Tom Vasel takes a look at things he backed on kickstarter and shares his thoughts on them now!
Check out these trick-taking games on Kickstarter right now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardgametables/pies-mori-lunar-bacon?ref=bggforums
Intro 0:00
Steph’s Calendar 0:25
Thunderstone Quest 1:04
Spirit Strike 1:41
Cascadia 2:26
Sharks 3:19
In too Deep 3:52
Automated Alice 4:42
The Thing 5:33
Crash Octopus 6:28
Lord of the Chords 7:11
Machina Arcana 8:09
Hogs of War 8:46
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Machina Arcana is a fantastic dungeon crawler with a steampunk cosmic horror theme and I think Tom would love it.
Machina Arcana is very special. It's less 'kill the monster' and more: how do I run away from it, set traps, hide, use the environment against, it until I can figure a way to defeat it. Really different than the usual dungeon crawl. Great atmospheric story too. I recommend giving it a go.
My group really liked Automatic Alice
In too deep is a great game, but it is definitely not a coop game 😂
In too deep is competitive not cooperative. It's very good but super tactical, each turn is a tactical puzzle to complete a goal.
My mom would ask 'why are you sitting in the dark?'
Machina Arcana is definitely not a generic monster battler. It's much more of a steampunk horror themed dungeon exploration / survival game relying on strong cooperative tactical decisions. However, gameplay is long, it has a lot of fiddly rules and exceptions, and the learning curve is pretty steep. I think it's a very good game but also think it is somewhat niche in terms of the number of people that are willing to put in the effort necessary to enjoy it.
Automated Alice is based on a mid-1990s novel – a post-modern sequel to Alice in Wonderland – by British author Jeff Noon. It's pretty obscure to base a game on it all these years later, for sure.
In Too Deep is listed as a semi co-op, not cooperative … I’m out
Untamed: Spirit Strike was a mess of a Kickstarter! I just got it this winter due to shipping issues and then it showed up with misprints. Mine were minor compared to others, BUT the game is very solid and I'm glad I backed it and glad I finally got it.
I have to second many of the comments regarding Machina Arcana; it is in my top 3 games of all time. I am not confident that it's up Tom's alley theme-wise, but I hope he does give it a chance. It's incredibly streamlined (with the exception of the inventory system, imo) while offering one of the most tactical and atmospheric experiences around. Happy to hear it's in the library; looking forward to playing it at the retreat!