Freshly Added to BGG - August 4, 2023

Summer is pretty busy out there, and games keep accumulating in the BGG database, at a rate which really defies my expectations (I guess the ongoing GenCon and the upcoming SPIEL do not help). So I'll keep things short tonight, if you don't mind. (Plus, the Wix engine is whimsical enough to erase my draft posts even when I save them manually...)

Maybe you never heard about the video game, but Children of Morta is getting a board game adaptation nonetheless. These days even the most obscure titles get their chance at the tabletop. Actually, the original video game was crowdfunded through Kickstarter, so I find it a bit ironic to see the title returning to this platform under a new incarnation. The game tells the story of a family, and the mechanics feature bag building, character development, and lots of fighting against the forces of evil. Yes, the video game was a hack and slash, so we might have expected that.

What, you say that this never-ending trend of adapting every single possible video game is an aberration? Wait till you see the actual Aberration out there: a cooperative Fantasy tower defense game set in a universe filled with horror and gruesome deaths, and incidentally populated with giant grey plastic minis. Game mechanics are worker placement, bag building (the new rage!), and asymmetric player powers (if that's actually a mechanic...). You can already follow the Gamefound campaign and get an enamel pin (I guess it can double down as a first player marker; it shares the same basic feature of uselessness).

And, wait, another video game adaptation! This time it's for Miasma Chronicles - for once a video game I really never heard about. The board game is an escape-room type game that apparently plays on a grid, and this is the whole extent of what I have gathered about this title. I like that some cards are organized like a comic strip; yes, it's important to find things to like, because since replayability may be limited to a one-shot go-through, you will really need to make the best of it. I have no clue about the distribution plans for this one.

The next one, Sea Beasts, is a two-player fully co-operative game (hence rightfully listed as soloable) that features the epic adventure of two vikings on a ship (by the look of it, I will venture to say it's a faering), surrounded by a horde of ravenous sea monsters. When I looked at the cover, I thought two things (more or less simultaneously): "it sounds like the sea beasts episode in Beowulf!" and "this is a game for Zerbique!". The description is pretty vague about the mechanics, but you have bloody dice-driven fights, and, less exciting to me, traveling optimization so you can deliver your cargo efficiently. It also happens to be a roll-and-write. The Gamefound campaign page is already up. People in the comments suffer from the same mismatch as I do (awesome cover and theme filled with bloody beasts vs. resource management and trading-focused story, what's happening out there?).

Speaking of perilous trips... White Noise has you cross the abyssal depths of space. The game is made of 100 cards, each carrying a number. At each turn, you look at the card you are facing (starting with card 1) and must make a "jump", that is, guessing whether the next number is going to be higher and lower than the card you are currently in. If you succeed, you will read the "event" part of the card, otherwise you lose health and face the "challenge" part, usually determined by rolling dice. At least your first jump should be safe enough... The goal is to reach the home card. Slated for a Kickstarter launch.

You like testing your luck, then? You better do in Bloodsport Gambler, where you play as a poor soul, crushed by the weight of inescapable debts, and forced to engage into high-stake, high-risk gambling over the winners of the pit fights in Ghoulmorrah. Of course, you stand no chance if you don't cheat and sabotage, but you may also get caught... The game features dice rolling, resource management, and of course, push your luck aspects. It will tempt its fate on the Kickstarter arena at some point. At least it's endorsed with a 10 rating by Dungeon Degenerates' designer Eric Radey, probably because he and the designer are good pals.

Despite its gloomy title, The Quagmires of Mysterra is actually on the cute, mellow side, featuring a race to grow mushrooms and collect magical gems. You play as a gnome determined to lift the evil spell of a witch from the land, by enlisting the fairies' help and crawling around a sinking map. Despite the jaunty world-saving theme, the game is actually competitive (remember, it's a race), because you want to be the most boot-licking gnome to report your good-doing to your Queen and probably get a reward of sort (more petty power over your subordinates, most likely). I do not know whether solo play preserves this aspect by introducing an AI or whether you are actually doing that because you are a true believer.

Ah! Death, danger, and loneliness are given the spotlight again here (you guessed the secret theme of this post by now; only Quagmires was a misfit, but that's because I didn't bother reading the BGG description before writing and just thought: oh, a swamp, spooky!). So, Death Path: Solitary Assignment is the solo spin-off of Death Path, a game where you navigate a maze filled with deadly threats (of course), playing as a Subject that fights against government-controlled killer robots to test your real skills and entertain the watching crowd in the process. Yeah, this game's theme has been made for one of my posts, I didn't even have to change the wording. You'll explore the maze, roll some dice, fight, get some gear, and most likely, die under a thunder of enthusiastic cheering. Sounds promising.

A very different take on government-funded engagements against a lethal threat, Firefighters on Duty is a co-op real-time game about, well, extinguishing fires. It features miniatures, dice rolls for action selection, and a scenario-based campaign. My main interrogation about the game is whether the short snippet of description on the game box is just a very bad pun or an inadvertently bad choice of words. This is designed by Kokkinis and Tsantilas (by their own or together: The Pursuit of Happiness, A Thief's Fortune, Project: Elite), published by Artipia Games (of which Kokkinis is CEO), and is listed as a future Kickstarter on the game's page.

Classically, I end with an expansion and a PnP. The expansion is for 3000 Scoundrels, a game designed and published by Corey Konieczka (now that he left FFG he publishes and develops games on his own), and is called Double or Nothing. The most interesting part is that it introduces an allegedly "robust" solo mode (the original had none), alongside more content overall. The game is set in an uchronic Far West transformed by a powerful and mystical technology left behind by an Alien or something. You will visit locations, upgrade your character by purchasing technologies, and take jobs to earn money. The original revolved around a central bluffing mechanic, so how the solo mode works is a bit of a mystery. All I know is that it pits you against one of four AIs with different behaviors and personalities.

The last item is a curious PnP, Fantasy Map Maker, which is a prompt to draw a Fantasy map of your fancy, but also acts as a real game, since you score it in some way. I don't know any more about it (not interested really), and it's for you only if you really enjoy drawing. The itch.io page, from which you can download the game for free, displays lots of maps drawn by BGG users.