Mer’ca - PROTECT YOUR REGION. BURY EVERYONE ELSE'S

Note This is a mockup. The final game may have slight variations. See prototype photos below to see evolution. 

Our first night of playtesting out in public at Living Room Wines in Portland Oregon in July. We had two games going at the same time; all ages and a wide range of backgrounds. Other bar patrons were asking where they could buy one! Playtesters from rural Wisconsin and Chicago suburbs also approved!

Building prototypes has been a lot of fun. It's like going back to Kindergarten! Now.. if we can just get more naptimes...

Our first version (the first week of January) was typed on word and printed out on sheets of paper. For version two in February we did a quick pass with Midjourney to make images while we worked on the content and game play elements. The first games weren't perfect yet, but our first 5 playtest sessions were a lot of fun!

We brought on a graphic designer in April as a partner to help rework the designs and the guys geeked out with some power tools to cut up dowels. (We defaulted to cheaper poker chips for the next round of 18 prototypes until we can get some more money to up the quality!)

House Rules: Because Somebody At The Table Always Thinks They Know Better. . . A foil-pack add-on of 10 House Rules that let the host, or whoever lands the Swamp first, bend Mer'ca to their will before a single Chaos card hits the table.

Every group plays Mer'ca a little differently. Some tables want a fast, brutal collapse. Some want long games, shaky alliances, and a comeback nobody saw coming. House Rules hand that power to one person… and let everyone else complain about it.

At the start of the game, the host (or the first player to land the Swamp, your call) picks the House Rules in play. Want shorter games? There's a rule for that. Want to make the Swamp even more dangerous to hold? Also a rule. Want to give eliminated players a real shot at crawling back? Maybe. You'll need the House Rules pack to find out...

Ten cards. Ten rules. One person deciding how the night goes, which is exactly the kind of low-stakes power grab this game was built for.

Free for the first 48 hours.
Back Mer'ca in the opening 48 hours of the campaign and the House Rules foil pack is added to your pledge at no extra cost. After that, it becomes a paid add-on. No stretch goals to unlock, no hoops. Show up early, and the pack is yours.

• Do I need House Rules to play? No. Mer'ca plays great out of the box. House Rules are for tables that want to tweak the chaos.
• Who picks the rules? The host sets them before the game, or you can hand that power to whoever lands the Swamp first. Your table, your call.
• How do I get it free? Back in the first 48 hours. It's added to your pledge automatically, no code, no add-on selection needed. 

What if I miss the 48-hour window? You can still add it as a paid add-on during the campaign.

Jill (left with glasses and full celebration mode) - snarky content queen! Justin at the back tells us when we've gone too far.. he's the balance that keeps us from being total a**holes! Bryan on the right is the copy editor (putting that journalism degree to use finally) and backup sarcasm generator. Laura likes to boss people around. The rest of the team puts up with her because she does know a lot about starting businesses. Anissa (not pictured) joined the group later to help with design and artwork.

We've also leaned on Lola @lolabullterrier16 on Insta (our friend Steven's choas-loving pup) @ambarianmusic to give her approval. Jill and Justin's cats, Lumi Love Beans and Quentin Tabitino, are only mildly impressed.  

A big Thank You to Kyle Krempley for building our video and logo redesign work (in progress). https://kylekrempleyphoto.com/work and Living Room Wines for letting us film and host game play sessions at their location. https://www.livingroomwinespdx.com/ Also, Uncle Frank and Aunt Laurie for hosting a super fun outdoor BBQ and firepit gameplay session with Frank's brother and sister-in-law in Wisconsin! That's some of the best play action we've had so far! 

Thank you for reading and learning about our adventure!