Stag - Deluxe Con Contenuti Kickstarter Inclusi
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- Arrives
- by the end of September 2027
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- 30 November 2026
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FroGames — Deluxe Edition
You’ve raised that beetle for five rounds. Now it’s an adult, sitting in the center of the board alongside the others. Someone proposes cooperation. Someone nods. Someone lies.
WHAT IS IT
A planning game that ends with a survival bluff
J.J. Neville — designer and illustrator of Mycelia — returns with Stag, a game that follows the life cycle of beetles: from egg to larva, from pupa to adult insect. Published by Split Stone Games, every line, icon, and color is designed by the author himself.
The game has two souls. The first is simultaneous planning and resource management: you program your actions with tiles, everyone reveals them at once, the central ring of the board rotates and reshuffles the paths. The second is the showdown: when two or more beetles reach the adult stage, a final confrontation is triggered in the center of the board, and everyone secretly decides whether to cooperate or take it all. After five showdowns, points are tallied.
On BoardGameGeek, Stag is rated with a complexity of 3.25 out of 5: it’s not a filler; it’s a mid-weight game with rules that are easy to explain but decisions that carry weight every round. However, the number of votes is still very low, so let's take that number for what it is: an indication, not a final verdict.
This is the Deluxe edition: same rules and game box as the standard version, but with the components you touch throughout the game replaced with wood — resource tokens, point markers, and trait tokens — plus resource trays, cotton bags, and the screen-printed central beetle. In a game where you move tokens for two hours, that’s a difference you can feel at the table.
The FroGames point of view
You spend five rounds patiently growing something, and thirty seconds deciding whether to ruin everything — for yourself or the others.
The secret of Stag in one line
Until the showdown, it’s almost a parallel solitaire experience: then the game stops being a puzzle and becomes a test of reading faces.
From gameplay experience
Stag · Deluxe Edition
The rulebook includes an official solitaire mode: random draws simulate the actions of three opponents, so the spaces on the board remain contested and your planning really counts — it’s not an "empty" solitaire. However, there is no AI that can beat you: the goal is to beat your own record. Excellent as an optimization puzzle on the life cycle, less complete on the showdown front, which cannot exist in solo mode.
FrogScore · editorial review FroGames · first read: based on the rulebook and official presentation, will be updated with initial playtestsKey components
What you move on the table
Beetle cards
Real species hand-illustrated by J.J. Neville. Each card accompanies its beetle throughout the entire cycle: hatching the egg, feeding the larva, waiting for the pupa, becoming an adult.
Action tiles
Five actions per round: place tiles on your mat by lining up the one you want to execute, and they all resolve together when the table reveals. During the game, you can upgrade them to unlock better effects.
Rotating circular board
Four concentric rings that represent the developmental stages. The central ring rotates each round and changes the available paths. In the center, the Deluxe version includes a screen-printed beetle that keeps everything aligned.
Resources and life tracks
Eggs, natural resources, and tokens — wooden in this edition — to move on a multi-level personal mat, with tracks for aging larvae and pupae and spaces for permanent upgrades.
What this edition adds
The Deluxe content
- 🪵Wooden resource and point tokens instead of cardboard: these are the pieces you handle throughout the entire game.
- 🟤Wooden pupa trait tokens, the ones that climb the tracks and determine final points.
- 🗄️2 resource storage trays: setup is assembled and packed away in one minute instead of five.
- 👝Cotton drawstring bags to keep the tokens separated.
- 🪲Screen-printed central beetle: it stands in the middle of the circular board and is the piece everyone looks at when you open the box.
Rules, cards, and game structure are identical to the standard edition: the material changes, not the game.
Five rounds to patiently build something. One minute to decide if you trust others. It happens every time, at the final showdown.
Come si gioca
Video dimostrativo di gameplay.
🎲How to playThe rules in four steps▼
How to play
The flow of each round
Stag is a simultaneous turn-based game with a cyclical structure: everyone programs, everyone reveals, the board rotates, and you check if a showdown is triggered.
Take your five action tiles and place them on your mat, aligning the action you want to perform. You can hatch and grow beetles, collect resources, age larvae and pupae, draw cards, climb trait tracks, or upgrade the tiles themselves.
Everyone reveals together and resolves actions in the order of the columns. Move tokens from your personal mat to the central board, pay costs, and collect benefits. Someone runs out of eggs, someone discovers they don't have enough resources for the next step.
The central ring turns one notch. The available paths change: spaces that were close are now far away. This rotation forces you to re-plan every round — you can't use the same strategy two turns in a row.
When two or more beetles reach the adult stage, a showdown begins. Players with adult beetles decide in secret: cooperate and share, or fight and take it all — but if more than one chooses to fight, greed pays no one. After five showdowns, points are tallied.
⏱️Your first gameThe chronicle, moment by moment▼
A game in five moments
What happens at the table
Not the rules. The experience.
Setup and first eggs
Everyone takes a mat, their action tiles, and beetle cards. The circular board turns for the first time. Someone makes a joke about larvae. Nobody yet understands how much the showdowns will count.
Everyone programs, everyone makes mistakes
Choose your actions, reveal them with everyone else. The board rotates and the space you wanted is gone. You collect resources you don't need, hatch a larva you hadn't planned, and someone sighs because they forgot to age their pupa.
The first adult beetles
Two beetles reach the last ring. First showdown: everyone decides in secret whether to cooperate or fight. Someone betrays, someone trusts, points shift. From here on, every choice counts double.
Playing on others' timing
Now you know when your opponents will grow their beetles. You try to make your adults coincide with theirs to force a showdown that suits you. Someone upgrades tiles to get better actions. The tension rises.
Fifth showdown and tallying
Final clash. Those who betrayed too much are left behind; those who always cooperated don't have enough. Someone wins by a point gained three rounds ago. End of the game: everyone talks about when they realized you were lying.
🐸Good to knowThree honest things, from friends▼
Good to know
Three things you need to know
The first game is a practice run
The rules are explained quickly, but you understand the rhythm of the life cycle by playing. The first time, you'll plan resources poorly and arrive at the showdown unprepared. From the second game on, everything changes — warn new players.
Bluffing can cancel out planning
You grow beetles for entire rounds, arrive at the showdown, someone betrays, and those points don't materialize. It's fun, but it can make you feel like the previous work mattered less. If your group hates social deduction, this game is not for you.
With two, it's a different game
With four players, the showdowns are unpredictable and tense. With two, it becomes almost cooperative until the betrayal strikes, but it loses the group psychology. It works, it's just a different experience.
🏆Victory and defeatWhat the end rewards▼
How it ends
How to win and lose
A standard game ends after the fifth showdown — the rulebook also includes a shorter four-round variant and a longer six-round variant. The winner is whoever has the most points, adding up those earned in clashes, those from trait tracks, and those from completed personal and universal objectives.
Victory points
- Performing well in showdowns: cooperating means sharing, fighting alone means taking everything
- Climbing the trait tracks while beetles grow
- Completing personal and universal game objectives
Lost points
- Fighting in a showdown where someone else also fights: greed doesn't pay
- Arriving at a showdown without adult beetles: you're just watching
- Ignoring trait tracks: you notice them at the end of the game
It's a eurogame that ends like a bluffing game. If you like the idea of growing something with patience and then staking it all on a single look around the table, Stag does exactly that.
💬FAQQuick answers before checkout▼
FAQ
Stag FAQs
What is the difference between the Deluxe and standard editions?
The game is the same: same rules, same cards, same board. The Deluxe replaces resource tokens, point tokens, and pupa trait tokens with wood versions, and adds two resource trays, cotton bags, and a screen-printed central beetle. If you play often and find long setup times annoying, the trays alone are worth the difference; if you're just looking for the game, the standard is enough.
What mechanics does Stag use?
Simultaneous programming (programmed movement), resource management, hand management, track progression, and a social deduction component at the end. The structure is reminiscent of puzzle eurogames, with the twist being the collective bluffing of the showdowns.
How complicated is it to learn?
The basic rules are explained quickly: program, reveal, resolve. But BoardGameGeek indicates a complexity of 3.25 out of 5, so it's not a filler: managing the life cycle and timing requires attention. Note that there are few votes so far, so that value may shift.
Is it suitable for families with children?
For ages 10 and up, for kids who understand the concept of bluffing and calculated risk. It's not a game for small children: games last up to two hours and showdowns require reading other players. It works well for families if there's someone to explain it and someone already eager to play.
Does it work well solo?
Yes, there is an official solo mode in the rulebook: random draws simulate the actions of three opponents, so spaces on the board remain contested and planning matters just like in multiplayer. Worth knowing: it's not an automa that plays to win; the goal is to beat your own score. The life cycle puzzle works well solo; the showdown, which is the other half of the game, remains a tabletop experience.
Is it available in Italian?
No. The edition for sale is in English. There is text on the cards (species names, requirements, abilities) and a rulebook to read. Language dependency is medium: you need to understand the cards and action tiles, but there are no long narrative texts. Currently, there are no known official Italian translations.
The people behind the game
Who invented it, who designed it, who publishes it — and what else they've done.
Stag Deluxe Edition is the version with upgraded components for this strategy board game for 1-4 players, lasting 60-120 minutes, recommended for ages 10+. Designed and illustrated by J.J. Neville, published by Split Stone Games. The primary mechanic is simultaneous action programming (programmed movement) combined with resource management and social deduction. Players grow beetles through their life cycle — from eggs to larvae, from pupae to adult insects — by programming actions on a circular board with a rotating central ring. When two or more beetles reach the adult stage, a showdown triggers: each player decides in secret whether to cooperate to split the points or fight to take them all. After five showdowns, the player with the most points wins. On BoardGameGeek, Stag has a listed complexity of 3.25 out of 5, with official solo play support. The Deluxe edition adds wooden resource tokens, point tokens, and pupa trait tokens, two resource trays, cotton bags, and a screen-printed central beetle, while maintaining the same rules and content as the standard edition. English edition. Available at FroGames.it.
Stag - Deluxe Con Contenuti Kickstarter Inclusi
Frequently Asked Questions
The answers you're looking for, no beating around the bush.
📸Do the images match the actual product?
The photos on the website often come from BoardGameGeek and are intended to give you an idea of the game. They may vary slightly from the version you receive. The content declared by the publisher is always binding.
📦Does the content of the box match what is indicated?
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