Kickstart Your Week! Rumble in Numenera
The Ninth World
A billion years in the future. No, that’s not the expected delivery date for this Kickstarter, but the setting of the Numenera RPG. It’s Earth, but not as we know it in this, the Ninth World. After the rise and fall of eight civilisations, the marvels awaiting a brave band of explorers are many and varied, from high tech relics to bizarre creatures and a mystical landscape. This universe is the setting for The Ninth World, a new card game from industry veteran Mike Selinker (Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Lords of Vegas) and the team behind the Numenera RPG.
Each adventure will see your party exploring one of the 9 Kingdoms of the Steadfast, or perhaps the even stranger lands of the Beyond. In each round, players visit a new location and invest their time honing their abilities, to gain new skills, items and prizes. These might be scouting the wilderness, tinkering with relics, charming allies, combating creatures and focussing on skills. This means using your cards to bid for the best cards corresponding to each of your skills. At the end of the journey, whoever has gained the most from their adventure, determined by the victory point value of their cards, is the winner.
The Ninth World has been described as one part deck builder, one part euro game, and one part RPG, and you can see why. You will be building up your character through adding cards to your “deck”, exploring a world and having adventures as in an RPG, but competing with your fellow players at the same time. No single one of these terms captures the game in its entirety, which is why the creators have coined the term “Skill Building” to describe it. It’s an intriguing new game from experienced RPG-based card game designers. Well worth checking out!
Explore the Ninth World by January 15th.
Rumbleslam
Buddy you’re a grot make a big noise, playin’ in the ring gonna be a big Ork some day! You’ve got blood on your face, you big disgrace! Kickin’ that man all over the place. We will, we will, Rumbleslam you!
Ah yeah!
Rumbleslam is a fantasy wrestling game, a miniatures skirmish game in effect, but trapping your fighters within a ring. No fake violence here, things are going to get bloody! Well, I mean, in our imaginations, they’re still just miniatures… and nice miniatures they are too! Fights can feature anywhere between 5 and 15 guys (or galls) in the ring at once, promising some pretty wild bouts, but clever use of the ropes and corner posts really captures the feel of wrestling, making it more than just a combat game.
If you’re a fan of wrestling this could be a fun, silly slice of action. There is a whole pile of different fantasy race themed teams you can pick up as add ons, so if you’re one of those “got to have it all” types, you may want to be careful, as this one could cost you! But the different teams should hopefully offer a nice degree of variability for your games.
Get ready to Rumbleslam before January 14th.
Other Great Games
Dark Ring Hong Kong – Join a dark but surprisingly friendly quest for powerful orbs. A game of bluffing, searching for information and difficult decisions as players race to gain the orbs they need to win the game. Each turn a single player decides what number of orbs each player will receive (positive or negative), and they must decide whether to accept or reject the card without having seen the reward. But action cards can be played to manipulate the situation. How well can you judge your friends’ choices? Ends Jan 8th.
Battlemind/Thrones – It appears the race is on this month to publish a (completely unlicensed) interpretation of Cyvasse, the board game played across the world of the Game of Thrones series. The “official” rules for George R R Martin’s game do not exist, so you’ll have to choose the interpretation and implementation you prefer. But anything described as a cross between chess and stratego has got to be worth checking out. Ends Jan 15th or 10th.
Phantom Leader Deluxe – Fly combat missions across Northern Vietnam in the second edition of this solo war game. As you send pilots on missions they will become more experienced, but they will also become stressed, requiring you to carefully manage your men not only during engagements but over the course of the entire campaign as well. Ends Jan 17th.
Image credit goes to Board Game Geek users W Eric Martin, William Hunt and Doniphann, and the relevant Kickstarter projects.
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