It's a quiet week on crowdfunding this coming week with only 5 projects launching over on Kickstarter. This week I am personally backing Amulet of Thrayax. We were fortunate enough to see this one in person over at Aire Con. It looks fantastic, the components are great quality and the overall design of the board is colourful, bright and interesting.
Amulet of Thrayax is a competitive, card-driven area control board game for 2 - 6 players, designed by Tom Truman and published by Trolls ’n’ Rerolls.
You are eccentric cults, rampaging through the dystopian fantasy city of Bleakpyre, harvesting the souls of decadent nobles and selfish peasants with every outrageous tool at your disposal.
Battling to win the powerful Amulet of Thrayax, you use a combination of Murder and Counter cards to reap souls - AKA points - from the city.
To claim the amulet, you'll need to bring all your most devious tactics to the party:
Spend souls to swoop from District to District
Tip the scales with a variety of corrupt, monstrous and messy "Inconveniences"
Hijack your opponent's best-laid plans to feed your own soul engine
Manipulate the Amulet’s power to unleash the biggest and baddest combos on your unsuspecting rivals
When the final bell chimes, the winner is the cult that has beaten and hoodwinked the most souls out of Bleakpyre.
If you’re looking for a fun, accessible game that also provides a layer of tactical challenge for seasoned gamers, then we think you’ll love killing time with Amulet of Thrayax.
Get ready for Bananya, the cutest card game in town about the kitty that lives in a banana! Along with Love Live! Sunshine!, we secured the license from Crunchyroll to create this quick-play card game all about collecting these adorable cats! Two to four players are trying to collect a full set of Bananyas before their opponents.
You and up to 3 other players draw cards, play cards to resolve their effects, and force your opponents to put cards in the litterbox - the first player to get all 10 Bananyas of the same type wins the game - but only if they shout "Nya!"
Grab your capes and party hats, ’cause we’re going to Gielinor! RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg is a cooperative campaign board game inspired by the record-breaking video game universe with over 280 million registered users worldwide.
Gather your group of 1-5 players and step into a sometimes epic, often irreverent fantasy world where your goal is simple: Become the wealthiest, most skilled, best-geared adventurer there is! Or, just enough of all three to succeed together. Or spend the whole time collecting eggs and let your friends do all the work. It’s cooperative, after all! (Still, who doesn’t enjoy a little friendly competition?)
Either way, Gielinor needs capable folk to help its inhabitants and keep monsters and nefarious cults at bay, and that’s where your group steps in. One minute you’re slaying a vampyre that’s been terrorising a village. The next, you’re helping Gertrude find her beloved cat!
Like chapters in a book, your tabletop adventure is split into campaigns, each one inspired by an iconic boss quest from the video games. Campaigns are made up of two phases:
First is the exploration phase, where you’ll explore the kingdoms of Asgarnia and Misthalin from above on a game board styled like a fast-travel map. Every location gives you different things to do — whether that’s gathering and sharing resources, levelling up skills, or drawing from the exploration deck for that region to see what unexpected thing you’ll need to handle next!
Don’t get too distracted, though: The exploration phase has set quests you’ll need to complete to keep your group moving forward. Spend too long gathering cabbages or engaging in goblin diplomacy, and the escalation track will rise, making the world around you more dangerous until you finally take on the boss…
…in the boss phase! Here, you’ll zoom in for face-to-face fights on dedicated game boards that bring the bosses — and their environments — to life!
The story woven through the campaigns will immerse you in the fantasy world of RuneScape, while the optional side quests, exploration decks, vault deck, and event deck will change your experience each time you play. And because it’s an open world, you can play your way!
Even your adventurer starts as a blank slate. There are no fixed classes in this game! You choose what skills to max and what gear to craft. Use those skills and gear to pass tests and complete quests to help your group win the day, then take what you’ve learned and earned on to the next campaign. Gain XP (even when you fail!) and rewards, and level up to earn your all-important cape!
But it’s not all capes and capers. At the end of every campaign waits a boss that’ll take all the skills of your group — yes, even cooking — to defeat. Pulled into face-to-face combat on unfamiliar terrain, your group’s shared health pool is all that stands between you and Death (and he wouldn’t be pleased to see you!). Roll the dice on your melee, defence, and magic to strike, protect yourself, and push the boss back. Use your wits to plan ahead and influence the flow of combat to throw the boss off balance. And don’t expect them to take your onslaught lying down. They, too, have ways to keep you on your toes…
You’re on an afterlife cruise to the totally tropical island of Eternal Paradise - your final destination… If you catch our drift. On the way, your ship slams into a rock, not far from the sad sandy shores of Purgatory Island. You manage to escape the sinking vessel on a trusty inflatable flamingo and reach the shore, self-assured that you’ve survived a shipwreck and shark-infested waters - only to be bludgeoned by a falling coconut.
What are the chances?! Well it turns out, there are an average of 150 deaths by coconut per year. You regain consciousness to the realisation the shipwreck has turned your heavenly cruise to Eternal Paradise into a hellish race across Purgatory Island.
From Coconut Beach, you’ve gotta move by backing your betting ability in deciding which of the three options is most deadly. For example: Falling Coconuts, Lightning Strike or Extreme Selfies
You’ll be betting by using the only currency to hand: coconuts (ironically). You’ve got a one-in-three chance of getting the answer correct. Which is roughly the same odds as being struck by lightning… if you play golf in a thunderstorm… dressed like a medieval jouster.
Bet small and move cautiously. Bet big and move quickly - but risk going backwards just as fast. Navigate shortcuts and lava flows - you know, the usual features of a deserted tropical island. Oh, and look out for buried treasure, it could be the difference between life and death.
Whichever tactic you choose, only the first to the finish gets into Eternal Paradise. It’s a pretty exclusive guest list - so you better get a move on! Or you’ll be wandering the wastes of purgatory for eternity... And that sounds like a fate worse than death!
So, grab yourself a few fellow shipwrecked shipmates and get going on the race to Eternal Paradise, where your knowledge of death just might save your life.
Cryptodome is the most popular game show set in a future where technology has exploded in countless directions. Salvagers find creative ways to use these technologies to build upon their suits to help navigate an underground magma chamber on Planet Varcob. Play as a salvager, each with a unique ability, as you make your way around the Cryptodome.
The object of the game is to be the first to collect three Power Cores that are located around the outside of the board. Players start at the center and use move cards to make their way to one of the outer edges of the board to collect an artifact or power core. Once collected it's kept for the remainder of the game and the player is teleported back to the start. Artifacts give powerful abilities, but do not contribute to winning the game.
Players get to choose two actions for their turn. They can choose any combination of placing a tile, using a move, and/or drawing a card. Placing a tile allows players to change the path to their advantage or to block their opponents. Using a move can only be done if the corresponding paths are connected. Drawing a card can result in a move card or an ability card.
Cryptodome is a free-for-all game for 2-8 players ages 14 and up that can be played in about an hour. Three types of cards allows for a simple risk/reward system that players can strategize with as the game goes on. Games change in dynamic based on the number of players and the strategies that players tend towards. Players tend to collect up to two artifacts near the beginning of the game and then use them to collect three power cores more effectively.
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