This month brings a little bit of everything, including Tasty Minstrel’s first co-op board game, some fun looking party games, a unique cube building game, and 10 micro dice games that fit in one conveniently sized box. There’s definitely something for everyone in this month’s Kickstarter roundup.
Bomb Squad (Tasty Minstrel Games) – Work together, race against the clock, and save hostages. A timer counts down until the bombs explode, meaning players want to take their turns as fast as possible in this cooperative board game about saving hostages. Players are unable to see their own cards and must try to communicate information about the other players' hands in order to successfully program the robot to disarm bombs.
5Pax (Galliant Games) – A collection of 10 micro dice games all collected in one small box. The box contains 16 dice, 12 markers, 2 score trackers and game boards. Players can race to save the princess in the press your luck game Save the Princess, or play Tennis as players use dexterity to try to roll the dice unto the other player's board. Other games include Trapped, Dodgeball, Morph Chess, and many more. We recently interviewed the publisher about this series.
Kubeni (TableApp Games) – Players have 30 seconds to use cubes to try to recreate the images shown on cards or on the Kubeni app (depending on how they want to play). The images are three-dimensional and the more complex images are worth more points. The game comes with enough cubes for 2 players to compete at once and additional copies allow more players to participate at the same time. The ability to play either with cards or through an app increases the portability of the game.
Moriarty's Machinations (Duadikos) – A Sherlock Holmes-themed party game. Players are given secret roles as either cops or robbers and must choose to either foil or help heists they’re sent on. Matters are complicated by the fact that Moriarty has hired Jack the Ripper to find Sherlock Holmes and Lestrade hunts for the player who is Moriarty.
Stuff and Nonsense (Cheapass Games) – Players take on the role of adventurers — adventurers who have actually never even left London. You collect souvenirs and antiques from around London in order to tell wild stories at the local adventurer's club about how you acquired them. The players with the most points acquired in the fewest steps win the game. Professor Elemental is traveling around London, trying to catch you in a fib, so players must keep an eye out for him or risk losing cards. A free print-and-play is currently offered of the game, so you can give it a whirl before deciding on backing it.
Producer (Daniel Riles) – Giant bunnies, clowns, artists, and an oddly musical animal sound like a perfect movie! Every time you play you try to wrap a movie and tell its story. Players each have a director with a budget which they use to play cards, discard cards, and recruit new cards. You can also sabotage other players and their films. Players trade with each other when it's not their active turn, meaning they can stay involved all game. After the final round, players use the cards they've played to tell the film's story.
In A Bind (Behrooz 'Bezman' Shahriari) – You must keep 2 cards in your hand. You play one card and draw a new one, if you fail to do this you lose the game. Play cards on other players and have cards played on you. Cards force you to do such things as keeping your left elbow above your shoulder or touch your nose with a finger. As more cards put more restrictions on your movements, it becomes harder and harder to draw that card. A fun, quirky party game with a play time of 15 minutes.
Full disclosure: unless otherwise noted, we have not seen or played any of the above games. Our assessment of each is based on the information given on the crowdfunding project page.
