Spirit Train Preview - On Track to the Afterlife!
Transcript
Hey there gamers, welcome back to the Board Game Co channel. And today we have a preview of Spirit Train. Hey there gamers, it's Professor Meg here and welcome back to the Board Game Co. channel. Today we have a preview of Spirit Train by Sweater Bear Games. Now this is a current crowdfunding campaign, but if you happen to be watching this video the day that it goes live, there are only a few days left. So be sure to check out the link down below for everything that they have planned. But this campaign is already fully funded as well. So, if you are interested, it is a fully funded game. Now, with that, this is a sponsored preview and this is a prototype copy in front of me. So, all rules, components, things like that are subject to change. Now, in Spirit Train, players are going to be different train conductors and you're going to be using each round to compose your train with the different rooms that you're going to be activating for their actions. But ultimately, you're trying to play out these different spirit cards and then ultimately usher them over to the afterlife. So, they will even have certain moments where they're able to face off against things like death. But otherwise, you're going to want to have them have a very good experience on your train because happiness for your different spirits is really going to matter. And when they do cross over, it's pretty sad. So, you'll lose some happiness there. So, you want to be sure to gain as much happiness as possible for your train because that's going to improve all of the different points of endame scoring that players are going to get. So, with that, let's dive into Spirit Train. Now, currently in front of you, the game is set up for a two-player
game, and you can tell that by the different tokens that are placed around the board. So, this is going to be the shared main board for players. And then down here is our player board. So, I do only have one train showing that's going to be ours for the game, but this is set up as a twoplayer game. Now, as I noted, you're going to have the moods of your spirits, which can go up and down all the way from miserable to ecstatic. And players are going to start the game off on content. And that is going to determine how many spirits players are able to activate each round. But it's also going to really matter for what points players are going to get at the end of the game. Because as you can see from this chart here, for example, if players did both end the game in this current area, they would receive three points for every one of these tokens that they have collected, which I'll go over soon. They're also going to score three points for each of the spirits that they have moved on to the afterlife. And then they'll score one point for each of their spirit interaction uh on their track here. So, if you were at seven, you would gain seven points. But if players are able to increase the moods of their spirits, they are able to adjust their end game scoring. Whether it goes up or down, it will affect those different things. Now, the game is going to be played over the course of three cycles. So, it has a specific endgame trigger, which is going to be when the trains reach the end of the map over here. So, you do have three cycles, but that is going to happen. And each round within those cycles is going to represent a day. So, in one
particular day, your trains may move along that path a little bit or perhaps even not at all. But when players do reach the end spot, that's when you're going to signal the end of the cycle. So, now I'm going to go over how you're going to be moving through these different days and what your turns are going to look like. But overall, that's going to be the pacing that players are going to complete this cycle three times, as in three cycles, and that will trigger the end of the game. Now, there are meamora tokens that players are going to interact with, and I'll go over those a lot more in a bit, but at the beginning of each round, players are going to release memorial tokens into this tray here. So, I did just want to show you what this looks like when you set it up. But, you are going to place in different tokens randomly into these different areas uh in equal amounts.
But, as you can see, the different types and the colors are different. And then you're going to release one of the uh different levers on the left and that's going to drop the tokens in. So when I pull this out from this section here, as you can see, it drops down all of the memorial tokens into this tray. So that's how this is going to function. Players are going to be trying to select these later if they are able to get some, but uh that's how they're going to be set up for each cycle. And this is that track that I mentioned where players are going to start off over in this station here. And then they're going to move sequentially through the different spots will which will affect a few different things. But you're going to move through to spot 9 and then ultimately to this station here where you'll get one of these rewards. So that is what players are going to be working toward doing is moving through this for a total of three times. But ultimately, you're going to be using that time to play out your different spirit cards, which you will start off with three in your hand available, plus there are more in the market. But you're trying to play out these spirit cards and then ultimately send them onto the afterlife, which will increase you on this track here. And you're going to be doing that by activating actions not only on the room tiles that you're going to place into your train. But some of these cards are going to have different actions on them as well that you're going to be able to activate if that particular spirit is active. Now, at the beginning of each round, players are going to flip
over an event card and they're going to have different times where they activate. It could be the start of the round or the end of the round or certain times, but you're going to start off the round with an event card. So, for example, this one here is stowaway. No need to hide on a train that can provide for all. A bed is comfier than a burlap sack. After all, players draw one spirit and may house it if they have enough tickets. So, this is one where at the start of the round, players, if they had enough tickets to do so, would be able to house the spirit that they draw. Now, taking a look at the board here, this is going to show you the order of how things are going to go, but it's also going to show you how many players are doing that particular thing at once because there are some things that players are going to do that are simultaneous, but then there are some things that we're going to do in player order. So, at the beginning of the round, players are going to use their player screen. So, everyone will have a player screen here, and you will hide your train, but I'm just going to uh show you what that looks like. You will be doing this without anyone seeing it.
I'll tell you when it would be revealed, but you're going to place out your different room tiles that you would like to use. So, for example, you start off with 10 tiles over here. They're your starting tiles. And these tiles over here are bonus tiles that players are going to be able to gain. But during this point, players are going to be able to choose where they want to slot them in. So, for example, if we wanted to use the art studio, we would be able to place this here. We'll also place out the cafe and we will do the lounge and the confectionary. So that that is all the rooms that we're going to choose to place here. And then once everyone has them slotted, you will reveal. Now, as you can see from these symbols here, depending on how many rooms you're going to choose to play is going to affect a few things for you that round. So one of them is if you stayed just in this first part here. So if for example our train car looked like this instead, we would be able to gain two bonus movement during the movement phase which is over here. So if we had it set up like this, it would be like that. Uh but where we are currently set up as such, this would give us one movement instead. But as you can tell from this symbol here, if somehow we had a configuration, for example, if we had chosen to have the ball room in play this round, we would actually suffer an energy penalty instead. So, we wouldn't get any bonus movement from the top of the train track
here for when you place the rooms. And we would also have to pay an energy to do so because our train is at absolutely full capacity. Now, there are other actions that you're going to be able to get. For example, you can see that we do have two movement here on our different rooms. So, that doesn't always mean that you're not moving at all, but you are not gaining that movement bonus. So, I am going to just change us back to the original selection here to go through the different actions that players are going to do, but this part is going to be simultaneous. Now, once all players have revealed their trains, players are going to gain these three things respectively all simultaneously. So, as you can see by the symbol, it's simultaneous. Players are going to gain tickets, memory shards, as well as improving their spirit moods. So, we don't currently have anything with those symbols here showing, but as you can see from these spirits we have in our hand, we can gain tickets if we have them here in play and active. And we are also able to gain things like memory shards from particular rooms or spirits. And you're also able to have things that will increase the spirit's mood, which is going to be this symbol here. So, for example, the kitchen is something that they enjoy, which will allow you to increase your spirit mood. So, during this phase, players are going to take all of those things. And again, this being the first turn where we have no spirits, we're only really able to rely on what our rooms are able to do for us.
But then in player order, players are going to perform these three things. So you have your movement where for this particular one we have a bonus of one movement as well as the two that are showing. So we would be able to move our train a total of three spots here to the city. And then you have your spirit interaction with that. You're going to look at these pink symbols here. And for each one that totals to one, you're going to be able to draw a card from here. So it is rounded down where you can see we have two halves. If we only had one half, we would not be able to draw a card. But where we do have two, we would be able to draw this and this represents the time that we are spending with the spirits on our train. So here you can see we are cooking a favorite meal and we're able to gain one in our spirit mood here. But if we pay a memory shard, we're able to get a second one.
So we will do that and gain two for our mood. But also, when you do this, you're always going to move up on the spirit interactions track here for every card that you draw. So, if we did have a total of two value for this action, we would have drawn two cards, interacted with both of them, and moved to the two spot here. Now, next would be Mamora. And players are able to unlock those Meamora tokens that I showed you earlier. So, this would require a symbol like this showing that you're able to do that type of action. And for a specific cost, you're going to be able to draw one. So, for this, for a cost of two, we would be able to draw one of these tokens here. And they are different symbols, which is going to relate to your spirit cards. So, you wouldn't want to do this until you have a spirit card out and active. But for example, if we did have Calypso in play down here, uh I'll just put her here for example, then we would want to put a meamora here.
Now, you will be able to put the meamora token onto the abilities here for the specific ability. And then when that spirit is active, you would be able to have that action available as well. So, for example, looking at Calypso here, if we did have her in play, we would represent that she is active by putting one of these borders around her because remember, you're only able to have a certain number of spirits active each round. But once she is active, if we did have this token placed here, it would provide a half a point for the spirit interaction phase when she is active. So, in order for us to take this, we would have paid the cost to gain it. And you're also going to gain energy depending on the particular type that you take. So, if we had taken this symbol here, it would have gained us three energy. This one would have gained us two, but this one here is going to gain us just one energy. But that's okay because it because it is the ability we wanted to unlock. Now, there is this fourth symbol which provides zero energy when you take it, but it is a wild, so you're able to slot it onto any ability that needs a meamora token. That is how players are going to be purchasing these tokens during this phase here with the actions that are able to do so. But again, you need a spirit to place it on for that. Now, ultimately, these tokens are sometimes going to come off of your spirits and placed into your inventory
that you'll be able to spend in other ways, but when you gain them, you're going to be placing them onto your spirits. Now, next, after all players have completed their turn with those three different types of actions, players are simultaneously going to perform the next step, which is going to be how you're able to play your spirit cards. So you are going to have spirit cards in your hand that have a particular ticket cost at the beginning of the game. We're going to start off with five. So we could choose to use this to put Calypsa out Calypso out into play. And you have five spots available at the bottom of your player board. So we would be able to play her out and activate her on future turns. So that would cost us our tickets here. We'll pay that to the bank. And then players are also able to lock certain rooms in their train car because we have not gone over this yet, but at the end of each round, players are going to remove their rooms from their train car over to the used side and you are not able to use them again until you have used everything on the left side of your board. So, you start off with 10 rooms and until they are all used, you're not able to gain your old rooms back. Now, there is an exception that if you have just one left, you're able to spend that to use to gain everything back, meaning that players would use at least nine of their starting rooms before they would see rooms again. So, because of that, there is this lock ability here, and you are able to lock certain rooms. Now,
that does not lock you to using that room in the particular area that it's in. And something that I haven't shown you is that each room also has a secondary side. So you can do different actions depending on the side that you place that room on. And when you lock them, it just means that you have access to it the next round in your train. But you can move it anywhere as well as flipping it over. Now, a lot of the actions that we have gone over are all from the rooms that we had because we hadn't yet had any spirits in play, but the spirits are going to provide you those actions as well. So, if they are active, you're going to be able to do those particular things. For example, with Calypso, you saw us unlock the points for spirit interaction, but she already has one ticket as well as one movement for either playing a spirit or moving them on. So, I'll get into what that is going to mean in just a moment, but you are going to have these extra actions available. For example, Kiji over here would be able to lock a tile, but when these spirits are active, they're also going to have favored rooms. So, they're going to want to be in certain areas. For example, Calypso here wants to be in the lounge or the grotto. So, once a spirit is put into play, we would have her active. We would take her standy over here and then she would be able to be placed into the lounge because that's her favorite place to be. So, because we did have the lounge, if we did uh have her in play,
we would be able to put her here. And that gives us access to an additional movement. So, the different standies have to be placed out from the card into their favored area to be able to activate that. So, in a future round, Calypso would not be able to do that until the lounge comes back or if we are able to place the grotto in the future. Now, at the end of the round, players are going to move those tiles over. So, they'll move them to this side here, unless they did lock any of them, and then you'll move on to the next round. So unless the cycle has ended, which will look a little bit different, players will move on to the next round where they will draw a new event card, place their player screen in front of them, and then use the rooms that they have available to build out their train car for that round. Now, this action here, which is housing a spirit, is how spirits are also going to move on. So, I went through the general cycle to show you how you're going to have these spirits in play, but you are going to be using this symbol activation here to also help those spirits move on. And the spirits do have certain terrain that they favor, which represents a terrain that they may have enjoyed in life. So, Calypso here, as you can imagine, enjoys the water. So, we would want to hopefully help Calypso move on to the afterlife when we are at an area with water, such as the sea here. So, we may
try to plan with our turn, our movement to end us in a specific area that then when we're at the action here, we would be able to help her move on. Now, when that happens, we would lose any momento tokens that are placed on her, which is how players are going to gain them to their general pool over here. And because it was on the favored terrain type, we would move up twice on this track here. So, if we had done it anywhere besides the sea, we would only move up once, but we would be able to move up twice because that is the terrain that she wants to be moved on at. Now, something that will happen as well is that the mood of your train will go down because it's sad to see our friends leave. So, you'll move down twice on the spirit mood track whenever that happens. So, you want to be sure to help them move on somewhere that is means a lot to them because it's going to help you advance on this track faster and not hurt you as much by having the mood go down quite as much. Now, for the first player to reach the station here, that is going to note the end of the cycle. So, that player is going to be able to choose one of these bonuses here. For example, discover one room, which is going to be the bonus rooms over here, discard one room, which is going to help you cycle through your rooms faster, or other abilities. But you're going to choose that and mark it off to show that that is the ability you have chosen. Now, the last player to
come to this area, even in a two-player game, is going to lose one point in their spirit mood. So, their mood will go down. But after that, when every cycle ends, you're going to go through ethereal combat. So, this is going to represent the trains trying to help these spirits move on, but death is coming for them. So, you will have the ethereal combat card here, and that's going to represent the spirit that is going to be killed. So, for example, this one is the cursed compartment, and it is this slot here, which is going to be exactly where Calypso is. But if you don't have a spirit in that area, you'll just go to the closest one. So, your spirits will always be affected by these cards. But players do have a chance to face off against death together. So, you will have to uh suffer the con consequences if you are not able to defeat them. But this death is going to require three strength per player, meaning a total of six for a two-player game. So with the players that are entering into this combat, you can see that you are going to have certain combat values for your spirits and you're able to contribute that. So for Calypso here, she would actually cost you one point on your spirit mood to contribute the four strength. Some of them, such as Lumo here, is going to be able to just contribute their strength without having to pay a cost. But players are going to be able to select which spirits they want to participate in that battle trying to overcome death.
Now, when this happens, it is simultaneous behind your player board where you're going to choose which spirits you want to enter into that particular combat. So, you'll do it all secretly so that other players won't know exactly what you are adding. Meaning that you might be choosing to sacrifice your spirits and have everyone have a negative consequence. Or players might even be trying to add spirits that will be just shy of that value. But you also have a chance to be the strongest one in that particular combat. Now, whoever was able to contribute the most strength to this combat, if you are victorious, is going to gain both of the rewards listed here. So, anyone who participated in the battle is going to gain a spirit stone. As you can see, they'll be slotted over here, but the one that contributed the most strength is going to gain three tickets as well.
So, you have your spirit stones over here. They are one of the things that you're going to be multiplying to score at the end of the game. And as you can see, players are only able to gain a total of two from the athereal combat. So, you are still able to overcome the combat because it will gain you the additional bonus if you have the most strength. And you're also able to protect your spirits by doing so. But players are also going to be able to gain spirit stones from the prank wars, which I'll go over in just a little bit. And there are other ways to gain them as well. Now, when spirits do engage in this combat, they're not going to be able to play in the next round. They will be able to play in the next cycle, they just won't be able to play in the next round of the next cycle. So, to show that they will be flipped over on your train, but when a card flips over, that is also when you lose the Mamora tokens. So, if we did have this Mamora token here on Calypso, when she would flip over to engage in ethereal combat, this would also come over here for us to spend. So, I explained the two ways that we are going to be gaining these tokens over to this area here because during the memorial phase, players are also able to spend these. You're not just gaining them and purchasing them, but you are able to spend them. And one of the things that you're able to spend them on is if you spend five total, you can gain another spirit stone for yourself. So where you can gain a total
of two from combat and two from prank wars, you are able to gain more for an expensive price for these memorial tokens. Now for three of these tokens, players are able to discover a new room. So that's another way that you will be discovering this rooms besides this bonus here. And for two of the tokens, you're able to permanently discard a room. So that's another way that players are going to be thinning out their starting rooms to make the rooms that they cultivate for their train specifically what they want so that they are also drawing those faster. Now the prank wars are going to be something a little silly that is going to happen during movement. So when you are moving your train along the map, if you stop on the same spot as another train, you're able to engage with them in prank wars.
So, you're going to draw the deck from here, and your opponent will draw the other deck where they are the same cards, but you're going to simultaneously choose which ones you want to play. So, you're going to have a base item and then something to augment it with. And after that, whoever decided to engage in the prank is going to be able to choose to swap the augments. So, that's also going to add a little something silly where they can choose to or not. And then after that, you'll see how those cards end up. So, for example, taking a look over here, you have the three different things such as the stinky sock, the foam pie, or the slime bucket, where the slime bucket is a value three, the foam pie is a two, the sock is a one, but the sock is a plus three if it is against the slime bucket.
So, it is a way to counteract that. And then for the different augments, you have the water balloon, which for is negative one per opponent's active spirit only if it was swapped. So that's one where it is important if it was swapped. You have the glitter bomb which is negative one per active spirit and confetti cannon plus one per active spirit. So that's how you're going to be adjusting your different values for the pranks. And there are even going to be some spirits that will also contribute to that as well. For example, Momo over here, you are able to unlock his memorial ability which will provide one additional point for you during the prank wars. So, you're going to simultaneously choose these and then whoever started the war is going to be able to choose if they want to swap the augments or not. And then you will reveal them and see who is the winner.
Now, the winner is going to gain one of those spirit stones as I mentioned and they will also move one more forward on the map. So for example, if the prank had taken place here, the winner would move forward after that and then also the loser would move back one on the mood track. And so that is how the prank wars will be resolved. But as you noticed, there are these spots here that I went on where for the sixth and the eighth spot on this map here, players will also draw a spirit card when they go on those spots. So, that's another way for you to be drawing them to hopefully then be able to house those spirits on your train in the future. Now, when players are drawing the spirits, you're able to draw from the three that you have available in the market or from the top of the deck over here. So, you would be able to draw that as well. But as you can see from the standies that are over here waiting to be placed, you're going to take the standy as well because it will block that special action unless the spirit is in the particular area that they want to be in to have that action available.
Now, at the end of the game, players are going to get points for their number of spirit stones. So, you're going to take that and multiply it by the number of stones versus where you are on the happiness track. Then you're also going to do the same for the number of spirits you were able to help move on and where you ended up on the spirit interaction track. So you're going to take those three things, multiply it by the numbers of where you ended up with your particular mood for the game, and that will represent your endgame scoring. And whichever player has the most points at the end is going to be the best conductor and win. In Spirit Train, players are going to have this puzzle each round of which rooms they want to use, where they want to slot them, and how tight they're going to pack their train because you are going to get bonuses if you don't put too many rooms.
But you also want to pace out how those rooms come back because as you start using them, you're not able to use them again until you've used all of your rooms. So, you kind of have this pacing of trying to have them come back. So, you might choose to pack your train really tightly because you want to see those tiles cycle back to you. But also, locking these tiles is going to be really important because the rooms are very versatile where you do have the two different sides of each room providing different things. So, even when you lock them and you're able to use them in a future round, you're able to use the other side. So, you're constantly going to be forced with the decision of which actions you want for you for the next round. And you're going to start building in actions as you start having spirits available because they'll provide actions for you as well. Now, and depending on the mood of your train, that's how many of the different spirits that you're able to have active. So, the happier train, the more actions you'll have each round for yourself as well.
Now, players are going to be focused on helping these spirits move on where ultimately that's what you were trying to do. But having those actions that they're able to provide for you are really going to be useful while you're trying to increase the mood for everyone. And it is sad when those spirits leave. So that is something that you're going to have to mitigate where keeping the mood up is going to be really important with the different spirit interactions. But you're also going to have some of these spirits facing off against death where that is going to be a great way for you to gain some spirit stones and protect the spirits on your train because you don't want to see them killed, but you're also going to lose them for the next round and any of those tokens for memorial that you've placed on them. So, it is going to be a big decision of who to send in there. And perhaps if you have someone who is strong at fighting off against death, you might not put any of those memorial tokens on them, knowing that they might be lost. So, with that, this has been a preview of Spirit Train.
There are only a few days left in the campaign if you're watching this today. So, check out the link down below for everything that they have planned. It is fully funded, so you will be able to check this out in the future if it is after a few days from now. But thank you all for watching the board game code channel. I've been Professor Meg and I'll see you all next time.