Kickstarter Picks for the Week of June 23, 2014

What is this post all about? Well, it should pretty straightforward, but, if there's any confusion, this is where I'll be talking about a handful of Kickstarter projects each week, focusing on a few projects that recently launched and a few projects that are about to end. Will I be focusing only on projects in need of funding? No. I will simply be focusing on projects that interest me, regardless of whether they've only raised $5 or raised ten times that of their original goal. Anyway, I think it's about time I got to the actual projects, eh.

• Recently Launched

Island Dice - Survive the Players, the Island, and the Dice.

• Ends Mon, Jul 21 2014 10:59 PM CDT.

Island Dice looks like it takes a lot of what people love about King of Tokyo and adds quite a bit of depth and options, meaning there's room for more strategy and more thought; though, all these additions also mean the game looks to be more complicated and not for casual players; funny, since the game comes from a company called, Casual Dragon Games. My one concern--though I don't know for sure having never played the game--is that Island Dice may be a tad overly complicated, but, until I play it, I can only speculate.

Last Starfleet Cooperative Adventure Card Game

• Ends Fri, Aug 1 2014 11:59 PM CDT.

Last Starfleet is a cooperative card game for 2 - 6 players, where players take on the role of various captains, each with their own ship, looking for a new planet capable of sustaining life after Earth explodes. There looks to be a decent bit of variety and I love cooperative games, so I'm already interested in Last Starfleet; in addition, the space theme is starting to grow on me and there may even be a solitaire variant (because sometimes you, not Obi-Wan Kenobi, are humanity's only hope!), so I'm even more excited now. Also, the creator is a fellow Chicagoan, so you know he's got a good head on his shoulders.

Treasure Chest: Realistic Resource Tokens for Board Games

• Ends Wed, Jul 9 2014 7:59 PM CDT.

Not every pick has to be a board game, right? Wait, why am I asking you...this is my site! (But your opinion is always appreciated and valued highly) Anyway, components are a big deal with games and sometimes you just want to replace what comes in a game with something nicer; that's where the Treasure Chest comes in. The Treasure Chest is a collection of six different types of realistic resource tokens that look fantastic, adding that extra something to certain types of board games--a car game obviously has no use for fancy gems or bits of ore--replacing cubes with little logs, gold bars, itsy-bitsy bricks, and more. These tokens are not something you need, but if you have some extra cash and want to make a game or two look just a wee bit nicer, the Treasure Chest is for you--I may pick up a chest for Lewis & Clark; 'twas the first game that came to mind.

• Ending Soon

LUGU a storytelling card game

• Ends Mon, Jun 30 2014 12:04 AM CDT.

LUGU is a card game about creating stories and it reminds me of the party game, Dixit. In LUGU, the storyteller takes four random cards from their deck--everyone has a deck of the same 22 cards--and creates a story, grabbing inspiration from the four selected cards at random times during their story, placing the cards facedown as they use them--which then prompts everyone else to try and guess which of their 22 cards best fits that particular story moment. I'm not sure if the game will work in practice, having not played it myself, but I really like the idea and would love to try it out; plus, it's something different.

Twisted Counters - Customizable Discs for Tabletop Games

• Ends Sun, Jun 29 2014 6:09 PM CDT.

More not-board games! Anyway, keeping track of numbers in board games can sometimes be annoying--I'm not the biggest fan of score tracks where pieces can easily move around, ending up in the wrong place, forcing everyone to recount their scores at the end of the game--so, the second I saw Twisted Counters pop up on Kickstarter, I backed it almost immediately. Twisted Counters don't do anything incredibly unique, but they keep track of information in the palm of your hand and, if you're one of the many who are currently addicted to Marvel Dice Masters--like yours truly--these will be perfect for keeping track of one's health points.

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Anyway, that's it and that's all for this week's edition of Kickstarter picks. If you have any thoughts about the projects mentioned or want to highlight a project not mentioned above, leave a comment below--I'm always interested in seeing what other's think about various projects and what projects interest others.