Matt Leacock’s Chariot Race gallops onto Kickstarter

One of our favourite games at last week’s Essen was the Roman-themed fast-paced dice-rolling title Chariot Race from Pandemic and Forbidden Desert creator Matt Leacock, which has now hit crowdfunding site Kickstarter.

The game is set on the circular track of the Circus Maximus, and sees two to six players rolling dice to sprint around the track, aiming to be the first to complete two laps while throwing javelins and caltrops at their rivals, dodging track obstacles and ensuring their chariot survives to the end of the race.

Each player has a chariot board (two each in the case of three or fewer players) which tracks their current speed, damage taken and fate, the latter of which can be used to re-roll dice, change results and repair their vehicle.

Rolling dice grants the ability to change speed up or down, change lanes, attack nearby chariots with javelins, drop caltrops on the track or gain fate.

The double-sided track board features a plain track on one side for beginners, while a variant on the other side introduces rock obstacles to the lanes. On both tracks, players can end up taking damage if they approach corners with too much speed.

The chariot boards are similarly double-sided, adding more challenging variants to the gameplay for experienced players.

The game takes about half an hour to 40 minutes to play, and we had a blast trying it out on the Essen show floor.

Gryphon and Eagle Game is looking for $10,000 on Kickstarter, and has raised just over $6,000 at the time of writing. Chariot Race is due out this December for backers.