February 4, 2021 – In an exciting flurry of information, the Red Rising board game based on book series was announced by Jamey Stegmaier, the head of publisher Stonemaier Games and co-designer. This is a hand-management, combo-building game based on the futuristic dystopian novels by Pierce Brown. The other half of the design team is RPG designer Alex Schmidt, with art being crafted by Jacqui Davis (Viticulture), Miles Bensky (Rolling Realms), and Justin Wong. The game plays from 1-6 players in 45-60 minutes. There will be a preorder in March for the Collector’s Edition and delivery in late March.
What is even better is that Stonemaier Games is working to give a donation of $10,000 to the ACLU! For every person to sign up to receive a launch notification (not buy, just agree to receive emails), a $1 donation will be made, with the goal to get to that 10k amount, a fantastic amount that can do so much good. Jamey Stegmaier explains why this is an important bridge in his announcement:
“Yesterday I announced that our first game of 2021, Red Rising, is based on a dystopian book series I fell in love with years ago. Like any great speculative fiction, Red Rising holds up a mirror to our lives, society, and world. The color-based societal structure of the dystopian Red Rising world is an allegory for the racial struggles of the past and present in the real world. It’s a cautionary tale of what can happen when people are judged by the color of their skin instead of the content of their character.”
See the full description from the Red Rising Stonemaier Game Page:
Enter the futuristic universe of Red Rising, based on the book series by Pierce Brown featuring a dystopian society divided into 14 castes. You represent a house attempting to rise to power as you piece together an assortment of followers (your hand of cards). Will you break the chains of the Society or embrace the dominance of the Golds?
Red Rising is a hand-management, combo-building game for 1-6 players (45-60 minute playing time). You start with a hand of 5 cards, and on your turn you will deploy 1 of those cards to a location on the board, activating that location’s benefit. You will then gain the top card from another location (face up) or the deck (face down), adding it to your hand as you enhance your end-game point total.
If you enjoy Fantasy Realms (combo-building), Libertalia (hand management), and Gugong (removing and gaining cards), we think you’ll enjoy Red Rising.
