2017 is shaping up to be a great year for board games, much like the years before it. Here’s a few releases in the coming 8 months that we’re excited for!

First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

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First Martians is the re-theming of the popular Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island. But it’s more than just a new (albeit recently-overused) paint job of the Red Planet - the game comes with 16 scenarios, 10 of which are part of two separate 5-scenario campaigns, and 6 standalone scenarios. AND it involves app integration! I’ve always been a big fan of what Robinson Crusoe has done for co-op games, this sci-fi re-imagining is bound to be great.

7th Continent

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It feels weird listing this game that was funded in October 2015 as an anticipated 2017 release, but here we are, waiting for a (probably June) delivery. 7th Continent raised over 1.2 million euros to create a card-based exploration game that consists of over 1000 cards and 1000 hours of gameplay. With rumors of the game never hitting retail after the kickstarter fulfillment this game will be a hot item later this year.

This War of Mine

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Another successful kickstarter (clocking in at more than 620k GBP), This War of Mine is the board game adaptation of the popular indie video game of the same name. The video game’s claim to fame was having players manage a group of civilians just trying to survive in the middle of a civil war. The video game is full of moral and life-or-death decisions, and the board game boasts the same with a “book of scripts” reminiscent of the Tales of Arabian Nights story book; 1900 unique story scripts total.

Charterstone

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The next notable entry in the legacy genus of board games, Charterstone claims to be an “additive legacy experience” in which players will slowly build out a village over the course of 12 games, eventually ending with a fully complete worker placement game that can be replayed over and over again. Charterstone is being developed and released by Jamey Stonemaier of Scythe and Viticulture fame, and has a deservedly large amount of hype.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

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Speaking of legacy games - not a lot is known about this sequel to the currently ranked #1 board game of all time, but you can bet that there’s a lot of people chomping at the bit to get it. Based on what little has been shown so far, Pandemic Legacy Season 2 seems to take place on what’s left of a particular continent. On a board that’s reminiscent of Seafall’s open waters dying to be explored, players are charged with supporting what’s left of humanity after the events of Season 1.

Dark Souls

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Continuing with the video game adaptations, Dark Souls turned a lot of heads on Kickstarter with its detailed miniatures but lack of gameplay information. Now that the release date is imminent, reviews of Dark Souls seem to indicate that there’s a good game to match the high quality miniatures from the popular video game franchise. The video game has a distinct gameplay design that seems to be echoed in the board game; unforgiving boss battles that can be bested once you learn the pattern, and a unique stamina - health management system. I didn’t back this game on kickstarter, but the more I hear about it the more intriguing it sounds - one to keep an eye on.