Friday, December 15, 2017

Obligatory 2017 Kickstarter Post Part I: Top 5 Game Expansions

Okay, time for the 2017 edition of the Kickstarter series.  This post will be the first in a four part series that will take a look at different Kickstarter projects that I am currently anticipating.  These games/expansions will all be ones that haven’t yet been shipped at the writing of the post.  Some of these games are still ongoing and some have ended already.  Regardless of their status these are all games that I am incredibly interested in.  This first post will take a look at my top 5 expansion interests.  I think that’s enough housekeeping, let’s move on to the expansions!




Wizards of the Wild: Forbidden Forest is an expansion to the 2015 CrossCut Games game, Wizards of the Wild by Adam West, Dan Schnake and Abe Schnake.  Forbidden Forest is also designed by Adam, Dan and Abe and had an original shipping date of November 2017.  Wizards of the Wild is a card and dice game that puts players in the roles of anthropomorphic animals who are had talents in magic and are fighting a magic battle in order to become the new King of the Forest.  The game is combo heavy and uses some Yahtzee mechanisms in the dice rolling before activating spells and completing challenges.  The expansion will be adding more challenges and spells as well as a new cards type, the familiar.  These new cards have a flip mechanism and will have two different abilities, one of which will help to really rack up the points!  We love the original game and are really looking forward to the expansion which we backed when it was live on Kickstarter.  In a recent update the guys stated that they’ve okayed the files and are currently printing them but that they wouldn’t get out until December at the earliest.  I hope to see the expansion by January of 2018 but we’ll see.




Near and Far: Amber Mines is an expansion to the 2017 Red Raven Games game, Near and Far by Ryan Laukat.  Amber Mines is also designed by Laukat and has a proposed shipping date of April 2018.  Near and Far is a storytelling, adventure game that puts players in the role of a specific wanderer who is searching for the fabled Last Ruin.  The game finds players gathering food, hiring adventurers and hunting for treasure in order to be the most storied traveler in the world.  It comes with an encounter book and several different “modes” the players can compete in.  Amber Mines adds in a new mine tile that is placed on the board as well as new mine cards that can be explored by the players.  It also has new Mystic Hut tile and a new General Store tile, each of which will add in new cards and ways to play.  Lastly the expansion adds in a new deck of threat cards.  Em and I really enjoy this game thus making the expansion very interesting.  This is the one project in this post that we haven’t backed but plan on buying when it hits retail.  There are no current updates on the project page about where the project is in production but they have quite a bit of time to meet their proposed April 2018 shipping date.




The Networks: Executives is an expansion to the 2016 Formal Ferret Games game, The Networks by Gil Hova.  Executives is also designed by Gil and has a current proposed shipping date of July 2018.  The Networks is a card drafting game the puts players in the role of someone who is running a television network that needs new programming.  During the game, players will be drafting stars, ads and shows which they will then put into their tableau in order to get money and viewers.  The player with the most viewers at the end wins.  The expansion adds in a whole new level of asymmetry to the game!  Now the players will start with a network executive at the beginning of the game which will give their own set of advantages and disadvantages.  They also get to draft their starting shows instead of having a set that is the same across the board.  I think that this is going to give a ton of replayability to an already great game.  Besides this the expansion has new shows and also a Mogul Card which the players receive when they get a 5 show genre bonus.  Em and I love this game and everyone who has played it has really enjoyed it.  We have backed this expansion and really look forward to it coming out.  Gil keeps good notes and does a great job in updating the backers through the Kickstarter updates and everything seems to be going well so far.  I really look forward to this expansion as I think it will improve an already great game!




Roll Player: Monsters & Minions is an expansion to the 2016 Thunderworks Games game, Roll Player by Keith Matejka.  Monsters & Minions is also designed by Matejka and has a current proposed shipping date of February 2018.  Roll Player is a dice-drafting game and set-collection game where the players are “creating” a role playing game character by rolling and placing dice.  The game actually really cleverly simulates creating a Dungeons & Dragons styled character by placing dice in slots and improving your different stats.  Monsters & Minions takes the base game and adds in new ways to gain reputation stars.  Now, along with creating your character, there will also be monsters and ways to see what the final boss is like before going up against him.  This is all done within the already placed game mechanisms of dice placement and set collection.  Everyone I’ve played this game with really loves it.  Keith’s last update didn’t sound too positive for meeting the February proposed date due to some manufacturing problems but he’s still hoping to get it out by March at the latest.




Sentinels of the Multiverse: OblivAeon is a big box expansion for the 2011 Greater Than Games/Sentinel Comics game, Sentinels of the Multiverse by Christopher Badell, Paul Bender and Adam Rebottaro.  OblivAeon is also designed by Badell, Bender and Rebottaro and was originally slated for a shipping date of January 2017.  Sentinels of the Multiverse is a hand-management, co-operative game where the players each take on a deck of cards which represents a superhero and then faces off against a villain in an environment.  The card play is super clever and I love how each of the heroes feels completely different from each other when you play them!  This game is probably still in my top 10 of all time and I think this expansion would go a long way to keeping it up there.  OblivAeon is going to add a ton of new content to the game as well as some new play modes so I’m pumped.  While I am very excited about this expansion I will say that I’m terribly disappointed with the actual project.  It has been nearly a year since the original date and while they do a great job in updating backers I think they were way to optimistic (especially when I don’t think they’ve every delivered a project on time) with the delivery date.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Greater Than Games, I just wish they’d learn from their own mistakes when it comes to placing proposed dates.  That being said, this is my number one!

Well, there you have it!  This was the 2017 edition of my top 5 Kickstarter game expansions.  There are other expansions (and you may hear about another one later on these posts…spoiler alert!) out there on Kickstarter that are also interesting but these are my top anticipated releases.  I have an ongoing GeekList on BoardGameGeek which you can find at this link.  Keep an eye out as I’ll start my top 10 anticipated full-game releases on Kickstarter.  Thanks so much for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoyed!  Until next time, game on!

No comments:

Post a Comment