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• Mark Swanson founded Odd Bird Games in 2017, debuted with the game Feudum in 2018, then…released only small promo items for Feudum over the next several years.
In 2024, however, Swanson will Kickstart his sophomore design: Fled, a 2-4 player game that, Swanson says, is “based on a historic British fort turned island prison off the south coast of Ireland. The first prisoners were just young lads — many unfairly detained for infractions as minor as stealing a potato. What a travesty of justice!” Now you get to take the role of one of those lads:
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The object of Fled is to score the most victory points (VP) while trying to escape from prison. Throughout the game, you will manage a hand of tiles. Each turn, you add a tile to the prison, then discard other tiles to move from room to room while collecting contraband. Some rooms, like the Warder’s Quarters, allow you to trade your contraband for the tools you’ll need to get past the outer wall. Take care with your wandering, though, for if you are not in the right room when the Governor summons you to roll call, a nearby warder could put you in shackles — or worse, send you to solitary confinement!
Do not lose faith! Father Lyons is a sympathetic chaplain warder who has been known to free captives from more than their sins, so give it a lash and rid yourself of this God-forsaken place. Luck of the Irish to ye.
• Swanson will follow this title in 2025 with Forelords, a two-player card game with elements of deck construction:
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Forelords is a 1v1 dueling trading card battle between competing biomes. Play as one of many lands, whether they be high, low, wet or frozen. Move your cards into spaces like chess pieces, and gain favor by collecting one or more of the five terrain tokens. To win, you must destroy your opponent’s king or collect the most points in battle by the showing of the final monolith — whichever comes first…
During the game, you will add land and ally cards to your hand, pay the cost to put them into play, then use them to battle your adversary. Land cards will equip you with valuable resources, such as metal, batteries, credit, knowledge…even coveted terrain tokens. Ally cards will maneuver and melee at your command to overcome foes as well as the wilderness.
• Finally, Swanson is working on a seventh anniversary edition of Feudum that will “feature a bit of limited-edition goodness”, as well as Fir, a 2-5 player game without a set release date, but with a compelling setting:
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During the game, you task your workers with all manner of awe-inspiring labor, from felling fir trees and driving logs to milling timber and stoking steam donkeys! To succeed, you must put your workers in harm’s way. Bumps and bruises will take their toll and send many loggers to an early grave. But do not despair! Injured workers will enter trade buildings where they become foreman, freeing you up to recruit day laborers, flip flapjacks, or moonlight as an impresario.
Players who move timber along the supply chain and compete in logging games will earn valuable resources that will help them improve their homesteads. Will you tend to corn and chickens, build bunks and barns, or furnish the river with bridges and rocker boxes? Your chore list is as tall as the day is long! A trip to the trading post will pay huge dividends, while a visit to vaudeville might strand you on skid row.
So grab your axe and pike, muster your morale and might, then marvel your fellow timbermen with exploits of mythic proportions!
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