There are no shortage of deck building games on the market today. From Dominion to Legendary, there are plenty of themes and styles to fit every gamer’s preference. Our newest Kickstarter of the Week is the scifi card game Star Realms. Billed as both a deck building game and a trading card game, Star Realms attempts to integrate the best of both of those worlds. In addition to some truly exceptional artwork and some interesting mechanics, Star Realms also has some big names behind it. Star Realms was developed by Magic:The Gathering Hall of Famers Darwin Kastle and Rob Dougherty (Ascension Co-founder). So with that in mind, what’s the actual game play like?
From the Kickstarter Page:
When you play Star Realms, you will be able to acquire and use Ships and Bases of any and all of the four factions. Many cards have powerful Ally abilities that reward you for using Ships and Bases of the same faction together, however.
As you acquire cards using Trade, you put them into your discard pile, to be later shuffled into your personal deck. When you draw Ships, you do what they say and they get placed into your discard pile at the end of your turn. When you draw a Base, you play it face up in front of you and may use its abilities once every turn. In addition to Combat being the way you reduce your opponent’s Authority to zero and win the game, it’s also useful for destroying your opponent’s Bases. Some Bases are designated as Outposts. Your opponent’s Outposts must be destroyed before you can use Combat to attack your opponent’s Authority directly.
In addition to the physical card game, Star Realms is also coming to the digital realm. A version of the game for PC, Mac, Android and iOS is in development and backers will get a beta key access. If you are interested in becoming a backer, a $25 pledge level will get you a copy of the game and a beta key for the digital version. Star Realms is scheduled to be in backers hands in December of 2013 and you have until Saturday Nov 2 to become a backer. Head over there today and check it out.
