieutenant does the same. Finally, the Navigator looks at the 2 cards selected by the Captain and Lieutenant, selects one of the two, and discards the other. The chosen card determines which of 3 directions the boat travels. There are several other tokens the ship may encounter on hexes in the sea, including the Magnifying Glass token that results in a Cabin Search. This allows the current Captain to look at the secret identity token of any one of the crew.

When the boat enters one of the 3 hexes assigned to Crimson Cove, one of the 3 hexes assigned to Bluewater Bay, or the hex assigned to the Kraken (or the Captain sacrifices the Cult Leader to the Kraken at one of the Kraken token locations), the game ends and one of the team’s three factions is declared victorious.

Comparisons: Several other deduction games with voting include Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, Dead of Winter, Dead of Winter: The Long Night, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, One Night Ultimate Werewolf Daybreak, The Resistance, Secret Hitler, Spyfall, Two Rooms and a Boom, Ultimate Werewolf Ultimate Edition, The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow, and Werewords.

What Should I Pledge?:
$56 Feed the Kraken – Basic (Navigator): Feed the Kraken with all unlocked social goals.
$94 Feed the Kraken – Deluxe (Captain): everything in the Feed the Kraken – Basic (Navigator) pledge level, plus (3) Kraken miniatures, the three-dimensional Lieutenant Badge, the three-dimensional Navigator Badge, the three-dimensional Draw and Discard Pile, (11) high quality Faction Chips, (11) Faction Bags, and a deluxe inlay with lid.

Add-Ons:
$30 Kraken Plus Toy

KS Exclusives
None specifically. But the Deluxe (Captain) pledge will be produced in limited quantities and will not be found at retail beyond initial retail orders via this Kickstarter and a few leftover copies.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $94 for the Feed the Kraken – Deluxe (Captain) pledge and $18 in shipping for a total of $112.

Feed the Kraken completes its Kickstarter on Wednesday, November 18th and tentatively ships in July 2021.