Dungeon Crusade - Book I: Genesis of Evil

New monsters! Mining & Crafting! New loot! Sneak peek of Heroes vs. Monsters!
over 7 years ago – Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 10:42:26 PM

Hello to all Crusaders of Avalon! :) Rodger here and I hope you are all doing great this weekend and enjoying whatever it is you may be doing. It's nice to be here as always for our weekly ritual. 

This week was busy as usual, but we got something totally hammered out, created and scratched off the DC list. It was worked on pretty much all week with myself and the awesome Freddy Lopez on getting the cards and assets finished. The mining & crafting is fully done! We will get to all this later in this update. 

Also, I thought of this during the past week, and wish I would have thought of this sooner. What I thought of was at the start of the updates from now on, to have a link for last week's update in case someone wants to refer to it quickly. So why not start doing it this week! 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/1805585 

And yes, LOL, leave it to me to make it look like a soap opera or something! And yes, that image will be updated every week with a new monster or hero.

Ok, so on with this update! 

NEW MONSTERS:

I have had this monster for a while actually. This is of course a minion monster. And remember, minions are miniatures that roam throughout the dungeon with the use of the patrol route system. You will never quite know where the minions will end up next in the dungeon, or if they convert to a raiding minion to head out of the dungeon and raid the village, thus raising the terror level by 1. 

This Skeletal Grunt was a team effort from the guys at Cornerstone Creative Studios. The most incredible Joseph Arnold did the sketching on it, the inking was done by the stunning Jesse Hansen and the coloring was done by Mr. Freddy Lopez. 

Take a look!....

SKELETAL GRUNT:

 I really like that special ability. For example...let's say the knight and barbarian were engaged in combat with the Skeletal Grunt. The knight attacked in phase 2 and was successful, and the barbarian attacked in phase 3 and was successful. 

Before applying damage to the Skeletal Grunt, it would roll the D20 for phase 2 first. The result is 16. The Skeletal Grunt deflected the attack! It would not receive the damage from the knight.

Then it would roll the D20 again for phase 3 for the potential damage the barbarian would deal. The D20 is rolled, and the result is 13. The Skeletal Grunt would take the damage, as it is under 14. 

I have some other special abilities coming you guys haven't seen yet. Actually, we have one coming up for a new level 4 champion monster, the Beast of the Faith!

BEAST OF THE FAITH:

OK, this one is just out of this world. You can blame Mr. Freddy Lopez for this absolutely vile, awesome, incredible and epic monster folks!  I post on my facebook and the Dungeon Crusade facebook page to share this game with everyone. So here is what I posted about this piece...

As you can see, Freddy just did a highly disgusting, incredible, creative and awesome design! This guy just blows me away with what he creates and envisions. He also has a VERY imaginative, outlandish and creative mindset for monster design and many other things." 

 Here is a small promo poster I put together, plus the origin story for you....

 And here is it's monster card...

 This special ability is a new type you're seeing. As it reads, you must defeat another monster before combating a Beast of the Faith. 

PRO TIP: Stock up on healing potions at the bazaar in the village before venturing into the higher levels of the dungeon!

I believe next week we are going to have a bunch to show you guys. A level 2 champion monster called "Primeval Regent", with a special ability that you have not seen before. Very cool and very fitting for a game such as this! ;) 

MINING & CRAFTING:

And now my friends, you will see what I and Freddy were so busy with last week, but the great news is we managed to scratch mining and crafting off the list! It's done! All I have to do is put some of the recipes together on the new card design and we are good to go...

So...welcome to mining & crafting in Dungeon Crusade! :)

 Last week you saw a quick demo of it, so this week we are going to elaborate on it much more. I want to emphasize the mining and crafting system is very easy and fun. And it's something that heroes will want to use at the higher levels of difficulty. 

So let's start with this...some weapons have round sockets. Power gems that are round go into these weapons.

Some armor types have square sockets. Power gems that are square go into this type of armor. 

So this was my prototype design for the recipe card I came up with. I wanted a very easy and clean design for this. Something very neutral in colors...

What follows is what Freddy came up with, and man, I love it! :) I think it goes great for these recipe cards. And I must say, Freddy truly assisted me greatly with this whole mining & crafting aspect of the game for creating the various components I needed to put this system together for us. An outstanding artist and even more just one of the most helpful, nicest and cool people I have met. :)  

So let's break down some of this for you. First, Moonstone and Zultanite are always needed in the creation process of creating power gems. Moonstone provides the hardness and toughness of the power gem, while Zultanite amplifies the magical effect of what is exactly being created. 

Take a look at this picture I put together for you. It shows the 6 precious stones and recipe card breakdown. Of course everything you see must be mined. None of these stones can be purchased. 

 

Here is another picture for you....

 

So hopefully that is very easy to understand. Looking above at the Steal Life Gem, you would need to mine 3 moonstone, 4 zultanite, and 1 jade, obsidian and amethyst for the blacksmith to craft that power gem. The blacksmith charges 200 gold to craft a power gem. 

Also, you can give the stones and gold to Albus, and have him run back to the village to have the blacksmith craft the power gem. Albus can then run it back to that hero who wants it. Another rule that was way streamlined was a power gem just plugs into a socket, and can be removed at will. 

The original way, (more thematic) was the blacksmith had to have the weapon or armor and imbue it into the piece of gear. If a hero wanted it removed, there was a charge to do this. So feel free to play this way if you like as a hardcore house rule, but the rule will be as I stated before. 

Now, I can hear it already..LOL, some of you are looking at the reverse side of the recipe card, with that double image of the power gem and saying, "Mr. Groovus! Why is there 2 of them!?" "Can you get double the effect?!" "Shouldn't there only be one power gem!" "Are you insane!". LOL, no I'm not insane!...well...maybe a little, but let me explain my Crusaders of the Realm and put your mind at ease! ;) 

First off, I reached into the vast loot chest of what Shaun has created and pulled this tasty little piece for you! KUDOS to Shaun for this most outstanding piece he created! 

 

Let's take a look at this example on how to use a power gem with our new piece of gear, and how it's applied. First let's look at the recipe card for it and what a hero will need for the blacksmith to craft it for them...

 

So we need to mine for 2 moonstone, 2 zultanite, 1 sunstone and 1 Iolite for the blacksmith to craft this for us. Once created, here is what we would do... 

 

The reason I mirrored these cards is sometimes you may wish to place the power gem on the other side of the gear card...

 

So we can see with this Gem of Swiftness inserted, a hero can add +1 to their base movement! But that's not all my Crusaders, there is a higher level of this power gem called Gem of Greater Swiftness. The same recipe as the one above, put it will require more moonstone and zultanite. This would give the hero a Gem of Greater Swiftness and add +2 to their base movement! 

Here is the the Valiant Sword from last week...

 Next, we are going to create a +4 physical prowess gem. Once created and inserted, this will give the Valiant Sword a +4 to all physical warfare rolls! Let's take a look at the recipe card for it....

 So we need to mine for 2 moonstone, 2 zultanite and 1 rubystone. Once the power gem is created, we would do the following...

 

 Now this Valiant Sword can add +6 to all physical warfare rolls! There will be prowess gems for all warfare types. So we could substitute the rubystone, for amethyst and create a +4 mythical prowess gem, that would give a +4 to all mythical warfare rolls! 

Hopefully from this little demo, you can see how many ways you can spec out your hero(es) in Dungeon Crusade with the mining & crafting system. There will be a great number of recipes for you to experiment with! :)  

We will get into the mining aspect of Dungeon Crusade in a few updates from now, but it is very easy. The cool thing is every time you play, the mining zones are randomly placed! A hero or Albus must scout them out to reveal their locations! 

And of course you need to buy a pickaxe from the blacksmith. But pickaxes in Dungeon Crusade could possibly degrade from use. We will get to this soon! ;) 

SNEAK PEEK AT HEROES VS. MONSTERS:

So I was doing the update earlier today and I get an email from Damien. Oh wow! He sent me a VERY close to final of Heroes vs. Monsters! This is the 3rd game in the House of Chance.

I managed to put together a sneak peek video for you. This is a must watch guys. As I said before about him, he went "advanced retro" for sure on this!  

Take a look at this! >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox5zZNhBa9w&feature=youtu.be

We have to go over a few wordings, and he is making the playing pieces now for it. But in Heroes vs. Monsters, the heroes have to defend the Chapel of Light from the advancing monster horde. 

The heroes spend action points for moving and fighting. There is a deck of challenge cards with how to set the monsters up and the reward level the heroes receive if they beat that challenge card. As you right now, there are 8 challenge cards.  

CONSTRUCTION OF CASTLE BLACKWOOD HAS COMMENCED: 

Me and Shaun talked last week about Castle Blackwood. He sent me his sketch on how he will be designing it. And it looks truly AWESOME! The colors and look for this will be very different from the Origins dungeon board. Before we talk about the look of Castle Blackwood, i would like to say a few words about the dungeons and the Origins dungeon board.

To me, variety is the spice of life. The variety in these dungeons boards is top priority for me. With the new Origins board, I wanted a dungeon board that was unique to Dungeon Crusade of course, but would pay homage to 2 of my most favorite games growing up. Heroquest and Warhammer quest. So I guess I would say I wanted 33% Dungeon Crusade, 33% Warhammer Quest and 33% Heroquest. LOL, I'm not sure what the 1% is! 

But I think when you see this in person, you are going to truly love the Origins dungeon board. Do me a favor, when you get some time. go take a look at those 2 games and see what I'm talking about. LOL, but knowing you guys, you probably already know what I'm talking about! :) 

But, Castle Blackwood is going to be VERY different. What me and Shaun are envisioning is very desaturated colors, very gloomy. He brought up the style of the Dark Souls video games, and incorporating a similar look like that into Castle Blackwood. He also is shooting for a mid march to late march completion on it. I will of course keep you posted on it's progress! :)

Also he has his weekly stream on Twitch where is his creating loot for the game. Feel free to stop in there and say HI! I always try to hang out the whole time in there while he is working on stuff. I assure you it's very awesome to watch. The stream starts every Friday at 4 p.m. eastern standard time. and ends at 6 p.m. Here is a link for you >>> https://www.twitch.tv/shmaba  

You can go there at anytime and watch the past videos also. 

IN CLOSING:

So everyone, that is what is going on. last week was consumed with the mining & crafting system which is now complete. I'm getting back on track this week for finishing the revised content for the video playthrough, which at this point I'm dying to do already! I'm very hopeful I will get this accomplished this week. 

I know Jesse is finishing inking the Orc Siegebreaker, Goblin Footman and Orc Archer, then will go to Freddy for coloring. These are all minion monsters.

 And actually during this update Jesse sent me the level 2 champion monster Primeval Regent! Freddy did this one on his own and it looks INCREDIBLE! I will most def have that next update. This monster I created has a very Egyptian monster type of vibe, and it's origin story takes place way south in Avalon, in the dungeon known as Temple of the Sun God. I cut a part of the Avalon map out to show you....

 I also spoke to David Shearer and he is at work on the loot card backing. I expect Tom to be passing off the angels for the blessing deck this week. I'm really excited for these and to share these angels with you guys! Very cool mechanic/aspect of the game for sure! :) 

OK everyone, I'm checking out. I hope you enjoyed the update this week! I will be in the comment section tomorrow to see what's going on and answer any questions you may have. 

And I want to say I have gotten some really awesome messages and email from some of you. Just, THANK YOU. :) It really means alot to me. I'm sorry I'm delayed sometimes getting back, but I will! It's just such a pleasure to know you guys, and be doing something like this with all of you. Besides the advent of our children and getting married, this experience with all of you is right up there with those things. You guys, this game and the artists are truly my life! :)   

LOL, OK, I don't want to get verklempt so I'll stop there! ;)  Have a great day guys, and talk to you soon...Rodger :) 

 

Combat phase tokens! NEW monsters! Monster tokens! Sockets added to gear! OMG!
over 7 years ago – Sun, Feb 12, 2017 at 11:26:08 PM

WARNING!!! THIS IS A MEGA, ULTRA HYPER EXTENSION WEEKLY UPDATE. PLEASE HAVE SNACK AND SODA IN HAND BEFORE CONSUMING THIS UPDATE.

                                                           THANK YOU  - GROOVUS GAMES UNLIMITED

A huge HELLO to all valiant Crusaders of Avalon, and earth we are upon! :) LOL, how are you guys doing? It's great to be here early for a change to share the weekly update with everyone. 

So that pretty awesome image above came about late in the week. This update you're going to learn about the combat phase tokens. These was implemented last year for the combat system that was tweaked,  That image came from an idea I had from the token art..  

I have been busy this week getting the monster cards ready for the new playthrough video. Something pretty cool I did was I have added all of the new monsters to my old monster card design from the prototype game. When we do the playthrough, you will be seeing those in action. 

But take a look at a few of these. Again, these are NOT the final cards, but my personal collection for the prototype game. They aren't perfect by any means, but for playtesting, going in editing certain things, quick reprinting these have really helped me shape up these monsters for the final game and the different difficulty levels....

NEW MONSTERS:

Everyone loves new monsters, and this update I got a bunch for you! The collective team from Cornerstone Creative Studios known as Jesse Hansen, Joseph Arnold and Freddy Lopez provided me with a bunch of awesome new monsters to share with you. I even did some promo posters for a few of them. 

So let's get started with the level 4 Ogre Chieftain!

OGRE CHIEFTAIN: 

 Now..LOL...when Jesse submitted the Ogre Chieftain to me, there was no blood on it at all. I put together this promo poster and was a tad gratuitous with the blood effect. But I truly wanted to hammer the point home that, THIS LEVEL 4 CHAMPION MONSTER WILL (BLANK) YOUR HEROES UP! LOL, I'm sorry I had to use the word "blank" instead of "mess"...we have some children who look at these updates ya'know, so we have to keep it clean. ;) 

And now for it's monster card...normal version with it's origins story...

 And here is the elite version for you...WHOA! Look at that special ability! :O OUCH!

 And I did squeak a little bit of blood in there. We could always remove it however if any Crusaders out there faint at the sight of blood. ;) 

And moving right along here is the much talked about level one champion monster from the Blackhand Army, the Blackhand Sniper. Elite being shown...

BLACKHAND SNIPER:

 This Blackhand Sniper being shown got nerfed just a little bit. As you can see, on a failed test, a hero would take 2 damage. The original one had the hero rolling 1D4 for damage. So what you are seeing here will be the normal difficulty one, and the expert and heroic difficulty Blackhand Sniper will have the 1D4 added in, plus slightly increased stats adjusted accordingly. 

And last but not least. Oh wow guys...this one is just epic awesome. Freddy Lopez took a look at my design doc for the Keeper of the Faith. I had some crazy ideas for this one. and he just ran with it and created this most incredible piece of monster art for the game injecting his style of creativity and imagination into....The Keeper of the Faith...

KEEPER OF THE FAITH: 

So let's move right along to it's monster card for you. I managed to get the normal and elite version done for the update. Here is the normal version...

KEEPER OF THE FAITH (NORMAL VERSION):

 And here is the elite version...

KEEPER OF THE FAITH (ELITE VERSION):

 When I created this monster, I really wanted to do something very unique for it. I wanted it to have no eyes, but rather the eyes of the creature were removed, and embedded within a book. The creature would then launch magical attacks and "see" from this book. The Keeper of the Faith would be able to view whatever the ghostly skulls were able to see.

I think Freddy did just an awesome job on this monster, as did everyone on all of the monsters we have seen today. I know there are more on the way. 

If you remember, there are 7 unique champion monsters per level, add in the 2 different versions that's 14 per level. Times that by 4, that equals  56 champion monsters. 

We have 6 unique minions, with 3 per group. 6 x 3 = 18 minions per level. They level to level 3. So there is 18 minions per level. 18 X 3= 54

Finally there are 8 unique guardians. Each guardian can level up to level 4. So 4 X 8= 32.

So 54 minions, 56 champions and 32 guardians equal 142 monsters in Dungeon Crusade you could say. And "if" there is an expansion, I have themed monsters for each dungeon I would like to do, plus a few new races of monsters I would like to create. 

Did you know in Avalon, there was a long forgotten race of creatures known as the ...LOL, wait, wait..I got to stop and get this juggernaut done first! 

(But they lived within the Cavern of Lost Souls, which is a dungeon board in this edition of Dungeon Crusade! ;) ) SSsssshhhhh.....!!!!  

COMBAT PHASE TOKENS:

So I tried to pull together a really nice video explaining this for you. But just didn't have the time to get it together this update. I should have it next week for you.

But, we are going to go over all of it right now! I'm VERY excited to share this with you. This was one of the best tweaks to the combat system and really opened up so many possibilities for players to create an unlimited way to spec out their heroes for combat. I think I can honestly say you have never seen anything quite like this in a fantasy type boardgame. 

Specing out your heroes in Dungeon Crusade is truly more of something like you would see in a PC game like the Diablo series or World of Warcraft. I think players are just going to have a field day coming up with different ways to deck out their heroes in new and unique ways. I may go as far as to say it's limitless.  

But, let's stay on topic and get to showing you the new combat phase tokens!

 These are very simple to explain. When a hero or heroes encounter a monster, you think and talk about your strategy, of what hero will attack in what phase, and with what weapon they will attack with.

So let's go to a step by step little demo for you guys. I think by the end of this, it's all going to be clear what awaits you in Dungeon Crusade for this aspect of the game. :) 

Let's say, our level 2 Knight hero decides to go rogue, and enter a chamber by himself. There is a quest item within this chamber, and he is going to show how he can roll solo and accomplish this task...

He enters the chamber, and reveals a level 2 monster token...he then would draw a monster card from the level 2 champion monster deck.

He draws, and finds a Keeper of the Faith lurking about the chamber safeguarding the quest item!  

 So the first thing we would do is get the 3 warfare tokens out this monster is versed in, which would be arcane, chaos and spiritual warfare....

 Let's move to a table view and see what's going on here...

 This image is much bigger, but KS crops it in! UHG! 

So let's discuss this a bit. The knight is equipped with a sword, which is a physical warfare weapon and a scepter which is a spiritual warfare weapon. 

Notice on the scepter weapon he can do 2 damage, and add +2 to his spiritual warfare roll. In addition on his hero card, he has a +1 to spiritual warfare rolls. That means he can add a total of +3 to his spiritual warfare rolls! 

So without a question he would attack in phase 3 of this combat round. He would simply take the combat phase token that says, "Phase 3" and place it on the scepter. Meaning of course he is going to attack in phase 3 of combat with his scepter. 

But, he has a problem. Notice in phase one this monster is versed in arcane warfare, and in phase 2 the monster is versed in chaos warfare. But he only has a physical warfare weapon? No worries Crusaders! 

Because...and this will be in bold big print for you...

YOU MAY ATTACK WITH ANY WEAPON IN COMBAT, REGARDLESS OF THE WARFARE TYPE. ON A SUCCESSFUL HIT, THE MONSTER TAKES THE DAMAGE LISTED ON THAT WEAPON CARD.

So let's look at this now. Notice on his hero card. He has a -1 to chaos warfare rolls. Meaning our knight is weak against monsters who are versed in chaos warfare. We do not want to attack in this phase.

However, he does have a +1 to arcane warfare rolls! So he would want to attack in phase 1 of combat. 

He would simply take the combat phase token that says "Phase 1" and place it on his sword. Let's take a look.....

PHASE 1: 

So looking at phase 1 of combat, it's of course arcane warfare. He would roll the green D12 and D6 dice together and total that roll. He also would add his +1 to arcane rolls from his hero card to the roll.  As long as he meets or exceeds 15 shown on the Keeper of the Faiths monster card by arcane warfare, he will score a hit with that sword and damage the Keeper of the Faith for 2 damage. On a fail, he will take 3 damage. 

Now if that arcane warfare was physical warfare instead, this knight would probably clobber the Keeper of the Faith solo. He could add the +4 to physical warfare rolls off of his hero card, and that sword would add an additional +2 giving him a +6 to physical warfare rolls. 

It's very risky to do this. A hero is obviously at a disadvantage, as it really should be. The hero is attacking with a weapon in a warfare type he is not proficient in, nor is the weapon. Basically, the way I see it is he is going to have to really fight (roll) very good to score that hit on the Keeper of the Faith. 

Closing out phase one, I truly love this about Dungeon Crusade. Heroes can't simply run out and solo everything. With 6 different warfare types, it's tough for sure. You must rely on building a party of heroes to fight together. I honestly think it hits the mark for what we love about these types of games. Putting a group of heroes together and building on the strengths and weaknesses of each hero to take monsters down. 

PHASE 2:

All our knight can do in phase 2 is defend of course.  He is using both of his hands in phase 1 and 3 to attack. Phase 2 of course is Chaos warfare. He would be rolling the black D12 and D6 together and totaling the result. As mentioned earlier, on his hero card he must -1 from all chaos warfare rolls. 

And again this makes sense. Heroes in Dungeon Crusade aren't super heroes and be good at everything they fight. They have weaknesses against certain monster types.

The knight is going to have to defend very well (roll) to withstand the attack from the Keeper of the Faith.

PHASE 3:

So finally in phase 3 our knight may do pretty well! He is a little versed in spiritual warfare. He would be rolling the orange D12 and D6 together and totaling the results. On his hero card he can add a +1 to this roll, plus his scepter gives him a +2 to spiritual warfare rolls for a total of +3 added to the roll!

So closing out this section, I hope this excites you even more for Dungeon Crusade, and you see how many possibilities there are to build up your hero(es). 

Of course if the knight would have rallied 1 or 2 more heroes with him before entering that chamber, their chances would have been much better. 

So remember...

COMBAT PHASE TOKENS ARE PLACED ON THE WEAPON CARD THAT A HERO WANTS TO ATTACK WITH FOR THAT CERTAIN COMBAT PHASE. 

SOCKETED GEAR: 

As you guys know, there is a easy and fun mining and crafting system in the game. As a matter of fact, the mining cards and recipes are being worked on right now.

But when you have the blacksmith craft these gems, they are known as "power gems". These power gems can give big bonuses to warfare rolls, stealing life from monsters, more damage, there is one power gem called Gem of Swiftness. Plug this into a piece of armor, and you have +2 movement! I have SO MANY different recipes for these power gems. 

So in my prototype loot cards, sockets have been added to many of the weapons and armor, and are being carried over to the final loot cards of course. Let's take a look at just the socket. The incredibly Freddy Lopez created the socket for us...LOL, it's only a socket, but it's an awesome socket! ;) 

Oh wow! LOL, I didn't think it would be that big!  Let's see it on some loot cards...

 We see this uncommon (green) sword can have a power gem inserted. Perhaps you would like to be more proficient at arcane warfare. Mine for some moonstone, zultanite and jade and have the blacksmith craft you a  +4 prowess arcane gem. Insert it into the socket and now you could add +4 to any arcane warfare rolls! 

+4 PROWESS ARCANE GEM:

 
Or maybe something more powerful...something to steal life from a monster and give your hero life in return! Go mining for some Moonstone, zultanite, obsidian, jade and amethyst and have the blacksmith craft a steal life power gem. This gem will steal 1 life from a monster, and you regain 1 health! 

STEAL LIFE GEM:

 Even legendary weapons and armor will have sockets to make them even more powerful...

 So we are putting together the recipe cards for these gems. The one side will have the recipe for crafting it, then the reverse side will have the gem in the socket. I'm creating the card so you can slide it under the weapon card, and the gem will stick out with a description on what it does. 

Hopefully in a few weeks I will be showing you these. Yet another way to spec out your hero(es) in Dungeon Crusade! And for the higher difficulty monsters, they will be quite essential to have! 

TREASURE CHEST CARDS:

So you may have seen from a few updates ago the treasure chest card backing David Shearer created for us. In case you haven't, here ya go!

 I reached out to Kez today as she is creating the treasure chest cards for the game. These are of course based off of all of my prototype ones. The creative writings I wrote will also be carried over to these treasure chest cards.

But what she did was, and which I love when artists do this, take my work and inject their creativity and imagination into it. Here are a few of the "good" ones. I say good because you get gold in these. And trust me, there are some BAD ones you don't want to open!! ;) 

In any case, AWESOME work Kez! 

 And this background she made is just simply outstanding, Check out those freaking dragon pillars! 

 
As you may know, gold is not the only thing you will find in these ancient chests. There's powerful artifacts, a few empty chests and a good amount with traps! I truly made these treasure chests the ultimate in risk and reward! 

MONSTER TOKENS:

So lastly here I have some final monster tokens for you. These tokens represent the champion monsters which reside in the chambers of the dungeon. As you may know champion monsters safeguard the quest items the heroes need to retrieve. 

Sometimes for side quests these tokens will be revealed for a hero to see what level the monster is. When the heroes go on main quests, these tokens are on the purple swirly spawn side. The way I'm writing the quests is there is a very small chance there will be no monsters in a chamber, a monster the same level as the hero, and a very slight chance a monster will be 1 level higher than the hero.  

Alot of people have asked can you have a fog of war type of dungeon where you don't know what monsters are in what chamber. Of course you can! :) You would simply keep all tokens on the purple spawn side facing up and place them. WARNING! SUPER hard! But you can do this. Don't come running to me when you rally 3 level 1 heroes and they bust into a chamber with a level 4 elite champion! ;) 

I have some ideas for a scenario where it is a random map generator where you simply have to recover 12 different quest items. The thing is there will be 24 quest items, but the heroes must find the 12 the villagers need. SO MANY ways to play this game guys! :) 

Once you get acclimated to the game, you're going to see the endless possibilities of quests and scenarios you can create. 

So let's take a look at these new monster tokens. I worked with Freddy on creating these....

As you can see, the skulls on the monster tokens get a little more meaner as they go up in level. KUDOS to Freddy on the outstanding job on creating these.

And I did a digital version for you guys so you could see what they look like on the dungeon board...

Also, there are other chamber tokens, such as the secret room tokens, the crate tokens, etc but we are just focusing on the monster tokens for this update. 

IN CLOSING:

So everyone, I hope you enjoyed this mega, ultra, hyper extension weekly update. We had alot of stuff to show you. I'm still updating some stuff for the content, and will soon be starting the Tomb of Kaladar dungeon board. Oh, that reminds me. I wanted to show you something from awhile ago. 

Shaun created this most awesome tile set. I'm going to ask him if i can use some of this for the Tomb of Kaladar. It features those awesome 3D walls we love and what I'm envisioning is mixing in my original prototype origins board IDEAS. this might turn out to be quite incredible. Take a look at this pic....

This picture just looks incredible I think. It may be the way I took this picture? But it look uber 3D. I'm super amped about creating this dungeon and have it turn out like that. Of course having 3D walls it will cut down the number of chambers a bit, but i think it will be fine. 

And lastly everyone is on task getting their assignments done. The game is truly coming together very quickly and quite beautifully I believe. And to the create a hero crowd! I'm yelling to you guys!! :) We did not forget about you! You're time will be coming so we can work out your hero for their name and backstory for the hero cards. We greatly thank you for your patience! :) 

OK guys I'll be in the comment update section tomorrow to see what's going on and what you want to chat about. As I have commented before, we are going to tally up the votes for the Skull Jack card backing and see what will be on there. It seems like alot of people liked version 4, but then alot of people came forth and said they liked version 2? Hmmmm......well'p, it's up to you guys! ;) 

Have a great night guys and I'll be talking to you soon...take care, Rodger :) 

Final Skull Jack card backings to vote on, tour of Castle Blackwood, and Monsters!
over 7 years ago – Mon, Feb 06, 2017 at 12:05:00 AM

Hello everyone! :) Rodger here and I hope everyone has been doing great, and had a great weekend. 

I wanted to start with I have been uber busy getting the updated/revised content ready to be printed out for this new playthrough....finally! There are still a few monster groups I'm going over, but it should not be that much longer. Playing Skull Jack last week for you guys really got me amped up for the playthrough video. I'm truly sorry I haven't got to it yet. I guess creating a huge board game takes some time I'm finding out! ;) But of course I'm loving every minute of it. 

OVERVIEW VIDEO OF CASTLE BLACKWOOD:

So yes! Castle Blackwood is ready for you guys to take a look at. But.....

What you are going to see is my rough draft I created that I of course forwarded to Shaun for him to professionally recreate for the final release of Dungeon Crusade. So I did take some time to make it detailed, but I didn't take alot of time to make it look 110% perfect since it is just a blueprint of what the castle layout should look like. 

But I think you will like it though...so here is the layout from last week's update...

 And here is the video link for you >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwt_2SNyry0&t=1s

I hope you like it! But remember, it's only a rough draft! But I'm going to add the patrol routes, the mining sites, and everything else to play on it. I have SO MANY quest ideas for it. 

But after seeing it in the video, I hope you can see there is a great sense of familiarity with it. I just think the layout makes really good sense.

As I said, for the past few months I have been researching castles, and hopefully you like the way I put it together. I tried to create very different areas that would be rich with quest ideas and scenarios for us to create. Heck, I have so many more ideas, who knows, maybe down the road we could do the back half of Castle Blackwood. 

NEW MONSTERS: 

And yes! 2 new monsters for you. The first one here is from the evil faction I created in Avalon called the Blackhand Army. We have seen a few of them so far, so this week here is a Blackhand Thurifer. These would be considered the high priests of the Black hand Army...

 The members of the Blackhand Army were at one time human. But through a dark pact, they have sacrificed their soul to the underworld and now are a mix of human & of demonic nature. If you notice, all of the monsters within Blackhand Army where these different evil looking masks to hide their face...LOL, you don't want to see what's behind the mask! (It may come out later in the story ;) ) 

And here is it's monster card.....sort of a toughie!

 The Blackhand Thurifer was created by Joseph Arnold, Jesse Hansen and Freddy Lopez. Joseph sketched it, Jesse inked it and Freddy did the coloring. Outstanding job guys! :)

The next monster up was created entirely by Freddy Lopez. When I created the design doc for the Elder Priest, I had a bunch of different things and ideas that I wanted it to look like. Somehow, Freddy understood what I was trying to convey and just absolutely killed it with this incredible design!

 LOL, now that is a freaking monster guys! Just wowsa! Awesome job Freddy! :) And here is the Elder Priest's monster card for you....

 And lastly, not a new monster, but this was the very first finished monster we saw from the guys at Cornerstone Creative Studios. The Lich Queen was shown WAY long ago, and the card and other things have changed since then.

So here is the updated Lich Queen card for you. And both the normal version and elite version...enjoy! 

And here is the elite version....

 So I hope you liked the update on the Lich Queen and the 2 new monsters. And yet, there is many more monsters on their way. Jesse just sent me a bunch of sketches for approval, so we should start seeing a very steady stream of monster art coming our way. 

THE FINAL CARD BACKINGS FOR SKULL JACK ARE IN:

So here ya go. There are a bunch of card backings here for you. We created 4 different versions for you guys to take a look at and decide which one would look the best on the Skull Jack deck of cards. I "think" I know the one people are going to pick...so let's get it on! 

In this update comment section cast your vote for which one you like the best...

VERSION 1:

 VERSION 2

 VERSION 3

 VERSION 4

 So there you have it. There is some slight differences between a few of them. We would love to hear peoples thoughts, and what they would vote for. Me personally, I like version 4. But whatever you guys may like, and gets the most votes, I'm cool with that also. :) 

IN CLOSING:

So kid of a small update but a good one. I feel bad for Tay. Tay was working on tokens/icons that we were going to see in this update, but she has been really sick from what she tells me, and has taken some time off. She is OK, don't worry! But she promised to have a bunch ready for next update for us.

Tom is still working on the angels for the blessing deck. That guy has been VERY busy for the last few weeks I know. He got sidetracked a bit making those dungeon backgrounds for the monster cards, plus he has other work he's trying to complete. I spoke to him today but he should have the angels done hopefully in the next few weeks for us for the blessing deck.

I talked to Damien all the time it seems and he is laying out the ground work for the 3rd House of Chance game Heroes vs. Monsters, and of course working on the Skull Jack card backing.

I have to touch base with David Shearer and see how he is doing on the card backings. Last time we spoke he was doing the loot card backing. So I'll poke him and see what the status is on that.  

And of course you know Shaun is starting work on the Castle Blackwood dungeon board, and I will be starting the Tomb of Kaladar dungeon board. But first I truly want to get this revised content knocked out for this new playthrough. 

Well guys, I hope you liked all of this, and it excites you more! As always I'll be in the comment section of this update tomorrow and see what you guys think for the Skull Jack card backing. It will be interesting what people have to say about these. 

OK everyone, take care and have a great day...I'll be talking to you soon! Rodger :) 

p.s. For those who may have missed it, here is the Skull Jack video from last week for you >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN31u9KoygQ&t=967s

Castle Blackwood draft is complete! House of Chance game Skull Jack reveal!
over 7 years ago – Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 10:15:13 PM

Hello all! :) Rodger here and I hope everyone is doing great out there, and had a great weekend! :) 

I'll be honest with you, it was a rough weekend for sure over here. Not bad, just BUSY! Well, today was kind of bad...let me explain...

I had this update ready to go I thought this afternoon. (Sunday). The 22 minute video you are going to see had massive technical difficulties. The narrative track never saved,  so I had to redo the WHOLE thing over again!! UHG!!! It's super late right now, and the new one is still uploading. So my thought is prepare this update, try to get some sleep, wake up and add the link to the video, then dispatch this update for you. 

So I may make this a short update, but get all the good stuff out for you. ;) We can of course chat in the update comment section of course. But let me tell you why i was so busy...

CASTLE BLACKWOOD IS FULLY DONE AND READY TO BE PAINTED:

Yes! That is one thing I knocked off the list. I submitted it to Shaun for him to start painting for the final version. I truly am VERY pleased on how it turned out. For the past few months, I have been researching castles and reading about them and the various rooms/chambers within the castle walls. Some of these things I never knew about it! I really learned alot of interesting things about castles in creating the Castle Blackwood dungeon board. 

I think the different quadrants you will see are going to be very awesome in coming up with creative & imaginative quests. I had so many ideas for Castle Blackwood, that I could probably do the otherside of the castle! 

Next update I will make a video of a tour of Castle Blackwood that I'll go over with you. I wanted to do that today, but technical difficulties arose. But do remember, it's just my prototype design for Shaun to reference when creating the final version.

I put together for you in the meantime a pretty cool pic of all the quadrants in the castle....

 So you can kind of see there is an outdoor area to the east and west, and along the southern part where the heroes start. In both the Kings & Queens burial chambers, there is a few walls knocked out where you can gain entry into the castle, but also, the minions could use those to escape to the village, thus raising the terror level! On the eastern side of the castle, there is a small secret path in the Somber Forest (south), that also leads to a door that has been smashed in that leads into the castle. And finally at the  most eastern part of the castle is a terrace that has doors leading into the castle to the ballroom area. 

I think when you even look at the picture above, there is a sense of familiarity to this dungeon board. Everything just makes sense for the layout, and you learn it pretty quickly. Unlike the other 3 dungeon boards where they are just random dungeons that go all over the place.

Here are a few pics of my prototype work that makes up Castle Blackwood. I think you guys will like the Somber Forest. The other 2 pics are from a few months ago, but these are in the castle as well...

So next update we will go over the whole castle in a video. But do remember, it is just my prototype work to give to Shaun for the final recreation. It does look very good though. :)

THE NEXT HOUSE OF CHANCE GAME, SKULL JACK REVEAL: 

And here is the final version of Skull Jack! Damien did another incredible job of bringing that retro art style for these games to life. LOL, as I have said, he went "Advanced Retro" with this one! Outstanding work Damien! :)

 There is a Dungeon Crusade logo on there just as a sort of watermark. In the final version, there will be no Dungeon Crusade logo on the house of chance games....

 Just WOWSA! :) Damien just knocked the ball out of the park with this one. Talk about retro inspired! Just so creative & imaginative to come up with this design.

Also, we came up with a backing for you guys to check out, tell me what you think of this. In case some of you don't know what's going on, the game company told me we can have a custom backing on the playing cards that come with the Master of the Realm edition of Dungeon Crusade. So we are talking about what the backing of the playing cards should look like.

 Notice that ghosted image of that girl and the king. Do you like it on there? Or should we remove it so it's just the DC logo, and the Skull Jack logo? You decide! :)

 Also, here is the video for you guys to check out. There is alot of stuff I talk about actually, and towards the end we sit down and the heroes play Skull Jack! 

VIDEO>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN31u9KoygQ&feature=youtu.be

So in closing, I hope you liked this update. There is alot of stuff in the pipeline for next update I believe. Tay will have more tokens finished, Freddy will have some monsters colored to show you guys, and Tom is back on track working on the angels for the blessing deck, as he was doing those dungeon backgrounds for the monster cards. David Shearer is working on the loot card backing, so I'll touch base with him and see how that is going.

Also, Joseph & Jesse from Cornerstone Creative Studios got a level 4 champion monster penciled and inked, and is awaiting coloring from Freddy. It's the Ogre Chieftain. I told Jesse I wanted to share this video with you guys, check out the awesome detail on what Joseph & Jesse put together! Plus there is alot of sketches and inking that has gotten done by the 2 of them, and those pieces are awaiting coloring from Freddy.

Ogre Chieftain >>>  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbQs4XEfS3k&feature=youtu.be

Sorry for the delay on getting the update out. I just woke up and that video was finally ready on You Tube. It weighed in at 3 gigs, and took all night to upload! I'll be here as usual in the comment section today to see what's going on. Have a great day guys, talk to you soon...Rodger :) 

New monsters! Damage markers! Lifeforce tokens! And you've got gold Crusaders!
over 7 years ago – Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 11:30:29 PM

Hello out there to all fellow Crusaders  :) Rodger here and I hope everyone is doing great this evening, and had an awesome weekend whatever you may be doing. 

It's great to have you here on our weekly update ritual and some pretty cool stuff to show you and tell you about, plus I need your help on a backing of a certain deck of cards. We will get to that!

I have been like ULTRA, hyper super combo busy this week. Of course with the family and the game, but working with my CPA's on getting taxes filed and the such. And some VERY awesome talks with the game company! :) And I need your help with something. The ball is in your court for this. We will get to that in a bit...

So, how about a little monster reveal video as we did last week. So here is a little story board I put together that tells a little bit more about the lore and story of Dungeon Crusade and Book I: Genesis of Evil. So here is this panel I put together, followed by the reveal video...I hope you like it!

 CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE REVEAL VIDEO! >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPUu0dJD_jU&feature=youtu.be

So if you noticed that name, High Priest Vol'Kash, he is another character from the story I crafted. The reason I mention that is in the Fabled Gear loot there is a legendary tiered staff that is VERY powerful that belonged to him that your hero can acquire. 

And as a side note, as of right now, Magmus is the toughest monster in the game...like really tough. Archfiend's are the offspring off Magmus. LOL, I don't know if you know this, but I am WAY into creating some awesome lore for Dungeon Crusade. Not too deep though, just enough to keep interest mind you. 

And here is the promo poster for the Archfiend.....

 Such a charming creature Freddy designed don't you think. As a matter of fact, all of the monsters you will be seeing in this update, Freddy Lopez did all of them. I have told Freddy on numerous occasions, I just don't think your of this earth or something with where you draw your creativity & imagination from. It's just a real treat to see what he conjures up next. 

And of course we will see the Archfiend's monster card. This is the elite version, and I'll post the normal one next week with the origins story for it...

 The other one he has created this week is the minion monster, the Wraith. Here is a little promo poster for the Wraith....

 And do remember, minion monsters traverse throughout the dungeon. So minions lurk the halls while your heroes are attempting to do their quests and whatever else you will have them doing. 

Here is the Wraith's monster card....

 A very awesome monster indeed! :) And notice the Wraith's special ability. Nothing that will harm a hero really, but a Wraith tries to move as much as possible to escape the dungeon and head to the village to raise the terror level another degree. Watch those Wraith's Crusaders! :)

And a little surprise for you. One of the early monsters we showed was the Succubus. Well Freddy had a Succubus that I thought looked INCREDIBLE and very much in tune for what I wanted for the game. I really love the original one, and that will be used elsewhere in the game and renamed, but this is the new Succubus in Dungeon Crusade and this is the elite version you will be seeing...notice her special ability... ;)  

 
LOL, so yeah...that chick looks and is deadly as all get out! :) Just an outstanding piece of art Freddy created and really fits Dungeon Crusade so very well. Above all, I hope you guys enjoy the look of this. :) 

A NEW ARTIST JOINS THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM:

So another cool surprise for you guys is we have anther artist who has joined the development team for Dungeon Crusade. Her name is Tay LeCompte and she is a fantasy artist. I've known Tay for about 2 years now and she is a vastly talented young lady who is really excited about working on the game for all of us.

I spoke to Tay for awhile and really explained what we are striving for with Dungeon Crusade, and the art style we are going for. She was all for it needless to say. What her job will be is creating the many tokens that you will be using in the game. And she got a batch done for us this week for you to see. 

One of the great things about bringing Tay aboard is this will speed up the game getting finished even sooner. So without further ado, have a look at some of the stuff she has created!

THE CURRENCY OF DUNGEON CRUSADE:

 When we were discussing the currency in the game, I told her I wanted something retro of course, but simple. Just like a cool, retro looking type of coin. So if you notice the 100 is like a beat up bronze colored. The 500 is kinda dull and scratched up. And the 1000 gold is nice and shiny. That was all Tay's idea and I really like the way these turned out. Of course these coins will be cardboard round tokens adhering to that retro vibe we are going for. Awesome work Tay! :) 

LIFEFORCE TOKENS:

 Lifeforce in Dungeon Crusade is like XP. However lifeforce is used to gain new special abilities for your heroes, but it is also used to unchannel certain loot items that have special properties and to power underworld artifacts. So lifeforce has more of a meaning then just simple XP. 

Basically I asked Tay to create cool looking green, swirly globes. These will also be printed on round cardboard tokens. 

DAMAGE TOKENS: 

 Now for the damage tokens, I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of something mundane like a blood droplet, I thought like a blood smear/splatter effect would look very unique. So Tay of course got to work and created these. So please chime in and let me hear your thoughts! :)

And I know, I know...you want to see what these look like on a monster card right?...LOL, OK here ya go....

 So if you remember the Massive Viper from the past update, it has a new updated background on it. And as I said for this update, another monster Freddy created. This thing is just freaking DEADLY looking, and looks totally lush with Tom's new background he created. 

And let's put the hurt on this Massive Viper so you can see how these damage markers look on the monster cards....

  
So I truly think those damage markers go VERY nicely with the monster cards. I told you guys last update I'm very OCD and the perfectionist how things have to look, and I think this is a great looking combination. 

So Tay, your first assignment out of the gate and I think you did an awesome job at bringing Dungeon Crusade one step closer to completion, and injecting your creativity & imagination into the game! :) 

She right now is working on the monster tokens for the champion monsters. If you remember, those tokens reside in the chambers of the dungeon. She is also doing the backing for those, and that backing will carry over to a few other tokens in the game. Next update I believe those will be completed and will be posting them for you guys.

FINAL DUNGEON BACKGROUND FOR MONSTER CARDS:

Now Tom Feldmann of course did this background below, I'm going to post it and I have alot to say about it...

 
So here is the thing about this background. Well first this background can be found on the Wraith card above and the Massive Viper monster card above also 

So about this background,  I personally envisioned this classic dungeon background in the game. I cannot tell you how perfectly Tom created this! I mean this is so perfect people! This TOTALLY reminds me of something from one of those old awesome PC RPG's that inspired me to do Dungeon Crusade. This is exactly what I was picturing, and Tom could not have done this any better. 

LOL, sorry to go off on this background so much, but this is what I want for Dungeon Crusade. So Tom, you completely nailed it! :) 

SKULL JACK BOARD IS NEARLY FINISHED!:

 I was working on the game the other night and get an email from Damien. He sent over a WIP, (work in progress) of the next House of Chance game Skull Jack. 

Oh wowsa Johnny Blaze! He didn't just go retro with the look & feel of it...he went, "Advanced Retro". It looks so awesome. It looked fairly close to final, so it will be debuting in next week's update.

Skull Jack is a card game that up to 3 heroes can play at once. It's basically a simple form of Black Jack. You could win really big, or lose alot of gold at Skull Jack. I will be doing a live demo of it with me playing a few hands of it for you guys. I think you're going to really like this. I had him add a little betting circle by the players area where you place your gold to bet. 

So get ready for it next weekend! 

I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU ON WHAT KIND OF BACKING YOU WANT ON THE DECK OF PLAYING CARDS!:

So let me tell you what's going on with this. I have been talking to the game company quite a bit this week. And I brought something up to them...

You know with Skull Jack you use a standard set of playing cards. You will be getting a deck of playing cards if you purchased the Master of the Realm edition, which of course includes the Skull Jack game.

So I got to talking to them and asked them first is there any charge if I supplied an image to them that I want on the backing of the playing cards. They said there is no charge for this! So check it out, you will be getting a custom set of Dungeon Crusade playing cards!

So here is the thing....I truly don't know what I would like the backing to be. When you see the Skull Jack board, Damien did an awesome Skull Jack logo...that could go on there...maybe just the Dungeon Crusade logo....I have no idea what image would look awesome on these deck of playing cards. That's where you come in...

What do you think would look totally rad on the back on these cards? You have the floor on this one, let's hear it! So maybe we'll take a bunch of suggestions, and narrow it down to 5 of them, and you guys vote. I have many other things to worry about, so this one is up to you. 

Also, I know already people are going to ask this, and I think this is possible. I "think" people will want to purchase extra decks of Dungeon Crusade playing cards for themselves or others. So I'm going to chat with the game company, see how we can go about doing this, and make it another add on for you guys through pledge manager. Now I could be totally wrong. If no one wants a deck of Dungeon Crusade playing cards we can totally skip this. You tell me.

So there's your homework for the week...think of an awesome backing for this deck of playing cards for Skull Jack and comment about it. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

IN CLOSING: 

So everyone is still on task with what they are doing, I am personally trying to get the little bit of content finalized for this playthrough that I'm dying to do, but also I'm going to be finishing up the Castle Blackwood sketch for Shaun to start working on, and I'm going to be doing the Tomb of Kaladar dungeon which as you know I'm FIRED up about! Check last week's update for what's going on with that.

So everything is going very well I believe, especially with the game company. They are going to be doing their Chinese New Year's thing in a few days, so were getting stuff signed, materials lined up for printing when the game is done, and we really are in a GREAT position in regards to that. 

OK everyone, I'm signing off. I hope you enjoyed this update. I'll be in the comment section of course to see what's happening tomorrow and discuss whatever you guys want to. I hope everyone has a great week, and I'll be talking to you soon...take care, Rodger :)