Set in the Alternative Sci Fi setting of Ulaya, The Drowned Earth Miniatures Game launches on Kickstarter on April 16th! Played out on a 3×3 board and requiring 5-15 models per side, The Drowned Earth describes itself as a game full of dynamic movement and cinematic gameplay. It’s the sort of game which really tells a story as you’re playing it!

About the Kickstarter

The game launches with four “Crews”, from a faction of adventurer archaeologists to a group of slave breaking Bounty Hunters. Ulaya is a tropical world full of ancient ruins and terrifying predators, where civilisation has begun to re-establish itself after an extended dark age.

Impressively, the first two factions have actually been cast in metal, and they really are excellent quality! The second two factions can be seen as digital renders only, and there have been hints that some other models are in the pipeline as well; models of a scaly and sharp toothed variety!

Considering the game is showing heavy influences from The Lost World, Planet of the Apes, and Jurassic Park we can only imagine the possibilities moving forward!

The Beta Rulebook is available for free from their website: http://www.thedrownedearth.com/. The creators have indicated that a PDF rulebook will always be available for free online, but one of the Kickstarter stretch goals is an A4 format rulebook with lots of illustrations and fluff.

It appears as though this is a very fully fleshed out and realised world, and so it’d be great to see some more detailed background material in the rulebook itself.

About the World

All over Ulaya are the ruins of a once mighty, and technologically advanced civilisation. The material wealth of this civilisation is the most obvious cause of conflict in
the world, and what many games will be fought over.

The Pre-Fall Civilisation, as it is known, was destroyed by an unknown event some time the past. Judging by the state of the ruins however, we can be certain that it was more than just a few hundred years ago!
This “Event” caused huge global warming, rising sea levels and a drastic change to the environmental conditions of Ulaya.

Despite the time past, occasionally people searching the ruins might find a piece of working technology, or at least, something which could be studied, repaired or put to use!

However, the ruins are dangerous places. Giant predators, species from the Mesozoic epoch, roam the jungles of Ulaya like guardians of the ancient secrets of the past.

What’s this you say? Dinosaurs? Well, it gets stranger!

• Less than a third of the intelligent beings on the planet are fully human.
• The rest are genetically engineered hybrid species or uplifted animals.
• These and the Mesozoic wildlife are the result of genetic engineering programs of the distant past.

Not only have sea levels raised but the environment, fauna and even the nature of intelligent life itself have radically changed!

Final Thoughts

There are a whole lot of skirmish games out there at the moment, but there are a number of things which stand out about this one.

• The level of finish is way above that of most Kickstarters.
• The combination of a reaction mechanic, and streamlined rules is refreshing.
• Wow, this is far from a generic Sci Fi setting!
• Those models. are. amazing!
• This is a passion project by an individual independent creator- not yet another big company leveraging Kickstarter.

Reaction mechanics add a great level of player involvement and lead to some great cinematic moments, but they usually bring a bunch of complication too. Not so here. The rules are in Beta, but apparently the core mechanics are quite finalised, with just a few tweaks here and there to be needed after the Kickstarter campaign.

What do you think? Will you be backing it? You can sign up for a reminder email by clicking here!