Don't Get Your Crumbs On My Plushie! - August 11, 2023 Crowdfunding Roundup

Does your inbox fill up every Tuesday with Kickstarter emails? Well, mine does - so I decided to start writing my thoughts on new tabletop gaming Kickstarters every week. Keep in mind, most of these are based on initial impressions and looking at the Kickstarter video.

I’m bringing back the blog! You’ll see some other posts next week, but what better way to restart the blog post Gen Con than to talk about some Crowdfunding! Lots of good stuff this week, especially if you enjoy the cute and adorable! So lets get started:

Thunderstone Quest Unchared Waters

Wow, didn't realize they were still making Thunderstone Quest sets. Although, reading the Kickstarter description, it looks like I was confusing Thunderstone Quest for the original Thunderstone game. You can definitely tell they are marketing to their existing customers. You have to scroll down pretty far to get to the "How to play" section of the campaign, and even then its just videos. I've actually never played Thunderstone Quest and was curious to get a basic "elevator pitch" since clearly its done very well. Oh well, at least if people were curious, they do make it very obvious what levels you need to get started. When you are your sixth campaign, I guess you get into "yeah, well you know what you are getting here" territory.

Crumbs! The Sandwich Filler Game

Right off the bat, I love this artwork. Never thought that sandwich fillers could be made to look adorable. Looks like a standard microgame, but with little bread pieces! Not sure if this is meant to be compared to those video games like "Overcooked" where you are trying to keep your customers happy by completing their orders. So if those types of games are up your alley and you've got $15 to spend, it looks like this game might be just for you.

The Secret Art of Game Mastery

I feel like I have a general idea of people in the board game world, but one thing I'm often discovering is that there are *so* many people in the RPG world that I don't know. This guide to game mastery campaign from The DM Lair gives off the vibes that they peeps know what they are talking about. Probably from the fact that it's super well funded - over $177k out of $10k needed. I know it seems like these types of books are a dime a dozen, but that's kind of a good thing. There's no one way to GM a RPG, which means sometimes you have to take in a bunch of advice from different places and figure out your own style. Plus, it helps that this book is only $15 for the PDF and $30 for a physical book. I'm tempted to back it *more* since I'm unfamiliar with them - there's always the chance of learning something new I haven't been exposed to before.

Shadow of the Weird Wizard

Talk about RPG kickstarters that have blown up, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is from the same designer as Shadow of the Demon Lord. Which, of course, is one of those larger indie games that falls into the "I've heard a lot about and probably should have played but I haven't" category. Apparently I'm not the only one in that boat - the campaign notes that the guy was designed to be more of a "family friendly" version of Shadow of the Demon Lord. The original game's theme was offputting to some, so now there's Shadow of the Weird Wizard to fill in the gap. I'm not really a fan of the fact that the only way to get a physical book is the $99 level to get both of the two books, but there is a $14 level to get the digital players book. Kinda weird you can't get just the physical players book, but then again over 2,309 backers can't be wrong right?

Mistwind

I actually got to meet Stephanie Kwok from First Fish Games briefly last weekend at Gen Con. She had said she was moving straight from Indy to putting up a new Kickstarter this week, and that game is Mistwind. The artwork on the page and in the video is giving me Final Fantasy vibes for some reason, but that could just be me. In this game, you are making routes with flying whale like creatures and then carrying items on those routes to earn points. But I haven't mentioned the best part yet - THERE'S A PLUSHIE! It looks so cute and adorable. The game is pretty expensive at $96, but when you look at all the components and artwork the price makes sense. It's actually kind of refreshing to see these types of mechanics on a different type of genre, so I'd check it out if you are a fan of "pick up and deliver" style games.

Note: I generally assume I know nothing. So if I've missed something, let me know in the comments. Or let me know on Twitter or Facebook. If you like these types of posts, consider subscribing to our patreon.