Originally published at: https://statelyplay.com/2019/04/25/yes-acrams-new-game-is-charterstone/
- iOS, Android, Steam, Switch
Not since the removal of the headphone jack from iPhone 7 has there been a worse kept secret than Acram‘s attempt at obfuscation. What am I talking about? A couple days ago they posted a mysterious tweet about their new upcoming project showing nothing more than a gif of clouds. It didn’t take long for someone to look at the image directories over at the Acram site and, lo and behold, find they’re all labeled with ‘charterstone’ in the title. I’d like to poke fun at Acram for this, but I have to admit that I wouldn’t have thought of locking that stuff down either. I wouldn’t know how to do it, either, so <shrug>.
Anyway, Acram’s next board game port is Charterstone! (Act surprised, dammit!)
Charterstone is the brainchild of Scythe creator, Jamey Stegmeier of Stonemeier Games. (Why is it not Stegmeier games?) It’s a ‘legacy’ game and if you don’t know what that means consider yourself lucky. Basically, it means you can play the game through a campaign in which you alter the board and pieces while continuously adding new rules and whatnot. Now, I rarely have enough time to play the games I deeply love once or twice, but I have to play this ‘legacy’ game 12-15 times to get the full effect? Pass.
I’m just an old fuddy-duddy, though and folks seem to love this legacy fad for some reason. Games like Pandemic: Legacy and Gloomhaven are in the BGG top 10, so don’t listen to me.
To be honest, I’m excited to see a legacy game in digital format which is, I think, the only way I’ll ever finish one of these campaigns. Give me AI or online asynchronous play, and there’s a chance I’ll stick through the campaign to the end. I’m assuming you can then wipe the slate clean and start over, too, which is another thing that annoys me about cardboard legacy titles. Let me remind you, I’m very old.
We don’t have a lot of information about how the whole legacy thing will work when it comes to digital, but we do know that Charterstone will be arriving at some point for iOS, Android, Steam, and Switch. We’ll pass along more details as Acram dishes them out.
