Space western board game Forsaken centers would-be legends on unforgiving desert planet

Thyrria is a dead world holding no worth to anyone but the most desperate - which is why the characters at the center of upcoming board game Forsaken will have such a tough and sand-blasted road between them and their goal of galactic notoriety.

Designed by Travis R. Chance and Michael Mihealsick, Forsaken tasks one to four players with embodying a cast of adventurers composed of hardened outcasts, criminals and those pushed to the periphery of civilisation. Each member has a specific story that plays out through the title's immersive adventure, but the particulars will shift like sand dunes depending on the choices each player makes.

An allotment of action points limits what a character can accomplish on their turn - deciding which mysterious feature of Thyrria to explore or what faction deserves their time will indelibly alter future options and the ultimate fate of that character. The announcement page for the game says the whole cast has a “personalized branching story” that ostensibly accounts for any decision.

Beyond personal tales, the strip-mined planet of Thyrria will have its own narrative, in which the whole group will share. Life there is unforgiving on the best of days - strange beasts control the stretches of abandoned landscape picked over by scavengers, gangs and bounty hunters - and the planet will shape the player characters as much as their actions will shape it. Opportunities to gather scant resources, acquire and modify weapons and gear or parley with the powers that be will be rare but potent.

Forsaken is the first title published by Game Trayz Lab, a new arm of the board game accessories manufacturer of the same name. Chance is best known for his work on the medieval territory control game Path of Light and Shadow and superhero tactical brawler Heroes Wanted. Co-designer Mihealsick previously worked on the Waterworld-esque economy game Flotilla and Trial of the Temples.

The illustrators on Forsaken include Andre Garcia, JC Wong, Naomi Robinson and Bryce Cook. The box cover is all that has been shown so far but includes a sniper rifle-toting android in a poncho, an armed convoy facing off against a massive, rocky troll and several other characters that might be key players in Thyrria’s fate.

Forsaken will be heading to Kickstarter in 2022 to crowdfund a release sometime the following year. Firm dates on either the campaign’s launch or eventual retail shipment are not available at this time.