The narrative adventure Escape the Dark Sector has returned to Kickstarter with premium content for tabletop gamers. Themeborne is offering three expansions to enrich the storytelling board game and it also includes the potential to combine all of the cards and components into one collector’s box.
The crowdfunding campaign is also serving as an additional print run for the base game, so if you don’t have Escape the Dark Sector yet then this is an opportunity to jump on board and get everything in one fell swoop.
Plenty of games focus on space-themed adventures—especially when those journeys go wrong in the worst possible ways—but the Escape the Dark series does a wonderful job of marrying the worlds of board games and tabletop roleplaying with a sci-fi story rich in atmosphere and player interaction. And it doesn’t require the investment of longer narrative games; players can finish a game in under an hour, but the random mission generation ensures that every time will feel unique and engaging.
Here’s what you can expect in a game of Escape the Dark Sector (from the campaign):
Playing as the beleaguered crew of an impounded starship, players find themselves confined to the detention block of a vast space station. Using a variety of advanced gear and weaponry, they will embark on a desperate mission to find their ship and blast their way home.
Along the way, the crew will have to overcome a variety of dangers, traps, and terrors. From cyborg guards and faulty replicators to killer alien organisms, with each challenge represented by a large, lavishly illustrated chapter card.
As these immersive chapter cards are revealed one by one, the game takes on the form of a shared storybook experience, with the players making decisions about what to do each chapter before using a combination of tactical dice combat and timely use of item cards to complete them.
The goal of the game is to recover your starship by completing every chapter in the mission deck and defeating the final boss. To win, you must keep each member of the crew alive - if any player is killed the game ends immediately.
I’ve really gravitated toward narrative-based games in the last couple of years, so I’m excited about this campaign and how it’s going to expand the Escape the Dark series.
If you’re interested in the game, check out the Kickstarter link above or visit the Themeborne website.
