Meltdown

In Meltdown, you lead a global power through the tumultuous twenty-first century. Can you build a nation that withstands rising temperatures and tensions? Will you cooperate with your fellows for a chance to realize humanity’s dreams or crush them to ensure your own survival? Because if you fail… global Meltdown awaits.

Background

Designed in 2023, Meltdown is a highly interactive deck builder. Where players are tasked not only with developing a strategy that suits their nation's strengths and goals, but also navigating ever shifting alliances and rivalries across the table.

Take control of a global power

Utilize over 200 unique card effects to find your nation's route to victory. Expand your sphere of influence by taking control of satellite nations, develop devastating new weapons, or fight against the rising tides of climate change to preserve the planet. Take care to ensure that none of your rivals climb too far ahead or fall too far behind, lest they claim the crown of global dominion before you, or forsake everything and become a Rogue Nation bent on destruction and devastation.

Use your resources to augment your power at different phases

The market of cards available to you is ever changing. The intensity of card effects increase over time and at higher levels of tension and temperature. So if players turn to fossil fuels, invasions, or precision strikes, the options available to the rest of the table as a response will become ever more powerful. All players will have to walk a fine line of making sure they have the tools they need to deter or slow their opponents without turning the world into a smoldering crater.

Accumulate satellite states to establish your hold over world order

Build your coalition of nations from 47 different options. It'll be up to you to decide where and how you want to invest in your alliances. Snapping up small powers can help you sprint to an early victory, but pursuing larger nations will give your deck the ability to ramp up more quickly. Strike a balance of finding what helps your strategy and denying your opponents the abilities they need access to the most.

Strategize, persuade, or dominate—or throw caution to the wind and go rogue

In Meltdown, you have several different ways to achieve victory. Will you find a way to work together with all of your rivals and achieve utopia, fostering an era of peace and prosperity? Will you try and play the long-game, building for the future in a world where even the present is troubled? Will you rely on influence and partnership, constructing a web of alliances that will support your aims? Will you turn to arms and weapons of war, looking to crush the other powers under boots and tank treads. Or will you reject the world order and embrace the coming apocalypse in order to be the King of the Wasteland? The future is in your hands.