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Peter Pan has recently seized command of The Jolly Roger, but he’s back to his wild adventures–all across Neverland and worlds beyond. Before a full week at sea, He knew he needed a trusted First Mate to take charge in his stead.
To find the most deserving, Peter devised a fiendishly fun contest. He ordered the Lost Kids one by one to take turns as Captain of his vessel–a new Captain for each new day. Then to ascertain the one most cunning, he tasked them with a regiment of deal making, offering all manner of schemes, promises, with aid from fairies and friends alike.
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“I’ll be back ere you miss me,” Peter shouted to his crew. Darting up and circling the crows nest, he looked to the first glimmer of sparkling stars. “Thrill me with your tales when I return,” he cried, zooming to the horizon. “Then we’ll lead through endless grand adventures together!”
Taking on the role of one of the Lost Kids in Neverland, your goal is to gain the most Command before Peter returns.
Because of Peter’s search to find a worthy First Mate, rounds start with one player acting as Captain. The Captain will offer Peter’s deal to the other players. They all present offers to the Captain, who must choose from among them, granting one player the deal’s benefits. After the deal is given out, each player takes a turn, choosing to either gather or use their resources. This pattern of deal making and player turns continues for a set number of rounds. Then there’s a final round when Peter returns. After that, Peter chooses the player with the most Command to be the winner, becoming his First Mate.
When you read this, UKGE will have happened. Hopefully I had new games released and some great 2pm events. But if you weren’t there, that’s probably not exciting for you.
So instead, let me invite you to sign up to our future Auction Land! testing. Are you interested in a game that mixes tile placement, set collection, and auctions? We’re already proud of it, and are making a private group on BGA to hopefully build a lovely community for A/B testing. We will have multiple options for some game rules that we’re not totally certain about and unless you choose a preference, they will be picked randomly for you.
We will sometimes ask for feedback on discord and the BGA group, and we’ll listen to (& ponder) every bit of feedback. But really, we just hope you have fun with the game, play a bunch, and we’ll work out how to make it the best it can be over the next year-ish. We’ll be growing the group slowly over the next few months. It should be fun. It’s entertainment, after all.
Our big news this month is that we’ve launched a Patreon! Support allows us more creative freedom and the ability to make additional community content between Kickstarters. For $5/month, get exclusive content and behind-the-scenes peeks. Higher tiers include exclusive puzzles, Discord access, and annual gifts. Join by 6/5 for a free Light in the Mist tarot card sticker!
UKGE has also consumed a lot of my time across May too, with new banners to make, promos to design and making sure all of the stock arrives on time. I’m really looking forward to demo-ing and selling Molehill Meadows for the first time in person and also giving away our ‘Early Bird’ promo. And to tie the Unfringed-verse together I’ve also created a “Mika” promo card for Zuuli. Can’t wait and absolutely love this event.
Talking of Molehill Meadows the Late Pledge option is now available on Gamefound for all of you that missed out on the fairly short campaign. For the next month or so I will be keeping the shipping prices subsidised but after that I will have to put them up so now is your best chance to get a good deal.
That’s all for now and I’ll be back in July with all of the expo highlights!
I was meant to already have a sample copy of Pukeapocalypse by now, but apparently a printer error has meant it needed to be re-printed. I’m pretty nervous waiting for a copy at this point since I’m booked to show it at the UKGE press event. Meanwhile I’m playtesting Playlandia, a game that should be coming out with another publisher, and just about to start playtesting Böll, a small game I’ve been hired to put together by the artist for Pukeapocalypse. All of that has stepped a little in front of my own project for Boarders and Black Flags, but its better problems to have.
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I’ll sign off now since I’ve got plans to make for a couple of weeks time. Have a great UKGE, and see you there.
Our other greetings cards are also available on the Kickstarter for a reduced price (£2 per card, or all nine cards for £16) so do check it out.
By the time you read this we will have just returned from UKGE — let’s hope it’s a fun weekend! It’s always busy. We’ve been demoing copies of our new Library Labyrinth card game, which is similar to the original Library Labyrinth but involves the Librarian setting challenges. Who can be the first to capture Dracula, or to use a magical object? Find out more on our Facebook page!
We launched Huff No More in January this year and have been building amazing connections with the UK indie publishing community since. We have really been blown away by the community and support for each other! It has made navigating this whole new world of publishing much easier for us.
We also joined the wonderful #BoardGameProtoHype community on Instagram which has brought together a group of designers from across the world to share ideas, support and knowledge in game development.
I am brimming with plans and ideas for next year, I’ll be getting a slightly bigger stand next time and laying it out in more of a shop format to make better use of the space. I cannot wait to get going on making more display stands to fit out my new shop!
Malus Hortus – I had a lot of questions about Malus Hortus during the event, despite not demoing this year I still had my MH banner behind me. With excitement building for the game, I’m hoping that people will still be interested once I’ve moved house and get everything in order before launch, fingers crossed!
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In the meantime, I’m still working on building up the follower numbers on the Kickstarter preview page. If you haven’t already, please follow the below link and click ‘notify me on launch’ thank you!!