Desperate for Hades 2? This Ancient Greece inspired board game should tide you over
Something to muse on.
Dance of Muses is an upcoming board game whose theme and artwork should scratch the itch players have for the yet-to-be-released video game Hades 2.
A board game for two to four players that takes around 20 minutes to play, Dance of Muses takes inspiration from the myths of Ancient Greece: similarly to the Hades video game series. Also like Hades and Hades 2, Dance of Muses features a cast of characters taken straight out of Greek mythology - in this case the famous Muses.
Muses in Greek mythology are goddesses of the arts, daughters of Zeus and were often called upon by the people whenever they sought inspiration. The Muses were made up of Calliope - probably the most well-known and goddess of epic poetry - Clio, goddess of history, Polyhymmia, the goddess of mime, Euterpe, the goddess of the flute, Terpsichore, the goddess of light verse and dance, Erato, the goddess of lyrical choral poetry, Melpomene, the tragedy goddess, Thalia, a triple goddess of comedy, and the astronomy goddess Urania.
Each of these goddesses are featured in Dance of the Muses - depicted through artwork by Giulia D’Urso and Sara Marino that is reminiscent of the iconic artwork found in the Hades series by Jen Zee. Every one of the Muses has their own character tile, with their depictions referencing their specific areas of artistic expertise - such as Calliope holding a book, Thalia holding a comic mask and Urania’s necklace appearing like a string of moons.
At the beginning of the game, players take turns to place Muse cards onto the table, before placing a d6 showing the number one side up placed on each of them. Players then take turns to move one or more of the Muses in an orthogonal fashion, or not diagonally. Whenever Muses are moved, they must remain connected to at least one other Muse - they cannot be entirely separated from the others - a group of Muses can be moved together as long as they are connected.
Moving a Muse tile allows the player to increase the number shown on the die on the newly moved tile, with any tiles moved along with it also getting their dice changed. The game ends when a Muse’s dice reaches the number six, with players gaining points based on the dice numbers shown on their Muse tiles. Usually, the higher the number, the better, though every Muse has a specific number that will result in the tile automatically scoring as if it were a six. Players can use the abilities of Muses to affect the movement of the tiles or the die results to their advantage.
Dance of Muses was created by Space Otter Games, a company that has previously made and published a board game called DecKarnage!, which is made up of game designers Marco Baglioni and David Trambusti, editor Francis Green, layout designer Beatrice Lenzi, crowdfunding advisor Mattia Di Strasi, as well as the aforementioned Giulia D’Urso and Sara Marino, alongside music by Deborah Scott.
A crowdfunding campaign for Dance of Muses is currently on Kickstarter until May 28th, with a pledge of €20 (£18/$21.50) getting backers a copy of the game by next May. Alternatively, a print-and-play version is available for €11 (£10/$12).