Crowdfunding Tabletop Roundup
As always, there’s a lot of cool tabletop projects out there right now — way too many to back all of them, but a guy can dream. Here’s the latest batch of games that caught my eye, with a couple that I’ve gotten to try out a little.
If you’re new to crowdfunding, check out our crowdfunding primer.
Gold Heist from Eldon Harris
This press-your-luck dice game is pretty cute: little tiny gold bars and stacks of cash, stored in a cloth moneybag. Every turn, you can withdraw to bank the current stash value into your vault where it’s safe, or stay in the game if you think the stash will keep growing. But be careful! If the stash blows up, you get nothing for that round. Personal stashes and the chance to rob other players — or even the center stash — spice it up a little.
I got a prototype of this to try out and (after getting a correction on a rule I missed) we’ve had a fun time playing it. It can accommodate a bunch of players at once and is great for a quick family game.
Return to Dark Tower: Expeditions from Restoration Games
Restoration Games revived the old game Dark Tower with an impressive new tower and accompanying app — the tower lights up and spills out little plastic skulls onto the board using some clever rotating tiers inside. I gave Return to Dark Tower our GeekDad Approved seal back in 2022. Expeditions is the third expansion, adding four new lands that you will journey through, along with four new heroes to add to the game. Oh, and if you thought the monsters were too easy? Now you can add “torments” to them that will up the difficulty level with special abilities and effects for the monsters. Missed it the first time around? There are pledge tiers that include the base game, with or without the deluxe components like monster miniatures and a neoprene mat.
The Dealer’s Tarot from Level 99 Games
I mentioned The Dealer’s Tarot in my previous roundup, but now it’s officially launched! It’s a book of 22 games designed to be played with a Tarot deck. I got a preview copy and though I’ve only played one game from it so far, I really love the concept. The 22 games in the book are themed after the 22 Arcana, and increase in complexity as you work your way through the book, following the “Fool’s Journey.” There are trick-taking games, solitaire games, tactics games, and more.
Tarot decks were originally used for games and evolved into what we usually see now, a form that is used for readings but isn’t always formatted in a way that is good for games. So this campaign also includes five modernized Tarot decks, designed with things like card indices and in a standard playing card size for easier handling. You can still use your own Tarot deck, but these decks open up a lot of possibilities for playing even more games.
Doomtile from Banana Joe Games
I like tile-laying games, so I’m curious about this one: the board is made up of square tiles, and then you have tactical battles on them that can change the landscape as you play. I have to admit, I don’t know exactly what’s going on with the VHS-inspired boxes and game trays, but I like it. There are a couple of expansions available and each one adds some more characters (and lets you increase the player count).
Rolling in Wonderland from Bellows Intent
I confess: I’m a sucker for anything Alice in Wonderland–related, so this cute dice game with little wooden mushrooms and playing card soldier meeples is very tempting. Roll your dice and borrow powers from the various characters to shape Wonderland to your advantage!
The Sheep from Zero Strategy Games
I’ve seen ads for this one, and it just makes me laugh: it’s a “comedy-horror” game about escorting a caravan across the wilderness, which is inhabited by mutant sheep. It looks like a pretty hefty game, with character upgrading and lots of equipment to discover, with a presentation that is equal parts classic horror and goofy sheep puns.
Honor’s End by IV Studios
IV Studios burst onto the scene back in 2019 with a deck-building game called Moonrakers, and since then they’ve published several more games that always have a gorgeous presentation. Now they’re back to deck-building, this time with a cooperative game that also includes an optional campaign to play through. At some point I hope they eventually give me an opportunity to review some of their games, but in the meantime I guess I’ll have to decide which ones to back! Since I love deck-building games, this one is going on my short list.
Battlecrest: Overlord from Button Shy Games
I backed the first Battlecrest campaign back in 2022 and the second one a year later; it’s a tactical battle game with lots of different characters, and some clever double-sided cards that make you consider which abilities to use each turn so that you can line up powerful moves. This campaign is for “Year 3” though it’s been a couple years since the last one, and introduces a new cooperative boss battle, along with a base game set with a new map and two characters, and another expansion set with some more characters. This is a game that I think I’d get to the table more if it weren’t 2-player only, so I’m excited for the 1–4 player co-op mode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn49lmHxmqg
Pathfinder Quest from Paizo
Starting back in 2013, I spent several years playing through the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game with several friends, and our sessions were always one of the highlights of my week. We played through all the base sets, though shifting schedules made it tricky to get through the last base set. I enjoyed the continuity of playing through a long campaign and seeing our characters evolve and level up, without the need for a GM to prep and run the sessions that a full-fledged RPG would require.
Paizo is back with another way to dive into the Pathfinder universe, this time in a cooperative board game with 12 adventures. Although my list of campaign games has grown over the years, I still have a soft spot for Pathfinder and I really hope I get a chance to try this one in the future.
https://youtu.be/11GpRKjFFg8
Mission: Drive from Gabe-Barrett
What if Spy Hunter were a tabletop game? That’s basically what this game is in a nutshell. A top-down view of the road that will take you back to the days of driving around, using your smokescreen and oil slicks and other cool gadgets to take down enemy vehicles while avoiding collisions with civilians.
Decko from Gem Games
This one hasn’t launched yet, but it’s a deck-building poker game from Haakon, the designer of Villagers (and a few other titles since then). I really like Haakon’s graphic design, and I’m intrigued by this concept, but the question I really have is: how much is this like Balatro, the poker/deck-building videogame? At the very least, it looks like players use their decks to play poker against each other, so that’s a little different already, but there’s also a whole bunch of jokers with special abilities. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.
