Late March 2017 Kickstarter look

Yes, I'm taking another look at KS projects, because there's been some interesting books and games launched. Just so everyone knows, I've not backed any of these yet, though I am looking at some pretty seriously, and will likely back the books(unless offered them for review). You may know about these, you may not, but here they are:

So, books first, some authors I'm friends with have mentioned Powers of the Earth, by Travis J I Corcoran. Now, I've not read any of this man's work, but reading the page, he seems to evoke the best of Heinlien and Niven adventure, hopefully without the degenerate parts. (Heinlein juveniles, not the Lazarus Long books). In the about the author section, there are some great negative quotes from Daily Kos and Warren Ellis(who has written some great comics, but is a leftist loon).

Now, sff humor luminary Robert Kroese has a trilogy up called The Saga of the Iron Dragon. This, however, is more of a straight alternate history sf book, and not a comedy. Kroese is a great humorist, and skillful writer. I have no doubt he'll deliver, and I have great hopes for this. However, Rex Nihilo in Out of the Soylent Planet comes first.

On to boardgames! I do encourage watching videos of gameplay and reading the rules before backing.

Brother, I'm not big into party games, but I gotta tell ya, Smack Talk Showdown looks to be the real thing for getting people hamming it up and laughing. This is yes, a party game of wrestling promos with random names and odd settings. You don't want a physical copy? You'll get print files for $5.

Carl Chudyk is the king of shared action games, starting back with Glory to Rome, Innovation and now, there's a 2nd edition of Impulse(and expansions) coming. This is not the Asmadi artwork, but instead is more stylized art from the company that printed the Polish edition. It's a bit of a fast 4x style game, but more on the Euro side, so it may or may not be for you.

Do you like 3D boards with some functionality? Are you nostalgic for some old Mattel game with marbles? Yeti Mountain is looking to recreate Fireball Island, a game with a large following on BoardgameGeek.

Academy Games is at it again with 878 Vikings. This is a 2-4 player game about the Viking invasion of England. They knocked it out of the park with the new edition of Mare Nostrum, and the fact that there's a  mini of Alfred the Great kinda clinches it for me. My experience with Mare Nostrum says the board is likely plenty large unless you want to run it at conventions, in which case you MAY want the giant map.

A few years back, AEG had a cooky little game that's coming back: The Island of Doctor Necreaux. I can't attest to the game's quality, but I will say the flavor is plenty pulpy, with CyberSharks, Psychic Amplifiers, Diabolical Research Labs, Escape Shuttles, and lots more.

Lastly, a couple of roleplaying projects.

There's a new pair of supplements for the Adventurer Conqueror King System(ACKS), which has been pushed by both Jeffro and Vox. They've even agreed to a Dark Lord class, and Vox hinted at another cool thing if there's enough support. I think I need to start looking into the books for this game.

Noir World is a game of hardboiled crime fiction powered by the Apocalypse Engine. I have some friend that love the simplicity of the system, though this one is designed to be GM-less, which makes me a little wary and intrigued at the same time.


When you play Social Justice, the world loses.