SMOOSH JUICE
Discover Pulp Romance, Explore Night Soil, and Pledge for a Knockoff | BoardGameGeek News
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When I first wrote about the effect of U.S. tariffs on goods from China following GAMA Expo 2025, I mentioned that some publishers plan to crowdfund more in order to sell copies directly to buyers and make a higher margin per game in order to cover costs.
In addition, I talked about publishers possibly switching to a “direct sale only” model in which games are available via crowdfunding, then only at conventions, with publishers shrinking their print runs in order to bring fewer goods into their warehouse and sell through product faster. In its pre-launch info for Aeon’s End: Beyond the Breach, which I covered the other day, Indie Boards & Cards writes:
Everyone in the U.S. who backs crowdfunding campaigns needs to read the fine print more closely these days…
āŖļø One example of this can be seen in the campaign for Night Soil, a 2-5 player game from Jon Moffat that Grail Games is crowdfunding for release in Q4 2025, with pick-up being possible at SPIEL Essen 25. Will U.S. buyers need to pay a tariff on Night Soil when they bring it home from Essen? We’ll find out!
As for the setting of the game:
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In Night Soil, players run competing night soil companies. By night, laborer cards will be used to carefully maneuver waste cubes through the narrow streets of London to turn a profit and to recruit workers. By day, these workers can be sent out into London to advertise, to garner favor with local businesses, or to improve their company’s assets. However, crowds of workers do tend to add to the waste problem…
At the end of the game, the player who has managed to make the most money wins!
The crowdfunding campaign includes this warning note: “Prices shown on the Kickstarter page are net values and they will be increased by shipping tariffs for U.S. backers. As the tariff situation is in flux, we will not charge customers their tariff fee now. Tariff fees will be collected in our post-campaign pledge manager. We will do our best for our backers and will share the cost of this extra fee.” (Emphasis in the original.)
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āŖļø Eden: The New World, which publisher Happy Together Games, is crowdfunding on Gamefound, is a new version of the Eden: Survive the Apocalypse game system that designer Pierre Joanne and publisher Taban Miniatures debuted in 2009.
Here’s an overview of this 2-4 player game:
“Dark and mature”? Are we talking about night soil again?!
Eden: The New World is available as a physical game complete with miniatures and accessories or as STL files that allow you to print your own figures and terrain…which would mean a U.S. backer would pay a tariff only on the raw material, yes? A new decision with every project!
āŖļø In April 2025, designer Steve Finn announced that he would cease publishing physical games through his Dr. Finn’s Games brand and would instead design game books.
His first release, Dr. Finn’s Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games, is being crowdfunded through mid-May 2025, with backers able to purchase PDFs of one or more of the included games or pledge US$1 to be notified of the book’s discounted availability through Amazon in the near future. All backers also receive a PDF of the solo game Nanga Parbat: Alone in the Wilderness.
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Here’s his pitch for the book:
ā¢ Cosmic Run: Mission One
ā¢ Spell It Out
ā¢ Pen Pals
ā¢ Crunch the Numbers
ā¢ My Perfect City
ā¢ Leftover Letters
ā¢ The Little Flower Shop: Open for Business
ā¢ Word Wrap
All of the games except Cosmic Run: Mission One are also playable as multiplayer solitaire. In this case, the player sheets need to be cut out of the book and/or copied.
Now that’s an ideal tariff-avoiding production…even though Finn announced this career shift prior to tariffs on Chinese goods rising above 20%.
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āŖļø I rarely dip into RPGs in this space, but I previously covered Banana Chan‘s solitaire, horror-based RPG Forgery because it sounded like a fascinating concept, and two years later she’s crowdfunding a new title in what has become the Mephistopheles Trilogy.
Here’s an overview of Knockoff:
Knockoff is a story of a desperate and burnt out fast fashion designer named Marcos, who discovers a cursed dress design from an estate sale. You, the player, inhabit Marcos’ point of view as you read about his story, journaling your characterās thoughts, feelings, and reactions at specific prompts.
What’s more, you will be cut out fabric textures and glue them over a croquis (a drawing of a fashion model) in a choose-your-own-path style of immersive storytelling that uses the dress you’re creating to determine the outcome of Marcos’ story.
You don’t need a background in fashion to create a dress. Keep a pair of scissors and glue or tape handy, then follow the directions to create your masterpiece.
Shoot, I had started a c.f. round-up earlier with this game, then I got distracted by tariff nonsense and now its campaign has ended. The publisher has it open for late pledges, though, so let’s still take a look at this steamy offering:
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āŖļø Following 2018’s Pulp Detective and 2020’s Pulp Invasion, designer Todd Sanders and publisher AVStudioGames are dipping into the past for another dose of pulp action, specifically for Pulp Romance, a solitaire card game about searching for your lost love in Europe between the two world wars:
Pulp Romance is being crowdfunded through the end of April 2025, with a Companions expansion offering more characters and lost loves, along with a group of companions.