BOOT | Deadly Premonition: The Board Game

Well what do you know? The news I ran yesterday regarding the teaser for a new board game based on the Deadly Premonition video game from 2010 has popped up on Kickstarter. The board game is a 2-4 player card based investigation game, and developer, Rising Star Games are looking for a $50,000 target to get the board game completed. The crowdfunding period ends on the 8th of June 2017.

Rising Star Games are doing fairly well, with their first day hitting in at $30,283 with 526 backers at the time of writing this piece. The board game will be playable for 2-4 players and is a card based board game that is set within the world of Deadly Premonition’s Greenvale after the murder of, Anna Graham. Players are to investigate the mystery and find the hidden killer amongst the detectives.

What’s it About?

The board game is said to have unique mechanics that were developed around the vision for the game, with competitive battles that manipulate your own board to a victory condition, while also sabotaging other detectives, and there’s a hidden identity element. With a six person line up under investigation and placed within the “Incriminated Row”, players must gather evidence that picks out those that are innocent, and remove them from the row. Once done, players get to go on the offence and begin gathering evidence to find the hidden killer that stands amongst the incriminated.

When the game is started, players are dealt one alignment card which will determine if they’re an agent or a killer. The players are then dealt six suspect cards and place them in the “Incriminated Row”. Five evidence cards are then dealt to each player. During the players turn they can move one suspect between the Incriminated row and the innocent row. These cards can also be used to sabotage other players boards, starting up an evidence battle. These battles are where two players go head-to-head with counter-evidence and action cards until one player is victorious. Winners gain two card draws.

Action cards allow players abilities such as, countering any evidence and drawing a card, protecting three presumed innocent characters until your next go, and more. Evidence cards are as expected, they show a scenario that you can tie to a character. There are also weather cards available that become activated by certain action cards if the player wishes. An example shown in the Kickstarter looks at the Rain card, this brings a red mist through the town, which is when one of the suspects in the line up is eliminated by the hands of the killer. And when playing with weather, players must remain quiet about it.

The final accusation comes after an evidence battle that leads to one of two outcomes. Players can either arrest the killer and win the game, or they arrest an innocent suspect and is removed from the game. The losers suspects are now vulnerable to the killer and when the turn of the failed detective is passed over, a die is rolled and the corresponding suspect removed. The killer gets closer to winning.

What’s in it?

The board game is due to come with four line up boards, one for each player, four alignment cards, ten weather cards, fifty-eight evidence cards, twenty-four suspect cards, and one dark looking black and red die. Also included as additionals will be Swery’s letter, and a Steam key for the PC’s directors cut edition of the video game.

However, there is also due to be a special edition board game, which will feature all of the above, but the die is custom designed, there will also be the official soundtrack as a physical CD, a mug, and a carry bag.

What About Stretch Goals?

There are a number of stretch goals available to view, and there are more to be revealed should they exceed the target. These stretch goals go from $55,000 upwards, and will bring mainly new cards for different actions, such as some new weather cards, some new action cards, and even card artwork.

You can check out the full Kickstarter page right here.