Welcome to Kickstart Monday! This is our weekly series featuring 2 or more crowdfunding projects that have caught our eye. We scour over platforms like Kickstarter, Gamefound, and Indigogo to find projects that interest us.

There are certainly some exciting projects out in crowdfunding land. Let’s take a look at a couple of games that we think you should check out. We have two awesome looking dice games this week so let’s get into it. 

Deep Regrets: An Unfortunate Fishing Game

First up is Deep Regrets: An Unfortunate Fishing Game from Judson Cowan on Kickstarter. 

Deep Regrets is a 1 to 5 player dice strategy game about fishing and dealing with the descent into madness as you discover the unknowable terrors that lurk in the depths of the ocean. Each player steps into the boots of a determined angler who starts their week with just a single can of worms and a lifeboat. Each day you will muster your courage and roll your Lure Dice which will determine your fishing ability for the day. Then you declare if you will stay at port or set out to try your luck at sea.

The briny deep is made up of three depths with a stack of cards at each level. Under the water at each depth live fish both fair and foul. You will choose a depth to fish at and reveal what lies under the waves.

Each fish whether it’s a fairly standard Whiptail Stingray or a disturbing Deepworm has a value and a difficulty. If you can spend enough lure dice to meet the difficulty you make your catch! Beware though as the creatures of the sea have unique abilities that may trigger when you reveal them or catch them. Once you have spent all your lure dice it’s time to head back to port with your haul.

Back at port you will have the option to sell your catches at market, buy new rods, reels and supplies, and mount your prize catches for end game points. Of course you can always eat your catch for special abilities too. As the game continues and you dredge up the horrors of the deep, you will gain Regrets, memories of the horrible things you’ve seen, or eaten!

Regrets affect your state of mind and the more you have the more your madness grows, changing the value of fish you catch but also increasing the pool of lure dice you have making it possible to fish longer and deeper. Regrets tend to pile up though and if you have too many end up suffering when it comes to end game points. 

Deep Regrets looks to bring together a fun and unsettling theme with some easy to learn mechanics and some impressive artwork. There are over 100 different hand illustrated fish cards in the game that range from the beautiful to the weird to the truly unsettling. I absolutely love the excellent artwork from designer and artist Judson Cowan, it really makes this game stand out.

Deep regrets is available now on Kickstarter for $52 which includes the full game and the option to grab some add-ons such as the 18 card Lamentable Tentacles expansion, an art poster, and a copy of designer’s other game, Hideous Abomination.  Cast a line to catch your copy of Deep Regrets before July 25, 2024, when the campaign ends.

Emerald Skulls

Next up we have Emerald Skulls from Thunderworks Games on Kickstarter.

Emerald Skulls is a face-paced, push-your-luck gambling dice game for 1 to 6 players and is the next game that comes from Thunderworks’ World of Ulos. Emerald Skulls is the sister game to Goblin Vaults and shares the same small box format. Emerald Skulls thematically is the dice game that goblins play in Kulbak prison where their currency is the loose gears of the construct guards.

Each round in Emerald Skulls one player is the Tumbler rolling dice and the rest are Bettors placing bets on each roll. As the Tumbler you’ll grab three dice and maybe buy some more dice to improve your odds. Then you’ll start rolling with the goal of placing your dice into the 5 levels of the skull. Each level requires a specific die face and skulls on the die are wild and can be placed anywhere. The Tumbler is aiming to get the best payout they can without busting. 

All the while the Bettors are placing bets in realtime on the Tumbler’s rolls. As long as the Tumbler has the dice in their hand you can place your bets. But act quickly! You’ll need to get your  chosen bet placed down before the other players during all the action.

The Tumbler will roll until they “go out” in a few different ways, Being unable to place dice (Bust out), Placing all their dice (Run Out) Choosing to stop rolling (Chickening Out), or “Gem Out” by placing a die in the top tier of the skull. Bettors place bets on how they think the Tumbler will go out either with the 4 standard betting cards, or one of the twelve double sided advanced betting cards.

The advanced cards include alternate “Out” cards as well as Jackpot and Side bet cards to sweeten the pot. When The Tumbler finally goes out and then the Tumbler and the Bettors get their payouts in gears and the next player becomes the new Tumbler. Rounds of rolling and betting continue until the supply of gears runs out and the player with the most gears wins!

Emerald Skulls looks like it could be a blast with a big group of people and you can extend the fun to up to 8 players with the 7-8 player add-on expansion. But before I get to far let’s check out the pledge levels:

  • Base Game – $20 – the core game plus any add-ons you choose to purchase
  • Base Game + 7-8 Player Expansion – $25 – Emerald Skulls core game with up to 8 players!
  • Gameplay All-In (No Goblin Vaults) – $45 – (For players that already own Goblin Vaults) Base game and expansion, the Swindler’s Chest box that holds all the Emerald Skulls and Goblins Vaults contents, playmat, and a mini expansion for Goblin Vaults
  • Gameplay All-In – $55 – Everything plus a copy of Goblin Vaults the sister game to Emerald Skulls
  • Deluxe Gameplay All-In – $75 – Gameplay All-In Upgraded with Metal Gear Tokens
  • Deluxe Gameplay All-In + Plushie – $95 – Adds a cute Nargash Goblin Plushie

Get your bets placed on Emerald Skulls soon because the Kickstarter campaign will end on July 24, 2024.

Did we miss your favorite project?

Thank you for checking out this week’s Kickstart Monday! If you find these interesting or want some attention on a Kickstarter or other crowdfunded projects that you would like to read more about please share your thoughts with us via our social media or email.

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