Back in August 2019, I was at Play NYC with my colleagues. I had happened upon the tabletop area and one game in particular stood out, if only for its game pieces: Draughtnauts. This upcoming tabletop game from LazArt Studios remixes chess into something slightly more complex but just as entertaining, and I had a lot of fun playing it in person.
Now, LazArt Studios is working on bringing this tabletop game to production. Like many tabletop devs out there, they've turned to a crowdfunding campaign to get it done — let's break down what the game is all about and what you can get for pledging!
All About Draughtnauts
Draughtnauts is a remixed version of checkers with adorable little mechs. The core rules are largely the same: you jump diagonally over opposing pieces if the space behind them is empty. You can also make multiple jumps, too, as long as you're moving forward.
The interesting bit comes in with the power-ups and the multiple boards. There are four types of power-ups in Draughtnauts:
- Sword: Allows you to move twice in one turn, one time.
- Shield: Allows you to survive being jumped once.
- Cannon: Allows you to remove a piece without actually moving, one time.
- Teleporter: Allows you to move to any free space on the board, one time.
Rather than "Kinging" your pieces, you'll instead claim these power-ups if you can successfully make it to the other side of the board.
The multiple boards also allow for some pretty interesting play. Multiple game boards can be combined together to allow for a 4-player free-for-all style of gameplay. It can be pretty intense, especially if you're not paying close attention to where everyone is positioned.
Draughtnauts Kickstarter Pledge Levels and Stretch Goals
The pledge setup for this particular Kickstarter is terribly straightforward; there are only two levels of pledges, one of which will get you a copy of this game.
Draughtnauts Pledge Levels
Thank You! — Pledge $1 or More
- Contributes to the Kickstarter with no other reward than a warm, fuzzy feeling for helping out an indie tabletop developer.
Core Set — Pledge $45 or More
- One copy of the Core Set of Draughtnauts containing everything you need to play a two-player game. This includes:
- 12 Red Base Miniatures
- 12 Black Base Miniatures
- 4 Red Crowns
- 4 Black Crowns
- 4 Red Power-Ups
- 4 Black Power-Ups
- 1 Red Base Board
- 1 Black Base Board
Draughtnauts Stretch Goals
Like some Kickstarter campaigns, this one doesn't have any stretch goals, either. It's pretty straightforward!
Draughtnauts Funding Goal, Deadline, and Past Campaigns
LazArt Studios' Kickstarter is seeking a total of $27,500 in funding to pay for the production of Draughtnauts. So far, they've got a ways to go!
This also happens to be the first Kickstarter campaign from this particular tabletop developer. Everyone has to start somewhere, and the prototypes I've gone hands-on with seemed like pretty good quality.
If this seems like the kind of game you'd enjoy playing, you can pledge to the Draughtnauts Kickstarter right now! You'll have until Dec. 8 at 7:23 a.m. Eastern before it's gone for good.
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