by Justin Bell

I don’t typically back games on crowdfunding platforms. Usually, I’m happy to wait, especially on games that will be available at retail later. I am also hesitant to buy a game that I have not played before, which I have noted in earlier pieces here on BGG as well as the place where I spend most of my time reviewing games, Meeple Mountain.

Like some of you, I’ve been burned by campaigns in the past, be it games that never fulfilled or games that arrived and confirmed my suspicions: it really WAS all marketing, and the gameplay for that cool-looking game with all those fancy minis wasn’t worth the tens or hundreds of dollars I paid for the right to get the box two or three years later.

That script flips for one specific category: reprints and twists on games I already know. This extends to updates of games I’m pretty sure I know, with updates to the art, or maybe some of the mechanics, or nerfing some of the overpowered cards or player abilities, or anniversary editions of games long out of print.

If it’s a remaster of a game I already know, count me in.

I do a lot of work with the team at Cranio Creations, and when news broke of the team’s plans to remaster Lorenzo il Magnifico, two of my playgroups were (and still are) buzzing with excitement.

Older versions of Lorenzo are certainly not hard to find; my copy sits patiently on my game closet shelves at the ready, and every time I do a math trade it feels like copies are made available by players looking to cull portions of their collections. Many friends own the base game, or the Houses of Renaissance expansion, or other promo items and cards, or all of it…heck, you can even play Lorenzo now on Board Game Arena if you need a hit, so Lorenzo is certainly not suffering from an accessibility perspective.

Now that the Lorenzo crowdfunding campaign has wrapped up, my personal excitement is spiking. The campaign offers a big box edition with the base game (now referred to as Lorenzo il Magnifico: Prima Lux) with new art and deluxe components, great for those who don’t already own the base game or want the base game with a new coat of paint and all the previously-released content in one spot.

I’m more excited for the game’s new edition, Lorenzo il Magnifico: Maiestas, and that’s the one I backed for this campaign. The base game does get a little predictable, and this new version seems to take into account thoughts from long-time players to balance some gameplay elements and freshen up others. And I like that there’s a separate add-on for solo if one wants to try the game that way, along with other extras that are purely cosmetic. (Yes, I “need” marble dice to replace my wooden dice from the base game.)

Outside of Lorenzo, it feels like I’m seeing anniversary/remastered/deluxe/second/ultimate editions a LOT lately…you are too, right?

Many of you know that I am a huge fan of City of the Big Shoulders, so a chance to grab Chicago 1875: City of the Big Shoulders last year was a no-brainer. I got the chance to play someone else’s copy of Food Chain Magnate: Deluxe Edition a few months ago and now admit that I should have picked up a copy of my own.

The Trickerion: Anniversary Edition? Sold. I moved my copy of Unearth out of the collection a couple years ago after a long run of plays with my family, only to find that Unearth: 10th Anniversary Edition hit earlier this year. I got the chance to finally try Goa for the first time last spring…then was thrilled to learn that Quined Games announced a new edition. (It almost feels like the team at Quined is spying on me, because when I learned that they are launching a campaign for an ultimate edition of the Euro classic Troyes, I yelped with joy during the Novelty Show at SPIEL Essen a couple weeks ago.)

Reiner Knizia’s Samurai is exceptional, but it was another older title that was hard to find. Or, at least it was until Keymaster Games released Hanami, the Samurai remaster, earlier this year. Now, not only do you get a gorgeous production with cool cover art, but you get both OG Samurai and a slightly different version for play on the board’s reverse side. As abstracts go, I think Samurai is a must for any serious player, so Hanami gives everyone a chance to add this beauty to their collection.

There were so many other new releases of older titles the last couple years that it’s hard to remember them all. Euphoria Essential Edition. Innovation Ultimate. The Stefan Feld “City Collection” games from Queen. In just the last month, my groups are still buzzing about the launch of the second edition of An Infamous Traffic, the multimillion-dollar campaign for the Clank! 10-year anniversary, and a grail 18xx game that is infamously hard to find, 18Korea.

I don’t always bite, especially if I just bought copies of a game before I learned of an upcoming “all in” edition. I bought a copy of Concordia Venus just two years ago online, so I didn’t pony up for the recent deluxified version. I enjoy Ark Nova and added Marine Worlds a couple years ago, but didn’t bite on the Ark Nova: 3Dition campaign late last year…even though 17,000 other people did. The Castles of Burgundy is incredible, but I usually play that game’s digital version on my iPad, so I saved a few bucks by skipping out on the Special Edition.

It’s fun to find so many publishers who are fans of these older designs, because I think 2027 is going to be even richer with these sorts of campaigns for older games mixed in with the hundreds of campaigns we already see for fresh tabletop experiences.

I was thrilled to find out that an English edition of Helvetia is making its way to crowdfunding next year from the folks at CrowD. Like CrowD’s work on Nippon: Zaibatsu, Helvetia: Second Edition will get a thorough round of development and playtesting to ensure the game fits for modern players…and if the result is anywhere close to what CrowD did on Zaibatsu, I will be first in line for a copy of the refreshed Helvetia.

I am following the campaign for the Marco Polo reprints from Board&Dice closely. They did great work with the La Granja Deluxe Master Set a couple years ago and getting my hands on new editions of both Marco Polo games has me fired up. (During my Board&Dice meeting at SPIEL Essen, they shared news of another game they will bring back for a deluxe edition in 2028…the future is bright, my friends.)

The more fascinating angle for me are games that were not in need of a 10-year anniversary edition or a second edition with fancy art. Sometimes, I see this with games that came out just a couple years ago getting fresh development work to make the original ideas really shine.

Take Asian Tigers: A Story of Prosperity, for example. I noted in my review of Asian Tigers—a 2024 release—that my major issue with the game had nothing to do with the gameplay. That first edition was…I’ll politely say that it was pretty bland. Absolutely not a looker. That extended into the board’s layout, which was certainly “spreadsheet” in nature but also not very easy to parse in terms of execution. The rulebook was a major challenge. And the board came as jigsaw-style pieces that were attached in a way that left creases at critical intersections of the play area.

I met with Nuno Santos, the sales exec of PYTHAGORAS during SPIEL Essen, and during our meeting I noticed new artwork for Asian Tigers on a banner along one of the booth walls. “Are we getting a new version of Asian Tigers??” I asked excitedly. Nuno smiled as he confirmed my suspicions. People are going to feel like they have made a discovery if Asian Tigers shows up in a year or two with better all-around production elements, because the production of the original is the reason I donated my review copy.

Railway Boom is another example. The original game, self-published by Hisashi Hayashi (Yokohama, Circadia) under his OKAZU Brand just four years ago, got an update via development work by Hayashi and Simone Luciani, a fresh coat of graphic design from Ian O’Toole, and became one of the 10 best games I played in 2025. I C E: Second Edition is an updated version of I C E, which was only published by the team at This Way! three years ago and features a wide array of quality-of-life upgrades from the original design.

Publishers are increasingly finding ways to spruce up games that just hit the market a few years ago. I’m fascinated by this; games that were close, but maybe didn’t quite hit it out of the park are going back into the lab almost immediately, an acknowledgement that small edits to strong foundations can hit the market as something special even if the name is vaguely familiar to hobby players.

Fresh takes on older games help balance out the brand-new titles that reach us each year, creating a nice range of opportunities to celebrate the old and the new. For newer hobbyists, this is really important, and I think this helps people appreciate older designs in the same way fresh takes on old movies bring people closer to appreciating why some of those films are considered classics.