Designer: Marcin Welnicki (End of Atlantis: Revised Edition, Slavika, Slavika: Equinox)

Artists: Bartek Fedyczak (Age of Thieves, Flotilla, Mount Everest, Vindication, Waste Knights: Second Edition), Mateusz Lenart (Citadels, Monster Slayers of Slawia, Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island), Piotr Gacek (The Edge: Downfall, Etherfields, Lords of Hellas, Nemesis, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, This War of Mine: The Board Game)

Publisher: Into the Unknown (Monster Slayers of Slawia)

Genre/Mechanisms: civilization, cooperative play, economic, fighting, miniatures

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 15x the initial funding goal with 10 days left to go on the campaign!

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: heavy

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About:  A cooperative, choice-driven campaign game featuring adventuring, exploration, and fierce battles with giant monsters in the vein of Kingdom Death: Monster.

How It Works: Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is scenario-based, with games ending after the defeat of certain boss monsters, or in some cases, solving some crisis related to the scenario. Choice chains & matrixes track progress, and while Aeon Trespass is not a legacy game, it does feature gradual mechanic introduction, the unlocking of content, and consequence that have effects on subsequent playthroughs. It does not feature component destruction.

There’s not a given round sequence as with your typical Eurogame. Players will make choices that affect their characters, much like in a choose-your-own-adventure book. But gameplay gets deep involved once combat begins. One of the central components for combat is a device called a Triskelion that tracks Rage, Fate, and Danger. These statistics are shared by the Argonaut the player controls, as well as the Titans “connected” to the Argonaut (think of the Titans almost as Final Fantasy-like summonable characters). Each time a Titan attacks one of the Primordial bosses, their Rage increases. Each time they mitigate Luck or use a special ability, their Fate increases. And each time the Titan is hit but doesn’t lose hit points or take a wound, their Danger increases. Increasing all of these statistics makes the Titans much more powerful; but advancing each of them above 9 causes dire consequences, the player has to draw cards that may cause the Titan to die, the player permanently losing control of them, doom for the party’s companions, of the destruction of their ship, the Argos.

Comparisons:  Aeon Trespass: Odyssey takes a lot of its inspiration from board games liked Kingdom Monster: Death and The 7th Continent, and video games like Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. There’s some exploration, but the meat of the game is all about deep, involved boss fights requiring variable tactics, and most likely plenty of repetition to master each fight.

What Should I Pledge?:
$69 Prelude Introductory Set: the Introductory/Prelude set includes 7 miniatures, 370+ cards, a Battle Board, map, and 3 rulebooks.
$129 Core Game: includes all of the Introductory/Prelude content, plus the Core Game of Aeon Trespass: Odyssey featuring 3 interconnected campaigns: Truth of the Labyrinth, Abysswatchers, and Pitiless of the Sun, all daily unlocked free content & all unlocked stretch goals.
$299 The 5 Cycles Bundle: includes everything in the Core Game pledge, plus 2 additional campaigns: Gardens of Babylon & Dark Flame of Atlantis.

Add-Ons:
$99 Cycle IV: Gardens of Babylon
$99 Cycle V: Flames of Atlantis
$9 Gamechanger Mini and Rules
$79 Second Set of Miniatures
$39 Map Tiles Set (upgraded tiles for the Prelude and 3 campaigns in the Core Game)
$19 Additional Dice

KS Exclusives:
None listed.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $299 for The 5 Cycles Bundle, $9 for the Gamechanger Mini and Rules, $39 for the Map Tiles Set, and an estimated $30 in shipping, for a grand total of $377 (it may actually be closer to $400 once the shipping costs for Wave 2 are factored in).

Aeon Trespass: Odyssey completes its Kickstarter on Monday, September 30th and tentatively ships in January 2021 with Cycles IV & V, Gardens of Babylon & Flames of Atlantis, tentatively scheduled to ship in Q4 2021.