Inspired by Fortnite and PUBG, Last One Standing is bringing the battle royale to board games

You don’t have to be Drake to have heard of Fortnite Battle Royale, the ridiculously popular video game about 100 players fighting it out to be the last left alive on an ever-shrinking island. Now, a board game wants to replicate Fortnite’s success on the tabletop.

Last One Standing seems to be wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, with a cartoony look very reminiscent of Fortnite’s visuals and a confident subtitle proclaiming it ‘The Battle Royale Board Game’.

Its setup will be familiar to anyone who has played a match of Fortnite or PC rival PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, too: a crowd of competitors are parachuted onto an island, where they must gather loot and weapons to eliminate their opponents as the map gradually shrinks in size. As you might have guessed, the last person standing is the winner.

If 100 players sounds like a bit much for a board game, you’d be right. Last One Standing maxes out at eight people, keeping a match between half an hour and 80 minutes. Creator Brendan McCaskell is already trying to quell fears about player elimination, saying that most players last until at least round six of the game's ten-round matches and insisting that downtime is no worse than King of Tokyo.

As well as a mode where all of the players are out for themselves, the game will include a duos mode for a showdown between teams of two – with the chance to revive downed players rather than being instantly eliminated.

On a turn, players can move, shoot or use an item card, with a character’s weight – determined by how much equipment they’re carrying – affecting the order in which they can act. Combat appears to be resolved with dice rolls, modified by weapon cards.

Last One Standing has been in the works since last October, and is set to go live on Kickstarter on May 1st.