After watching the gameplay video on Quackalope/BoardGameCo for ISS Vanguard I was left very tempted. I like the combination of two phases: exploration of systems and ship log. From what I can see, on the planetary exploration the minis do get used. And the story was quite interesting. So far I find it way more appealing than Etherfields or Tainted Grail (which I was not bothered about even though I joined the hobby a bit late to join the Kickstarters). Kind of a Mass Effect/Interstellar sci-fi game that really tickles my taste. I must admit I had promised myself not to back any more games, but the prototype looks very, very tempting
I mean, thereās used and thereās āusedā. Also, itās important to distinguish between the minis you get in the main box, and the addon ones. Tainted Grail, the addon minis do come outā¦on Guardian monsters, which is less than ten percent of encounters, and only come onto the map if theyāre either spawned by an event or you run away from the fight. And then they might just fuck right back off again based on the die you roll for them each turn. I think we had a Guardian on the map maybe 2 or 3 hours out of the entire multiweek campaign. Etherfields, thereās been two encounters so far that use an addon mini, and both of them, I ended up putting the mini back in the box inside 3 minutes. So, is it possible that ISS Vanguard uses them heavily? Sure. But my suspicion is that they donāt, except for what you get in the box.
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I was weak last night, and went in for ISS: Vanguard. I think I havenāt got a narrative game like that in my collection, and if I donāt like it, I know plenty who would get it off my hands.
I should stay away from Youtube. Plenty of ābadā people making amazing reviews and previewsā¦
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Soā¦ I was pledged for 18Mag, but I think Iām going to have to wait until I can buy it with US$ instead of EURā¦ because the going rate of ā¬75 is ~$95. Ouch ><
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Posted elsewhere, as a sort of year-end roundup of stuff Iāve funded but am still waiting on thatās relevant to these parts:
Oldest outstanding-but-maybe-will-someday-arrive: Myth: Journeyman. They sent out all the printed materials a while ago, but I am still waiting on minis. ETA was in 2015. Ulisses bought the IP and has promised to deliver the minis at some point when they fund new print runs of the game, they understandably canāt tackle tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of minis entirely on their own. Also unclear what changes they might make to the game. So far I think they just crowdfunded like, a lore book or something, which I didnāt care about.
Other than that:
Waiting on Blades in the Dark stretch goals - a lot of this has fulfilled by now, but there were so many .
System Shock remake - theyāre definitely working on it! So maybe! But definitely troubled.
Southern Monsters - an adventure game thing, the creatorās been needing to do other paid work to make ends meet but the plus side is weāve gotten some of that to tide us over.
Sentinels of Earth-Prime - this I think got caught up in the general clusterfuck of SOTM: Oblivaeon delivery, but that delivered a while ago so this is still well overdue even considering that.
Spellbound Kingdoms: Arcana - a second sourcebook for a very cool indie fantasy TTRPG. The creator surfaces very, very occasionally to promise heās still alive and intends to finish it. Sounds like itās been a rough couple of years. Who knows if heāll get there.
The Good Life - that Swery thing. Regular updates that I donāt read because they are very long. I assume itās still underway.
Delta Green: The Labyrinth - the actual sourcebook has delivered but there are stretch goals (like a Caleb Stokes campaign thatās actually what Iām excited about) still outstanding.
Reign: Second Edition - Greg Stolzeās awesome grand-scale fantasy RPG in gorgeous hardcover boxset. Sounds like content is mostly in place and weāre waiting on layout, design, printing, etc.
Nighthawks: that Richard Cobbett vampire RPG. Regular updates, I assume itāll come out eventually.
Orun - an afro-SF TTRPG thatās, supposedly, 95% done as of October.
Nahual - Mexican-influenced PBTA urban fantasy, getting there but not done yet.
Sword & Sorcery: Ancient Chronicles - second round of Gremlin Projectās tactical fantasy dungeon crawler, looking at wave 1 in Jan/Feb and wave 2 in June currently but thatās just estimated. I donāt remember if I did split shipping.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - wave 2 is either about to fulfill or is fulfilling.
Sentinel Comics: The RPG - core book just hit as a PDF, but I think there were some other things funded.
Millenium Blades: Collusion - printed, ready to go on boats as of the last update.
Hyperspace - that Sandy Petersen 4x boardgame. Like basically every SP Games project, delayed. currently somewhere in production, I think?
Carnival Zombie, 2nd edition - looked like a cool (and well loved) zombie coop set in Venice, which is unusual. As far as I can tell, delayed by being super fucking finicky about the minis I didnāt want to begin with. Maybe someday theyāll get things shipped.
The Orpheus Protocol - horror TTRPG, underway but this year has delayed things.
Middara - original ETA 12/2021, so.
The Iron Gate - new 20 Palaces novel(s) from Harry Connolly. Sounds like heās struggling with it but still working on it.
Sleeping Gods - on ships.
Aeon Trespass: Odyssey - shipping some cosmetic minis next month but looking at Q2-Q3 for main fulfillment atm.
Oathsworn: Into the Deepwoods - still doing assets.
Under Hollow Hills - fae TTRPG from Vincent Baker. Still in development but a prerelease version hit earlier this month.
Summer Daze at Hero-U - a Hero-U followup (two now) from the Coles. Sounds like one part is closing in on being done, the other less so.
The Great Wall - Awaken Realms semi-coop (and optionally, full coop) worker placement/wall defense game - still in production.
Unsettled - manufacturing is nearing completion.
Glitch - Nobilis followup from Jenna Moran. PDFs are out, waiting on physical book.
Glorantha The Gods War expansions - Sandy Petersen project, delayed, etc.
Return to Dark Tower - was going to post an updated ETA in a couple weeks from 12/8, hasnāt yet.
Geneforge 1: Mutagen - remake of Spiderweb Softwareās classic RPG, currently in beta-testing, estimated February release.
Pasion de las Pasiones - PBTA telenovela RPG. Full draft completed, not yet final.
Hastur Rising - big Hastur mini for all Petersen Games stuff. underway.
Cloudspire reprint/expansion - not yet on ships but looking at Feb/March fulfillment
Torchbearer 2e - they have print samples, but havenāt actually printed the main run yet.
Skull Diggers - indie TTRPG. Still in design.
Final Girl - slasher flick solo game from the Hostage Negotiator people. In production, maybe fulfill in Feb/March but unclear.
Bullet<3 - latest Level 99 game, currently on track for Feb fulfillment
Nemesis Lockdown - reprint/expansion for Awaken Realmsā Alien clone. Looking at wave 1 fulfillment in April.
Intrepid - space station coop, currently in production
Monster Care Squad - indie TTRPG, currently in design
Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles - dinosaur worker placement from Mindclash. In development.
Token Sesame - component holder. Looks like itās going to production soonish but no update this month so I dunno.
Orbital - indie TTRPG in zine format, in design.
Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants - Forged in the Dark TTRPG about resisting vampire rule. In design.
Return to Planet Apocalypse - long, long way off yet.
Set a Watch expansion - moving into digital proofing.
7th Citadel - 7th Continent followup. In development.
Sig: City of Blades - Planescape-esque Forged in the Dark TTRPG. In design.
Worlds Without Number - fantasy take on Stars Without Number, well loved OSR space-TTRPG. Not sure where itās at off the top of my head but Kevin Crawford projects tend to be tight and quick turnaround.
Cartographers: Heroes - everything from here on is recent enough to be unlikely to hit soon.
Frostpunk the Boardgame
Urban Shadows 2E - revamp of urban fantasy PBTA classic
Dire Alliance: Horror - a new coop/skirmish game from the Sadlers (coop) and the Undaunted guys (skirmish)
burncycle - latest Chip Theory Games title
Nemoās War (more expansions)
Vindication Chronicles.
ISS Vanguard, shortly.
Also, somewhere in there, Dice Throne Adventures (and season 1 prettifying) which I apparently missed on the roundup.
Just got my Anachrony Infinity Box. It is immense and lovely.
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Kickstarters Iām waiting for, in forecast order of arrival:
- A War of Whispers + Dark Alliances: Iām going to 3d-print pretty bits for this because I didnāt like the official pretty bits. (Probably using the models from the Tabletop Simulator mod.) Not one Iāll be able to play in person soon, though maybe one to PBF?
- DVG Hornet Leader + expansions: I donāt play these games a lot but sometimes Iām in the exact mood for them.
- Steampunk Rally Fusion: I probably like Steampunk Rally better than most of the people I play it with, but I do still like it.
- Ell Deck: one day.
- Gladius: what can I say, it looked pretty. But out of all these itās the one Iāll be least surprised if I move on.
- Railroad Ink Challenge: I must have it ALL.
- Star Realms bits off the side of the Epic Jungle KS: similarly completist tendencies. Iāve barely played any of the lots&lots of expansions I got along with SR:Frontiers.
- Riftforce: this feels like one I ādiscoveredā (found in person last Expo). Two-player duelling with some interesting twists.
- Rallyman Dirt: Vroom vroom! Particularly interested in the RX mode, and the ādesign a car, then race it through multiple terrainsā minicampaign.
- Sakura Arms: like other 2-player games I suspect Iāll have a hard time finding opponents but Iāve really enjoyed my TTS games.
- Project L Finesse: I like Project L, I like the look of this.
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I hate not backing Level 99 projects, but when you consider Iāve played BattleCON once and yet have All This Stuff, and very limited scope for 2 player gaming, adding either of their other two player head to head games just doesnāt make sense. Especially when I have every reason to believe Iāll prefer BattleCON. I still backed Sakura Arms for a day or two before coming to my senses.
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Iām kinda annoyed they changed the size of the purple box. I suspect Iāll get over it though.
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I have outstanding, in order of excitement:
Oath
Guards of Atlantis 2
Oathsworn
Pax Renaissance
Madeira
Kanban EV
Pax Viking
Grand Austria Hotel Expansion
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Oh yeah, having watched Paul Grogan et al play Guards of Atlantis 2 a bit back, I late backed for a gameplay all-in on that a few days ago. But not on Kickstarter, so I missed it for my list. Iām not sure Iāll get it played - 4 is an ask for me and more is basically out entirely. And PvP isnāt so much my thing. But it looks pretty cool.
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Iāll surely post about these as they come in but I wanna get in on this year end consolidation too!!
Boardgames:
- Dice Throne Adventures and Season 1 Rerolled: Should receive a shipping notice imminently.
- Galilean Moons: as above, imminent.
- Deep Space D-6 Armada: Iām guessing April is optimistic-but-reasonable.
- Mothership: Beyond the Expanse expansion, booster deck, gold ships and (lots of) custom dice. Figuring first quarter 2021.
RPGās:
- Extinguish the Sun: A Treatise on Various Methods, by Chance Phillips and Alain Gruetter (art). A chapbook of backgrounds and miscellany for Troika! This just closed Mid-December but theyāre aiming for February fulfillment.
- The Mecha Hack: Core rules and new Mission Manual from Absolute Tabletop. This also closed recently, estimates are for an April fulfillment.
Cheating:
- Xia Legends of a Drift System along with Embers of a Forsaken Star, and Missions and Powers should be posting soon.
- A Packet of Particular Peaks: System neutral mountain settings from L.F. OSR. This roped me in with its artwork and hooked me with its basic premise: Three unique fantasy landscapes that donāt actually exist in any physical plane. This closes in 20 hours so Iām letting it slide in.
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low whistle
Holy snakes some of yāall went heavy into Kickstartersā¦
I have 5.5 projects that havenāt arrived:
- Upzone (pop-up terrain), estimated Oct 2021
- Merchants of the Dark Road, estimated Jan 2021
- Frosthaven, estimated March 2021 (but already delayed several times)
- Oathsworn, estimated Dec 2020 but thatās definitely not happening (Iām estimating July)
- NewSpeak, estimated Feb 2020, Iām guessing May 2021
- Infinity Defiance (this is the 0.5): wave 1 has arrived more-or-less on time, waiting for the Wave 2 stuff sometime later (June?)
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Oh, thatās just the stuff Iām still waiting on, not the stuff Iāve received, which is at least 2x as much (actually, quite a bit more - Iāve backed close to 450 projects at this point), or the stuff Iāve entirely given up on (maybe 10-15 projects, maybe half of which are confirmed dead but the rest are years overdue with no updates in ages).
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I covered some of this in another thread, but here is my concise roundup of pending KS deliveries (no real order as Iām terrible at that)
- Oathsworn: Into the Deep wood - seems to capture the elements of KDM without the ābusy workā. Between the focus on combat and the one-off options, this could hit the table pretty frequently.
- Overboss - Originally called Overlord, itās a tile laying game in the world of Boss Monsters (aka 8-bit art style). Should be a fun one for my son an I.
- Anachrony: Infinity Box - this has been covered here.
- Hour of Need - Both Street Masters and Alter Quest have been huge hits for us, and another game that plays faster and scales better than either sounds great. Admittedly, my least favorite theme of the 3.
- Dire Alliance: Horror - Sadler brothers coop? Check. Skirmish by the Undaunted team? Check. Hoping this gets some coverage when it delivers, as the system seems fantastic and flexible in the same way as Unmatched.
- Merchants of the Dark Road - watched some gameplay and early previews. Dice placement with a rondel board? Sounds fun. Amazing art as well.
- Honey Buzz - Collection of a various mechanisms (WP, tile placement, economic) that seems to work in a gorgeous accessible package. Added to my MotDR pledge.
- Guards of Atlantis 2 - I love skirmish and MOBA board games. This was an an obvious back.
- Dice Throne S1 Re-Rolled - We LOVE Dice Throne, so adding more fighters was obvious.
- Rurik: Dawn of Kiev - expansion only as I grabbed the base at retail before the PM closed. Excited to play it soon.
KS campaigns implant to increase from my $1 pledge:
- Creature Comforts - very light WP with an amazing production. Seems like a fun little game that we can always donate or my son can play with others if it doesnāt work for us. Plus the creators are Canadian and seem incredibly nice, so I want to support them.
- burncycle - as mentioned above, the new Chip Theory game. The artwork is ace, and the gameplay is growing on me. I wasnāt sold when it was originally described as a stealth game, but after more demos happened people started describing it as Oceans 11/Mission Impossible with bots? Plus, they added a gameplay all in tier. The brass minis were cool, but also hella expensive.
- Massive Darkness 2 - dumb dice chucker with a fun theme I could play with most anyone, but some actual āmeat on the boneā as far as the hero gameplay goes.
- Endless Winter - Gameplay looks extremely fun, if a bit messy, but Iām ok with that. Also, art by The Mico.
- Monsters on Board - light dice placement with more going on, and a killer theme and art by the Mico. Rare time I watched a full playthrough in one sitting. Also considering adding Merchants Cove to the pledge.
- Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles - one Iām somewhat hesitant on, but only due to the wait. I was hoping we would have Anachrony played by the time the PM closed but that does seem likely now. Probably going to take the risk, as it would be an easier sell/trade based on Mindclash Games rep. Also, dinosaurs!!!
- Aeon Tresspass: Odyssey - So I chose to pass and wait for Oathsworn when this was on KS, despite preferring the AT:O theme. Iām looking at it again, as theyāve said the core willl get a price spike next week due to all of the content added. I think the combat sounds amazing, but not sold on the rest of it and not sure there is enough for one-off fights. Probably best for me to pass give Primal: the Awakening is launching soonā¦
Iāll probably put together a most anticipated KS campaign lists soon becauseā¦lists are fun? 
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Very enormous. Beautiful. Well packed. A little confused as to why it includes the old version of things being updated, in addition to the updated ones, and cardboard resource tokens when they have a full set of plastic ones included and will sell you metal ones (but 15 metal neutronium cubes were included regardless).
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My open kickstarters are
- 18DO, delayed hopefully sometime in Q1
- Agropolis with Tussie Mussie, probably March
- Aqua Garden
- Blood on the Clocktower feels a bit like Duke Nukem at this point (it is a preorder not the KS but same ā¦)
- Frosthavenā¦ need to get back to Gloomhaven first
- Herbaceous Pocket Edition
- Hoop Godz (I have my reasons)
- Izayoiā¦ this was my year for backing obscure small projects. This one is struggling with delivery due to the pandemic.
- Kemet
- Lunar Base
- Oath ( this is the one I am most excited about)
- On Mars ā¦ ordered this as addon in the Kanban campaign to somehow save moneyā¦ stupid idea which I regret. But Should arrive soon
- Petrichor with a bunch of expansions
- Planet Unknown
- Raid, small cardgame that just looked good
- Rocketmen, should be arriving soonish. I had really hoped they would make it before year end as I have some confusion their logistics center was in UK
- Spirits of the Forest with expansion
- Way of the Samurai
- Zombicide 2nd edition upgrade and campaignā¦ another one for my partner. I wouldnāt have backed this.
Seems like a lot but many are really small games and now that I look closer a bit too experimental.
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I backed this at minimum level to watch the fireworks. I like the game but even before 2020 I generally wasnāt getting together the groups of 8-10 where it really shines. One day I may make my own set.
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The forum games on the old SU&SD forum were a lot of fun. Really twisted your brain into knots, and that was over days of play. I can only imagine what it would be like in person over the course of a coue of hours.
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are there delays on BotC?
It was meant to be delivered in June 2019, so yeah, just a bit.
Going by the updates theyāve been doing a worrying amount of rewriting of the rules even quite recently, in parallel with the expected manufacturing problems.
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