In May a two Kickstarters arrived. No Kickstarters for 6 months and then two in one week 😳
- Architects of the West Kingdom: Works of Wonder - together with the collector box. Garphill Games makes nice compact boxes but they're not suited to hold expansions. I like the six new automata players. Looks like they did some nice re-balancing in that area. When I played the base game with the included automatons I thought it was ok but now the game clicks better in my head and I enjoy it much more.
- Ark Nova - Not a fan of the included solo variant so I tried ARNO which is an unofficial solo variant. One play so far but this might work better for me. Variable number of turns before breaks and more rotation of cards. I'm going to try ARNO a few times more.
- Forgotten Depths - a dungeon crawler in 3 acts where you have to build the dungeon yourself (and don't mess it up) and of course some encounters and monster bashing 😆 The artwork is unique and gorgeous with some nice combination of mechanisms. It's a one man production who pored all his love into it and it shows so I'm always a bit more forgiving (the box size and insert are overdone). It's those projects I like to back. That said, it's a fun game and enjoy playing it.
- Machina Arcana - this is a game that was on my list for a very long time. And out of the blue, JW offered me to buy his 2nd edition copy for a generous price together with the 3rd edition upgrade pack. So THANK YOU JW !!! 💛 I did my research and knew the 2nd edition rulebook has a reputation so I immediately went with the 3rd edition rulebook. I still had several questions on certain effect combinations but that is just how it works with these type of games. I enjoyed my 2 plays so far and can't wait to play it more.
- ROVE: Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer - continues to be a nice spatial puzzle game and looking forward to assemble the expansions I just received as PnP.
I have followed your plays of Forgotten Depths with great interest!
I'm actually a bit disappointed with that one. First, the box is offending. I know, I should be able to get past that (especially now that it's here in my place and I have little choice about it), but the mere sight of it annoys me extremely.
Second, the rulebook format is completely messy, and the publishing work on it is really poor. You have pages that are almost entirely blank, things all over the place... It really isn't engaging.
Then I learned that there are apparently a lot of FAQs, and they have already released a four pages long list of errata. It's great they did it, not so much that it was needed in the first place.
So it seems to me that the barrier to getting to the game is high: managing the box size (especially mentally), diving into an unappealing rulebook, then knowing it will be hard to play and far from smooth in the first plays.
I do enjoy supporting independent publishers - that should be clear enough from my collection and the tendencies of my KS backs. But I expect a decent product in the end. A case in point: Pauper's Ladder. It's a one-man affair, it's very indie, but it's all been properly done, the rulebook looks nice, the box is just the perfect size it should be, etc. Every time I see the box I am excited to get it out and play (but I don't have the time for it before mid-July).
Anyway, I'm glad that you have enjoyed Forgotten Depths and I hope I'll be able to do so, as well, when I'll finally get it out.
I'm glad you enjoyed your plays of Machina Arcana. I think it's a great atmospheric dungeon crawler/puzzler. Also, I may have spent the money already. Twice. 😁 I'm not a fan of fan modes that "fix" a commercial game. But then again, for me the solo mode of Ark Nova was good enough. It was the game that fell short. I've been told not to buy Architects, but rather Paladins (?) for solo. I'm interested in your thoughts on the new bots.