Monster Hunter World Iceborne Feature Preview

The cold winds carry the mysterious song of the fearsome Legiana, beckoning seasoned adventurers back for the latest expansion to the popular Monster Hunter Board Game which released last year.

With the Kickstarter nearly reaching 1000% of its funding goal and less than a week remaining, our contributor Chris Lowry caught up with Mat Hart (one of the founders of Steamforged Games) to ask how the experience of creating Iceborne has been.

“You see, the really easy thing for us to have done, with a follow-up to Monster Hunter World, would be to do more of the same” says Mat. “Iceborne will end up being a bigger value proposition even than the original game.”

Game designer Jamie Perkins explains what led to them designing not just an expansion. “[Iceborne is] a standalone board game so that it can be picked up and played by someone who doesn’t own, or hasn’t played, World. That’s an important decision we had to make to ensure the community can continue to grow, without people feeling like they have to buy and play World before Iceborne."

Adapting features introduced in the video game expansion like the Clutch Claw (which let you grappling hook directly onto the fearsome beasties to get up close and personal) was also key to Iceborne. “Monster Hunter World is a game where positioning is very important,” says Jamie. “In Iceborne, adding the ability to leap across half the board? It’s a total change to how players approach the puzzle”.

The changes aren’t all small either. What’s harder than battling one big monster? Fighting two huge monsters at once! “Turf Wars are probably my favourite addition”, said Jamie. “Some of the changes we’ve made to the core game in Iceborne have reduced the general complexity - so that we can introduce some really fun additional ideas. With Turf Wars, you now have two monsters on the board, fighting you - or each other”.

Iceborne will continue in its base game's footsteps with some incredible miniatures, although we're not sure the term ‘miniatures' really applies any more. “In fact, the Elder Dragon we have on display, myself and Russ both looked at it and realised that base size can support a larger model”, says Mat, “And why not? We can make people excited when they put it down! It’s the star of the show!” At this rate, there may be a threat that some of the monsters will end up matching their life-sized fictional counterparts.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne: The Board Game is live until Thursday 1^st June, 9pm BST.
Catch the full article and interview Chris made in Issue 80 of Tabletop Gaming!