Reaper Miniatures launched their third Kickstarter campaign for their Bones miniature line this morning. The Texas-based company originally held their first campaign for the miniatures in August of 2012, raising nearly $3.5 million to fund the miniature molds and move production of the line from China to the United States. The first campaign’s Vampire level at $100 originally included 100 miniatures but stretch goals took that over 225 miniatures. (I still have only a third painted!) Bones 3 is only running for 18 days, ending on July 25th at 8 PM EDT.

Dale of Merchants: The Guild of Extraordinary Traders by Snowdale Design (above) looks crazy cute. This deckbuilder has the players taking on the roles of animal (why? because.) merchants setting up stalls in a marketplace to showcase their wares and join the guild. The playthrough videos and artwork shared look fun (the campaign features a series of Rahdo Runs Through videos for you to check out). Game-level rewards start at $24. The campaign ends on July 31st.

On Patreon, Dyson Logos is creating cartography for fantasy roleplaying games. With pledge levels starting as low as five cents, it’s easy to support this mapmaker. All of his maps are available for free at his blog, Dyson’s Dodecahedron, but pledging $1 per map or adventure gets you 300 dpi versions of the maps before they make it to the blog. A $5 per work pledge unlocks the PDF versions of any forthcoming book and the Dyson’s Delves I & II books. Dyson’s stuff is really fantastic. (Currently, the Patreon is just under $25 in pledges from unlocking another milestone: releasing the back catalog of maps under a commercial open-license.)

Oh man, I do love me some fantastic playing cards, and this month there’s some great-looking ones on Kickstarter. Let’s start with the Wasteland 2-inspired Wasteland Playing Cards, illustrated by Jackson Robinson. This has already blown past the funding goal and will be funded on July 31st. $12 for the basic deck of cards ready for the Apocalypse (seriously — I’d love to find a way to hack the Apocalypse World RPG to use this card set). Or perhaps you’re a fan of the golden age of piracy? Well, in that case, check out the Seven Seas Master Collection by Brain Vessel Creative. Pirates, sea creatures, and two different ship-themed decks await, with individual decks starting at $12.

And look what I just stumbled across! 9 Kingdoms Publications are in their final days of a Kickstarter campaign to produce an expansion to ApocalypZe. (That’s the original game on the right.) You might recall a while back I reviewed the zombie survival card game (tl;dr: it’s pretty darn good). The original game came with pre-constructed decks and extra cards to build out your own deck. This expansion adds two more decks and six additional cards, and they’ve revisited the graphic design of the cards so they’re easier to read. In addition to the expansion, they also have booster packs to beef up your decks on offer. $25 gets you the expansion, the base game (plus the extra stuff from that game’s KS) is a $40 add-on. Or just go $75 for everything (base, expansion, and boosters).

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Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be any more out there for Civilization fans, Civicus Dice Game shows up. The settlement building strategy dice game has players earning victory points for developing a well-balanced community. Manage technology, settlements, farms, markets, and more to create the ultimate empire.

If you ever secretly wished you could live the life of a spy, jet setting around the world, gathering intelligence and stealing secrets from enemies, Operation Berlin is where you want to be. This mystery board game puts players into the rolls of spies, traveling though Berlin, searching for secret Nazi military operations in order to stop the war.

Imagine a world where time travel is common, so common that major corporations have figured out a way to profit. Will the big dogs turn time travel into a mismanaged mess? As a worker in Loop Inc., players jump through time, trying to make as much money across three trips. Avoiding your yesterday self makes things even more complicated. The player with the most profitable trip back in time wins.

From ancient history to the future, and now to the high-seas. Boot Loot is a game of piracy, and not the digital kind. In this dice game, players enter the world of swashbuckling pirates to plunder, loot, and betray their friends. Using a mechanic similar to Zombie Dice, players collect as much booty as possible. The player to collect the most coins from each voyage wins.

If you prefer to head back into the forest of high-fantasy for your adventures, Foe Hunter will calm your nerves. In this cooperative deck-building game, players select a hero and head out on a hunt to kill enemies using a wide variety of helpful cards.

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Minion Games’ Cosmic Kaboom is an unusual combination of dexterity and resource collection in a strategic space game. Players flick their space ship discs around the table, collect colored cubes by hitting particular planets, spend sets of cubes to get the space bomb, and then throw the bomb token to blow up planets and collect victory points.

Another game with a tossing element is Monstrous. In this one, the players are angry Greek gods, hurling monsters down from the heavens. The monsters (for example, Gorgon, Phoenix, and Hellhound) are represented by cards, which manifest various powers when hitting location cards or other monsters on the table. Location cards (for example, Delphi, Thebes, and The Underworld) provide victory points when hit but may also implicate the cards in a players hand, bonuses at the end of the game, or some other special rule.

The designers behind Hyde promise a live-action, horror-themed, bio-activated, puzzle maze. As players work their way through a maze of rooms in an imagined laboratory, they’re trying to solve a mystery of human experiments gone wrong. But what really makes this game special is how bio-sensors worn by the players are integrated with various controls around the maze. Among the typical escape-room puzzles are doors, lights, locks, and motors actuated by players’ breathing, heart rate, posture, and other factors. A control program also tracks players in the maze and will adjust the unfolding story depending on their progress.

With the Legendary Planet Adventure Path Legendary Games aims to create a science-fantasy meta-setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. In other words, it’s background material and a series of adventures with a science-fiction flair but specifically designed as a tie-in to home fantasy campaigns. The first installment sees the player characters escaping from prison using an interdimensional portal.

Rally Round the Flag from Lost Battalion Games is a card-driven war game about the Battle of Gettysburg. The game includes amazing card art, standees instead of generic counters, and a deep level of historic detail. It can be played at the division, brigade, or regiment level, with game stats customized to the individual regiments based on historic research.

Tackling the business of art is The Gallerist from publisher Eagle and Gryphon Games and designer Vital Lacerda. It’s a large, complex strategy game in which the players buy and sell art, as well as promote and manage their galleries. Individual works of art are featured—paintings, sculptures, photography, and digital art.

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission today announced the settlement of its first case for a failed crowdfunding campaign and it’s for a board game project. Erik Chevalier, doing business as The Forking Path, raised nearly $123,000 via Kickstarter for The Doom That Came To Atlantic City but failed to produce the game or issue refunds. The FTC found that instead of putting the money raised in to production of the game, Chevalier spent backer funds on personal expenses, such as rent. A press release from the Commission quotes Director Jessica Rich:

Many consumers enjoy the opportunity to take part in the development of a product or service through crowdfunding, and they generally know there’s some uncertainty involved in helping start something new. But consumers should able to trust their money will actually be spent on the project they funded.

Kickstarter’s Terms of Use at the time of the project required project owners to fulfill all promised rewards or issue refunds. Backers of $50 or more for The Doom That Came To Atlantic City were to get a copy of the game.

The FTC settlement order prohibits Chevalier from making any misrepresentations or failing to issue refunds with regard to any crowdfunding campaign, or disclosing or benefiting from backers’ personal information. The order also imposes a $112,000 judgement, though the obligation is suspended because of Chevalier’s inability to pay, and various reporting requirements for a period of 18 years. The settlement does not require Chevalier to admit any wrongdoing.

The Doom That Came To Atlantic City game was eventually produced and sold by Cryptozoic without the involvement of Erik Chevalier.

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When you think of board games, you probably don’t think of sports-related board games. But, the two are more naturally alike than you might imagine. That might be why Masters of Football exists. The multiplayer football management game has coaches picking the best players for their team, then with the luck of the dice, trying to win against their opponent.

Get away from the real world of sports and into the fantasy world of the gods with Immortal – Mythic Strategy Game. Players compete as ancient gods and heroes in a battle card game. The objective is to control the most cards on the battleground by capturing your opponents’ cards while protecting your own.

Running a town has got to be one of the most stressful jobs around. That’s why we like to play games about it instead of trying to live it. Samara is a city planning game where players control workers that are building a new town. The goal is to plan the town’s design and manage resources better than your opponents. The player with the most prestige at the end winds the game.

Thirty years ago, role-play gamers would sketch out, in meticulous detail, their favorite character. The next-generation of gamers will be able to take character creation to the next level with 3-D printing. Imagine 3D Miniatures hope to help facilitate that by giving gamers the ability to create customized minis that can then be printed using a 3-D printer.

In Steam Court, players try to show off how good they are at building stuff in order to get the attention of the queen and her court. If you manage to be the first player to get rid off all of the cards in your hand, chances are the queen will notice you and might just make you a court engineer.

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The publisher of Numenera and The Strange has a new RPG project, one meant specifically for children. Called No Thank You, Evil!, the game is low-complexity that also scales with the age of the players. Its setting is a generic fantasy-land in which the players help make up the obstacles that challenge their characters.

Already with a strong reputation in the genre for its Deadlands game, Pinnacle Entertainment is developing a weird-west RPG based on The Sixth Gun comic books (of course employing Savage Worlds). The story follows six ancient pistols with mystical powers, including the ability to remake the world. Backers can get a book, inserts for Pinnacle’s generic game-master-screen, and Sixth Gun miniatures.

Twizmo Games’ bold claim of “the next big strategy board game” aside, Tak Tak does appear to be an abstract worth exploring. Played on a 6×7 grid, the game takes the traditional approach of having players try to move their pieces to the opponents side of the board. With 10, 20, 30, and 40 point pieces in each of three colors, though, a player is able to capture and bring along for the ride any adjacent piece (their own or their opponent’s) that has a matching number or matching color.

Il Gioco del Ponte (The Battle for the Bridge) is a board game based on a festival and challenge held annually in Pisa, Italy. The event pits teams from the north and south sides of the Arno river against each other in a shoving-contest to move a 7 ton cart. The board game based on the event appears relatively simple to play but carefully handcrafted to be as much an art-piece as a game.

Simon Foster’s Patreon project supports his map-making for fantasy roleplaying games. He’s scheduled to produce 2-3 per month, which along with some information on the monsters that live in the illustrated locations, he intends to assemble in to a Book of Lairs.

Dino Dude Ranch is an introductory strategy game about ranching dinosaurs. The game features simple resource-management and set-collecting mechanisms appropriate for light family play or as a stepping-stone for children to more complex games. Players roll dice to collect different types of food, which in turn allow them to attract and feed various species of dinosaurs.

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If you’ve ever wondered what you would get when you combined Terminator with Fantasy Football, Iron League has your answer. This game of two to six players puts you into an arena where teams of robots compete in sporting events. The game pieces include mini figs with interchangeable legs, arms, and weapons. Plus, the rest of the game components, which aren’t nearly as cool as a mini robot that has interchangeable arms and legs.

The drinking game has just gone over the limit with Hey Bartender! cocktail-themed party game. Players draw cocktail cards that they must mix and travel around the game board, collecting various ingredients to create the perfect drink. The first player to complete all cocktail cards in a hand wins. Pledging starts at $40 for the base set plus some fancy jumbo wooden dice.

Blackout is a “dark adventure” game that has you traveling to the Northern Wastes, seeking out fortune and glory in mission-based adventures. Traveling through abandoned buildings revealed by hall and room sections that fit together and can be configured based on premade campaigns, or in any customizable way you want. The artwork for this game looks amazing.

In the post-apocalyptic future of Bane, only vampires, werewolves and super humans survive. So, you’d better be one of those if you want to survive. Oh, you’ll also need to be willing to hunt the other two species. The more you hunt, the more skilled you will become. The player that reaches a mastery level on their score track and has the most trophies (werewolf heads mounted over the fireplace?) at the end wins.

In the fantasy world of Cabal, players choose a group of ancient folkloric factions and try to take over each other’s region. It is a mix between deck building and tactical board gaming. Players attempt to move at least one creature into an opponent’s stronghold using well-planned strategies. The winner will succeed at his or her goal to overpower the other cabals.

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ModCubes are dice-like accessories with exchangeable faces. They’ll ship with symbols for use as marker tokens in Star Wars X-Wing, Warhammer 40,000, and Corvus Belli.

Coup Rebellion G54 has the same basic play as Indie Boards & Cards’ original bluffing game, Coup. This one, however, comes with 25 new characters.

From the designer of Escape and publisher, Evolving Games, is Automania, a Euro-style strategy game about building cars. Workers are placed to build out a player’s factories. Then cars of various types are assembled and shipped out, with income earned based on the popularity of their features.

Steampunkish space battles are the subject of Clockwork Armada. Plus miniature ships, one faction of which has wings!

Planet Mercenary is a Schlock Mercenary roleplaying game, which is probably all I need to say about that.

And then there’s Fast & Furious: Full Throttle, a board game based on the movie series. Obviously, it’s a racing game. Movement is governed by the play of gear cards. Before each game, though, players select sets of upgrades, each of which allows a car a specific type of special move once during a race.

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In Ross Cowman’s story-telling game Fall of Magic, you are a traveler with The Magus, who is dying along with magic, on a trip to the land where magic is born. The thing about the game that is really impressive is it’s played out on a five-foot long scroll map that is revealed through play. As the group continues on their heroic journey, various locations are discovered along with story prompts. The handmade scroll reward tier is $65 (a digital version is $15) with estimated delivery in October of this year.

Holy cow, there’s a lot of fantasy-inspired coins on Kickstarter these days! Fan favorite Campaign Coins’ Starter Sets and Epic Treasure campaign is just about over. Campaign Coins offers sets of forty to fifty coins for AUD $40 (about USD $32). One of the sets of these metal coins is designed for boardgames with 25 ones, 15 fives, and 10 twenties. Although based in Australia, fulfillment will be based from the region where the order is placed, so gamers won’t have to worry about a large shipping bill.

UK-based Ulfsark Games is producing two different metal coin sets called Dragon Scales Coins – Wave 1 – Dwarven and Elven (elven set pictured). With over three weeks to go, this manufacturer offers standard international shipping with shipping cost included in the pledge level price. A basic set of 10 coins is GBP 15 (about USD $23) with additional sets of 10 at GBP 7 (about $12), so a set of 30 would be about USD $46.

Fantasy Coins’ Fantasy Coins and Bars campaign has over a week and a half left. For this campaign, there are ten new metal coin sets available, including gemstones and minted metal bars. Already funded, Fantasy Coins’ campaign comes with a spreadsheet to help calculate shipping. For instance, one set of 30 coins will run $21, $24, or $31 depending on if you live in the US, Canada, or elsewhere in the world.

Perhaps you’d like something to put those in? Then take a look at The Adventure Case: the Ultimate Tabletop Gaming Accessory by Dog Might Games. It’s a box, but it’s a super cool box that’s a dice box, rolling tray, storage bin, and the lid is set up to be a dice rolling screen, in case you need to hide your rolls from other players. Sure, you could get one of these beauties with a brass plate design, but you might want to pony up a few extra bucks for the carved wood designs. And add on the pretty pretty colored lights.

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The heyday of horror films took place in the mid 1980s. It was right around that time that slasher flicks were starting to pop up. Mixtape Massacre uses that iconic time in the horror genre history as the setting for its killing spree board game. In this game of up to six players, all you have to do to win is kill people by drawing cards.

You know you are the winner when the only thing you need to have a fun night of gaming is a handful of dice. Knot Dice: Celtic Knot Games, Puzzles, and Art is a collection of between nine and 36 dice that are beautifully carved to look like interlocking Celtic knots. The dice creator has developed a dozen games and puzzles ranging from one to four players and 10 to 30 minutes of play to go along with your attractive set.

What can I say? I’m a sucker for zombies. I always have been, long before they were all the rage. Zombie Army is a card game for two to six players that is a mix between poker and the card game War. The game’s developer describes it as having an atmosphere like The Walking Dead, but I would related it more to Zombies!!! In this game, players fight against the living in order to turn them into zombies while attacking the zombies that already exist. Its an apocalyptic mess.

Champions of Hara is a great looking game. I love the traditional fantasy style art that most games have, but this one looks more like a comic book, which is a refreshing change. Players compete to control the most energy on a hex style board using strategy and a bunch of power and ability cards. It is meant for two to six players, ages 12 and up and takes about 30 to 40 minutes.

I guess you might say my theme this week is death, since Bill Shakespeare is Dead is also on the list. In this game, players act out stage direction from the group as they shout out such verb cards as “Play Magic the Gathering” and noun cards as “MY Alcoholic Aunt.” The funniest actor gets the Oscar.

Are you tired of using boring paper tokens to represent your resources in land and empire building games? If so, Treasure Chests of Realistic Resource Tokens has what you need. Whether it is a loaf of bread, a crate, or a burning fire pit, all of your resources will look adorably cute as tiny crafted 3-D tokens. There are three different token themes, Food, Resource, and Energy.

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