Exploriana - The board game of exploration and discovery.

Just over a week left!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 02:38:20 PM

We're so close to 12K, and with it, the next stretch goal, It's very exciting to be able to smash through these so quickly, and we'll be going through a few things we've already unlocked in this update! 

New Sketches!

We've got Richard pretty much chained to his desk at the minute, and now that a brief technical hiccup is out of the way, he's smashing sketches out at a rate of knots! We've got some fantastic ideas from him for the mini-expansions, and one of the cards is already done!

 We've got our ideas for the first three expansions locked down, and each expansion will have one card for each continent. They'll be shuffled into the appropriate decks, and their effects will come into play as soon as they're drawn. We love the streamlined way Exploriana plays, and these are designed to fit right into this, being instant effects that do not affect the length of the game. We know that the sketches look a little rough at the minute, but just to give you some idea of what they'll look like when they're finished, we've put together a side by side comparison. 

 As you can see, the final artwork shall look spectacular, and should make a fantastic addition to the current card art. 

DragonMeet!

I'm excited to announce that we'll be at Dragonmeet on Saturday, with copies of the game to play, and members of the team there to answer any questions you may have about the game! We're really looking forward to playing the game with some of our existing backers, and hopefully making some new ones too, so if you know anyone heading down to Hammersmith, let them know to check out Exploriana! The tradehall opens at 10am, find out more at www.dragonmeet.co.uk

Auction Cards

We know that some people loved the auction cards from the previous campaign, so we have made them available as an add-on. We thought it was time to go into a bit more detail about these! To add them to the game, you simply remove the explorer and mission cards and play with the auction set instead. 

Players bid against each other in the quick fire auction phase to attempt to acquire some choice items from the items deck. Some items assist the players on their perilous expeditions and some help the players grab bonus victory points. Each card adds some variety to the game, either through a specific ability, or an interesting new scoring mechanism! This form of the game also gives you +2 income at the end of the round, always leaving you in a position to bid for these awesome items!

The update comes in at £5, so is definitely a good way to get a little bit more out of your game!

We'll be releasing the full PDF rules for this and the solo mode later in the week after a final proofing, and will obviously let you guys know in update form as soon as we've done so!

Thanks, Dicky

11k means a lot!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Nov 24, 2018 at 09:38:39 AM

I'm never going to get tired of saying thank you in these updates! The last couple of days have been fantastic, and there's still a long way to go! We're in a bit of social media overdrive at the moment, so we've got that to tell you about, and as we promised, we're unveiling the latest stretch goals here first!

Board Game Revolution!

We've partnered up with Board Game Revolution to bring you an awesome prize - a Deluxe Edition of Exploriana with all the stretch goals! All you need to do is head over to their page via this link: http://tiny.cc/34i60y and follow the instructions! Check out their page for loads of awesome gaming content, and throw the Exploriana posts some love whilst you're there!

Social Media Stretch Goals

We've got the wallpapers all ready for you, all you guys need to do is unlock them! We're a decent way to the BGG goal, but the other posts could do with some love. You can find them here:

Twitter:  https://bit.ly/2RXhmwJ

Facebook:  the top post of www.facebook.com/exploriana

BoardGameGeek: Go to www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/231624/exploriana and click on the heart!

Coming Up! 

The next two stretch goals are on the horizon, being unlocked at 12k and 13k. We've got our final two mini-expansions coming up, with the first being the 'Guiding Plight' pack. It will affect your guide's availability and adds a level of risk to deciding when you play your guide! 

After that will be the 'Lost in the Shuffle' pack - This will mean shuffling all of the available cards at a location back in. Time it right, and it could be fantastic for you! 

We'll be putting out the full rules for all six mini-expansions soon, but they're not all you get once we hit 13K! Also included will be a custom dice to help you decide which mini-expansions you want to play with each game! Playing with all six at the same time might be a bit much for new players, so we recommend up to three at a time if you're not seasoned pros! The custom die will have a face for each expansion, and you'll roll the die as many times as expansions you want to play. 

It adds a bit of glitz and glamour to the decision making process, and seems a good way to round up the mini expansions!

Thank you guys for sharing and caring, Dicky.

What a day!
over 5 years ago – Fri, Nov 23, 2018 at 05:17:06 PM

Well, that was nice! A huge welcome to our new backers and thank you to anyone who increased their pledge! 

The Poison Chalice sculpt is unlocked!

One of our eagle-eyed team spotted that since each Intrepid Explorer pledge comes with a deluxe copy, we have actually unlocked this stretch goal already! The sculpt will be 38mm to match the rest of the relics, and loom ominously over whichever unlucky player currently has it! Thanks to Robin, who holds, amongst other important titles, the role of graphics-master, we can show you the initial design of the Poison Chalice!

 As you can see, it perfectly matches the winner of our poll, and will look fantastic on the table! I mentioned Intrepid Explorer pledges earlier, it might be worth mentioning that there are only four of these left! So if you do fancy being featured in the game, then make sure you pledge before someone beats you to it! 

But wait, there's more!?

The chalice is not all Robin has been working on, we also finally have the female sculpt for you all to see! Each player will now have a male and a female explorer to send off to glory or misadventure! We're so glad that we've been able to include this stretch goal, the stories of female explorers and adventurers are not ones little girls get to hear every day, so with Exploriana, they can make their own! We've included Nellie Bly and Mary Kingsley in the Explorer Cards as well, so they'll have some wonderful role models too! 

 We're still going?

Today definitely feels like one of those days where you turn over five cards and get to take two picks! We're on the doorstep of another standard stretch goal, and as I said yesterday, I can't wait for this one! Red Herrings is going to be a mini-expansion with a real sense of humour, and give you a sigh of relief as you cover up a hazard, mixed with a tinge of regret that you can no longer take that pick! 

Don't think that this is the end though, we'll be unveiling more stretch goals for Exploriana tomorrow afternoon! We've got loads planned, and can't wait to see what you guys think. 

Thanks, Dicky and Team Exploriana!

What's next?
over 5 years ago – Sun, Nov 18, 2018 at 03:06:46 AM

Sunday, traditionally a day of rest, but not at Exploriana HQ! We're hard at work on all these awesome stretch goals you've unlocked! We'll be able to show you more of what we've been working on next week, but today, we're keeping an eye on what's on the horizon, like any good explorer should!

It's been awesome to see all your votes coming in on the Poison Chalice poll, but I will re-iterate, only votes in the comments of update #7 will be counted. If you haven't already voted, just click "previous update" at the bottom of this page and comment 'skull', 'fire' or 'gothic'. Once we've got all the votes in on Tuesday, we'll be able to start work on the next deluxe stretch goal - the resin sculpt of the Poison Chalice! The sculpt itself will be based off the winning design and made by Word Forge Games with the rest of our resin sculpts! 

We're also not far from the next standard edition stretch goal, which features wooden guide tokens and mission bonuses! The wooden tokens feel great on the board, and are certainly better suited to blocking hazards, but I'm excited to tell you more about the mission bonuses! Each mission card is worth four points, but once the bonuses come into play, the earlier you complete your mission, the more points you'll get! The points spread will depend on your player count, but it will always be between one and three points. This gives you a lot more strategic decisions when it comes to mission cards, and you'll have to watch out for your competitors rushing towards a certain type of card! 

Hopefully we'll be able to unlock these soon, and give you guys the good news! Keep an eye out for updates next week!

Beware - Shares and Scares!
over 5 years ago – Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 03:59:33 AM

A couple of long awaited tidbits for you today! We're properly in the middle of our campaign now, and really close to the next stretch goal, which is a big one. However, today we wanted to focus on some ideas for one that is already unlocked! 

Poison Chalices!

Richard has been working hard on the art for the stretch goals, and we've narrowed his ideas for the Poison Chalice down to our three favourites. They were all so good that we felt the only fair decision would be to let you guys decide! 

 So, comment below, either Skull, Gothic, or Fire, and the one with the most votes by 11am GMT on the 20th of November  will be our Poison Chalice! Please note that only comments on this update will be counted in the poll, any on the main page will not count towards the final decision. 

Social Media Stretch Goals!

We've also added our Social Media Stretch Goals to the campaign today! 

We're looking for:

• 100 shares of our post on facebook (we've attached the SM stretch goal image so that it's easy to find)
• 100 re-tweets of this tweet: https://bit.ly/2RXhmwJ
• 100 fans of Exploriana on BoardGameGeek (click the heart and subscribe to get all the latest news and conversation about Exploriana)

Each of these will unlock high quality wallpapers from a continent featured in the game, in six different sizes! We've got something even bigger planned once these have been unlocked! 

Thanks from the team, and here's to a great weekend!