Planet Fulcrum is live (Conquer Planet Fulcrum)
Update: Planet Fulcrum is live on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 29 days.You may pledge for a copy of the game, or get it together with a custom PnP character. The Pioneer tier is for having your name included in the rulebook as well.
Our preview post below was published on March 29.
Planet Fulcrum is a 1-4 player area control game in which you are trying to gain the most power by dominating a strange planet. It will launch on Kickstarter on April 1.
In Planet Fulcrum, you suddenly awake in a mysterious planet and soon find out that you've acquired powerful new abilities. Others have landed there too, and now you must compete with them for control over the planet's territories. Each character has a personal board which shows their abilities (Energy, Resilience, Strength, Intelligence, Speed) and a morale track. Depending on the actions you take over the course of the game, the morale track will determine if you are a Guardian (good), a Nomad (neutral) or an Overlord (evil).
The main board is divided in 5 locations that match the abilities on the character boards. When a player controls territory within a location, they can then increase their corresponding ability. Each turn consists of 3 phases: Move, Action, and Morality. Move means moving a character to another space on the board, up to that character's Speed. Action allows you to interact with a territory or with other characters, and in the Morality phase, you adjust the morale tracker according to the action you have taken.
When a character moves within a location, they will land on hexes that have different effects. If it is a territory, they can claim it or steal it if it belongs to another player. If it is a portal, they can teleport to another portal spot on the board. If it is a meteor, it will let them gain meteor cards (used in battles), and if it has fulcrum gems, they can gain them to upgrade their abilities.
If another character stands in the same spot as you, you will engage in combat. The player who initiates the fight will choose if they are the attacker or the defender, and the characters' allegiance (good, evil, or neutral) will determine what cards they can play when they fight. The fight is enacted by comparing each player's total combat points (strength/resilience plus ability of the current location, plus cards). At the end of the game, when the last territory on the board has been conquered, the player with the most points, wins.
In the solo mode, you will be playing against an automated opponent. You simply flip an unused character board to the other side and use it to track its actions. The AI side will show that character's allegiance and their primary goal, as well as their starting ability levels. On its turn, the AI will try to complete its objective, and if it can't, it will perform another action according to its board instructions.
The Planet Fulcrum website has a character creation app which lets you make your own character, give them facial and bodily features, and then print them out and use them in the game.