Around The Republic
Last week took us to the wilds of the indie gaming convention BFIG, and we got to see a lot of cool games. Many of the 50 or so games present there will undoubtedly see print, and a few are already running Kickstarters. We’ll be eager to see several of the other titles grow and develop over the months to come, ultimately leading to seeing publication when they’re ready.
As for already published games, we reviewed our September Indie Spotlight game, Battle Merchants. Be sure to check it out. If that alone isn’t enough to entice your interest, be sure to read our Q&A with designer Gil Hova.
Oh, and there’s this little thing about us giving a copy away. NBD.
Anyhow, Kickstarters!
Crowdfunding Corner Top Three
Title: Moriarty’s Machinations
Publisher: Duadikos
Designer: Duadikos
Buy-In: $19
Why It’s Special: Speaking of BFIG games, let’s talk Moriarty’s Machinations. This simple social game is set within the Sherlock Holmes universe (naturally), and each player gets a role to fill. In it, players are trying to figure out who amongst them are the cops and who are the criminals. The goal? Succeed at either doing enough capering to succeed, or unmask the culprits and their dastardly plots.
In a nutshell, Moriarty’s Machinations takes the role card specialization idea of Werewolf and marries it with the mission selection and voting of The Resistance. The combination is a mix that adds its own variation to the ever-growing pile of social deduction games, but one we enjoyed all the same.
Title: Prohibition 1919: The Noble Experiment
Publisher: Black Monk Games
Designer: Michał Jagodziński and Jarek Wajs
Buy-In: $35
Why It’s Special: First off, I think we can count on one hand how many people we know who would refer to Prohibition here in the States as the Noble Experiment, and it’s pretty much Ryan and his fellow history geeks. Still, don’t let that deter you in this inaugural card-based worker placement game from a pair of Polish designers. Prohibition 1919 focuses on players butting heads and trying to make it rich as illegal booze runners.
It seems like an interesting theme, especially one with a worker placement mechanic, and it caught out attention. It uses cards as action spaces instead of a central board, hence its price tag and modest funding goal.
Title: Vye: The Card Game
Publisher: Sand Hat Games
Designer: Joe Morrissey, Doug Woolsey, and Vince D’amelio
Buy-In: $20
Why It’s Special: One thing that most area control games have in common is that they’re usually in the form of some kind of contested battlefield or resource-laden territory. The beautiful game of Vye takes a slightly different route. In it, you’re trying to build up the biggest kingdom you can before time runs out, but there is only so much room to go around. It’ll take some of that good old fashioned arm twisting to get the kind of results you want.
And by arm twisting we mean you’ll probably twist it off.
Still, it’s impressive to behold; the game isn’t much bigger than a deck of normal playing cards and a bunch of tokens, and yet it’s managed to cram a game that’s seemingly tense, has the guise of some nice replay value, and is capable of being played even in casual or family gaming settings.
Honorable Mentions: Karthun, Ruse: Second Edition, Yashima
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