Now this is what crowdfunding is all about. Brute Fort is a micro board game, a solo dungeon crawler packed into a cassette tape case, with just eighteen cards to play with and a board made from the case insert. There's a cassette in there too, loaded with an original soundtrack of grimy, doomy, '80s inspired pulp synth. The vibes, as they say, are immaculate.
This is one for the freaks and happy mutants - the solo gamers and dungeon crawler fanatics, the aesthetic addicts whose shelves are packed with self-published board games from tiny distributors and saddle-stitched indie RPG pamphlets with hyper-niche themes. I could try and sell this to the normies by saying that some of the best board games ever made use the tiny deck format - everything from the excellent Button Shy team, the iconic Love Letter - but let's be real. One look at that art and they're gonna run.
Brute Fort is a collaboration between London-based game designer Alfred Valley, and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne based experimental musician Gus BC. The core gameplay is - like most solo board games - a score chase. You're exploring the Brute Fort, placing cards that represent the challenges you face into the fort one by one, row after row.
Those cards are double-sided, one side showing a Conquest and the other a Peril. You want as many Conquests as possible in your final tableau - not only are they a path to victory, but each time you place one into the Fort you'll get some kind of bonus.
But getting your Conquests isn't easy. You have three heroes who each begin the game with a supply of the Resolve that you must Exhaust to achieve your Conquests. But this system doesn't offer change, and often Exhausting a hero completely to achieve a Conquest would be a massive waste. That's where Perils come in.
By flipping a hero to its reverse side you "Steel their Resolve", splitting the currency into two smaller pools that can be spent individually. This comes at the cost of placing a Peril on their card, robbing you of the chance of taking it as a Conquest later, and inflicting a separate nasty consequence. And as a last complication, the higher you place a card into the Fort, the better the bonus it gives you- so which cards are you going to hold onto?
The game is already largely finished, though Kickstarter funds will go towards play-testing, polishing the soundtrack, and similar. You can get a print-at-home version of the game and a digital soundtrack for $9 (£7), or the full game complete with cassette tape soundtrack for $34 (£26) plus shipping. The Kickstarter campaign is open until December 2, 9am PST / noon EST / 5 PM GMT.
We haven't tested it yet, but it sounds like a satisfying, self-contained system. Well, actually it sounds like some really grimy dungeon synth - just listen to Gus BC's track preview. Man that's a bop.
Do you have a favorite weird little game? I'm a sucker for anything by Emperor's of Elemental Evil, the doom metal band of indie hex and chit wargames. I'd love to hear your recommendations in the Wargamer Discord community.