Designer: Kristian Amundsen Ostby (Automania, Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Santa Maria)

Artists: Martin Hoffman (Cartgena, Dominion: Intrigue, Jump Drive, Lancaster, New Frontiers, Race for the Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy, Russian Railroads), Oliver Schlemmer (Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Fresco, Kingdom Builder, Wallenstein Second Edition), Claus Stephan (Amerigo, Blue Moon, Cacao, Cartagena, La Citta, Diamond, Dominion, Dominion: Intrigue, Exit: The Game – Dead Man on the Orient Express, Jump Drive, Kahuna, Karuba, Lancaster, Lost Cities, New Frontiers, Race for the Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy, Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age, Russian Railroads, Through the Desert)

Publisher: Queen Games (Alhambra, Amerigo, Aton, Chicago Express, Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Fresco, Kingdom Builder, Lancaster, Merlin, Roma, Shogun, Thebes, Wallenstein First Edition, Wallenstein Second Edition)

Genre/Mechanisms: cooperative play, dice rolling, grid movement, modular board, press your luck, real-time, roll & move, tile placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Escape New Quests and Traps is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total 25x the initial funding goal!

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: Evidently some of the old traps were problematic; this campaign features redesigned trap tiles, with the ability to also pick up the base game, the Big Box, and several other Big Boxes including Kingdom Builder and Zombie City.

How It Works: Escape: The Curse of the Temple is a real-time game, meaning that players use a sand timer or other device, and have a time limit of 10 minutes in which all players must escape the temple. On their turn, players roll dice generating various resources, including movement points, keys, torches, black masks (curses), and gold masks (curse breakers). Players can then spend these resources to: Enter a Chamber, Discover a New Chamber, Activate Magic Gems, Escape, or use green gems from the Gem Depot to re-roll their Black Masks in a “Turn of Fate.” Players must then traverse the maze, gathering treasures as they do, find the exit, and use it before the 10 minutes runs out. The game also comes with a tense soundtrack players can listen to while they play that includes countdowns and warning gongs.

Comparisons:  Some other well-know real-time games include Captain Sonar, Flatline, FUSE, Galaxy Trucker, Kitchen Rush, and Sonar Alert; but the best comparisons are probably Magic Maze (also a real-time game set in a maze), or the re-implemented/re-skinned Escape: Zombie City.

What Should I Pledge?:
$15 New Quests and Traps: just the new quests (Riddle, Ascension, and Boulder Chamber) and new traps (Quicksand, Beast, and Lava Chamber)
$24 Quests and Traps and Exclusive Queenie 12-14: the New Quests and Traps pledge level, plus Slide, Map, and Whishing Well Queenies.
$55 Escape Base & 5x Queenies: a copy of the base game, plus all 5 Queens from the Quests and Traps and Exclusive Queenie 12-14 pledge level.
$90 All In Escape Box: the Escape Big Box 2nd Edition, plus all 5 Queens from the Quests and Traps and Exclusive Queenie 12-14 pledge level.
$125 All In Escape & Zombie City Big Box: the All In Escape Box pledge level, plus a copy of the Escape Zombie City Big Box.
$145 All In Escape & Kingdom Builder Big Box: the All In Escape Box pledge level, plus a copy of the Kingdom Builder Big Box 2nd Edition.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives:
The “Queenies” are mini-expansions and are only available in the Big Box edition or directly from the distributor. In addition, the Big Box edition is rarely (but not never) sold via retailers.

All-In Total: Assuming you’re only looking at Escape: The Curse of the Temple products, in the continental U.S. you’re looking at $90 for the All In Escape Box, plus an estimated $15 in shipping for a total of $105.

Escape New Quests and Traps completes its Kickstarter on Monday, July 1st and tentatively ships in October 2019.