Kickstarter Weekly - May 18, 2013

It's another week in the books here at TOG, but before we're done we thought we would bring you another round of Kickstarter news so you can plan the final destination of a portion of your gaming budget over the weekend. Prepare to Die! - Game Salute

Yep, we've been all worked up over here about the upcoming series of games based on The Princess Bride and Game Salute has kicked things off with a campaign to get Prepare to Die, a party game based on the famous line of Inigo Montoya, to market! Jeremiah recommends this one! You can check out his preview of this one here.

Admiral - Bombat Games

I (Jeremiah) have a soft spot for pirate ship type games, this one looks like it has potential, but is very pricey to get in on. $60 for a "half set of Admiral" and $95 for the basic game. But like I said it has potential for those of us who like to sail pretend ships and blast cannons at our friends!

Pixel Dungeon - Octopus Apocalypse

This is a set of fun paper miniatures for table top gaming/RPGing. Super cheap to get in on with lots of packs full of creatures, heroes, and locations!

Funded!

Upon A Fable—Kickin' It Games

This one ends on Monday, and it's over the line! It's a Euro for 1 to 6 players that features worker placement and card drafting. One reviewer described it as " Agricola meets 7 Wonders." That has us intrigued...

Paradise Fallen - Crash Games

Coming in just under the wire to get funded last week was the core game to what is promised to be a larger gaming universe in Paradise Fallen. Congrats to Crash Games, and we're looking forward to seeing this on the shelves soon!

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Prepare to Die! A Sneak Preview of the Princess Bride

- by Jeremiah A few months ago we interviewed Dan Yarrington the man behind Game Salute, as well as the upcoming Princess Bride board game. While the details of the game are still coming together, Game Salute did send out a preview pack of cards for one of the many games that will fall under the umbrella of the Princess Bride experience: Prepare to Die.

The quickest way to describe the game is to say that it is an edgier, more geeked-up version of Apples to Apples. And when I say "geeked-up" I mean that some of the cards have some definite geeky influences. For example: Samus Aran, Wil Wheaton, and Princess Zelda. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Gameplay

Prepare to Die is more versatile than...that other game I mentioned earlier, as it can be played three different ways:

• Prepare to Die! You...
• Prepare to Die! Hello!
• Prepare to Die! The Full Montoya

There are two decks of cards, one set has backing art to resemble a name tag and on the face of the card it simply says, "Hello! My name is.. (insert name here)" The other set is the Prepare To Die deck, and those read "You, sank my battleship, Prepare to die!" (or "lip synced my hit single," or "put my princess in another castle"). In the first two variations of the game, players take turns being the judge for a round, and flip over a card (either a "Hello, my name is..." or a "Prepare to Die!" card, depending on the variation you are playing) and the rest of the players anonymously hand in a card, and the judge selects the best phrase.

In the Full Montoya version, players keep a hand of both types of cards, and the judge declares that the phrase should be the the funniest, most evil, most genre crossing, etc. Players then submit two cards and the judge picks two. These are mixed again so more than one player can score each round.

The final game will support up to 12 players, so it will surely be something to pull out for a larger gathering.

Pre-Final Thoughts

I was super excited to check out this preview of the game, but when I read the rules and quickly discovered it was similar to Apples to Apples, I have to say my expectations dropped quite a bit. I have played waaaayyy too much A-to-A in my life to get excited about this type of game.

But when I started leafing through the cards my interest was stirred again. They seem to be going down the road that most games of Apples to Apples could only dream of: getting a little more into the sub-culture that most folks I game with would appreciate. That being said, the audience of the game may be pretty narrow, thanks to the geek path they're taking. For example, I pulled out the game at my parents' house; they are big A-to-A players (I know...) and I thought they would appreciate the spin on the game. But there were many geeky names and actions that they just flat-out didn't know. This prototype version was void of any descriptors as well, so you may very well be staring at a card with a name and be completely at a loss. Hopefully Game Salute will remedy that to make the game more accessible.

Otherwise they are really on to something here. Thematically it is PERFECT; the idea of this one aspect of the movie being drawn out into a bunch of ridiculous circumstances can be quite hilarious, and lead to some witty banter between players. This is a game that could topple the Apples-to-Apples cart, and I'm all in favor of that!

Thanks for reading, and we would be so grateful if you would join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and if you would subscribe to the blog over on the right! ---->

**UPDATE**

Game Salute has launched the Kickstarter campaign for this game, you can go check it out right here!!

What You Missed...

Another week come and gone. Thanks for joining us for it... We started off with a preview of the new Presidential Meeples for Pixel Lincoln.

Then we got news of a Princess Bride game coming from the folks at Game Salute.

We gave a last-minute plea for the elephant racing game Formula E—and it successfully funded, by the hair on its trunky-trunk-trunk...

Then we reviewed one of our favorite games: The Lord of the Rings The Card Game. We also used the word funnest.

Then we interviewed Darrell Louder about his new game Compounded—and that was also our Kickstarter Weekly feature...

And finally, we told you about the next couple of months in Rio Grande Games' schedule. Lets hope it holds!

Monday we reveal our favorite games of 2012, so make sure you come back! Here's a clue for one of the games. ------->

Thanks so much for reading, and don’t forget to like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter!

Inconceivable! A Princess Bride Board Game!

Yes, you read that right. The folks over at Game Salute are putting together a board game based on the cult classic The Princess Bride. The game will be a part of Game Salutes Storybuilding line, and will tie into many short/mini games that represent different scenes from the modern fractured fairy tale. Not only that...while they are working with some of their top notch game designers, Game Salute is also accepting your submissions for the project! If you have a game design that you think would represent a scene of the movie you can send it in for their consideration.

Looks like it's time to dust off my old "Rhyming Game" design... Which consists of players trying to end their next statement with a word that rhymes with the last word of the previous player's statement... It's still a work in progress...

You can read the whole announcement from Game Salute, right here.

Thanks for reading this announcement, and don't forget to like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter!