I just discovered this project that might be interesting: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skyshinegames/bedlam
Became aware of this game currently on KS today, and thought people here might be interested. Rogue Wizards is a dungeon crawler where you build up a town between dungeon excursions. Not sure how Rogue-y it will actually be, but there is crafting and spells and turn-based movement. The art looks highly polished, to boot. Edit to add: So, six schools of magic, procedurally generated loot and dungeons, and the town is really more of a wizard tower you build up as you gain power from clearing away enemies. Did I mention the art-style? Edit the second: It made it!
Just a brief update on an old project that I backed a while ago, and is still going -- there's actually some visible progress on "The Phoenix Project: City of Titans": It looks like they still have a very long way to go. I'm not a superstitious person, but my fingers are crossed...
I want to mention a new kickstarter campaign for the reissue of a classic (non-collectable) card game: "Nuclear War": https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/nuclear-war-card-game-50th-anniversary-edition For anyone who is not familiar with the game, it is a tongue-in-cheek simulation of global nuclear war, where each player represents a different country. You start by playing 3 cards face down in a specific order -- you cannot change the order. In turn, each player plays their first card face up, then you add a new card to the queue. Cards include Propaganda, delivery systems (eg. Saturn rocket), warheads, secrets, top secrets, and special cards. The goal is to be the only remaining nation with survivors. The alternate goal is to destroy the earth (the rules say that you win if you survive, but I've played with a lot of people who claim that the ultimate goal is actually to have no survivors, and if you initiate the exchange of weapons that results in global destruction, then you are the winner. even though, by definition, you're country has been destroyed). Anyway, It's a true beer and pretzels game. it's a lot of laughs, there's minimal strategy, it plays very quickly, and you can learn the game in about 2 to 3 minutes, give or take minute. It's one of those games that you'd play if you've spent the rest of the evening playing a more intense game, but you aren't quite ready to go home or go to bed, but are too tired/drunk/punchy to actually play a game that requires any kind of thought. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_War_(card_game)
I haven't really had a chance to go around Kickstarter lately, but this project caught my eye because I actually saw it being tested and demo'd at a local gaming store. The creators were really cool, answered a ton of questions and fixed two issues with the game right on the spot because of the playtesting, and that was several months ago. Also, the game was a lot of fun. www.kickstarter.com/projects/1473087168/revenge-of-the-pantheons?
BTW, a game that I supported way back when on Kickstarter, "Armello", has finally been released on Steam. It's actually a pretty fun game -- it plays like a board game, but has animations, and some rpg elements and unlockables. There are a few parts of the game that have countdown timers attached, but the timers are long enough that unless you're not actually paying attention, they shouldn't be burdensome. So far, I've played the tutorial, and two full games (I lost both, but still enjoyed the game -- I probably should have won the first game, but didn't exactly know what I was doing). The premise of the game is that the king is sick with rot, and he will lose one point of health at every dawn, until he dies. There are several ways of winning the game -- Combat Victory: Kill the king in Combat, and survive the battle (it's possible to kill the king, but also get killed Prestige Victory: Be the prestige leader when the king dies -- you collect prestige by winning combats, completing quests, and collecting bounties, and from wielding a specific artifact that grants prestige. And you lose prestige when you die (if you attack the king, you lose ALL prestige, whether you survive or not). In case of ties, the 'incumbent' (or the first player who achieved that amount of prestige) wins (I lost my last game even though I was tied for prestige, because of this). Rot Victory: Challenge the king, and have more rot than him. Spirit Stone Victory: Enter the King's throne room while carrying 4 spirit stones, thereby cleansing the king of rot (which, effectively, also kills him). The game has quests, as well as a wide variety of spells, curses, and treasures to find and use, and followers to recruit, npcs, and dungeons to explore. Every dawn, whoever is the current prestige leader, gets called to the king's side, to select which of the king's edicts will be in effect, so prestige can be a pretty important stat. Also, the King has guards, and attacking a guard will cause a bounty to be placed on your head -- any player killing you while you have a bounty, will be rewarded with gold and prestige. Anyway, the game is fun, and has a lot of player interraction, lots of ways of screwing your neighbor, and so on.
