Originally published at: https://statelyplay.com/2019/04/04/welcome-to-the-renaissance-lorenzo-il-magnifico-kickstarting-its-way-to-digital/
- PC/Mac
Lorenzo il Magnifico is a heavier euro set in Renaissance Italy that is pretty much exactly like every other euro published in the last 4-5 years. By this I mean that it’s sitting in shrink wrap on my basement shelf surrounded by a bunch of other games I have yet to find time to play. Publisher Cranio Creations is here to help, bringing its tableau builder to digital via everyone’s favorite crowdfunding source, Kickstarter.
Lorenzo il Magnifico is a heavier euro that puts you in the shoes of a wealthy Italian family in the Renaissance. In other words, it’s treading completely new ground, theme-wise [insert eye-rolling gif here -ed.].
In Lorenzo il Magnifico, you are the head of an influential family in Florence during the Renaissance. You hope to rise through the ranks of nobility to gain even more prestige in the city, but you’ll have to rely on your family if you want to achieve your goals. Over the course of six rounds, you send out family members to different areas in the city to collect resources, develop territories, build your military strength, and pay tribute to the church. However, the members of your family have different strengths. You have to decide if you want to send out the golden child to complete a task, or the black sheep. With careful planning, you’ll be able to lead your family to a higher status level among the city’s elite.
The game combines dice rolling, card drafting, and worker placement into a VP chaser, which is something I used to absolutely go gaga for. Now I can’t get them to the table. [boo-fucking-hoo -ed.]
The Kickstarter aims to bring Lorenzo to PC/Mac (there’s no mention of mobile on the KS page, so I’m not sure if they’re planning on a mobile version somewhere down the road) and is also offering up a Kickstarter exclusive expansion, The Pazzi Conspiracy. You can pledge for just the digital game or include the physical expansion as well. Either way, the KS is pretty cheap, with the digital+physical pledge coming in at £20 including shipping.
The Kickstarter itself is kind of a mess. There’s not a lot of information and what is there is fairly cryptic. That said, it’s already funded, so the only reason to pop in now is to help fund stretch goals, which appear to be new cards. Are they physical cards in the Pazzi Conspiracy or digital cards? Who knows? The final stretch goal also appears to be multiplayer. So, it appears the game will not have multiplayer unless they bring in an absurd amount of money. As history has shown, not having multiplayer is a fantastic boost to an app’s longevity. [this eye roll gif is going to be getting a workout -ed.]
Anyway, go check out the Kickstarter and let me know if it makes sense to you. Pledge if you like (I did, and I’m hoping they hit that multiplayer stretch goal) and we’ll let you know if any other details about this digital version come to light.
