Lionwake: Boardgame

The great Dragon guardian has fallen. In its wake, the insatiable Nian beast from myth unleashes its terror on the village of Lionwake, devouring crops, livestock and even those living on the outskirts.

While fear threatens to consume the village, some look to the Lion statues, a reminder of forgotten local ritual. There is yet another guardian.

Do you dare awaken your inner Lion?

What is Lionwake

In Lionwake, a competitive strategy game for 1 to 4 players, take on the role of a villager who is able to summon and forge bonds with powerful Lion guardians by performing the local ritual in defense of the village.

The villager who best impels their Lions to the beat of their drum, via a novel combination of deck + tableau-building, and contributes their Qi energy to the village, through a Euro-style action economy that challenges players to find combos, will write their name into the village history as the victor.

Why Back Now

Pledges at a Glance

Tier Comparison

How to play

From your three Drum cards in hand drawn from your deck, choose and play one card next to one of your summoned Lions. That Lion—and its asymmetrical ability—is now active for the round, leaping, performing actions, and facing the Nian beast.

The played card remains next to the Lion in its tableau. On later turns, any cards played next to the Lion are stacked, allowing for the potential of both passive and active abilities layered underneath to be reactivated. Once your tableau is full, you may choose to “rest” instead of playing a card to reset your tableau and shuffle all cards to reform your deck.

Based on your multifunctional Drum card played this turn, the Lion leaps through the Terrain tiles. Lions may leap off each other to increase their movement, but may not end on the same tile.

Positioning is critical for the actions and face-off with the Nian beast to come, but other considerations include: some Drum cards require specific (often vertical) movement to unlock the card’s full potential

Perform the actions on both the Terrain tile leaped to and the Drum card played this turn (potentially including actions layered underneath). These actions largely revolve around gaining resources that are then spent to Ink Tattoo Motifs, Write Spring Couplets, and Carve Jade Amulets, all of which (a) further specialize your asymmetrical Lions and (b) place Qi Energy for scoring and the end game.

Motifs in particular are symbolic of your Lion’s “direction” or “type,” as many Drum cards require specific Motif color combinations to unlock the card’s full potential—a consideration just like movement above.

If the Lion ended its movement on a Terrain tile with the Nian beast or other monster, choose to pacify the beast by spending resources or battle it directly by rolling your dice (a pool constructed from your Drum cards). Defeated beasts, while not always easy, also allow you to gain benefits for your engine and place Qi Energy.

Both builds (managed resources and dice battles) as well as hybrid strategies are viable paths, approaches of which are subsumed under the greater Euro action economy puzzle.
 

The game ends when one player places all 10 Qi Energy off their character board via specific actions and/or facing the Nian beast; OR, when the 3 evolving forms of the Nian are collectively defeated. You then score your board by primarily scoring the Qi Energy you placed throughout the village (symbolic of your contribution to defending the village) and the Bamboo Slips personal objectives slotted onto your board.

Lionwake can be thought of a Euro-style race. Whoever optimally strings together the above actions may very well be the victor and write their name on the Bamboo Slips, the local historical records of Lionwake.

The overall feel from the above Prototype How to Play remains in place. But for more on CURRENT DEVELOPMENT STATUS, check out the below playthrough with Banzainator to hear some discussion on three primary changes (starting at 4:10).

(1) Move from 3 to 2 Lions per player: In the RTFM prototype, the pacing of unlocking and fully using the third Lion was far too different than the pacing of placing one's Qi tokens, thus altering player onboarding and expectation. Two Lions, mechanically, has more pacing balance; also, thematically speaking such as two Lions outside of temples as well as two persons wearing the Lion costume, two Lions just makes more sense.

(2) Drum cards have varied requirements beyond Tattoo Motifs to unlock their full potential. This smaller change now better emphasizes the movement and positioning of your Lions on the Village map, especially emphasizing upward movement and the Leaping Platforms.

(3) The Rest action required to clear away your tableau happened automatically as part of your turn in the RTFM prototype. Rest is now a separate action, one can take at any time. This slows down the pace of play and slightly alters how to obtain cards from the market, overall offering a tighter experience.

Rulebook

Solo Rulebook

Play on TTS

Shipping

Shipping and any applicable VAT and tariffs will be charged in the pledge manager, after the campaign ends. Below is our estimate shipping costs for 2027, but exact totals may fluctuate.

Please note that Add-Ons may incur additional shipping charges.

Cuba, Africa, Brazil, South America, Iran, Burma (Myanmar), Sudan, North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Russia.

Additional restrictions may be added if required by our fulfillment partners.

More Contents

Our art team includes three talented local artists, with Nuwa Art Director Coco setting the tone and vibe of the world of Lionwake. 

Feel the culture and art in your hand, designed and modeled by local artist: 
怪研所 Guai Yen Suo

*The below are not produced from the final mold.  

What could your minis look like?

12 Unique Lion Minis!

About the Team

Nuwa is operated by Wonderful World Board Games (WWBG), who has brought you Dragonarium (previously on KS), Lone Wolves, Animals Gathering, Touch It!, Loco Momo, and many more.

When WWBG set out to build a new brand that brings Asian legends to life through innovative gameplay and imposing art styles—a dream of WWBG founder Lenny Liu—Nuwa, a goddess in Chinese popular belief systems responsible for creating humanity from clay and repairing the heavenly pillars, naturally first came to mind. She now passes the torch as we aim to create the extraordinary, not with clay but with cardboard, and become a pioneering voice capable of infusing our passion for culture.

Join us as we work to construct the newest pillar for the board game community.  


Art and Graphic: Yuan Yuan, Cola Chen, Matthew, Zingco Kang
Miniature Design: 怪研所 Guai Yen Suo
Miniature Painting: Simon (l4ragorn), DDD Studio
Game Insert Design: Gamtrayz-Noah
Product Development: Anna Wang, Wenya Bi
Marketing Consultant: Crowdfunding Nerds  
Advertisement : 參拾貳數位行銷
Animation Trailer & 3-D Rendering: MEEEPLE WORK MEDIA
Photography: 參拾貳數位行銷, HC Photography
Early Story Research: Shine
Manufacturer: Longpack


Thank you all who participated in our playtesting and development. Only because of you, this project is possible.

For Retailers 

We would love to see more people discover Lionwake, but maintaining the trust of our backers is equally important to us.

Retailers and distributors interested in Lionwake are welcome to contact us directly at lennyliu@wonderfulworldboardgames.com for details on availability, pricing, and ordering.

A limited number of Kickstarter Minis Reward Tiers may be ordered by approved retail partners during the campaign or pledge-manager period. These copies will be part of the same production run. The Kickstarter Minis price is $129, while the planned MSRP for retail copies is $169.

We will ship any retailer copies to retail partners to be made available for purchase only after regular backer orders have been dispatched.

If Lionwake later receives a Standard Retail Edition, it will be a more streamlined product, namely components, and will not be released until at least three months after regular backer orders have been dispatched.

What Does Kickstarter Exclusive (KSE) Mean?

Items marked Kickstarter Exclusive (KSE) will only be manufactured as part of this original Kickstarter production.

The production quantity will include Kickstarter backer orders, approved retailer orders confirmed during the campaign or pledge-manager period, and a reasonable number of additional copies for replacements, manufacturing needs, and logistics.

After fulfillment and replacement needs have been met, a small number of remaining copies may become available through our official online store or at conventions. But their availability and release are not guaranteed.

Once these copies are gone, KSE items will not be reproduced or included in future retail editions.