Unexploded Cow

Release Date: February 2013
Set Size: 6 Buttons, 2 Rares
Publisher: Cheapass Games
Designers: James Ernest
Artist: Cheyenne Wright
New Rules: Boom Dice, Mad Swing Dice
Rares: Buckley and Thaddeus

The Unexploded Cow Button Men set was released as a Kickstarter-exclusive stretch goal for the Unexploded Cow (card game) Kickstarter campaign, and extras were later sold through the Cheapass Games overstock website. ( https://www.bonanza.com/booths/robespierrette ) The two rares, Buckley and Thaddeus, were stretch goals for the non-cheapass Kickstarter "Spherical d14 and d18" campaign and were designed in August of 2012.

This set also introduces two new die sizes, the d14 and d18, the Mad Swing Die, and a new Die Skill, the Boom Die. Boom Dice are shaped like a cartoon bomb and have a new attack, the "Boom" attack. You may remove your Boom Die from the game to force one of your opponent's dice to reroll (instead of any other kind of attack).

The Unexploded Cows are a motley bunch. They wander the fields of France in search of unexploded bombs, left behind by a century of conflict. They enjoy canning, badminton, finding explosives, and short grass. They strive every day to earn the respect of their peers, while upholding the honor of their vanishing way of life. And they like to beat people up.

Buckley and Thaddeus, the rares for the set, were initially from a fan of Button Men suggesting that the d14 and d18 could make for some interesting Button Men. As James Ernest told Kicktrac:

Button Men have always been a great promotional item, and of course they were tailor-made to sell dice. So that makes them a perfect promo for new dice sizes! Plus, anything that we can do to cross-promote two concurrent Kickstarter campaigns seems like a smart idea.

Tom Anders of Impact Miniatures states:

I sent a request to create a Button Man using the D14 and D18 and James let me know he had Unexploded Cow going on Kickstarter and he was the one that proposed the cross-promotion using the triangle between our two Kickstarters and Button Men. " The promotion was a hit. "Having the Unexploded Cow Button Men on display at my booth at Gen Con allowed me get some folks to stop and talk about them (stoppage factor at Gen Con is always good). It gave me a chance to show them the D14 and D18 prototypes we had at Gen Con and then to let them know the characters are from Unexploded Cow from Cheapass and is on Kickstarter right now. So free advertising from my booth for Cheapass and I gained the stoppage factor for people coming over to my booth to talk. That is a plus for both of our businesses in my thoughts.^[1]