Keeping with this week’s theme, I’m opening up today’s discussion with Kickstarter projects you’ve backed and are excited about.
Wednesday we talked about Kickstarter and how it triggers an addictive behavior among consumers. This branched into Thursday’s discussion where we started discussing how more established companies are getting on board with Kickstarter and whether or not that’s a good thing. I encourage all two of you reading this to go check those out and add to theconversation. If you know someone, or are someone who is with an established company utilizing Kickstarter, we’d love to hear from you too.
In the interests of not writing a book here, even though I TOTALLY could, I’m just going to mention in brief the games I’ve backed and how/why.
The first project I backed was Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule. I saw this backed by a friend on FB, and after looking at it briefly decided that this would be a good game to really start pouring my nerdiness into an unsuspecting daughter. I say “unsuspecting” even though at 5, she has her own dice bag and is becoming addicted to Kingdom Hearts.
Tammany Hall was generating a lot of buzz, and the campaign was going pretty strong. You were getting a lot of extras via stretch goals with it (ch-ching!). The thing that pushed me over the edge on this one was reading something to the effect of it being a Euro cousin to Chaos in the Old World, which certainly by now you guys know is one of my all time favorites.
Great Fire of London piggybacked on my excitement for Tammany Hall. Pandasaurus Games did a good job putting that hook firmly in my mouth.
Pixel Lincoln was another one that showed up on my FB feed, and without really knowing much of anything about the game, I put in for it. I blame Ready Player One, growing up in the 80s and just being a sucker for this style of thing. I’m still excited about it though.
Boss Monster took the same thing that got me on board with Pixel Lincoln and really upped the nerd ante. For fuck’s sake, the box was modeled after an 8-bit Nintendo game box.
Democracy: Majority Rules – This looked like a game that I thought would be a lot of fun to play with a friend of mine that I’m not entirely certain reads the blog. Some friend he is. Barnhart, if you’re out there, this one’s for you.
Mars Needs Mechanics was delivered to me on a brilliant sales pitch by Pretty Sneaky Sis’ own paragon of good manners, Bill Thomas when he previewed it here. He did such a great job talking about the game, I went and signed up pretty much sight unseen.
Heroes of Metro City was an underdog on a long shot. The game was fun enough and I think with the right group could make for a really fun night. In the end, the designer met with us personally to show off his game, and I wanted to help him realize his dream. He was pretty far from his goal before we came along, and then he made it after we talked about it here. I’m not saying that it was the PSS bump that did it…but ok, yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
Great Heartland Hauling Company was totally a gesture of goodwill in the Twitterverse. I love and hate Twitter in equal measure. It’s a pain to keep up with, but there are a lot of really cool designers talking out there, so I try to keep up. I’ve found myself in a few interesting conversations there, and when Dice Hate Me was pushing this, in a weird sort of way, I felt like I was helping a friend. I also secured a vote of support for my own upcoming project as soon as it’s ready to go.
EDIT: Somehow I wrote this thing and forgot about the Shattered Timelines expansion for Sentinels of the Multiverse, which even had a Crate a Villain contest. My team of superfriends, having enjoyed the game, but only a few times at that point, created an alternate universe Roman Empire where they never declined and became intergalactic conquerors. After we submitted it, we discovered that we were really similar to Grand Warlord Voss, who we’d never played against.
There have been a few I missed backing for varying reasons but those are for another time.
And lastly, keeping in theme with the Kickstarter thing I have going on this week, I want to raise awareness for Pretty Sneaky Sis and the changes we are slowly implementing here. To this end, I’m making the following offer: Go like us on Facebook. There’s even a handy-dandy thing up in the corner of the page that’ll take you there. Tell your friends to like us. We’re all nerds here, and we may be able to amuse each other. When I get to 1000 likes, I will pick a fan at random, and back the boardgame Kickstarter project of their choice, and then have the game sent to them. I get more people, you may get a game, some guy gets his game made. Everybody wins!
What Kickstarters have you backed that you’re most excited about?
Pretty Sneaky, Sis 
Not really a game, but I missed out on the Reaper minis Kickstarter. Luckily they offered it privately to those who missed the Kickstarter and I got in on that. So excited for that giant pile of minis to come.
I also backed Drunk Quest, which I can best describe as Munchkin: The Drinking Game. You take a number of drinks based on the monsters level, with items that can raise or lower it. I got it just in time to play on New Years, and it was fun although my players had a steep learning curve. Would probably be better with those already familiar with how Munchkin works.
That’s the key. Every KS thing I’ve seen centered around minatures goes CRAZY. Step One: Make a game. Step Two: Figure out a way to make it a minis game. Step Three: Profit.
That’s an interesting take on a drinking game. Thanks for reading!