On May 16, publisher Scorpion Masque launched its Kickstarter campaign for Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game. As the name implies, this is an adaptation of the videogame that brings its Metroidvania-style gameplay to the tabletop. One-part dungeon-crawler and one-part co-op board game, the Dead Cells board game invites up to four players to, as the Kickstarter puts it, “Explore. Kill. Die. Mutate. Repeat”.
Players become one of four Beheaded: the Poisoned, the Flayed, the Quartered, or the Immolated. Together (or alone in a solo game), they’ll explore a changing selection of biomes and uncover a variety of enemies, weapons, and gold. Die, and they’ll lose everything except the cells they’ve gathered and permanent mutations they’ve paid for. They’ll then start a new loop and try to get further than before. So far, so Dead Cells.
The basic pledge, which nabs you the standard Dead Cells board game, costs 89 Canadian dollars ($65 USD / £53). There’s also a $115 CAD ($85 USD / £69) collector’s pledge, which adds a single plastic group miniature, a metal first player token, and other, higher-quality components. Its extra content won’t be available at retail.
The Kickstarter campaign also offers card sleeves for $20 CAD ($15 USD / £12), as well as a limited edition PVC Dead Cells figure for $101 CAD ($75 USD / £60).
Scorpion Masque is the publisher behind Turing Machine, which was named the best solo board game of 2022 in this year’s Golden Geek Awards. Its designers include Antoine Bauza (7 Wonders, Hanabi), Ludovic Maublanc (Conan, Cyclades), Corentin Lebrat and Théo Rivière (Draftosaurus).
You can learn more about the Dead Cells board game on the Kickstarter page.
For more tabletop gaming, here are the best board games you can play in 2023. There we recommend titles for players of all ages, whether you’re a fan of family board games or board games for adults.