I don't know if anyone has followed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past Kickstarter campaign, but it's starting to be delivered to backers now (I was not one of them - I only recently learned about it and ordered a retail version).

It's a Descent descendant designed by Kevin Wilson, and so far has overwhelmingly positive reviews. It has some interesting new mechanics, such as the way heroes can share dice during their turns.

Has anyone else played it yet? Is there anything that you especially like or dislike about it?

Sample rulebook here: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/idw-transfer/kickstarter/tmnt/TMNTRulebook-12.pdf

Print and Play here: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/idw-transfer/kickstarter/tmnt/TMNT-PrintNPlay.zip

I am a Works backer. I've toyed around with it.

It is an ideal for beginners in this type of game. Set up is much quicker. A LOT less bookkeeping. And a "campaign" is a much quicker experience. Descent 2nd and Imperial Assault gives a much more RPG-esque experience. But, you do have to keep track of a lot. And setting up a new map for each mission can get a bit lengthy. A map in TMNT is just two of 6 boards put side by side, with the occasional prop added in.

I do love the mechanics. The dice sharing for the heroes and the cards for the villains. It makes it a very different experience playing a different side. The dice sharing will make it a much more co-op feeling game.

Also, The Works is significantly bigger than the Imperial Assault box.

I'm a works backer and love it to death. It's "campaigns" are only three to four missions long (there's four of these campaigns in the retail box), and each of the four heroes are more cooperative as a result of the dice sharing mechanic. The dice themselves also add more variety, as instead of just having two actions, one of which can be an attack, the actions you have available to you are dictated by which dice you roll. If you roll three of the melee dice, you can do three different melee attacks, for instance. Each character also has a variety of "special" actions they can use instead that are unique to each hero.

Additionally, the fact that there's no inventory / levels / etc, and the fact that each map is composed of only two large tiles, means that TMNT hits the table incredibly fast. Honestly, I could tell that - with my gaming group - TMNT was an overall more enjoyable experience from a campaign standpoint. My friends get bored with all the downtime between missions in IA, and again, IA also has less interactions between the players.

That said, obviously IA has skirmish, and skirmish is still awesome. But TMNT is going to be our campaign game far more often now.

the miniatures are awesome, but the game mechanics looked terrible so i never bothered to back it.

still unsure if i'll ever pick it up myself, but i'm still leaning towards, no

Not sure what your issue with the mechanics are, but I think they are great.

Not sure what your issue with the mechanics are, but I think they are great.

i only watched the kick starter video and it seemed like a game meant for children and the young at heart. which is understandable because TMNT is for those that grew up with it and want the nostalgia fix and children of today

but not for someone such as myself that likes more complex strategy in my game play.

have you ever played "Infinity" by Corvus Belli? now that's a super complex game. Probably the most complex game i've played to date, but it's so good!

Works backer here, have played three missions (1 comic) as the villain. The dice sharing and villain mechanics are very fun, the minis are decent quality for the most part, and so far the missions have been flavorful. Only two complaints:

1.) The missions, like most IA and Descent missions, seem very heavily stacked against one side or the other. They just don't come down to the wire.

2.) There is a definite lack of advancement in TMNT, as the win reward is pretty minimal. While this makes the campaigns quick and uncomplicated, I do prefer a bit more RPG in my campaign games.

Overall, it was a good investment.