Four Incoming Crowdfunding Games

Let’s go from little to biggest. The little ones, no issue fitting on the shelf, the biggest one, well, I’ll find a spot for it.

Fork

FORK is a little trick taking game, I believe, if I remember correctly, it stands for Fox, Owl, Rabbit, Kale. And that determines who wins the trick. Plus there is a terrain type, so if I have a creature, let’s say Owl, or the matching terrain type I beat one that isn’t.

It looks like a pretty simple trick taking game, but there was a twist that intrigued me, and more of a twist than just being the declared terrain type that sets up the trump suit. If I remember correctly, you might be able to block someone taking something if you played a Fox when they played a Fox. The foxes chased each other away or something like that I feel was the twist. I’ll have to see when it comes in.

Fliptown

Fliptown is going to be a roll and write (or flip and write) game where you are in an old west setting. The aesthetics of this one drew me in, especially because you determine what you do with playing cards. And each round three playing cards are flipped out. One of the cards, you choose, determine which of the boards you are on. Another the action you take, and the third the poker hand you’re building.

I like this idea of needing to think about these three areas. It adds in a bit of complexity to the game. And while it offers you more choices than Welcome To… does, at least with how you divide card actions, it offers a lot of choice like Welcome To… And I like the look of that in the game. Some roll and write games provide good choice, others, a bit less so.

Roll Player Adventures – Gulpax’s Secret

Now the one crowdfunding game on the list that is here already. A Roll Player Adventures expansion. If we hadn’t just started Vampire the Masquerade Chapters, I might be going back to this right away. But this is a whole new campaign for Roll Player Adventures with an updated rulebook. Though, compared to some games, I haven’t heard that this is a massive change to the rulebook, probably clarifying some.

This campaign takes place prior to the events of the main Roll Player Adventures. So that is always a bit of a question mark to me. How will it make you feel like you have choice and agency. It isn’t possible to do anything that’d affect the main game, unless they built that into it and you’d want to then replay the main game. So I hope that they do a good job of making it feel meaningful, but not like it’s undone what we’ve already done.

Marvel Zombies

Finally the monster among the group, zombies being the main monster in this game. Though from the zombies perspective the humans are monsters. This is a game that I got to play twice at CMON Expo and it was a great game both times. And I also got to win one time and then lose another time, so it wasn’t just an easy game.

I really like playing as the zombies and needing to take out bystanders and hordes of SHIELD agents who are trying to mess you up. And each superhero zombie has their own unique powers as well which I thought was fun. The progression of the game is great as well. It makes me wish that I’d backed it at the level with the giant Galactus.

But I also am glad that I didn’t. I got basically everything else except Galactus. I think there is a special character pack that I didn’t get. It was some specific artist and I thought, that looks fine but I don’t need it at that price. Even with not getting those things, it’s still coming in two boxes, and I mean shipping boxes. And those boxes will not be small, in fact they will be quite huge, so I need to find a good chunk of space.

Too Many Games, No Enough Space

Each of these games, I am excited to have come in. Some of them are going to be easier to get to the table than others. Marvel Zombies is going to be one of them that is harder. Or at least it is going to be harder to get all the content of that to the table just because there is so much content for it. And Gulpax’s Secret is going to be harder as well as a campaign game.

But FORK and Fliptown I hope to get to the table soon. And I realized that another game is getting close. It isn’t shipping yet, but Twenty Strong from Chip Theory Games just asked me to confirm my address. Since that happened, that is getting close as well. Maybe should have been a list of five games.

Which is the one that you’d want to play first?

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Roll Player Adventures: Gulpax’s Secret

I can talk a bit more about this game because this is a game that I’ve played. Roll Player Adventures is a big choose your own adventure, exploration, and fighting game. In the base game you try and explore to figure out what is happening with a conflict between three parties, the King, the Dragul, and the Starlight Door. Much of what you do is in a choose your own adventure style where you reach decision points and decide what to do as a group. But it is very open in that you can come back and probably do some of the options again.

But then there is the combat or skill tests as well in the game. Those are where the mechanical part of the game really starts to take hold. Roll Player Adventures is a dice management and hand management game. You expend points in stats to use them to get the color dice you need, and you expend cards to manipulate those dice to the right sides.

What Doesn’t Work?

So, I have one main knock on the game. I think that Roll Player Adventures doesn’t do one of the things that I expect campaign games to do well. That is, I don’t think that Roll Player Adventures scales super well. From what I know, two players can be very challenging, but four players, what I am playing at, is very easy. Well, not very easy, but almost always able to be solved.

We get into combat and we can generally win in two rounds. We’ve gotten enough cards and enough XP to push us to be able to win. Same with skill challenges which are I think easier. You only have one round, so they need to be. But, we can basically always solve them.

Now, some of this is how we built out our characters and what has come up. And it is not a fast process at times where we figure it out as a group off the bad. It often takes a lot of thinking and planning. So the game is still challenging to come up with a solution, but a solution can basically always be found. I’d like to feel a bit more crunch and pressure to get things right.

What Works?

On the flip side, the story in the game is fun. And I think that Roll Player Adventures has a lighter story with it as well. So game play where you are doing well, I think that makes sense. It is a campaign game that I can have fun with, who have played heavy campaign games, and I know of families who are playing it together. If Roll Player Adventures were harder, and it could be, I think that it’d push it further into the hobby side of the game.

And, I also very much enjoy the characters in the game. Nefras’s Judgement is to me a needed expansion to the game. Now, the downside is that it adds to the cost of the game and all it’s doing is adding in some backstory. But that backstory really helps you flesh out a character. And it does set your alignment. Which I think is important because often players feel like they don’t know what to pick for an action. But when you have a backstory that says you’re “chaotic good” or “lawful evil” that can help direct that decision making process.

Finally, I think the core mechanics of the game are fun. I called them easy because we win our encounters. We haven’t lost one or we haven’t had a player go exhausted during the game. But I like the puzzle of the dice manipulation. And I think it’s one that people can get into because it’s not too complex.

Who Is It For?

Now, who is Roll Player Adventures for, I think it’s an accessible campaign game. Now, not in the way that Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is, a game in a small package. But more a game that has a massive box, but once you get into the box and you see the story books and maps, it isn’t nearly as component heavy as a lot of campaign games. So if you can get past the box size, it is an easier one to pick-up and play with any group.

What Is New?

So, why back it now? Firstly, it’s a big box, it won’t hit retail much because it doesn’t work well on a retail shelf. But also there is now Gulpax’s Secret. This is another story that you can play through, and it’s cheaper because it doesn’t need to give you all the dice and everything if you already have the base game.

On the flip side, if you haven’t played the game, I don’t think there is anything in the new stuff that you need to get. The base game offers a lot of options and I fully expect Gulpax’s Secret to be available again on a future crowdfunding campaign. Probably with another story that they come out with eventually.

Back or Brick: Roll Player Adventures + Gulpax’s Secret

I really like this game. I backed, or late pledged, the original. And I got to play it at Gen Con 2019 as a prototype. So I have a good connection to the game. I am also having a ton of fun playing through the adventure with friends. So for that reason it is a Back for me. Even if it shows up well after we are done, I can see coming back to it. If I were just looking at it now and with the reviews out there, I think that the base game is worth backing as well. But I’m just in for Gulpax’s Secret.

Is this game a Back or Brick for you?

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