Back in 2016, Jamey Stegmaier, owner of Stonemaier Games, announced an unusual move. Having established his company, he would no longer use Kickstarter to fullfill pre-orders. Instead, his brand would move to support pre-orders in friendly local game stores, like Just Games. For those unfamiliar, Stonemaier is the maker of the hottest board game in 2016, Scythe, as well as classics like Viticulture.
Charterstone looks like a very special release – a Legacy game that creates a one-of-a-kind worker placement game once you’ve played the Legacy component. In other words; a Legacy game you can play forever.
So what’s Charterstone?
- Jamey Stegmaier | art by Mr. Cuddington and Gong Studios
- A village-building legacy game.
- 1-6 players ages 10+
- 60 minutes
- MSRP $70
- Anticipated Release Q3 or Q4 2017
The prosperous Kingdom of Greengully, ruled for centuries by the Forever King, has issued a decree to its citizens to colonize the vast lands beyond its borders. In an effort to start a new village, the Forever King has selected 6 citizens for the task, each of whom has a unique set of skills they use to build their charter.
In Charterstone, a competitive legacy game scaled for 1-6 players, you construct buildings and inhabit a shared village. Building stickers are removed from cards and permanently added to your charter on the board, becoming action spaces for any player to use (kind of like Lords of Waterdeep and Caylus). Thus, a few available buildings soon grow into a bustling village with dozens of actions.
Charterstone features the following:
- no rules to learn before the first game: you will build the rulebook as you play
- [this is HUGE – there is no rulebook to read, just open the box and play – Matt]
- [this is HUGE – there is no rulebook to read, just open the box and play – Matt]
- engine-building elements within each game and over the course of the campaign
- a branching storyline where short-term decisions impact long-term mechanisms
- [Building in role-playing mechanics will make this a winner with fans of Legacy games or Above and Below – Matt]
- time as a resource, impacting the cost to use buildings and player order
- one component that has never been in a board game (update: 1 game has it!)
- 85+ “crates” to unlock: 350+ unique cards, 230+ wooden tokens, and 36 metal coins
Your journey through Charterstone’s many secrets will last 12 games, but it doesn’t end there. Your completed village will be a one-of-a-kind, variable worker-placement game.
Charterstone will likely be ready for release in Quarter 3 or Quarter 4 of 2017 (that means the second half of the year). There will not be a Kickstarter or pre-orders from Stonemaier. This game is direct to retailers, only. We’ll announce when it’s available.
Why such early hype?
With Stonemaier’s new pre-order system, if we don’t find out how many people want a game before it goes to print (usually 6-9 months in advance of delivery) it will be very hard to fill demand on a hot game. Charterstone is shaping up to be an incredibly hot game, so we want to give you a chance to reserve a copy now.
I’d like to pre-order
That’s great! You can reserve a copy online for a penny (sorry, PayPal makes us charge something) and 500 Member Reward Points, then get double points when you pick it up on release. Or if you want to pre-pay, we’ll give you double points on your membership. Pre-orders cut off on February 28, 2017. Expected delivery is in the second half of 2017.
If you don’t have a membership, you’ll need to stop in to sign up for one before you can pre-order.
