The Runelords Board Game

This one has a launch on KS and then was taken down after it wasn’t funding well. It’s coming up again in January, this time with some tweaks to the game, and I believe some characters from the books, which the first one didn’t have. I have DrGloryHogg to blame for why I’m interested in this one, he was the one who was exited for it and talking about how it was books, so I checked out the first book of the series and really enjoyed it. I need to continue the series, but I like the idea of taking groups into battle and dealing with characters who are powered up with their endowments and how part of what you might be able to do is determine how to power up your character.

Marvel United: X-Men

Marvel United is coming back to Kickstarter from CMON. I love Marvel, I love the X-Men, and I got all the chibis coming from the first game, so of course I’m going to get the second one. I want my chibi Gambit and Jubilee! Plus this is such a nice family weight fast game that it’d be hard to pass on it, even though I know I’ll get everything again.

Epic Seven Arise

This is one that caught my attention because of the anime style again. The fact that it’s based off of an app is a bit weird, but I’m really curious about this game. I need to go checkout the coverage that Man vs Meeple has on it, because it seems interesting. I’m hoping that it’s a good game not just a game that looks good, but the minis definitely look cool.

Exile

This is a gaming coming from Ryan Laukat and Red Raven games, and it seems interesting because he’s made a lot of interesting looking games like Near & Far and Sleeping Gods. But this one seems a little bit different than some of his other games that are really story driven this one is going to be very strategic, competitive and not random. I like some randomness in my games as I’m more tactical than I am strategic, but I’m curious about anything Ryan Laukat puts out.

Quantum Shock

This is a campaign game, a cooperative game, and a horror sci-fi game, all things that I like. I’m worried that it’ll just be another minis fast, well, I’m not worried it will be, I know it will be. But that said, I’m sill curious. Looking at some stuff about it, being able to manipulate time and space seems fascinating and I’m curious to see how they could make that happen in a board game, mainly the time piece, how do you go back, or something like that.

Verrago: The Fantasy Globe Game

It’s a weird name, but what makes this one so interesting is that you play on a freaking globe. You have magnetic pieces and the whole thing can spin. I’m guessing that this game might be more gimmick than game, but the idea is so interesting that I’m going to have to check it out when it hit Kickstarter.

So, You’ve Been Eaten

This is a weird game because it’s technically 0 to 2 players. It says that because you can basically play the two different AI against each other. You’ve been eaten by a monster and you need to get out and survive, and come back with crystals that’ll meet your quota, or you can play as the thing that’s eaten you, or you can play with one or both as an AI. It’s a weird idea, and I just want to see some game play really, the artwork on it looks amazing. I believe it’s coming to Kickstarter as it’s sitting in Kickstarters upcoming projects.

Last Light

This one caught my eye when it was announced that Roy Cannaday, from the Dice Tower, had designed a 4x space game, but one that wasn’t supposed to take six hours like Twilight Imperium. He’s a big fan of 4x games, so I’m hoping that it’ll feel like that and be a way that I could get a 4x game to the table. I know he’s been doing a lot od demos of it, and I’m very curious about it.

Now there are more games coming out as well, CMON is also doing a He-Man game, but it’s a theme that I’m not as closely connected with. There’s season 3 of a Batman game coming out, but I’m not into that one yet nor do I have any plans to jump on it. I’m sure that there will be others coming out as well.

What Kickstarter coming in 2021, that is known, looks the most interesting?

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One way that you can kind of cut through the clutter that’s in the industry is by using online sources and resources to help determine that games look interesting. I have a number that I use, and I want to talk about some of them there.

Board Game Geek (BGG)

The biggest one that you should know about is BGG. Board Game Geek is basically an IMDb for board games. You can look games up, see the designer, game play time, ratings of the game, player count, how difficult the game is, and more. You can also keep track of your collection and rate games that you’ve played, all of it for free. There are a few nice things with this that help you be able to figure out what board game you might like. First, you can ask for recommendations in the forums. If you do this, ask a specific question and still do research on the games, someone will always recommend Scythe or their favorite game, even if you’re asking for something like Exploding Kittens. But most people will be very helpful with recommendations. Also, each game has recommendations itself, so something like Wingspan, as I mentioned last time, recommends Welcome To… I’d spend some time checking out your favorite (highest rated) and your most played games to see where there’s overlap in recommendations and those would work well for you. BGG does more than that as well, but that’s how you can use it to help narrow down your next purchase.

The Dice Tower

The Dice Tower is one of the biggest reviewing sites/YouTube channels out there. Tom Vasel and Zee Garcia are the main two personalities currently with Mike DeLisio and Roy Cannaday also putting up some content but being more involved in production. The Dice Tower does a few different things that are useful for finding board games that you might like. First and foremost is reviews, they do a lot of them. Now, reviews, I think, can be hard to get a good feel for a game from simply because it’s one persons opinion, and everyone mileage on a game might vary, but both Tom and Zee do a good job with their reviews breaking down what they like and don’t like, and generally you can see what the underlying game is and how it works, even if you don’t agree with their opinion. They also do live shows, board game news shows, top 10 lists, and more, that can be informative. If you like adventure games, they did a top 10 list for that, so you might be able to find more adventure games that you’d like. All of these are useful, but more generally informative versus specifically digging deeply into a game. Finally, there are playthroughs of games, and I highly recommend these. Though they are learning a game most of the time, so they might not seem the most enthusiastic about it, it really gives a good idea of what the game is.

GloryHoundd

GloryHoundd and Dr. GloryHogg are two YouTubers who are on a much smaller scale than The Dice Tower, but they put out a lot of useful content as well. Especially now during Covid-19, they have put out a lot of videos of playthroughs of games so it gives you a very good idea of how they work. But they also have a weekly show where they look at various Kickstarter games, generally four per week and talk about them live with their audience. If you get a good in depth breakdown of a Kickstarter, they do a really good job of it, and they do a good job selling some games to you via their interest in them, or helping point out issues. Now, with that said, they also don’t slam any Kickstarter just point out the issues that they see, and if a game isn’t for them, there are some that they talk about that they aren’t, it’s generally because of their gaming group or style versus something very bad about the game.

Man vs Meeple

Another YouTube channel, this one is a group of four main hosts who do board game reviews, Kickstarter previews, actual plays, and more content. They are very much in the same line of content as The Dice Tower, just doing it on a smaller basis. They do a great job with their Kickstarter previews and just the depth that they go into them. Definitely worth checking out with finding another voice in the gaming industry that is talking about a lot of games. Tantrum House, The Broken Meeple and Roll for Crit.

Rolling Solo

This channel is a bit more specific, as the name would imply. One of the bigger trends in board gaming has been solo gaming as of late, and not just because it becomes more of necessity with Covid-19. Adam Smith, the sole person who runs the channel, does a lot of game play, set-up, and Kickstarter preview videos. If you are a solo gamer, there are a number of channels you can check out with it, but I really appreciate what Adam does, because he goes into a lot of detail. You’ll get a very good idea of what the game is like and how it’s going to play and if it’ll be right for you. Definitely someone to see if their tastes mesh with yours if you’re a solo gamer.

Watch It Played

Now, I am keeping Watch It Played a channel by Rodney Smith, now working Pair of Dice Paradise and Chaz Marler, but Rodney does his content a bit differently. Mainly, Rodney does rules videos. So while you won’t get an opinion on the game or often anymore a playthrough of a game you do get precisely how a game is played. Through this you can often tell if a game is going to work well for you or not, or at least see if the mechanics make sense compared to what you normally play. I highly recommend it for learning how to play a game, I think in some ways, for finding a game, you need to be pretty familiar with games to get an idea if it’ll be your type of game or not by just watching a rules overview.

Now, those are just some of the resources that I use. There are others like No Pun Included, Shut Up and Sit Down that are out there and many many more that you can checkout and find out good information. I will say, with reviewers, be careful, find someone who has similar taste to yourself. I personally don’t put much weight in No Pun Included’s reviews because we have vastly different gaming tastes and I don’t get the information that I need on my style of game from them. Sure, it can be interesting to see a dissenting opinion but there are a lot of people who put a lot of stock in it. So know the types of games that the reviewer likes and understand that a review is an opinion piece and find the one that matches up with you, it might be No Pun Included, it might be Tantrum House, it might be The Dice Tower or someone I haven’t even mentioned, but find what works for you.

Do you have a favorite YouTuber or website for board game information?

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

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