Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 80 through 71

80. Rock Hard 1977

Published By: Devir
Designer: Jackie Fox

Buy Rock Hard 1977

Do you want to be a rockstar? Rock Hard 1977 is all about being a rockstar and the designer is legitimately a rockstar. In this game you place out workers in day, evening and night activities that help take you from garage band playing little local shows to playing sold out stadiums. The player who can make the journey the best is going to be the winner of the game. And each part of the day is going to let you do different things, in the day you might record a record, evening perform, and night go hang out at a club.

79. The Night Cage

Published By: Smirk & Dagger Games
Designer: Christopher Ryan Chan, Chris McMahon and Rosswell Saunders

Buy The Night Cage

I like a good spooky game. The Night Cage gives you that spooky feeling by creating tension as you race to get out of an every changing labyrinth. Can everyone get their keys and get to a portal before the candles run out and the players are lost in there forever. That counting down of tiles as they leave the board and new ones are placed out as a timer is great in this game. And it is spooky, which is hard for a board game to do.

78. Cthulhu: Death May Die

Published By: CMON Global Limited
Designers: Rob Daviau and Eric M Lang

Sold Out on online retailers, look for sellers on the Board Game Geek Marketplace or eBay.

Maybe your spooky is better with lots of giant monsters and a scenario where you know an elder being is going to come eventually. Cthulhu: Death May Die, called CDMD or Death May Die in the hobby, is a big game with minis and madness. You want to push your insanity up a little bit so that you unlock new powers and abilities to defeat the ancient horrors. But too much insanity and you knocked out of the game. This is a good beer and pretzels sort of game.

77. Captain Flip

Published By: PlayPunk
Designers: Remo Conzadori and Paolo Mori

Buy Captain Flip

Moving on from the spooky games, we have Captain Flip. This is tile laying game about filling up your pirate ship with crew. Every crew member is going to give you points, positive or negative, in some way. When you draw a tile you see one side. Then you decide do you want to place that onto your ship, or do you want flip it? If you flip it you are stuck on that side and have to put that down. It’s this balance of optimizing your score, playing out pirates, and pushing your luck as you flip the tiles.

76. Cartographers

Published By: Thunderworks Games
Designer: Jordy Adan

Buy Cartographers

Cartographers used to be my Top Roll and Write style game. Now it is dropping a bit, some because there are so many roll and write games that I like, and some because I haven’t played it recently. But I really enjoy this one and really enjoy making a map. I like the interactivity of the monsters who I play it on my opponents board in the worst spot possible for them. And I like how you score four different things, but depending on the season you score two and the season determines the two. It’s one I need to play again.

75. Letter Jam

Published By: Czech Games Edition (CGE)
Designer: Ondra Skoupy

Buy Letter Jam

Do you like word games but it seems like some people are just better at them? Letter Jam is a cooperative word game, so everyone needs to work together. In this game you don’t know the letters or the word you have. But everyone else can see one letter of yours at a time, and you can see one letter of everyone else’s. You all need to give good clues of words so people can figure out what their letter is. Say you have an “O” if I give a clue that shows you that the word uses the letters “FR[your letter]M” you can figure out what it is. But everyone needs to figure theirs out and figure out their word.

74. Can’t Stop

Published By: Eagle Gryphon Games
Designer: Sid Sackson

Buy Can’t Stop

Can’t Stop is another push your luck game to make the list. I like a good push your luck game like this one, Push, or Flip 7. They are easy to teach and play. In this one you want to get to the top of 3 columns. If you do that, you win. How do you do that, well, you roll dice and then split them into two pairs of two. The twist is that you only move up on three numbers per turn. So I might roll and get a combo to make ten and eleven, if I am not going up on ten or eleven, I lose my progress. But if I play it too safe, I lose.

73. Under Falling Skies

Published By: Czech Games Edition (CGE)
Designer: Tomas Uhlif

Buy Under Falling Skies

Do you like the movie Independence Day? Did you grow up playing the game Space Invaders. Under Falling Skies is a game that gives me the feel of both of those things. You need to research how to stop the mother ship while keeping too many of the smaller ships from making it to earth. And it uses an interesting die system. The higher the die, the more powerful the actions you can take are. But also the faster those little ships descend towards earth. I love that balancing act puzzle of the game.

72. So Clover!

Published By: Repos Production
Designer: Francois Romain

Buy So Clover!

So Clover! is a cooperative party game. It is one that is easy to teach in person and hard to explain. Basically you create a grid of cards that have words on every side. So you need to connect the two words per side with another word. Then everyone else is trying to get those words back onto the board in the right order, but the twist is there is an extra word thrown in. Plus often times the words are not easy to match. The better you do that as a group the more points you get.

71. Rallyman: DIRT

Published By: Holy Grail Games
Designer: Jean-Cristophe Bouvier

Buy Rallyman: DIRT

Finally rounding out this 10 is Rallyman: DIRT. This is another push your luck game and a racing game. In it you plot you course down the track and then get a choice. You either roll one die at a time which allows you to stop before you spin out and bad things happen. Or you roll all the dice at once. Why roll all at once? Well, when you roll all at once, you take negative one second to your time per die rolled. So you can reduce your overall time if you don’t spin out.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

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Gamefound Fall Feast

Earthborne Games – Hubworld Aidalon

This is going to be a competitive game. It’s still going to be a card game, but very different than Earthborne Rangers. The world setting looks very interesting to me, the artwork is fun and has a sci-fi element to it. They want to create a more thoughtful and complex card game, kind of like how there has been a lot of TCG/CCG’s in that area. So some of that feel but without chasing cards. More like a competitive living card game. Crowdfunding to launch the game and then release more stuff every six months to retail. Some Andoid Netrunner feel to the game from the sounds of it.

Archon Studios – Master of Orion: Ad Astra

It’s an adaptation of a video game. It’s a massive 4X video game so how will it work over to a video game. I think it looks like a standard 4X game, and that’s good because that’ll match the video game. And it looks like it’s going to be a very big game. Interesting to me, mainly because it’s based off of a video game, and it’s making me tempted to try out the game.

It’s not just going to focus on combat, which is kind of expected. And it’s going to be a long game about 120 minutes per player. Some interesting thing because it’s going to be manufactured in Poland at Archon’s own production facility. There is a solo mode as well.

Orange Nebula – Vestige

Orange Nebula always makes some interesting games, so I’m curious on this one. This is going to be a modern Euro set in space. You’re going to be covertly trying to work the underground and find a way to get off the moon. It’s going to be a resource management game. I am interested in this one because it’s Orange Nebula, but from the sound of it, I want to know a lot more about the game before I consider backing it. I like the idea of trying to get off a moon after technology and society has collapsed and everything is this underworld sort of theme. It’s not supposed to be too complex and approachable for Orange Nebula games.

Synergic Games – Rise of Myths: Cthulhu

Another Cthulhu themed game, this is going to be a cooperative rogue-lite deckbuilding game. I love the sound of all of that. And it’s interesting it’s only a max three player game, so it’s fairly specific. And you unlock content that you go, so more stuff that I like. This really sounds like a game for me. The style of play, I love deckbuilding. It is going to have a solo mode but also can be heavily cooperative with how card play interacts. All of this is awesome to me. There is some comic lore for each character which is cool for a follower gift.

CMON – Super Fantasy Brawl Reborn

I love Super Fantasy Brawl. Do I need more of it, I question that, I need to play all my stuff again. This is a fun battler with some great challenge of attack your opponents and more. But this is going to be a brand new game, and it is going to have a challenge system. But there is going to be an upgrade pack to make all the existing champions for the new game. I am a bit bummed about this, but I need to see what this changes.

As to why changes to the game? They want to keep some of the playstyle. And it is going to tweak new challenges for the game. They really didn’t say much more on it. But I think the main elements of the game. Plus TMNT Champion Packs plus more to come.

Skykingdom Games – The Waste of Parts

Skykingdom Games made Isofarian Guard a game that I really enjoy. This however is a one to five player cooperative game. You control a giant mech, I like that, it sounds awesome. You need to make it across the waste and scavenge pieces to keep your mechs going. That sounds very cool to me. I think that it’s pretty awesome in terms of a theme. And each player is in the mech together which is also a cool twist on it as well. This is much smaller game than Isofarian Guard in terms of how much space it’ll take and just the size of the game itself.

Rock Manor Games – Seas of Havoc Reprint and Expansion

I need to play my copy. I’ll leave it at that. Not really, but it’s something that you’ll be able to see reviews and thoughts on. Generally I’ve heard good things about the game. There is going to be an expansion as well. It’s been hard to find thus far and it’s been marked up a ton on the secondary market. So the hope is that it’ll be more available. I plan on getting this one played prior to the campaign to let you know if you find that your thoughts and tastes align with me. The expansion seems to add more variability versus adding in new elements to the game.

Nerdlab Games – Final Titan

This is going to be a drafting game with some auto battling. I want to know how this is going to go because it’s not a theme that immediately jumps out to me. Nerdlab games also put out Mind Bug. This is going to be a free for all battling game. And seems like a lot of die rolling and it could be pretty fun. It reminds me of a Dice Throne, but also they said 3-5 is probably the sweet spot which is interesting. You send in a champion each round, or you skip, and they want that decision making process, so it sounds like a one on one battle but when you go into battle is interesting.

Adam’s Apple Games – Tatsumi

This is going to be a thematic abstract game. I was hoping they’d be talking about Defenders of the Dictionary which I thought was a ton of fun at Gen Con. I’m kind of meh on games that are mainly abstract even with a theme. It’s a 1-4 player game with a solo experience which is interesting for an abstract game. I wonder how much of a puzzle it will be because I do enjoy a good solo puzzle. The artwork is cool on the game for sure.

Dark Horizon Games – Earth Under Siege Flashpoint Reprint and Nemesis Expansion

A stealth dungeon crawler game, so yes, it’s the type of game that I am interested in. The game has a very good score on BGG, which is exciting as well. It makes it one that I don’t need more of that style of game, but it’s also one that I’d probably like to play. It’s going to add in some side missions into a more involved adventure. So that’s an interesting way to add in an expansion as it’s going to take some standalone stuff and adds in a campaign for those. And it’s possible now to just be a boss battler game as well with the expansion.

Boom Studios – The Complete Jim Henson’s LABYRINTH Graphic Novel Collection

This might just actually be a graphic novel. Likely stuff that is tied to a Labyrinth board game, but also, kind of odd for Gamefound. So not something, even with liking Labyrinth that I’m all that interested in.

Archon Studios – Dungeons and Lasers Porthaven

This sounds like a mini which again isn’t really my thing. But a way to set-up a pirate campaign. They also have a supplement for that as well. So interesting, but definitely an easy pass for me. It’s like the Boom Studios one where it just isn’t for me.

Final Thoughts on the Fall Feast from Gamefound

Nothing from Awaken Realms, though they seem to do it once a year. I’m still very interested in the next game that they have coming. What is your favorite from the Gamefound Feast?

For me, I think that Rise of Myths: Cthulhu is really exciting. I’d love to play that one because there are so many things that I like about. The Waste of Parts is probably my second most exciting one from the list. That is just a theme that sounds different and unique. Plus there are a lot of very other interesting things on Gamefound right now as well. I need to play more games, figure out which to keep and maybe back a few more.

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Campaign Games

Honestly, a lot of what you see is going to stay the same. I want to do better with more campaign games. I think that I can get 4 campaigns played at 10 games per campaign in this year. Last year I think I got three in, so this year the goal is four. Theoretically I might get in five, but because of Holidays, Top 100 Games of all time, Gen Con and other things, four seems more reasonable and that is going to be tricky.

But let’s talk about the games that I want to play. Starting off with Rogue Angels. I plan on playing through as much of this as I can. It’s still available for late pledge. But then I want to revisit one that I already did a play of.

I want to play more Chronicles of Drunagor. I didn’t like how it was playing with opening doors and everything being a bit of a mess that way for setting up mid stream. But I think I know how I want to fix it. And the other two, well, we’ll have to see. I have Sleeping Gods – Distant Skies, there is Assassins Creed, and I recently got Kingdom: Death Monster. And more should be showing up as well.

Solo Games & Painting

Obviously all of them are solo, but the plan for Monday is to continue with the solo games, but I want to add in a twist or change to it. Solo games, one offs, will be every other week. And then I want to mix in something else other times. One of the things might be doing Mythwind the game from Open Owl Games (used to be OOMM) as it’s a solo/multiplayer game with no real win condition. So that is going to get mixed in as well as Slay the Spire once in a while.

But I also mentioned that I have a game like Kingdom Death Monster and other games with a lot of grey plastic. Well, I have paints and brushes and a goal this year to paint more. So I might start streaming some of that every other Monday as well. I think that is going to be part of the every other Monday routine or maybe once a month. I want to paint more than that, you need to practice to get good, but maybe once a month streaming would be fun. Basically I want to give myself a bit more of a schedule for Mondays.

Malts and Meeples Goal

My goal is to continue to grow the channel. And I want to thank the people who have joined in 2023 and who keep on watching it over all the years. I really appreciate everyone and I hope if you enjoy the content that you’ll continue to watch and join live as you can.

And let me know what you think about the content and changes. Are there videos that you’d like to see me do more of? Other things that you hope from the channel, let me know. I want to keep my focus on solo gaming, but how does that work the best for you? Do you like the campaign plays or do you like more one off plays? Do you like it when I do Top 10’s or not?

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Why Make It Big?

These next two sections could just really start out with, so that the game stands out. A bigger game, it stands out among others. 1000+ cards, 200 minis, 500 tokens, weighs 300 lbs., all of those things stand out. It stands out on a shelf because it dominates the presence over other games. It stands out because you see it and all the stuff it comes with and it makes it more tempting.

But there are other reasons to make a game bigger. Firstly, it can lend itself to being more immersive. Hero minis fighting monster minis in a dungeon crawl, more immersive than just playing with tokens or a meeple or pawn. And you can’t really fit 200+ pages of story into that small a box. So it’s about creating that space for that immersive and epic storytelling.

Because that’s the other thing, it is more immersive and it’s more epic in nature. Again, those minis are going to make it feel that way.

But not all big games have a ton of minis, Gloomhaven for example has a few, Roll Player Adventures has one. These games are big for the story reason. But also because they offer things like, rolling a fist full of dice in Roll Player Adventures. Or 17 character classes you can play in Gloomhaven. So it isn’t just minis but it’s about the game play components as well.

Why Make it Small?

Making it small, you want it to stand out because it’s a smaller game than others. We have the Button Shy Wallet Games or the Tiny Epic game series. Those are about getting a game to be a small size, at least in a box to stand out as different from other games that way. How much game can you pack into small package.

But beyond that there are some other reasons you might go small. Portability is one of the biggest for them. It allows you to have that game that will get tossed into a backpack or suitcase on a trip. Easy enough to fly with, or even with some of the smaller ones, Orchard, Grove, For Northwood, or the Button Shy games. those can fit into a pocket and just be with you.

Besides that, I think most of the time the reasoning for making a small game or making sure it’s a small game, because some games are naturally small, is to show off that you can do it. Not a great reason, but I understand why some designers like to do that as a challenge.

Thoughts on Board Game Size

But what size is right? And I think that this is an interesting question. I think that both the massive game and the tiny game are used to extremes often for their detriment.

Let’s take The Isofarian Guard, for example. I removed two trays and now it fits, just barely, on my game table. And I don’t have a small game table. It is a game that is massive in size, and thus far, I think that it could have been scaled down, just a little bit, to make it fit better. The whole thing is done for the epic nature of the game, and it’ll make it easier to see and read. But it’s just big and bulky in areas for little reason other than to be big a bulky.

At the same time, there are games, Tiny Epic games are notoriously bad for this, that cram so much into a little box. When you start to put stuff back into the box you realize that you need a masters degree in packing logistics just to fit everything back in. It’s a constraint that then becomes a bad thing. And the flip can be true with big games. You get too much space and now what could be two boxes is size boxes.

Focal Point

The issue with either big or small, like I said, is when that becomes the focal point of the game. It reminds me of stories I’ve read or heard about. There the author writing a piece of fiction has a point they are trying to make. It starts to beat the reader across the head and become preaching a point versus telling a story.

Big and small games are like that, when they become about being big or being small. They beat you across the head with that versus being a good game. If your great game lends itself to being in a tiny package. That is great. If it needs three boxes of minis, that’s great. But it is about the game finding its size versus a size being put upon it.

What’s your favorite game that is tiny? And what is your favorite game that is massive?

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Top 5 2023 Gamefound Campaigns

5. Vampire: The Masquerade – Milan Uprising

I want to be more excited about this one and I am excited about a lot of it. The part that I’m less excited about is that it uses the Teburu system. Now that technology I think is interesting and I likely will get it, eventually. But it’s not out yet and my rule of thumb is don’t buy the first generation of a tech project. This is the second campaign for a game for it, and I’m excited to see them adding more games. But while the game, a cooperative 1-4 player game set in the World of Darkness setting, the technology, I want to see an iteration or two of it first.

4. DANTE: The Invasion of Hell

What puts this one on my radar is that it’s from the same company as Chronicles of Drunagor. A game that I want to play more of, but I think it’s a group campaign game. I want to know if DANTE: The Invasion of Hell works better solo? And it does have a solo mode, plus, I like their other game, so this is going to be really interesting. And my guess is that this is going to be another big game. Campaign games are a weakness of mine, so DANTE also hit on that, if it looks like a good game to play on Malts and Meeples it is going to make it even more tempting to play.

3. Thorgal: The Board Game

Based off of a video game that I don’t really know, this is a cooperative storybook adventure game, much like my #4. This one looks much smaller which I appreciate. And I’m curious to know more about it. It’s from Portal games. I don’t always gravitate towards everything Portal does, but I’m also interested to see what they are going to try next. And Thorgal, this one is interesting me. Again it’s that cooperative adventure game that can be played solo, and we know I like games like that.

2. Witchbound

I really didn’t know anything about Witchbound going in, and now it is towards the top of my list overall. I’m going to do a list like that at the end of this post for Top 5-7 games. But it’s a solo story driven game about becoming the first witch in over 100 years. That is exactly my sort of game. I like the theme of the game, I love the artwork that I’m seeing, and overall, I think I’d really enjoy it.

Plus it seems like a shorter play time which if it’s a bunch of little bites of game play over several sessions, that’s great and what I’m looking for often versus the two hours of some of the bigger campaign games that can be played solo.

1. Elder Scrolls

This one is pretty easy to pick because it’s based off of a system that I like, Too Many Bones, with a theme that I find interesting, and a company I really like. This is going to be a premium game with an IP so I expect a big price tag for it, but I’m going to likely back it, just to see if it’s for me. Chip Theory really doesn’t disappoint and they always have a strong fan base, so I’m excited for this game.

And I’m excited to see how they can bring as big a world as Elder Scrolls into a board game. It seems like it’ll be a campaign game, but one where you can mix and match different campaign elements together or go through different shorter stories, so not a massive campaign.

I find it interesting that with the five games from Gamefound all of them are cooperative games that have caught my eye. Really, it shouldn’t be a surprise, I love cooperative story driven games that can be played solo. All of these fall into that category, some of them are very big, and others less so, but at least I’m consistent.

Top 3 2023 Backerkit Campaigns

3. Leder Games Project

So like I said, it’s a bit thin on Backerkit. That means that we get from them. And one of them is this Leder Games project. It’s on the list because when Leder Games puts out a game, I am interested in it. Even if it isn’t going to be for me. I’m not that interested in trying Vast, but the game itself sounds interesting. And that means that I’m going to check out what this is when they announce it officially.

I think I’ve heard rumors, and I might be off on this, but an easier to get to the table Oath style game was in the works. But honestly, I might be making that up, there’s a lot of news and I’m just doing it off of memory. If it is, it’s maybe one that I’d pass on, but it could also catch my fancy if it’s easier to table.

2. Wild Gardens

One of the few out there that has any information on it. I’d probably have the Leder Games project above this one if I knew more about it. But Wild Gardens looks like a pretty game of resource collection and completing goals. I’m not sure what else is going on in it. But looking at the cover, it’s a pretty game, and the artwork throughout the game looks great as well. I hope that the game play matches the artwork and is a nice relaxing game to play.

1. Gloomhaven Minis and RPG

Easily my Top 1 over there. You know that I love Gloomhaven and I will say right now, I am not backing the minis. You can hold me to that, but I do not need the minis nor would I really  have use for a lot of them. It’d just make Gloomhaven and Frosthaven harder to play. But I want to know more about the RPG.

I haven’t looked into it too much yet. I know that it is built around card play, or can be, like you have in Gloomhaven. And I’m hoping that they give you tactical opportunities for combat and then a lot of theater of the mind and opportunities to role play as well. If it’s just mainly combat focused with a bit of role playing thrown on top, I’m less interested. But I’ll definitely be looking into this one more.

Top 5 2023 Kickstarter Campaigns

5. Crown of Ash

This is one that I keep on seeing advertisements for on Facebook and is one that definitely interests me. Crown of Ash is an area control and worker placement game. But it isn’t a game that is stuffed full of big minis or things like that, it looks like a more reasonably sized game. I’m not sure it’s one for me, but I want to learn more about it. The cover is striking and overall, if it’s a good area control game and the worker placement makes sense, it might be one that I want to play. Area control and in your face isn’t my normal style, but I am curious about it.

4. Rove

So there was a fan expansion that I want to get for Gloomhaven, The Crimson Scales. It’s something that was created, with the blessing of Isaac Childres to work with his system. And it sounds really cool. Rove is from that designer who is now branching out and making his own game. It’s a big box 1-4 player cooperative fantasy RPG in a box. I’m interested in that. No shock to anyone there.

And I want to know what someone who has done work related to Gloomhaven can come up with. Because I fully expect this isn’t going to be a dice chucking giant campaign like Sword & Sorcery, so how are the lessons learned from The Crimson Scales going to build into this new game?

3. Stonesaga

It helps to put this on the list having played it. And I believe the beta playtesting is going on right now, if people want to check it out. But this is a cooperative game where you are playing as cave dwellers who are advancing their society, building up, and well, dealing with giant monsters that are a threat to the board.

This is a legacy game, which is fun, and one that has story and campaign on it, but it reminds me more of the level of story of a My City or Charterstone. The story matters, and they integrate missions better and story challenges better, but it only matters so much. Plus the artwork on this one is just great and when OOMM Games puts something out I’m interested.

2. Marvel United Multiverse

Should this be number one? I don’t know. I don’t need more of the game. But Marvel United is such an easy game to get to the table that I definitely want more of the game. I love the IP with Marvel, it works well for the type of game it is. And it’s a good cooperative game that I can pull out and play with almost anyone. It isn’t too light for gamers because the game is fast. And it isn’t too heavy for non-gamers.

Plus it doesn’t matter if Groot is your favorite character, Wolverine, Iron Man, or whomever, you can sit down and play as your favorite Marvel character. And I think that’s great about it, this is just going to be even more. Like I said, I don ‘t need more, but it doesn’t make the game harder to table, which is great.

1. Rogue Angels

Again, this one hopefully will be coming back to Kickstarter or some crowdfunding platform in 2023. I put it here, I just got to play another scenario and I still love the game. The characters are so much fun, and while similar, different in what they can handle. We lost part of the scenario I played on Sunday but were able to be the overall mission. You fail forward into the story versus redoing a scenario over and over and over again.

And the game play, every time that I sit down and play it, I can pick it back up again, which is great. All of that while having a lot of story, being cooperative, you know I’m in. I think it’s one that would work well for Malts and Meeples as well. It’s a big campaign, but it isn’t a sprawling table hog like some big campaigns.

Top 5 Upcoming Crowdfunding Campaigns

Let’s face it, these are mainly going to be cooperative adventure driven games. But out of the 13 that I have, sorry Backerkit we couldn’t get to 5. Which ones are the ones that I am most interested in.

1. Rogue Angels
2. Elder Scrolls
3. Marvel United Multiverse
4. Stonesaga
5. Witchbound

What Crowdfunding Campaigns Are You Most Interested In?

Let me know which ones interest you the most? Are there any crossover, do you want to get all the minis for Gloomhaven, it would be awesome, or is that just too much? Are there any that I missed. I was trying to find everything that I could, but I won’t lie, it’s tricky.

And even some of them, like Crown of Ash is one that was supposed, I believe, to come out in 2022. Rogue Angels did, but then needed to relaunch. So it’ll be interesting to see what comes up and where everything lands. Checkout other creators, like BoardGameCo I think does a quarterly list of things, though might be doing a yearly list of Top 10 he’s most excited for across everything. So let me know what I missed that you think I might like.

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Pros

• Theme – both horror and drop bears
• Components
• Cooperative Game
• One Pledge Level
• Fulfilled A Game Already

Cons

• Rulebook Issues on Previous Game

The Page

This is a really fun looking page and game. They lean into the absurdity of drop bears and how they look like koala bears. And they have a good amount of content on the game. They have a good amount on the rules and theme of the game right away which is nice. I don’t need to go digging for that information on the page.

I also like that they explain what drop bears are. I fear that most people would assume that they are just koalas and be in big trouble. It definitely helps the game theme come through. And for a game with a silly theme that is very regional specific, I think it’s a nice little nod to have that in there.

Price point and shipping seem in line with everything that I’ve seen. I like that they aren’t trying to make it too deluxe. The components look good, but I’m glad that the campers are just tokens. A lot of campaigns would make them minis but that adds tot he price. This feels like a game that doesn’t need that higher price point.

The Game

The game itself seems interesting. A horror survival game as you build out the map, deal with the drop bears, and get gear. What stands out to most about game play is that you have a pool of campers. You might have a camper die, but as long as there is another camper, you add them into the game and keep playing. You run out of campers, you lose the game.

It’s also interesting that this is a game where it’s more about survival than it is about beating up the drop bears. Another thing that I like. There are a lot of games where it is go in and beat up the monster and when you do you win the game. Drop Bears is about survival and I think that is what interests me most.

Back or Brick

I’m very torn on this one. I absolutely adore the theme, and if I saw this in a brick and mortar store, I’d immediately go over and look at it. But is it one that I’m going to back? Right now I think this is a Brick for me. Mainly because I’m just being a little bit pickier on what I back right now. And I know that there are some things coming up, I’ll talk about one next week most likely.

But everything about this game screams of one that I should back and I might end up backing it. I love the theme as I said. Not just the horror element but the drop bears as well. And the game looks amazing. My main concern will be if it has issues with the rule book. And that might be fine when all is said and done. I do have it saved, so I might come back and get this one yet.

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

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Just an initial disclaimer, I was asked to do a preview for this game which is already up on the site, so you can see some thoughts there.

Pros

• Story Driven Game Play
• Replayable Legacy
• Price Point
• No Minis

Cons

• No Minis

The Page

The page is well done, it lays out clearly what the game is, and it hits game play right at the top. Now, it helps that the game doesn’t have minis, so that’s normally what is shown off. But I like that I can look at the game and immediately tell what it does.

I also like that it is limited on the number of pledge levels. Getting the higher pledge level just makes a few things easier to get to, basically physical versions of some story elements versus a digital version. That makes the decision process easier for a lot of people to decide and doesn’t make it feel like I’m missing out on game content if I don’t want to the physical version of those pieces.

The Game

Game play, I could spend a lot of time talking about it. This is a game that I had the chance to demo, and you see my thoughts on it here. But I will highlight a few things.

Firstly, how you take your actions is great. You play down cards to do actions and those cards have a cost associated with them. The cost determines where they go on a track which is basically a cooldown. So a really strong ability, maybe hitting someone with an attack, that might have a cooldown of three. You don’t get that power back for a while. But a basic ability is going to be weaker but you can cycle that immediately back into your hand.

I also like that the objectives aren’t always combat based. There is a lot of story that goes along with this game. And that story unfolds as you play through the scenarios. So, for example, in the first scenario, we could have taken out all the enemies and had more time doing it that way. But that also could have meant more damage to us and more of a chance of failure. Instead, we ran in, did what we needed to do and got out.

Back or Brick

No shock, this is a Back for me. It’s fun to have been able to try the game, and I feel like this game is different. I really like the story that I saw in the game. I like the mechanics with the cards. And really, like how many different mechanics that there are.

I also enjoy the fact that there are no minis. The bad guys are standees with things to count down on them to track their stats. It makes the gamer easier to play because you can see what is going on. It’s something a lot of games could benefit from, sometimes minis are just too tricky be clear. Though, other times they make the game look more awesome.

This Kickstarter is getting overshadowed by the end of two big campaigns, Final Girl and Marvel Zombies (both of which I backed), but it is worth reading through the page, which you can find here.

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Pros

• Price Point
• Aesthetic
• Storage

Cons

• Bottom Tier

The Page

This is a nice looking page. It’s kind of nice to not be talking about game play and how they yet again didn’t explain it as well as they should have. Instead here we just to get see tons of amazing looking minis.

And I think that they do a very nice job of laying out what the different pledge levels are, all that you get. I also like how custom the pledge levels are. You can get 10 different sets or 20, you get to pick. You can even go all the way up to 60 sets which would keep you in monsters and heroes for your RPG’s for a long time.

The Product

I can’t really talk too much about the page without getting into the product. Normally, obviously, I cover board games in my Back or Bricks. But sometimes a board game or a gaming related thing catches my attention. And I do think that Skinny Minis should be a board game thing. By that, I wish that board game companies would contract with them to give a Skinny Minis standee option as well as their miniature pledge level, so save me some money.

But right now I’d use them for Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t know why but I kind of want to start making terrain and building out more set pieces for what I do in Dungeons and Dragons. But doing that sounds like a lot of work and then to put on top of that you need to paint minis to go with what you’ve done and that is where Skinny Minis come in.

This product, to me, is a replacement for having to buy and paint minis. Not only that but you need to store miniatures. Skinny Minis can pack flat. That means I don’t need to think about special storage as much. Now, they do have nice storage of their own, which if I get Skinny Minis I might get.

Back or Brick

So let’s get into that. Are Skinny Minis a Back or a Brick? Right now this is a Back for me. I keep on almost talking myself out of the pledge. If the 10 pack one came with stretch goals, I’d probably be locked into it. But the value seems to be at that 20 set point which is reasonable in price but expensive. And even then, it isn’t that bad a price, it’s just a bit spendy because of the amount you are getting.

How about for you, is this a back or a brick?

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Pros

• RPG Like
• Campaign
• Solo
• The Miniatures
• Aesthetic
• Shipping

Cons

• Price

The Page

This is an awesome page. I often complain about pages where they don’t give you that much information. And some of that comes from having a lot of miniatures and wanting to show them off. This does have really cool minis, in fact I want even more minis like this in games. But this page tells so much about the game and I feel like I have a good idea on how it’ll play. I wish that more could see more pages that looked like this.

Also I will say that I am a bit worried for them with shipping. Granted it might be better, but off-settting the shipping for $20 for several thousand backers is a lot. Now, I suspect that some of the cost might have been rolled into the price of game itself. I’m sure that they figured it out but it is a bit risky and if shipping was $40 for everything that you got in the game, I wouldn’t feel like that wasn’t fair. However, the total price point with that would be very high.

The Game

The game has a ton of things that I’m interested. I like campaign, I like RPG like games, and solo games work well for me. And it has a fantasy theme, which fantasy isn’t as much of a draw when it looks more straightforward fantasy, but it isn’t a negative. It is just part of the game.

Let’s talk about the classes, characters, and minis. I think that the class system looks cool, not only that, you get to pick your own character. And with that you get a painted mini but not only that you can swap the heads on the minis. Why is that cool, now I can make any character look like me. Granted, I’m what a lot of the characters generally look like, but more in general anyone can. They have come up with a great way to make diversity in their characters while not tying that to a specific character.

And I really like the equipment system. You have a board where you are placing different pieces of equipment that you find onto your characters. Not only that, but the monsters will attack specific parts of the body. So a rat bites your hand, you’ll take more damage than a rat trying to bit your chest when you have a breast plate.

Finally, this exploration system looks very unique and interesting. You go from a tile map to that’s just a hex on the board. That might have a point of interest so you pull out another tile that is for that point of interest. That might have more for you to interact with, so you go to those spots and you could flip a building so that you walk into it. Honestly, that might be the coolest part of the system.

Back or Brick

So is this a Back or a Brick for me? As I was writing this out I almost talked myself into buying it. I’m going to have to consider between Chronicles of Drunagor and this. Maybe I’ll do a new article next today on the debate between the two. But this one is right now a Brick for me. I think had this come in March, I might have backed it, but I have a number of these bigger campaign style games coming. Still, if you think that Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread looks good, I’d highly recommend it. There is a great pedigree for this company with Xia, so I can’t imagine you’ll be disappointed.

Is this one a Back or a Brick for you?

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My goal with these videos isn’t to tell you that the game is right for you. It’s to give you a brief overview and what I see as reasons why it might not fit into your collection, or it might. No game is perfect for everyone’s collection. So I want to help you know before you spend your money on a game if a game looks like it could be right for you.

Let me know if you own Blood Rage and what grade you give it.

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Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
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