Special Note: there are 4 days left in the Kickstarter campaign, so now is your chance to make a difference.

I recently had a chance to ask Game Designer AJ Porfirio a few questions about his upcoming game If I’m Going Down.

Hey AJ tell us how you got started creating games.

Well honestly the genesis of it was with the concept of “If I’m Going Down…”! I wanted to play a zombie board game, and even though I had just gotten one for Christmas no one would play! My family in town were non-gamers so I was stuck holding the bag (or box in this case). I found myself wishing that the game could be played solo. Thus the idea had sparked in my head and I began conceiving the game. In the meantime I designed another couple games to get familiar with what goes into designing a game. Then I set out to create my passion, a compelling Zombie game that could be played solo!

Tell us a bit about If I’m Going Down.

“If I’m Going Down…” (IIGD) is a Dying Card Game. What that means is that during the course of the game it is a certainty that the character(s) WILL die. This makes the game different from pretty much every other Zombie game out there because it isn’t about surviving. It’s about taking as many of the Zombies down with you when you go! I encourage your readers to check out the Kickstarter page for more information.

Why zombies? 

I know there are those who think Zombies are so overdone at this point, but not me! The intrigue and uncertainty that comes with the setting of a world overrun by zombies is extremely interesting and a great backdrop for a game I want to be highly thematic and also to tell a story. Not only the official story, but those created by the hopefully hundreds or dare I say it thousands that might one day play the game.

Can you explain the concept of a DCG

I knew I needed the game to be something different. Something people would cause people to do a double take. Now there are some out there who will always feel like they lose because there character dies. But hopefully most realize the character is just connecting one small piece of the puzzle that is the IIGD world. But as I explained before, the characters WILL die. There is the real potential of a future game from Van Ryder Games that is a Dying Card Game, but totally different both mechanically and thematically (think sharks, dinosaurs, even Japanese Kamikazes). The definition of the term is very broad and can be applied in many different ways!

Why did you choose KickStarter? 

Well simply put it was the best way to get the game out there and let folks decide if it was something they wanted to see produced. Kickstarter is amazing for folks like myself who might not otherwise be able to produce a product otherwise. Now it is my job to deliver the product as promised and provide the backers with a great experience. 

How has the response been so far?

I am ecstatic so far! The project has been funded and still has a few days to go. Ultimately I would like to hit $10k to really produce the best possible product that I can and also deliver some bonuses to the loyal backers. 

I really like the your promos that you’ve come up with, any other goodies you have planned?

I’ve been pulling out all the stops! I really think a lot of backers have enjoyed being able to vote and collectively have a say in the promo cards and the Custom game scenario. I am extremely open to backer comments and feedback and the campaign has evolved because of some of the great ideas from backers such as yourself. Among the bonuses backers will received are promo cards, a custom scenario, and potentially custom punchboard tokens, and 2 custom Lizzy (IIGD’s Icon Zombie) scoring dice.

Give us the best reason why we should support IIGD

The best reason would be if you think it is a game you will enjoy. I’d like to say to help me make my dream come true of producing a quality game, but if you don’t think you’ll enjoy it I wouldn’t want you to back fr my sake. Hopefully you will find value in your experience beyond the money pledged.

Where can people find out more about IIGD, and the rest of your games?

Our website www.vanrydergames.com  it may be a little bare while we’re busy with the campaign, but it will be getting some updates soon. Also visit the Kickstarter page for LOTS of good information and videos.

What games are you playing these days?
Several sessions of Arkham Horror of late, some Red Dragon Inn, Eaten By Zombies, and of course, IF I’M GOING DOWN…!

Support If I’m Going Down Today on KickStarter.com

If I’m Going Down is a Zombie themed Dying Card Game. This isn’t a happy ending zombie game. You will die at the end, your fate has been sealed. However, If I’m Going Down, I’m going to take as many zombies as I can with me!

The game is for 1+ players, so you can play solo or with your friends. The game is played as a senario, so you might be stuck in a cabin in the woods surrounded by zombies, or in a mall parking lot. You get the idea, but surrounded by zombies. You will be picking up weapons along the way to help you get those dead bastards. As the slow moving herd of zombies approach, you need to take them out as quickly as you can before being overcome yourself.

AJ needs your help to get his game off the  ground. You can support his game for as little as $5. If you do support him, there are some great incentives as your donation increases. As with all KickStarter campains, you don’t pay anyting until the project meets it’s goal. Why not help out a great guy for a great game today.

Choose a theme that interests you.

Take a look at the boardgames you have, or are looking to buy. Does it have a  theme? Something that is going to immerse you in? Are you into sci-fi? Take a look at BattleStar Galactica. Perhaps you are an ancient Egypt fan. Give Ra a try.  Want a game that takes you into a world of horror? I recommend Arkham Horror.  There are games for all sorts of genres. Find a game that sounds interesting  and then

See if the Mechanics and Category sound fun.

There are many different game mechanics that run the game. You have your basic  roll and move type games like Monopoly and Snake and Ladders. Want to try  something different? How about route building game like Settlers of Catan or  Ticket to Ride. How about an auction style game like Power Grid. The point is  there are so many different ways to actually play a board game than you might  be aware of. Do a little research, see what sounds fun and give it a try.

Speaking of Research,

It is probably a good idea to check out different resources when choosing a  boardgame. You can check out websites like Board Game Geek  (www.boardgamegeek.com).  BGG is like the Mecca for all things boardgame related. Check out their top 100 list, or go to the forums and poke around. Next  check out your local game store or hobby shop. Many times they will be a great source of knowledge, more so than your local Wal-Mart or Toys R  Us. If you are lucky you can sometimes even get a demo of the game. Last check  out your local community centres and local pubs, boardgame nights are becoming more popular, see if you can make one and get exposed to some new great games.

I have bought and played many games using these methods above.  Some games I really enjoyed, some not so much but unless you get out there and try some you’ll never know.

Tonight I had the opportunity to play 1960: The Making of A President. The game is brought to us by Z-Man games, and was created by Christian Leonhard and Jason Matthews. It is a two player game game that recreates the 1960 American Presidential race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. The point of the game is to win the most electoral votes and become the “leader of the free world”. The game is supposed to run 90 – 120 minutes long. I’ll spare you the details but lets just say that for the first game we played history would have been dramatically changed.

1960:Making of a President is refered to as an Area Control game with card management. The game is broken down into 9 turns, 7 of which are regualar action phases. The 6th turn recreates the debates and the 9th turn is the actual election. A normal turn consists of playing your cards as events, or as campaign points to gain states for the election (by placing your cubes on the appropriate state), influence the media or weigh in on the issues. You get to play 5 cards a turn, one after another against your opponent. Once the 5 cards are played, there is a momentum phase and then the Campaign Strategy Phase.

I think the most unique part of the game was turn 6: The Debates. In this phase you use cards that you have saved to win on the 3 main issues of the day: Defence, the Economy and Civil Rights. The cards play the biggest role in winning so you need to pay attention to the cards you give yourself for the debate round. Winning the debates give you extra state support cubes to place as you see fit.

Ok, to be honest this game seemed a little daunting at first. There is a lot going on and a lot of different actions you can take during your turn. Luckly the instructions are pretty well written and there is a handy player aid to guide you through each of the turns. Also I didn`t realize the value of some states over the other which certianly affected my strategy. In the end I had fun playing it and I look forward to trying it out again. If you are looking for a decent 2 player game that has a pretty unique theme, then I suggest you try out 1960:Making of a President.

So where to begin? I’ll just do a quick year end re-cap.  I got the board games Pandemic and Battlestar Galactica:Pegasus for Christmas. Pandemic has been played a lot and I think my friends will agree it was a great game. I intend on doing a full review of the game soon. (No apologies… no apologies)…

Last Saturday night we got the gang together to play some games. We started off with a little bit of Agricola:Farmer of the Moors. I really like this expansion, it adds even more urgency to a game that already seems too urgent. That makes things things more interesting. At least for me. After that Rhonda retired earlt and Kyle, Lisa, Sean and I played a game of Aquire. For some reason I was really hesitant to try this game. Too bad, because it was pretty fun.

I convinced the gang to play one more game. One that I’d been looking forward to playing for a while. Puerto Rico. After trying to remember how to pla it again, we got into the swing of it pretty fast. I suppose thats one of the good things about playing board games all the time, is that they start to get easier after a while. It was kind of funny though, Kyle and I both agreed that Race for the Galaxy was a total Puerto Rico rip off. (Not that it’s a bad thing mind you.)

Looking forward to some more games soon.

1. D&D Encounters keeps moving along. I enjoyed the last session. We got a new DM for session 2. I think this is a good thing, not that I didn’t enjoy our last DM, but the whole idea of the encounters program is to get people exposed to playing and trying it out.  As a result of the encounters, our DM Adam has only tried it once before. I think he did an awesome job last week, and I’m looking forward to this week. Also I’d like to give a shout out Terrence and Mike at Conspiricy Comics, without them there would be no encounters at all.

2. Big news from Fantasy Flight Games. Battlestar Galactica Exodus has been announced. This expansion looks pretty awesome. Especially if you like playing as a cylon. There is a whole new board for the cylons to move about on, plenty of new characters, quorum cards and a couple of new game mechanics. The first is conflicted loyalty cards.

These are just like the cylon cards from the Pegasus expansion only they are for the good guys. The problem is they help to promote suspicion in the fleet as some of the win conditions seem to be based on sabotage.

Like I said before, I love the original BSG game. Pegasus was a blast, and I really can’t wait for this new expansion either.

3. I played a couple of games in the last while. We played Power Grid again. This time with 5 people and it made for a much more interesting game. Well except for me, I didn’t seem to have a chance in that game due to my unrealistic love for Las Vegas. (side note to all you people out there: if Las Vegas is an option on a game map, chances are I’ll try to get it if possible).  I’d like to give Power Grid one more shot now that we kind of know what we are doing.

Dominion is another game that has been getting some heavy rotation in out line up.  Not much to say on this game. I can see it getting a little old soon, it might be time for an injection of new cards. We’ll have to see for sure.

I also picked up Bohnanza, by the guy who made Agricola. Although you’d be hard pressed to find many similarities. The game itself is fairly fun. It’s a card based game where the idea is to plant a bean farm. At the end the person with the most money at the end of the game is declared the winner. The trick to this game  seems to be hand management. I only played one time and it was a two player game. A proper game or two still needs to be played for the full effect.

Wednesday October 6
Dungeons and Dragons Encounters – Session 3: Our party made it to the bank which seemed to be on fire. We busted in and found a bunch of water and fire elementals. The battle raged on and was fierce, I was able to take down one and help in the skill challenge to help diminsh thier powers. Our group fought well together, and having 2 clerics in the group never hurts.

Friday October 8
The group that I game on Wednesdays with invited me over for a little Battlestar Galactica the board game. I’m not one to say no to BSG, especially since we were using the Pegasus expansion. I’d never played with those rules. It certianly adds a whole new dynamic to the game. It gives the humans more of a chance to win the game.  Not that it mattered. As the secret enemy cylon agent Gaius Baltar – I laid waste to my human enemies. We played a second game where I got to try the role of a cylon leader. My objective was to help the humans win. And help I did, we would have won if not for a unexpected loss of morale during our last jump.  Frakking Cylons.

Wednesday October 13
I had the day off work because my wife is pregnant and we went for the ultrasound. We are having another boy! (Insert game of life reference here). As a result I got to play my Xbox which is a rare treat at the best of times. I’ve been trying to finish off Mercenaries 2 for a while now. I got a little farther this time.  I’ve been fighting as Jennifer Mui, and I’ve been working with the Americans to rid Venezuela of the evil Chinese so they can give me a nuclear bunker buster so I can get into Solano’s base. We clear? Good.

It was also Dungeons and Dragons Encounters session 4 that night. I decided to re-roll Merric as an Assassin (the D&D Insiders Only Class). Let me just say this, it is still in beta testing and I expect it to change a little bit, but man it is a fun class. You can use poison which is awesome. I got to use a poison called Id Moss Powder. It’s a nasty little powder that if it reduces your HP to 0, the creature does not die, but instead is driven permanently insane. Guess what. It worked! The kobold I hit with it died as a result of the ongoing poison damage and was driven insane. Our DM decided that he would go bat shit crazy and start humping the wall. If you incurred an attack of opportunity he would grab you and start humping your leg. It was pretty fun.

The plot of this week was that we found a map to where Rennick was supposed to be hiding out. Instead we got ambushed by a throng of kobolds. Nasty creatures ended up putting both myself and the wizard down. Again I am grateful that our party has 2 clerics.

That is all I have to report for now. Sorry It was long, I’ll try and post more regular to spare you my drivel.

So after the skirmish in the cave me crew takes the sicko Gordi back to our benifactor Benwick. Once we gets em back Benwick is pretty pleased. We gets a nice meal outta the deal and a little rest in the fine establishment known as the Stumbling Giant. A band is playing in back our food is there too, and Benwick comes to us with a tray of ale. He lets us know that Gordi will be fine thanks to us, and that our next step agains Ronnick is to meet up with a spy named Sal who would point us in the right step. He leaves and we discuss our options, when the Dwarf perks up and say that someone is takin an intrest in our party. So I stands up on the table and yell out who is eavsdroppin on us? Wouldn’t you know, one of me own stands up and makes a quick line towards the door. Our man Caius sends out a magic missile towards the traitor but damn our luck (and insane good looks), it missess and he runs to the street. The mage Berrian, the knight Quinn and I begin the chase.

Of course we run ourselves in to an ambush, the little bugger has got friends. I give a yell to Caius and the Dwarf Rum Tum to get out out here, but nothin doing. The halfling shouts out that I’m a traitor and that I will die first. He chucks a dagger at me but the luck of the little people is with me and I barely dodge. Instead I get wacked in the head by one of his underlings. I slips out of the way and make an attack against a different goon. The mage disapears and ends up on the roof of the house beside him. He starts launching missiles at the goons while the knight takes care of them on the ground.

I get whacked again ands suddenly I begin to spin. The last thing I remember is feeling a sharp pain in me side. As I see the halfling laughing  and saying something that I don’t hear everything goes black.

I wake up in a haze of soft blue light, thanks to the Dwarf. I roll onto me feet and launch a dagger at the halfling.. .you know,  just to let em know that I’m still standin. Next thing I see is hand of fire engulf 2 of the brigands and the halfling. The halfling falls to his knees and the rest of his crew runs off to the streets. Out of nowhere a lass appears of of the shadows and delcares herself to be Sal. After a little interigation she slits the halfling’s throat. She tells us that Ronnick was last seen at the bank and hasn’t been out since. Our time to strike is now.

Seems alright by me. Sides, there is nowhere I’d rather be than rootin through the coffers of a bank!

So Lisa and Sean came over and so did Kyle and we played Agricola. Agricola is a board game that we play quite regularly. It is a farming game based on collection and building. The game is fairly simple to learn, it moves fast and so far anyone we’ve played the game with has enjoyed it alot.

The game is played in rounds and in total there are 15 rounds of play. You start off with 2 men and a blank plot. You job is to fill your plot with rooms in your house, pastures and fields. You gain points for the more “items” you acquire.  The object is to win by the most points.

Devilishly simple you say? Well there is a lot of strategy in the game, based on the cards that you aquire you can gain extra bonus points. If you get the chance to play this game do not pass it up. I consider this to be one of my favorite board games.

Our story begins at the table of our patron. He’s telling us some sob story about some missing so and so named Gordie who was kidnapped by some so and so who may have been worshiping an evil god. Ho hum, but then he mentions the missing jewel of Avandra and me ears picked right up.  He tells us where to start looking, so I sharpens up me daggers and meet with my crew in the morning.

We make our way to the cave where kidnapper was last seen, we casually saunter up to the cave. We sees them, they sees us. To the right is a drake and a burly lookin draco. To the right I sees a man sewing up a net. Man with net it is! I runs up and toss one of me daggers into his stomach. I notice a pit with some sobber cryin fer help. I shout back and me crew runs in after me. The knight Quinn runs into me man with the dagger in his belly and hits him with his sword. The draco runs up to the group and wacks the other knight. Then outta nowhere he breathes lightning on the rest of the crew. Seems I made the right choice going left.

From the back of the cave some koboldy lookin fellas drop down and join in our little dance.  The other knight starts smackin up the draco and they ends up by little old me. Whats a halfling ta do? So I sticks one of me daggers in his side.  Wouldn’t ya know the sucker starts bleedin and he starts cryin to his mamma. So we force him inta the pit with da sobber. I look back and the drake starts bitin at the mages, and the kobolds start spittin some darts too.  The mages fire back with der magic missiles and the kobolds start fallin like flies. Next thing you know the other knight is knocked out. Poison I thinks. Then one of the mages fall down. So I shift myself over and and start pokin holes in the drake. The cleric ends up bashin the drake down. I loves me the dwarves. The knights end up takin down the boyo with the nets. 

We pull our man and the draco baddie outta the hole. We ties up the draco while the healer tends to the others. So we stand around tryin to decide whatta do with the draco, when the knight outta nowhere says ” We should kill him”. I’d prefer to shake him down abit, but the draco doesn’t give us much choice. He busts loose and the knight and the draco enter a duel of sorts. When I say a duel of sorts it’s because it was one sided. The draco with one swipe KOs our boyo. The draco escapes off in the confusion.

<back to Mike>

It was a fun start to what I hope is an exciting season ahead of us.