Tabletop Talks Week 10

Hello tabletoppers, it’s time to add some excitement to your next game night! Let’s be honest, this past year has felt like we are all just trying to make it through. So, we wanted to bring you a few great board games that are all about survival! These creations force you and your friends to use your wits, determination, and patience to make it out of tricky situations unscathed. Whether it’s braving a frozen post-apocalypse or trying your best to capitalize on humanity’s first run-in with fire, these games will be sure to provide the exciting survival challenge to help us make it through the last leg of the Covid Pandemic. So, without further adieu...Tabletop Talks: Survival!

1. Don’t Let It Die

A cooperative survival strategy board game

We’re the first to admit that sometimes board game themes can get a little overwhelming. Now, we love layered and nuanced sci-fi universes or fantasy worlds enough to devote countless game nights to them, but sometimes the best board game is one that gets back to a basic yet thrilling premise! This is why you need to play Don’t Let It Die from Thunk Board Games! In this co-op survival strategy game, players take control of a prehistoric tribe right when lightning strikes a nearby tree. As the first humans to ever witness fire, it is your mission to do whatever you can to keep this mysterious thing alive long enough to discover its secrets, learn its power, and change humanity forever! While you study this mysterious glow, your tribe must also use collected resources to craft new items, unlock new discoveries, and ultimately save your Tribe from extinction by learning how to create your own fire! With this amazing premise, well-themed mechanics, and a completely cooperative experience, Don’t Let it Die will take you and your friends on a thrilling, survival-driven quest that they won’t soon forget!

The team Behind Don’t Let It Die began with a simple thought, “Wouldn't it be a crazy adventure for the first humans to find fire and figure out what this could possibly be!?” That ended being the spark they needed (pun very much intended) to create a survival game that seamlessly balances deep strategy and immediate playability. The result is a tabletop game that forces you and your tribe to solve any problem the prehistoric world throws at you as you fight to survive in a brave new world!

The team behind Don’t Let It Die has used Tabletop Simulator before even embarking on their latest prehistoric adventure and have used the platform to create survival game perfection! Their digital version of Don’t Let It Die is now one of the most popular TTS mods of all time! You can also visit their website to buy a physical copy of the game as well as information on their recently released Physical Hindrance Expansion!

2. Hit the Silk!

A sky-high game of suspense, treachery, and survival

If you are looking for a survival board game that has tension, drama, and stakes straight out of an action movie, you need to play Hit the Silk! from Escape Plan Board Games. In this semi-cooperative game of suspense and treachery, players are thrown into the role of a passenger on an airplane that is in trouble and losing altitude fast. You need to escape but there are a few things standing in your way. Players must secure enough money to pay off a casino debt, fight or barter for a limited supply of parachutes, or steal their nerves long enough to land the plane safely, saving the day! This game’s imaginative and thrilling premise is bolstered by a unique blend of mechanics that include bluffing, trading, and voting to create a unique and unforgettable tabletop experience. Take on this challenge with a group of friends to cooperate and compete in this high-stakes premise and we can guarantee you can add some mile-high drama to your next game night!

Originally created as an escape room premise, Hit the Silk! evolved into a masterfully themed tabletop game that takes the thrill of its cooperative origin and brings it to life as a board game! We promise that when you step into the shoes of the scared but determined passenger, you will forget that you are at the dining room table and not on a plane, fighting tooth and nail for any parachute you can get your hands on!

Hit the Silk! began its transition from an escape room premise before the pandemic hit and has used Tabletop Simulator to complete its change, creating a fully scripted and wonderfully polished mod! Pro tip: the iconic TTS flip-the-table option is incorporated into their mod’s gameplay, so we can’t recommend it enough! Hit the Silk also successfully Kickstarted earlier this year and now is available for pre-order! 

3. I C E

Snow as far as the eye can see...

I C E isn’t just a game about the survival of your character, it’s a game about the survival of the last city of mankind. Taking place in a frozen, windswept post-apocalypse, I C E puts players in the shoes of an expedition leader as they brave the frozen Valley of Ancients in search of the remains of an ancient city. Only through daring, skill, and persistence, can they uncover its long-lost secrets and bring prestige to their guild and hope to their city! I C E’s breathtaking theme is combined with mechanics that take traditional tile-laying ideas in a brilliant new direction. The board is composed of 5 superimposed layers of tiles that must be explored using strategy, abilities, and effects. And, thanks to a clever archaeologist movement system, players are able to discover and take tiles containing artifacts and other vestiges of the past. By displaying these different types of artifacts and returning them to the City, Expedition Leaders validate valuable objectives that allow them to increase their Prestige Points. I C E also includes an endgame that will influence the next playthrough, guaranteeing that this game is both instantly memorable and addictively replayable!

The team behind I C E thought of a brilliant core tile-layering mechanic and build a deep world with stories and lore around it. This is combined with beautiful and expertly themed artwork and illustrations. The result is a fully-realized board gaming experience that grabs your imagination and doesn’t let go until you have discovered everything the ice has hidden away!

After two and a half years of work and development, I C E launched a Kickstarter campaign on May 4th. They have already hit their goal and show no sign of slowing down, so now is the perfect time to back them!

4. Beast

Welcome to the Northern Expanse...

Sometimes the best survival-based board games are cooperative and force you and the other players to band together to withstand all that the board can throw at you. But other times, the best board games about survival are the ones that force you to withstand an even greater threat, your opponents! If this is what you are looking for, we cannot recommend Beast from Studio Midhall enough! This strategy game takes players to the Northern Expanse, a place where nature is still unexplored, mystical, and dangerous. As humans settled this land, nature began to push back as powerful, mythical beasts appeared to wreak havoc on the regions encroaching occupants. With this beautifully constructed theme as a backdrop, players are given either the role of specialized hunters or that of the titular beast. Using drafting mechanics, both hunters and beasts must move, search, and attack against their biggest threat. Only through strategy, cooperation, and wit can the beast survive the hunter and the hunter survive the merciless Northern Expanse.

Beast undoubtedly brings an utterly unique premise and expertly crafted and themed world-building to the table (pun once again intended). But its memorable experience is thanks to its deep mechanics that present a strategic, yet story-driven challenge of survival to both sides involved. And, thanks to its beautifully designed game and board pieces, it is easy to lose yourself in the Northern Expanse as you take part in this tense, rewarding, and replayable game of beastly cat and mouse.

The team at Studio Midhall has powered through the Pandemic to release a beautifully crafted Tabletop Simulator Mod in preparation for their August Kickstarter Campaign! Be sure to subscribe to their mailing list and check out their website for development and release updates on all things Beast!

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