(or here’s a list of what launched yesterday that might deserve a closer look)

Project: Altar Ego

Designer: Jesse Labbe (D6: Dungeons, Dudes, Dames, Danger, Dice and Dragons!; Endangered Orphans of Condoyle Cove; Who Goes There?)

Artist: Jesse Labbe (D6: Dungeons, Dudes, Dames, Danger, Dice and Dragons!; Endangered Orphans of Condoyle Cove; Who Goes There?)

Publisher: Certifiable Studios (D6: Dungeons, Dudes, Dames, Danger, Dice and Dragons!; Endangered Orphans of Condoyle Cove; Who Goes There?)

Genre/Mechanisms: action/dexterity, dice, dice rolling

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “You’re a god, and a pretty darn good one if you do decree so yourself! Which you do, of course. But gods need followers, and followers are notoriously fickle. It’s up to you to keep them happy because happiness for them means a larger altar for you. Welcome to the world of Altar Ego! During a round, one player will roll the dice. Each player, beginning with the one who rolled, must claim one of those dice and may take an action (not necessarily in that order). During your turn, you’ll vie to make your altar the greatest by building on your altar and recruiting villagers, all while trying to sabotage other players’ efforts to build and recruit. Once a player’s altar collapses or enough chapters are collected by either a player or the kingdom, the player with the greatest altar wins.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $65

All-In (w/shipping): $90

Campaign Ends: 5/13

Game Ships: Apr. 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 73% with 28 days to go.

Project: Connecting Flights: An Airline Management Board Game

Designer: Rafa Dawid

Artist: James Churchill (Feed the Kraken, Legacies, Public Market)

Publisher: Bazzite Games

Genre/Mechanisms: aviation/flight, economic, multiple-lot auction, network and route building, pick-up and deliver, transportation

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A thematic and puzzly, medium weight airline management board game. Your task is to grow your airline by purchasing airports and planes to build a worldwide flight network. The game can be played competitively or in a solo/cooperative mode. The competitive mode features engine building, hand management, auctions and fierce competition for resources. The cooperative mode is a challenging puzzle, requiring you to work together as a team to purchase assets and transport passengers to their destinations, with pick up and delivery, hand management, and engine & network building.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $69

All-In (w/shipping): $83

Campaign Ends: 5/13

Game Ships: Jan. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 173% with 28 days to go.

Project: Disparity Trap Board Game

Designer: Christian Telesmar

Artist: Shannon Loys

Publisher: Christian Telesmar

Genre/Mechanisms: dice, dice rolling, point to point movement

Player Count: 2-6

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “Disparity Trap: The Socially Conscious Board Game provides an easy way to have the hard conversations around race & privilege in America, and how they impact society in systemically dominant (SD) and systemically non-dominant (SND) ways. The board game is like many of its kind, where your main goal is to live your life the way you choose;  go to school, get a job, possibly build a family and a career. But in this game, you also step into someone else’s shoes to experience that life within an identity different from your own. Throughout the game, the dice rolls correlate your identity in the game to real life statistics.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $34

All-In (w/shipping): $59

Campaign Ends: 5/7

Game Ships: Oct. 2021

Funding Status: Currently at 47% with 22 days to go.

Project: Marvel United: X-Men

Designers: Andrea Chiarvesio (Hyperborea, Kingsburg, Kingsburg Second Edition, Marvel United, Signorie), Eric M. Lang (Arcadia Quest, Arcadia Quest: Inferno, Blood Rage, Chaos in the Old World, Cthulhu: Death May Die, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition, The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-Men, Marvel Dice Masters: Uncanny X-Men, Marvel United, The Others, Quarriors!, Rising Sun, Star Wars: The Card Game, Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, Warhammer: Invasion, XCOM: The Board Game)

Artist: Édouard Guiton (Marvel United, Massive Darkness, Zombicide, Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak, Zombicide Season 3: Rue Morgue)

Publisher: CMON Limited (Arcadia Quest, Arcadia Quest: Inferno, Blue Moon City, Cthulhu: Death May Die, Ethnos, Gizmos, The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, Massive Darkness, Modern Art, Rising Sun, Unfair, Villagers, Zombicide, Zombicide: Black Plague, Zombicide: Green Horde, Zombicide: Invader, Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak, Zombicide Season 3: Rue Morgue)

Genre/Mechanisms: card game, comic book/strip, cooperative game, fighting, hand management, modular board, solo/solitaire game, variable player powers

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: low

Summary: “In Marvel United: X-Men, you take the role of iconic Marvel Heroes cooperating to stop the master plan of a powerful Villain controlled by the game. Each Villain unveils their unique master plan, with cards that trigger different effects, and threats that pose challenges across the locations. Heroes must choose carefully the cards to play from their unique decks, that not only offer different actions and superpowers to use, but also combine with the actions of other Heroes to do the impossible. Build your story-line, unite your powers, save the day!”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $88

All-In (w/shipping): $123, does not include add-ons

Campaign Ends: 5/5

Game Ships: May 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 469% with 20 days to go.

Project: The Shadow Planet: The Board Game

Designers: Giacomo Santopietro (Death Note Investigation Card Game), Gianluca Santopietro (Kingsport Festival, Letters from Whitechapel, Whitehall Mystery)

Artists: Alan D’Amico (Blitzkreig!: World War Two in 20 Minutes, Wendake, Whitehall Mystery), Demis Savini (Garibaldi: The Escape, Kingsport Festival, Ventura)

Publisher: Galakta (Waste Knights: Second Edition)

Genre/Mechanisms: abstract strategy, deck building, hidden roles, science fiction, semi-cooperative game, turn order: role order

Player Count: 3-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “The Shadow Planet: The Board Game is a sci-fi game of alien horror, based on the beautifully illustrated, Italian graphic novel by Blasteroid Brothers. It blends the idea of hidden identities with a revolutionary approach to the deck-building genre, offering you a unique gaming experience and a chance to use a completely different strategy every time to play. Draw your secret goal and use six different characters to achieve it. Deceive your rivals and control the flow of the game through cunning management of different decks. Move around various locations on the planet to gain powerful cards or use special abilities, but remember that they will also benefit your opponents, who can acquire the very same deck you’re trying to modify. Play over the table, look for allies, and identify the alien threat before it proves too powerful… unless you’re the creature trying to leave the planet!”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $74

All-In (w/shipping): $74, same as above

Campaign Ends: 5/5

Game Ships: Dec. 2021

Funding Status: Currently at 52% with 20 days to go.