029B3: Kickstarter Shuffle

Metro Manila Community Quarantine - Day 423

We just backed the CANVAS: Reflections Expansion Kickstarter within its last 48 hours because (1) the game looks super pretty and (2) this is a great way to get the deluxe editions of both the original game and the new expansion. This is just the latest of different Kickstarter projects for board games that we've supported recently. And as much as most of the actual pledges have already been collected, they all have different production cycles before they reach completion/shipping. 

So let's do a quick run-down of what's up in the air.

• Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is still in production, but we do have enough of the preview materials to be able to run a game (which Tobie has!) Technically it's late for its scheduled release, but that was generally expected given the pandemic. 
• Namiji: The Next Chapter in the TOKAIDO Universe! is still in production as well and is way overdue for its original July 2020 release. But as someone who had also backed the Tokaido Collector's Edition Kickstarter, I know how fussy this team can get about getting everything right. Their April 2021 update has already shared the final prototypes for many of the components, so I'm pretty sure we're going to ship this year.
• Terraforming Mars Big Box + 3D Tiles has already started shipping out all over the world and I'm eager for this to arrive. This is one of the first Kickstarters that I've set for delivery to the Philippines instead of my usual US forwarding service to see if it'll make it here without customs complications. 
• Castles of Mad King Ludwig Collector's Edition is scheduled for release at the end of the year and the latest update indicates they're already working on playtesting. I've also set this one to deliver to the Philippines since the volume of the box alone will cost me more in shipping than its weight. Darn collector's edition mega boxes. 
• Root: The Marauder Expansion ended just last March and is going through development with a projected ship date of January 2022. They've done well with their previous projects, so I'm pretty sure this one will finish on time. And I've already gotten one of my digital bonuses, which is a custom skin for the Eyrie in the Root digital game.
• Stellaris Infinite Legacy was quite the big project and a bit of a gamble since it's like we know Stellaris outside the computer game world all that much. But this project is still so exciting, that I really hope that it pushes through without complications. 
• Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall is an expansion for a game that we don't exactly play a lot but we do love more for its unique art style and wry humor. It's also one of the last Kickstarter projects that we were talking to Karen about. She had also been interested in the art and I told her that we'd be sure to bring our copies of the game to the next (post-pandemic) game night instead. We never got to show her the game.
• Dice Theme Park is still in progress and is a bit of a gamble for us since it's a smaller publisher, but they have managed to get all 15 of their projects to funding level (including this one), so that's hopeful. And getting this pledge through means we also get the Kickstarter version of Dice Hospital, which satisfies the completist in me.

And separately Tobie is responsible for our support for the Robinson Crusoe - Collector's Edition crowdfunding effort, mainly because his game scenario is part of the Book Adventures, which is part of this project. And I almost forgot about how we sort of became late backers for Dinosaur World and Dinosaur Island Rawr & Write via a pre-order option that became available via local retailer Gaming Library. It still means we get the full Kickstarter edition even though I didn't jump on the original campaign.

The only "major" release from publishers that we generally support was for Aries Expedition: The Terraforming Mars Card Game because...Terraforming Mars is already a card-heavy game and I didn't see the point in a slightly simpler version of a game that we like precisely because it's so deep and intricate. Despite all the different projects we participate in, they're all legitimately games we'd still play. And this last one didn't feel like something we'd get behind just yet. Maybe if we ran across a secondhand copy of the game sometime in the future?

So yeah, we have fingers in many different tabletop game pies, as it were, and it'll be interesting to see how things go once they all arrive. Too many of the games that we love have been around long enough to justify having a collector's edition for them, which is bonkers. And yet most of them will arrive before we can actually arrange for a game night with friends because of this pandemic. 

That's the part that sucks most of all.