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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Now, I only write a back or brick about something if I am interested in it. So I was interested in my Mythwind, but I wasn’t sure that it was for me. I like games that have a pretty solid objective to them. Mythwind just growing your town wasn’t as interesting. But as it was ending, it was still on my mind. And it, along with two other games, were fighting for my back. Those games were the Skyrim Board Game and Lords of Ragnarok. And I even had backed Lords of Ragnarok but then dropped it.

Why I Dropped Lords of Ragnarok

The last article I wrote before taking a week off, needed a break and some health things came up, was about new editions of board games. You can read that article here. And I was leaning towards yes at that point in time. But I had to ask myself, what does it do different, anf for that matter, what does the Skyrim board game do different?

Lords of Ragnarok is an area control style game, I have games like Lords of Hellas, Blood Rage, and Small World all that do area control in different ways. Skyrim is an adventure game, but I have stuff like Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and The Witcher eventually coming that are like that. Plus, I can likely get Lords of Ragnarok on the second hand market. There are a lot of backers for it, and Skyrim is coming to retail.

But Mythwind

Why did i picked Mythwind, it wasn’t a game that I was sure about but now I’ve backed it? Well, because it is so different. Mythwind is a game that you don’t win, you just play more of. You explore the world, build up your town and you have characters that play in different ways.

How the characters play reminds me of Merchants Cove a game that I really love. But Merchants Cove is a one off game, you play it, win lose, done. Mythwind gives you all those characters that play differently and that you can just keep on playing with them. There is no win condition. I don’t think there is a lose condition, as I doubt your character can die. Instead you just expand your town, see the world around it and just enjoy what the game has to offer.

Do I Think I’ll Love Mythwind?

That’s the question that I’m still not sure about. I think that I’d have liked the other games for sure, but would they come off my shelf over other games? Mytwhwind is a gaming experience that I don’t know when there will be something else like it that shows on on Kickstarter or Gamefound. It’s a unique concept that looks well thought out. Not only well thought out, but basically done.

If Mythwind looked like it was a general concept I’d have stayed a long ways away from the game. It is a concept for a game that without it being mainly done already, I’d suspect would fail. It’s different enough and someone would think it’s a great idea without realizing how much they need to do in the game. But Mythwind is a polished looking product so I’m confident that I’ll get something good.

I also think that if Mythwind isn’t a game for me, there’ll be a secondary market. Normally I just sell my games to my FLGS for store credit. But for Mythwind, I probably would sell it online myself, see what I could get for it. I didn’t get everything for the game, but it’s going to be one that my guess is will be harder to track down, at least for a little while. That said, I am hoping that I like Mythwind. The concept of the game really intrigues me, so what’s why I switched my tune and backed it.

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Different Types of Board Game Versions

I think it’s good to talk about the different types of versions you can find within these board game reprints. To me, there are three different categories of board games game reprints or versions that can happen. There might be more, but these are the three that stand out. A board game could also just get reprinted as it was before, but that really isn’t a change from what I already might own.

• The Updated Look Reprint
• Same Game New Theme
• Version 2.0

The Updated Look Reprint

This type of reprint is going to give you the same game that you had before. The game itself is getting a new look and feel to it. So this is something like the different editions of Pandemic that have come out. And while it isn’t a reprint, this is kind of what Pandemic Legacy does with season 1 and season 2, they each are available in two different options of box colors. Those box colors mean nothing to what is in the game.

A reprint like this happens most often when a game has been out for a while. It starts to look dated and people are buying it less. So even though it’s a classic or popular game, it needs a reprint to get it into the hands of more people.

Why might you want to get a reprint? It might get the game to the table more. If the artwork and aesthetic are better, people might be more willing to play it. Or if you old version of the game is well played, then you might want to get a new copy of the game and the new artwork and aesthetic might make sense versus tracking down an old copy.

Same Game New Theme

The game also doesn’t change or change much in this sort of version or reprint. It is more of a new version of the game though. The easiest example of this comes from CMON and all their different versions of Zombicide. You have Zombicide, Zombicide: Black Plague, Zombicide Green Horde, Zombicide Invaders, Zombicide Undead or Alive. They might do a minor tweak to the rules to improve them ore make them more thematic, but the games generally stay the same.

This again helps sell more games because some people like other themes better. This is true for myself, Undead or Alive with zombies and an old west theme is way more interesting than orcs in Green Horde. And the same with the just standard version of the game, it interests me less. This also is why I have Century: Golem Edition instead of Century: Spice Road. The theme makes a difference to if I want to play the game.

So, I think this is a better reason to get a new version of a game. For me, I could have backed Zombicide 2.0 when that came out, the updated version, but the theme wasn’t interesting. I almost backed Zombicide Invaders, but theme didn’t grab me as much. So depending on your group a new theme might make a game more interesting for getting to the table.

Version 2.0

This type of version doesn’t change the theme, most likely, though it might. And it keeps the core of the game the same as was before, but it tries to improve upon the game that already existed. Lords of Hellas to Lords of Ragnarok is kind of a Version 2.0 of a game. Some of the original DNA is in the game, and while the theme changed, it is going to feel similar to at least some extent.

Another example of this would be Galaxy Trucker getting a new version. Galaxy Trucker, the original, was played over building your ship and flying three times. Each time you build a new ship and then go off flying through space. The new version gives you that option, but you can also play the game just doing the building and flight once. That drastically shortens the game time. Or any game that Restoration Games does like Downforce or Return To Dark Tower could be 2.0 versions of a game.

This is the one that I’m much more likely to want and I think that a lot of people want. A 2.0 version should improve your gaming experience not just because the looks or theme have changed. It should make the game more streamlined, better balanced, less obtuse rules, generally better in some meaningful way. Now, not everyone will like the changes, but the goal is that the game should be more accessible overall.

So Get A Version 2.0 Board Game?

Not always will you want to get that, because you can ask yourself a few questions. Will I play it over the version 1.0? Can I bring the new rules back to the old version? Do I play this game enough to need a new version or two versions? Do the changes improve it for me?

Let me use Lords of Ragnarok as an example for this, because I’m questioning this right now for myself. The game is backed, but I’m not sure if I’ll keep it because I have Lords of Hellas and do I really need both, even though Lords of Ragnarok does change up the system.

Will I Play It Over Version 1.0?

This one is tough, I have a lot of stuff for Lords of Hellas, which I mean, you get with any Awaken Realms crowdfunding. And I have played a solid chunk of it, but not all of it. So I do have stuff in version 1.0, Lords of Hellas, to explore still. But, Lords of Ragnarok is also a different enough experience that I suspect I’d play both of them. Gone is questing, one whole way of winning the game has been removed. The end game doesn’t trigger on a monument being built but Ragnarok.

There are a lot of different things that make me think I’d play both games. Lords of Ragnarok even has a tighter board, so you’re going to be in each others way more often and there should be more conflict between pieces on the board. This might be a 2.0 version of Lords of Hellas, but there are certainly a good amount of changes to the game.

Can I Bring The New Rules To The Old Version?

This one is easy to answer, no. The whole Ragnarok end game trigger is not something you could bring into Lords of Hellas easily.

Do I Play This Game Enough To Need New/Two Versions?

I put the word need in there, but that’s really more want. I love the Vikings and Norse Mythology theme, so I want Lords of Ragnarok for that. And I also think that this will feel enough like a different game that they will feel different. Dropping one way to win a game is a lot, and they changed up an end game trigger. So I am not sure I need two versions because of them, but mechanically I can see keeping both of them on my shelf.

Do The Changed Improve It For Me?

This I wonder about. BoardGameCo and Quackalope have done some content on this. And I’m slightly concerned, but this is also Awaken Realms and they have a very good track record for me. It seems like Lords of Ragnarok has pulled back on some of the things that can make you unique. I really love that about Lords of Hellas. Now, Awaken Realms might be looking at that feedback. And the more things that are unlocked in the Gamefound campaign, the more likely it’ll have more things to make you unique.

But also the end game trigger changing, I like that. One knock that people had on the previous game, Lords of Hellas, was that you’d only get one monument on the board. And that was on the board for the last three rounds of the game because it was the game end trigger. Lords of Ragnarok seems to encourage that building more. The game no longer ends on that but on Ragnarok. Though, even Ragnarok sounded like it might need tweaking or better selection for how fast it’ll trigger.

You can see how it might be a tough decision. For a new theme, I just keep the game that I like the theme of better. For a new edition/printing of a game if the rules haven’t changed, I don’t even care. Even something like Galaxy Trucker, I have my version, I don’t need the new one. But this is so much tougher because the games are different enough, and from a company that I love their stuff.

So Do You Get A New Version?

This is really one of those things that you need to decide. Even after laying out everything, pros/cons, comparison between theme and changes, I still don’t know if I’ll keep my Lords of Ragnarok pledge. Will I like the game, most likely. Will I be able to sell the game if I don’t like it for what I paid for it, most likely. But when a new version or new edition of a game comes out, don’t assume that it’s always going to be better as well, or that your old version isn’t worth it anymore.

Way out the pros and cons of the new version. Even if it’s just an artwork update, that might be enough to get the new printing of a game. Or a new theme if it gets it to your table more often. Generally I try and consider that as the biggest factor. Will I get this new version to the table more.

How do you decide to get a new version or printing of a game?

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The Focus of Crowdfunding Futures

Like I said this is meant to allow you to know about what is coming out. It isn’t going to be a breakdown of a Kickstarter or Gamefound like my Back or Brick articles are. Instead this is going to be touching a little bit on what I know about the campaigns. Also why I am looking at the campaigns.

I won’t be covering all of the Kickstarters coming out. If you want lists of what all might be showing up in the next month there are some great YouTube channels that cover that.

BoardGameCo

Tantrum House

Liege of Games

Maybe I’ll eventually get to the point where I cover crowdfunding as much as I do, but now I want to highlight the stuff that I’m interested in and that might not be only games that you expect.

Marvel Dice Throne

No surprise here, I was stoked when this was announced. You can read my news article on it here. Dice Throne is a competitive head to head, vs or team based battling game. But it’s mainly meant to be head to head. In it you upgrade your characters characters, roll dice, and deal damage. Marvel Dice Throne takes the base game and with all new characters and abilities gives it a Marvel twist.

What to Expect In This Campaign

Going off of what Roxley has done before, I think it’s safe to assume to that there will be eight total characters. The first two seasons had eight characters each, though season one initially launched with six. This is also a game that you’ll be able to get after that fact at retail. The bonus to backing on the Kickstarter will be that they do swirly dice that are better looking than the normal ones. It isn’t a major thing.

You are probably looking at about $80 for the big box version of it. You might have the option to just pledge for a duel box or two as well. With shipping you are looking probably over $110 or so, which in my opinion is reasonable. The game has a lot of replay value and combinations for fighting. Also the quality of Roxley games is extremely high with Game Trayz and very nice dice.

Lords of Ragnarok

This one you’ll be able to find over on Gamefound, and if it sounds interesting I highly recommend checking it out here. The reason you’ll want to check it out is that Gamefound campaigns tend to give you a bonus for signing up to get notified. In this case that’s going to be a free $8 hero expansion if you back the game.

Lords of Ragnarok is going to be a reworking and improvement of the Lords of Hellas systems. The main concepts remain the same but it should streamline and focus more on the aspects that people really liked. It’s a game where everyone has different things they can do better but you are pivoting and becoming more unique as time goes on.

What to Expect In This Campaign

This is Awaken Realms, this is going to be a big campaign. And it’s going to be a campaign where it could be very expensive. I do appreciate that Awaken Realms tends to keep the base price pretty reasonable, but if you want it Sun Drop painted it’ll cost you a pretty penny, and it does look nice. Also be aware that there will likely be two wave shipping. If you select one save you’ll get it with that second wave which means waiting longer.

But expect a lot from this campaign. Awaken Realms games always have a lot of things in them, and it’s great. There will be lots of stretch goals and add-ons and mostly the add-ons will be cosmetic, which is really nice. Generally they’ll do an all in game play bundle which will save you a little when all is said and done.

Grove

A completely different game from Side Room Games. It’s not a big company, but that’s fine because they don’t make big games. However, Side Room Games makes my most played game of this year, Orchard. This is going to be another small solo game, which, I am hoping, is as simple to play as Orchard and maybe even uses similar mechanics, but puts a twist on it. Out of these three games the one I know the least about.

What to Expect in this Campaign

This is going to be by far the cheapest of all of them. They are saying that this game is going to cost $15, which makes it pretty easy for me to want to back it. Now, with shipping I expect $20-25 total because of container costs but it’ll still be cheap.

Honestly, beyond that I don’t expect much from this campaign. I’m not sure what was done for Orchard, if there were any exclusives, and I’m fine if there aren’t. This is going to be coming to Kickstarter, so no sign-up bonus. But if I just get the game and can help support the company that is what I care about more than getting all sorts of fancy things on a smaller Kickstarter.

What Upcoming Crowdfunding Are You Looking Forward To?

There are going to be more bigger ones coming this year. I know that Slay the Spire might even still be hitting this year, it is just in the process of being refined and playtested even more. It’s one that I’m going to be very curious to see what that game is like.

Are any of these three ones that you will be backing?

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What is Lords of Ragnarok

It’s a area control, monster fighting, temple building, statue building, player power heavy board game. Now, that sounds like a lot and it is a lot in the Lords of Hellas. It isn’t what I’d call a “clean” game, there are weird interactions and things that happen, but the game is so much fun.

The main thing I talk about when I bring up this game is the end game, more details here. Basically, you win in multiple ways. Take over two areas, you win. Defeat three monsters you win. Control five temples, you win. Hold control of a statue when it’s done, you win. And that might be a lot, but in a five player game, everyone was close to winning.

That’s Lords of Hellas, Lords of Ragnarok is more of the same. This is going to be a very similar game with just a different theme. You can find more details for it over on Gamefound where there is a light preview page up.

When And Where Do I Find It?

Well, it is going to be crowdfunded on Gamefound instead of Kickstarter. You can sign-up for a notification when it goes live, and if you do and you decide to back it you get a free hero expansion, value approximately $8. The when part, no official date on when this one will launch. I am guessing that it’ll be going live around Thanksgiving, but I might be late on that.

Hype Level

1 of 5

Disclaimer like normal, I am hyped for this game, this is just how hyped I am.

1 of 5 might seem pretty low. But let’s remember that this is not a truly new game. This is a 2.0 version of Lords of Hellas or a reskinned version of Lords of Hellas. I own Lords of Hellas. So while I am excited for this because maybe some slight tweaks and a Norse mythology theme, I own it kind of already. So do I really need another copy, the answer is maybe.

Is Lords of Ragnarok a game that you’re interested in getting?

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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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