Casting Shadows from Unstable Games

Casting Shadows is going to be a battling game for two to four players. Players are going to gather cards, summon companions and sling spells in a strategic game. This is from the company that brought Here to Slay and Unstable Unicorns. I haven’t played either of those games and they aren’t high on my radar. But I always checkout the games because the artwork on Here to Slay is great, and same with Casting Shadows.

What interests me less about the game is the style of game that it is. I am always only so interested in skirmish style games. Especially where the game seems to be focused most on slinging spells and knocking out your opponent. I own Super Fantasy Brawl in the genre, and it gives me ease of game and objectives. It reminds me in some ways of a combination of Magic: The Gathering and Super Fantasy Brawl. I own both, so the artwork isn’t enough to bring me in. This is a Brick for me.

Fire For Light from Greenbrier Games

Greenbrier Games is another well known company. They’ve done some fun games like Folklore: The Affliction, Grimslingers, and Champions of Hara. This one feels different than some of their other games. Fire For Light is a narrative driven cooperative game. They have done stuff like that before, but the polish of this game seems less than their other games.

That said, I do like that this is supposed to be a light, fast to the table narrative driven campaign game. A lot of campaign games end up with a million little pieces and take forever to set-up. Fire For Light looks like it should be faster. And it offers character leveling. I also like that Fire For Light is a 15 game campaign. You saw Sleeping Gods played over 10 sessions, I like some shorter campaigns right now. That said, it is still a campaign game, and how many do I need? This is going to be another Brick for me.

Jurrasic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar by Prospero Hall

Dive into the world of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies. Build up your dinosaur islands, create new dinosaurs and hope that things don’t go wrong. That’s the hole of Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar anyways. This is a big cooperative legacy game from Prospero Hall who has done a lot of work with Target for games before, but this game is too big and expensive for a mass market store. So it is coming to Kickstarter, and I expect to see it show up at local game stores as well.

Obviously, the main thing that draws me in is it being a legacy game. Whenever someone says Legacy I am going to be interested. But, I am also interested in it because of the dinosaur theme. There have been a lot of games that promise dinosaurs from Dinosaur Island, Dinogenics, Tiny Epic Dinosaurs, Welcome To Dinoworld, and more recently. But this is the first truly Jurassic Park one.

I like that about it, but there isn’t much that is Kickstarter exclusive. Yes, this game might be harder to find when it comes to retail, but what’s the added benefit of backing it? Apparently they are looking to address that, but until they do this is a game I will get, but at retail.

Mercurial by Hyperlixer

This one I don’t know nearly as much about as some of them. It hit my radar because of the artwork and someone telling me about it. Which, I mean, other people being interested in a game makes it more interesting to me. I like it when I don’t have to fully vet everything myself. And then great artwork that is going to draw me in even more. I don’t know much about Hyperlixir as a company, so while I don’t think it is a big risk that this is never going to fulfill, expect it to be later than the estimated date.

Mercurial seems like it might be some of an engine building game, at least to some level. I almost get a bit of a Century game vibe to it, Spice Road or Golem Edition. The game appears to have you adding in cards to your hand and rotating those cards to get different resources, then using those resources to complete bigger cards. It’s a system that looks interesting, but I’m not quite sold on it yet, so right now it’s a Brick for me, but one I want to look into more.

Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders by Druid City Games

So, while this is in the same world as Tidal Blades, it is a very different game. This is a dungeon crawler versus that was a dice upgrading and engine building game. Druid City Games, is also an established company and definitely makes very pretty looking games. Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders is definitely the interesting part of this campaign to me. Cypher System RPG is great for some people, but I am sticking with D&D for my RPG’s.

What interests me a lot in the dungeon crawler is how you activate. This building action as you play down cards to a grid and when you get full rows or columns they activate for a big action, wipe, and you build up again. I see this an interesting puzzle, but I wonder about the downtime between the big actions. That said, this looks like a deluxe game, even if you don’t pledge at the minis level. And the character progression and the different paths you need to keep track of is cool to me. It has a lot going on that I like in a campaign game.

But, that said, it is also a campaign game. That means that it will take a while to play. And Druid City Games, and what they have done before, they generally do see some level of retail. I’m tempted to wait on this one, but it’s teetering whether or not this is a Back or Brick for me, right now it’s a Brick because of upcoming games, but I really want to get it at some point in time.

Ares Expedition: Discovery – Foundations – Crisis from Stronghold Games

So, when the original game that this is expanding upon came out it was called Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition. The game, from what I know, plays different than Terraforming Mars, but is similar in some ways. It appears for this Kickstarter they are focusing on the fact it is a different game. That might have made it more interesting or better set expectations for some gamers the first time.

There are three expansions for this game that they are doing. You’ll be able to get all of them later, but the big draw of buying it now is getting dual layer boards, as an add-on, if you want, and the fact it comes in a big box. The big box means that you can store everything, including the base game, more easily. And that’s the most tempting reason to back it.

Discovery adds in awards and and milestones. Those are interesting, but less interesting than the upgraded phase cards. In the base game you all have the same phase cards that add extra powers if you play down that phase. The upgraded phase cards means that my cards can become more unique as th game goes on.

Crisis adds in a cooperative mode. Basically, Mars has been terraformed and now things are happening to undo all our hard work. Can we keep up as bad things keep happening. It’s an interesting add to the game.

Foundations is a 5-6 player expansion, so you can play with more. Plus it adds in an infrastructure track and 20 project cads that you can work on for that track.

Right now, I think I will end up backing this one. But I am waiting on it. Out of all of them it’s the most likely to be a Back for me. Mainly having a big box that will store the base game and expansions sounds great.

Crowdfunding Madness Final Thoughts

There are so many games that came out this week. I know that there are some others that I haven’t looked into as much because they didn’t jump out at me. But there are a strong six games here, so let’s go through quickly and rank my least to most likely to back.

6: Casting Shadows – Great artwork, not my style of game.

5: Fire for Light – Looks like a light campaign game and some interesting things, but it’s campaign and the aesthetic doesn’t draw me in.

4: Mercurial – I need to look into it more, I hope it’s hand/engine building, but I don’t know. Also, I have games like that.

3: Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders – Game looks gorgeous and I really am intrigued by the building up rows and columns for actions.

2: Ares Expedition – Discovery -Crisis – Foundations – I really like the base game, so expansions are almost a no brainer. The only thing is, do I need the big box, that’s the main reason to back it on Kickstarter.

1: Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar – It’s a legacy game, it’s a cooperative game, and it’s a dinosaur game. But right now while I know I will buy it sometime, I don’t need to back on Kickstarter to get a fancy sleeve.

Which one are you most interested in?

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What Is The Game?

Sleeping Gods is an open world adventure game. You show up and your ship is sailing in an unknown ocean and you don’t know what you need to do or what is happening. Taking your ship, you then sail around having adventures. That’s the main gist of the game. That might not seem like that much, but as you explore, interact with the story, you start to unfold what is going on and how to find a way back to where you should be. Plus there are skill challenges and monsters to fight along the way.

One of the really interesting things is what you don’t play as one character. You play the game as the crew. Even if you are playing solo, like I will be, I will play as the whole crew. Now, only some of them come on missions to the mainland, and I get to decide that. But all of them are going to be available to me.

I am also really interested to play this game and see how the story is. Ryan Laukat, the designer of the game and artist for it, did Near and Far. I like the story in Near and Far, but I wanted more connection to it. This, I think, is still going to be a little bit disjointed or have side stories for it. But I’m hoping, my comparison, that it’ll be more cohesive overall.

How to Play Sleeping Gods

Let’s face it, I’m going to learn how to play the game through a helpful video. I don’t mind reading rule books, and I will read the rule book, but there is also this from Rodney Smith of Watch It Played.

That is going to give you a better overview of how Sleeping Gods works mechanically than I can. And well, if there is a How To Play video, that’s where I’m going to start and where I recommend that people learning the game start.

Why I’m Excited For Sleeping Gods

This was actually my vote on the poll for a game to play. I could have just picked it, but I do want to play all of them on the list. Like I said, with Deep Madness, that might be one I set-up and just play by myself some weekend. But Sleeping Gods, I’m really excited for the story. I am confident it’ll be good mechanically, Near and Far was fun, and the art is amazing. But I want to see how the story is.

And I am also excited for the open world nature of the game. I really haven’t explored much open world gaming before. Tainted Grail gives some freedom, but I haven’t played 7th Continent or Western Legends, yet, which give you many th ings you can do. This one the theme really interests me on it and the aesthetic draws me in more.

Why You Should Watch

Well, because you can help me make decisions on what I should do. There’ll probably be some in session that I have questions about or want input on. But also, my goal is to end each stream with a question that I can create a poll for. Something that you can help me decide what I want to do to start the next session. And I have no clue what those decisions will be, but I’m excited to find out.

So, every Wednesday, maybe minus next week, I’ll be streaming Sleeping Gods coming up here. I might stream next week but it won’t be Sleeping Gods. Maybe a roll and write game or maybe just chatting with everyone. Or maybe there won’t be a stream. But starting in 2022 I’ll be streaming Sleeping Gods for as many weeks as it takes to get through the story. I hope that you can join me for it.

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