Yes, Acram's new game is Charterstone

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.

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Keeping secrets is not our thing. Making games is!

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Other than the “secret” coming out via image files, I really feel like we’ve talked about Charterstone digital in the past; was that merely a thought exercise, or has this info actually been released, forgotten, and now released again?

I’m looking forward to this. I haven’t played any legacy games and I haven’t played Charterstone, but this will be a day-1 purchase, for sure!

Edit: Now I remember, in Jamey’s shareholder letter he mentioned Charterstone was in the works but gave no further info. I think this is the first we’ve heard of Acram’s involvement.

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and that’s definitely great news, given Acram’s expertise in making excellent digital ports.
and my 5 cents are: IF a legacy game, then in DIGITAL form. seems like a perfect fit to me. maybe because i’m old too. i like to keep my cardboards “clean”.

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Edit: Now I remember, in Jamey’s shareholder letter he mentioned Charterstone was in the works but gave no further info. I think this is the first we’ve heard of Acram’s involvement.

Can confirm, it’s the first we’ve ever admitted. Well, we did bring a banner to a local board game convention in Warsaw a few weeks back, but it’s a very local event and seems not to have leaked :slight_smile:

and that’s definitely great news, given Acram’s expertise in making excellent digital ports.
and my 5 cents are: IF a legacy game, then in DIGITAL form. seems like a perfect fit to me. maybe because i’m old too. i like to keep my cardboards “clean”.

Aw, thanks. Also - our thoughts exactly. Ever since I have played my first game of Charterstone I kept thinking ‘man, that would be great on PC’.

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Please continue doing the latter. We can work on the former.

Really looking forward to this one (and mentioning it on today’s post on my blog now that I’m back from vacation).

Any way I could get on your press list so I can be like my idol @Neumannium? :slight_smile:

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DON’T DO IT, ACRAM! ONCE HE’S ON THE LIST, I’LL HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO LORD OVER HIM

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Seems like it’s a perfect moment for the good old fashioned bribery then! :smiley: