What Do I Mean Too Much Stuff in Crowdfunding?

Let’s look at an example. Kingdom Death Monster is a great example of this. Why, because they are still delivering the stretch goals. And they weren’t extremely fast on this timeline, if I remember correctly, but the project was expected to deliver in December of 2020. We’ve had a ton of time since then, why, because they are still designing and delivering stretch goals.

In particular, when I talk about this, I am talking about games that add in so much extra stuff that isn’t planned for in the campaign. The counter to this is CMON who with their Marvel United, they add in a lot of things, but all of them are planned, except maybe the last one or two.

But neither of these examples gets to the meat of the issue. What is it? You can’t play it all. I can’t play it all. Sometimes it is just too much stuff.

Too Much Stuff in Crowdfunding

But more stuff is better, isn’t it? If I get fifty different characters, three add on minis scenarios, miniatures of all the bad guys, that is good, isn’t it?

I do think the answer to this, is sometimes. But honestly, it is not good a lot of the time. Why, there are a couple of different reasons that I want to explore. I think some gamers will resonate more with one or another of them so it is worth calling out both reasons.

Guilt/Must Play It All

The two ideas overall, I think, can be tied to one another. But it’s worth splitting them out, because, they can present themselves in different ways. In this way, I liken it to getting something new or fun and then just looking at it. You get it, and until you use it, you feel bad for getting it.

And with more stretch goals and a bigger all in on the campaign, it is harder to use all of it. Let’s use Marvel United as an example. There are about 200 characters from the first two campaigns. So I own both all in. I play it a few times a year. But I don’t play all 200 characters, and I haven’t yet played all the 200 characters. So I feel bad and guilty for getting all of that even though I enjoy it.

The other reason is going to deal more with not playing it. But with the guilt aspect or the need to play it all, what can hurt is forcing yourself to do that. You feel guilt that you didn’t play with it all, so even though you just played a lot of that game and are done for now, you force yourself to play more. And now a game which is fun, if you play in little doses, becomes a big, heavy drain to play.

Ease To Table

To me, this is the one that I need to work on the most. This idea of get everything because it is awesome, but now I own everything and it makes getting the game to the table harder. And I am not referring to guilt about not playing it and making me apathetic to get it to the table.

This is just that sometimes too much stuff makes it harder to play. An example or two of the opposite of this are Dice Throne and Marvel United. They both go with the grab your characters and go theory. There is little extra set-up or changes to rules because you pick characters. You don’t need to know everything about the game to play with whomever you want.

On the flip side, something like Reichbusters which I might be selling soon and have replaced with a smaller game, is that I own a ton. So I got it all sorted into the boxes. But now to play it, I need own enough that I need to spend a lot of time sorting to get it to the table. It adds a barrier of entry to the game because of how much I own.

And that is where the crux of this issue lies. You want it, because it is awesome. But when you own it, it makes the game harder to get to the table.

The Solution?

To wrap up, I think there are solutions to this. And I’ll talk about a few of them that I like to use. Not all of them work all the time, but they can be good sometimes.

Game Play

First one is one that works well if you feel like there is too much stuff for the game. If you get a box of wooden tokens and metal coins and you need to pull them out to get the real experience of the game. Don’t get them next time.

Marvel United, for example, is a game you can get extra fancy things for. So I get cardboard locations and plastic tokens and a play mat. That isn’t that much, but it’s hard to store the characters already. So if I bought that it would add in even more work to get the game to the table. So just buy stuff for game play.

Retail

Maybe the game play is even too much. Hold off on it and wait until retail. I am not suggesting buying the retail level pledge where it is the base game that will come to stores. You likely can get it cheaper with sales and free shipping. But wait patiently, you can even pre-order it if need be.

Storage Solution

Finally, and this one costs you more money in the long run, get a storage solution. That can be an insert that costs $40-100 depending on the game that makes it easy to play. Or it can be a craft bin for cross stitch thread for $5. Whatever makes it easier to just pull out the game and play. Get something that assists with that, so that when you look at your gaming investment it doesn’t seem too daunting.

What do you find helps you get those monster Crowdfunding games to the table?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Pros

• The aesthetic
• The style of game
• Company’s preview work

Cons

• Retail edition price
• Deluxe edition extras

The Page

R2i (Road to Infamy) is the same company that put out Canvas, so they know something about running a beautiful looking Kickstarter. And this game is no different with that, showing off great artwork and then cool and unique pieces.

That is really a hallmark of what R2i does. In Canvas they have amazing artwork that you layer into paintings. And in the deluxe they had easels. And the globes for Globetrotting are equally as amazing. Add in the fact that it’s a roll and write dry erase board is equally as amazing.

But I do have a little issue with their pricing or what you are getting. So, the base game, retail edition, with shipping is at MSRP. Do you want to get it now, then it’s worth backing, if not, it might not be. And the deluxe edition, it doesn’t add in that much. In the deluxe edition you get a few more goal tiles and a few cards. Compare that to getting easels for Canvas, it feels lacking. Now, what else could they create more deluxe, I’m not sure, because the game is already deluxe. Maybe the easels were an add-on but in either case, the deluxe doesn’t add too much.

The Game

The game itself looks like a lot of fun. You are creating routes for vacations around your globe. You do so in three different seasons trying to complete objectives and getting stamps in your passport. It looks like it doesn’t try and do too much, though as a game.

What really intrigues, though, most about the game is this idea of wanting to travel the same places as the people next to you. That determines how you score points or how many you score points. So you’ll want to work together but not all the time so you don’t give them too many points either. It reminds me of Between Two Cities, I believe it is, where you build up two cities between players and only score the lower.

Here, you score your own thing, but you don’t want to ally with one player too much so that they are getting more than you for completing their goals. It seems like it offers some interesting interactions at the table compared to some roll and writes. A lot of them are very solitaire in what you do, which isn’t a bad thing. But it’s nice to see roll and writes that try and do something different.

Back or Brick

You can probably guess, but this is a Brick for me. Even though I enjoy Canvas a lot, and even though I love roll and write games, the reason to back on Kickstarter just isn’t there for me. Globetrotting is a game that I likely pick-up at retail. And it’ll be part of an online order so chances are slightly below MSRP with free shipping. There is nothing that really is incentivizing me to go get it now besides supporting the company.

And the deluxe gives a price jump and some decent things, but not enough for interest me. It’s less of a deluxe and more of just adding in a module and a bit more game play content. When you say deluxe on a Kickstarter project, I am expecting some physical upgrades versus more stuff. Maybe something like a nicer passport, or something like that.

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

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Find the Gamefound campaign here.

Pros

• Proven Game
• Even the standard version is nicer
• Good Price

Cons

• Will Come to Retail with Standard Version

The Page

This is a very nice looking page, and the rules are pretty high on it. Even before you get to the point where you would likely pledge. And because the rules for this game are generally pretty simple, it makes it easier to understand from the page how to play.

I also think that they do a solid job of showing off the differences between the editions or versions of the game. And while I do think that the wooden tokens are nice, I find them to be a little bit more than I’d want. Same with the metal coins, for a person who loves their deluxe editions, it offers nice things. For me, that is not as much of a selling point as it could be. And I find the metal point tokens to just look okay.

The Game

So, this is a game that I’ve actually played before. The original printing of Ra is not easy to find and doesn’t look this good. But still a nice game. I do find it simple, and while it floats around my Top 100 games, on the lower end, it isn’t one that I’ve picked up myself yet.

Auctioning

Ra is an auction and set collection game where the most interesting thing is the auction. You bid, and then the winning tile goes into the middle, and you, who wins, gets the tile that was there. You can’t immediately, then bid with that tile, but with the game played over several rounds, you can then bid with it in a future round. It makes an interesting economy for the game.

For example, it’s a good set-up of tiles to get, but the one is in the middle. So I could bid with the highest number, 16, and for sure I get those tiles. But now I am going to get the one at the cost of my 16. Is the value of those tiles there for me. Maybe it is, maybe it’ll give me a lot of points. Now, though, you win the 16 with a nine the next time, or even a six, let’s say. You’ve gotten a massive improvement for your bidding whereas, my one is likely going to be whatever tiles are left next round.

Set Collection

The set collection element is good, too. Mainly because it causes you to really think about what you want to take. To look at my example, again, it might be that there are tiles that just aren’t worth it for me in the collection for the bid and it might be good for you. I only can win two bids per round, so do I want to spend a decent bid hoping to get you to spend more on it? It’s an interesting decision making space, or do I bid a lot to keep you from getting more points and hoping the next set of tiles isn’t what I want, or still really good for you?

Back or Brick

I am very torn on this one what to do. I enjoy Ra a lot. And this is a great looking version of the game. It is also cheaper than the out of print version. But do I back it now, or later? Right now, I lean towards this being a Brick for me. Not because I don’t want Ra, I do, but because I can get it later at retail.

The downside of waiting is that I might not get a copy in the original print run. In that case, I might wait for a while to get it. If I back it now on Gamefound, then I am going to get the game. It is made trickier because I don’t care of the deluxe edition. I think it offers some nice upgrades, but not ones that I need. A more standard product from 25th Century Games is still very good quality.

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

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

With FOMO, it’s about controlling a desire for what you want to back. But in this case, you know you want to back that game on Kickstarter or Gamefound, but what level do you decide to back it at, and what should you be looking out for?

What Are Common Crowdfunding Pledge Levels?

So, before we talk about what level to back at, let’s talk about common levels. Because there are a few that I would say you see fairly often.

Retail

This is going to be the version of the game that will hit retail.

Game Play

This is going to be a pledge level where you can get everything that might have anything to do with game play. So, more cards, this level, and expansion, this level of pledge.

Deluxe

At Deluxe, it is going to contain the fancy pieces. It might not have all game play but it’ll have upgrades pieces like metal coins, screen printed meeples, things like that.

Retailer

This is not the retail level, the retailer level is if you want to get access to the pledge manager and order several for a store.

Print and Play

Print and Play is going to let you get the game without getting the game. You get the files for the game that you can print off and use. This is pretty common for roll and write games, or small card games.

What To Consider When Picking A Pledge Level?

There are a few things to consider when picking what level you want to pledge a game at. But we’ll start with one of the big ones, how much game play content do you actually need? And then what will add enjoyment to your experience.

How Much Do You Actually Need?

This is a bit of a FOMO thing, but how much do you really need. At this point, you know you want the game but is it worth getting everything for the game? And not even at the side of FOMO, how much will you actually play. Do you feel like you’re missing out, or is this just going to be more stuff that you will have sit on a shelf?

I know that there are some games out there, where having more makes it harder to play. I believe it’s the Sator Box for Black Rose War that there is just so much to sort through that it’s almost impossible to get it to the table. So you don’t want to end up with too much stuff that it makes the base game harder to table as well.

So look at how much you get in the pledge. Let’s talk about the opposite of the Sator Box, Marvel United has a ton of stuff in it, but that doesn’t change how easy it is to play the game. You grab a character, villain, locations, and go. The only thing that might be slower is finding the minis. And the variety makes the game even more fun to play. So consider how much you actually need.

Will It Make The Game More Enjoyable?

This one pertains more to stuff like the deluxe version of a game. Metal coins are cool and all, but will it make the game more enjoyable? Minis are cool, but are they going to make it more enjoyable than standees would? The answer to those questions might be yes. It might make the game more immersive than it was before and give you a better experience.

On the other hand, much like all the game play content, it might make the game harder to get to the table. Do you pull three boxes off of the shelf now instead of when you pull one off the shelf? And is that going to make you more likely to pull it off the shelf?

I like when games, like Dwellings of Eldervale, give you deluxe components that fit in the main box. I don’t need to worry about grabbing anything more, just the one box. And I’m not sorting through deluxe and regular components to find what I need. I think that’s a smart way to do it. It does mean I have regular components I can’t use.

On the flip side with Dwellings of Eldervale, if you didn’t get deluxe, you end up with empty space in your box. And that’s an issue as well because I don’t want stuff sliding around. Now there are holder for the deluxe bits but they are empty, so to me that’s a bit odd, I’d prefer a smaller box in that case.

So, What Level Should I Pledge At?

For me, the place I start is at the game play level. I look to see how much it is going to cost to get everything for game play. And sometimes I’ll back at that level and other times I won’t. It depends on cost and how much there is.

But for me, game play is always the starting point at where I look. With game play, you know what you are getting the whole of what you can play around with. And some games don’t need everything, I can give some examples here.

Going back to Marvel United and Marvel United X-Men, I don’t need fancy tokens. The extra thick location tiles, not interested. But I do want all the characters because the game is easy to play even with everything.

On the flip side, when I backed Primal, I didn’t back extra monsters, I just got the base game. Yes, the different monsters will behave differently. So I am missing out on game play content. But I also get a lot. And I don’t think that I need that extra variety. I’d take it because the monsters are cool, but I don’t need it.

Crowdfunding Pledge Level Final Thoughts

The milage on what you pick might be different for you than me. I do think it’s important to look at what you get in the game play level and decide on how much you need. I will also say, don’t back the retail level. If they are planning on going to retail, get it there, and get free shipping if you go through an online retailer.

The only reason, I see, to back at the retail pledge level instead of getting it at retail would be to support the company. And I do approve of that reason. I back stuff from Indie Board and Cards for Aeon’s End and now Astro Knights that will come to retail, why, because I want to support the company and get it slightly sooner.

How do you decide what level to pledge at?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Pros

• Horror Theme
• Price

Cons

• 3-5 player range
• Board Aesthetic

The Page

This is a well done page where they highlight the game play first and then show off the minis and everything for the game. You get some idea of what is in the game right away but it doesn’t show off like it’s a minis game.

However, the aesthetic of the game is lacking. I think that the characters look good. The sculpts are on the minis are solid, not that dynamic in some cases but solid. But the other components, the board, and the cards, they are underwhelming. It almost feels like two different games. Yes, you can see the symbols do match fairly well with the character art, but it’s so minimal on the cards and board that it just doesn’t look as polished as it should.

The Game

Dead by Daylight is then underwhelming me as a game also. Mainly the game seems like it could be tense in what it does. Killer going around and wounding people to take them back and sacrifice them. But it looks like it’s a play a card and do that action. There is going to be strategy in what actions you take when, but less than the game would seem like.

I am not sure that this feels like a more complex game than something like a Pandemic game. So maybe that is more of it, Dead by Daylight doesn’t seem like as modern a game. In fact, if they could save some money and give me tokens with character artwork or pawns instead of minis and make this a $35-$40 game instead of $50, I’d be more interested in it.

Back or Brick

So, no suspense here, this is a Brick for me. Mainly, I think that the theme, while I like horror, is just okay for me. This is a really dark version of horror with sacrificing characters, and things like that. Just too dark when it comes to horror, I prefer more monster than serious slasher.

But to go with that, I feel like this game is one that doesn’t need to be on Kickstarter. $49 is not bad for the retail version of the game. But when it comes to retail if Miniature Market, CoolStuffInc, or GameNerdz get it, I can get it cheaper than I can on the Kickstarter. And they will get this game.

The biggest thing, though that makes it a brick for me is the player count. 3-5 player games really limit who I can play it with. Obviously, that’s a lot of one versus all game where you need at least 3. But a two player variant officially in the game, I’m sure someone will come up with one, would be smart.

How about for you, is Dead By Daylight a Back or a Brick?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

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?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

What is It?

Brotherwise Games is putting out a tactical minis game based off of the Netflix animated show, The Dragon Prince. Put together a team of your favorite characters and lead them into battle. Will Callum and Soren be able to take down the team of Claudia and Rayla, only your game will decide.

So for what this game is, it looks like it’s a card driven tactical battle game. Like I said, you create your team of characters and then using card play you maneuver and attack your opponent trying to knock out their characters. The game uses a charging systems where characters can charge up powers to do bigger attacks to knock out their opponents even faster. Each characters cards are going to give them a thematic feel like you get from the show. Soren is more of a tank, while the rogue like Rayla will jump in and out of battle.

Why Am I Hyped?

I am hyped because of the theme and because of the card play in the game. I recently have gotten in three games of Super Fantasy Brawl. That was another skirmish tactical battle sort of game but with objectives that you are trying to complete as well. It had simple systems and card play. I hope that this game is similar to that. I think it’ll be more about taking out your opponent than Super Fantasy Brawl was, but if the card play and game play is as fast, that certainly sounds cool.

Brotherwise Games is kind of known for creating games that are lighter. Examples being Boss Monster and Call to Adventure. Now, I have only played Boss Monster and that game is just hanging in my collection. The theme is fun and the 8bit artwork is great for it. The game play is just fine. I do have Call to Adventure: The Stormlight Archives that I need to get to the table. But with the fact that their games tend not to be that heavy, I’m thinking this one will fall in line. And because of the theme, this might be a tactical game my wife would be interested in trying.

When And Where Do I Find It?

The when is still up in the air. You can sign up over on Brotherwise Games site to get notified when the pre-orders go live. But it is going to go to retail for $40 with 8 characters to start. So 8 minis, the board, and 16 cards per character, it is a pretty solid deal in terms of value. I’m glad that this going to retail because I think it should have mass market appeal.

Hype Level

Quick refresher on how the hype level works. It is from 1 to 5. Five is super hyped. One is hyped. I’m not going to do a “Let There Be Hype” if I’m not hyped about it as well.

1 of 5

Now that seems low, like I said it’s my favorite animated show possibly ever. And for sure best one for kids. What keeps it lower is the fact it’s a tactical skirmish style game. Those games come out a lot. And I have Super Fantasy Brawl, which I love. Since I’m getting more characters for that and the game is easy to play, I’m not sure that I need to get this one.

What is your hype level for The Dragon Prince: Battlecharged? Let me know in the comments below.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

First off, though, let’s define what a stretch goal is. A stretch goal is a funding goal to get additional content or improvements added to a game. For example, in Marvel United, there are stretch goals to unlock additional characters for the game. Or there are some where it’s less game play focused or additional game play focused and it’ll be something like linen finish for the cards or a Game Trayz insert for the game. So something that is going to make the game feel more special or complete. Another example would be Tainted Grail, they did two expansions that were for added into the Kickstarter pledge but if it goes to retail, you’d have to buy them separately. Basically, they are to add extras into the game, sometimes for the Kickstarter backers only and sometimes for everyone. What is cool about stretch goals is what it can bring the community of board gamers into help something be fully realized. The downside is of course FOMO, that you might be missing out on a bit for the game because it wasn’t unlocked, or because something is exclusive to Kickstarter.

That is one of the toughest things about Kickstarter, the FOMO, not just from stretch goals. If you’re not familiar with the term, FOMO stands for “Fear of Missing Out”. Basically, it’s the idea that you need to do and get everything in order that you don’t miss out on something great. When it’s doing things, it can be a bit paralyzing, because you don’t know which thing is going to be the best or how you’re going to do everything. With buying a Kickstarter, it’s less paralyzing, because it’s money not your time, which isn’t a great thing. There are two ways that Kickstarters can create FOMO for users.

The first is what I mentioned above, Kickstarter exclusive things. Now, going back to Marvel United, a lot of the Marvel characters are going to be Kickstarter exclusive, it isn’t the main characters, but if you wanted Beta-Ray Bill or Spider-Ham, you need to get them through the Kickstarter. So while the game will likely be hitting retail, and I expect it to be pushed big in retail, you’re going to have a more limited number of things that you can get, and to track down those characters later could be spendy. So do you risk missing out on those exclusives? That’s how they get your FOMO going with Kickstarter exclusives.

The other way is technically not a Kickstarter exclusive, but it is pretty similar because it could just be that the game itself is exclusive or not hitting retail for sure. For example, Tainted Grail might not hit retail, and probably the expansions won’t even if the base game does. So do you risk it not hitting retail and having to find it on the secondary market, possibly costing a lot? And some games will only ever be on Kickstarter because they are too large and expensive to stock in stores, or because it is such a small indie project that the person doesn’t have connections to get it into stores. Those I think are easier, but the ones where it might go to retail, how do you handle that? Do you wait and hope that everything makes it to retail or that it isn’t a lesser retail version or do you still go in on the Kickstarter. Add in the fact that deservedly so Kickstarter backers who are making the project happen most of the time get their games first, do you want to wait the extra two months to a year to get the game in retail?

So, is there a good way to avoid FOMO with Kickstarter? I don’t really think that there is. At least nothing that you can do without treating FOMO as a whole. Kickstarter and sales in a brick and mortar store are all built around making you feel like you have to decide now and fast and that you’re going to miss out if you don’t decide fast. I can go into, maybe, in a future article about FOMO and how you can cope with FOMO, but Kickstarter is built to cause FOMO and without just avoiding Kickstarter, I think that FOMO is going to just be a part of it for a lot of people. So, if I were to have a few tips and tricks for helping deal with it with Kickstarter, I can think of a couple.

A lot of Kickstarters allow you to back for $1. You aren’t going to get a game just backing for $1, but it can give you access to the pledge manager quite often. In the pledge manager you basically can always get the same deals as you did on the Kickstarter. What that does is it allows you to consider it for a small amount of money. Get a regular coffee instead of a fancy coffee and you can do 2-3 $1 pledges. This allows you to feel not as rushed about making the decision. The Kickstarter will run for a month, fairly often, then it might be a month setting up the pledge manager and the pledge manager will stay open for another month. In that month between the Kickstarter campaign and the pledge manager, did you think about the game, if you don’t, you’ve just spent $1.

Similar to this, Kickstarter has a final 48 hour notification. That means that they send out an e-mail and notify you when a campaign is ending. I use this all the time. If I think something looks interesting, I save it, I get notified, and generally, if I haven’t backed it before then, I ignore it, because the FOMO wasn’t that strong. But it could be a good reminder or maybe I got some money for spending on games so I might consider it again at that point.

In both of the cases, it’s about seeing how much you actually think about it. In the games that I’ve been interested in and been all in on, I generally look at it, consider it and sleep on it, but if I’m still thinking about it the next day, I know if I’m going to back it, so I do right away. Otherwise, it’s probably isn’t one that I’d back. These can techniques buy you the time to decide that you might not feel like you have otherwise with a Kickstarter, and hopefully can help your budget and your FOMO.

Do you have FOMO with any games? Has it come back to bite you ever?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

(All games are Kickstarter games in images)

Like your standard party game, Bring Your Own Book runs off of the prompt and reply system. This is why I brought up games like Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples. Now, I actually like some prompt and reply style of games. I think that games like Stipulations and Beyond Balderdash (which I believe I can just call Balderdash now) are enjoyable because in these games you are coming up with your response, so it relies on your creativity, not just a hand of cards you’ve been given. Bring Your Own Book doesn’t do that, because, instead of using a card or writing something down, you are finding a line in a book to use, and that can be whatever book you brought to the table.

This is a strength and issue of the game. It’s a strength because it lends itself to variety. When we’ve played it, we’ve had books ranging from technical or non-fiction books to YA books. So you actually get more variety and you don’t see cards repeat like you do in something like Cards Against Humanity or Apples to Apples. But, at the same time you’re limited to whatever book you brought to the table or that was at the table when you got there. So if the book I have at the table is an epic fantasy novel, everything I read is going to sound like an epic fantasy, and if it’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, it’s going to sound like that. So as a player, you are still being limited in variety of what you can do, unless you have a book of short stories.

But also with that, there’s another issue. You have a time limit to find your passage in the book, and this is very much needed, but that also cuts down on how much you can really search for a good sentence. If you had unlimited time, there would be people who would just start reading the book every time. I think that the title is very accurate of this game, though, to get around the problem of the time limit. You need to bring your own book, and you need to know it well. If I got the first Harry Potter book, I’m going to be able to comb that for certain passages and scenes better than I would The Expanse, for example. Because I’ve read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone several times and I haven’t read The Expanse. That’s going to be different for everyone, and while my wife and I have a good collection of books, we might not have books that someone else has read, so the game is going to be trickier for them. So, you might want to bring your own book, which means that this party game now needs to be planned to work at it’s best.

And I will say, that it’s definitely at it’s best, I think you can do it with random books. However, if you play with random books, I would suggest rotating books as you rotate the person giving the prompt. That way, everyone one gets the chance with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and everyone gets a chance with How to Win Friends and Influence People. This will make the game more fair, because, while How to Win Friends and Influence People might not be a dry book, it’s not as exciting as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and there is probably less familiarity with it around the table. Or, if you are doing random books, keep them all in the same family. Fantasy fiction would be a great one, you don’t even need to pick a type of fantasy, but that is going to keep everyone on even footing.

The actual game components, I think that the kickstarter version looks amazing, and that’s what I have. I, however, don’t really like the retail version all that well. As compared to the kickstarter, it looks cheaper and it loses the charm of looking so much like a book itself. Now the game doesn’t play different, it’s just an aesthetic thing. I think had I not gotten the kickstarter version of the game, I don’t know that the retail version would have even caught my eye.

Overall, this is another party game. If you like games like Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples, but you want a party game with unlimited variety, but still restricting, Bring Your Own Book works well, because where ever you play it, it will feel different. I’d pull it out again off my shelf, but probably not in a lot of situations. If I themed a board game night around books, it would probably be the warm up game before we split off into other smaller games.

Overall Grade: C
Gamer Grade: D
Casual Grade: B-

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.