Ticket to Ride creator shakes things up with earthquake recovery board game Aftershock

If you thought Alan R. Moon’s Ticket to Ride was earthshaking, the Spiel des Jahres-winning designer’s next board game sees him take control of the Earth’s tectonic plates themselves.

Aftershock is the first of two collaborations between Moon and newcomer Bobby West due out in 2019 – the other being Folding Space, a sci-fi battle game that plays out on an inventive folding board.

Aftershock is a more conventional design, with players competing to earn points as they rebuild San Francisco in the wake of a devastating earthquake.

The hour-long area-control game involves three to five players populating the city with meeples and building bridges that can then be used to move the inhabitants between regions. The twist is that players must use the aftershocks of the quake – which they have control over – to shift citizens around the board.

There’s an element of bluffing and negotiation to proceedings, with players able to secretly plan their actions behind a hidden screen and choose the areas they predict will score highest.

The card-drafting gameplay also features a closed economy, allowing players to purchase cards from their rivals to enable actions and score points.

Aftershock is currently up on Kickstarter, where its enlarged ‘deluxe edition’ has almost passed its target in a matter of hours. As well as improved components, one of the crowdfunding campaign’s stretch goals is a new game board depicting the Italian city of Venice.

The deluxe edition is planned for release this November, with a retail release to follow.