Crowdfunding Highlights

There are only hours left in the Braille RPG Dice kickstarter campaign by 64 Oz. Games. Backing at $10 gets you one 3D-printed polyhedral die, while a $50 pledge will be rewarded with a full set of seven dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and percentale — that’s a d10 marked in tens). This the company’s second kickstarter, following up on their “Board Games: Now Blind Accessible” braille-printed transparent sleeves for several popular hobby games. Stretch goals for Braille RPG Dice include allowing 64 Oz. Games to purchase a CNC router and a plastic thermoforming machine, which will be used on future manufacturing projects.

I’ve played several social bluffing hidden role games, but Secret Hitler looks like it’s a game that I’d want to bring out more than any other. Just launched, the game takes place in 1930’s Germany with two teams, the Fascists and the Liberals, trying to take control of the government. Similar to Werewolf and The Resistance, the rounds move rapidly. If I had a regularly-meeting large game group — you’ll need between 5 and 10 players for Secret Hitler — I’d throw down a $25 pledge to get a game of this as a reward.

Oh man, I am a sucker for a well-designed playing card deck and this week, I’ve got three that I’d like to showcase. First up is the Red Scarab and Blue Scarab decks, from Scott King. The Red deck is shaded line art on white while the Blue deck is more painterly on black. Jackson Robinson (from the Wasteland 2-inspired deck) has a set of limited edition Black Diamond Tally-Ho decks available. These cards are black with foil print. And lastly, Elite Playing Cards has a glamorously golden deck called Bicycle Chic.

Oh yeah, board games! Do you like Catan? Game Night Geek, LLC., offers up a Magnetic Catan Border. It’s six pieces of oak plywood (other types of wood available for upgraded costs) connected by those strong neodymium magnets to keep the tile island of Catan together while playing. It’s one of those so-simple-why-didn’t-I-think-of-it game accessory. But someone did, and these are rather affordable, starting at a $12 pledge level.

I’ve been using black foamcore to create custom component storage for some of my boardgames. However, these lasercut MDF Board Game Inserts by The Game Doctors are awfully tempting… What you do is pledge 10 Euro or more in shipping windows (all full right now, but they’ll be opening more slots as the campaign goes on) and when it’s over, you convert those pledges into whichever types of game insert you desire. I’m looking at the “Card” design to store my ever-growing Android: Netrunner collection (14 Euro + 5 per 10 additional dividers) or “Robi” for the Robinson Crusoe box (16 Euro, includes space for the Voyage of the Beagle expansion) or maybe “Dead” for my Dead of Winter game (18 Euro).