Thunder Road: Vendetta

Take to the Skies! Upcoming Playthrough
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jan 27, 2022 at 03:01:15 PM

Whoa! We blasted our way through four more stretch goals and doubled the Extra Ammo overnight. Congrats to all of you who decided to join the race. Let's take a look at what we added and what's in our sights.

We've fully unlocked the Road Conditions mini-expansion with four more cards: 

•  Blockaded: Each player gets to add a random hazard anywhere on the road tile.
•  Windy: You can't place your chopper on the road tile.
•  Guardrails: Cars can't be moved off the side of the road tile.
•  Tremors: After moving your car, it moves one space in a random direction.

We also unlocked our second mini-expansion, Advanced Airstrike. At the beginning of the game, each player gets dealt a random card. Once during the game, you can use it to do something cool with your chopper. We've got five cards to start (so each player can have one in a 5-player game):

•  Dual Guns: Reroll a shooting attack with your chopper.
•  Discerning Pilot: Remove your chopper from the board instead of eliminating your own car.
•  Care Package: Place a hazard in the space your chopper just left.
•  Strafing Run: After making a shooting attack, move your chopper to a new space.
•  Low Flying: Place your chopper on a facedown hazard and remove the hazard.

You'll notice a recurring theme with these mini-expansions. On the one hand, they add more wild, cinematic action. At the same time, they add a bit of strategy to the game. For example, on a road tile with guardrails, you can risk the edge of the board with your small car because you won't be as threatened by slams. Or choosing the optimal time to play your advanced airstrike can swing a game your way.

We also unlocked a new crew leader for folks who are getting the Choppe Shoppe expansion or Maximum Chrome. Vince Vamp offers a neat ability and powerful True Aim command. But he'll need them as he has no innate repair command.

And we also unlocked a new kind of hazard for Carnage at Devil's Run: Quake. When it's revealed, you'll roll the direction die and move all cars that direction.

Upcoming stretch goals in our sights include more Advanced Airstrike cards, a new car upgrade, and a whole new road board for Carnage. Let's see if we can chase those down today.

I want to clarify the lucky start player coin since we've gotten some questions about that. You are eligible for the free coin if you (a) signed up for prelaunch notification or (b) back within the first 48 hours of the campaign at any level, including the $1 tier. You will get the free coin if you meet either of those criteria and end up ordering a copy of the base game in the pledge manager later, either directly or as part of Maximum Chrome. So, if you're still not sure what you want or if you know someone who is on the fence, my suggestion is to back at the $1 reward now. You can always adjust later when you figure out exactly what you want.

Some content I want to point out:

Tonight at 8:00 PM PT / 11:00 PM ET / GO TO BED UK TIME / GOOD MORNING ASIA TIME: Brain in a Jar will be livestreaming a playthrough of the base game with the Choppe Shoppe expansion on her twitch channel, so go check it out.

And Opinionated Gamers did a deep dive on the game, its development, and his excitement for the new version. Lots of thoughtful comments in there and worth a read.

That's it for now. Let's keep the pedal to the metal!

Hitting the Ground Running
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jan 27, 2022 at 06:59:38 AM

Wow! What a way to shoot out of the starting gate! We’re super excited that we’ve already reached our funding goal in such a short time. We really believe in this game and knew you all would respond if we were able to show you what we see in it.

If the funding goal was the first leg of the race, there’s still lots more to shoot for. That’s right … stretch goals! If you’re new to Kickstarter, stretch goals are extra benefits that we will give out when we hit certain funding levels. You can follow along on the campaign page to see unlocked and upcoming stretch goals. I’ve always been a big fan of stretch goals. They’re a fun way to keep things exciting for our backers as we continue with the campaign. And we’ve got some great stuff lined up for you.

A good number of our stretch goals involve the Extra Ammo mini-expansion pack. So let’s talk about what that is. Every backer who gets a copy of the base game or Maximum Chrome will get Extra Ammo for free. This pack starts with the Road Conditions expansion. At the start of the race, you’ll draw a Road Conditions card for each road tile and place it next to them. That card will have an effect that impacts all of the vehicles on that tile. To start, the Road Conditions mini-expansion includes four conditions:

•  Marauders: At the end of your turn, if the car you moved is the farthest forward on this road tile, make a shooting attack against that car.
   
•  Sand Storm: You can only shoot cars directly in front of you. You can only change lanes once during your turn.
   
•  Torrential Downpour: If your car enters a muddy space, it loses all remaining moves.
   
•  Blockaded: When revealed, starting with the next player, each player takes one hazard from the supply and places it face down on any empty space on this road tile.
   

And you thought Thunder Road couldn’t get any wilder?

I know what you’re thinking: Only 4 cards? Of course we’ve got more stuff planned. As we unlock more stretch goals, we’ll unlock more cards for existing mini-expansions and unlock entirely new mini-expansions as well. As you can see, there might be some slick roads and windy conditions coming up soon. As long as the campaign keeps chewing up stretch goals, we’ll see tons of fun new content unlocked … absolutely free.

Not all stretch goals are for Extra Ammo. You’ll see upcoming stretch goals that unlock a new leader for Choppe Shoppe, a new road tiles for Carnage at Devil’s Run, and so forth. And a whole lot more to come. So make sure you spread the word about the campaign. Feel free to post on social media or just tag your friends with the link if you think it might interest them. That’s really the best thing you can do to help ensure the campaign’s continued success.

We wanted to do some other fun stuff to celebrate the campaign. So we enlisted “Plumpy Thimble” to come up with some humorous tik-tok videos. If you missed it, here’s one about the best cereal box prize ever.

In the meantime, keep the pedal to the metal!