Can we have a second Gen Con? Ok, we’ll wait until 2025. Join Suzanne and Conesy as we recap our experience at this year’s Gen Con 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Gen Con is most certainly a different convention from any other in the world, and there is always far more to see and experience than there is time in the 4 days to find. We’ll share our favorite experiences and games that we played over the BEST FOUR DAYS IN GAMING!!!!
If you were at the show, make sure you let us know what your favorite experiences and games were at the show in the comments!
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.
Our first game this week is Luthier from Paverson Games on Kickstarter.
Luthier, which is for 1 to 4 players, is the next game from Paverson Games, makers of the popular game Distilled. In Luthier you are the head of a luthier family, skilled craftspeople that create musical instruments. You’ll be crafting instruments for famous historical patrons in the golden age of classical music. Some of your family will be busy roughing out and then providing the finishing touches on an instrument to fulfill the orders of a wealthy patron.
Patrons commission specific types of instruments such as stringed instruments, winds or percussion and keyboard instruments. But patrons have many other requirements than just finely crafted instruments. You will also have your family members perform beautiful works of music to suit your patrons style and tastes. You’ll have a chance to earn money and prestige (victory points) as well as potentially advance your performance skill, improving all your abilities with future performances.
Luthier pairs its strong theme with some unique worker placement mechanics. Each of your family members is represented by a worker chip with a skill value from one to five. When you take an action you secretly select a worker to use. Committing a stronger worker will increase your chances of getting first priority in the chosen action. A higher priority will give you the first shot at actions like attracting new patrons and acquiring new plans for instruments to craft.
In addition to cleverly using your workers to compete for actions, you will also be competing against other players for prestigious positions in the orchestra. For your achievements in performances and instrument crafting and repair, you may be able to claim First Chair in the orchestra in a particular section to earn prestige points at the end of the game.
The player who has earned the most prestige by meeting their patrons needs, performing, crafting instruments and claiming first chairs in the orchestra will be the winner!
Luthier is available on Kickstarter at a range of pledge levels for different budgets and with a large variety of rewards:
Prelude (Standard Edition) – $69 – The standard retail edition of Luthier
Concerto (Deluxe Edition) – $99 – The deluxe version includes screen printed wooden components, metal coins, dual layered boards and custom organizational trays
Symphony (Deluxe Edition + Upgrades) – $169 – Everything in the Concerto pledge plus a custom soundtrack, engraved worker chips, realistic resources and enamel inspiration tokens.
Magnum Opus (All-in Pledge) – $279 – Everything in the Symphony pledge plus wooden instrument standees, a giant playmat, a real Conductor’s Baton, cards sleeves and a dice tower.
The campaign for Luthier will only be running until August 8, 2024, so be sure to catch the performance and get your pledge in before then!
Our second game this week is Sprocketforge from Sophisticated Cerberus Games on Kickstarter.
From Sophisticated Cerberus Games, the folks that brought you The Stifling Dark, comes Sprocketforge a new engine-building game for 1 to 5 players. In the City of Sprocketforge you control a factory powered by both magic and technology. You’ll need to build up your factory and improve it with enchantments, runes and magical seals and outdo the other players to fulfill orders for magical artifacts and earn the most renown by impressing the noble houses of Sprocketforge.
Sprocketforge centrally features a physical interlocking gear system that you rotate as you play the game. 5 individual interlocking gears represent your factory. You’ll start the game with 2 enchantment tiles that fit onto a gear and will produce different kinds of mana (magical energy) for your factory. Four elemental types of mana, Air, Fire, Earth and Water will be used to complete orders from commoners, merchants and nobles that provide in-game rewards and Renown (endgame victory points).
Each turn in Sprocketforge you will take one main action and other players may be able to take a follow action as well. Main actions include Produce, Plan and Petition. When you produce you will trigger the production on the active section of all the enchantment tiles and seal tiles on your gears. This will generate mana you will use to fulfill orders.
With the Plan action you will acquire new orders from the commoners, merchants and nobles of the city. Fulfilling these orders earns you Renown and other rewards like Favors from the noble houses. Crafting these magical items is not without a cost though, when you use your mana to fulfill an order, it creates magical exhaust that builds up in your factory. Exhaust must be vented before it builds up too far or you will lose renown for your pollution filled factory. The last action is Petition which lets you spend Favor to petition one of the noble houses, gaining Renown and other benefits in the process.
After your action you rotate the gears in your factory, changing what mana will produce and what effects will trigger the next time you produce. Play continues until one player has earned 30 Renown and after one final turn the player with the most Renown has built the most successful factory in Sprocketforge and wins the game.
Here is a quick glance at the different pledge levels available for Sprocketforge:
Merchant (Base Pledge) – $60 – 1 copy of Sprocketforge plus stretch goals.
Runesmith – $100 – The base game plus upgraded custom resin resources + stretch goals
Tinkerer – $120 – A copy of Sprocketforge with actual metal gears + stretch goals
Noble – $150 – Includes metal gears and custom resin resources + stretch goals
Don’t just keep spinning your gears! Head on over to the Sprocketforge campaign on Kickstarter before August 15, 2024, to make your pledge!
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.
Stay informed when new Kickstart Monday projects come out by following us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and following the #KickstartMonday hashtag. Also, take a look at some of the latest articles from WiscoDice:
Join Consey and Suzanne as they talk with Dave Beck from Paverson Games. We discuss the new hot game, Luthier, that is on crowdfunding and demoing at GenCon 2024. Find out what all the excitement is about then stop by GenCon booth 2151 and check out the game in person!
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