Welcome to the Indie Tabletop Newsletter, hear from independent tabletop games designers about their current and upcoming projects. Take a look at the games we’ve already self-published and our upcoming Kickstarters, maybe even get yourself a free print n play game. Learn more about this newsletter here.
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We’re also going to be running a bunch of live streams throughout the campaign where the SDR team plays the game! So keep an eye out for announcements of those on our Instagram.
While we are planning on keeping most of our pledge tiers a secret until the 13th, I thought I’d share with you our Bronze bundle, which contains hints at one of our stretch goals too – The Digital Destabiliser – £20: The PDF bundle of Why We Fight, and Why We Fight: Direct Action, plus all unlocked digital one-shot Adventures.
Alongside sharing the excitement for our launch, I wanted to share some more insights regarding the Community Alliance – the organisation all players characters are from.
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Community Alliance Crews are not your classic violence-orientated squad. We wanted to steer away from them being purely the Park Ranger style of cop, there to enforce their rules on others within their territory, even if well intentioned. By determining a character’s Specialty, you are able to look beyond simply their ability to ‘do’, and instead consider what they ‘know’. Even characters with Physical Specialties such as Athletics or Scavenging are more than just people who ‘can’ do those things, they’re people who specialise in them. They know the best way to achieve a goal via those means, and by having four different specialists within a Crew, you create a dynamic between them of respect for each other. When it comes to matters of Tactics, Francine knows what she’s talking about, and the Crew will turn to her to lead them at these times. But Chemistry? You can rely on Enrico! By acknowledging each others strengths, it becomes more expected to defer to each other without anyone being of a ‘lesser’ rank or status.
We will touch on this more in one of our blog posts during the campaign!
In the game, you play one of a number of power companies, contracted by the government to tackle an impending threat from a vast Supervolcano. Each player plays simultaneously to establish power plants and harvest super heated steam from deep inside the volcano.
Players must balance the challenges of building their operation and local populations, whilst keeping the magma chamber pressure under control. Fail to meet your quota and the resulting eruptions and quakes will see those precious populations disappear!
You can also pick up a bundle of our current games including Attack of the Intergalactic Gherkins, Voids, Anxious Unicorn’s Poop Gold and Tails of the Sea at a knocked down price.
In A Shadow Serenade, the players are moving 1 or 2 villagers each turn to try to match what they have on their Mission cards. They can vary from 1 villager on a bridge to much more complex with a specific villager not being able to be seen by two specific other villagers.
Players will be able to play Missions even when it is not their turn. Players will have to keep an eye on their opponents as they play watching for tells when an opponent reacts to a certain villager being moved.
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The wily ninja players have other tricks up their sleeves though. Mission cards can be discarded to move that specific villager to an empty build, which can lead to them being able to play a different Mission. The players can also coerce an opponent to give them a matching Mission by revealing one from their hand to that opponent.
Players will find plenty of challenge as they play again and again seeking new strategies to outwit their opponents.
A Shadow Serenade was co-designed with Tyrone Brookes who has also designed the very fun Royal Tyrants.
We’ve also been busy getting ready for Airecon where Mike will be in the Demo Zone on Friday and Saturday running demos of Sakana Stack and Flower Cards. Mike had a great time last year and can’t wait to get back to Harrogate. The Demo Zone has a stacked line up of brilliant indie publishers so if you’re at Airecon be sure to head over and spend some time to try some amazing games as they are getting ready for future release.
Malus Hortus is a 1-4 player cooperative board game. Playing as one of four badass nymphs, you will fight your way through this evil garden, saving critters along the way, working together and advancing the story during the day, all whilst the onslaught of these malevolent flowers continues every night. Will you survive Malus Hortus?
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has held on waiting for this launch, I hope you’ll find the new and improved Malus Hortus well worth the wait. If you would like to learn more about the game it has a page on this website under the ‘Games’ section.
Conventions – In other news you’ll be able to find me at two conventions this month. On Friday 28th March I will be demoing Malus Hortus at Shake, Battle and Roll in Eastleigh, Hampshire.
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On Saturday 29th and 30th of March I will be exhibiting at Paradice in Worthing, West Sussex with a smaller assortment of board gaming accessories than I usually have, if you have a peruse around the shop on this website and find there’s something you’d like me to bring along please let me know.
I look forward to having more brilliant news to share with you as the launch date nears.
Manufacturing for Ministry of Lost Things: Lint Condition, our most recent Kickstarter project, has wrapped up! Barring any unforeseen delays, backers can expect to receive their shipments in late spring of this year. If you missed the Kickstarter, you can still pre-order the game via our website, getpostcurious.com. All campaign backers should have received a pledge manager invitation in their email to fill out shipping details and complete their orders.
Can’t get enough puzzles in your life? Too impatient to wait for the next PostCurious game? We recently added a whole new batch of free puzzles to our website! All you have to do is click the link below to sign up, and you’ll get an email invitation to our secret puzzle archive!
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It now includes puzzles from all our past Kickstarters, as well as puzzles from various events and holidays going back as far as 2018!
I received the demo prototypes in late February and it’s always such a joy as a publisher seeing your creation come to life in the form of a “real” game. Lisa, our artist, has done such a fantastic job in bringing life and character to the birds and I’m such a sucker for the bright backgrounds (can you tell from my previous games Zuuli & Molehill Meadows :P)
So if you’re heading Harrogate way between 13-16th March please do swing by and say hi and if you’re not, don’t worry, it’ll also be visiting UKGE in June. Stay fetching all!
I expect that we’ll do about 4-6 months of playtests before I’m ready to hand it off to the next group, so if you love PbtA games and would like to playtest, give me a shout. At the moment there is no artwork, so I’ll also be looking for an artist at some point (the image is just something I mocked up for the playtest). My goal is to have enough completed to launch crowdfunding by late 2025/early 2026, with fulfillment by mid to late 2026.
If you follow me at TikTok or Bluesky, I’ll be doing several giveaways over the next few months to build up my following and start promoting the game.
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That’ll be a while though as I’ve the campaign page to finish, then the component ordering and final rulebook graphic design and then the fulfilment bookkeeping – all of which take a decent chunk of my time. If you’re interested in FlickFleet this latest campaign allows you to back for anything from the base game up to all seven boxes and get a decent discount and heavily subsidised international shipping!
