Episode 7: Comics, Agents and Dragons!

April 29th, 2014

Fanboy on Kickstarter, a triple treat this week!

As we continue our Fanboy on Kickstarter articles, I renew my goal to clue you into some of the prime Fanboy crowd-sourcing opportunities. I scour Kickstarter and other sites for projects that will appeal to the Fanverse in the area of comics, games, media and gadgets.

For more information, check out the archive!

This week, we've got three projects, including a first look into the world of The Humble Bundle. These are all active now but will end fairly soon so check them out and see if you might want to join in their success.

So let's take a look.

The Humble Image Comics Bundle

While not strictly crowd sourcing, Humble Bundle does bring an interesting and inexpensive way to experience existing product as well as contribute to selected charities. You pay what you want, with some benefits (extra products) for meeting or exceeding the average donation or a specific donation goal. One important difference here is that when you fund a Humble Bundle, you typically can download the products immediately, because they already exist and because they're games, music or e-books.

This bundle is a selection of digital graphic novels from the top of the Image line. East of West, Fatale, Lazarus, and Morning Glories are yours for whatever you want to pay. Meet the average (about $9 at the time of this writing) and you get Saga, Revival, and Chew as well. All of those are the #1 graphic novel collections in digital form. If you donate more than $15, they throw in The Walking Dead volumes 1 and 20. So that's $15 for nine digital versions of some of Image's top story lines.

Of course the other cool thing with Humble Bundles is that they occasionally add to the bundle, and you get the additional products even if you bought it earlier (they notify you by mail of the extras.)

And you also decide how your money is divided between the creators, Humble, and the chosen charity. This bundle's charity is The Comics Defense Fund, who looks out for the legal rights of comics creators who can't otherwise afford legal representation - a very worthy cause.

So check the bundle out. I'd go in for at least around $9 to get the 7 main books. If you haven't done digital comics before, this is a great place to start! You have until May 12th to grab this deal.

The Agent's Return

One cool thing about missing a successful Kickstarter project is that they often return later with a renewed offering combined with something new from the same creator. This is the case with The Agent's Return.

The Agents funded on August 25th 2013, not so very long ago but long enough for the design team to come up with a bunch of expansions. And since not everyone who might be a customer for the expansions bought the original game, there are support levels where you can get that too!

The Agents is a card game of mercenary cards, in fact they're so mercenary the cards you play will also benefit your opponents! Through a unique card orientation mechanism, you fight and eventually out wit other players through giving them just enough support to come in second. Let's look at the Kickstarter stats.

The short and sweet

I could summarize, but instead I'm going to advise you to check out the video which does a great job of explaining game's play. It's a really cool and strategic play, but clear enough that you'll have little trouble explaining it to new players. In short, it looks really fun and entertaining. Ends on May 21st, so check it out.

Dragon Slayer

Every now and then you just want to slay some dragons. Not have to drag out miniatures, big maps, spell books... all that junk. Just a handful of dice and roll, slaughter dragons, and order up some more Pabst Blue Ribbon Meade.

Dragon Slayer is just that. A handful of dice and play chips and simple, straightforward press-your-luck gaming with a touch of double-dog-dare for good measure. If you're not familiar with the "push your luck" mechanism, it typically is a situation where you've got to decide if you want to stay with what you've won so far or go for "one more roll" which could end with further riches or the loss of everything.

And the best thing is, it's likely the cheapest game you're going to buy in a while. Only $13 for a copy. And once you've pledged for one, additional copies are only $7 each, making it a great gift for friends and family.

So let's check out the details.

The short and sweet

YOU NEED TO ACT FAST ON THIS ONE! They've only got 7 days left at the time of this writing, and will be done on May 6th. If you like fast, light games, and dragons and dice, this one seems like a no brainer.

That's it for this month. Again, send us your feedback and your own Kickstarter picks via the Fanboy Planet Facebook page!

Note: For simplicity's sake, these articles typically refer to delivery conditions and pricing within the US. Most Kickstarter projects handle world-wide delivery, which you can review on the individual project pages.

Ric Bretschneider