(Crowdfund Quest) Button Kingdoms - The Cuddly Game of Conquest

What happens when deck-building, tactical conquest, and childhood imagination collide? You get Button Kingdoms, one of the most charming tabletop projects currently on Kickstarter, and one I unashamedly backed as soon as I saw it.

Created by Around the Stump Games, Button Kingdoms invites players into a wonderfully nostalgioc world where armies aren’t made of hardened soldiers but from cuddly plush toys battling for control of an imaginary playground kingdom.

THE CUDDLIEST GAME OF CONQUEST

You and your childhood friends have imagined the playground into a fantasy world, but now, war has broken out between you all for control of the Button Kingdoms. To claim your victory, you’ll have to put together a mighty army of plushies to assist you. The only catch? You have to share your toys!

Every battle begins around the you box. Before anyone can recruit a plushie to their army, you and your friends have to decide who gets to play with it.

At first glance, the colourful artwork and lovable plush characters might make you think this is a light family game. While it certainly welcomes families, and newer gamers, Button Kingdoms has plenty of strategic depth beneath its soft exterior.

Players build their own armies by recruiting plush companions, managing resources in the form of buttons, and carefully planning their route to victory - challenging kingdomn rivals and competing for precious victory points.

One of the games features that really appeals to me is it’s social market system. Instead of simply waiting for your turn, players take part in sumultaneous blind bidding, bluffing, reading your opponents, and making deals to try and gain the advantage.

During the Bazaar phase, you’ll be locked in a battle of wits as you secretly place action tokens to buy, sell, or steal each card on offer.

When your actions resolve, will you have read your opponents perfectly and became filthy rich? Snagged a free card by deceiving everyone else? Or table talked your way into a deal that the whole group is happy with?

The goal of Button Kingdoms is to have the most victory points when the game ends. There victory points can be gained in three ways.

1) Acquiring Buttons

2) Capturing Thrones and Treasures

3) Playing to your Champion’s Ambition

The game ends immediately after more than half of the thrones have been seized (2 in a two or three player game or 3 in a four player game).

Here is a quick rundown of a game turn:

1. Draw Cards: Each player draws 5 cards from their personal deck.

   • If you ever don’t have enough cards in your deck to draw, shuffle your discard pile to create a new deck to draw from.

2. Play Day Cards: Everyone plays zero to all of their cards face down, then reveals them to gain buttons, defenses, or prepare for later phases.

3. Place iStones: Players place their three iStone tokens on cards in the market to attempt to buy, sell, or steal them.

   • iStones are placed face down, so they are hidden, but not secret.

   • Table talk is encouraged. You may truthfully say where you placed your tokens - or lie. Do whatever it takes to make the market work out to your advantage.

4. Resolve the Market: The seller of a card is the player who placed the lowest Numbered iStone on that card. If more than one player wants to buy that card, they can make promises to win the seller over; but they can not offer to trade actual buttons, cards, or tokens - only promises. If a card doesn’t sell, a thief may steal it for free. If more than one player tries to steal the same card, it is removed from the market and no one gets it.

   • Cards that are purchased or stolen are added to the buyer’s or theif’s discard pile.

5. Reclaim iStones: Take back two Buy iStones. Then, starting with the highest Numbered iStone, swap each Numbered iStone with the one on the corresponding flagged space in the market.

6. Reveal Your Champion (Optional): Choose whether to reveal your Champion. IF revealed, you gain that Champion’s ability for each remaining round.

7. Play Night Cards: Play the cards remaining in your hand for their Night abilities to make your aggresive moves.

8. Attack: Starting with the player holding the highest Numbered iStone, each player attacks an opponent. Successful attackls may earn Treasures and Thrones.

9. Run a Second Market Phase: Conduct another market phase using the same market rules.

10. Repeat: Continue repeating these steps until more tha half of the Thrones have been seized, then the game ends.

Button Kingdoms is available on Kickstarter with both a Standard and a Deluxe Edition of the game. Also available is an expansion called Shadow Ports, as well as three adorable plushies - the Assassin, Engineer and Knight!

Button Kingdoms - The Cuddly Game of Conquest is currently funding on Kickstarter, with the campaign running until Thursday 6th August 2026.