Boss Monster 2: The Next Level (Kickstarter)

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**RiTides**

I missed the launch, but this is over 130K on just it's second day in a 2-week campaign! This game can be used either as an expansion or a stand-alone sequel to the original Boss Monster, which is amazingly fun - a bunch of us Dakka folks played it every night at AdeptiCon this year

(much sleep was lost!)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brotherwise/boss-monster-the-next-level

Here's the main info:

Boss Monster is coming back to the tabletop, and this time we're taking it to The Next Level!

Boss Monster 2: The Next Level is a full-sized, 160 card set that returns you to the world of Arcadia where the bad are good and the good are dinner. Just like the original Boss Monster, you'll take the role of the boss at the end of a retro-style video game dungeon, competing against other bosses to build a dungeon that will lure in questing heroes and destroy them. You can play Boss Monster 2 on its own, or combine the set with the original Boss Monster cards for a truly epic experience!

The original Boss Monster was a Kickstarter hit, before going on to become a bestseller in hobby and game stores worldwide. The retail pre-orders for Boss Monster 2 are already rolling in, but this Kickstarter gives the community that made Boss Monster happen a chance to get in on the action early, and get some special extras before anyone else.

What's New?

Boss Monster 2 is an all-new set with more Bosses, more card variety, and more ways to crush puny Heroes! Here are just a few of the things that make it our favorite Boss Monster experience yet:

Dark Heroes -- the Hitman, Barbarian, Witch, and Vampire -- can be "paid" to deal more damage to an opponent.
Hybrid Heroes -- the Swordmage, Druid, Archer and Necromancer -- are drawn to two treasure types and feature powerful abilities.
Epic Spells -- like Lightning Bolt! and It's On! -- give you the option to unlock more powerful effects if you meet a prerequisite.
More cross-table effects, like "cycling" Rooms let you discard cards to affect an opponent's dungeon.
More access to Spells, through Cleric Rooms as well as Mage Rooms.
...and more! Boss Monster 2 features more overall variety and fewer duplicate cards, to keep the game fresh after dozens of plays.
If you're an experienced dungeon-builder, Boss Monster gives you all-new tools and more ways to interact with your opponents. But if this is your first time playing Boss Monster, it retains the accessibility and ease of play that made the original a hit.

The Rewards

THE GAME: For $25 you get the full retail copy of Boss Monster: The Next Level, featuring 160 cards (with 12 all new bosses!) and hours of fun for 2-4 players. Boss Monster is a standalone expansion, which means you can play it on its own, shuffle the Room and Spell cards together with your original set, or mix and match to create your ideal Boss Monster experience!

The game includes everything you see here, printed by Cartamundi USA. If you live in the United States, shipping is included in the price! International shipping is $8 extra to Canada and $15 extra for the rest of the world.

THE LIMITED EDITION: Pledge $32 and you get the Limited Edition version of the game. You'll get everything in the base game plus a box sleeve with art by game industry artist Darren Calvert. You'll also get holofoil cards of the 12 bosses. We are only doing one printing of these extras! Any Limited Edition versions that aren't bought up here will be made available later this year to your friendly local game store, but we can't promise how many will be left. If you live in the U.S., shipping is included in the price. International shipping is $8 extra to Canada and $15 extra for the rest of the world.

THE COLLECTOR BOX: At $55 you'll get everything available in the Limited Edition pledge level plus our new Collector Box, a deluxe carrying case that's big enough to hold over 400 sleeved cards! The Collector Box is styled like a retro lunchbox, with durable corrugate construction by Legion Supplies. It also comes with the Portable Pack, a set of 5 all-new cards that take Boss Monster into the world of retro portable gaming! Portable cards can be "moved" every turn, giving your dungeon unprecedented flexibility.

While Boss Monster 2 and the Limited Edition version will ship in May; the rest of the rewards from this level won't ship until later in the year. Free shipping in the U.S. International shipping is $16 extra to Canada and $30 extra for the rest of the world.

Very much looking forward to getting some new bosses to use, as that was the main thing the retail version of the original Boss Monster was missing (the Kickstarter version had a number of extra bosses, although some were apparently not as well balanced as the core bosses). The creators have committed to no longer having limited edition / exclusive cards, I believe, so even if you miss this Kickstarter, you'll be able to get the full playable content at retail - which I think is a very good move on their part!

**gunslingerpro**

Backed. Loved the first game, sees a lot of play in downtime during Cons.

Besides, who can pass up that limited edition Cover sleeve?!?!

**kronk**

The first Boss Monster game is tons of fun.

**yakface**

You know I'm in for the lunchpail thing!

**cincydooley**

yakface wrote:

You know I'm in for the lunchpail thing!

Have they said at all in their comments whether or not it will fit both games? (I don't know how many cards are in the original.)

**RiTides**

They said it will fit both games, plus the current expansion, and have room for 50 more sleeved cards. I hope it works fine with unsleeved cards too, as I've never felt the need to do that.

Decided to up my pledge to that level, so I will have all the Boss Monster-y goodness to choose from

**gunslingerpro**

Mine came in at some point this week. Just snagged it from my folk's house last night!

**yakface**

Yep, got mine tonight too! Although I pledged for the lunch pail thing and didn't get that yet...is it shipping separately?

**gunslingerpro**

Not sure about the pail, I just went with the Limited sleeve. I don't remember the pail being a different shipping time however.

**yakface**

gunslingerpro wrote:
Not sure about the pail, I just went with the Limited sleeve. I don't remember the pail being a different shipping time however.

Whew, just did a thorough read-through of the KS page and it looks like the collector's box (the lunch pail) is supposed to ship 'later this year'. I can live with that!

The new cards/rules just look awesome I can't wait to try it out. I'm curious if I'll generally stick to playing it as a stand-alone game or usually mix it with Boss Monster 1. It seems like un-mixing them will be kind of a pain, so once you go down the mixing route I think you'll want to stay there.

Maybe I'll wait until I get the lunchbox to mix them together (as then I'll have the room to store them as a single entity).

**RiTides**

So jealous, I've got nothing here yet! I need a convention to happen so yak can teach us all how to own face in the new version of this game

I am also really curious if mixing or keeping them separate will be best, so please update with what you guys end up doing!

**yakface**

What kind of bums me out is that I play the Boss Monster ipad app constantly, and that is my main Boss Monster fix (as I can play it anytime against the computer)...but now I've got all these awesome new cards, but they obviously aren't in the app...so its weird.

In a dream scenario they somehow could have made the app and the card game a simultaneous release. But I'm sure they'll need to run another KS to fund the Boss Monster 2 app, I'm imagining. I just hope they get around to it soon!

**RiTides**

I got my set the day after you guys

but have been too busy to break it out yet. I am totally going to try out the app this weekend, though! I completely forgot about that... it would be awesome if they could update it with the new cards, but I haven't seen any word on that so you're probably right that it will be a separate effort.

**yakface**

RiTides wrote:
I got my set the day after you guys but have been too busy to break it out yet. I am totally going to try out the app this weekend, though! I completely forgot about that... it would be awesome if they could update it with the new cards, but I haven't seen any word on that so you're probably right that it will be a separate effort.

They've said that the app development team is totally separate from the card game development (which makes sense), so the development of Boss Monster 2 as a card game has not impacted their work on the app. The app team is apparently focusing on fine-tuning the app experience first (cause it does play a little clunky) before adding any expansions.

My guess is it will probably be quite a while before the Boss Monster 2 stuff hits the app.

**Sinful Hero**

Totally missed this.

Had a ton of fun with the first one- it's fun balancing damage with treasure. It's a blast with teens and kids as well.

**yakface**

Sinful Hero wrote:
Totally missed this.

Had a ton of fun with the first one- it's fun balancing damage with treasure. It's a blast with teens and kids as well.

After playing it a couple times, here's what I see that the second one brings to the table over the first:

1) Some Heroes now have special abilities. Some Heroes are now attracted to dungeons with the highest combination of two types of treasure icons added together (so for example, the most ankhs & swords combined).

2) Some spells now have lesser and greater options on them. The greater options tend to require something more be given up (or exceptional circumstances) to use.

3) There are a whole lot more effects available in the game that lower/raise a hero's/room's health up/down by 1. So both players can activate a bunch of these effects to try to tweak things just enough to be in their favor (or against their opponent's favor).

4) There are way more abilities now that allow you to discard a card from your hand to do something special (so like: discard this room from your hand to cancel a spell, for example).

5) You now no longer discard two cars at the very beginning (so you get to keep all 5 room cards and 2 spell cards you initially draw).

So far, I feel that while the mechanics are fundamentally the same, the above changes make the game feel very, very different. All the different +1/-1 effects that can be in play simultaneously feel like they can be a little hard to keep track of, but I'd guess that playing it a bunch would probably make this a lot easier.

Also, I've only played it as a standalone game to try the new stuff out, but you are able to combine the BM1 & BM2 rooms, spells and bosses together into one, which I look forward to trying out.

**Sinful Hero**

Sounds like some pretty cool upgrades. I suppose I'll pick it up next time I head up to a store.