State of the Patreon: Autumnal Edition (Patreon)

It is time for that semi-seasonal post; as the nights begin to draw in, trees turn golden and the weather decides to turn down the heat in the northern hemisphere, I wanted to update you on what has been happening, and also recommend a few different things.

I am continuing to stream Kingdom Death most Fridays, however as my health is not great, there are some weeks I cannot do that. Last week was cancelled because of an unfortunate peanut allergy attack - there was a surprise peanut in my bar, while my allergic reactions are not typically life threatening, it did compromise my ability to talk for a few days.  If I am unable to stream, I announce it on the day in the discord announcements channel.

My stream is over at: https://www.twitch.tv/styfen (typically in the morning & early afternoon European time) and I am currently uploading the VODs to my YouTube, but I might stop doing that because I do not approve of how YouTube treats its content creators.  For the moment, here is my YouTube channel link.

On the Custom Monster front, I put things up to vote for the higher tier Patreons and they have decided on which of the two monster designs I will release next. I did hope to get two monsters done before the end of the year, but I have to be realistic, these things take a lot of time, so it is likely that there will be just one released in the next three months. If you want to support the creation of custom monsters, I allocate time to the work based on the percentage number of $5 or higher patrons each month. So that is how you can tell me where to focus that time.

General Game Discussion

I'd also like to talk about the other games I have played or been playing over the past period, both board game and videos. I am going to be increasing the number of additional reviews that I put up online, but the vast majority of them are going to go straight onto BoardGameGeek, with just a round up link being put onto the patreon. This is because Patreon's editing system is terrible if you want to put lots of pictures up and also because I want to diversify more and get back to my main interests - which was reviewing games in general. However, I understand that many of you are here for the KD:M Content, so I am not going to be reducing that for the current future. We'll see what APG do over the coming year though, my patience with that company is running thin. I love the game despite the way that the company acts, but in this day and age, that only goes so far when your business practices are so anti-consumer.

So, let us be positive. In video games I played the digital form of Root, which I adored enough that I think it's time I reviewed Root, Roots expansions and finally the Digital iteration of it. Short version is, I might like the digital version more than the physical one, but a big part of that is the continued need to socially distance, so electronic board gaming helps. The downside is, it really, REALLY needs the expansion factions as soon as possible because I have already played with the core 4 an awful lot. Love the challenges though.

Deep Rock Galactic continues to go from strength to strength and even with Left 4 Dead 2 releasing a massive amount of new content, the Space Dwarf Mining Simulator continues to bring joy with its cooperative, class based experience.

If you are looking for something to play by yourself Spiritfarer is a single player experience that will leave you introspective, thoughtful and at times emotionally drained. It is a beautifully animated explore and craft mission based side scrolling platformer where you pilot a ship around the afterlife and help spirits (in the form of animals) find peace and move on to their final stage of existence. 

While at times the game's over indulgence in animation lengths/repeats, constant need to gather materials and the sprawling nature of the game resulting in 'Elder Scrolls' syndrome (where you get lost trying to figure out what to do). The game was one of the most enjoyable and haunting experiences I have had this year, and I haven't finished it yet. Check out Yahtzee's review of it for another opinion: https://youtu.be/FKzAIF6gYvg 

In this day and age, a game about death and the afterlife feels especially poignant. 

I would also like to recommend The Dungeon of Naheulbek: The Amulet of Chaos for people who want a fantasy turn based 'XCom experience'. Just be aware it is very childish at times. And I think I hardly need to recommend Spelunky 2, but I will anyway.

Also, my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventure Game Kickstarter arrived this week and I have been having a blast with it. So expect reviews on BoardGameGeek of the contents soonish. As someone who grew up with the 2003 rendition of TMNT, I love IDWs version of the world, even if they haven't yet given us Nano.  Still, I think IDW Games are one of the better Kickstarter companies out there (out of the larger ones) and this game has one of my favourite dice throwing mechanics for action generation.

Recommended Kickstarters

There are a few kickstarters either out, or coming this month I would like to highly recommend, the first is 7th Citadel from Serious Polyph. This is a successor to 7th Continent; which I do not think needs any more of an explanation than that.

The second one is Fearsome Wilderness from Geektopia Games, I wrote a review over on BoardGameGeek recently and I would love for you to check it out as I think the game is awesome fun. If nothing else, please go give the top of the review a thumbs up if you have the time. It deserves more profile as the game is wonderful and has some mechanics that gave me such joy. You can follow the designer Matt over on Instagram and see the sculpts for the game. They are so great and I hope that the setting becomes a franchise. 

The Kickstarter Campaign goes live on 6th of October and they have one of the most customer friendly distribution plans I have seen.

You can even check out a demo of their game on Tabletop Simulator, they have the first scenario loaded up with some sample nightmares and you can get a real taste for the experience. 

It is here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1982297310 

Solo version here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2025880241 

So no excuses, try it out. I really enjoyed the game. But don't just take my word for it; here is a sweet video review from Jesters: https://youtu.be/dsKw-HW1Uso 

Speaking of Tabletop Simulator The third recommendation is of course Townsfolk Tussle, which is landing on the 20th of October and has just had an update with some additional rules for things like Critical Hits and a chance in the ruffian cast, Handsy has returned to the box (to come back to your nightmares when the Kickstarter launches on 20th October) and the conjoined twins Qing & Kween are here instead. Great stuff.

Their website is over here: https://www.panicroll.com/ 

Tabletop Simulator link is: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2160342755 

We will return on Friday with a stream (still trying to get more hide and Dash/Surge) and more hunt events on the patreon. Until then, be safe and be good people!