Charterstone – Stonemaier Games

Charterstone

Charterstone

  • Designer Jamey Stegmaier
  • Artists Mr. Cuddington & Gong Studios

A village-building, worker-placement legacy game

Base Game
60 mins Game Length
5 mins Setup Time
1-6 Players
Medium Game Weight
Stonemaier Champion

Become a Stonemaier Champion to save 20% on every webstore order.

Play Digital Version

The prosperous Kingdom of Greengully, ruled for centuries by the Forever King, has issued a decree to its citizens to colonize the vast lands beyond its borders. In an effort to start a new village, the Forever King has selected 6 citizens for the task, each of whom has a unique set of skills they use to build their charter.

In Charterstone, a competitive legacy game scaled for 1-6 players, you construct buildings and inhabit a shared village. Building stickers are removed from cards and permanently added to your charter on the board, becoming action spaces for any player to use (kind of like Lords of Waterdeep, Caylus and Ora et Labora). Thus, a few available buildings soon grow into a bustling village with dozens of actions.

Charterstone features the following:

  • streamlined starting rulebook: learn as you play and add rules as you unlock content
  • engine-building elements within each game and over the course of the campaign
  • a branching storyline where short-term decisions have a long-term impact
  • a secret component found in only one other board game
  • 75+ “crates” to unlock, 36 metal coins, 350+ unique cards, and 230+ wooden tokens (exactly 12 of each resource: wood, coal, grain, brick, iron, and pumpkin)

Your journey through Charterstone’s many secrets will last 12 games, but it doesn’t end there. Your completed village will be a one-of-a-kind, variable worker-placement game. Or you can purchase a completely optional recharge pack to play a second campaign.

You can join the conversation and ask questions on the Charterstone Facebook group (or read through the Archive of design diary entries) and on BoardGameGeek.

Realistic resource tokens can be purchased for Charterstone from Top Shelf Gamer.

Copyright 2017 Stonemaier LLC. Charterstone is a trademark of Stonemaier LLC. All Rights Reserved. This content is not authorized for posting on Steam.

485 Comments on “Charterstone

Leave a Comment

If you ask a question about a specific card or ability, please type the exact text in your comment to help facilitate a speedy and precise answer.

Your comment may take a few minutes to publish. Antagonistic, rude, or degrading comments will be removed. Thank you.

  1. Hey Jamey, just wanted to say I’m loving my first solo playthrough of Charterstone. I’m on Game 10 and Game 9 was probably the coolest “unlock” so far! So much fun. Would you recommend waiting to do another playthrough – so that some elements won’t be so “fresh” – or jumping right back in once the campaign is finished?

    1. I’m glad you’re enjoying the campaign! I had fun trying to think of memorable unlocks. :)

      Personally, I’d recommend taking a little break before returning to it–that’s what I did, and it helped the game stay fresh for me.

  2. Good morning,

    We are enjoying the game Charterstone very much and will start game 6. In a 2 player game there only appears the minion cat and ghost. Is there any way to obtain the minions of the other non active charters? At the end of the game you are only allowed to keep one minion of each different minion, so with 2player it is limited.

    1. Thanks Mary! Early in the campaign, there were instructions to unlock some buildings associated with other charters. There’s no connection between any buildings (other than basic resource buildings) and any specific charter, so if you have a building card–any card–you can construct it. Here’s the note from the “After your first game” section of the FAQ: “At the end of Game 2, you will unlock a new setup rule (card 126) that will have buildings automatically placed in inactive charters at the beginning of Game 3 and each subsequent game until those charters are full.” It’s in this way that you can gain access to other minions.

      https://stonemaiergames.com/games/charterstone/faq/

      1. Thank you, we did follow that rule. Probably we did not find the building with the minions yet or need to open more crates. We will continue!

  3. Hi and Hello,

    we have played this game in the German version lately and would do it again. But we can’t find the German recharge pack anywhere, is there any possibility that this one will be available again?

    Best regards from Germany,
    Timo

    1. Thanks Timo! We only make the English-language versions of our products, but you could check with Feuerland to see if they have any remaining recharge packs.

  4. Hey Jamey,
    4 of us recently finished our campaign; we all really loved it! Well done! 🙂

    As I was packing away I realised we were missing one rule; rule 21, card 24. I traced back how we could/should have got this and am certain we played correctly. I’m amazed we didn’t get this and think it could have changed the game hugely.
    Nonetheless, it was a fantastic game. It’s clear to see how much effort went into it. I’ve ordered a recharge-pack to hopefully play again at some point! Thanks, Tom.

    1. Thanks Tom! You’re right that it’s possible to play through the campaign and not unlock everything–hopefully you have fun with the second campaign too! :)

  5. In my copy, the Cat minion has the icon for a Guidepost. We’ve been playing that any rule referencing the minion icon does no apply to the Cat. But I see online other folks posting pics where I can see the Cat has the standard Minion icon. Is mine wrong?

  6. Hi we just finished game 6 and rhe website isnt working. Says theres an error. Is there a way to move on without the website?

    1. I’ll look into that–I’m sorry for the error. You can proceed forward without looking at the website.

        1. Just a heads up that the map site is still down. Our (4)-player total was 261. It seems this is above average based on comments and videos I’ve found but, also, I’m having some FOMO for the cool map online, haha.

          1. Thanks! I’m sorry about this, and I’ll see what’s going on with it.

  7. Hello! I don’t know if I should post here but I need advice! First time player of Charterstone (just finished game 2 and unlocked peril) and I accidentally ripped a sticker off the board! The sticker is ruined. I don’t know if I should keep on playing and “build” over it (it was the Pumpkin Market sticker) next time it’s my turn or do something else! I was not sure if I should/ could build over it because of the VP on it. Thanks for any advise!

    1. Thanks Emma! Since it isn’t a basic building (they can never be covered), I think your idea is great–just build something else in its place.

      1. Thank you! I was also thinking of getting a unbuilt building from the advancement deck of equal value and just replace the spot with that (and return the card with the unopened box back to the deck.) Aggaga! I wish I did not ruin that spot!😅

  8. Hey Stegmaier family, just opened my new copy of Charterstone for the first time, and I just want to say how much I love the organization, clean graphic design, easy to start instructions and creative index box storage. I bought Charterstone as a fan of legacy/persistent game design, and wanting to explore worker placement genre for the first time. Excited to try with the family. High quality product and inspiring ideas.

    1. Thank you so much, Thomas! We put a lot of thought into how the game would be presented, and there’s plenty of credit to artists Mr Cuddington and graphic designer Christine Santana. I hope you enjoy the game!

    1. I’ve heard about the scratch-off issue once or twice before. Make sure you’re using a sharp utensil to scratch off the card. A rounded utensil may end up polishing the scratch-off material and adhering it to the card, making it more difficult to remove!

      Regardless, you can see the fully scratched-off card 405 at this website: https://www.esotericfulcrum.com/blog/charterstone-comprehensive-card-list/

      And the link on the card is: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/charterstone/map

  9. If someone wins decidedly early on, will that large advantage carry over to future games of the campaign

    1. Win or lose, you get an advantage for the next game–neither a big winner or a big loser is at a disadvantage for the following session. If you have a big win, the game remembers this in the form of glory, but there are many other ways (see your charter chest) for ways to win the campaign.

  10. I will end my current campaign soon, and I think that I have people for new campaign, but cannot find any Recharge pack here in Serbia in any board game store, also I am seeing that here Recharge pack is sold out. Will it be printed soon?

    1. We are indeed reprinting the recharge pack, and it should be back in stock in a few months. Thanks for playing!

  11. Charterstone became one of myself and my wife’s favourite games. We have even played a few campaigns with some friends too. Having owned 3 copies of the base game and been through the campaign 5 times we are ready and wanting to play it again. However there is no recharge pack in stock anywhere. Is your UK store likely to get any new stock soon? Cheers and keep up the fantastic work

    1. That’s amazing, Kyle! Thank you so much for embracing the world of Charterstone to that extent. It actually looks like we’re down to just a few recharge packs here in the US, so we don’t have enough to restock other fulfillment centers at this point.

      1. Thanks Jamey. Hopefully there will be a reprint sometime soon or I’ll have to see if I can stretch to buying a 4th copy, although I am running out of room for another charterstone box

  12. I bought Charterstone on the recommendation of the guy who works at the store where I buy boardgames. My wife and I knew NOTHING about it beforehand. WE ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE EXPERIENCE!!! We feel that the LESS you know about Charterstone, the MORE you’ll enjoy the experience. Unlike some other people who have left comments, we kinda binge-played the campaign. We played 4 games each weekend over 3 consecutive weekends. We were also pleasantly surprised at how the game can continue to be played after the initial campaign is over – we expected that it was something we wouldn’t be able to play anymore. I’m trying not to include any spoilers in this review for anyone who hasn’t played the game yet. The quality of the game itself is absolutely outstanding – real metal coins, painted wooden pieces, and phenomenal artwork – at first, I wasn’t sure I was going to like the cartoonish character vibe, but it quickly grew on me – the entire game, design, and artwork are very cohesive. We LOVED the design/artwork of the buildings, and it was very fun naming the cards and the charters – creating our own names for everything doesn’t affect gameplay, but it really personalizes the experience. I can’t imagine creating this game from scratch – envisioning this game, and making it actually work is a feat of brilliance! Playing this game was like opening presents on Christmas morning when you were a child who believed in Santa Claus – the discovery felt magical. Thank you!

    1. Jefferson: Thank you so much! This means a lot to me, especially the joy I can hear in your comment. Creating Charterstone wasn’t easy, but it’s worth the work when I see a reaction like this. :)

      1. I think it’s commendable that you comment and reply to most everyone’s posts! It was also enlightening to discover that we’re apparently big fans of Stonemaier games – we didn’t realize that until after we were obsessed with Charterstone, and my wife pointed out that “Stonemaier Games also made Viticulture and Wingspan.” Then, when I started looking more closely, I realized that you designed both Charterstone and Viticulture, of which we’re also huge fans (10 minutes ago we finished playing Viticulture, Tuscany expansion with special structures AND special workers). I should go over to the Viticulture page and leave a review about that there, because I have a LOT to say about that game! But yeah, I’m in this weird place now where I’m paying attention to the company and designer behind the games we play. Stonemaier games are absolutely beautifully designed though! The attention to detail is beyond reproach, the presumed insistence on quality pieces (metal coins instead of plastic or cardboard coins), the craftsmanship of the wooden pieces – you go out of your way to create an heirloom quality boardgame – every Stonemaier game I’ve played so far is extremely well thought out, designed, created, and manufactured. We’re big fans! Keep it up!

        1. I’m even more honored to hear that you connect with some of my other games too! Thank you. :) I’ll strive to continue to keep up the level of quality that you mentioned here.

  13. Hello Stonmaier team!

    First of all, thank you for creating such a wonderful product. Played through the campaign with my partner over the course of a year and a half (lockdown got in the way unfortunately) and it’s hands-down one of the most well thought out and enjoyable experiences we’ve had.

    Are there similar games you’d recommend that have similarities regarding these elements?
    – cute art style
    – semi-cooperative playstyle
    – crate opening
    – village building
    Not too fussed about the legacy aspect, as that seems to be a contentious factor that I’ve seen.

    Also, currently planning a proposal and would definitely love for Charterstone to feature in some way, either as a gift or trinket or something along those lines. I was thinking of a ring box or customised character cards, but if you have any ideas/guidance would like to hear back from you :) Based in Melbourne if that makes any difference!

  14. We go through the campaign two times in a row (orginal game and one recharge pack) – total 24 games …..
    We obviously like the game. Basically we just added the second campaign since we realised in the first campaing when two players did not focused on the building in there charter which will raise some challange later (and some rule errors :-(). Second time we played 2 player and two automa a much better experience since more from the game gets revealed. Only we learned our lesson that Automa and player should alternate otherwise the allways the same player can profit from a refreshed advancement deck. Finally we ended with the same situation that one player could establish an engine where the other player may be can compete but would never had a changes to catch up with the finall scoring in the final 4-5 games. Automa end up with a rating 7 – they had at the end no chance but are strong at the start

    Finally we set up a new board from our experience and a second recharge pack for continouse play – no charter will have a engine but all basic elements are on the board. With the sky islands we select all the additional elemenst for selection…

    FInally we had additioanl 25 skyislands selected to add the not used building (exept som obviouse not useful one any more) and we will try the rule that you can go on charterstone to draw 4 from this 25 select 1 and with the Zeppelin you can “build”this one – when you want (breaking the rule of max 2 in charter or replace )

    besides we will follow the option for the guidepost in the FAQ for ongoing playing

    Thank for the game…but we will take a break now :-) – fthat was Stonemaier games no 7

  15. We bought Charterstone during a recent Lockdown for my Husband’s Birthday along with Red Rising.
    Got very hooked on it and loved the Legacy aspect. Completed the game and
    have bought the Recharge pack to give it another go.
    Any plans for a Charterstone 2? Or a similar game?
    Thanks
    Carrie in NZ

    1. Thank you so much, Carrie–I’m glad you and your husband enjoyed Charterstone. It was a very difficult game to design, so I don’t have plans for a sequel at this point. However, I think the digital version of Charterstone may already have some new elements, and if it continues to be successful, the digital developer may add more content to it over the years.

      Two other legacy games with village building that I enjoyed were The Rise of Queensdale and My City.

  16. Purchased the digital version, really wanted to like it. I am 3 games in and for some reason I am unable to build the building I have. The frustration is there is no help, anywhere, to what is going on. I was planning on picking up the box version, but my experience with the digital version will probably make me pass. As least I only wasted $10. I may try to delete my progress and start again. I like the idea of not knowing what is next, but I dislike being unable to build as the other players are racking up points and buildings.

  17. I love Charterstone. I played the campaign on a physical board once, and via the Steam version a few more times. Like I said… love the game.

    The game is infinitely replayable once the campaign is over. However, a couple of elements of the game are gone once the campaign is over. As a result, my wife and I created some additional material for use once the campaign is over and to ensure that the game has some degree of the discovery that came with the campaign game.

    I have posted the files needed for this expansion (called “Charterstone – The Eternal City”) over at Board Game Geek. You can download this material from this page:

    https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/211900/charterstone-eternal-city

    I highly recommend that you do not download or read this material until after you have completed the campaign! But, if you have completed the campaign, enjoyed the game, decide to download this expansion material, and play it… I would love any and all feedback you could provide!

    Thanks in advance.

  18. I posted an unfavorable review a few days ago. The post seems to have disappeared. I am going to assume it was due to a possible spoiler included (though emailing me to explain that fact would have been helpful). Please email me if you have any response to my comments.

    First off, I was/am not trying to flame your product. I was/am trying to give you genuine feedback. When I posted that we spent more time dealing with stickers and learning rules rather than developing any form of strategy or simply PLAYING the game, I was telling the truth.

    Many of the rules could EASILY have been spelled out at the very beginning in the rulebook but, instead, were revealed “through the mystery of card drawing”. This slowed gameplay to the point of boredom.

    The games themselves (as in Game #1 last time and Game #2 this time) ended before we could have any actual fun. I can’t explain without using spoilers but anyone who has played will know what I mean when I say that one token in particular gets spent completely by at least one player and the game ticks by very VERY quickly after that.

    Round one was 2 out of 5 stars. After some coercion, my family played round two and it was no better this time. You are still VERY STRONG on the amount of work you put into this game and the beauty of the board itself but only enough to get the 2 stars

    Truth be told, we will probably play this thing to the end and hope upon hope that the post-game-12 gameboard that we have will be something that we will enjoy playing on.

    1. If you decide not to complete the campaign, and you would like to part with the board, I would certainly be interested in acquiring it. Let me know by replying to this comment and I will see what we need to do to get in contact with one another and make such an exchange happen.

      1. Jason — your name in this thread does not have a URL out to which I can reach.* And I do not believe that this page will provide me with anything like your email address. So I can only hope that you will reach out to me via the web page linked by my name on the posts in this thread.

        I will seriously take your copy of Charterstone if this is a game you have decided you do not want to play, and you are located somewhere from which we can get it shipped relatively inexpensively.

        Let me know.

        * You have got to love the English language when you are attempting not to end a sentence with a preposition. :)

        1. We are sticking it out. We have completed round 5. Once we are all the way through (post round 12) we will probably try playing whatever game you play on the finished board. If we do not like it we will adjust the rules to suit ourselves until it is fun. My biggest issue is that the same game could be accomplished with magnets instead of stickers (or some other non-permanent solution) so that if you mess up interpreting the rules then you are not fish-hooked in. Sorry for the late response.

          1. Stickers aren’t permanent. :) Legacy games are defined by the impact of permanent changes that can’t be undone (though I agree it can be frustrating to put a sticker in the wrong place). Also, with the sticker cards in Charterstone, such cards aren’t possible with magnets.

          2. One, I am glad you are sticking it out. But, if the game does not click with you, I get that. Different strokes and all. But, when you are done, let me know if you plan to keep the board and the resulting non-legacy game. If you are, I recommend checking out my expansion to it (called The Eternal City; you can find it on Board Game Geek). If you are not, then I would still be interested in acquiring your game.

            So let me know either way. :)

    2. This review helped me understand that this game favors patience and people who are free from a desperate need to feel important.

  19. That was fantastic, this was my first jump into a Legacy style game. Played with a group of friends over the course of the last year (yes it is very challenging when a month goes by inbetween games). So my only question is, whats next?

    I think some of the things the group liked the best was the process of building out their own charter and kinda the mechanics of the engine building? Was thinking Scythe could be the next one to try out? something we can really pour ourselves into when we are playing, but a little friendlier in that once the game is done its done.

    Again, just incredibly enjoyed it, such a unique, fun, and totally engrossing game!

    Best

    JP

  20. Dear Jamey, thank you so very much for this beautiful game! I played it with my 13- and 11-year old daughters and we had 12 wonderful rounds. We will definitely buy the recharge pack and try our luck with the other three charters that time. We are completely in love with the game, which is a great compliment to you as it is really difficult to find a game that both of my daughters like (the older one is more the competing type, the younger one the cooperative type). Are there any more games in the same vein that you could recommend?

    Thanks again for this wonderful game!

    1. Thank you so much for playing Charterstone with your daughters, Markus! I’m glad you had fun. If you enjoyed Charterstone, I would highly recommend The Rise of Queensdalte. It’s a legacy game with a very similar theme and feel (but completely different mechanisms). After that I would also recommend Clank Legacy.

  21. Dear Friends from the Charterstone Community,

    I was very excited to learn of the digital version of the game coming to Nintendo Switch. I typically would prefer the physical board game, but a digital version gives the opportunity to play a wonderful game remotely with friends and family.

    I had pre-ordered the game excitedly with my other family members anticipating its release, but was extremely disappointed to find the game essentially unplayable.

    My first complain would be the lack of a proper guided tutorial. While the game starts off quickly explaining the current buildings and overall objectives, the game provides no further information beyond that point and asks the player to simply refer back to the rulebook. At the end of the game, the game just moves on without informing players of what to do. This doesn’t make the game unplayable because with some trial and error, you can make sense of everything, but it does make it highly inaccessible for new players.

    However, the lack of a intuitive and proper working UI and the plethora of bugs makes the game unplayable. Half of the icons on the screen are inaccessible by the controller. Some buildings I can interact with and click, while some I cannot. The controls often leave the play area and you have to spend time fumbling through where you are on the screen. Menus sometimes appear when prompt, sometimes they do not. When it does, sometimes you can scroll through, sometimes you cannot.

    I do not doubt that this is a fantastic board game but the digital adaption is very lacking. I wish I had opted for the physical copy instead.

    Finally to the creators: thank you so much for being an active member of this community board. Hopefully you can help and influence some change to the digital copies of the game.

    1. Thanks for your feedback, Bonnie! I’ll pass it on to Acram Digital, the developers for the digital version.

  22. Just Finished the Campaign! My wife and I played over the last 3 months with our 7 year old. What a great game! He absolutely loved it and the whole family always looked forward to a Charterstone day. Thank you for all the fun!

  23. We got a copy of the game and the stickers were printed on the wrong side of the playing card… is there a way to get a replacement deck?

  24. We are just getting started, and one player has collected the building card for a charter unoccupied by a player. When he builds those buildings, should they go in his land or the land they match with? Thanks!

    1. Mandy: Whenever you construct a building, it always goes in your charter (no matter what the building looks like–buildings don’t belong to anyone other than the builder).

      As you play, if you need any quick help, you’ll get the fastest answers if you post in the Charterstone Facebook group. Thanks for playing!

      https://www.facebook.com/groups/charterstone/

  25. Congratulations on the game, Jamey, I have finished the campaign and it has been very exciting! One question: when the campaign is over, should floating land be preserved? Sorry my English!

  26. I just finished game 4 and it said to open tuck box 5. But I never got a tuck box 5 so I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.

    1. Ian: The Index Guide has a little note about where you find this “tuckbox” (it’s not actually tuckbox). I don’t want to spoil anything here, but if you can’t find it after looking at the Index Guide, email me at jamey@stonemaiergames.com and I’ll tell you.

  27. Hey Jamey, Maybe you have already thought about this (or it might have been suggest already), but I thought a neat idea for the digital version of Charterstone would be to have an option after you have completed the campaign to order your final customized board. I get you could probably just buy the physical game and pick through the components to build it, but it sure would be cool to just order it already finished, whether that be custom printing or just a sticker/meeple pack. Anyway, loving the Charterstone experience. Keep it up!

    1. Acram Digital is working on putting Charterstone on many platforms, but I don’t think Kindle is one of them.

      1. Hey Jamey! We just finished game 6 of our campaign, and while we’ve been pleasantly surprised at the end of each game so far, this one might top them all. We named our village after our cat that we lost this past spring, so the surprise at the end of game 6 was really very touching and so, so cool. Hats off to you – this game will hold a place in our hearts forever.

        1. Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed that surprise. I’m so sorry about your cat, and it’s neat that you were able to honor him/her through your village.

  28. It is official. I think I love this game!

    * I have played the campaign
    * I have the upgraded resources
    * I have the Recharge Pack
    * I have ordered a second copy of the base game from Top Shelf Gamer (cheaper due to a damaged box)
    * Joe is sending me some extra copies of the rulebook and Automa book
    * I am designing a new Automa book to better organize info for post campaign
    * I am designing what can only be described as a “post campaign expansion” for the game
    * etc.

    Yea. It’s a great game.

  29. I am going to be careful here about spoilers. My question is about the Automa post campaign.

    Automa -> Setup -> Rule 4: “{Censored}: For the remainder of the campaign, give the Automa one of each unlocked {censored} type.”

    We are about to play our first game after our campaign was completed. In this game, we will be playing with 4 Automas. The number of {censored} available to us would be very, very small. Given that the charter chests no longer hold our carry-over, and the new “Setup: General Supply & Personal Supply” Rule 4 only Grant’s us one of these to start with (at most), is the campaign rule for Automas something that is still recommended?

    1. Hi David! If you asked your rules questions on BGG or Facebook it’d be easier to avoid spoilers. Also it’s easier for the Automa Factory team to see your question.

  30. Charterstone: a question about inactive charters

    Two things before I begin: (1) I sent this question via email. It was explained that the comments section or Facebook would be a better place to ask this. I no longer use Facebook; so here I am. (2) I am going to be tip-toeing a bit so as to avoid spoilers. If this post reveals too much, please delete it quickly! Onward:

    Active charters (e.g., human, Automa) have two options for constructing buildings once their plots are full. Inactive charters use neither of these. The first (i.e., “pie bylands”), makes sense to me. I can see why they would not use this option. The other, I am curious about.

    This option could have been included (i.e., there is room for it). Thematically, allowing it makes sense. It also seems it would be good for the growth of the village from a gameplay perspective.

    As someone who loves to design games and tinker with those I own, would you mind sharing your thoughts on how you came to this particular choice?

    Thanks! Stay safe; stay healthy. Have a great day.

    1. Thanks for your question, David. The primary reason is that I didn’t want inactive charters to continually take away buildings that human players are excited to put in their charters. Also, it requires additional mechanisms to determine exactly which buildings will be replaced.

      However, this is a perfectly fine place for you to house rule this rule, especially in a 2-player game.

      1. Thank you for the reply, and the answer. :)

        I can understand the idea of not wanting the inactive charters to take away anything; my concern is founded on the idea that in a 2 human + 2 automa + 2 inactive game, many buildings simply never get built.

        The mechanism… sure. I get that as well. I was thinking (if I house rule this for next time) I would use the same mechanism that is used for the Automa when it constructs buildings in the late game. I’ll let you know how that works out, if we go that route. Of course, we are hoping to have 6 human players next time, so…

  31. OK… so my girlfriend and I played Game #1 of Charterstone today. It took us *far* longer to play game #1 than advertised — nothing against the game or anything, I was just incredibly nervous that I was going to do something wrong (this is our first attempt at a Legacy game). Most all of my fears were unfounded; the game is very cool, not too complicated (yet?) and has some very cool concepts going on within it. We are psyched at the idea of tacking Game #2 tomorrow!

    Thanks,guys! This one looks like it will be a lot of fun! I have a distinct feeling we will be ordering the Recharge pack at the end of the campaign and seeing what happens if we play through it again!

    1. Hey David, enjoy! My wife Suzan and I played through the whole campaign and had a blast. Knowing what we know now, we would play the game with Automa players next time around because it would build out the board quicker and it would make sure we saw more of the game content. Have fun!

      1. Thanks! We are thinking (at this point) that we will play Game #2 without an Automa and see how that goes. But, I have suggested we try the Automa in Game #3 at least and see how it goes. I am hoping she likes it, because this is a game I think would have been fun (in a non-pandemic time) to have had a full group of 6 players to go through the campaign in order to maximize the number of things we can unlock.

      2. We played Game #2 without the Automa. We are thinking we will try it with the Automa for Game #3. No spoilers, but the end of Game #2 was AWESOME! So looking forward to the rest of this campaign!

        1. We played Game #3 last night; I am not sure why we decided to not use the Automa; I am going to try to push for its use this evening. The game was a lot of fun, compounded by the unusual goal (per the guidepost) which created some odd plays. :) Looking forward to Game #4 tonight!

          1. And Game #4 is in the books! We played with two Automa, as suggested. Great game! I really liked how the Automa forced some interesting choices upon us. My girlfriend is not quite sure how she felt about the inclusion of these two virtual players.

            One thing I will note: the progress token moved a lot quicker in this game than it did in the previous game. This kept the scores from flying through the roof. I noted in Game #3 that is was possible for players who are trying to maximize their score to avoid those spaces where the progress token’s movement is triggered. We each scored over 130 points in that game. In Game #4, with the two automas, we had to adjust our play because the Automas were going to move that progress token whether we wanted it to move or not! The high score in Game #4 was 51 points.

            We will dive into Game #5 tonight and it will be with the Automas. I think they will be a part of the experience from this point forward. This brings me to a question:

            Since we started with the Automas in Game #4, should we adjust the information on their tuck boxes to account for the fact that they were not present for the earlier games (I am strictly concerned about final campaign scoring)?

          2. And Game #5 is done. We started with the Automas in Game #4, and they have won both games we have played with them. I truly think I have built my charter a bit inefficiently. :) But hey, so far the whole experience has been fun! Game #6 is coming up.

            No spoilers, but the revealed information from this game was quite fun and cool! Looking forward to Games #6 and #7 this weekend!

        2. Game #6 is done. Half way through the campaign! The end of this one was certainly unexpected. Looking forward to Game #7 (either today or tomorrow). Quick question: is it normal to be running out of room in the archive tuck box at this point in the campaign?

          1. Definitely! Though there are two things to unlock that create more opportunities for building. You should have already unlocked one of them (it rhymes with “pie bylands”), and perhaps the other too.

          2. We have indeed unlocked the “pie bylands”; depending upon what you are hinting at, we *may* have gotten that one as well. Not exactly sure yet.

            As I said: so far, we are having a lot of fun with this. I wish we had started with the Automa in Game #3… my girlfriend felt that the first two games with them were too accelerated (i.e., progress track). Still, Game #6 was nicely paced and things went well. :)

            Thanks for a great game! Once this pandemic is over, I am really hoping I can get a 6-player campaign together and run through this again!

          3. Oh my! Game #7 was — by far! — the most fun game we have had since we started this journey. Two things conflated to make this one an amazing game. One was the consequences of Game #6 (not going to spoil that one!) which turned out to have an amazing impact on this game; the second was the post-game effect of this game!

            My girlfriend got the Glory of the guidepost… and her choices (both initial and long term) were deliciously difficult for her to make. She took nearly five minutes to make the initial decision, then she was positively _agonizing_ over the long term choice for a half hour! It was awesome! She loved every minute of it.

            We are *so* looking forward to Game #8! The pacing of the last two games have been perfect. As we were going through the last two steps for end-of-game, she looked at me and said that _when_ we do this again, it would be fun to make the opposite choices. So yea, I will be getting the recharge pack when we are done, and we can hopefully get a group together to play it through once the pandemic crisis has abated.

            Jamey — than you so much! This has been a lot of fun. I love all of the games you have designed and/or produced. They have brought a lot of joy to me and mine. Please keep it up! You keep cranking them out, and I will keep buying them.

          4. Game #8 is in the history books — or in the Archive, if you prefer. :) That one was very fun! The guidepost made for some different kinds of play, and the reveal at the end of the game was… to say “unexpected” does not quite cover it. When read the notes for Game #9 we laughed for a few minutes before we could carry on with the end of game routine. We are really looking forward to seeing how that is going to play out!

            Now… the Archive is full. I simply have no room for anything else in that tuck box. I would like to suggest that, if another printing of this game ever takes place, include a second Archive within the box. There is room in the center of the box for it to be stored. I know that is an additional expense, but I think it would be worth it.

            Also, the upgraded resource tokens arrived in the mail today. I was able to surprise my girlfriend with those. She *adores* the little pumpkins; I think those are awesome, but there is nothing like the heft of the iron ore tokens. :) They were a beautiful visual and tactile enhancement to a wonderful game.

            We will dive into Game #9 tomorrow. As the end of the campaign approaches, we are looking forward to seeing how it wraps up, and we are a little saddened by the fact that it will all be over. As a result, I have already ordered the recharge pack from Top Shelf Gamer (they had it on sale). I am not sure if we will wait for the pandemic to be over and see if we can put together a six player game, or if we will see if I can convince my two boys to join us for the next go-round… then, oh, I don’t know… buying another copy of the game so we can do two more campaigns. ;) Who knows… Top Shelf Gamer has a copy with a damaged box for sale on the cheap… it might be worth it. We shall see.

          5. Wow! Game #9 was a wild ride. The scenario established by the guidepost was awesome! My girlfriend and I were having to avoid several very useful buildings for a long time thanks to how it worked! Once the coast was clear, there was a bit of a mad-dash for those buildings. It was a lot of fun!

            The end-game was equally enjoyable. As we read the story, guidepost, and other cards that make up the scenario for Game #10, we were trying to wrap our head around the whole thing. It took us a bit to see the beauty of it and it got us excited to begin that game; Wednesday is going to be a fun day!

          6. Game #10 was interesting… due to its structure, much of the strategy I had developed over the earlier games was not even possible! The economies of workers and influence tokens became a true struggle. It was an amazingly fun game that my girlfriend figured out far sooner than I did. So I lost. She won… even though the goal for the game was something that I was more successful in (if that makes any sense).

            The set-up for Game #11 sounds very cool! It is a game we are really looking forward to playing. However…

            We discovered a couple of things in this game. A chest was opened that unlocked a whole new type of card that we had not had available to us before — we are in Game #10, just as a reminder — and they are cards that would have been very, very useful earlier in the game! Looking back on it, we both came to the conclusion that (if we had it to do over again) we would have done two things differently:

            1. We would have been using the Automas starting on Game #2.
            2. We would have been using four total Automas, to ensure that the game was being played with six active charters.

            The fact that those cards were not available — just going through them and thinking about how they could have been impacting the game — left a slightly deflated feeling in our guts. This is not a criticism of the game! Far from it; it is a testament to the fact that the game has so many things that are fun and exciting and interesting and cool… we just really wish we had the players (virtual or not) to ensure that every possible opportunity for discovery had been there. This is a wonderful and amazing game.

            Next time, guys. Next time… :) Game #11 is tomorrow (well, at this hour… technically, today). I’ll keep you posted.

          7. Game #11… it is hard to put into words how much fun that one was, and how enjoyable the end-of-game choices were! The story built up to this, and every choice we had made up to this point was brought to bear. Even choices that were entirely story driven managed to have (what appears to be) game-play consequences for Game #12!

            All I can say is that it was a blast to play, the temporary rules for Game #11 were interesting and forced some cool choices, and the temporary rule for Game #12 sounds like it is going to be a bear to deal with (so many options taken away that will force more and interesting choices on us from setup on through the entire game).

            After reading everything both of us were just wondering how this is going to end. For that, however, we will have to wait until Friday evening. :)

          8. The campaign has ended! Game #12 is done, and it was wonderful! Thank you so much for a fun and engaging game. The end of the story was such that things look rather… well, I am not going to spoil anything. Just know that, depending upon the path you take, and what choices you make, you are in for one hell of a ride!

            The end-campaign instructions for how to use the game in a non-campaign mode are very cool. It does, however, leave me in a bit of a quandry… I have ordered a recharge pack, and depending upon how that is supposed to work… I truly want to make sure that the game I have remains pure because I do not want to spoil future modifications that could happen to that board via the remaining buildings, chests, and so forth that have not yet been explored. I am quite certain that this is something you guys have already thought of, so I am not worried.

            My girlfriend loved the campaign and loves this game. She was hesitant to try any Legacy game, but when she saw that you guys had one, she decided to give it a try. Now that this went so well, she is interested in trying other Legacy Games such as “The King’s Delima” and so on. So thank you for that. :)

            Once I have had a chance to absorb the impact of this campaign, I will put together a proper review and post it on BGG. Until then, this is me, signing off from Greengully… hoping everyone else that dives into this charming adventure has the time of their lives!

          9. Congrats on finishing the campaign, David! I’ve enjoyed reading through the process of you playing it. :)

  32. Just cot my copy yesterday. My girlfriend and I are looking forward to diving into another Stonemaier game!

    I am seeing that there was a bit of discussion on BGG about this game and its viability as a two-player game. Some say it falls flat; other love the two player experience. Just wanting to know, before we open this bad boy and dive in, if you have any advice for playing this as a two-player campaign? Thanks in advance.

    1. We work hard to make all our games viable at all listed playercounts. If you don’t want to play with just 2 players, you can add an automa into the game. The rules for that are included in the game. As for opinions about the “best” playercount, we’ll leave that to the fans.

  33. Love this game! I’ve played through it twice with different groups and people, and I’m looking forward to playing it again when it comes online. Any idea when and where we can get the digital version?

  34. Hi Jamey,
    We got the recharge kit, but my kid wants to put all the tokens back in their original boxes — the little ones marked with small roman numerals. I haven’t been able to find a guide that tells me where they all go. Has Stonemaier produced such a guide?
    Many thanks!
    — Dan

    1. We have! It’s in the FAQ on our website. I don’t want to spoil anything here, so just check out the FAQ and you’ll see it. :)

  35. I wish I would have been warned that there was a heat sensitive item in the box because I wouldn’t have left it in my car during spring and summer days.

    That being said I absolutely love this game and our group is having a blast!

    1. You should have seen the look on my kids face at that reveal :) That was one of the most surprising legacy components we had seen and we have played through season 1 and 2 of Pandemic. So awesome! I am so sad we are almost finished. Good times!

  36. Jen: That’s wonderful! I’m glad you all are having so much fun with it. There aren’t tuckboxes in the recharge pack (just stickers to place over the tuckboxes), but if there are any tuckboxes that don’t hold up, feel free to request them on our replacement parts form and we’ll send them to you.

    1. Your company is absolutely wonderful. Thank you Jamey! It is because of your high quality games and great customer service that we have (currently) 5 of your games and plan to get more. We are sitting down now for game 11 in Charterstone and read through the player manual for Wingspan last night so we can play that next. Please keep these high quality, fun games coming. As a family who does not allow screen based games for our kids, we definitely rely on all of you amazing board gsme creators for family bonding ;)

  37. This game is ridiculously fun! We are playing as 5 active charters with our family age 8yo up to adult and everyone agrees it is some of the most fun we have had playing a game and this comes from a family that has over 100 board games. It even has eclipsed the kid favorite Mice and Mystics in our house. We just finished game 8 and already purchased a recharge pack. Jamey, does new boxes come in the recharge pack? When we bought our original game 3 boxes inside were crushed and they kids don’t stay closed. We have made due this game but I doubt it will last another play through. Thanks again for this amazing game!

  38. This game is awesome! We have purchased 2 full copies now (and refill packs). The 1st we played 2 players, and then with my finances family. The 2nd we played with our gaming group and my family. I realize that its infinitely playable after completion but everyone loved their initial play thru so much we have decided to buy a 3rd copy this weekend in order to take to our family reunion in June. I realize it’s a long shot, but any plans to make any kind of expansion for it? I realize there’s already a lot of content but I could see more being done with the story and buildings

    1. I’m glad you’ve had fun with it, Jaycen! While we don’t have any expansions in the works, I think it’s most likely that we might explore new content in the digital version.

      1. I can respect that. However that’s the one thing I won’t buy. I work on video games daily and I consider myself to be a gamer. But I play board games to actually feel the pieces and to interact with people i know on a deeper social level. I just don’t get that from a digital board game.

  39. Bought this gem after it came out in stores. Me and my family absolutely love this game and have bought a lot of refill packs. I read somewhere that you might be making a digital adaptation for PC. I really hope this is true. I do a lot of traveling for work and I would love to play with my kids online when I’m away. Can you confirm this?

    1. Mitch: Indeed, a developer has licensed Charterstone to bring to the PC (and iOS and other platforms later). They’re working on it now! :)

  40. I received this game for my birthday from my wife about a month ago. I have been super excited to play it. We opened it up last night to play and found out we couldn’t play the game at all. Why? Because every single card had been printed backwards!!! All of the sticker side portions of the cards had been printed on the permanent card back, while the card back picture was on the sticker portion. This means we couldn’t even progress past the first step in the game. Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed. I have filled out a game parts request. I sincerely hope Stonemaier Games can make it right. I enjoy your products (I own Scythe as well) and I REALLY wanted to play Charterstone.

    1. Eric: I’m sorry about this extremely rare printing anomaly. I hope you decide to fill out our replacement parts form to request the sticker cards so we can fix this for you.

      1. Thanks for your quick reply Jamey. I have filled out a parts request form. I am looking forward to receiving the new cards. I’m just bummed that I will have to wait longer now to play Charterstone.

        P.S. Game night wasn’t completely ruined last night. We played Scythe instead. My brother won. (his first time playing) So, we still had some fun playing a Stonemaier game! Thank you for producing games with high quality pieces, beautiful art, and well crafted mechanics. (I own almost 100 different games and Scythe has quickly become one of my favorites.)

        1. I looked at the form, on which you asked for “the entire set of cards,” but that’s impossible. Only half of the cards in Charterstone are sticker cards. Please look closely at your cards and let me know the card numbers 1-X) that are printed the wrong way. It should be very clear where the sticker cards stop and the regular cards begin.

          1. Thank you for the clarification. I have looked through the cards and it appears that only cards 1 – 40 are misprints. All of the other sticker cards appear to be fine. I did a quick spot check through each of the other sections of cards and the stickers peeled off correctly.

          2. Hi Jamey,

            The replacement cards arrived today. I took a look at them and they are printed correctly. Thank you for getting those out to me so quickly! Also, thanks for replying to me personally on a Saturday. I wasn’t expecting so fast of a response. Truly a testament to how important your business is to you and how much you value your customers and the gaming community at large. Once again, thank you! Now I have to round up the posse so we can get started playing!

  41. This game is a blast. My wife and I played through all 12 sessions over the course of 3 months and it was a real adventure. That we never knew what to expect for each game session is what made creating strategy difficult and caused you to consider a lot of decisions since you never knew if it would come back to haunt you.

    I look forward to purchasing a refill pack and getting more players involved to see how much more the game develops and changes with additional personal choices.

    1. Thank you so much! That means a lot to me–I’m glad you and your wife had a good time building your village. :)

  42. We played our 6th game last night, we`re loving it. Well, my husband was the unlucky one (3 out of the 4 of us had 26 stars, so the charterstone chose him). We did have some trouble finding out how to enter our score, because in the Dutch version the link just goes to the retailer’s website. With the help of the card list link from the FAQ we were ok. Maybe that’s something to put in the Dutch errata?

  43. what do you do when you’ve played it 2x and used both sides of the board. is it over? can u buy another board?

    1. You can keep playing either side after you finish the campaign, or you can buy another board from us.

  44. Hi Jamey,

    My wife and I have played through the Charterstone campaign and are continuing to play it after all of the legacy aspects are over. We’re now up to 28 plays.

    And we love it!

    Here’s what we love: (SPOILERS AHEAD!)

    1. The overall feel and look of the game. The Charterstone universe is one that we love playing in.
    2. The minions are fantastic! They allow the player to adapt their tactics on the fly. E.g. If you get a private objective that requires 3 tokens on the influence track then get a ghost and use it a few times. Objective done.
    3. The replayability. One of my criticisms of Pandemic Legacy was that once I’d finished that was it. It’s great that we can continue playing Charterstone and I actually think the final game is stronger than the legacy part. It moves really quickly and there is loads of variability due to the charter used, the sky islands and personas. The legacy part was fun and it’s always a treat to unlock some new content but I love the pace of the final game.
    4. The Recharge Pack. This is inspired. We’re currently playing through our 2nd campaign with another couple and again, we’re all loving it. At the end we’ll have two different boards we can play on. Inspired.
    5. The muliple paths to victory. The other day my wife primarily used a strategy of converting a minion to coins and then the coins to points. I went for getting loads of advancement cards, treasures in particular. We ended up with only two points between us at the end of the game. And that’s only two strategies, there are so many more, each charter and sky island combination suggests different strategies.
    6. The Automa. We played the original campaign with 2 Automa and we’ve never looked back. We always use the Automa because they throw in a little randomness to simulate other oppenents and move the time clock along. It’s surprising how many times the Automa characters develop a personalilty throughout the game.

    Okay, to balance this I have one main gripe. At the end of the legacy campaign some of the buildings aren’t as useful to have in a charter as others. E.g. the buildings that involve constructed and unconstructed building cards. We found that we had to carefully remove or cover up some of the stickers to get a board that was going to work. We made sure that each charter had a way of getting a minion, one way of getting income and a building where panic cubes could be spent. I’m not sure what you could do about this issue, possibly having some guidance during the legacy part may help. It’s not a major thing though as we only had to do a bit of tinkering to sort out our board.

    So overall we both love this game and if you do decide to do another legacy game that I hope you include the endless replayability and recharge pack again.

    By the way we’re both really looking forward to the Scythe expansion this year. Can’t wait!

  45. Our gaming group has started a 6-person campaign and we are have a great time after three games. I have picked up a recharge pack and was hoping to start another campaign with my family before we finish the first 12 games. Is there anyway to get hold of the artwork for the Charter Boxes, so that I can make a second set of boxes to stow the non-shared resources between games?

    1. Douglas: The recharge pack actually includes stickers for the charter chests, so you won’t need to print anything. :)

      1. Thanks for the quick reply, Jamey. I was thinking of the wonderful charter icons and other decorations. However, I think I can cobble up six generic white card boxes and place the stickers on those for the case of overlapping campaigns. BTW, just finished Game 3 last night and the game certainly ramped up in complexity. We’re loving it.

  46. Hi Jamey,

    You might have encountered a lot of questions but just wanted to confirm:
    1. Charterstone is a legacy village building that you build your own city based on how you and/or your friends play it. Once the 12 campaign is done, you can either: play a new campaign on the other side or the other board by buying the recharge and/or play the one you’ve built as a normal worker placement game over and over again right meaning it’s unlike other legacy games that there are instances that a component gets destroyed, you need to buy a whole new game right?

    2. if I play the game as a normal worker placement game, what is the complexity of the game and play time? I have bought, played and enjoyed your Viticulture and Scythe. Not sure how this stacks up with those 2 in terms of game complexity and play time?

    3. For the automata that comes in for the single player:
    a. How many players is the AI/automa?
    b. Can we play 5 players plus an AI?

    1. 1. That’s correct.

      2. It starts out very light, and it grows to Viticulture’s complexity and a little beyond it, just due to the sheer number of action space options you’ll have at the end.

      3. a. Any number of players. You could technically play with 6 Automas and no humans.
      b. Yes, but I don’t recommend it. The 6th charter will grow on its own without Automa.

      1. 1. Thanks! So essentially, the campaign will be more fun and will increase in difficulty compared to the non-campaign mode?
        2. Is there a separate rule sheet for the non-campaign mode?

        Finally i’m not sure if you’re the right person to ask but one of my friend in the play group to play will buy but given that I am AMAZED at your games specifically Scythe and Viticulture, i’m not sure it worth and sensible to buy 1 as well and play it as solo with 5 automata.

        1. 1. The campaign will increase the difficultly compared to the post-campaign game, which will be just as difficult as the final game of the campaign.

          2. There is no non-campaign mode. You play through the campaign, during which you essentially build the game, and then at the end of the campaign, you can continue to play the game as you wish.

          1. I see. That’s good to hear. Many thanks for confirming my inquiries as the reason why I asked was that I heard typical legacy games are just for a limited number of plays. After that the game is unusable and you need to buy it again to play. That’s why i don’t bother to even look at the reviews and buy a copy to play.

            At least for Charterstone, the legacy aspect is just building your own board unique to others. Afterwhich, you get to play it unlimited number of times which is good so that you can keep it in your collection forever or you decided to sell it.

            Will definitely get a copy of this and seen you around in your FB group/page once I start to play with it! Cheers Jamey and looking forward for more GREAT boardgames from you! :)

  47. Hy Jamey, i am a big fan of your work. I love your games and i also love the way you created your company. For me it is a fantastic example how to use upcoming technologies and trend like kickstarter.

    However, on my end of the world it takes a wile to get your games, but now i have received Charterstone and i have played my first round (so i am not through the whole campaign).

    I am a gamer and a collector, this means normally i try to keep my games in a prestine contition as long as possible, this means i use card sleeves and all avalable protectors for my games ( and yes, sleeves make my games much more expensive, but i know the benefit of having card sleeves).

    Here is my question: We did you decide to make Cahrterstone a Legacy game? What is the benefit for a gamer?

    When i play more games, will the place where i stick the sticker have any effect on the game? If not, why didn’t you print the buildings on the board (sticking stickers is always a risk in my opinion because some player don’t handle the stickers carefully).

    I can see the benefit of seeing the village growing, but wasn’t it possible to use cardboard tiles?

  48. Hi Jamey! This looks awesome!
    I have a question: If the campaign was played with 1 or 2 players, would the end result be just as easily (and fun-ly) playable with 6 players? How does the player count of the campaign affect the final re-playable game?
    Thanks!

    1. Ben: Yep, the end result is just as playable no matter how many players were in the campaign. Either way, you’ll end up with a fully constructed village.

  49. Thanks for the quick reply!
    So the face-up advancement and objective cards at the start of Game 2 are drawn from all those revealed during Game 1?
    We have never played a legacy game before. Thoroughly enjoying it so far, and wondering at what point in the campaign we will reveal a ‘rule 1’ sticker!

    1. All of the advancement cards in the general supply (deck, mat, and discard pile) just form one cohesive deck, and at the beginning of each game you’ll shuffle it and reveal cards on the mat. After Game 1, you may not have many cards in that deck, but it will soon be quite full (especially since you’ll need to discard cards from your personal supply after Game 2).

      If you have questions in future games, I’d recommend posting them in the Charterstone Facebook group–you’ll get a fast answer there even if I’m not available. :)

  50. Hi Jamey
    What do you do with the advancement, objective and game 2 guidepost card once you have finished game 1 if you do not intend to play game 2 immediately? Everything else seems to have its own place…

    Thanks

  51. I’ve been playing Charterstone with my kids (11 and 7) and this morning we finished game 6. We’re avid gamers, and especially fans of Jamey’s games. (Viticulture is my favorite and we routinely pull Scythe off the shelf.) I’ve been really impressed with how well Charterstone builds. The tension in this morning’s game was palpable! When it ended, the 7-year-old said, “I love Charterstone!” The feeling was mutual. Thanks, Jamey, for bringing such fun into our lives!

    1. Dan: That made my day! I’m impressed that your 7-year-old has been able to play, and perhaps even more impressed by his reaction after game 6 (reactions to the end of that game have been somewhat divisive). :)

      1. To be honest, despite the 7-year-old trailing the pack in Glory, I took the “hit” at the end of game 6. It’s the only rule we’ve (knowingly) broken so far. :-)

  52. My group is three games through the campaign so far and it’s been an absolute blast. There have been some fantastic surprises already and we’re all excited to find out what else is hiding in this box.

    1. You could just use the third worker as the VP counter, but if it’s important to you, you can fill out the replacement parts form as noted on Page 1 of the Chronicle.

  53. I LOVE IT! I might of lost the first game, but I think that just makes me love it more. Thanks for producing an absolute gem!

  54. We just finnished the campaign of Charterstone. This was one epic jorney and every game was simply amazing. As well as the different strategies that unfolded with each new additon and new game.
    Especially this last game, it was just crazy. We ended with well over 120 points each player with vastly different strategies and in the end one of the simplest won :)

    I do have to say that the combination of parfumery and alchemist is simply crazy strong.
    (Building where you spend 2 resources to gain 2 gold and 2 vp + alchemist where you can interchange resources for gold + The friend with +1 vp if you gain vp in your charter was just simply 3vp per round on continuous repeat.)

    On one of those days we just couldnt stop and played 3 games.

    Thank you very much for getting us such a lovley game and I am really looking forward to play the finnished version with a 6 player group soon.

    (We did some slight rule modifications for us since we love variety, so we put buildings on the front and back side of the islands which worked out for some interesting choices later in the game)

    The one and only thing I will miss after completing story is opening chests, I think for my whole group it was the single best thing ever. The anticipation, the curiosity and the delight when we got some new awesome role or some really good building.

    Please if its in any way possible include such a feature in a future game, everything was really good, but opening thoses chests was special somehow and we havent had something like that in any of the games we played so far.

    I will soon need my own big shelf just for Stonemaier games :)

    1. Thanks for the report, Rupert! I’m glad you had a fun experience with Charterstone, and it’s one of those games where I think it’s great if you modify it in a way that is unique and special to your copy, even if it goes against the rules.

      Feel free to chat about it in fully spoiler detail in the Charterstone spoiler group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/charterstoneboardtrading/

  55. This is our new favorite game by far. We’ve played 1-2 games per day since opening it a few days ago. Every game has an element of surprise. The fact that you designed a game that gets better each time you play it just blows my mind. YOU ARE A GENIUS.

    1. I’m so glad to hear that, Stephanie! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the discovery and the additions to the game as you play. :)

  56. Picked up this game today. Opened it up and was automatically loving it! The game looks amazing. Read through the rules and is brilliant!. Ever part of me that loves new board games with lots of pieces wanted to go through all the cards and boxes thoroughly. Restrained myself, but I can’t wait to play it. Amazing job. SO excited. Props to the artists as well. Rules were well written (The ones that were there already :) ) which I find very annoying when you don’t understand the game due to poorly written rules. Yours was nothing like that. I also have trouble justifying spending money on legacy games that you get rid of afterwards so I was over the moon when I found your board game that would allow me to play it after the set amount of games. One last thing: the recharge pack is BRILLIANT
    And to think I have all this to say and haven’t even played it yet. :) Thank you for another great board to add to my ever growing collection.

    1. Bekah: Thanks for your note! We were hoping to instill this sense of delight when you open Charterstone. :) Also, one of the reasons we included metal coins in the game is related to something you said–even if you stop playing Charterstone at some point, you still have something useful you can use in other games.

      Have fun, and if you have any questions while playing, I’d recommend the FAQ and the Charterstone Facebook group. :)

  57. If you play a round with someone then later want to play again with more people will they be lost because the game isn’t being started at the beginning?? Can you even do that play once with someone and then play again with other people or is it like once you start with someone you can only pick up where you left of? What do you do after playing all 12 campaigns?

    1. Heath: That is one of the reasons I recommend playing with the same people from start to finish–you have to learn more rules if you jump into the middle of the campaign. But it is possible (see the first page of the rules). As for after the campaign, it will be a little overwhelming for someone who never played to give it a try, but experienced gamers shouldn’t have a problem.

  58. The recharge pack shouldn’t have been called “Charterstone Recharge Pack”.

    It should have been “Rechargerstone”.

  59. How many copies is too many? Just picked up my third. Should I stop there?

    I must say that you have given me quite a bit of prototyping components in the main box such that I don’t plan on buying recharge kits.

    The meeples and resources are great.

  60. I love this and wish I could play on the go! Make it an app and I’ll buy it full price! Love it love it love it!

  61. I played 6 times and this game it’s amazing!!!!!!! I’m sorry for my bad english, it’s not technical and I’m not used to talk about board games in English… But I had to leave my personal comment…. This is incredible, one of the best boardgames EVER!!!!!! Anyone want to share his experience in private to avoid any spoiler? I’m Italian and I can’t find anyone who played half game…. Please let me know!! Thank you and Congrats for this gorgeous experience!!!!

  62. Woo-Hoo!!! Just heard from my favorite game store (Meta-Games in Springfield, MO). They have their copies in, have taken my money, and have a copy with my name on it ready for pickup. Can’t wait to start this with my gaming group. Been looking forward to a legacy game for 6 players.

  63. Thank you very much for teaming up with Feuerland Spiele to bring Charterstone in German to us! I really appreciate that since my group has some that are not that fluent in english and its always a little bit of an effort to explain all the text on cards that are in english.

    And as always, amazing quality, absolutely amazing artwork too, I love it.

  64. Thank you very much! I saw that you put the file for the french version rules, so maybe I’ll print it, and start with that, will you put the Automa’s french file too? I couldn’t find it.
    Can’t wait to receive my copy!

  65. Hi Jamey,
    I speak for the French canadian players in Quebec (or in canada in general), I preordered Charterstone in April from Game401 (canada), and they don’t know yet if they’ll be able to have some copy in french.
    It’s sometimes hard for us to have the games that are delivered in France by Matagot here in Quebec, sometimes we have to wait an other 6 monthes. Do you know more about this? Should I cancel my order and wait for the french version to arrive here, with having no idea of when it’s gona be?.
    I play in english too, my scythe is an english copy, but I imagine Charterstone has more text and that having it in in French would be easier for us…
    thank you very much! love your games!

    1. Hi Julien: I’m only in control of the English version, and I don’t know when the French version will be released. I know that Matagot will soon have it in Europe, but they will still need to ship it to Canada. I’ll talk to them to see if they can give me a date.

    2. Julien: I spoke with Matagot, and they said the Canadian release is in mid-December. They said in the last few years, the Canadian release has followed the European release by no more than 1 month.

      1. ho great!
        You’re right, in fact Viticulture came almost at the same time last month in canada and in France, my mistake :-)
        I’ll see if I can get a French Copy in mid december, and cancel my april English pre-order, if the price is reasonnable. Thanks for your answer.

  66. Hi Jamey. Could you advise what font is used for “The Commons” on the board. I want to use a label maker to create the other Charter labels as I wont be able to bring myself to write directly on the board. Thanks.

  67. Hi Jamey! You have listed Houston’s Asgard Games here in Texas as your local retail partner. They are near my work so I called them and they were kind enough to take my order for Charterstone, but they had no information on ordering the recharge pack. I’m about to order that from an online retailer, but I wonder if you could clarify the availability of that recharge pack for them, as I would rather support my LGS if at all possible. Thank you!

    1. Blane: Thanks for the heads up! Distributors should have the recharge pack listed as STM701, but I’ll send that info to Asgard so they’re aware of it.

  68. Hi Jamey! I realise that Charterstone resources (inc coins) are limited; but read somewhere that there might be a chance to pick up extra sets of these coins. Is this true? And if so, when might that be possible? Have you considered making other denominations too? I love their design and the increased thickness will doubtless make them a staple of many other games in need of metal money.

    1. Steve: Thanks for asking! Can you let me know where you read that? It’s actually incorrect information–the coins are only available in Charterstone.

      I’m glad you like the coins, though! Perhaps someday we’ll make more of this type of coins and in other denominations by themselves.

  69. Hi, I’ve never played a Legacy game before but I love Scythe, so I’m very interested in another game from you. My question is… if I played through the whole of Charterstone as one player, will the resulting game only be playable by one player, or will I be left with a game that can also be played by more players without being unbalanced ?

    1. Thanks Joanne! Each game of Charterstone–during the campaign or after the campaign–is playable with any number of players. Because the core mechanism of Charterstone is that you can place a worker on buildings in ANY charter, even if one charter ends up slightly better crafted than the others, it’s not imbalanced.

  70. Essen is four days away – will take my chances with Matagot – I couldn’t find a pre-order on their website. But Thursday should be a relatively safe bet. Right? ;-)

    1. Oh well, I have never seen a Thursday as full as this year. Finding the Matagot booth a bit after lunch-time was way to late apparently. I’ll catch the game when it comes into my FLGS, I guess. The lines for the German version (their booth at least) was impressive, too.
      So I guess you have a winner here, Herr Stegmaier! ;-)

  71. Just finished watching Rahdo’s final thoughts. I was already excited for the game, now Rahdo made me impatient and anxious.
    Both my wife and I cannot wait for our copy to arrive. Dec is soooo far away.

  72. Hey homie, I’m super psyched on this game. A quick question though:

    In the Watch It Played overview, broski says that in the first edition printing there is a rules error. Is it mentioned anywhere in the board box we will be receiving from retailers soon that this is an error, or will it be corrected on those editions?

    I’m worried I will get into dumb fights with my friends over the rule of law in the book.

    1. Sam: Thanks for your question. On the first page of the Charterstone rules, it instructs you to check the FAQ for any rules updates or clarifications (you can go look at the FAQ now if you want). It’s an extremely minor typo in the rules–you can literally just cross out one word, and you’re done! :)

      1. I legit just finished the vid where he says to check the faq and there it was, plain as day:

        Chronicle rulebook, page 4, rule 17: cross out the words “or face up” from the last line (whenever a player gains an advancement card, it’s a face-up card, not a blind-draw from the deck). This is a typo.

        Now get to bed everybody, it’s late and you need your rest.

        Also, nice swift reply.

        1. Thanks Sam! Though I’m glad you wrote this, because for some reason I have some kind of issue with that sentence, because the words that should be removed are “face down or”. You can select one of the face-up cards, not a face-down card from the draw pile.

    1. Unfortunately not. We haven’t been able to find a Polish partner for Charterstone despite talking to Phalanx, Granna, and Bard Centrum Gier.

  73. I just gave hints to my local retailer that this game is going to be a worldwide smash hit and they should get themselves on the retailer’s list, and pasted the link.

    1. Mr Cuddington (David and Lina) are indeed two of the artists that worked on Charterstone. Gong Studios is the other artist team who contributed. There’s a lot of art in the game. :)

  74. So many beautiful building in the watch It Play video ! I was already hyped, no I’m impatient to pu my hands on it !

  75. I might be late, but if there is any playtesting that is needed, I would gladly be able to do it. The game looks very interesting and am excited to play it whenever I can!

    1. I appreciate that, but you are indeed very late! :) We wrapped up playtesting back in March, and the game is currently wrapping up production. Charterstone will be released via retailers in early December.

    1. Charterstone is largely grounded in the real world, though it doesn’t take place in the world as we know it, so certain things that exist in Charterstone’s world will seem foreign to ours. Players are still doing things that are grounded in our world, though–that is, they’re not casting magical spells.

      I’ve heard from a very small number of people that they are deeply offended by the idea of magic; for those people, I’m sure they’ll find something to be offended by in Charterstone, even if it’s not overtly described as magic in the game. Like, from the very first sentence on this page, it’s noted that Greengully has been ruled for centuries by the Forever King. If the idea of a person living for centuries doesn’t appeal to you, Charterstone won’t either.

      1. Thanks Jamey. I`m not offended by magic, I just choose to avoid it. I`m sorry if gave that impression. My wife is saving up for Viticulture and of course wine has its own magic of sorts and so do your games. We do like our Scythe. I`ll stay tuned in for Charterstone reviews, it looks fun. Genius idea on recharge pack.

      2. With the art showing floating islands, and the concept of a Forever King, would it be fair to say this is a fantasy, or at least fairy tale, universe but with no spell casting (at least, castable spells by the playable characters?)

  76. Hi there Jamey!
    I was just curious, so I see that Charterstone will be released in December, but some can get a copy in October. Is it still possible for us to get a copy in October–we live in Idaho.

    PS: Also, thank you very much for meeting with my wife and I, briefly at your Saturday GEN CON game night, and even signing our Scythe board game. It was a pleasure!

    Thank you,
    Jeremiah & Kara Clark

    1. Jeremiah: The way to get Charterstone a little early is to go to Germany for Essen Spiel, as one of our partners is air-freighting a few pallets from China to Germany. All other copies are being shipped by ocean freight to various parts of the world, including the US, where the release date is in December. :) I remember meeting you and Kara–thank you so much for stopping by!

      1. Dear Jamey,

        I’ve greatly enjoyed your prior games an patience in dealing with people who haven’t read your copious, informative and knowledgeable update son kickstarter and the business of game design an publishing.

        Re Essen: which partner will have Charterhouse?

        1. Jan: Matagot and Feuerland will have Charterstone available in limited quantities for Essen pickup (Matagot will have our English games and their French games; Feuerland will have their German games). Both of those companies will offer an Essen pickup pre-order option through their website a few weeks before Essen (Feuerland’s is live).

  77. Hi! For some obscure reason I missed this on Kickstarter. This year I am ending a hiatus on going to Essen and Charterstone just tickles my fancy. Will this (English version) be ready in Essen?

    1. astasyneri: You didn’t miss anything–we don’t use Kickstarter anymore. :) Charterstone will be available in limited quantities at Essen (sold through Matagot since Stonemaier won’t be at Essen).

  78. Extremely excited for this. Do you control one character in solo play or do you have to control multiple characters?

    1. They’re 87×57, though it’s not a sleeve-friendly game because of certain legacy stuff. You could feasibly sleeve it after the campaign is over when you continue to play it–at that point you’ll know how many cards you have.

  79. Hi Jamey

    First sorry for my low level of English
    Will Charlestone be available in French? In Essen?

    1. Charterstone will be available in French from Matagot in 2017. I’m not sure if they’ll have it at Essen.

  80. How long would you say you design a game until you then start going full steam into production?

    1. Cody: It depends on the game. For Charterstone, I started working on the design in December 2015, and we sent the final files to the printer a few weeks ago (end of June 2017). Scythe was in the works for 16 months before going to the printer. Euphoria didn’t take as long–it was about 9 months from start to printer.

      1. That’s a pretty fast turn around. I’ve heard games being designed that long before they even get to a publisher. But you have a dedicated development team correct? That would help speed up the process I assume.

        I’ve noticed that you have an interesting catalogue of games, Worker placement, city building/tile laying, legacy, 4x. Do you have a plan to try and make a game in the big genres?

        1. Cody: I think it depends on how you design. When I’m working on a game, I’m pretty much only working on that game. Plus, this is my full-time job. So I may work 20-40 hours just on game design a week.

          I love the challenge of trying new genres, either as a designer or a developer. While I don’t necessarily have a genre checklist, I try to avoid doing something I’ve already done. :)

    1. Richard: Yes, there will be a separate recharge pack you can purchase to play the campaign a second time. Not that you were suggesting this, but the recharge pack is far too expensive to include in the core game.

  81. I don’t know too much about this game but I’m looking forward to owning a copy.
    Is Charterstone playable if you play the first few games solo, then play with a group of 2-6 while still building the legacy part of the game? Will the amount of players change the way future games turn out?

    1. Thanks Alex! Indeed, you can alter the player count each game as you wish. Every session of the campaign is legacy, though (it’s not like you can play a few non-legacy sessions and then bring people in for the campaign).

      The player count does impact the game, but it works at all 6 player counts.

  82. Hello Jamey ! I really love your work done on this game, but I also loooove the art of it. Can you show us some more by the time ?

    1. Adrien: Sure, I’ll continue to reveal what I can in small doses between now and the release. However, pretty much any art I show is a spoiler, so I’ll only be able to show a little bit.

  83. Thanks for all the answers here. We are all going crazy about Charterstone. We can NOT wait for it! Greetings from Brazil !

    1. There are 36 metal coins, 350+ unique cards, and 230+ wooden tokens in the box. Those 12 worker meeples are among those components.

  84. I admit, while the very concept of a legacy game gives me a certain amount of anxiety (collector here), this seems like a very interesting take on it. The game being fully and properly functional after the fact alleviates a lot of issues I have with legacy, and the idea of being able to play a second game on the back would be a huge bonus. Scythe is already on my to-buy list, but you’ve definitely got my attention with this, too.

  85. Hi Jamey, I’m eyeing charterstone since last year, i love worker placement game and building village theme, so i’m very excited!
    I’d like to pre-order charterstone,
    do you have a retailer in indonesia? there’s some boardgame local store here in indonesia,
    but when i check your link to retailer there’s no indonesia retailer (the nearest is malaysia & singapore),
    Thank u!

    1. I see one on my mailing list called Mitra Nirwana Co. Have you checked with them? And please keep in mind that any retailer can carry our games or opt into the list–just because they’re not on the list doesn’t mean we don’t sell to them through distributors. :)

  86. hi, if you intend to play 2 player only, would it make sense/ is it even possible to use two characters each to unlock more buildings etc. and decide each game which one to develop more/ you give the better chance to win with? the nice board looks so emty with only two, or is the pic missleading? thanks for clarification

    1. Richard: There is an element of Automation that will ensure that inactive charters continue to grow. You can also choose to have Automa represent any number of inactive factions if you want it to feel like you’re competing against more than just one other player. However, each player may not act on behalf of more than one charter–it isn’t possible or necessary.

    1. Stonemaier Games won’t be at Essen, but some of our localization partners will likely have Charterstone there.

  87. Hi Jamey. This looks so freaking cool. I have two questions (they are quite similar). They’re might be dumb but I´m new to Legacy games. If me and three of my friends start this game and one of them drops out after a while. Would it be a problem to keep going or do we have to start over? Or if we are four players that starts this game and one of them goes away for a while (let´s say that he misses four sessions), would it be possible for him/her to join in again?

    Best regards
    Christopher

    1. Christopher: Thanks for your question! One big thing I should mention up front is because of the element of permanence in legacy games, you won’t be able to start over after you begin.

      Fortunately, even if the player count changes, you can always move forward with the campaign. There’s even an automated element (called Automa) that can represent other players in their absence so they can continue to score points. The best experience will be with the same people for all 12 games, but if someone needs to drop out for a while and then return, you can absolutely do that.

          1. AWESOME ;)
            For october yeah?

            Btw I saw this won’t go to KS, but I was wondering if you are really done with KS or if you might go back someday ?

  88. Hey Jamey,

    It’s me, that random Matt guy from the Scythe blog who has stumbled on your new game coming out! I have to say, both this game and Viticulture has caught my eye and I definitely have an interest in potentially getting this game.

    My question is largely regarding preorders. I understand you’re not using kickstarter. Will there be a preorder opportunity for those who track the game? I’d like to have a chance to preorder something if possible.

    Thanks, as always for all of your help and being so involved with your fanbase. It’s meaningful to see it.

    1. Matt: Thanks for your question. The answer is at the bottom of this very page (the main text at the top). :)

      “There will not be a Kickstarter or pre-orders from Stonemaier; rather, we’ll announce when it’s available via our e-newsletter, and you can request it from your preferred retailer.”

      If you click on “preferred retailer” (within the main text), you’ll be taken to a list of hundreds of retailers, all of whom are accepting pre-orders.

  89. it is the most expected game to me in 2017. Does there have a rule book to let me know how to play it?

  90. I personally am excited for this game, however, personally, Im not such a fan of the cute cartoon art. Not to put down the tamthe as Im sure its been a labor of love and dedication. Just one mans opinion.

  91. I am on the edge of my chair for news about this one. Thanks for keeping us all in the loop, even about your recent challenges.

    1. Thanks for your enthusiasm! It’s an exciting time for me too, as I’m slowly getting the typeset files from my graphic designer. :)

  92. Hi Jamey. This game sounds amazing. Is there any chance that I can get a hold of a copy in sweden when it releases? Is it possible to get it shipped to sweden? Or do I have to wait to it gets here? I´m sure you already answered this type of question somewhere in this comment section. Best regards Christopher

    1. Christopher: Absolutely! We sell out games to a number of distributors in Europe, including several that serve Sweden. So you’ll be able to buy it from a store in Sweden.

  93. hi there, what is the best way to get the additional ressource tokens in germany? any retailer suggestions, and what is the status quo considering the other languages option? any release schedules for this yet? thank you

    1. Sascha: Thanks for you questions. You can see retailers in Germany/Europe that carry our realistic resources here. Charterstone will be released in German by Feuerland in late 2017.

    1. Bianca: We’re making plenty of copies, so there should be ample copies available post release.

  94. My husband is so excited about this game. He can not stop talking about it. We just love viticulture.

    1. Elise: That’s neat to hear that he’s excited about it! It shares a worker-placement mechanism with Viticulture, though otherwise it’s quite different. I hope you two enjoy it! :)

        1. That would be great, but we haven’t even finished typesetting the game yet. It won’t be released until October at best.

  95. Super interested in being a playtester of Charterstone, if you’re still looking for such. I’m registered as an ambassador.

  96. This games sounds exciting. I have a group of friends that regularly get together to play board games. We have never played a legacy game. Do you think this game is a good place to start with a legacy game. If not which game do you recommend we start with?

    1. Heather: I’m a bit biased, but yes, I think Charterstone is a great place to start, as it starts off so simple and adds complexity over time.

      That said, there are other fantastic legacy games out there. If your group enjoys cooperative games, Pandemic Legacy is awesome. If your group enjoys competitive interaction, try out Risk Legacy. Both of those are nice entries into legacy because most people know how to play Pandemic and Risk (that’s the starting point for each of those games).

  97. I **am** hoping that there will be a unique world feel to the design of the game that will show in the names of the buildings and the materials and things we will be building that will to some extent feel different from the standard goods and buildings of normal Earth-bound games (Catan, Castles of Burgundy, etc.) That’s why the idea that there may be zeppelins to build or fly appeals to me, as an example. This isn’t strictly necessary for me to enjoy the game, but it would be a +3 for me if it’s designed this way.

  98. Thanks, Mizuotoko! I’ve had a great time writing the story elements of Charterstone (while still leaving space for players to tell the story of their charters).

  99. You asked for comments on the Facebook page about things we’re hoping you’ll keep in the game or hope the game will be like. here’s my $0.02:

    1. I like that there will be key decisions at the end of each game (and probably during each game) that will change the way the game is played from then on. I **strongly** hope that you’ve got some writers working on some story level paragraphs for those decision points. I hope the game’s decisions won’t be as story-less as “Ok, now your village can either pursue better shipbuilding or better trading. Which way do you want to go?”

    2. ” It was my idea to have buildings that look like the thing they do/make,” YES, PLEASE! I love this quality to Above and Below’s buildings – it adds to that game’s world-building feel.

    3. “What I’ve decided to do with the recharge pack idea is ……if we get enough responses, we’ll do it….” Sounds like a great idea to wait and a great idea to make it available. If nothing else, those of us who love the game may feel it would be fun to do the back as a solo experience!

    4. “….zeppelins…” PLEASE!

  100. “Just yesterday my publisher mentioned that we’re putting more in the box at the price point of $70 for other games that add up to nearly double to the cost.”

    Now that IS intriguing! Is it going to have a lot of miniatures? Please say blimps! Please say blimps!

    1. Charterstone will have 85+ “crates” to unlock: 350+ unique cards, 230+ wooden tokens, and 36 metal coins. :)

      1. So still haven’t made any progress on that time machine then…oh well I guess I can wait for the old fashioned way.

  101. Marc: Yes, retailers have the MSRP and the SKU, so any retailer can accept pre-orders. Just make sure they include the important details that the game’s development is still in progress and that the exact release date is unknown.

  102. That has to be one of the ‘nicest’ beat-downs I’ve seen in response to a spiteful (‘How will you fix Charterstone’) query. Well played, Jamey!

  103. So how will you make sure that it isn’t the same boring engine building every session. I hear you don’t like repetitive games. So how will you fix Charterstone here? Maybe add a bigger choose your own adventure part? And for a big campaign game, the content seems really small, are you sure it won’t get to be random repetitive mix and match with just ~350 cards?

    1. YoBro: That’s correct, if I’m playing completely different scenarios of a game, I want them to feel distinctly different.

      Charterstone is kind of in that vein. It’s a 12-game campaign followed by infinite non-scenario gameplay (like any other worker-placement game). Each scenario builds on the last, and a number of elements contribute to each one feeling different.

      “Maybe add a bigger choose your own adventure part?” –Bigger than what? :) You haven’t played Charterstone, right? Players have a sprawling tech tree of options to choose from as they build their charters, and the end of every game gives players a key choice to make that changes the next game or the permanent game rules.

      “the content seems really small” It’s all relative. Just yesterday my publisher mentioned that we’re putting more in the box at the price point of $70 for other games that add up to nearly double to the cost.

      I think you might have a picture in your head of what Charterstone is (maybe you think we just deal out cards to players each game?)…whatever it is you’re picturing, it’s not that. I know it’s not fair for me to say that without describing what the game is, but I can’t without spoiling it, and the description on this page should give you a taste of what it is. If you’re actually interested in Charterstone, just watch a review when they’re available and you’ll understand it better.

  104. JayC: 90% of the crates have the potential to be opened during and after the campaign. There are certain points in the story (1 per game of the campaign) where a player will make a key decision between A and B. When that happens, one of those crates will be unlocked, and the other will remain permanently unlocked. Usually it’s a contradictory variation in the rules–it’s not like you’re missing out on B if you choose A. It’s just different.

  105. With the multitude ways of ‘discovering’ as you play through this game, will there be unused crates and\or cards at the end of the legacy experience with this game? Or will everything included be integrated into the game somehow?

    1. Any store anywhere in the world can carry the game. So if you have a retailer in Europe you like, ask them to take pre-orders for Charterstone.

    1. Indeed, our German partner is interested in Charterstone, so I think there’s a very good chance of that happening.

  106. Random question: what is your process on how you pick the name of a game? Could you share alternate names you may have had for viticulture, Scythe, etc.

    1. Cody: It depends on the game, but usually it’s a group effort to brainstorm names, then our lawyer does a trademark search to see what we can get. Viticulture was called Trellis early on, Euphoria was called Dystopia, and Charterstone was originally called Cornerstone. Scythe was just called Jakub’s 1920+ series until we got the board game rights, and soon after it was Scythe.

      1. Thanks for the response. I’m eagerly awaiting Scythe to come back in stock, hoping to get it by my birthday on Thursday. I eagerly await any game you design or produce. One day I hope to be published by you.

  107. “no rulebook” This sounds like one of the most interesting aspects of the game, and I am very excited to see how it plays. I usually fullyverse myself with a games rules before I take a new game to our group. This sounds like we are going to get to open the big box together. I like the legacy mechanics I have seen in other games so far (though no so much the ones that just add a new rule to each game), and feel like theres a lot of interesting ground to be explored in this space. So pretty excited to see what you come up with.

  108. Hi Jamie,
    Im really excited for this – I’ve been wanting a good legacy game that is NOT co-operative and not Risk.
    The “recharge pack” sounds like a great idea.
    One final key issue – please tell me there is direct player interaction?
    Regards, Sal

    1. Salman: There’s indirect player interaction like in most worker-placement games: If I place my worker on a building, you can’t use that building until I move my worker. There are some other aspects of indirect interaction like gaining cards from a common pool. But there is no direct player interaction (stealing from or directly hurting another player).

  109. I don’t get hyped easily, because it’s easy to make things look good, but much harder to actually create quality (after all, there are a lot more awesome trailers, than awesome movies). I find it very hard, however, to not get very excited about the prospect of Charterstone. With Stonemaier/Stegmaier’s track record, I’ve come to expect quality games where thoughtful design and love shines through in numerous ways. Combine their flair for making beautiful, elegant games with the idea of a village-building legacy game with an infinitely replayable end result? Like I said, it’s hard to not get very, very excited. I love that you’re considering making a recharge pack as well, so the experience can be had twice without needing to buy the entire game twice. I hope you do through with it :)

    I’m very much looking forward to seeing this on the shelves. And of course, do reach out if you for some inexplicable reason can’t find enough playtesters.

    1. Soren: I appreciate your excitement for Charterstone! What I’ve decided to do with the recharge pack idea is basically ask people after they finish the Charterstone campaign if they want the recharge pack, and if we get enough responses, we’ll do it. That way people can make a fully informed decision (making the data more precise).

      1. Hi Jamey. That sounds like smart thinking. Have you made a decision regarding the component upgrade pack yet, or are you still collecting data on that as well? And thanks for the swift reply.

  110. Hey Jamey, big fan, read you’re book and I loved it.
    Legacy games have really hit a spark with me, its a designer’s dream I think to create one of these games especially this early in the genre’s infancy, a wonderful challenge I’m trying to wrap my head around. Is the story going to be driven by the mechanics or is there going to be a heavy overarching story to engage players?

    1. Thanks for your question, Jordan. It is quite a challenge to design, and I wish you luck if you try it! :) In Charterstone, there is both a mechanism-driven story told by the players and an overarching story with interlocking, branching paths selected by the players.

  111. Hi Jamey, why not make a campaign game and not a legacy game? A city-building campaign game is really an unexplored branch.
    Otherwise im very interested on this game and im looking forward its launch, some date for this?
    Thanks a lot and thanks for your availability….and sorry for my english XD
    Greets from Spain.

    1. Jooor: Charterstone is a legacy game because that’s the type of game it is. :) To my knowledge, it is the first village-building legacy game.

  112. Any chance you’re going to post the FAQs without requiring us to join a Facebook group? (The FAQ link above takes us to a closed group.)

    And, congratulations on this ambitious project. You are a terrific designer. Can’t wait to see it.

    1. Patrick: Sure, I can update that. The reason for that is someone else is maintaining the FAQ for now on that thread, but I can tweak the page on our website so other people can still see the key details. Thanks!

  113. Hey Jamey. Been a big fan of your games since I helped Kickstart Euphoria and I have the deluxo Scythe with expansion and getting the Meeples, etc,etc.
    Eagerly anticipating Charterstone and was surprised at the number of comments that want your legacy game less legacy-y.
    One possible and easy way to give people that are shy about this type of game extra incentive to try it might be to make the board double sided, and let people buy a 2nd kit that is just the stickers and extra stuff from this site so that at least they can play it twice.

    Not sure what that would add to the production cost.

    1. Thanks Derrek! That’s actually what we’re polling people about on our future printing request form. We’re gauging interest for a deluxe pack (separate from the game) that would include some nice stuff like metal coins and a recharge pack for the game to be used on the back side of the board, exactly as you said. :) Currently it does look like there’s enough interest for us to make that pack.

      1. Well that’s just awesome! I posted my reply before seeing your reply. I did fill out the future printing request form as well.

    2. Just wanted to add that I am aware that the game is infinitely playable after you finish all the games, but for people that want to start again is what I was meaning.

  114. This was already the most anticipated game for me of 2017, but seeing that cover art and with it the art style of the game and the somewhat whimsical conception of this world with that picnic basket shaped building has somehow upped my interest in the world. Who’s idea was that art direction, yours or one of the three artists credited on the Geek?

    1. I’m glad you like it, Stephen! I’ll take some credit and give some credit. :) It was my idea to have buildings that look like the thing they do/make, so that’s the direction I gave to Gong Studios. As for the box, I pictured something with a lot of white (a blank slate for the villagers) and the beginning of a new village, but it was Mr. Cuddington who brought it to life. I love what they did with it.

  115. If you are looking for a playtester with minimal experience to gain that perspective, I’m your peep. Middle aged female ready here….Have played Scythe twice with no experience with those types of games. Looking forward to the next game to get hooked on.

    1. Thanks Kim! Didn’t you win Scythe with 127 points the other day? I think that was you who shared it on Facebook. :)

  116. Tonight I’ll be playing my first Legacy board game (RISK). But our group has 6 players. So can’t wait for this one. Also the idea of it that it’s not about battles is very appealing.

    Can’t wait for this one!

  117. Hey Jamey,

    I truly enjoy all your games, esp. Sythe which to back was a no-brainer for me. Now I am very intruiged by Charterstone and I wonder if I, as living in Germany, could also sign up as an ambassador. Will the test-playing only take place in the US?

    1. Pasvik: It would be great to have you as an ambassador. As for Charterstone, I’m not quite sure yet. So far I’ve put together the prototype myself and mailed it to developers in the US (it would be expensive to ship to Europe). But at some point I might try out a PnP version that playtesters can print and put together.

  118. Hey Jamey, my group loves Scythe, and my wife and I are going to eventually need a new copy of Viticulture when we play this one into the ground. Love it! To echo a lot of what people have said already though, we’d love to Blind Play Test. I’ve signed up to ambassador.

    1. Bryan: I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying Viticulture and Scythe! I appreciate you signing up as an ambassador.

    1. At some point when I reveal the box art, yes. It’s tough to reveal more than that, though, because everything in Charterstone is a spoiler.

  119. Hello Jamey – Congrats on Scythe! I would love to be a playtester for this one and think I could bring 2 different groups to bear (one more seasoned and another more casual).

  120. Jamey, have you considered using a board where the buildings are inserted into slots like puzzle pieces with a good friction fit? Then they would stay put when you put the game away, but if a group stops playing after 2 or 3 games the board could be reset. I’m not sure how much more would need to be tweaked to facilitate a reset, but there are many many people who would appreciate that capability.

    1. The buildings are stickers that are removed from cards, and both the stickers and the cards serve crucial functions in the game.

      We’re not looking for workarounds to not make this a legacy game. The primary asset of the game is permanence. I appreciate your creativity, but we do not perceive this to be a problem, so we are not looking for solutions.

      1. Fair enough! Thanks for the reply. I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open on this one as it looks very interesting. I’m not against legacy games (I have 2 of them), but I am still hoping that someone will make a great legacy game that can be fully reset…

        1. They exist: They’re called campaign games. :) Legacy requires permanent changes–things that cannot be undone. The unique feature of Charterstone is that it’s designed to not just be played until everything is unlocked, but also after that (you’re not limited to a certain number of games).

  121. Let’s say player A has a copy of Charterstone that has had all (possible) components added to the board, it is now in its final state. Lets say player B has a copy in similar condition from a different play group.

    Would there possibly be fundamental differences in the strategies that are successful between the two copies? Or, are we taking minor differences (something like player 2 gets a coin in one copy, player 3 in the other copy), but neither player would be at a disadvantage on the other player’s board?

    1. Eric: That’s a good question. I can’t say too much without spoiling stuff, but I’ll express it in a way that I’ve mentioned on a few podcasts: There are a limited number of places for buildings on the board (36 total at this point–the number has changed). But the total number of building options throughout the course of the campaign is nearly triple that number. Each building is unique, though some buildings do similar things. So the fundamental difference from copy to copy really depends on the combination of constructed buildings. Some villages will have very different economies than others. But I wouldn’t say those differences will lead to disadvantages for players if you swapped boards.

  122. I just register to your newsletter to be sure to not miss the kickstarter of this game.
    You really got me with legacy and the fact you create your own worker placement game when you finish the legacy compaign!

  123. I’m away from following board game stuff online for 6 months or so and this is what you announced while I was gone?

    …Apparently I should do that more often ;)

  124. Then after Charterstone you make an expansion that you play where your village is attacked by goblins, orcs, ogres, then dragons and you start ripping off stickers from the board. Eurogame BGG’ers who otherwise hate legacy games will trade their finished game to Ameritrashers who enjoy destroying things. Ka-ching. :D

  125. I don’t really “get” legacy games, so please tell me if I have understood it correctly:

    If a player makes som poor choices and builds some buildings that do not work together well, then forever after any player who has the misfortune of getting that player mat will be at a disadvantage.

    If you want to play a few games to learn and then start playingt “for real”, you must buy a buy a new copy when you start “real” play.

    If you have played several times and want to try a new strategy, you must buy a new copy.

    Do I have it right?

      1. I see now that my commentis much more negative than I intended. However, that is still the impression I get from the descriptions of Charterstone I have seen so far.

  126. A legacy game designed by you will be the only legacy game I buy! Can’t wait. Thanks, Jamey.

  127. I’m not big into legacy games in theory but I’m starting to come around to them. I really need to play pandemic legacy and looking forward to Seafall. This is on my watchlist.

    On a side note I’ve been designing a game that is worker placement. Since your catalog is pretty extensive in that genre is it something you’re still looking for? Or are you in the mindset of diversifying the catalog?

    1. Cody: Thanks for your question. I’m open to learning more about any game that meets our submission guidelines–yours could apply to that, but you’ll want to check out those guidelines to see. :)

  128. Just saw an earlier tweet about this game – very excited! Play testing, reviews, publicity, whittling meeples, whatever is required… You have my attention!

  129. As I’ve been loving Scythe on Tabletopia wondering about the possibilities of a Legacy type game there, where you can leave that game room open and have some way to automate a Reset of the game board that carries over the appropriate changes. Maybe just dreaming a little.

    1. That’s an interesting idea. We could consider it, though I’d be really hesitant to make it that easy to access all the spoilers in the game.

      1. Absolutely. There is a lot of joy in Legacy games of opening new things, and seeing how they change physically. I mean, just thinking about how you would have to do rule book changes within Tabletopia makes it not really feasible.

  130. you did it again… just when I thought it was safe….

    Please, Please give Roberta and I a chance to be a tester.

    Also she wants to know how to get an extended Tuscany board. She demoed it at Lexicon and realised what a great expansion it was.

    When are the next batch of ambassador shirts being offered

  131. I’ve got an idea about the resetable board… Because that is what it is really about… Don’t get fixed to having stickers implementing “resetability” (stickers are made to stick, not to be removed).
    So, make the board a 2-layer cardboard with the upper layer having punch holes, in which building-tokens can be “snugly” fitted .

    1. This would be perfect! Those that really want it to be permanent could always glue the piece into the hole, and those who value the replayability of the whole game would be able to. A great solution that satisfies BOTH camps!

      1. But I realized that those “chips” need to have a home on the shufflable cards as well. Imagine shuffling/handling 50+ cards made of double-layered cardboard.

  132. I cannot even express how excited I am by this. I do not have a gaming group and find the idea of legacy mechanics AWESOME, so even the hint that this might work for solo play is amazing. AND to still have a game I could later play with other people at the end of it? I too am attempting to throw money at my screen!

    1. Thanks Olna! Your excitement is very encouraging for me as I continue to work on Charterstone. :)

  133. I just want to wish you well, Jamey. It pleases me tremendously that YOU are so interested in and eager to work on Legacy mechanisms. They’re certainly among the most interesting and enjoyable elements to come along in gaming since Rob broke the mold a few years ago. They’re SUCH a bear to design and develop that I just want to smother whoever tries it in good graces… and unfortunately, an incredibly loud and entitled minority goes on a whine crusade every time a word starting with “le-” gets mentioned in reference to a tabletop game. I imagine even the Legendary devs took an accidental hail of friendly fire before they got to the “-gendary” part.

    I’m not sure yet if Charterstone is for me, but I look forward to learning more. Mountains of goodwill to you, sir, for braving the hailstorm of bs involved in doing this. I know you went out of your way to address some of the common criticisms while retaining some of the main creative elements that make us LOVE these games above most others. I hope you can make some of these Grinch’s hearts grow, and know that there are those of us who love you for even attempting it, man.

    1. Xenothon: Thanks for the comment, and most importantly, thank you for your openness to the idea! I know legacy games aren’t for everyone, but it’s encouraging for me to hear that you’re curious to learn more before deciding if it is or isn’t for you. Over time I’ll try to reveal enough that it helps people make an informed decision (but without spoiling anything big).

      1. It really amazes me how anti legacy some people are. Very few games compare to the excitement that a campaign style game can provide. I completed a campaign of risk legacy, 15 games with a group of friends a couple years ago. Never played it again, but I still have it just for the fact of how good the memories from it are. Vanilla risk isn’t that great of a game compared to what we have available these days, but the legacy version, to me compares to everything else I’ve ever played. I for one look forward to seeing what a game designed to be a legacy game will be like as opposed to games adapted to be one.
        Jamey can u tell us a bit more about the design team? Who is the lead designer?

        1. To a certain extent, I can understand where those people are coming from. There’s the “collector’s aspect of wanting something pristine and perfect in your collection (though, as you said with Risk Legacy, there’s something special about a copy that is uniquely yours too). Also, if people have never tried it, it’s harder for them to be open minded about it. It’s like the first time someone tries sushi–it’s weird and foreign and raw…and then you eat it and actually have an informed opinion about it.

          I’m the lead designer for Charterstone, and Morten Monrad Pedersen and David Studley will be assisting me with the solo version of it.

      2. Xenothon and Jamey: It’s sad when a game that uses a certain theme or game mechanic gets slammed by the anonymous internet skeptics. I’d say it’s disheartening when the “enthusiastic” gamers who could support your new project, or at least wait before passing judgement, are simply taking the easy route and criticizing something before it actually exists. I think that so far I haven’t been as wild about the legacy “rebrandings” as others, but I appreciate the extra work that gets put into designing a legacy game. To develop a completely new design using a legacy/campaign system is a huge task and I wish you well Jamey. Keep doing what you do as it’s always resulted in some really enjoyable and unique games.

        1. Brent: “it’s disheartening when the “enthusiastic” gamers who could support your new project, or at least wait before passing judgement, are simply taking the easy route and criticizing something before it actually exists”. Very well said. I couldn’t agree more–not just for my games, but any game.

  134. Ok Jamey. 100 building spots in a six player game, 200+ buildings, 20+ tuck boxes with each an advanced rule module for a game round lasting maybe one hour. Tiles whose positions has to noted after each game round. I can see that would be really annoying really fast.

    Maybe you could do a Charterstone Lite game like Lords of Waterdeep in the future?

  135. They make reusable stickers. It would be nice if game publishers would use them. I’d think they’d satisfy the needs of both camps.

    1. Mark: True, but there are reasons we don’t use reusable stickers. I’ve talked with Panda about stickers that can be removed, but there are a few issues with stickers like that. The first is that they tend to curl up at the edges, which doesn’t look good and can catch on other components. The second is that the stickers don’t restick well when applied to something the second time. And the third is the sheer laboriousness of reapplying 200+ stickers to cards and then resorting those cards back into the proper tuckboxes.

      1. I am sure you thought about this. If not, this may add to your bank of ideas for components:
        what about the stickers made of thin flexible magnets? Like the ones, sometimes found on the fridges. They are more expensive than paper stickers, though.

        1. Vladimir: The stickers start on cards, so magnets aren’t an option (or, perhaps they are, but it would be incredibly expensive to make).

          1. How about thin flexible plastic or vinyl “sticker” that can adhere to the surface of a glossy board (in the same way that window clings work) so that they can be left in place OR they can be removed and be infinitely reused & repositioned…? Best of both worlds!

          2. Thanks for the idea! We looked into that a few months ago and learned that the stickers were likely to peel off if we did that. Also, Charterstone is meant to continue to be played after the campaign is over–the permanence is a huge part of the game.

          3. Also, the stickers start on cards that must be shuffled, so even if vinyl stickers worked on the board, you wouldn’t be able to put them back on the cards (which have important information on them).

          4. Well you’ve certainly piqued my curiosity! Can people who live outside the US register for playtesting? PS. My husband bought me Scythe for my birthday last week and we’re loving it :) Great work!

          5. Thanks Amy! Sure, we welcome playtesters around the world. :) I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying Scythe!

          6. I sleeve my cards, so that would maybe make it possible to just put the sticker in the sleeve ? (or on the sleeve)

          7. Have you considered the card-crafting technique that AEG uses? Mystic Vale was their first to use is.

          8. Danny: Yes, I have Mystic Vale. It doesn’t work for Charterstone, but it’s a neat system!

  136. Jamey, stickers on the board is a dealbreaker for me no matter that the game is still playable after the first campaign. I do have an idea for an option to replace sticker use. Use tiles or small cards for the buildings as in Lords of Waterdeep and include a photocopiable map sheet for bulding placement for campaign use. You could even make the game board double-sided with one side for sticker use and the other for tile use. As an option for advanced gameplay the rules could include examples of tile placement.

    1. Thanks for the idea! Unfortunately, it would cause a huge amount of frustration to people during setup and cleanup. You could do that for a game like Lords of Waterdeep that only ends up with a handful of buildings, but in Charterstone you have 54 different spots for buildings on the board and another 8 per player mat.

      I appreciate that stickers aren’t for you, but this is a situation where it’s better for me to lose a customer than to add a huge amount of unnecessary frustration to those who choose to buy Charterstone.

      1. Thanks Nick! We don’t know the release plan yet, but I’m sure we’ll do some sort of pre-order campaign for Charterstone (most likely on Kickstarter). Update: Charterstone will go directly into distribution with no pre-order or Kickstarter from Stonemaier Games.

  137. I’m not sure if the ‘one and done’ comment answered this, but will there be permanent changes to the game (like stickers on a board) or will this be a legacy style game that could be wiped clean and rebuilt from day 1?

    To me, the fact people have hidden abilities makes me think we’d be able to wipe the game and start over for a totally different chain of experiences.

    1. Each building you construct is a sticker you permanently place on the board. As noted in the description, Charterstone isn’t a “one and done” game. The village you create will remain infinitely replayable.

      1. This looks awesome! One thing I’d add to the conversation is that I’d prefer the stickers are very sticky. My one complaint after playing Pandemic Legacy is that the stickers would come off quite easily and it ended up that we would take a picture of our board after we played just in case something came off. If it’s gonna be literally permanent and replayable after the campaign, then I want those stickers to never come off.

        Can’t wait!

        1. Garrison: That’s a great point! The stickers we’ve tested have been very sticky, but I’ll make sure to keep an eye on that. We are making sure that the stickers on the board don’t overlap with the folds on the board (so you can fold up the board without issues).

          1. The fact that none of the stickers overlaps the folds of the board is a huge relief. I worried about this when I bought the game. So glad everything about the game was so well thought through.

          2. Thanks! That was one of the first things I told Mr Cuddington when they started illustrating the board. :)

      2. I’m finding many of the stickers are misaligned…meaning you may not see what the costs are for that building…any one else seeing this as well??

        1. Dave: I’ve heard from 2 people who had a few cards that were miscut to the point that they couldn’t see the icons/numbers on the building stickers. So it’s rare, but possible. If that’s the case with your copy, just fill out the replacement parts form with the cards you need replaced, and we’ll send them to you ASAP.

  138. I would be willing to bump off one of these other potential playtesters so that I can have their spot.

  139. I really appreciate that you all are open to blind playtesting Charterstone! Thank you. I’ll be in touch when we get to that point.

  140. I am thrilled to see this! I love Euro-style games and my wife loves city builders, am we are both big fans of Viticulture/Tuscany (top 10 game for us) and my primary game group is running through Pandemic Legacy now (August). While I wait patiently for my copy of Scythe I believe you may have just raised my expectations to the next level! Signed up for the Ambassador program and keeping my fingers crossed that our group can be blind playtesters.

  141. I too am a registered ambassador and would be very grateful to be a playtester! This game sounds awesome, and would be my first foray into a Legacy game!

    1. Any reason you haven’t tried Pandemic:Legacy yet? It was one of the best experiences our group has had in boardgaming.

  142. I have an eager playtest group at NKU. There’s four of us including the professor of NKU’s board game design course. Never dreamed I’d be able to design board games for college. : )

    1. Sadly that was my reaction as well..after cursing Jamey for keeping me in the poor house from his awesomeness :P

  143. OOH, What’s this now? Good player count, village/city building theme, and some legacy mechanics(the possible weak point IMO)? Though most of the Tuscany ones are good additions, so hoping for something a bit more like that than a “one and done” game.

See All Comments