Leder Games

Leder Games is a board game developer owned by Patrick Leder and based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is best known for publishing asymmetric games such as Root and Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile, which were both designed by Cole Wehrle. As of 2023, board games released by the company have usually been illustrated by Kyle Ferrin.

Leder Games
IndustryTabletop games
Founded2014 (2014)
FounderPatrick Leder
Key people
  • Cole Wehrle
  • Kyle Ferrin
Products
Websiteledergames.com

History

Leder Games was founded by Patrick Leder in 2014. Leder had been involved in board game design in his free time since 2001, obtained degrees in English and psychology at Hamline University, and quit his database programming job at Macalester College in 2016 to work on the company.[1][2]

Business model

Leder Games relies on the Kickstarter platform as both a funding and marketing tool. It focuses on releasing fewer, larger games in order to build anticipation, rather than releasing a large amount of games each year. Distinct from many board game companies, the business does not use a contract worker model, instead building a team of more permanent and higher paid employees.[1]

Games

Leder Games' titles abide by a naming format of four letters.[3]

Vast (2015)

In 2015, the company released their first game, Vast: The Crystal Caverns. In the game, a knight attempts to slay a dragon in a cave, with players able to play as the dragon, knight, or the cave itself. It was the first game by the company to be funded by a Kickstarter campaign, initially asking for $40,000 but eventually raising $150,000. A second printing of the game raised $500,000 on the platform.[2]

The original game was followed by Vast: The Mysterious Manor, Vast: The Fearsome Foes, and Vast: Haunted Hallways.

Root (2018)
Main article: Root (board game)

In 2018, Leder Games released Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right, the first to be designed by Wehrle. It was followed by four main expansions from 2018 to 2022:

  • Root: The Riverfolk Expansion (2018)[4]
  • Root: The Underworld Expansion (2020)[5]
  • Root: The Clockwork Expansion (2020)
  • Root: The Marauder Expansion (2022)

A digital edition created by Dire Wolf Digital was released in 2020,[6] and a role-playing game based upon the original game was released in 2021.[7] Patrick Leder's Path, an open world board game that takes place in the same universe as Root, was in development in December 2022.[8]

Oath (2020)
Main article: Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile

Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile is a game about intergenerational power struggles, developed by Wehrle since 2018 and released by Leder Games in 2020.[1] In 2022, Wehrle announced that Leder Games was designing an expansion for the game.[9]

Fort (2021)

Designed by Grant Rodiek, Fort is a deck-building game themed around children competing to build the best fort.[10] It was rethemed from the 2018 game SPQF published by Rodiek's Hyperbole Games, originally depicting a kingdom of forest animals inspired by Ancient Rome.[11]

The game was nominated at the 2021 SXSW Gaming Awards for Tabletop Game of the Year.[12] Dicebreaker noted that it "fosters social interactions and emotions above everything else."[10]

Ahoy (2022)

A pirate themed board game designed by Greg Loring-Albright, Ahoy involves four separate factions, two of whom fight over control of the expanding ocean map, while the others gain points by picking up and delivering cargo.[13]

Dicebreaker touted the game as a "beginner-friendly" version of Root, being significantly faster and lighter but "lack[ing] the brutal politicking and long-term strategy that made Root such a standout."[13] Game Informer listed the game as one of the best board games of 2022.[14]

Arcs (2023)

An upcoming release from the company is Arcs: Collapse and Conflict in the Void. It is a space opera themed 4X campaign game designed by Wehrle in which players compete to rebuild a dying empire.[15][16] During design, a focus was placed upon quick games that each procedurally generate the next, creating an arc of three acts in which player powers begin symmetrically but diverge over time.[16]

The Kickstarter campaign for the game earned over $532,000 in its first five hours and is expected to be delivered to backers in December 2023, with a retail version to follow.[16] Polygon noted that Arcs is part of a trend of attempting to streamline board game campaigns for more rapid play, alongside games such as Legacy of Yu.[15]

Awards

Origins Awards
  • Game of the Year 2019 - Root, designed by Cole Wehrle
  • Best Board Game 2019 - Root, designed by Cole Wehrle
  • Fan Favourite Board Game 2019 - Root, designed by Cole Wehrle

Origins awards won by Leder Games were later returned in 2020 due to concerns about the Game Manufacturers Association and support for the BIPOC community.[17][18]

SXSW Gaming Awards
  • Tabletop Game of the Year 2019 - Root, designed by Cole Wehrle

American Tabletop Awards
  • Complex Games 2019 - Root, designed by Cole Wehrle[19]

Charles S. Roberts Awards
  • Best Science-Fiction or Fantasy Board Wargame 2021 - Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile, designed by Cole Wehrle

Golden Geek Awards
  • Most Innovative Board Game 2021 - Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile, designed by Cole Wehrle[20]

References
  1. St. Anthony, Neal (2020-02-23). "Patrick Leder, who lost a St. Paul IT job, has become a board-game industry luminary". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  2. Chin, Richard (2023-11-02). "Winter is coming: Time to try some of these board games being made by Twin Cities designers". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  3. Ritter-Roderick, Jonathan (2022-06-08). "On working hard to get to do what you love". The Creative Independent. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  4. Meehan, Alex (2021-04-13). "The Riverfolk Expansion is sailing onto the digital version of Root this month". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  5. Meehan, Alex (2023-03-17). "Root Digital's Underworld Expansion adds corvid and mole factions". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  6. Meehan, Alex (2020-09-14). "Root digital is releasing on mobile later this month". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  7. Hall, Charlie (2021-12-15). "Root: The Roleplaying Game is a delightfully blank slate, ready for adventure". Polygon. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  8. Meehan, Alex (2022-12-07). "A Root open-world board game is coming after "years" in development". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  9. Meehan, Alex (2022-12-08). "First Oath board game expansion will give losers a fighting chance". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  10. Meehan, Alex (2020-07-31). "Fort board game review - childhood whimsy meets captivating cardplay in colourful deckbuilder". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  11. Saari, Mikko (2021-05-09). "Fort". Lautapeliopas (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  12. Sheehan, Gavin (2021-02-17). "2021 SXSW Gaming Awards Announces Nominees". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  13. Jarvis, Matt (2022-10-04). "Ahoy is the beginner-friendly Root I didn't know I wanted - and it's left me hooked". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  14. Miller, Matt. "The Best Board Games Of 2022". Game Informer. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  15. Theel, Charlie (2023-05-01). "Board gamers have campaign fatigue, and publishers need to adapt quickly". Polygon. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  16. Percovich, Gianluca (2022-05-24). "Arcs is a 4X board game from the team behind critically acclaimed Root and Oath". Polygon. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  17. Jones, Shelly; Pobuda, Tanya (2020-12-06). "An Analysis of Gender-Inclusive Language and Imagery in Top-Ranked Board Game Rulebooks". Analog Game Studies. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  18. "Our Statement on GAMA and Origins Online". Leder Games. 2020-06-11. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  19. "Root". The American Tabletop Awards. 2019-09-16. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  20. "Golden Geek Winners Announced for 2021 – Radlands, Arnak, and Sleeping Gods amongst the winners". Tabletop Gaming. 3 May 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
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