1-2 Players 15 mins Ages 14+
Totemic...
You were there when the world was new. The very first of your kind. The totem. Your place in Nature is everything. It is not enough to survive. You must thrive.
In Totemic, animal spirits vie for their place in the natural world. Using cunning, strength, and aspects specific to their kind, each animal will approach this contest differently. Only the animal that best uses these aspects will win in the end.
Totemic available on PLEDGE HERE
What’s in the box…
Inside you’ll find everything you need to take your Totemic position:
- 10 Unique Animal Cards
- 20 Animal Aspect Cards
- 16 Common Aspect Cards
- 2 Power Cards & Tokens
- A Totem Standee and 2 totem cards
- Dominance Token
All you need to bring to the table is guile and be prepared to make or take a challenge…
Totemic available on PLEDGE HERE
Our Thoughts
Kolossal Games are racking up quite the reputation for immersive games of late and their latest release is Totemic.
Available from Kickstarter during December it’s a head-to-head, fast-paced card game from Lead Developer Chris Hamm; Chris’ own credits include Strife: Legacy of Eternals so as a card game it’s already off to a great start with such a lineage.
Thematically Totemic sees players compete as animal totems who use their powers to dominate and drive down the opposition to prove their place in the spiritual hierarchy.
So a great theme, but how is it to play?
While Totemic may be a spiritual successor to Strife, it’s a much lighter and approachable game for players and that was the intention from the outset but it turns out that despite it’s simplistic objective, there’s a lot to this game than we first thought…
Firstly the Animals on offer – there’s 10 to choose from and each come with a power level and ability that is very story driven and adds variety to the game.
The Mouse who is weakest can Submit during a challenge and lose 1 point rather than the standard 5, whereas the Bear as the strongest can choose to impose its ferocity and increase the Threat of points lost in daring to challenge it.
This personality in characteristics adds a great texture and allows for deeper strategy and opportunity to sneak in to such a light game.
The other aspect that makes Totemic feel unique is in its Challenges…
With the nature of the animal cards Players can Accept, Threaten or Submit in response to a challenge and thematically for the animal kingdom this is very on point!
But behind the scenes that mechanic brings an element of gamble to the table where points that are open to loss can be increased time-after-time via increasing Threat so as to dissuade and force a crap out via Submission or to Accept and minimize potential loses!
Finally there’s the presentation itself – the stylized artwork from Yotoy is evocative and brings the theme together perfectly. The cards are well laid out and easily read which helps with the rapid-fire nature of the game.
And you can’t have a game of this nature without an iconic Totem Standee and in all it’s glory!
