The $1 Crowdfunding Pledge

Let’s talk about the $1 pledge level. Why do I pledge at that level sometimes, and how often do I get more?

So what is a $1 pledge? It is basically a cheap way to get the updates on a Kickstarter campaign. With Gamefound you can follow along if you subscribe to it. But Kickstarter, is is $1 and often times it gives you access to the pledge manager as well.

The nice thing about a $1 pledge is that you don’t need all the money at once. If both Final Girl and Marvel Zombies run at the same time – they did – then you don’t need to give both of them a couple hundred dollars right at the same time. You back $1 now you can get one now and save up for the other one later.

But how often do I back for $1, once in a while, and I’d say maybe 2 out of the 6-7 that I did that with, I ended up adding in the pledge manager. One, for sure, that I did was The Witcher: Old World. And I believe there was another that I added. I don’t care enough, most of the time, to do $1 and get the updates.

The Drink

A Negroni again. It’s such a good drink, again a warm day and one that is nice to have on a day like that. But a good drink to have stuff around for. It is really one that I like to sip while grilling as well. On a hot summer day it is refreshing and with some ice in there, it doesn’t feel water down when the ice melts.

Upcoming Streams

Tomorrow I’ll be streaming, I think my plan is more Paper Dungeons. So join for some fun to play along. I’m still working my way through that campaign.

I talked about this on the stream, and maybe I’ll talk about it more tomorrow. But I am getting a gaming table with a topper. That will allow for me to leave a bigger campaign game set-up on the lower level and put the top on when I want to play something else. So once that comes, I am going to be getting back to streaming a larger game.

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ISS Vanguard

This is a massive exploration adventure game set in space. I have some of those set on Earth or in a fantasy setting, but none in space. Plus this is Awaken Realms. I love the story in the games that I have of theirs, even Lords of Hellas which isn’t a story game. This one also is fully narrated and has an app that helps with some of the book keeping, but not that much. I like that it can help but isn’t needed, just makes it more immersive, like it does with Tainted Grail.

Excitement Level: 9.5/10

Chronicles of Drunagor

There is a chance that I will drop this one, but everything I’ve seen on this game, it looks like one that I’ll love. In fact, you can just read my Back or Brick from Wednesday (link coming) to see why I’m interested. This is a big table hog of a campaign game, but still looks like so much fun. And how you activate abilities is just great, makes it feel like a puzzle, which is like Gloomhaven that way.

Excitement Level: 8/10

Spire’s End: Hildegard

This one drew me in because of the artwork. What got me to back it though was that it’s a solo, mainly, game. But it isn’t a massive minis game, this is just 400 cards or so and you take Hildegard through an adventure, digging through four chapters, reading cards, fighting monsters and doing more things. The concept is fu and the artwork is amazing.

Excitement Level: 9/10

Isle of Cats: Don’t Forget the Kittens

Those cute kitty cats, don’t forget them on the Island. I’ve played Isle of Cats once and I really like it. The game play is a lot of fun, the drafting works well, though I want to try it with more people, and overall, just getting more stuff seems like a lot of fun. Plus a roll and write, plus an organizer to make it easier to get to the table.

Excitement Level: 7.5/10

Marvel United: X-Men

Marvel United has about 80 minis, Marvel United X-Men takes that total up to around 200. But it adds in a lot of cool things. It can take this cooperative game and make it team versus team. You can make it one versus all with one person playing the villain. And some of the villains can also be heroes, so just lots of awesome more stuff. Plus the amazing minis. I really need to start painting them.

Excitement Leve: 7.5/10

Canvas: Reflections

This game has gotten a lot of buzz as a simple but gorgeous game. There is no doubt that it’s gorgeous just looking at that artwork in it. And I like games that give you something pretty in front of you. This is like Sagrada in that you end up with something pretty in front of you when you’re done. I hope that it’s a good simple one for my wife and me to play.

Excitement Level: 8/10

Super Fantasy Brawl: Round 2

More characters for Super Fantasy Brawl, yes please. I love this game as a skirmish game where if you don’t fight, you’re probably going to lose, but if you only fight, you’re probably going to lose. It gives you enough to go for as you play to make it a blast to get to the table. And drafting teams is fun, this gives me more to draft from. If only the insert wasn’t horrible.

Excitement Level: 8/10

Zombicide: Undead or Alive

So, early this year I believe I traded in Zombicide Green Horde, why did I get more Zombicide? Well because zombies and the wild west, that’s way more interesting. Honestly, if it weren’t for the Wild West theme I’d have ignored it and passed on for another game. But I like a scenario big game. It reminds me kind of something like Village Attacks, which I’m still waiting on, where I can pull it out play a scenario and then be done.

Excitement Level: 7/10

Aeon’s End Legacy of Gravehold

It helps that I’m playing through Aeon’s End Legacy right now, but I’m super excited for this game. But I really like Aeon’s End. I like the deck building of it and I just want more of it. Especially something that’s a bit more story driven like Aeon’s End Legacy is.

Excitement Level: 9/10

Tiny Turbo Cars

Horrible Guild makes amazing games, and they make games with amazing toy factor. Tiny Turbo Cars looks to have that as well. Programming how your cars go as fast as possible each time. I think it’ll be good hectic fun and a good light game. There isn’t much to learn so once I’ve played it a few times it’ll be fast to get to the table. And maybe you’ll just get lucky and do well with a random pick.

Excitement Level: 9/10

Vault Wars: Relic Roadshow

This one is actually almost here. It’s a smaller game and actually a reprint of a game, Vault Wars. It just now has an expansion as well. It’s basically fantasy Storage Wars. Now, I hope it’s a good game, but the theme was fun for me, and it looks like a pretty light and easy game to get to the table. And like I said, it should be here in a day or so.

Excitement Level: 6/10

Alba

This one is actually a book, but it’s a game book. It’s not a book about games, it’s a game in a book. I tend to like these types of books where you have to puzzle through them. I mainly just need to find the time to play them. Between reading comics and Dresden Files books, I need to do better about just picking up the one I have.

Excitement Leve: 7.5/10

Primal

This was one of the first ones I backed this year. It is kind of a campaign game, but really a big boss battling game. What drew me in was the minis, but also how for a big game with massive minis, it wasn’t a game that had a million tokens. You just have health and you play out some cards. Plus it has a campaign, but you can just face off against a monster if you want to. Like Zombicide: Undead or Alive and Village Attacks, those big games you can get to the table that feel epic still are what I’m kind of looking for some right now.

Excitement Level: 8/10

For $1

• Deliverance
  Love the theme, but the base pledge level missed out on so many extras that it doesn’t feel worth it to back for me. But just in case I want to bump it higher, I kept it.
• The Witcher: Old World
  A friend is backing this one, so I can play their copy. I’ll wait on it because I didn’t want all the minis anyways.
• Valor and Villainy: Lludwick’s Labyrinth
  The original game looked interesting, this one has campaign and is fully cooperative and legacy, all stuff I love, but I’d love to try it before I commit the money.
• Mythic Battles: Ragnarok
  Deities fighting it out, wielding trees as weapons, that sounds amazing, but price is so high, right now I’m waiting on it.

What have you backed this year?

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This, however leads to a problem. There are a ton of games on Kickstarter, in fact they make Kickstarter millions of dollars. And now Gamefound is in the mix and that is where all the Awaken Realms games are and they are getting a lot of other really big games. So how do you decide what to back.

Only So Much Budget

I did a series of articles on Kickstarter 101. You can find the first one there and then I went into more details about what I look for. I generally follow my guide when it comes to backing games or talking about them in my Back of Brick Series. But one thing I don’t talk about is budget, or at least I don’t talk about it much.

Right now that is my biggest issue in getting board games, which is a good thing in a lot of ways. If I didn’t have a budget I would just have my game room stacked up with even more board games and no where to actually play them. Plus, there is only so much time to play board games in my life right now. I’d love to play more, but I’m generally playing once a week with people and once a week while streaming.

But That Means Hard Choices

As the header says, that means that I have to make hard choices as to what I back. Early in the year I tend to be a bit more free. By that I mean, if it looks really cool, I’ll back it and not think about it. But now, in the middle of the year, my budget is drying up, and we are getting a lot of cool games on the different crowdfunding platforms.

Just what I know is coming up, there is Lords of Ragnarok from Awaken Realms, Divinus from Lucky Duck Games, Slay the Spire from Contention Games, and those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Plus there is Middara acts 2 & 3. There is a Dune game based off of the Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game system, not Kickstarter from what I know. Plus I could still late back Deliverance or Witcher: Old World, and I’m actively backing Valor & Villainy, the cooperative legacy version that is out there now.

So how do I go about picking? Do I keep backing Valor and Villainy because it’s a known game? Do I save for other things that are coming in later? How much do I care about the CMON Masters of the Universe Game?

So How Do I Pick?

Compare to the Collection

Firstly, I think it’s important to look at the games in a vacuum. Well, kind of a vacuum. I don’t want to look at everything I know is coming to Kickstarter or Gamefound. It’s hard to compare games that are active to games that are coming. If a game is active and it looks amazing except for one little thing, I won’t be able to accurately compare it to the ones that have almost no information on Kickstarter or little on Gamefound.

Instead, I should look at it compared to what I have in my collection. So with Valor and Villainy, it’s a campaign and a legacy game. I have two unplayed Legacy games, well, 3 actually with Pandemic Legacy Season 0 that I just remembered. And I probably have 6-10 unplayed campaign games counting what is currently backed on Kickstarter. So do I need more games of that type? But also, does this one look better than the games of that type I own?

Who Would I Play It With

Is this a game for a small group? My campaign group? The board game club group? The game night group? Me? Or is it a game for a group that doesn’t exist yet?

If it’s the latter, do I want to put the effort into finding a group or a person to play it with. Let’s look at some things I’ve backed, Project L and Tiny Tubro Cars are for the small group and game night group. Primal is for small group, board game club group, and campaign group. Aeon’s End Legacy might just be for me. But does a game fit into any of the groups. If not, I have to put in the effort to get it played, and will I do that?

Retails vs Crowdfunding

Another thing I consider is, can I get it later. A crowdfunded game is a little bit of a risk. I’ve gotten a few when they came in they weren’t as good as I had hoped. Lost Woods was a simple game that wasn’t what I was hoping. Bring Your Own Book is a cool idea but doesn’t work as well as it sounds. Now the only way to get Lost Woods was via Kickstarter, but Bring Your Own Book went to retail. So I could have waited, gotten an uglier copy that was the same thing, or waited for reviews.

But there’s more to that, I could have gotten Marvel United at retail, but I’m glad I didn’t. So it’s the flip of Bring Your Own Book. With Marvel United I got way more characters because I backed it on Kickstarter. And basically none of the expansions are going to retail, so I’d have missed out on all of that content. So, is the value there to take the risk on the game on the crowdfunding platform?

So What’s Coming Up?

Out of everything I talked about coming up, I am confident that I’ll back Lords of Ragnarok. I like Lords of Hellas a lot and Norse mythology. Slay the Spire is also likely because I love that video game. CMON’s Master’s of the Universe game, probably not, it’s not a theme that I love as much, though the minis look amazing. Divinus, probably, though Lucky Duck Games also do come to retail.

How do you balance what you back or don’t? Do you just ignore Kickstarter or Gamefound? Or do you do less retail because you get most of your games are coming in via Kickstarter?

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Pros

• Price Point
• Theme
• Aesthetic
• Minis or No Minis

Cons

• Stretch Goal Structure
• First Time Company

The Page

Now, I say that this is a first time company and I put that in the cons. However, that is a very minor con for me. I have been hearing about this game for a few years, I think first in 2018 from Sam Healey on the Dice Tower. So this is a game that has been on my radar for a long time and one that the developers are taking their time to get right before it goes to Kickstarter. Andrew Lowen also has been involved with other Kickstarters before so it is a new company, but not a new person to Kickstarter.

The page layout is what I consider the standard at this point. Laying out the pledge levels and everything works well, though, the images repeat a fair amount. So you have to scroll by a lot to get to the actual game play information, which is generally what I’m looking for. However, I do like that they’ve given a pledge level without minis in it.

However, that is going to lead into one of my negatives and this one bugs me. They have a level without minis so why aren’t there non-mini characters for those unlocks. Only the deluxe version gets extra characters and to me that’s a little bit off-putting. I know that it’s trying to create FOMO for the mini pledge level but I have a KS budget and for a game like this, I don’t know that I need the minis. If I get them, it means that I can support fewer Kickstarters later in the year.

The Game

The game itself looks interesting to me. I believe that it gives you one off battles as well as then a campaign that you can play through. It even looks like it has a campaign that teaches you the game, maybe, and then then another bigger one. I like it when games give a tutorial.

It is also a dungeon crawling game which I am always going to be interested in as well. Deliverance, however, puts a new spin and theme on it. It doesn’t look as story heavy as something like Solomon Kane but I feel like I get a little bit of that vibe from it. Or, more so this one really leans into that religious side of things for the theme. And I am actually surprised that this seems to be the first dungeon crawler to really use this theme.

The game play itself sounds interesting. I like that it isn’t just a straight up battle. You need to defend certain Saints to basically keep the darkness from piling up as quickly. The mechanics might not be totally unique, but if a game does them well for a dungeon crawl, I am interested in it.

Back or Brick

This game is a Brick for me. Mainly, the theme works for me. I don’t know why, it reminds me of Diablo for the them, but definitely very different game play. Just the theme being so unique has me backing it at the non-minis level. And that is my one main gripe with it. Backing with minis doesn’t just get you more because you are getting more minis, you are getting more characters to play. So by not getting minis I am going to be missing out on content in the game. Will that cause me to drop my pledge, probably not, but I do find that annoying, seems like they could just print more standees to add into the base game.

How about for you, is this one a Back or a Brick?

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