Kickstarter Weekly—Nov. 22, 2013

Wow, it's been a crazy week for us here at TOG, and things have gotten away from us! So, without further ado we're going to jump into this week's Kickstarter Weekly!

Most likely these games won't be making it under your Christmas tree this year, (seeing as how a lot of these campaigns don't even end until after Christmas), but it ever hurts to plan ahead for... ya know... Valentines Day, Arbor Day, Memorial Day.... Or, well, you get what we're saying...

So let's jump in!

Featured Campaign

Hold Your Breath - Mayday Games

In this, the third and final installment in the Get Bit trilogy, players are once again playing as some less than intelligent pirates who have just gone overboard in "Walk the Plank!". This campaign is going gangbusters and there are a few stretch goals unlocked with more on the way! 

You can get in on this one for $18 to get a copy shipped to your door. The campaign ends Dec. 21 and you can check it out here!

Emu Ranchers - App Sauce Labs

A fun looking single-deck card game for the family. Players compete as emu ranchers trying to build the best farm for emus possible. It's a 2-player game, with lots of cool stretch goals to come, they are just now on the brink of funding and there is plenty of time to get in on this one.

Just for a pledge $15 you'll get your own copy of the game. The campaign ends Dec 27 and you can check it out here.

The Otherverse: First Wars - A Quirky Tabletop Battle Game - Shadow Vision

The game looks cool and the concept of easy, and quick playing battle simulation is very intriguing. With a backstory that sets the game in a sci-fi world that brought an army of dinosaurs from an alternate dimension.

Despite the slick video, and clever concept,  unfortunately it seems this one is going to fail.

If you'd like to get in and try to help get this game funded you can snag a copy for $40. The campaign ends Dec. 5, check it out here!

Pathfinder Dice Arena - Luke Peterschmidt (Fun to 11)

There certainly is no shortage of new dice games hitting the market. We've seen several titles hit Kickstarter with custom dice and gameplay. This latest one is set in the Pathfinder universe; players choose their favorite character and go at it in a tournament battle setting. If you're digging the influx of dice games, and are a fan of the Pathfinder universe, you should check this one out! The one downside to this is, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag.

The base game is $62 ( which includes no stretch goals) $65 early bird (all stretch goals). Ends Dec. 30, and the campaign can be found here.

Thanks for checking out this week's Kickstarter Weekly!

What games are you backing, and which games did we miss out on this week!??

Let us know in the comments below, and find us on the internets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and our Podcast on iTunes!

Kickstarter Weekly—August 1, 2013

Well it's Thursday and you know what that means... It's not yet Friday. But never fear because we're here with another installment of Kickstarter Weekly, the place where we make our recommendations and let you know what's a poppin' over on Kickstarter. Let's jump in, shall we?

King's Forge - Clever Mojo Games

Go back this project! We have both played the prototype (and will be posting our written AND video Double-Take on it soon!). This dice-builder offers up lots of great decision making moments, a bit of a take that element, and lots of ways to tweak your dice rolls. It's super easy to learn, play and teach. A pledge of $39 gets you a copy of this game and it's money well spent! Check out the full campaign here!

A Duel Betwixt Us - Game Salute

This nifty little 2-player dueling card game takes card dueling into the realm of an old-timey gentlemen's duel. Loaded with lots of humor and jest, the one looks like a lot of fun! In just about 24 hours the campaign is over 60% funded, so you can bet there's going to be all kinds of stretch goaly goodness coming for this one! A $35 pledge gets you the game shipped to your door in the US and UK! We'll be interviewing the game's co-designer Laurence Honderick next week so stay tuned for that! You can check out the campaign here, and be sure to watch the entertaining and informative video on this one!

Giant Meeples - Gamelyn Game

Gamelyn Games founder Michael Coe has found a great niche with these awesome, sturdy, and just super-cool-to-look-at meeples. They were introduced to the gaming world through Dungeon Heroes, and since then Gamelyn has been releasing different sets of meeples for gamers to use, give to kids to play with, use in story telling, or display proudly. The latest installment in this line is a set of GIANT MEEPLES! These things look great, could be used as a set of book ends, or a centerpiece in your medieval dinner party, or... well you can decide. You can pledge $12 and get one, or $40 and get 5, and there are dozens of them to choose from! Check out the campaign right here!

Click-Clack Lumberjack - Mayday Games

Also known as Toc Toc Woodman 2.0. Click-Clack Lumberjack is a dexterity game that puts a dangerous weapon in your children's hands. Ok, it's a plastic axe, but to my children I'm sure it would be a ninja ax, or a bat-ax or something to wield in a quest to eradicate evil... Anyway, there's this plastic tree and you're trying to knock the bark off of it without knocking the wood off of it. Bark scores points, wood scores negative points. An interesting pledge level of $17 gets you the game shipped in a flat rate box and the game box is collapsed to make everything fit. If you want it uncollapsed you can pay an extra $5 and get it shipped that way. Check out the full campaign here!

Dungeon Attack! - Attack Dice Games

Attack Dice, creators of the dice roller When Zombies Attack! are back at it with a dungeon themed dice-apalooza! Dungeon Attack! Looks like a game that takes a straight-forward dice roller and adds some depth and tweaks the scoring mechanism a little. I (Jeremiah) loved When Zombies Attack—it's a filler that comes out quite frequently with my group and is way better than Steve Jackson's Zombie Dice (which is basically a zombie-themed Farkle). This campaign is already funded and there are some sweet stretch goals in the future for backers! $20 gets you in on a copy of the game for this one and it looks well worth it if you're into rolling dice! Check out the full campaign here!

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More Origins Coverage with Dice Hate Me Games

We spent a considerable amount of time with the folks from Dice Hate Me at Origins this year. You've already seen our visit with Heartland Hauling designer Jason Kotarski, today we bring you, not one, not two, but THREE videos from the Dice Hate Me stable of designers, including a chat with Mr. Dice Hate Me himself, Chris Kirkman.

The buzz around the Dice Hate Me booth was real, and palpable, so much so, that  we had a few audio issues while shooting our chats. Hang in there they are only momentary and getting a look at these great titles and the folks who brought them to market is worth the interruption!

Chris Kirkman - We chatted with Chris about the convention experience this year and how it differed from last year's experience at Origins, as well as a quick look at the future of Dice Hate Me for 2013.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PvZMq4JbWY]

TC Petty III - TC shared Viva Java the Coffee Game, and an advanced look at Viva Java the Coffee Game the Dice Game! (And in the middle of it all you'll hear Jason Kotarski start to explain how to play Lucky Dice as he chases down a passer by)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWkrM3zi3kg]

Darrell Louder - We chatted a few months ago with Darrell about his game Compounded, today we get to see some prototypes of the very soon to be released title!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7tqxImyNTc]

Thanks as always for reading (and now watching!) we get all excited when folks subscribe to the blog by typing their email address in the box on the right! Also join in the party on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! And you can subscribe to our YouTube Channel too!

Wizkids Announces a New Quarriors Expansion

Alright you dice-rolling fans...Wizkids has a new expansion on the way, and it looks fun, fun, fun. According to Wizkids, "In Quarriors! Quartifacts - the fourth expansion set for the Quarriors! dice-building game - all of Quaxos' magical items have gone missing and you, mighty Quarrior that you are, must take it upon yourself (with the help of your trusted Squire) to find them!

Quest cards are available in the Wilds for you to send your Creatures to capture the all-new LARGER Quest dice that wield unimaginable power. (No, seriously, we have no idea what these things do.) Quarriors! Quartifacts includes five new Creatures and two new Spells, in addition to a new Basic card (the Squire), twelve Quest cards, and six Quest dice."

So it comes with bigger dice (!), and some pics from the Nurnberg Toy Fair show that they're including a non-winding score track, too. Now if we could just get them to include some decent individual players boards...

At any rate, we're excited to hear about this, and when we get a chance to give a whirl, we'll let you know what we think.

Thanks for reading, and as always you can find and even "Like" us on Facebook. And over on Twitter too!

Quarriors—A Quawesome Queview...Errr Review

By Firestone Maybe the most influential game of the last few years is Dominion. It’s made a TON of money and spawned a ton of similar games. WizKids' Quarriors is one of the more unique “copycats” to emerge from the pack.

It’s called a dicebuilding game, rather than a deckbuilding game. Rather than buying various cards, as you do in Dominion, you’re buying dice. And let me tell you, these dice are cool. They’re all sorts of colors, and each type is unique and engraved with a different design.

Quiddity is the currency in the game. Just like in Dominion, you start the game with a few “coins”—in this case, a few dice that either give you 1 point of Quiddity (on 5 of the 6 sides of the die) or 2. You also start with a few weak monsters.

I won’t go into all of the details for a turn—they’re kind of involved, and MUCH easier to explain when someone’s sitting in front of you where you can explain by showing. Basically, if you have any creatures left alive at the beginning of your turn, you score VPs—then they go away. Then you draw six dice and combine them with any that were already in your Ready area, roll them, and decide what to do with them. Any Creatures you rolled will now attack each of your opponents. (That’s one of my favorite things about this game. There’s no trying to decide whom you should attack. You just attack each opponent, regardless of how many there are.) Your opponents’ creatures may be killed because of the attack, but any that survive and are still alive at the beginning of that player’s turn will score VPs. Now you buy dice. There are two “classes” in the game—Spells and Creatures—and you can use any Quiddity you rolled to buy one of those die.

The game ends when someone scores a certain number of VPs—which varies depending on the number of players.

There are a few things for Christians to consider before playing the game. Spells are the first thing. It doesn’t feel as though you’re “casting a spell.” You’re just rolling a die that gives you a certain boon if it lands on a certain side of the die.

Another thing to consider is that the second expansion is called Rise of the Demons.  One of the Creatures you can purchase is a Demonic Overlord. I know it’s “just a game” but I’m not comfortable with my kids using a Demonic Overlord to help them out in the game, so I won’t be purchasing that particular expansion. They’ve since come out with another expansion called Quarmageddon, and there’s nothing questionable in that expansion.

Let’s be honest: When you’re dealing with dice, the luck factor goes way up. But the bottom line is that it’s just a ton of fun to roll these terrific dice. I’ll play Dominion with my gamer friends, but I play Quarriors with my family. It’s lighter and luckier, but it’s also more fun.

Walls of Light - Review

- By Jeremiah A few weeks back I was sent a review copy of the indie game Walls Of Light, designed by Jesse Catron (designer of the Kickstarter project Salmon Run!), and during last week's game night I had the chance to pull it out and give it a go. So here's what I thought about the game!

There are some elements of the game that I really liked, and others I could see definite room for improvement on...

The Game Concept and Theme - The back story for the game is quite endearing: Players take on the role of master craftsmen who have been commissioned to restore the stained glass windows of an ancient cathedral to their former glory following years of neglect.

The Game Components - This is where the game falls short for me. To be fair, the game is independently published and the components themselves are manufactured through TheGameCrafter.com, so many of the pieces are not custom designed for the game. The boards are custom printed, but they are designed to work with generic game pieces. So while I appreciate the creativity of the game design, some of the mechanics don't quite perform up to expectations.

The Setup - There are 6 "window" boards; each one has 2 sides with different arrangements of "panes." Most of the panes are blank but a few have a color or a special ability filled in already. There are two score keeper boards that are placed in the middle of the table, and the six windows are placed 3 on each side of the score keeper boards and assigned a number 1-6. Each player is assigned (or chooses) a color, red, blue, or yellow (note they are all primary colors). They then get a handful of their color's "winks" (yes these are translucent, generic "tiddly-winks"), which we all immediately agreed to call panes instead of winks, and the game begins.

Game Play - The player turn starts with the role of three d6, one of each player's color. The player can then place one of their panes on a blank spot on a window that corresponds to a number rolled on any one of the dice. If there are colors that are already in place on the window that matches the number rolled on the die matching that player's color, the player may choose to place on top of another color to create a secondary color. The players can choose to also play a card from their hand that will let them swap panes, or change a number that was rolled, or re-roll etc.

Scoring - When a window no longer has any blank panes, the window is scored; whichever player placed the last pane gets a bonus for doing so, which gives them extra points for each different color on the window. Then each player scores points for each of their own panes on the window (this is why players would have reason to cover up other colors). Once a window is scored it gets flipped and marked complete; it can be played on and scored multiple times, but once all six have been scored at least once the game is over.

So What Did I Think? I think it was a very light weight game with a great concept, but there were a few things I felt could have been executed better. The winks, when placed on top of another color didn't necessarily make the secondary color we were expecting (according to our remembrance of Kindergarten art class), which made it necessary to keep track or move them to see what colors should be represented in that particular spot of the window. This is also not a game for the color blind. (Oddly enough, two of my gaming friends, including my co-blogger, are.) There was also some dispute at the table over the colors printed on the boards. The blue looked purplish without another printed purple spot face up somewhere to contrast it. Again, I think the concepts were sound and original, but I think the game suffered in these areas from the "generic" nature of its manufacturing. In terms of game play, after the first turn we took off and started to create our own strategies, which got more interesting the more we started invading and covering each others colors to keep them from scoring. To me that's where the fun in games like this comes in: Figuring out what your opponents are doing, and then reaching for your monkey wrench—there are plenty of opportunities for that. The biggest complaint I had in the game was that you could continue to flip and score windows continuously, which caused great ambiguity with the end game. Eventually I found we were doing the math to try and figure out when to put the second-to-last pane down to let the next person complete the window, ending the game. It did allow for players who might have been way behind for most of the game to creatively place their panes to make a last minute run and have a shot at winning (which I did successfully) but I felt like we really could have kept the game going indefinitely.

Overall - If you can get past some of the tactile elements and maybe add a house rule concerning the end game, it's a fun little dice roller. We're excited to see what else Jesse has in store for us with the coming release of Salmon Run! Stay tuned for our interview with Jesse coming soon!

Thanks as always for reading!

Wizkids is Making a Lord of the Rings-Themed Dicebuilding Game!

Have you played Quarriors? Well you should. Come to think of it, we should probably write a proper review of it. It's a "dicebuilding game"—where you're using dice to build an engine to score VPS. It's like Dominion, with dice instead of cards...kinda.

Anyway...Wizkids just announced that they're making a new dicebuilding game that uses some of the same mechanisms—and cool new dice! There aren't many details, but it sounds like there are cooperative aspects to it--but that someone can be corrupted by the ring. Or something. Anyway, you can read the press release here, and keep an eye out for this game in early 2013. And we'll try to get a review of Quarriors in the mean-time.

When We Last Left Our Heroes...

It's hard to believe we've been at this for over 2 months now! We are so grateful for your support and interest in what we do here! As always, we would love to hear your feedback on what takes place here at Theology of Games! Here's what we were up to this week!

We took a look at the Kickstarter campaign from Nevermore Games for their newest title "Mars Needs Mechanics".

In other Kickstarter news, The Great Heartland Hauling Co. closed out its funding drive for its upcoming release with Dice Hate Me Games this week, with a successful campaign!

Jeremiah reviewed the Matt Worden Games dice-rolling, car-racing party game, "Dicey Curves".

Fantasy Flight Games gave a whole lot of details about their new Star Wars Living Card Game.

And Firestone reviewed the newest title from Small Box Games: Tooth & Nail: Factions!

Again, thanks for reading, and keep the feedback coming!