Project Updates for Dungeon Crusade - Book I: Genesis of Evil on BackerKit Page 5

Rulebook very near to completion, images in update. Reveal of the Underworld Artifacts, Dungeon Crusade coming to Tabletop Simulator this Spring, plus more!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 04, 2019 at 10:55:43 PM

Hello all and good evening! :) Rodger here and it is great to be there with all of you for our monthly Dungeon Crusade Kickstarter update. And, I truly believe it is a great one. But first, I hope everyone has been doing great and life is awesome for you.

Let me start by saying that I have been on the rulebook for the game every single day for hours and i have knocked out a massive amount of it. And please believe me when I say HOURS. At this point, it was way past the half way mark of being completed and there is only but a handful of easy sections to finish up.

I devoted today, (Monday March 4th) to work on the Kickstarter update and get it dispatched so I can get right back to work on it.

As I have said, I genuinely love working, constructing, writing and structuring the rulebook. I find it relaxing, stress relieving and a fun/tough challenge. But you must believe me when I say THIS WAS/IS a massive and long chore! But I'm very happy to say it is coming together beautifully.

I'm taking the time to make sure I cover EVERYTHING in the game for people and it is very well explained. The last thing I want is for someone to grab their phone or tablet and start looking up an answer for a question they may have while playing, where I could take the time now and make sure they have the answers they need.

But let's get this update started as I'm very excited to show you what I got for you! We'll jump right back into the rulebook chat after these following sections we always have right around now....

Here is a link to last months Kickstarter Dungeon Crusade update for you. If you're new to the Dungeon Crusade universe, or missed it, go have a look at that then come back here.

UPDATE #96: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2405636

I'd like to say again, if you have not seen the mega-ultra updates #92 (part I) & #93 (part II), or if you're new to the Dungeon Crusade universe, go and take a look at those updates first.

Those 2 updates show everything that comprises the game and stands a true testament of all the hard work, creativity, determination, perseverance and passion that went into creating Dungeon Crusade for everyone to be immersed in, enjoy and be challenged by.

Here are the links for you...

Update #92/Part I: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2330523

Update #93/Part II: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2334630

AND PLEASE REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!

I want everyone to know that's reading this that if you see a delay in the updates check the comment section. I'm in there almost daily or every few days giving everyone updates on what we are doing, what we're up to, what's getting completed, news and just everything Dungeon Crusade.

In any case, I just wanted everyone to know to check the comment section to see what's going on. Plus, if you go scroll through the comment sections history, you'll see a ton of great information I provide for everyone.

OK! On with the update!

THE DUNGEON CRUSADE RULEBOOK IS VERY NEAR TO COMPLETION:

Last month I went into great detail of writing the rulebook for Dungeon Crusade. I truly don't want to put ALL of that here. So if you like, go check out what I said in update #96.

So as I said at the start of the update, I have been diligently working on completing the rulebook. I might go as far as to say extremely diligently working on it. As I said it is nearing completion, and with the amount that is left, it will be finished up in March.

I knocked out all of the "intensive writing" sections of it, so what is left is some very straight forward writing. Some of this includes how the heroes can receive blessings while in the village, what Celebration Day is and how this game mechanic works, the instructions on the 4 House of Chance games, (very short instructions for these) and a few other things. So I'm happy to say all of the hard work is behind us.

I mentioned this in the comment section a few days ago that there is so much I have gotten completed for the rulebook.

Everything about the mining & crafting aspect of the game such as the minerals, the six precious stones, power gems for sockets of weapons & gear, pickaxes, having pickaxes resharpened, the description of the six warfare types, everything people need to know about the heroes and hero cards, heroes special abilities, afflictions, the 3 types of quests in the game such as main quests, side quests and kill the guardians quest, how Albus, the heroes fetchhound is used in the game, the massive monster section of the rulebook that fully discusses minions, champions and guardian monsters and just so much more.

So I did manage to put together a few pages from the rulebook I think you'll enjoy seeing. But please remember...

This is a WIP, (work in progress) so what you see and read is subject to change when we get to proofreading directly after I finish it up. When I share these pages, it's just giving people an idea on how everything is looking and shaping up. This is not to be taken as the final pages that will be within the rulebook.

So here are some new pages for you to check out. These pages deal with the introduction to the monster section of the rulebook, then goes into some talk about the minion monsters in the game then a page dedicated to the one & only most awesome fetchhound, Albus and how a player controls him. Enjoy! :)

So I hope you enjoyed those. :) I'm very happy with how this rulebook is shaping up, and to me, I think it has a style, flow and a uniqueness all its own.

Now, I debated on uploading all of the other rulebook pages I have shown, but decided to do so. That way you can see everything that has been posted about it thus far and don't have to go back to previous updates to view those pages.

THE DUNGEON CRUSADE RULEBOOK COVER:

REVERSE SIDE OF COVER:

I genuinely tried my best to finish up the rulebook within February, but from what I mentioned above, this was a massive chore and to do it right where everything is very well explained in the game. Most of those sections I knocked out were some seriously intensive writing. The heroes section, the mining and crafting section and most certainly the monster section was a great deal of work & time to get completed.

To close out this section, I'd like to mention again the few steps that are left that will bring the game to full completion.

- When I finish the rulebook, Charlene, (incredible, awesome proofreader) and I will be going over it just for a few days. We may chop some text down, rephrase a few things, move some paragraphs around, etc.

- From there it will go to a few very awesome gaming friends involved with the project and get their VERY critical gaming eyes on it and see what they think. This will be just a few days also.

- From there, it will be available for you guys to check out. I want you guys to look it over, see what you think, ask some questions, etc. As I have always said, you guys mean the world to me and this is our game. So it is important to me you guys look this over and provide feedback on it.

And no worries. You will have time to look this over, because...

- While you guys are looking over the rulebook, we will be preparing the game files for submission to the manufacturer. So you will have a good amount of time with the rulebook.

- The rulebook will be the final thing submitted to the manufacturer. As you may know, the manufacturer will be going over everything and the next step will be for us to receive the proof copy of the game. I will be making an unboxing video so all of you can join me in opening the first copy of Dungeon Crusade together. That, is going to be quite surreal to say the least.

THE REVEAL OF THE UNDERWORLD ARTIFACTS:

So last month we discussed Fabled Gear in Dungeon Crusade. Fabled Gear is gear that belonged to the characters in the story I wrote for Dungeon Crusade. Fabled Gear is very rare and quite powerful. Nothing bad can ever happen to a hero wielding Fabled Gear.

However, this is not the case with Underworld Artifacts.

Let's take a look at these 6 malevolent weapons a hero can wield. ...

(Please note: The Underworld Artifact cards used in some these promo posters were the old version. The new version of the Underworld Artifact cards has been updated. This promo poster below has the version of the cards that will be in the game.)

Underworld Artifacts have always been in Dungeon Crusade, even years ago when I started creating/developing it. But now with the game being so incredibly close to being 100% complete, these have never really been in the limelight and what these very deadly & unique weapons genuinely are.

Let me say this first...

Most of you know, I've played these types of games since I was super young until now. Board games, video games, PC games, etc. I just love all of this fantasy, adventure, dungeon crawl goodness.

I've openly spoken about my mental condition; I'm afflicted with which is called "DungeonCrawlitis." The clerics of the temple put me on 2 vials of elixir a day...they say I'm getting better each day. ;)

But back to Underworld Artifacts. In so many of these types of games I have played, and probably you have played, our heroes can level up and obtain very powerful weapons to wield that will destroy the toughest of monsters & creatures.

So years ago when I started working on Dungeon Crusade, I wanted to create a specific set of weapons that had some VERY evil lore behind them and were used in incredibly violent and heinous acts, and of course, be very powerful. But I wanted to go a step further with them and do something innovative.

But first, know that there are 9 different levels of loot in Dungeon Crusade. The levels are:

- Junk

- Starting gear (gray level)

- Common (white level)

- Uncommon (green level)

- Rare (blue level)

- Epic (purple level)

- Legendary (orange level)

- Fabled gear (gold level)

- Underworld Artifacts (black level)

The first 8 levels of loot are entirely safe for heroes to equip & use. There are no detrimental effects a hero will suffer from using them.

Underworld Artifacts were forged within the underworld and created for the purpose of committing a heinous or vile act of murder.

Each of the Underworld Artifacts has one word on the bottom center of the card that describes the person or the violent act that the weapon was used for. Also, know that these weapons have sometimes claimed the souls of the one who wields it.

The only two ways for a hero to obtain an underworld artifact is if it is dropped by monster or creature after it has been slain and the hero has a successful loot roll, or if a hero discovers one within a treasure chest.

So with that said, I wanted to create these weapons in the game where a player has to make a big decision and really think about the consequences.

As you know, in Dungeon Crusade you take control of brave, valorous & gallant heroes who are helping villagers, doing quests, vanquishing evil and basically doing good deeds.

They are rewarded with Lifeforce. Think of Lifeforce as XP (experience points) but Lifeforce is used for a few different things in Dungeon Crusade, such as acquiring new special abilities, leveling up and a few other things. So Lifeforce is something that is pure & good.

If a hero comes across an Underworld Artifact in their journeys, they are free to pick it up and equip it. They can even trade it between heroes. But...

There will be a decision you have to make before your hero can attack a monster or creature with an Underworld Artifact. Before a hero attacks, they must "feed" or charge the Underworld Artifact with 1 Lifeforce before it becomes active. Once charged, it is good for one attack, and it must be charged again in the same manner.

However, there is a chance the malevolent weapon can consume the heroes soul, of course instantly killing the hero. A hero must make a Fate roll which is a roll of the D20. On a result of 13+, the hero's soul has been consumed by the Underworld Artifact.

However, a hero can deduct their current level from the result. So a hero who is a higher level has a better chance of wielding one successfully.

At that time, you will have to place the hero and the Underworld Artifact at the resurrection altar in the village. Finally, villagers seeing this hero dead raises the terror level by 1 on the terror track.

So in plain talk, it's like this. Your heroes are virtuous, righteous. They are taking something that is good & pure, (Lifeforce) and feeding it into something that is incredibly evil to gain unholy power.

WHAT WOULD YOUR DECISION BE?:

The bottom line is I wanted to present a game mechanic like this to a soloist gamer or a group of players and see what they would do in certain circumstances. What if your hero(es) were faced with a level 3 or 4 guardian or a level 3 or level 4 elite champion, especially on higher difficulties?

Would you defile something that is good & pure, and risk your hero's life to gain incredible power? I think it will be very interesting on what different players will do in certain scenarios.

And a HUGE shout out to the incredible & talented artists Shaun Ellis & Kezrek "Kez" Laczin who painted the final art for the Underworld Artifacts. I gave them the names of them, and they went to town on it and just created some genuinely outstanding weapons. Thank you both...you guys are the best. :)

I hope you liked this little reveal and the in-depth discussion about Underworld Artifacts.

DUNGEON CRUSADE IS COMING TO TABLETOP SIMULATOR THIS SPRING:

View Video

So yes. This Spring Dungeon Crusade will be on Tabletop Simulator on the Steam platform. A few weeks ago, a very awesome friend to me and a backer here with us on Kickstarter named Joshua Hebert discussed about doing a version of Dungeon Crusade on Tabletop Simulator.

Joshua is an absolute wiz at programming/developing on that piece of software and is very acclimated to it. He will be doing 100% of the work on it . I have no knowledge how to do this, and seriously zero time to learn how. My job is to supply him with the art and assets he needs to make this happen. But do keep in mind, this will not be happening for a few months, as in while the game is being printed.

Here are my thoughts on this, and why this is such a great idea...

1) By having this version, you will be able to play Dungeon Crusade while it is being printed and get incredibly acclimated to the game. I will be right there with you making some videos while I play so you can learn directly from me.

2) Having Dungeon Crusade on Tabletop Simulator many others can play with you. You can, of course, play solo, or up to 6 people.

3) There will be a few different versions of Dungeon Crusade on Tabletop Simulator. Hear me out on this...

I truly put a lot of thought into this. The first version of Dungeon Crusade is going to be a "lite" version, or rather a demo of the game. I'll be taking the Ancient Ruins dungeon board and creating a smaller version of it. The nice thing about working with Joshua is I can create custom content for the Tabletop Simulator version and he can import it in very quickly.

People will be able to play a few level 1 quests, and a few other features of the game will be included.

And here is why I'm doing this...

Dungeon Crusade is a massive game. My feeling is by giving people a lite edition or demo of the game they can learn it little by little. Making it much easier to digest than bombarding them with tons of content where it may overwhelm them a bit.

Then, say a month later, we release another version, but this a little more of the Ancient Ruins board and a little more content and features to explore and learn about it.

Then maybe a few more versions of the game that introduce more content. So consider it like 4 levels of Dungeon Crusade to teach people the game and get them easily acclimated to playing it.

By that time, the games should be shipping, and you'll already know how to play the game upon receiving it. And do keep in mind there will be that video rulebook i'll be doing also. So there will be a few options for people.

So I hope you like the sound of all of that. And do know, Joshua is VERY quick at working with Tabletop Simulator. As soon as I supply him with the game content, he can have it ready in no time so you can get to playing it.

Here are a few VERY early screenshots of Dungeon Crusade on Tabletop Simulator that Joshua took for me.

So we have this to look forward to in the months to come.

IN CLOSING:

Well everyone, I hope you enjoyed this latest update and see we are so near to completion of Dungeon Crusade. Again, I was busting my butt and staying up until all hours of the night trying to get the rulebook finished up in February, but like I said some of those sections were seriously time consuming to put together and doing it the proper way where everything is explained for people.

As soon as I dispatch this here on Kickstarter, I have to share his on a few other pages and I'm getting right back on the rulebook for the rest of the evening. As soon as I'm done with it, (a few weeks into March I'm shooting for, as there is not much left at this point) we will get right on the proofreading with Charlene and a few others, Then, while you guys here take a look at it, we'll be working on preparing the game files to forward to the manufacturer.

Thank you again, all of you. Like I have said, I've learned so much, like I can't even begin to tell you how much I've learned throughout this whole endeavor. I'm almost like a different person now with all of the knowledge I have gained on doing Dungeon Crusade. The one "black mark" I have on me is the delay of the game. But I hope I have shown you throughout this project, I have never quit and always kept progression to bring it to full completion. At the same time, I've always kept all of you in the loop about the game and informed about everything we are doing. I promise you with the next project/game we do, there will be no delay.

OK all, I hope you everyone has a great evening and an awesome Tuesday. I'll of course be here in the comment section to hang out with you a bit. Talk to you soon...Rodger :)

Great progress on the Dungeon Crusade rulebook, more than half done, many images within update.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 10:04:55 PM

(Please note: This update was done Sunday February 3rd 2019. There was yet another technical issue like last month where this time, all of the images had disappeared from the update right before it was dispatched. I had to go through it again this morning and re-add all of the images. )

Hello all and good evening! :) Rodger here and it is nice to be here with you for our monthly Dungeon Crusade Kickstarter update. First off I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying 2019 so far. Let's get right into the update.

Now, his may be a quick update, a good and informative update of course, but I have been seriously working hard and diligently working on finishing up the rulebook for the game. Tonight I'm working on and will be finishing up the mining & crafting section of the rulebook. So right after this update is dispatched, I'll be getting back on this.

But let me get you up to speed. Since the last Kickstarter update that was dispatched on January 8th, I have been on the rulebook everyday for hours working on it. I have made significant progress and I'm happy to report it is more than half complete.

I've been in the comment section throughout the month and letting everyone know how it's going and sharing some links to the Dungeon Crusade Facebook page for them to take a look at how some of the pages are shaping up. I've gathered everything that has been shown and included it all within this update for you to take a look at.

But before we go any further, let's post the few things we usually do and get these out of the way...

Here is a link to last months Kickstarter Dungeon Crusade update for you. If you're new to the Dungeon Crusade universe, or missed it, go have a look at that then come back here.

UPDATE #95: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2382534

I'd like to say again, if you have not seen the mega-ultra updates #92 (part I) & #93 (part II), or if you're new to the Dungeon Crusade universe, go and take a look at those updates first.

Here are the links for you...

Update #92/Part I: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2330523

Update #93/Part II: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2334630

AND PLEASE REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!

CREATING THE RULEBOOK FOR DUNGEON CRUSADE:

Writing, phrasing, wording & structuring the rulebook has been quite the task. It's not that hard for me, as I have become quite acclimated at writing a rulebook. But it's in the wording, phrasing and explaining the rules to make them very clear & concise for the reader so they can learn the game very easily.

I've shared this in the comment section, and I would like to share this here with you and anyone creating a board game and helping them with creating a rulebook.

I'm going to use 2 terms of my own to get my point across to you guys: Intensive writing and Straight forward writing.

Straight forward writing:

I consider this very easy writing to create and for people to follow along with on learning a particular thing in the game. Let's take the secret room deck for example.

"When a hero successfully picks a lock on the door of a secret room, they may spend an action to enter. Upon entering, they will draw one card from the secret room deck.

There are 2 possible outcomes. The hero will have discovered a desolate chamber, which means the chamber is devoid of anything of value. Or the hero has discovered a treasure chamber! The card will tell you what type of treasure chamber this hero has discovered and what treasure has been hidden away here.

The secret room card is then reshuffled back into the deck."

So you can see, it is very straight forward information. It's black & white with no gray. A player will know exactly what to do for this game mechanic.

Now, let's look at...

Intensive writing:
This right here is what takes the most time to create, go over & polish up. One of the things I'm very happy that I got finished a while ago was the full breakdown of the 5 phases of the game. This was undoubtedly intensive writing. This area explains how to play the game, so it has to be carefully written, so people know the proper way on how to play.

Explaining in-depth on everything that happens in each phase was a lot, but the hero phase and monster phase was the most time-consuming without a doubt. I went into very good detail and precisely said what a player can do with their hero(es) on their turn, or rather what they can do with their 2 actions, and what monsters can do within the monster phase.

The bottom line is I'm making sure everything within the rules is very thorough and well-explained for the player.

So my ultimate point with intensive writing is this, and writing a solid and well structured rulebook for a board game.

Whatever information, game mechanic, card, etc you are writing about, you want that information to be clearly black & white for the reader. You want no gray area in what you're writing about, where there could be a bit of ambiguity on the information presented. Here's a good example...

Heroes have 2 actions on their turn. One of the actions they can take is simply moving.

MOVE: A hero can move their full movement to a new position on their turn by spending 1 action.

If the above line was written like that in the rulebook, that would leave a lot of gray area for a player. People would no doubt be questioning many things just from that line

So here it is a different way making it much more clearer for the reader.

MOVE: A hero can move their full movement to a new position on their turn by spending 1 action. Heroes can only move orthogonally through the dungeon and never diagonally. While a hero is moving, they are permitted to enter into a square where a fellow hero may be or even a monster. However, they are never permitted to end their turn on a square that is occupied by another figure.

That's just a quick example, but I just want people to know, I'm taking the time to make sure everything will be well presented in the rulebook and as easy as possible to comprehend.
So let's get on with some photos of the rulebook for you.

THE DUNGEON CRUSADE RULEBOOK:

PLEASE understand, this is a WIP, (work in progress) so what you see and read is subject to change. When I share these pages, it's just giving people an idea on how everything is looking and shaping up. This is not to be taken as the final pages that will be within the rulebook.

We'll discuss this a bit more after these photos. I also included the other photos of the rulebook from the prior update so you can see all of it together.

THE DUNGEON CRUSADE RULEBOOK COVER:

REVERSE SIDE OF COVER:

And here are some photos of a few pages of the rulebook. The first set are the component overview section we showed last month.

Here is a very early page in the rulebook that discusses the introduction, overview and starting a game of Dungeon Crusade.

The next series of photos is a page from the rulebook that explains the loot of Avalon and all of the different rarities. On this page also you can see a few pieces of loot from the game and the gold cost of these weapons if they are within the blacksmith's shop for sale.

As you may know, I created 193 pieces of unique loot for Dungeon Crusade. So this page, in particular, explains the nine different levels of loot in the game.

Here is the page following the one above that discusses a loot card much more in depth and explains what all the icons, symbols and values mean on the card.

I thought it would be a nice touch to add in this promo poster from a while back since we just took a look at the loot section of the rulebook. Does anyone remember this one? :)

As I mentioned above, there is 193 pieces of unique loot in the game. There is a vast assortment and variety of swords, bows, staffs, daggers, maces, scepters, hammers, axes, boots, chest armor, crossbows gloves, shields, bracers, cloaks, charms, rings, helmets, necklaces, bracelets, I'll stop there not to bore you.

These are some of the most powerful weapons in the game and command a very high gold cost.
If one of your heroes is lucky enough to discover Emperor Sylvain's Battle Sword, they've just found the most sought after weapon in all of Avalon. If the blacksmith has it within his shop, expect to pay 2000 gold for it.

I shared this on the Dungeon Crusade Facebook page a few nights ago and on my personal page, so I thought I'd share it here with you in the update. And why not! It's all about Dungeon Crusade right?

View Video

Ashara's Scepter of Truth
In the year 1113, 8th moon, an incredibly tragic event occurred within Castle Dunegarr. Late one evening Emperor Sylvain's wife, Ashara was found slain by an unknown assailant.

Ashara was a very kind and gentle woman who ruled over the populace of Avalon alongside her husband. She had a beautiful aura that radiated from her, and continually fought for peace, justice and always wanted the best for the people of Avalon.

When Emperor Sylvain and Ashara married, the blacksmith in the village of Taul crafted her a very powerful & magically enchanted scepter as a wedding gift.

This scepter, (Ashara's Scepter of Truth) is now available for the heroes of Avalon to use on their perilous journey to banish the monsters and creatures that have invaded their homeland.

In Dungeon Crusade, there is incredibly rare loot known as Fabled Gear. Fabled Gear is weapons that belonged to the characters in the story I wrote for Dungeon Crusade.

If Fabled Gear shows up in the blacksmith shop, one can expect to pay a very high gold cost for it due to its magical properties and strong enchantments. Fabled Gear is some of the most powerful weapons in the game.

If a hero is lucky, it could show up as a piece of loot a monster dropped upon slaying it. Also, Fabled Gear could be found within an archaic treasure chest within a dungeon.

I had to do a quick touch up on this card the other night so I thought it would be cool to make a super quick video so people could learn about Fabled Gear in Dungeon Crusade.

I was going to post all of those promo posters showing all of the loot in Dungeon Crusade, but I didn't want to fill up this update with all of those posters. So if you like, head over to update #92 and #93 and you can see all of the loot in the game. But I will post just this one...

Lastly, I'm planning on the very back of the rulebook to have a great quick reference guide people can refer to while playing for things like the 5 phases of a turn, what a hero can do on their turn, etc.

There will also be some icons and a brief description of what these are. For example the heroes 8 attributes, the 6 warfare types, the 5 different types of loot, etc.

OK MR. GROOVUS, WHEN IS THIS RULEBOOK GOING TO BE DONE!!!

LOL, I knew someone would be asking that, so I said it first. :)

The Dungeon Crusade rulebook will most certainly be done within February. As I said at the start of the update, I'm more than half done with it, so the sections that are left, should not take that long to complete. I've worked on it every single day for hours, because as you know when it is complete, Dungeon Crusade is totally finished.

But I would like to go a little deeper here and lay out our plan of what will be going on. As always, I want you guys to be informed every step of the way...

- From there it will go to a few very awesome gaming friends involved with the project and get their VERY critical gaming eyes on it and see what they think. This will be just a few days also.

And no worries. You will have time to look this over, because...

- While you guys are looking over the rulebook, we will be preparing the game files for submission to the manufacturer. So you will have a good amount of time with the rulebook.

So there you have it. This is what is left to do. As you can see, we are incredibly close to wrapping this all up.

IN CLOSING:

This is going to be a little different then usual for our closing. I received a question today by one of our backers here and I want to share what he said and my reply. It was on the Dungeon Crusade Facebook page from the truly awesome Michael Earle. LOL, I hope you didn't mind me putting you on the spot Michael! ;)

Here is what Michael asked...

QUESTION: Rodger, I remember reading some time ago the lore leading up to Dungeon Crusade. Is the back story or whatever you call it (the story of Avalon) going to be described in the game materials? Am I asking this clear enough?

ANSWER: Hello there Michael and good afternoon. :) Nice to hear from you. I hope your weekend is going well for you.

First off, thank you for taking the time to read those first 4 chapters in the form of those storyboards. Those first 4 chapters are going to be redone with fresh new sketches later this year, along with chapters 5-8 that will be released and with an overall better, professional presentation.

And yes, I know exactly what you mean...

When the heroes start the game, all of the events that led up to this point happened 10 years prior. As in the death of Ashara and Emperor Sylvain, the rise of the Blackhand Army led by Lord Blackhand, (a guardian in the game), the evil religious cult known as The Faith and many other things.

However, throughout the game, there is lore of all of this peppered throughout. For example, take a look at the map of Avalon I posted. I circled where Ashara and Emperor Sylvain are buried. In the Avalon Adventure board game, the heroes will possibly be entering these locations depending on if they choose to enter or not.

But the Avalon Adventure board game is PACKED to the brim with so much thematic content and lore. I think you may know there are 259 different and unique events & encounters just for this game. So a player will learn about past events, but the big picture is every one of the 52 regions is covered in that game.

However, in the current time in the game, the heroes will be getting quests and scenario setups from the characters, such as...

Charsi Sibri - At the age of 12 years old, Charsi watched as her family was slain by the Blackhand Army. As two Blackhand Conscripts made their way towards her, Charsi pulled a hatchet from her belt that her father had given her and managed to kill the 2 conscripts,

She then fled from her home and found refuge within the Tower of the Maidens where they trained her to be a great warrior. Charsi is now is a high ranking captain within the Maidens of Witherbrook Forest. (I circled that on the map also for you.)

Also, check out the replay section to see a promo poster from a while back on what became of Charsi's best friend, Kyra Jandar. Going even further, Kyra's sister shows up in what of the quests in the game.

Also, Charsi's Hatchet is in the game as a piece of Fabled Gear the heroes can equip and use.

I don't want to make this post too long, but other characters who will be part of scenarios and quests are Father Jova, Ryen Osis, a legendary war hero, Hanno Lithgar, another hero of Avalon who has a personal vendetta for the Blackhand Army, Captain Briggs, Emperor Sylvain;s best friend and comrade,

There's even more Michael, but I hope you see there is a ton of lore in this game from the past and present.

Even in the quests of the game, you'll learn more about locations in Avalon. There is a quest in the game called, "The Legend of the Burning Ballroom." Not spoiling it, but the heroes will learn of a horrific event that happened within Castle Blackwood.

I'm presently working on the monthly Dungeon Crusade Kickstarter update to dispatch later tonight. So do check it out when it's posted.

It's always nice hearing from you Michael, and hopefully, I answered your question well enough. There is just so much to this game, and it's impossible to present it all in a single post.

Have a great afternoon, talk to you soon. :)

Here is the map I posted for anyone who wants to take a look at it...

When Michael asked me that today, and I started explaining to him everything I said, something truly hit me in that moment. Now this might sound obvious, but when I slowed down and thought about it, this game is truly something from a different realm I believe. Please understand, I'm not glowing about it, I'm just trying to say how I feel right now.

We know looking at Dungeon Crusade it's a massive game, it very clear to see. Let's consider that "icing".

But as I was telling Michael those few things, I REALLY got to thinking of EVERYTHING in this game...like it honestly hit me today for whatever reason.

So if the looks of the game are the icing, I got to thinking of the "cake" of this game. Such as all of those 60 unique quests carefully written letting a player know about all of these different factions, NPC's, the lore of all the locations, quest items, meeting certain people, then later on in a totally different scenario you meet distant relatives of people the heroes met a few scenarios ago. There is so much more I could say about the quests.

Those 259 unique events and encounters in the Avalon Adventure board game. Again, there is a staggering amount of "cake" just in that game. Just ALL of the different things your heroes will experience.

Plus all of the over 80 unique encounter cards in the game, the treasure chest deck, the monsters and their origin stories, the Celebration Day gifts, tavern tasks, the blessings, etc. I could keep going.

I guess what I'm ultimately trying to say is yes. Dungeon Crusade did take a while to create, Because I wanted to give you guys and everyone something so incredibly special, thematic, innovative, immersive, challenging and fun to enjoy for years to come.

There is no way in the world I could tell you everything in this game in post, as in the "cake" part of it. The only way to truly absorb all of this is playing it, reading all of this different content and experiencing it first hand.

I just want you to know and anyone reading this for that matter I'm working my best to get this rulebook done so we can all get to playing this together. I just know, people are going to have an incredible fun time playing this, and Dungeon Crusade will always offer something new every time you play.

OK, I hope I made sense with all of that and you see where I'm coming from.

I hope everyone has a great day. I'll of course be in the comment section to see what's going on with everyone. Talk to you soon...Rodger :)

p.s. The simply amazing artist Kezrek "Kez" Laczin painted a majority of the loot in the game along with the awesome artist Shaun Ellis. A while ago, Kez put this little poster together using some of the loot she painted for the game. I thought you might like to check this out. It's pretty cool! :)

Test prints from the manufacturer. Rulebook cover and reverse side. Images for the final rulebook. Rulebook well on its way to being completed, then Dungeon Crusade is fully finished.
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 08, 2019 at 11:31:27 PM

PLEASE NOTE: I was in the comment section the other night, 1/6/2019 speaking about an issue with the Kickstarter update interface for creators. Kickstarter updated the interface sometime last month, (December 2018) and creators have been having issues where it wouldn't publish their update to backers. I ran into this same issue and it was quite frustrating to say the least.

So I just wanted everyone to know this update has been done since 1/6/2019, but it wouldn't allow me to publish this update. Hopefully they can find out what the glitch is and get it resolved for other creators and backers.

1/8/2019 - And the awesome team at Kickstarter came through! :) I contacted Kickstarter yesterday and submitted a support ticket for help with this issue. They got back to me today and informed me the issue has been resolved. So everything is working great and here is the update for you.

This is something you may want to check out. I created & posted this video yesterday, 1/7/2019 to let people know there was a technical issue with Kickstarter in dispatching/publishing the latest Kickstarter Dungeon Crusade update for everyone.

It is critically important to me that you guys and everyone looking forward to Dungeon Crusade knows what is going on with the game constantly. So I went over update #95 in the video so people could see what has been getting done, and how close we are to full completion.

So here is this video for you. I hope you enjoy it! :)

(Here is update #95 from 1/6/2019)

Hello everyone and Happy 2019! :) Rodger here and it is truly great to be here with you and bring you this update. I think you're going to like this one. It's fairly short, but I have some great information, photos and news with Dungeon Crusade finally being complete. 2019 is most certainly the year of Dungeon Crusade.

I would first like to start off by saying I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas with your family & friends and enjoyed the holiday to its fullest. Also, I'd like to say HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone reading this. I hope all of us have a fantastic year.

So as I said in above, this will probably be a short update. I have been super on task and diligently working on and structuring the final rulebook for the game. It's coming along great. As you probably know, this is the last task for the game. When this is complete, (very soon) Dungeon Crusade is entirely complete. While you guys here are giving it a read, I'll be working on preparing the game files for submission to the manufacturer.

I also want to tell you I have been speaking to my most awesome production manager at the manufacturer quite a bit lately. Before I go any further, I must say how hard-working she is and has provided me with some test prints based on some game content I forwarded to her. She has been such a pleasure to work with, and like all of us, she is genuinely excited to get this game done.

So before we get on with this update, I just want you guys to know what is left...

- Finishing up the rulebook and having you guys take a look at it and provide some feedback.

- Prepare the game files and begin the submission process to the manufacturer

As always, after the game files are submitted, I will be relaying all information about what is going on, proof copy, shipping information and a very accurate shipping date when we can expect Dungeon Crusade to show up. I'm still very optimistic for late March (really hoping for this) but if not then, April.

But let's get the game files submitted and go from there. I'll be in talks with a few fulfillment services by then so I'll get some concrete information for all of us.

I hope all of that sounds good to you. I'm just seriously happy, excited & and relieved we are finally at the end of the project and looking forward to getting this printed, shipped and out to everyone.

OK! On with that update!

As always...

Here is a link to last months Kickstarter Dungeon Crusade update for you. If you're new to the Dungeon Crusade universe, or missed it, go have a look at that then come back here.

Update #94 >>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2360090

And I'd like to say again, if you have not seen the mega-ultra updates #92 (part I) & #93 (part II), or if you're new to the Dungeon Crusade universe, go and take a look at those updates first.

Here are the links for you...

Update #92/Part I: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2330523

Update #93/Part II: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2334630

AND PLEASE REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!

TEST PRINTS FROM THE MANUFACTURER:

As I mentioned at the start of the update, I have been working with my outstanding & awesome production manager at Wingo Games, Lina, and she has provided me with a few test photos of some game content for Dungeon Crusade straight from Wingo games headquarters.

As some of you may know, Groovus Games Unlimited is partnered with Wingo for the manufacturing of the game. And I must say how great, professional & fantastic everyone at Wingo Games has been throughout this whole project. It is a great pleasure to be working with them on Dungeon Crusade.

So I provided Lina with a Blessing card, front and back, and a Skeleton Warrior card front and back just to see how the color is looking, brightness, clarity, etc.

Since these images were submitted, I have gone in and made some adjustments to the brightness of the content and slightly tweaked the saturation so everything looks nice, clear and the color just pops.

To me, this was just very encouraging & welcoming. Just knowing we are incredibly close to wrapping Dungeon Crusade up and getting closer to the submitting all of the game content for the manufacturing end of it.

Here are a few images to take a look at followed by a little more info. And please note, the Dungeon Crusade logo will not be on the final cards. I just added that for the test prints.

There are a few reasons why I wanted to get some test prints from the manufacturer. One reason is there are a few different color modes in the printing process. We tested both of them and are going with one known as RGB. When using RGB, you get more vibrant colors, especially with the color green, from what an artist told me.

Another reason is brightness. From me doing this for so long, I know that brightness is something I wanted to nail down perfectly. The above images came out a little too dark for my tastes. So I tweaked a few different levels for brightness within my program and resubmitted them to the manufacturer. They sent me back the updated images and they look much better and much brighter. I also tweaked the color saturation to make the colors pop a bit more.

Here are the updated images...

The bottom Angel of Swiftness is the updated one.

I noted the adjustments I made to the brightness levels and the saturation, so when we submit everything to the manufacturer, all of it should look perfect.

I was thinking ahead and didn't want to get into a case where we submit everything and we ran into brightness, color saturation issues or what color mode to go with. So now all of that is taken care of.

In closing, I spoke of how incredibly nice and awesome Lina, my production manager has been to work with. She also told me in an email that once we begin the production process she will update me with more pictures that I can show to everyone on how it is coming along. Just everyone at Wingo Games has been just tremendously great to work with on Dungeon Crusade.

THE DUNGEON CRUSADE RULEBOOK:

So this is what I have been seriously on task with and diligently working on. As you know, this is the final thing to wrap up for the game, and the rulebook is looking, reading and being structured very well. I'm actually having fun with it and find it truly relaxing to construct the rulebook.

So here is the graphic design for the cover of the rulebook I put together. Take a look at it and we'll talk more about it...

Instead of calling it a "rulebook", or "rules to play" or "instruction manual" I wanted something unique to the game and something not so mundane sounding. So I came up with "Crusaders Handbook". I think that has a nice ring to it.

I took the game box art for the front cover, cropped the image in, added some shadowing to the very edges of it then tweaked the saturation and sharpness of it a bit. I think it came out very nice, and quite fitting for the game.

About that image, I think you guys know that I worked with the most amazing artist Freddy Lopez on the creation of it. I have had this image in my head for years now.

I gave Freddy a rough sketch of what I was envisioning for it, and he made sense of it and did just an incredible job on bringing it to life while throwing some of his own ideas into the design.

I greatly thank Freddy, for his hard work, dedication, creativity, imagination, and talent to create this stunning piece of fantasy art for the box cover and now for the rulebook.

REVERSE SIDE OF COVER:

So now that you've seen the front cover of the rulebook, or rather the Crusaders' Handbook, here is what I finished up this weekend for the reverse side of it...

I wanted the player/reader to be greeted by all of the 13 heroes of Avalon. I think it's a pretty good design and makes the game that much more inviting and exciting seeing all of them. Who knows? Maybe there will be 6 additional heroes in the expansion where backers can grab a create a hero package like we did with Dungeon Crusade, name that hero, write a backstory for that hero and maybe create a special class for that hero next time. ;)

I wanted to mention that the very back of the rulebook will have a nice reference section while playing the game. Basically the 5 phases of what comprise a turn in the game, a small breakdown on what happens in each phase, what a player does on Celebration Day, etc. So I'll make sure to have some good information there for you while playing.

A MORE IN DEPTH LOOK AT THE RULEBOOK:

As I mentioned above, I'm making great progress on the revisions to the rulebook and creating a great structure for it. If you saw that very early preliminary one, it was most certainly very rough. I have learned so much from then to now, and it will most definitely show in the rulebook. Presently there is a great structure and flow to it. I have rewritten much of that rough rulebook so now it reads incredibly better.

I have mentioned many times, I know how crucial a great rulebook is to a game, especially something like Dungeon Crusade. It is impossible for me not to include every answer to a question people will have while playing. I have talked extensively about this in many updates, so I'll spare you! :)

But here is how I have it structured right now...

- Introduction

- Overview

- General flow of the game

- Starting a Game

- Victory & Defeat

- Component List

- Component Overview

- Getting familiar with the 3 boards for the game

- Dungeon board

- Village board

- Dungeon U.I. board

- The Five Phases That Comprise a Turn

- The Upkeep Phase, Encounter Phase, Guardian Phase, Hero Phase and finally the Monster Phase

- An in depth look at the 5 phases

- Upkeep Phase

- Encounter Phase

- Guardian Phase

- Hero Phase

- Monster Phase

- Playing the game

There will be more sections of course, but from those sections just mentioned, you'll have a great understanding of how to play the game.

Please do keep in mind while the game is being printed, I'll be creating a video rulebook that will follow this rulebook. I'm encouraging people to watch this prior to receiving the game. By watching the video rulebook, you'll pretty much be able to start playing upon receiving your copy.

On the subject, I have said I feel it's my job & responsibility to create something such as this for you guys and any end user of the game. There is no denying, when you see something demonstrated in a video, especially by the creator it makes a whole lot more sense and just easier to mentally digest the game and all it's fundamentals. LOL, "mentally digest"...I kinda like that.

In closing out this section, this is what I'll be on in January and working towards finishing up the rulebook and putting the final one together for the game.

A LOOK AT THE COMPONENT OVERVIEW SECTION OF THE RULEBOOK:

As I said, I have been making some incredibly great progress on getting the rulebook completed. But I wanted to give you an idea of the graphic design I came up with for the rulebook.

The section being shown below is the Component Overview page. Please keep in mind this is a WIP, (work in progress) so this is not final. Also, I printed this in house, So the very edges were a bit taken off. I just want you to know, there is a bit more to the edges.

Take a look and we'll discuss a few things...

Like with Dungeon Crusade, I envisioned a specific look for the rulebook. I wanted something very thematic looking and in a way immersive for the reader.

If you notice at the top of the page where it says "Component Overview" it has big fonts with white fonts over the black, and green crystals on each side. When you see headings like this, it signals a new section of the rulebook has started.

I asked the most incredible & talented Freddy Lopez if he could create a tattered parchment paper background that I could use for putting the rulebook together. What he created was beyond perfect. But as I said, my printer took off those edges. We;ll get a better look at this page with some images below.

This was a test page to look over the clarity/size/boldness of the fonts, (I HATE small fonts!) and see how everything is looking. As you can see, the rulebook pages are looking incredibly good. I'm very pleased with this format. This truly looks like a page from a game manual.

You can expect to see much of the artwork for the game peppered throughout the pages of the rulebook also. Monsters, heroes, weapons, etc. I really got into designing a great looking rulebook for people, as much as a well-written and well structured rulebook.

Here are a few more photos I caught off screen for you....

So I hope you enjoyed seeing a glimpse at the rulebook. Please keep in mind this is a WIP (work in progress) so a few things may change. But the graphic design/layout will stay.

When I'm finished up with the rulebook, Charlene, (our awesome proofreader) will be going over everything with me and a few others I'm working with. Then I'll be releasing the rulebook here for you guys to take a look at and provide any feedback you may have.

IN CLOSING:

Well everyone, I hope you enjoyed this update. It was small, but some very good information. As you can see, we're done after the rulebook is completed. I did skip the Dungeon Crusade 101 section, as I just want to get back to working on the rulebook and get it completed.

Also I wanted to mention that once the rulebook is finished, it is a very quick process on getting the text to the final pages for the rulebook. I wanted to get that component overview section out of the way as it was a lot of graphic layout and explaining all of the various tokens in the game. When I add just text to the rulebook, and images for that matter, it takes me seconds to do so. So please rest assured, that is a very quick & streamlined process.

I'll of course be touching base with all of you throughout January every few days and letting you know how it's going. Well, I do that already in the comment section.

But here we are, at the end of Dungeon Crusade, and I cannot be more excited, thrilled and relieved we are so super close to being finished. I thank all of you. For your time, interest, patience and support with the game. I want you to know, which I think you already do I never took one day off from working on the game, and I don't intent to until it is fully finished and in your hands.

Even beyond that, I'll always be here for you guys to get questions answered for you, and of course do more games with you here on Kickstarter. However, the next time NO DELAY!!! Hold me to that, please! :)

Oh, I forgot to add this video above. Since Kickstarter upgraded the update section, I'm going to try out this here where you can upload a video directly. I hope it works!

View Video

And it did! Way to go K Starter! LOL! Ok all, I'll be in the update comment section as always. Have a great night, talk to you soon. :)

Game box graphic design done & revealed. Final playtesting concluded. Rulebook revisions will be underway, when finished, game is fully complete. Much more info within update.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 03, 2018 at 09:35:14 PM

~

Hello all and good day. :) Rodger here and it's nice to be with you guys for our monthly Dungeon Crusade update. We have some very good news, information and some fun stuff within this update for you.

I'd like to start off with I hope everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving had a great holiday and a grand feast with your family & friends. For me, we just stayed here with my family, cooked together and of course, I played/worked on the game. But it was an awesome holiday for us here.

The month of November was so incredibly busy for me on all fronts. Preparing for Thanksgiving, helping Liya, (my wife) get EVERYTHING out for her to decorate our home, (yes! I helped, and it took a few days to accomplish. ) working/playing the game, setting up the professional photo shoot session for the back of the game box image, working on the graphic design for the back and sides of the box, working with Damien on a few edits for a few House of Chance games, and more, but I'll stop there, so I don't bore you!

But I'll tell you, after those mega-ultra updates back to back, #92 & #93, in all seriousness, for about 4-5 days, there were so many comments I had to get back to here on KS, emails, messages, messages on the Facebook Dungeon Crusade page. All of it was great, as people saw the complete game of Dungeon Crusade,

Another thing I had to do was reconnect with all people on BGG on the Dungeon Crusade page there. I met some incredibly nice people there years ago, so I wanted to get back on there, upload some final photos of the game, say where we are at with the game, and I had to update a few things on the page there about the game.

I explained with everything going on while working on the game; I simply couldn't get on there as my time was spent here with you guys, on the Facebook page, working on the game and answering comments, emails & messages.

But, we did get a lot accomplished within the month of November and brought us incredibly close to full completion of the game, and you have no idea how much I welcome that. I have said that before I know, but yeah, I want this game fully complete, to the manufacturer and out to everyone already. You know I LOVE this game and everything about it, but I think you see my point. :)

Before we get on with the update, I'd like to say where we are at, and the very little left to do for the game...

WHAT'S LEFT TO DO FOR DUNGEON CRUSADE:

As you may have read in the title, I finished up the game box graphic design, (which looks pretty stellar if I may say so), final playtesting has been concluded, myself and Damien finished up the few small text edits for a few House of Chance games so all of that is behind us.

I'm presently finishing up looking/going over the quest card(s) setup and the scenario pages. The quest/scenario system I developed is very easy to understand, and the setup for it.

But the building/creation of these 2 things, (quests/scenarios) has to be perfectly calculated as it's fairly intricate. I'll be doing a few workshop videos while the game is being printed/shipped to teach people how to go about creating their own quests and scenarios. You can create so many different things with this system.

So for my own peace of mind, I want to make sure this is all accurate and right as rain. This will be finished within the next few days.

And the last thing for the game is, of course, the rulebook revisions. And I must say, I was going over the rulebook presently in November and there is a lot of solid ground there already.

I worked with an amazing gentleman from England by the name of Pete Jones, and he did such an incredible job on the editing of it. I'd like to have him go over this again, when the revisions take place, then share it with you guys to look over and provide any feedback you may have. A few people here, Charlene and a few others will also be checking it out. So the month of December we will be focusing on getting this complete.

At that point, Dungeon Crusade is fully completed.DONE! We will then begin the process of preparing & submitting the game files to the manufacturer and get the ball rolling on that.

I know a lot of people have asked when the pledge manager will be closing. When we are in the process of submitting the game files to the manufacturer, we will be running some ads and promoting the game as it is fully complete.

So basically we can close the pledge manager the day we tell the manufacturer to begin mass production. So if I had to say, you will have time to pledge for the game well into January. But when we get close to this, I'll, of course, be letting you know and keep you in the loop of how much time is left. So for right now, there is no hurry or worries in pledging. I have never pushed pledging on people, nor will I ever.

But when the game files are submitted, we will have a very good idea about everything...shipping, time to manufacture the game, closing of the pledge manager, etc.

So I hope all of that sounds good to you. If you have any questions, just message me or of course comment. I have always tried to do my best for you guys and keep you in the loop of everything about the game, so you're constantly informed on what's going on.

AND LASTLY, BEFORE GETTING ON WITH THE UPDATE:

As I mentioned at the bottom of the previous update #93, gone are the days of the massive Dungeon Crusade updates. The game is complete, and there is nothing left to show. Well, there is a TON of game content, but showing it all would be some major spoilers.

So these updates are going to be smaller and deal with shipping details, submitting the game files, etc. That kind of stuff.

So I got to thinking. I know many of you love how I share things about the game. So I thought of maybe a section in the update where I teach you some aspects of the game, like some rules and post some photos for you. My goal for doing this is to teach you more about the game and get you acclimated to it. So tell me...does that sound good to you?

Well, the first one is within this update, and for lack of a better term, I call it, "Dungeon Crusade 101. It will be followed by what it's about. So in this update, you'll learn about...

DUNGEON CRUSADE 101: Using special abilities & looting monsters.

So let me know what you think when you get to it. I tried to make it informative & enjoyable for you with a great presentation. What sparked this was the awesome backer named chang asked about the rulebook. I assured him the rulebook will be incredibly solid. I'll talk more about this in the section below.

OK! Let's get on with it!

But first...

And most certainly, if you have not seen the mega-ultra updates #92 (part I) & #93 (part II), or if you're new to the Dungeon Crusade universe, go and take a look at those updates first.

Those 2 updates show everything that comprises the game and stands a true testament of all the hard work, creativity, determination, perseverance and passion that went into creating Dungeon Crusade for everyone to be immersed in, enjoy and be challenged by.

Here are the links for you...

Update #92/Part I: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2330523

Update #93/Part II: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2334630

AND PLEASE REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!

I want everyone to know that's reading this that if you see a delay in the updates check the comment section. I'm in there almost daily giving everyone updates on what we are doing, what we're up to, what's getting completed, news and just everything Dungeon Crusade.

In any case, I just wanted everyone to know to check the comment section to see what's going on. Plus, if you go scroll through the comment sections history, you'll see a ton of great information I provide for everyone.

FINAL REVISIONS TO THE HOUSE OF CHANCE GAMES:

A few weeks back, I got a hold of Damien Mammoliti and we worked on the final edits for the House of Chance games Heroes vs. Monsters and Tower Attack.

There were just a few tweaks for the Heroes vs. Monsters game and a rewording for the warrior's special ability, Whirlwind, so it reads very clearly for how it is used, so there is no confusion.

For Tower Attack, I had him edit levels 7 and level 8 of the tower. Not the gold payout but the numbers a hero must roll to beat that level of the tower.

A few values got lowered by 1, so a hero has a bit of a better chance of beating that particular level. And I have to say again, Damien is just the nicest guy ever and is very happy we are wrapping this up. His work on the village board, the Tomb of Kaladar, and the 4 House of Chance games and the recreation of the land of Avalon are just out of this world.

But you must see everything he does in the world of art. He has done work for Sega and many other high profile companies. And he is excited to return to work on the expansion for Dungeon Crusade next year.

I mentioned before, Damien was an artist on 2015's RPG of the year, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for PC, XBOX ONE and the PlayStation 4. He did the map for that game world, and I think a few other things for the game.

LOL, I still have a brand new copy of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the PS4! Working on Dungeon Crusade, I still haven't had a chance to play it. That's a game to really sink into and get lost in. In 2019, I'm looking forward to fully enjoying it. If you have not ever seen this game or series, I would highly encourage you to play it.

THE GRAPHIC DESIGN & REVEAL OF THE GAME BOX ART:

First off, if you would like to see the reveal video of the game box and some additional photos from the photo shoot session we had for the game, here is the link for you:

Dungeon Crusade game box reveal + photos video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CssKIiRktEU&t=7s&fbclid=IwAR1HRXoCw1jhJFyKVCQQuuNzZJpP13NAPPUMVuD2F4XQhA3QtMMh398vbaI

As you may know, this was one of the things on our "to do" list for one of the last things to wrap up for the game. I'm pleased to announce this has been completed, there may be some very small tweaks made, as in adding a few lines of text, but this is the final design and art.

You have seen the cover art for the box that Freddy and I worked on which came out incredible. So I put together the graphic design for the back of the game box and the 4 side panels. I really like how it all came out. I personally think it looks unique, quite striking, and it's a strong & fitting design for Dungeon Crusade.

So have a look at it, and I hope you enjoy. :) I will be printing all of this out and constructing the game box so you can see it in the "real world" and how it looks. I'd like to say a few things after the photos and explain something about the game box.

FRONT COVER ART:

TOP & BOTTOM SIDE PANELS OF GAME BOX:

LEFT & RIGHT SIDE PANELS FOR GAME BOX:

MULTIPLE PHOTOS OF THE BACK OF THE GAME BOX:

~
OK, first off as you may know the game box will measure 15 x 13 x 3 1/2 inches. Also, I was chatting with a few backers about the heroes that appear on the game box, and all 13 heroes are represented on that various sides. Actually, Albus appears twice. But that way, people looking at the game box will see all of the heroes that comprise the game.

For the center image that shows the game, we could have done a "green screen" so just the game would be showing, where I could have added smoke, monsters, heroes, effects, etc. But I didn't want to do that for a few reasons and here's why...

When I look at a game, I want to see the game without a bunch of fancy effects jazzing it up. I want to visualize what it will look like on my game table. I want to see the REAL game. So the amazing photographer, Candace from Canned Bliss Photography who did the photo shoot, I explained to her I wanted a very natural photo to show people the game.

Another reason for not jazzing up the center photo is there is so much fantasy art already wrapped around the game box. Quite simply, it would have been overkill. I like how when you see the back of the game box; your eye is immediately drawn to the center, then you admire all of the incredible art surrounding it.

As a side note, notice how the monsters have those red globes, and the heroes have the green ones? Those are the elder globes from the game. As you may know, to obtain victory in Dungeon Crusade, the heroes must turn all 3 of the elder globes from red to a green status by completing the quests in a given scenario.

I put a lot of time, thought and creativity into the graphic design of the game box, so I hope you enjoy it. :)

SOME ADDITIONAL AMAZING PHOTOS FROM THE PHOTO SHOOT:

As I mentioned above, I worked with Candace from Canned Bliss Photography for the image for the back of the game box. Candace is/was such an awesome person to get to know and work with. Just very professional with a stunning personality & attitude.

She took many great pics of the game and was so excited & thrilled during the whole process. LOL, she has NEVER played a fantasy game she told me! I had to tell her what a D20 was. But she was genuinely floored upon seeing the game.

We discussed coming back to do additional images of the game at a later date plus more photos of all the other game content not shown.

These following photos came out amazing. Clear, vibrant and so colorful. Candace genuinely knows how to capture a great image. She really captured the essence of Dungeon Crusade in these photos. So a huge THANK YOU to Candace! Outstanding work!

So check out some of the photos.

If you're viewing these photos on a phone, turn it sideways for the most optimal display.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at the game through Candace's stellar photography. :)

DUNGEON CRUSADE 101: Using special abilities & looting monsters.
Here is that section I was talking to you about at the start of the update. This is where I would like to teach you a little more about the game and get you more acclimated to it. So please tell me afterward if you like this section and would like me to continue with it.

And here is why I thought of doing this. I have said, many times the Dungeon Crusade rulebook is going to be solid, very informative and hopefully enjoyable for you. I'm also doing a very comprehensive video rulebook.

I'm 100% behind this game and will go to great lengths for everyone so they can learn it quickly, have a great understanding of it and I think they will enjoy it much more having the creator tell them everything about the game.

I want you to know; I know this game like the back of my hand. EVERY detail about the rules WILL be in this rulebook. Any gameplay question that arises while playing will be in this rulebook. It's just the way my brain/mind works where I MUST have everything in that rulebook for people.

So let's get into this. Let me post 2 questions that will no doubt come up while playing or someone wanting to know about the game.

HEROES SPECIAL ABILITIES

QUESTION 1: "If I want to activate a hero's special ability, does it cost 1 of their actions to do so?"

ANSWER: First off, each hero has 2 actions on their turn. Using a hero's special ability does not cost 1 of their actions. A hero must spend the required essence on the special ability in order to use/activate it.

Most special abilities must be channeled after use. (Turned upside down). This means they cannot be used for the rest of this turn. At the top of the next turn in the upkeep phase, all special abilities unchannel and are available to use once again. (Turn the card to its original facing).

LOOTING A SLAIN MONSTER NOT ADJACENT TO THE HERO

QUESTION 2: "I used a ranged special ability to slay a monster 3 spaces away. However, I used both of my hero's actions to move, so I can not reach it. Do I still do the loot & gold roll even though I'm not adjacent to the slain monster?"

ANSWER: If a hero is adjacent to a slain monster, they, of course, may perform a loot & gold roll as normal to see if the monster was carrying anything of value.

If on a hero's turn, they use a ranged special ability and successfully slay a monster, but can not reach the monster to loot it, here is what you do.

Tip the monster's cardboard miniature over on the space where it was slain and set the monster card aside. This is so you can reference the gold & loot roll values if a hero loots it. This monster will remain on this space for the current turn and for the next turn.

At the end of the next turn, if any hero has not looted this monster, it is removed from the dungeon board, and the monster card is reshuffled back into its appropriate monster deck. Any hero may loot this monster on the current turn or the next turn — not just the hero who killed it.

So watch out Crusaders! Ninja looting is allowed in Dungeon Crusade! ;)

Let's take a look at a little presentation I put together for you on these 2 topics...

~

So I hope you enjoyed this Dungeon Crusade 101 section. If you have any questions, just let me know, and I'll be happy to answer them for you.

THROWING THIS IN AS A BONUS:

I posted this on my Facebook late one evening after working/playing a session of the game, and people seemed to really enjoy it. So, I thought I'd share it here for you guys to check out, and learn even more about the game.

Hopefully, this is not too much out of context, and you'll get this, so here goes!

Faith Ellysia, the cleric hero, has successfully slain a level 1 Monsterous Spider (non-elite) that resided inside a chamber of the Northern Quarters within the Ancient Ruins dungeon. She was partied with Sir Brennus, the knight hero.

Entering into round 3 of combat, the heroes managed in the previous rounds to inflict 3 damage on the Monstrous Spider. It has 4 health.

Luckily, Faith is very proficient in Mythical warfare. In phase one, mythical warfare came up first, and she rolled 13 on the Mythical warfare dice, adds the bonus on the Rusty Dagger of +2 Mythical to the roll, and finally on her hero card she is versed in mythical warfare with a +1 giving her a total of 16.

The Monstrous Spider had a mythical warfare value of 12. Thus her roll exceeded that for her to land the killing blow dealing +1 damage. On the loot & gold roll, she rolled the D20 and found 100 gold on the spider but no loot.

Here are the photos for what I just described...

I also discussed the warfare types in Dungeon Crusade...

When I created the land of Avalon, I wanted to have different fighting styles, or rather, warfare types. The warfare types are:

- Physical/swords = (red)
- Ranged/bows = (blue)
- Arcane/staffs = (green)
- Mythical/daggers = (purple)
- Spiritual/maces(scepters/hammers) = (orange)
- Chaos/axes = (black)
So, each hero is versed in a few of the warfare types, while weak in a few others. There is no "superhero" in the game, however, through building/specing out your hero out with various weapons, gear, armor, charms, power gems, etc. you can create so many different types of hero(es).

However, the monsters & creatures of Avalon are versed in 3 of the warfare types. I assure you, there is a TON of monsters & creatures in this game...like A LOT. And all of them have different combinations of 3 warfare types.

What this provides is something I wanted to fully address in a dungeon crawl fantasy game. True party building. In Dungeon Crusade you MUST party heroes together to take on the monsters in the game. This is where the strategy, tactics, and fun lie in the game.

Here is a photo of the warfare tokens, the battle tokens, and the combat chart.

~
Here are the weapons that Faith Ellysia and Sir Brennus had equipped for the combat and where I assigned the battle tokens.

As a side note, neither of these heroes were proficient in chaos warfare. So I had Faith attack in phase 3 with the Crude Mace.

However, if you notice on her hero card on Chaos warfare, I would have to -2 from the chaos dice (black) after the roll was made, as she is not versed in chaos warfare.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about the game with this small battle session. And as always, if you have any questions, just let me know! :)

IN CLOSING:

Well, here we are at the end of this update. I hope you enjoyed everything in update #94. LOL, I do not think I'll ever top updates #92 & #93. Those were just juggernauts updates to dispatch back to back and put together.

But touching on what I said at the start, hopefully, you can see we are incredibly near the end. I'm kicking butt over here trying to get the last few things done because after that, it's fully completed and we will begin to prepare the game files for submission.

As I said about the present rulebook, there is a lot of solid ground in it to build on with the revisions, so I anticipate taking that long. Once we go over it internally, you guys will, of course, be doing your homework on it and providing feedback on anything you see that we may need to clarify.

I mentioned this to Johnathan a few days ago and would like to close with it here. I'm pleased, excited and confident how Dungeon Crusade came out, and I'll be as bold as to say this game ROCKS, now seeing it fully completed.

There just isn't anything like Dungeon Crusade out there, that plays like this or provides this type of innovative, thematic and immersive experience. We all did something genuinely awesome here. I want this completed and out to you guys so you can play it and see for yourself.

I don't mean to "glow" about it like that, but that's what I honestly feel in my heart & mind about it how this turned out. THANK YOU again, to all of you. This core group in this Kickstarter made this game happen, and as I have said, I'm eternally grateful for this incredible opportunity to use my creativity, imagination, determination, drive and strong will to do something for people and give them something new to enjoy in their life.

OK, all, have a great evening, and I will, of course, be in the comment section to hang out with you and see what's going on. Talk to you soon...Rodger :)

The Grand Finale: PART 2 OF UPDATE: All game content is fully finished. Final playtesting commencing, revisions to the rulebook underway, graphic design for the back of the box underway. A complete look at the game inside.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Nov 05, 2018 at 11:44:28 PM

PLEASE NOTE:

If you just started reading this update, please read part 1, update #92 before reading this one.

Hello all and I'm back! Hopefully, you enjoyed update #92 part 1 of this mega ultra update and found a great deal of solid information within it for you, and seeing all of the game content that comprises Dungeon Crusade.

We are going to get right back into this mega ultra update after these few things, so please bear with me.

Here is a link to the last update that was dispatched, which was update #92, part 1 of this massive update. Like a said above, check that one out before reading this one.

AND PLEASE REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!

Ok! On with part 2 of this mega ultra update!

THE HOUSE OF CHANCE:

So as we were discussing at the end of part one in update #92, the House of Chance is basically a gambling hall for the heroes.

There are four games I created within the House of Chance. However, only ONE game shows up on Celebration Day within the House of Chance. The one game that shows up is randomly decided by the roll of 1D4. All House of Chance games are numbered 1-4.

After I finished the prototype design of these games, I worked with once again the most awesome Damien Mammoliti for him to paint the final versions for the game. I asked him to create/paint all 4 games as if they looked like they were from the late 1970's - early 1980's since Dungeon Crusade is a retro-inspired game.

He didn't go retro; he went advanced retro! All four games look absolutely incredible. I just can't comprehend how he achieved these results. These games seriously look like games from that era. So thank you, Damien! :)

The four games are:

- Tower Attack (comes standard in all editions of Dungeon Crusade)
- Heroes vs. Monsters
- Skull Jack
- The Adventures of Bravely the Knight

Let's take a look at each one...

TOWER ATTACK

Tower Attack is a push your luck dice game. When a hero plays Tower Attack!, they must start at the bottom of the tower at the lowest level and bet the amount shown.

After the bet is made, a hero must roll the green, orange, and purple D12 and meet or exceed the values shown on that level. They may set successful rolls aside. A hero has 3 chances.

If by the final roll, the hero meets or exceeds the numbers shown, they win the amount shown and may advance to the next level of the tower. If they fail to meet or exceed those numbers, they lose their bet and may try again or leave the House of Chance. But as you can see, as the hero ascends the tower, the numbers a hero must roll increase, but so does the gold amount they could win.

So if you like pushing your luck and dice rolling, give Tower Attack a try!

SKULL JACK

When I created Skull Jack, I wanted it to be a very simple form of Blackjack.

Up to 3 heroes will play against the evil dealer, Skull Jack. LOL, don't worry, Skull Jack doesn't have any special abilities to change cards or anything. ;)

But each hand, a hero must bet 200 gold. On a win, they win 400 gold. However, if they lose, their gold goes into the bank.

When playing Skull Jack, you must watch out. While playing with 3 heroes, there is a great potential the heroes could lose much of their gold. So bet responsibility!

By far, Skull Jack is the most addictive game out of the 4. It most certainly has that, "one more game, then I'm done" feel to it.

Here are some additional pics for you to check out...

HEROES VS. MONSTERS

In the House of Chance game Heroes vs. Monsters, the heroes must spend action points to move and fight in an attempt to protect the Chapel of Light from the advancing monster horde. If a monster reaches the Chapel of Light, the heroes lose!

The heroes start out by drawing the level 1 challenge card, betting the gold amount shown and setting up the board as instructed on the challenge card. There are 8 challenge cards within this deck. The higher the heroes make it, more and tougher monsters start to advance towards the Chapel of Light.

Please note that the tokens shown in the pics are the prototype ones being used. For the final game, they will be a bit smaller to fit the squares perfectly.

Here are a few more pics for you...

THE ADVENTURES OF BRAVELY THE KNIGHT

By far, The Adventures of Bravely is my favorite game and the one I had the best time creating, developing & playing. Hey! C'mon, it's a dungeon crawl game! ;)

So this is basically a small dungeon crawl game, but I envisioned it as an old arcade machine. LOL, there is even a slot for inserting your gold into the machine. Here's how it plays...

The dungeon starts with 2500 gold. When a hero "inserts" 500 gold into the machine, it gives Bravely 10 health and is ready to descend into the dungeon. Bravely must choose which way to go, as there is no backtracking in the game unless Bravely lands on a portal space.

Whatever gold Bravely recovers from the dungeon the heroes get to keep. However, if he perishes within the dungeon, all gold Bravely had is lost! You would have to put another 500 gold into the machine and start again. GAME OVER baby, in true 80's fashion. :)

Here are a few more pics for you...

And there you go. That wraps up all 4 House of Chance games. As a side note, as I know, some will ask. No, Albus is not permitted in the House of Chance to gamble. Trust me; I know this would more than likely be asked. He can lay down in a corner while the heroes gamble, however. ;)

THE SCENARIOS & QUESTS IN DUNGEON CRUSADE

When I debuted this, I said I'm was very pleased and proud of all this content. This is indeed what I wanted to give to people with Dungeon Crusade. Just a huge fantasy dungeon crawl game with unique and innovative quests and that breaks the mold of this genre, and basically, give something to people that is so different and something new for them to enjoy.

This game content right here took a substantial amount of time for me to get done and out of the way. I wrote 60 unique quests, 10 scenarios and added so much lore about the land of Avalon, NPC's, heroes, monsters, different factions, locations in Avalon and on top of that, interwove all of this into the Avalon Adventure board game and onto the 50 adventure cards you will experience with 259 events & encounters. .

When people ask why this game took so long, this was one of the reasons right here. I took the time to put forth a great amount of hard work, dedication, focus creativity & imagination to make this game very immersive, fun and highly thematic for everyone. I was not about to rush this just to get it done.

I sort of came under some fire for spoilers a while ago. So let it be known I purposely blurred out the scenario overview text.

So now that you have seen the scenarios, here is a look at the 60 quest cards for Dungeon Crusade...

THE 60 UNIQUE QUEST CARDS FOR DUNGEON CRUSADE
So I thought of a cool way back when I debuted this content to show you the quest cards for the game. When you select a scenario to attempt, it will instruct you to pull 6 specific quest cards for that scenario.

So I put the 6 quest cards together at the village the heroes will be defending. I thought after I did this, it gives the sense of how huge the land of Avalon is, and all the different locations the heroes will travel.

Hopefully, after you see these pics, you'll get what I'm saying. Also, to prevent spoilers, the stories were covered. I would like to surprise you guys with these! The reverse side of these cards has the objective text and setup text.

So have a look and enjoy!

A LOOK AT JUST SOME OF THE QUEST TOKENS

So I wanted to share with you just some of the quest items for the game. I have a few more things to say about these, but here is a poster to show you how these came out. And I assure you, there is many more of these...

What I wanted to say about all of these quest tokens is for those people out there who will be designing their own quests and scenarios to share with others, there will be a ton of interesting and different quest items to use for your creations. I have said many times; this is one of the biggest things I'm looking forward to, is seeing others quests, scenarios and mods in Dungeon Crusade.

5 SNEAK PEEK QUEST CARD POSTERS

I posted these a while ago, but since we are showing everything that comprises Dungeon Crusade, I thought people would enjoy seeing a few of the quest cards...but only the top part to avoid spoilers...

THE BOTTOM HALF OF A SCENARIO PAGE

I first want to thank, the most remarkable and incredible artist Kezrek Laczin. I gave Kez my prototype design of the scenario page layout, and she did such an outstanding job recreating it professionally for the final game. Thank you so much, Kez! :) I love the small icons! ;)

This part of the game is what I'm genuinely pleased about and excited to give to people for them to play around with. I put a lot of thought and creativity in designing this aspect of the game so people would have genuinely an unlimited amount of ways to play just one scenario.

I don't think you have ever seen anything quite like this is a fantasy dungeon crawl game. To me, this is like something you would see in a PC RPG. Take a look at this, and let's discuss it...

So as the poster says, there are six different difficulty settings and three different game modes for players to try out while playing Dungeon Crusade. Let's discuss them a bit here...

The six difficulties are...
-- Novice
-- Easy
-- Normal
-- Hard
-- Expert
-- Master

There are also those different panels. Heroes starting gold, blacksmith inventory, bazaar inventory, village terror level, raid difficulty, guardian spawn track, guardians per quest table and minion population. The seeding panel is used to populate the dungeon after quests have been set up.

Here are the three different game modes...

SELECT A DIFFICULTY: This one is pretty straightforward. If you look at the scenario page, all of the columns are labeled with different difficulties. So say we picked normal difficulty... We would refer to each panel on the page, go down each column marked normal and set the game up as instructed. It's as simple as that.

CREATE A CUSTOM DIFFICULTY: In this game mode, a player can tweak everything on the different panels except the seeding area. 15 different things can be tweaked/set over the six different difficulty settings. A player can create a custom difficulty to their liking, and create new challenges for themselves from game to game.

RANDOMLY GENERATE A SCENARIO DIFFICULTY: Lol, watch out would be Crusaders! This is indeed only for the most courageous and bold at heart! If you notice, there are images of D6's above everything in the different panels. What a player can do is roll a D6 for each different setting within a panel and let fate decide what your heroes will have to deal with for the forthcoming game.

This game mode can truly create an almost unlimited amount of ways to play Dungeon Crusade.

But say you don't want a game this extreme, no problem! Instead of a D6, use a D3. By doing this, you'll still generate a random setting, but it won't be as harsh or unforgiving as what could come up from using a D6.

Closing out this section, I wasn't about to give people just a scenario book, and one difficulty. I have always said, I was out to break the mold of the fantasy dungeon crawl genre, and with the advent of a scenario page/layout like this, I think we have done this.

There is almost an endless amount of ways to play and enjoy Dungeon Crusade, and give people so many options to create the game to their personal liking and challenge.

THE 13 HEROES OF DUNGEON CRUSADE, ALL HERO CARDS, AND 110 SPECIAL ABILITY CARDS:
"HEAR YE! HEAR YE! ALL WOULD BE ADVENTURERS, DUNGEON EXPLORERS, AND CRUSADERS OF THE REALM! WELCOME THE 13 LEGENDARY AND VALIANT HEROES OF DUNGEON CRUSADE!"

Here are the 13 heroes for Dungeon Crusade along with all of their hero cards, special ability cards, their retro cardboard miniature, and their starting weapon.

Also, notice something. The female characters are dressed to match their male counterparts. I detest fantasy hero females who are dressed inappropriately or who are scantily dressed. Freddy did such a stunning job on the female heroes in the game. Thank you again, Freddy. :) They all look bad @$$ and awesome.

Heroes in Dungeon Crusade can ascend to level 3 in the game while exploring the many dungeons, crypts, ruins, and towers scattered across Avalon. Heroes may level on Celebration Day.

Just the game content that was shown in these promo posters was a massive task to complete for the final game. As I mentioned before, I took a great deal of time on creating and developing the special abilities for all the heroes to make sure each hero had at least one special ability that was unique to them to use.

THE 13 HEROES AND THEIR BACKSTORIES:
When Dungeon Crusade launched on Kickstarter, I had twelve packages called "Create a hero." Twelve lucky backers got to name a hero in Dungeon Crusade, write a backstory for that hero, and their name and backstory would be on the reverse side of the level 1 hero cards in the game.

I made these packages free of charge. I wanted this to be a very pure experience for people and have them help shape the lore of the game with their creativity & imagination. With Groovus Games Unlimited, I will always offer content like this free of charge to our backers.

Closing out this section, If we look at the big picture of the game, you know there are 4 dungeons boards based in Avalon, there is the whole land itself with 52 unique regions of course.

With the Avalon Adventure board game, you'll genuinely get to know all of these regions. Through the adventure cards and the quests in the game, you'll meet & learn about all of the factions, people, villagers and monsters in the game.

There are a ton of monsters in Dungeon Crusade, and all of them have origin stories. There are 193 pieces of unique loot in the game. I can go on and on, but here is my point.

These 12 backers who created the 12 heroes (well there are 13 with Albus, but I created the backstory and lore for him), but these 12 backers genuinely put yet another layer of immersion, lore, and character into Dungeon Crusade with their creativity & imagination. I want to thank them greatly for this.

So my ultimate point is, just wow! ALL of us did something incredible & unique with Dungeon Crusade. After reading all of these final backstories and absorbing them, this game has just evolved and grown even more with these backers have created. I greatly thank all of you for your time, creativity and imagination that is now part of the Dungeon Crusade universe.

MINING & CRAFTING

When I started creating/developing Dungeon Crusade years ago, I wanted to give fellow gamers and people a multitude of ways to build/spec out their heroes in the game.
There are 193 unique pieces of gear in Dungeon Crusade. Much of the gear has sockets for power gems.

Every game, there will be eight potential mining sites the heroes can find. This is entirely random from game to game. However, there are only four real mining sites that can be found. Heroes have to explore, or rather scout out the four real mining sites. Once they find a mining site, they can begin mining provided they have a pickaxe. The blacksmith in the village sells pickaxes.

Once they have mined some minerals and precious stones, they can send Albus back to the village with these for the blacksmith to craft power gems that plug into sockets on various weapons and gear. These power gems can give bonuses to warfare types and provide some significant effects for many other things. There are 18 different "recipes" for creating different power gems in Dungeon Crusade.

Here are a few pics for you to check out...

Here is a great example of how to use power gems and how versatile they are.

Melhiliak inserted a Gem of Enrichment into his helm. This will add +3 to strength, agility, wisdom, willpower, hide and evade.

He then placed a Greater Rubystone Prowess Gem into his battleaxe that will give him +4 to all physical warfare rolls. So he built upon his proficiency in physical warfare.

However, he is very weak fighting against monsters & creatures who are versed in arcane warfare. He could have had the blacksmith craft him a Greater Jade Prowess Gem to boost his arcane proficiency if he had the precious gems and minerals to create it.

So this is what I have been saying for the longest time. You can truly build your hero(es) as you see fit and create many different types of heroes who are proficient in different combinations of warfare traits. And consider this...you can equip them with weapons and armor and many other types of gear.

DUNGEON CRUSADE HAS A CRATE SYSTEM

Ahhhhh....the sound of wood splintering and echoing through the dungeon halls while the smell of the musty old wood mixes with the fetid air of the dungeon...it feels great to be a crusader in Avalon, wouldn't you say?... Sorry, that was my attempt at making this more immersive for you. ;)

In all seriousness though, I have to say this is a fun little game mechanic in Dungeon Crusade.

Oh, I must mention this first. There were a few people that had a misconception that crates appear this way in the game! They do not.

During the seeding process at setup, there is a system I created where crates randomly are placed within chambers of the dungeon. You will always see seven random crates per game. You will never see the same setup of crates twice.

When a hero enters a chamber, they can decide whether or not to smash a crate open. But watch out! Some crates have less than desirable things within them! There are many different things inside the crates of Dungeon Crusade for your heroes to find. Good & bad.

SECRET ROOMS

When I play these types of games, I love to discover secret rooms that my hero(es) can possibly plunder. So in creating and developing Dungeon Crusade, I, of course, had to add this in for all of us.

Secret rooms randomly show up each game during the seeding process. So you will never know where these will pop up. A hero must be adjacent to a secret room and must test wisdom to "discover it."

What you do is take the various secret room tokens and place them into a bag or mug and draw one at random.

After drawing one, you must spend an action to attempt to discover it. Looking at the token, we can see on the left we have 3 attempts to discover it. The value to the right side is the number a hero must meet or exceed to discover it. A hero rolls 1D20 and adds their wisdom attribute value to the result.

On a fail, you would place a red token in that room. On a third failed attempt, place the locked side of the token in the room. This room is now permanently locked.

On a success, however, the hero has, of course, discovered the secret room!

You would then place the lockpick tokens in a bag or mug and draw one at random.

Know that there are very easy locks to pick and quite hard ones. If we look at the tokens, we see there is a value on the left side. This is the attempts a hero has to pick the lock. A hero may add their lockpicking attribute to that total.

The rogue is ideal at picking locks. She can add +2 to that value. The barbarian is terrible at lockpicking. On his hero card, it reads -2. Meaning he would have to deduct 2 from the attempts! Ouch!

In creating the lockpicking mechanic for the game, I came up with a really fun & interesting one.

To pick a lock, a hero will take the red, green and blue D6. They roll the dice together and set successive rolls aside. On the final attempt, if the lock is not picked, you would place a locked token within that room. It's considered the lock is broken.

However, if a hero picks a lock successfully, they enter into the secret room!

When a hero enters a secret room, they immediately draw a secret room card and see what they have found. There will be 2 outcomes. They will either find a desolate chamber, meaning nothing of value is within it.

Or they have found a treasure room! Let it be known; there is some GREAT loot within treasure chambers! I worked with the most awesome Dean Spencer on the design of the desolate and treasure chamber cards. I just gave him a few ideas what it should look like, and he just ran with it and created what I wanted and some things he wanted to see. So thank you, Dean! The cards look awesome.

The secret room game mechanic is one of the coolest things in the game I think. So good luck Crusaders in discovering a treasure chamber!

THE DUNGEON U. I. BOARD

So what is the dungeon U. I. board? I created this board to centralize the many tracks of the game and to keep many of the cards on this board. So it's easy for players to find everything.

So looking at this picture, at the very top is where the mining deck goes. There is mining site A, B, C, and D. So when the heroes discover a certain mining site within the dungeon, and mine, you will draw from that specific deck of mining cards.

Coming straight down is the minion population track. You will set this according to what the difficulty is within a scenario, or move it to whatever you feel you can handle.

LOL, you may be looking at that track and see 18 minions! I have some "stuff" coming for you guys so let's wait on that until the appropriate time. But I think you are going to enjoy this. :)

To the right is the minion raid difficulty. This again is tied to the scenario page. A player, of course, can just adjust it as they see fit, however.

Starting from the bottom is the combat U.I. you will be using this a lot when doing combat with monsters. Whatever 3 warfare traits a monster has, you will use those warfare tokens on the combat U. I. section.

The teleport track is used when the heroes clear a quest table. At the top of a turn in the upkeep phase, you place a red token on the 3 if a quest table has been cleared. At the start of every upkeep phase there after, you will move it down by one.

When it reaches teleport, the heroes are teleported back to the village for Celebration Day.

The incantation track deals with when a hero(es) leave a champion monster in a chamber without slaying it. That monster will start an incantation. The incantation level depends on the level of the monster. Example...

2 heroes enter into a chamber to retrieve a quest item. A level 2 champion monster is drawn, but both heroes evade out of the chamber leaving the champion monster alone.

What you would do is place 2 red tokens on the incantation track since it was a level 2 monster. Say it was a level 4 champion monster. You would place 4 red tokens on the track.

If there are ever 4 red tokens on the incantation track, the incantation has been fulfilled, and a hex is placed over the village. We'll get into hexes later, but know they are BAD!!! :O

The final track on the very top is the guardian spawn track. This ties in with the guardian phase of a turn. Quite simply, you roll 1D20 in the guardian phase. If the result is equal to or exceeds where the red token is, a guardian spawns into the dungeon.

You would then reset the red token on the value set forth in the scenario or whatever value you wanted it at for that scenario.

Want to have some fun? Set the guardian spawn track for a scenario at 11 and have 6 guardians spawn per quest table. LOL, you'll have a real barrel of fun with that little deadly recipe.

Those are the battle tokens. You will use those with your heroes when they declare what weapon they will be attacking within what phase of combat. You use the red side for attacking.

When a hero is defending, you use the blue side and place it on their hero card to signify they are defending for that combat round. Easy stuff to remember.

At the very top are the quest tables. When you start a game, you will take the elder globe tokens and place one down by each quest table. The red "evil" globe side should be showing. This signifies there is evil in the dungeon.

The next thing you will do on each quest table is place a main quest book (token), a side quest book (token), and a kill the guardians book (token) on the quest table.

As the heroes complete a main quest, a side quest or kill the quota of guardians set forth in the scenario, you will flip the tokens over to the cleared side, which is a book closed.

When all tokens on a quest table have been cleared, you will flip the red elder globe token to the green globe side. This represents the heroes have cleansed the evil from parts of the dungeon.

At that time, the heroes will teleport to the village for Celebration Day. Remember the teleport track above?

When all elder globes have been flipped to the green side, the heroes are victorious and have beaten the scenario.

From what I just said about the dungeon U. I. board, you just learned a huge part of the game I believe. As I have always said, Dungeon Crusade is not a complex game at all. I truly hate complex games. The game is huge, so it appears complex. That's not the case at all. Dungeon Crusade has very logical and easy game mechanics.

MYSTERY CHAMBERS

What dungeon would not be complete without some uncharted areas of the dungeon where heroes have NO idea what lurks within a certain chamber, what treasure awaits them or something else...

So let me explain about mystery chambers, and I think you are going to enjoy these. During the seeding process at setup, the scenario may say to drop 3 master mystery tokens into a mug or bag. Master tokens have the same image on both sides.

Only the bravest of heroes dare enter into a mystery chamber to see what resides within. There is no lockpicking with Mystery Chambers. And of course, you can rally heroes together and storm a mystery chamber.

AFFLICTIONS

In Dungeon Crusade, damage from monsters, creatures, events, and traps are not the only thing that can hinder our brave heroes. Heroes can also be stricken with 12 different types of afflictions that can affect their body, mind, vision, thought process and well-being.

Afflictions can be contracted from monster and creature attacks, as well as certain encounters in the dungeon. A hero must consume an elixir potion to purge afflictions from their body. Elixir potions can be purchased from the bazaar located in the central area of the village.

SOME OF THE TOKENS IN DUNGEON CRUSADE

These are the majority of tokens you will be using in the game while playing Dungeon Crusade. The only other ones that are not being shown are the many quest item tokens for main quests in the game.

I did include one of the quest item token backings for you to have a look at. There are those other tokens for the Avalon Adventure board game not pictured. All of these tokens were printed and assembled in-house, so this is prototype content. The art is, of course, all final.

Something I wanted to make mention of is it is highly recommended to get one of those plastic storage compartments for all the various tokens shown in the pics. Amazon has tons of different ones, and some are incredibly cheap with free shipping.

THE PATROL ROUTE SYSTEM

Ever since I was a kid until now, I have always wanted a dungeon crawl board game with a massive dungeon board but where monsters would roam & lurk the halls and corridors while my heroes would be traversing the dungeon killing monsters, completing quests, gaining loot and seeing what kind of trouble they could get in.

Truth be told, I created & developed Dungeon Crusade exclusively for the soloist board gamer. I built the game from the ground up to cater to this crowd. However, Dungeon Crusade can, of course, be played co-op style incredibly easily. I'm a diehard soloist board gamer, and I love the challenge of combating the game itself, or rather an invisible A.I.

Years ago while working on the game, I created & developed the Patrol Route System for Dungeon Crusade and some other games I would like to do under Groovus Games Unlimited. What this system effectively does is provide the player with a "living dungeon." Just like what I always have wanted for years.

The minions & guardians move with unpredictable movement patterns, where the heroes must adapt their strategy, tactics and planning every turn. This system almost works too good. You'll never know where these monsters will go next, thus providing this living dungeon experience.

Closing out this section, I'm extremely happy & proud of the Patrol Route System. But I'm more excited for everyone to play Dungeon Crusade for themselves and see this system in action. Without being too bold, I genuinely believe this was a real innovative breakthrough for the dungeon crawl genre and will provide the soloist board gamer a very innovative, fulfilling, fun & challenging game experience as well as for the co-op crowd.

THE FINAL SURPRISE REVEAL: DUAL MONSTER CHAMBERS

You have no idea how excited I was to share this with you and what this brings to Dungeon Crusade. Simply, it's only 8 champion backed cards, that's it. But Dual Monster Chamber cards add such an awesome dimension, enjoyment and challenge to the game. Let me explain...

I've had these little deadly dungeon bullets in my pocket for about a year. When I was playtesting the game, I was entering into the chambers of the dungeon, of course, to do various tasks with my heroes. As you know, champion monsters reside and lurk in the chambers of the dungeon.

But I got to thinking one day...what if, 2 champion monsters were residing within the chamber? Hmmmm.....So I got some champion monster card backings, went to my workstation and created a very rough mock-up of the cards below and started playing. There is 2 in each monster deck.

LOL, let me tell you, my fellow crusaders! The game became much more tense and even more fun and challenging. Every time I entered into a chamber, I would slowly draw the card and sort of peek under it. I fell in love with this instantly.

And the nice thing is you don't have to play with them. You can take the 2 out, leave 1 in, whatever you fancy. To me, this was the crowning jewel on the game.

And quite simply, say you are playing with 2 Dual Monster Chamber cards. You draw one of them, and go to draw the other 2 champion monster cards, and another Dual Monster Chamber card is drawn, you simply ignore it and draw until you have 2 champion monsters.

So here they are to have a look at and a few champion monster cards from their deck.

A little behind the scenes Crusade fact is those skulls on those cards were stored away in the DC closet. Freddy had created those a while ago for something else we didn't use. So I ended up using them for the Dual Monster Chamber cards. Fitting pieces of art for what they are being used for I would say.

Dual Monster Chamber cards give you yet another way or option to play Dungeon Crusade.

So beware Crusaders...you'll never know if 2 champion monsters lurk within the chambers of Dungeon Crusade.

IN CLOSING:

Well, everyone, that's it. The game is finally done, as in the game itself. You have just seen everything Dungeon Crusade has to offer. There are a few other little things, but you have seen much of the game except all of the individual cards. Those must be a surprise for you.

In a way, it's kind of sad. With the advent of update #92 & #93, there will be no more huge updates showing all of you what got done, things to surprise you with, new game content, etc. It kind of marks the end of that era if you will.

We will, of course, be sharing the back of the box design and all of the info about forwarding the game files to the game company, shipping info, what's going on, the rulebook for you guys to provide feedback on, etc. All of that within the updates from here on out. I'll more than likely throw some pics in there of some game sessions if you like.

WHAT YOU'LL THINK ABOUT DUNGEON CRUSADE WHEN YOU RECEIVE IT

I thought this would be interesting to say, and I hope you didn't mind me putting this in.

Right off the top of my head, I can honestly say you will have a brand new game experience like nothing you've played before.

I have said, Dungeon Crusade is like a huge machine with different wheels, gears and cogs spinning & turning at once producing so many different things and events in the game for you and your heroes to handle. You most certainly never see the same game twice. Ever.

I just think you're are going to have an innovative, immersive, thematic, challenging, fun, strategic, tactical, surprising and...whimsical possibly, game experience. In all honesty, I think that sums up Dungeon Crusade pretty darn good.

SINCERELY, THANK YOU
I said this before, and now more than ever, I would like to say it again especially at the point we are at.

Thank you to EVERYONE who has been on this journey with us. I want you to know I personally will be eternally grateful for believing in me, Dungeon Crusade and these amazing artists to get the job done for you.

As you have seen over the past few years, I made good on the commitment I made approaching the Kickstarter platform. I constantly kept you in the loop, engaged and brought you along on the whole journey of the evolution of Dungeon Crusade so you could see it happen.

I don't know how other creators feel, but I'll tell you, you guys who have backed the game and the people who are pledging for Dungeon Crusade are some of the most remarkable, kind, patient and incredible group of people I have ever met in my life and I hold each and every one of you in the highest regard and respect you so greatly.

I fully realize, not a lot of people get an opportunity like this in life. I vow to you to always be a prolific creator and give you the best of my creativity, imagination, innovativeness, drive, focus, determination, strong will, perseverance and passion to work on games with you and do something special in the process where we all in a way work on it together. THAT is what Kickstarter is to me. It's a cooperation to make something together.

And a massive thank you to all of these amazing artists who it was a sheer pleasure and honor to work with. Shaun Ellis, Freddy Lopez, Joseph Arnold, Tom Feldman, Kezrek Laczin, Dean Spencer, Damien Mammoliti, Annika Maar, David Shearer, Christian Colbert, Camron Browne, You guys were really great friends to me, and I have learned so much from you. Thank you. :)

FUTURE PROJECTS, AND THE RIGHT WAY

I have said this many times. I have learned so much in this endeavor, educated myself on so many things and just "leveled up" in so many ways. The next project will be on time or arrive a bit earlier. I have made it a point to make good on this.

This was our first project, so I/we have learned so much, the next project will go much, much smoother and efficiently.

From here on out, when we approach the Kickstarter platform, we will have a finished game. However, there will be some things in the game where I would want backers to have a say in. Content they would like to see. As I have said, if we do any more things like create a hero or anything along those lines, this will always be free to you as I did with the create a hero in Dungeon Crusade. There will never be a charge for it.

Next year, there will be a massive expansion for Dungeon Crusade. In the coming months after we wrap up Dungeon Crusade completely, we'll talk more about this.

FINAL WORDS
Years ago, I set out to break the mold of the fantasy dungeon crawl genre. I never stopped, never quit, I kicked massive @$$ and kept going because I envisioned this game and wanted to give it to fellow gamers & people like me who wanted something genuinely different to be challenged by and enjoy.

Within update #92 & #93, now everyone can see it. This is what I wanted to do for people and give them to be immersed in, be challenged by, and to use their imagination & creativity in creating their own quests, scenarios & mods and fully enjoy this game whether solo or with friends & family. Let it be known, we ALL have accomplished this.

There is a saying I have lived by for years and have said it a few times here on Kickstarter. Try to leave this world a little better than when you found it. I hope in some weird way, I did that with working with all of you on Dungeon Crusade.

I'll be in the comment section, as usual, tomorrow t chat with you guys and see what's going on. Now that this is out of the way, we are getting on the final things to do for the game and get this fully completed for all of us.

I hope everyone has a great night/day, and I hope you enjoyed this grand finale mega-ultra Dungeon Crusade update. I'll be talking to you very soon...Rodger :)

.

P. S. Let it be known to all, that on November 4th, of 2018, Rodger Matthew Deering stuck the first flag in planet Kickstarter discovering that when you post an update, there is a 60,000 character limit and you will receive an error message. I genuinely believe this is some type of accomplishment in a bizarre way...

Dungeon Crusade - Book I: Genesis of Evil

Created by Groovus Games Unlimited

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Rulebook very near to completion, images in update. Reveal of the Underworld Artifacts, Dungeon Crusade coming to Tabletop Simulator this Spring, plus more!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 04, 2019 at 10:55:43 PM

Great progress on the Dungeon Crusade rulebook, more than half done, many images within update.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 10:04:55 PM

Test prints from the manufacturer. Rulebook cover and reverse side. Images for the final rulebook. Rulebook well on its way to being completed, then Dungeon Crusade is fully finished.
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 08, 2019 at 11:31:27 PM

Game box graphic design done & revealed. Final playtesting concluded. Rulebook revisions will be underway, when finished, game is fully complete. Much more info within update.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 03, 2018 at 09:35:14 PM

The Grand Finale: PART 2 OF UPDATE: All game content is fully finished. Final playtesting commencing, revisions to the rulebook underway, graphic design for the back of the box underway. A complete look at the game inside.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Nov 05, 2018 at 11:44:28 PM

Dungeon Crusade - Book I: Genesis of Evil

Created by Groovus Games Unlimited

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Rulebook very near to completion, images in update. Reveal of the Underworld Artifacts, Dungeon Crusade coming to Tabletop Simulator this Spring, plus more! over 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 04, 2019 at 10:55:43 PM

Great progress on the Dungeon Crusade rulebook, more than half done, many images within update. over 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 10:04:55 PM

Test prints from the manufacturer. Rulebook cover and reverse side. Images for the final rulebook. Rulebook well on its way to being completed, then Dungeon Crusade is fully finished. over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 08, 2019 at 11:31:27 PM

Game box graphic design done & revealed. Final playtesting concluded. Rulebook revisions will be underway, when finished, game is fully complete. Much more info within update. over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 03, 2018 at 09:35:14 PM

The Grand Finale: PART 2 OF UPDATE: All game content is fully finished. Final playtesting commencing, revisions to the rulebook underway, graphic design for the back of the box underway. A complete look at the game inside. over 5 years ago – Mon, Nov 05, 2018 at 11:44:28 PM

Rulebook very near to completion, images in update. Reveal of the Underworld Artifacts, Dungeon Crusade coming to Tabletop Simulator this Spring, plus more!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 04, 2019 at 10:55:43 PM

Great progress on the Dungeon Crusade rulebook, more than half done, many images within update.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 10:04:55 PM

Test prints from the manufacturer. Rulebook cover and reverse side. Images for the final rulebook. Rulebook well on its way to being completed, then Dungeon Crusade is fully finished.
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 08, 2019 at 11:31:27 PM

Game box graphic design done & revealed. Final playtesting concluded. Rulebook revisions will be underway, when finished, game is fully complete. Much more info within update.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 03, 2018 at 09:35:14 PM

The Grand Finale: PART 2 OF UPDATE: All game content is fully finished. Final playtesting commencing, revisions to the rulebook underway, graphic design for the back of the box underway. A complete look at the game inside.
over 5 years ago – Mon, Nov 05, 2018 at 11:44:28 PM