Scythe creator’s legacy board game Charterstone coming to PC, mobile and Switch

Charterstone, the legacy worker-placement game from Scythe designer Jamey Stegmaier, is headed to digital platforms next year.

Charterstone, Stegmaier’s first legacy-style game, was released in late 2017 and combined its competitive village-building gameplay with charming Miyazaki-esque visuals and the permanent evolution of games such as Pandemic Legacy, as players stuck stickers to a shared main game board, drew on cards and introduced new gameplay mechanisms by adding to (or taking away from) the game’s central ‘Chronicle’ of cards.

While Charterstone’s campaign could be restarted by flipping the double-sided board over and using a separately-available refresh pack, it was still decidedly a legacy game, with many of the changes made by players during the course of its one-way-only story and run of scenarios irreversibly customising their copy of the game.

Its upcoming digital edition might not have quite the same feeling of permanence and personalisation, as Acram Digital’s app for PC, Mac, iOS, Android and the Nintendo Switch will feature ‘full replayability’, with the same promise that no two playthroughs will be the same.

Charterstone: Digital Edition has apparently been developed closely with Stegmaier, who ensured that the board game’s rules made the leap to screens essentially unchanged.

The app will include single-player (something handled on the tabletop by the Automa deck), as well as multiplayer with either other humans locally or with AI companions.

Artists Mr. Cuddington and Gong Studios’ cartoony illustrations will be brought to life with animated characters and buildings, with other digital enhancements including the addition of unlockable achievements.

Charterstone is currently estimated for a release on PC via Steam, mobile and Switch at the start of 2020 – take a look at its first trailer below.