Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles Deluxe Edition (Kickstarter Special) Mindclash Games

Board Game Geek Rating: 5.58
Board Game Geek Avg Player Rating: 7.72
Players: 1 to 4
Published: 2021
Content Notes: Kickstarter Exclusive All-In Deluxe Edition of Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles Board Game by Mindclash Games. Includes two games that can be played standalone or in a replayable Chronicle mode, a solo solo variant, and all other content the campaign has to offer. Includes: Episode 1 Standalone Game, Episode 2 Standalone Game, Chronicle mode, Solo mode, Structure and Leader Miniatures, 64 detailed Dinosaur miniatures, 20 Metal Tracker Tokens, 30 custom squishy Berry resources, Modular Tray System, Hardcover Chronicle & Art Book, Kickstarter Gift: Neoprene Dice Tray with all achieved stretch goals. [NOTE: Due to post-campaign design changes, the box is not side loading or magnetic.] Please note: unless otherwise stated paid add ons from the Kickstarter Campaign are not included.

Caught in an otherworldly storm, the luxury ocean liner you were traveling on ran aground on a dinosaur island, losing all contact with the world you knew. Instead of your dream vacation, it now falls upon you and your rival aspiring leaders to forge the ragged, disorganized survivors into a functioning society. 

Your first task is to establish and defend a foothold settlement from the dinosaurs, but your curiosity will soon call you to adventure beyond the safety of the town walls.

Over the years, your city and society will grow strong, slowly adapting to the island and learning to both fear and respect the dinosaurs inhabiting it. Your new home is a land of danger and mystery, but also beauty and opportunity.  

Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles consists of Episodes 1 and 2, two standalone competitive strategy games for 1-4 players, from the designers of Anachrony, Trickerion, and Yedo. Both games are playable on their own, or can be combined to experience a highly replayable Chronicle mode with overarching mechanics and no legacy elements.

Please note that certain parts of Perseverance Castaway Chronicles are still in development. Because of that, the final look and quantity of the components shown here may slightly differ in the finished game. 

The cornerstones of every Episode, these mechanisms will stay with you for the whole saga with minor evolutions between the Episodes. 

Dice drafting and dice placement: The core mechanism of the entire series; you take Actions by drafting and placing Specialist dice from a pool. Some Specialists are better suited for certain Actions than others. 

The Assembly: Whenever the dice pool runs out, an Assembly occurs. This periodic area majority mechanism scores Followers (the games’ victory points) for establishing a presence in the city’s districts with your colored player pieces. You can do this by building Settlements, placing your Leader, and converting Specialist dice to your player color.

Influencing the Officers: The city and its forming society are developing under the guidance of the Officers’ Council. As an aspiring Leader, a good relationship with the Officers goes a long way and will reward you after the Assembly based on the strategies you’ve been pursuing. 

The way you interact with the threats and mysteries of the island is different in each Episode, giving it a unique feel and distinct identity.

Episode 1 – Dino Defense:  Build Walls, set Traps and rally Soldiers to defend against periodic Dinosaur attacks against the emerging city. Defense is often a joint effort but players are rewarded individually based on their contribution. Be careful though – failure will result in breaching Dinos, trampled Settlements and lost Followers!

Episode 2 – Exploration and Construction: Assemble exploration parties and venture beyond the walls of the established city! Undertake Adventures, capture Dinosaurs roaming the wild, and establish Outposts on the map hexes for even more die placement options.

Episode 2 – Leader Skills: Continue building relations with the Officers and they will share their tricks to help you survive and thrive! With over 30 Skills to choose from, Episode 2 offers very deep customization of your Leader and excellent replayability. 

Chronicle Mode: The standalone Episodes can be linked together in the infinitely replayable Chronicle mode. Earn a Title at the end of each game based on your performance, and accomplish the goals they provide in the next. Accomplished goals and achievements earn you Glory, which you can spend to unlock various permanent bonuses and abilities. This replayable non-legacy campaign can be wrapped up after Episode 2 but also picked up again and continued when more games in the series are released.

Solo Mode: As you rise as a leader, you will inevitably face opposition: the Dissenters. Gather Followers despite their interference: protect the city – even the Dissenters, settlements; explore the jungle – even if the Dissenters would rather stay back; and earn votes – even as the Dissenters negate your presence. Playing against them uses every feature of the game, as the Dissenters are powered by an elegant, card-driven automa designed by Dávid Turczi and developed by John Albertson, the same team that brought you the dreaded Chronossus for Anachrony.

Please note that all rulebooks are work in progress and their content and visuals are subject to change. The rulebooks under the link below will be periodically updated as we continue to develop the game after the campaign.

 

 

If you prefer watching a video instead of reading the rules, check out these tutorial videos presented on Tabletopia, courtesy of Tabletop Tutorials.

Caught in an enigmatic storm, a modern-day luxury ocean liner crashes ashore on an otherworldly island. As one of the ambitious survivors, you soon learn that the island is home to a multitude of majestic and fiercely territorial dinosaurs. With the cruiser beyond repair, you have no choice but to establish a foothold on the island, withstand the onslaught of the dinosaurs, and sow the seeds of what will one day become a strong and tenacious community capable of discovering the mystery of the island.

Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles introduces the first two episodes in a series of euro-style dice-drafting / dice-placement strategy games. The saga will ultimately consist of four episodes, telling the story of a group of survivors becoming a mighty civilization on a hostile island. As each episode features unique characteristics and a different game feel, they are playable as standalone medium/heavy games but also as a continuous campaign. The theme and story unfolds through evolving game mechanisms across the episodes, also making the rules easier to learn. In the campaign mode, the outcome of each episode influences the next, but the game has no legacy elements and no hidden rules; the whole storyline is infinitely replayable.

In Episode 1, players are striving to develop and protect the foothold town of Perseverance, besieged by the dinosaurs of the island. By building walls, traps and settlements, mounting defenses and partaking in the early political power struggles of a forming community, players gain followers to establish themselves as leaders. Episode 1 introduces the signature dice placement / area majority mechanism that evolves and spans through the series, and also features a defense mechanism against waves of attacking dinosaurs, unique to this episode.

In Episode 2, the survivors have successfully defended the city of Perseverance, completing a massive wall to stop the dinosaur onslaught. Under the guidance of the ship’s senior officers, the players now set out to explore the surrounding wilderness, expand the settlement beyond the walls, and chart a path to the mysterious structure on the horizon. This Episode adds new actions to expand the core mechanism and allows for a deep customization of your Leader and faction through dozens of unique skills. The previous episode’s defense mechanism evolves into hex-based adventuring and expansion, allowing you to build outposts beyond the city walls, but beware – the dinosaurs are still not your friends…yet. anachronism

–from the publisher

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