Dungeon Crusade - Book I: Genesis of Evil

The Dungeon Crusade Christmas Extravaganza video program / Presented in GroovusVision
over 6 years ago – Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 10:52:46 PM

A HUGE HELLO to all Crusaders out there! :) Rodger here and it's nice to be here with you on this Friday evening! :) I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas with your family & friends, and had an awesome celebration. Mine was very grand, but SUPER busy with family and of course Dungeon Crusade. 

I think you are going to really enjoy this very special update I have for you. I have been really on task working on the final content for the game, printing out everything for the new playthrough video and more than ever just consumed and obsessed with the game, which you are going to see. :) Alot has gotten accomplished for the completion of the game. 

But first, as we always do....

PREVIOUSLY ON DUNGEON CRUSADE:

 
Here is a link to the last update for you. If you didn't check it out yet, check that one first, then come back to this one. If you notice, awhile ago  I started linking all the KS updates together for everyone like this, so people could keep clicking back on past ones.  >>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2054428

AND PLEASE REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!

I just want everyone that's reading this, if you see a delay in the updates, check the comment section. I'm in there almost daily giving everyone play by play things that we are doing, what we're up to, 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. In these days of putting the final game content together, I'm in there almost daily for everyone.
 
Plus, if you go scroll through the comment sections history for the past month, you'll see a ton of great information for you. 

THE DUNGEON CRUSADE CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA VIDEO:

So I have been talking about this for awhile in the comment section and this went live on You Tube just the other day. I wanted this dispatched on Christmas Eve for you to enjoy, but wow...there were just technical issues after technical issues as you will see in the comment section. LOL, I was SO annoyed!! 

This video has a run time of 1 hour and 37 minutes. It is just jam packed with wall to wall final content of Dungeon Crusade. And still, in this video you are only seeing maybe 30%-35% of the whole game...yes, this game is that huge. 

And I have some Christmas gifts for you in this video I have been dying to show/give you! I unwrap them on camera for you. I'm not going to ruin the surprise, and I PLEASE ask you to watch the video and not to skip ahead! I assure you, I think you're going to enjoy what you are going to see.  

I want to tell you everything you are going to see, but I think I'm going to hold back and just let you be surprised. I'll just say this...you are going to pretty much see what Dungeon Crusade is going to look like on your tables when you receive it. 

This is by far the best & biggest Dungeon Crusade video to date. It was quite time consuming and complex to put together, but after it was done and I watched the playback, it was all worth it for you guys. I hope you enjoy it. :) 

NEW CAMERA / BETTER DUNGEON CRUSADE VIDEOS:

I also wanted to let you know I got a really great deal on a new camera. You are going to see a MUCH improved image quality in this video, and of course for the new playthrough video. 

I got a Vivatar DVR917HD on sale for $70, a 64 gig Micro SD memory card on sale for $30 and a really awesome flexible tapletop tripod for $20. Grand total, out the door $129. I just wanted something simple and easy to use. I don't want or need anything extravagant for what we do here. 

Plus a fellow backer pointed me to a great deal on a photo umbrella reflector kit from Amazon. Those are those stands that have a light and an umbrella on them. The total cost for this was only $40. These help cast the perfect light for shooting videos, remove glare and get rid of that annoying "amber tone" lighting I notice I was getting. I haven't received these yet, they're suppose to be here tomorrow. These will be used for the new playthrough video. 

I just want to provide everyone with great looking and enjoyable videos for the game. So for everything I mentioned, it totaled $169. I think that's not that bad, and a solid investment for future Dungeon Crusade videos for you guys. You'll be pleasantly surprised I think when you see this video I have for you. 

Here is the link to the Groovus Games Unlimited You Tube channel, with the playlist for the Dungeon Crusade Christmas Extravaganza video program. This was, "Presented in GroovusVision" copyright 1982. Enjoy the video!

THE DUNGEON CRUSADE CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA VIDEO PROGRAM LINK >>> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHuoGWtNACPPSdW5PM91PNLWSmpNyr85W

DUNGEON CRUSADE TOOK THE NUMBER 1 SLOT ON ROB OREN'S TOP 8 GAMES OF 2018: 

If you guys remember, when we were all on kickstarter together, an awesome fellow gamer/You Tuber named Rob Oren did a live interview with me and the game. Rob is just a massive supporter of the game, and just one of the most greatest guys you'll ever meet. I had the pleasure & honor meeting him at the last Origins convention we went to. 

Rob is like us...just a total dungeon crawl nut, and he is highly anticipating the release of the game. This video I have for you here surprised me completely. I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to Rob for this, and my offer stands...I offered to go to his home after the game is shipped, and do a live playthrough  with him and his family. ;) 

Here's the video for you  >>>  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT53huHWOlI

While you are there, subscribe to his channel. He is always doing some fun & interesting there. His playthroughs are really spectacular. 

IN CLOSING:

So here is what we are going to do. More than ever, I want this game done guys. As soon as I dispatch this update, I'm getting back on putting the final loot cards together. (193 of them ). I'm making great progress, and i just want to keep going and knock this out. 

This is one of the last huge things on the list. After these, it's alot of little things to get finalized. We are at about 5%-6% left for things to do to call this done...I want this game done, that's all there is to it. I want all of us to play it already. After the video you're going to see, you'll see what I mean. 

So based on what you are going to see, and what is revealed in this video, I would like to return with a MASSIVE update for you with all of this content. I just want these final loot cards out of the way, to put it simply. And these are needed for the new playthrough video. So I hope you see what I'm saying. :) 

Remember to check the facebook Dungeon Crusade page. I have been putting tons of images on there. All of it is within this video you are going to see. 

OK all...I'm getting busy over here tonight. I'll be back in here from time to time tonight to see what's going on. Above all, enjoy this video! I wanted to make this truly epic for you and enjoyable. 

LOL, excuse my giddiness in the video also. I was really into showing you all of this stuff and having a fun time. That's one of the reason's I'm so driven to get this game done...I know you're going to fully enjoy Dungeon Crusade. :) 

Have a great night all...talk to you very soon...Rodger :) 

Are you up for creating a hero for Dungeon Crusade? Read on Crusader!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 10:47:16 PM

Hello everyone!! :) Rodger here and I hope everyone is doing great on this Friday evening! If you celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, I hope you had an awesome day and feast with your friends and family. I'm glad your here for this special update on how you can create a hero for Dungeon Crusade.

PREVIOUSLY ON DUNGEON CRUSADE: 

As we always right now, here is a link to the last update for you. This update was another ULTRA, mega massive update showing much of the final content for the game. It was one of the largest updates I've dispatched.  If you didn't check it out yet, check that one first, then come back to this one.. >>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2046204

AND REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!!!  

And I just want everyone that's reading this, if you see a delay in the updates, check the comment section. I'm in there almost daily giving everyone play by play things that we are doing, up to, news and just everything Dungeon Crusade.  

 In any case, I just wanted everyone to know to check the comment section for the latest Crusade news and what we are up to. :)

YOUR CHANCE TO CREATE A HERO:

So I mentioned in last week's update we were waiting for 6 other backers to submit their heroes to be in the game. Within that time, a very nice backer came forth and declared he did in fact have the Warlock hero. I would like to greatly thank him for that! :) 

So, the deadline has past, and there are 5 heroes up for bid right now. I want everyone to please understand, I didn't want to skip over these 5 backers, but we are really getting close to wrapping up the game, and this content must be in place for us to work on. 

I did not charge for the create a hero packages. I wanted this to be free. I don't believe in charging people for using their creativity & imagination, and wanted this to be just an awesome, pure and fun experience for everyone. Further more, any other games Groovus Games Unlimited brings to the kickstarter platform, this type of content will always be free to our backers. Period. 

THE CHANGE THAT WAS MADE FOR SUBMITTING A HERO: 

This has been discussed in the comment section for the past week, and I would like to thank the backers for their help in picking the best route for getting these 5 other heroes in Dungeon Crusade. 

What we are doing is everyone is going to have a chance to get their hero in the game. Take a look at the guidelines.....

--- A name. It could be just one name or first and last, or something more creative you would think of.

--- A small summary story of your backstory. This should just be long enough to fit on those promo posters you saw in the update. Just a quick description of your hero, and some quick facts would suffice.

--- A longer backstory that will appear on the back of the level 1 hero card. 

--- I would like to know what name you would like me to use for the back of the level 1 hero card. You could of course have your real name so everyone who plays Dungeon Crusade will know you created this hero, or you could use some other type of name. As in a name you go by online.

--- And this is just optional. What I really like to see in these backstories/summary stories is when other locations in Avalon are referenced.

An example of this is if you look back at this previous update at Red Widow's monster card, it talks about being in the depths of the Vile Tower.

Another one is the guardian Horrus and makes reference to the village of Deadwood.

Personally, I think this adds to the immersion of the game. So something like...

How your hero and a few of the soldiers of the Avalon Valiant Army found themselves fending off an attack at the Tower of St. Viticus by a group of crazed skeletal warriors that pursued them from the eastern part of Witherbrook Forest.

LOL, I'm going to stop there! I started creating a story/quest that there's an artifact within the tower that the skeletal warriors were after. But you get the idea.

So it's not a requirement at all, just something to share with you that gets your creativity rolling. :)

--- When submitting your hero, it would be great to have the information in this format....

HERO: (what hero you would like)

VILLAGE THE HERO HAILS FROM: (name a village in Avalon)

SMALL SUMMARY STORY: (this will appear on those promo posters. Not too much here. Just some quick facts about your hero, and a little background would suffice)

BACKSTORY: (this can be fairly long and flesh out your hero much more)

NAME TO USE ON THE BACK OF THE LEVEL 1 HERO CARD: (What name would you like to use for this? Real name? Gamer name? I of course want this here so everyone can see you created this hero for Dungeon Crusade, and you played an important role for the development and evolution of the game.)

You can then submit your hero to me through the message system via kickstarter. You can start doing this right now.

Feel free to create a few different heroes to look over. 

Here is the map of Avalon for you to reference for looking for villages for your hero. Villages are marked with gold stars. I had to divide this map in half, as it cropped when I tried to upload it...

WESTERN AVALON:

EASTERN AVALON: 

We will be taking hero submissions until next Friday December 1st until 8:00 p. m. Eastern Standard Time. I will be announcing the final 5 heroes in the game in a special update complete with a world debut video with all the heroes by their names you guys have chosen. This will happen within mid December. 

I truly hope this sounds fair to everyone. If you look back at the comment section next door, you'll see how we were working this out for the past week, and it sounded the best way to get this aspect of the game wrapped up so we can proceed onward with getting the game done. 

Here are the create a heroes that are finished. You can use these to give you an idea or as reference for creating your submissions. 

As I said, a very awesome backer, Michael, is working on his hero...the Warlock. This will debut along with the other 5...

And here is the 5 heroes that are up for bid...

And here is the reveal poster for all the heroes in Dungeon Crusade we debuted last week....

If anyone has any questions, just let me know. I'd be happy to help. The awesome backer 1soni also said he would be willing to help anyone out if they need some assistance with anything at all. 

Again I  hope this system sounds OK to everyone, and this will get this content wrapped up for the game. I'm seriously looking forward to reading everything that is submitted! This is an awesome and creative bunch in here for sure, and I'm looking forward to reading some great stuff for the game. :) 

SOME OTHER THINGS GOING ON: 

I have been having the most awesome time this past week. I have been hardcore playtesting/playing Dungeon Crusade, and of course working on the game. The sessions i have been playing have been incredibly fun in all seriousness. The events that transpired, the combat, what the monsters are doing in the game with the patrol route system, chamber battles, etc.

There is so much I could say. I know in my heart, that this game is going to be seriously solid and totally rock, and give you a board game experience like you've never had before. I 110% guarantee it my friends. I hope you know, I'm extremely humble, but the fact remains this is truly a unique, innovative and mucho fun game experience. 

Let me share real quick what i said in the comment section the other night....this is what went down....

"While I was playing, I decided on a whim to take Jora (the priest), Melhiliak (the barbarian) and Lyrenna (the battlemage) and create a hunting party to track down minions throughout the dungeon on a chance of finding some gold on them, but hopefully loot.  

There were 6 minions in the dungeon at this time and I was playing with a raid difficulty set to normal, which means there is a 10% chance a minion will convert into a raiding minion.  

So the first minion I went after was a Goblin Footman. At this time, there were no raiding minions in the dungeon. So I positioned the barbarian about 7 spaces to the north of it, while the priest and the battlemage were to the east of it about 6-7 spaces away.  

This Goblin Footman was approaching a spawn point to pickup a new patrol route, so I positioned the priest exactly 4 spaces away from this spawn point. Remember minions can see 4 spaces away, so when it saw her it would instantly convert into a raiding minion.  

So it arrived at the spawn point, converted into a raiding minion and my hopes were it would head east right into the priest and battlemage to take care of it, then I would send the barbarian in to help from the north. Understand a minion sometimes has a decision on which way it will go when it heads to the exit to raid the village. 

So this Goblin Footman went north instead of east ruining my plan! Now, this wouldn't have been an issue, as the barbarian could take it out easily. However about 6-7 spaces away from him further north a Orc Siegebreaker converted into a raiding minion on it's turn and was heading directly towards the barbarian and the goblin footman confrontation. 

LOL, perfect right! So on the priest and battlemages turn I moved them closer to the barbarian so the 3 of them could deal with these 2 raiding minions. Keep in mind, way to the north was yet another Orc Siegebreaker getting closer to this situation, and a Orc Archer was heading towards a spawn point in the vicinity of all this.  

So to sum it up, the barbarian managed to kill this goblin footman taking only 1 damage in the process, and moved to attack the Orc Siegebreaker. The Orc Siegebreaker is versed in chaos and physical warfare just like the barbarian, and due to the barbarian not hitting a few times, he took 2 damage from this Orc Siegebreaker.  

Meanwhile, the priest and battlemage met the Orc Archer head on and dispatched it rather quickly, but the other Orc Siegebreaker had rolled some massive movement, and caught a glimpse of the priest hero and thus converted into a raiding minion.  

The Orc Siegebreaker headed straight for the priest, as when I "programmed" the minions and guardians, they would go for the hero they could do the most damage on. 

And oh wow...it laid the pwnage down on the priest hero! I even tried to have her cast Counterattack, where instead of defending in all 3 phases, she could try to attack in one of the phases of combat and land a hit. LOL, that didn't happen to much. She took 3 damage from the Orc Siegebreaker.  

So basically, I just got the priest away from this whole situation and let the barbarian and battlemage do clean up. They did manage to kill the 2 Orc Siegebreakers, but each hero did take some damage in the process. LOL, and no gold or loot on either one!!! UHG!!!!

I hope you didn't mind this little battle report here, but I truly had a great time today playing. This was normal difficulty I was playtesting and it's very solid, and I feel this is a perfect starting point for Dungeon Crusade. As I said, expert and heroic will scale up gradually from here."

OK, I'm back. This is just one example of something that could happen in Dungeon Crusade, and I will promise you there will be TONS of little moments like this when you play. This has really inspired me to get to this new playthrough video and show you what you're in store for. I know more than ever, you're going to love this game, and it was well worth the wait. 

IN CLOSING:

So of course working on the game, tweaking certain parts and I'm starting to put the final loot cards together this weekend. 

Freddy messaged me earlier this week and the sketch for the box art is almost complete! He seemed very happy and confident about what he produced. From there, he will start the painting of it. and without saying, a debut video for you guys on it. 

So truly, this game is coming together. I'm so beyond excited & thrilled to get this game into your hands so you can experience this, and we can chat about everything Dungeon Crusade. 

OK all, I'm getting back to the Crusade Zone and working/playing the game for the rest of the night. I'll keep my eye on the update comment section, and jump in here from working on the game and chat with you. 

Have a great Friday evening all..I'll be talking to you very soon I imagine....take it easy..Rodger :) 

Oops! One last thing..this is a teaser trailer I put together for the top of the facebook Dungeon Crusade page. They now allow you to put a video there. As we finish everything for the game, I'm going to build this up, and show EVERYTHING Dungeon Crusade has to offer. So fairly short, but wanted to share it with you. :) 

link>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8KFReOow7s&lc=z230ihty4qq5zz5qv04t1aokgtaszskh41lplw2yb151bk0h00410

All 13 heroes revealed! All 106 final monster cards are done! All heroes special ability cards are done! A look at the final hero cards! Box art in development! All cardboard miniatures cut to shape of art! Deadline for create a hero!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 11:16:27 PM

Hey all! :) Rodger here and it's Saturday November 18th 12:08 a.m. right now and just got the update completed. It was alot to put together.  I hope you enjoy it! I'll be in the update comment section of course to hang out with you. Enjoy the update! :) 

HELLO EVERYONE!!! :) How is everyone doing!? Rodger here and it has been a little bit since I was here since the last update. But do not worry Crusaders! MUCH has gotten finished and alot of progression has been made since the last update, and we are nearing completion of Dungeon Crusade....FINALLY!!!!! 

So first off, I truly hope everyone is doing great and getting ready for the holiday season. I have been ULTRA busy and on task with getting the game finalized, as are the artists working on different tasks. There is so much to tell you! I seriously don't know where to start. 

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO:

Well, I'll tell you the big thing I'm SO HAPPY about that I got finished and looking great. All of the monster cards for the game are finalized. All 106 of them! Minions, champions and guardians...they are all complete. This was one of the biggest tasks for this game for sure, and was quite time consuming. 

Normal difficulty is perfectly honed and I'm very happy how this difficulty came out. It's not too hard, but it will provide a good challenge and get you acclimated to the game very nicely. 

Expert and Heroic difficulty monster decks will have a gradual increase in difficulty. We will be seeing alot of the final cards in some screen shots I have taken. The cards really came out awesome. I took my time on the graphic design to make sure everything looks perfect on each and everyone of them.  

All 13 heroes are complete! A few of them might surprise you in a good way. It seems the female Bard is becoming a favorite of a few people already. Freddy Lopez deserves a medal for his incredible work on them and the monsters. He just totally killed it on all of their designs. You will also be seeing an upgraded and more deadly level 4 champion Death Knight!

Also, all of the cardboard miniatures will be shown in this update and they are now cut to their character art. They look incredibly awesome. The guardians all have been re-scaled and look perfect now. The heroes and minions you will see are just a tad bigger than what they will be in the final game. So picture them just a little smaller, not by much though. But we achieved the perfect size for the game. More on this when we get to this section.  

Dean of course completed all of the heroes special ability card backings for the game, and he did an amazing job on these. These are within the update as well. Notice the dungeon background on them, I love that part of them! 

Last week I finished my concept/design for the box art for Dungeon Crusade and me and Freddy got it all finalized last weekend. Freddy is of course painting it, and he is well on his way on completing it within the next few weeks. 

LOL, now...I said this in the comment section, but this box art is quite bold and daring. I've had this image in my head for years on what I envision for dungeon Crusade. There will be a debut video I'm putting together for you on it. I assure you it screams Dungeon Crusade and there's no question when you see it that this is a dungeon crawl game on an epic scale to say the least. :)

But myself and Freddy want to give you guys an incredible box art cover that you will want to proudly display.  

But let's get on with this update! Alot to show you and talk about...

AND REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!!!

And I just want everyone that's reading this, if you see a delay in the updates, check the comment section. I'm in there almost daily giving everyone play by play things that we are doing, up to, news and just everything Dungeon Crusade.

I said before, for right now I had to stop doing the weekly updates as I'm putting the final content together for the game. But after we get the game wrapped up, the updates will pick back up.

In any case, I just wanted everyone to know to check the comment section for the latest Crusade news and what we are up to. :)

 As we always do about this time, here is a link to the last update for you. The last update was an ULTRA, mega massive update. It was by far the largest update ever.  If you didn't check it out yet, check that one first, then come back to this one.. >>> 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/2007711

AND BEFORE WE BEGIN...THE 13 HEROES OF DUNGEON CRUSADE!:

So I wanted to throw this out there first off and let you see the 13 heroes for Dungeon Crusade. Freddy painted all of the heroes and I have said this many times over. He has given Dungeon Crusade it's own identity and unique look. I think that aspect alone is very important, especially to a fantasy themed game. KUDOS to you Freddy! :) 

We will be talking alot about the heroes down a bit further. But I hope you like the look of all the heroes for the game. :) 

THE 4 PROMO POSTERS FOR ALL 4 DUNGEON BOARDS: 

I know a few people wanted to see the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board and the Tomb of Kaladar dungeon board posters done like the Ancient Ruins and Castle Blackwood promo posters. So I took the time to create these for you. Here are all 4 posters now....

(Please note: The Cavern of Lost Souls board is the older version. I went back in and Shaun added 3 more chambers in 3 of the quadrants.) 

So there you go! :) 

ALL 106 MONSTER CARDS ARE DONE FOR THE GAME:  

And do remember the 3 difficulties for Dungeon Crusade! 

As I said at the top of the update, from last update to now all of the minions, champions and guardians are complete. I'm extremely happy with how these came out. Normal difficulty is done, but I'm still tweaking stats/values/check values/monster special ability values/etc to make sure these are PERFECTLY balanced. LOL, yes..in caps. 

This will provide a very good challenge and get you acclimated to Dungeon Crusade. I LOVE tough, hard games, but as the creator of this game, I have to take into account so many people that may not want something so difficult, and they may just want a fun, challenging game experience, but not too tough. 

Expert and most definitely Heroic will be for you tough Crusaders out there! But remember, there will be a nice gradual increase in difficulty across the board. 

Another thing I did for the monster cards is created new dungeon backgrounds from the ones Tom created for us. For those of you that remember last year, I was incredibly passionate about having dungeon backgrounds for you on all the monster cards.

So Tom has painted 7 dungeon backgrounds for the game. But what I did was take a few of them and within my program create brand new dungeon backgrounds from cutting some out. and joining a few together to create brand new ones. I'm very acclimated at doing this. 

So now, last I remember we now have like 18-19 different dungeon backgrounds for the monster and hero cards. I didn't want all the monster cards to look so "samey".   

So below are some screenshots I took of some of the final monsters in the game. The ones pictured below are champion monsters. And remember...a normal version has a silver star and has their origin story. An elite version has a gold star and has a special ability...sometimes a tough special ability! Take a look! 

Freddy is adding a bowstring to the Skeletal Archer's bow...

OK...a little surprise for you. Let me explain something....

I think some of you know, I LOVE skeleton warriors. They are my most favorite type of fantasy monster. So it goes without saying, I love monsters known as Death Knights. To me, a Death Knight is like a skeleton warrior to the 10th power. 

So I asked Freddy to create a new level 4 champion monster Death Knight. I gave him a design doc for what I envisioned for it. Of course he added his own creativity into the design.  

So we give everyone a truly epic looking Death Knight for Dungeon Crusade...Merry Christmas early!!! :) 

LOL...now that's a monster for ya! First off, KUDOS to Freddy. What an awesome piece of fantasy art. The older Death Knight was very good, but not quite what I envisioned for Dungeon Crusade. As I said way long ago, I/we want to give you guys the best of the best with Dungeon Crusade. You know how I feel about you...you guys totally rock, so it stands to reason to give you some great fantasy eye candy to enjoy looking at while playing Dungeon Crusade and being immersed in the experience. 

Here's a glimpse at it's monster card....

THE GUARDIANS OF DUNGEON CRUSADE:

OK, now it's getting serious! As you probably know, guardians are like the boss like monsters in Dungeon Crusade. At level 1, guardians have their origin stories on their monster cards, but as they ascend in level, they gain more different and unique special abilities. A guardian can obtain level 4 in the game, while heroes can obtain level 3. A level 4 guardian is an serious foe to take on. 

I spent a great deal of time on this group making sure their cards looked their best, and the special abilities were unique, deadly, scale perfectly and oddly enough, fun! LOL. 

So here is some screenshots of all level 1 guardians for the game. These were all freshly remade to make them all look their best for their monster cards. I looked back at many of them, and these final ones look so much better then the old versions. 

I talked a little bit in the comment section about the guardians. Guardians have a mix of special abilities that are used on attack, and on defense. I got very creative with these and kind of sneaky. ;)  

An example is when the guardian Horrus reaches level 3 it gains a special ability called "Trample" which can activate on defense, as when he's being attacked by heroes. 

Horrus as you see is mounted on a fiery steed. If Trample activates, the hero(es) must test evade to avoid being trampled by his fiery steed. On a fail, they lose 1D4 health and essence. In addition, they are injured and dazed, and must only defend in this round of combat, and cannot use and of their special abilities, as they are dazed.

Magmus is the toughest monster in the game. At level 3, Magmus gains a special ability called "Hellfire Arrow Barrage".

This has a chance to activate before Magmus attacks the target hero. If it activates, Magmus rolls 6 D6's together. For each die with a result of 4+, it deals 1 damage to the target hero and the loss of 1 essence. So I pictured the D6's are like these Hellfire Arrows being fired at the hero.

All of the guardians special abilities are creative and unique like this, and even though they are bad, I think there will be a certain excitement in the game when a guardian spawns into the dungeon on just what will happen on their arrival ! :)

So closing out this section, having all of the monster cards finished really brought us another step closer on Dungeon Crusade being completed. This was one of the biggest things to get out of the way, and like i said earlier, I'm glad they are done and came out looking and playing great! 

A LOOK AT THE FINAL HERO CARDS FOR THE GAME:  

So here's a look at the final hero cards for Dungeon Crusade. If you remember on the hero cards you saw before, the health track at the top was a very bright red/pinkish color. Some people were concerned with it because it was so intense looking. 

When coming up with the final look of the hero cards, I went into all of the hero cards and adjusted the health track to be a muted, dark red. The hero cards now look very balanced in color, and your eye isn't drawn to that health bar like before. 

Here are some promo posters I put together to show you....

JORA OAKHEART:

 MELHILIAK:

 LYRENNA NIGHTWEAVE:

I'm really happy on how these hero cards came out, and I hope you like them too! I seriously don't think they could look better then this. All of them are completed also. So another thing to scratch off the list. 

HERE ARE THE CARDBOARD MINIATURES CUT TO THE SHAPE OF THEIR ART:

All of the minions, guardians and the 13 heroes cardboard miniatures are totally complete with them cut to the shape of their art. These came out incredibly well for creating them in the production room I have here. Just seeing these honestly inspires me even more to get this game done for all of us!  

They just have a certain charm/cool fantasy look to them, and makes the game more enjoyable to play. But most importantly they provide good gameplay, and the sizing for the new guardians are perfect.

So when you see these, this is going to be a great indication on what these will look for the final game. Keep this in mind though. The guardians are perfectly sized now. Just about all the guardians take up exactly 2 spaces. However, the heroes and minions are going to be scaled down just a little bit for the final game. Not much though. They will retain the same definition and clarity they have now.  

Also, the new playthrough video will be sooner than I thought. My lovely assistant who did the most excellent job on cutting the cardboard miniatures to their unique shape will be doing most of the cutting of the cards and assembly of them and the tokens. 

LOL, this lovely assistant is no other than Liya, my wife! She would really like to get this whole thing wrapped up also for us, so she has come aboard to help with all of this, which GREATLY frees me up to get the final content done. 

She has done scrapbooking for years and is a total ace at it, so when she heard about the cardboard miniatures needed to be cut to shape, she said, I can do that!  

OK...to be honest...I was reluctant guys. But then I saw the final product and just could not understand how she got the cardboard miniatures that clean and precise....with only using 2 pairs of scissors! These could maybe pass for final content they look so good. 

So now she comes into the production room and creates all of this for us. She got very acclimated at using the Dremel to shape the cardboard miniatures perfectly. So now she said when everything is printed out, (and we are almost there) she will cut everything and assemble it. As in the cards and tokens, and we can get on to the new playthrough much quicker.

OK! Sorry for being so long winded. So I took a huge amount of high def pics for you to show them off. Have a look and enjoy! 

Keep this in mind also...this is just the minions and guardians. There is still 56 champion monsters in the champion deck. Champion monsters of course reside within the chambers of the dungeon. So when you put together the minions, champions and the guardians...there is a huge cast of monsters & creatures in Dungeon Crusade. 

This was paramount to me to give fellow gamer's & people a huge land populated by so many different and unique monsters their heroes would come across.  

So you know how much I love cardboard miniatures, and I personally think these look so awesome, and truly fit in the Dungeon Crusade universe. The game plays so smoothly with them. 

I mentioned before, next year after we wrap up the game we would look into plastic miniatures exclusive to Dungeon Crusade. We will still pursue this and see what we can work out, but to me, cardboard miniatures is the way to go for this game. They look so good, charming, offer great gameplay and I believe a uniqueness to Dungeon Crusade. 

So closing out this section, I hope you like what you saw here. :) 

ALL OF THE HEROES SPECIAL ABILITY CARDS:

If you remember from the last update, I have finished creating all of the heroes special abilities. 12 heroes, 3 unique special abilities a piece, each can be leveled up to level 3, this equates to 108 special abilities. Yes! This was another thing that took some time.

But for each one, I created specific, unique ones that fit that certain hero. So take a look at all of the heroes special abilities for the game. These are the level 1 versions, but the cards will remain the same except the small number in the top right hand corner will change to reflect the level of the special ability. 

The truly outstanding Dean Spencer came up with this very awesome graphic design for these cards. Please note the Dungeon Crusade logo will not be on the final cards. 

And there they are! I'm going over a few specials for some of the heroes and tweaking the essence cost for them. As I promised you, every aspect of Dungeon Crusade will be tweaked and addressed until it is right as rain. Sorry, no rush job over here. This will be done right. 

So closing out this section, this is another thing to scratch off the list. Besides some tweaking some of the values, these are done and brings us closer to completion. 

FINAL HEROES / CREATE A HEROES THAT ARE FINISHED / /DEADLINE FOR CURRENT CREATE A HERO BACKERS / YOUR CHANCE TO OBTAIN A CREATE A HERO PACKAGE: 

OK guys...this may be a long section, so prepare thyself. We are going to break this down into 3 sections.....

A) A look at the final heroes.
B) Heroes that are created by backers and are finished.
C) Deadline for current create a hero backers
D) Your chance to obtain a create a hero package. 

OK...LOL, I think I got this planned out pretty well...let's get started! 

A) FINAL HEROES:

Here are some cool posters I put together for everyone so you can see these heroes up close and personal. As you have been seeing, Freddy Lopez created all of these and just did an outstanding job on these. Thank you Freddy! 

So there you have all the 13 heroes for Dungeon Crusade Book I: Genesis of Evil...so far ;) 

But I'll say again, KUDOS to Freddy for all his hard work, dedication and creative power and working with me on these heroes. I'll tell you some inside info...LOL, that archer hero is my favorite one. I was so particular about her look, I think Freddy was going to kill me! Tons of revisions to get her exactly how I pictured her. I greatly thank him for that. If I were to name her, I really think the name Kya fits her. But that's the backers job who has her. 

But he brought a unique look, identity & style to Dungeon Crusade with his brilliant art.and vivid imagination. He most defiantly had a huge role in creating the Dungeon Crusade universe for all of us to enjoy. 

B) HEROES THAT ARE FINISHED THAT ARE CREATED BY BACKER:

So these are heroes that are all finished by some of the backers who grabbed a create a hero package last year. You saw a few of these last update, but I posted all of the ones that are done thus far. The 2 new ones you have not seen yet are the Barbarian and the Priest. We'll start of with those first for you....

So There are the heroes that are finished and locked down. 

C) DEADLINE FOR CURRENT CREATE A HERO BACKERS:

Now, I truly hate to do this. I have sent out emails to these last few backers explaining we have to hear from them so we can work with them for their hero they were lucky enough to get. I haven't heard anything back from them. 

But, we have to keep progressing and wrap up this game. I'm truly hoping to hear from them in the next week. I don't want to skip over these people! 

So...here is the official deadline to get a hold of us....

UHG! I truly hate to do this. But we have to get these heroes assigned to backers and wrap them up. 

D) YOUR CHANCE TO OBTAIN A CREATE A HERO PACKAGE: 

So here's how it's going to go down for you to get a remaining hero after the deadline passes...

I really thought about this and this seems like the most fair way to do this so everyone has a equal chance at getting a create a hero. 

Here are the 6 heroes that are left at this time....

So if anyone has any question about anything, please ask! If you do get one of these packages, you will be expected to:

--- Name this hero.
--- Where this hero hails from in Avalon.
--- Create a small summary story of your hero like the ones on the posters above. 
--- Create a backstory that is a little longer. This will appear on that hero's level 1 hero card on the reverse side along with your name for your contribution to Dungeon Crusade.

So closing out all of this, I hope this sounds OK to everyone. I'll say it again, I hope the create a people email us so we don't have to skip over anyone. I just don't want to do this! But, we have to keep progressing and get this game done. 

WHAT'S GOING ON NOW AND IN THE PIPELINE BEING WORKED ON:

--- Myself and Dean are finalizing all of the dungeon boards for the game. Dean is adding the final patrol routes based off my draft of where they need to be placed. Basically we are knocking out all of the other various things on these boards. Treasure Chest locations, mining sites, etc. We are finishing up Castle Blackwood tomorrow. 

--- As I said at the top of the update, Freddy is in the midst of creating the box art. I put together my concept/idea for the box art a few weeks ago, and last weekend we get it all laid out perfectly. I have had this image in my head for years guys, and as I said, this is a quite bold & daring image. I truly believe you're going to really like this, and find it pretty unique, if not a little chaotic! ;) 

Freddy is actually using pencils to sketch it onto Bristol, then scanning it into the computer to paint it digitally. The way he describes it is it will be reminiscent of that totally awesome 80's Dungeons & Dragons art style I personally love. Google artists like Larry Elmore & Jeff Easley and you'll get an idea of what it will sort of be like.  

And of course we will do a huge reveal for everyone on completion of the box art. 

--- The new playthough video is going to be ready sooner than expected. As I mentioned way above, Liya has taken on the role of preparing all of the cards and tokens for the prototype final game content. Having her doing that, really has helped me greatly on working on the final content for the game. 

I'm so looking forward to playing this for you guys and discussing it. I was considering this. Maybe film about 3-4 turns, upload it, then discuss what you saw within those turns here, then going back for turns 5-8, then the same process. I think that would be a really good idea. 

I truly believe after you watch this full game, you'll get this game down, just from that. At least this is what I'm hoping for. So when you do receive it, just start playing it. But keep in mind about this video rulebook scripted game i will be doing while the game is printing. 

--- I have been kicking massive butt getting stuff wrapped up for the game. Hopefully from this update what you have seen and read, alot has come together from last update to now. Getting all of those monster cards done really was a huge task out of the way.

I'm going to be starting on the 2nd to last huge deck of cards for the game this weekend the final loot deck. This will go very quickly as I have the prototype cards to work off of and it has all the final stats/values/text laid out perfectly on them. Plus the system i have for creating the final loot cards is really quick. 

Aside from those, there is just some very small decks I have to get finished. The trap deck and the 6 Tavern Task cards. This is 1 days worth of work if that. Tonight and tomorrow I'm adjusting some of the values on the heroes special ability cards to get them perfect. I'm referring to the lifeforce cost and essence cost. 

--- There will be a video I'm doing to hang out with you guys and talk/discuss some highlights about the Tomb of Kaladar dungeon board. This is nothing like the other 3 boards. LOL, yes...it's deadly! But I want to discuss the traps with you, the hazards, and some interesting, fun rules about this board and get you acclimated to it. I've been working on this board also, and I have it nailed down pretty good. This will be a VERY tough dungeon for sure, but tons of fun.   

But everyday I'm on the game for hours on end getting stuff done and final. And please understand, this really isn't work for me! I'm simply in love with this game, and it's just a joy to playtest it, develop it and get it done for us. So yes...I'm totally obsessed and consumed with it, because I just know you guys are going to have a great time with it in so many ways.

IN CLOSING:

So this is just some candid talk to be honest with you, and how I truly feel....

Of course I'm the creator, but I want to be honest and say what I think about Dungeon Crusade right now. 

I'm freaking excited for you to play this game, and I'm seriously excited for it. This game is just total chaotic fun, surprising, whimsical..(yes Richard...I used "whimsical ;) ) random events pop up out of nowhere, the combat is a blast, monsters moving in unpredictable patterns and this game has that feeling of "one more turn" kinda thing going on.  

There is so much more I could say.  Bottom line is this, this is a new game experience I believe you're going to really enjoy. 

This game is like a huge machine with cogs always turning, and it's just always doing  something all the time, each turn. You just don't ever know what's going to happen. And this is exactly what I wanted Dungeon Crusade to do and the experience I want to give people and fellow gamer's. 

I sometimes beat myself up over the delay in shipping. I want you guys to have this game more than anything, so you can enjoy this while I'm/we are working on a few things for next year gamewise to share with you and see what you think. 

But I remind myself, this is a huge, innovative and massive game, and to do it right for myself and everyone looking forward to it. And that's just what I'm doing. I just refuse to rush it, just to get it done. I would never do that to you guys.

But in saying that, there isn't much left to do, and this game is very solid right now. We are probably at the 6%-7% mark on stuff left to do. 

I would like to take the rest of this year to finish up the game, do the new playthrough video for you which should be in mid December, some advanced playtesting with people and film it for you to see, and of course celebrate the holidays with everyone here through kickstarter!   I assure you, Dungeon Crusade will be worth the wait. 

OK all. I hope you liked this update, and it shows we are really progressing very well on getting this wrapped up for you. As always, if you have any comments or anything, let's chat it up in the comment section below. 

And always remember!!! Check the regular comment section next door to here! I'm in there sometimes daily or every couple of days giving everyone play by play what's going on, and what we are up to.

OK all, have a great weekend and i'll be back super soon with more Crusade stuff for you. I'll be in the update comment section all weekend with you of course. Have a great night all! Rodger :) 

THE MOST MASSIVE UPDATE EVER! All 4 dungeon boards revealed! 5 create a heroes! Final look at hero cards! All heroes special abilities revealed! Final monster cards shown! Plus more!
over 6 years ago – Mon, Oct 09, 2017 at 01:19:48 AM

Wow! It has been a while guys! Rodger here, and it's very nice to be back here with you for this truly mega, ultra massive update for Dungeon Crusade. I hope everyone has had a great summer, and been enjoying any games you have been playing. 

Please forgive me for not posting an update sooner, but I have been super busy putting the final content together for the game. From the last update till now, much has gotten completed for the game, and I'm thrilled! There is finally light at the end of the tunnel.  

ALL 4 DUNGEON BOARDS REVEALED TOGETHER WITHIN THIS UPDATE:

 
We have two huge reveals for you of the two final dungeon boards for the game. One of them is the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board and the other one is the big surprise, the Tomb of Kaladar. Wait until you see both of these boards! They truly look incredible. A massive thank you and kudos to Shaun Ellis for the Cavern of Lost Souls board,, and Damien Mammoliti for the Tomb of Kaladar dungeon board. 

Also, I'm posting more updated pictures of the Ancient Ruins dungeon board and Castle Blackwood. So I thought it would be appropriate to post all of the dungeon boards in this update, and let you see them all next to each other. I'm so excited and amped up that all the dungeon boards are now finished! 

Well, I have to add a few assets to the boards, and Dean is implementing the patrol routes to them, but you know what I mean...these boards are done so to speak. 

So let's get going on this update! Because i have a feeling this is going to be a massive update...

AND REMEMBER! CHECK THE COMMENTS SECTION!!! 

And I just want everyone that's reading this, if you see a delay in the updates, check the comment section. I'm in there almost daily giving everyone play by play things that we are doing, up to, news and just everything Dungeon Crusade. 

I said before, for right now I had to stop doing the weekly updates as I'm putting the final content together for the game. But after we get the game wrapped up, the updates will pick back up. 

But maybe you guys like these massive updates? In any case, I just wanted everyone to know to check the comment section. :) 

So as we always do about this time, here is a link to the last update for you. The last update was the biggest one I ever dispatched until this one. If you didn't check it out yet, check that one first, then come back to this one.. >>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/1969276

DUNGEON CRUSADE WILL INCLUDE A D3 DIE FOR YOU:

This little bit of news was discussed within the comment section awhile ago, but I wanted everyone to be aware of this. Alot of the different cards in the game will call for a D3 to be used.

I spoke to my production manager at the game company and every copy of Dungeon Crusade will have a D3 for you. 

The pricing is incredibly within reason, like super cheap for these dice. It's a simple white die, with black numbers. So this will be a die with 6 sides and the following faces...  

--- 2 sides will have a "1"  
--- 2 sides will have a "2"
--- 2 sides will have a "3" 

So there you go, a real D3! :) The die you receive may be differ slightly. I just wanted to show you a pic of one. :) 

THE NEW ART FOR THE GUARDIAN NAFARION:  

So there is a new piece of art for the guardian Nafarion. This more updated Nafarion fits much better with the other 7 guardians Freddy created for the game, so there is cohesion to all of them, and a unified style across the board.  

The other Nafarion was sketched by an awesome friend to the project Joseph Arnold, and it does look killer! But it just looked a little different from the 7 Freddy created. So now all 8 guardians look perfect together. Please understand, I love the old Nafarion Joseph created, this was just done so all the guardians have that same art style. 

"From a mysterious rift in the underworld, and into the land of Avalon, Nafarion emerges!"

 And here is an updated poster for you of all the guardians of Dungeon Crusade together....

So this officially closes out the guardians!

ALL OF THE HEROES SPECIAL ABILITIES ARE FINISHED:

So guys...don't take this one lightly! This right here, was one of the most time consuming tasks for sure. Let me explain....

As you know, there are 12 heroes in Dungeon Crusade. Each hero has 3 unique special abilities I created for them. Each ability can be leveled up to level 3. So each hero has 9 special ability cards. So 9 X's 12 = 108. So I had to finish up 108 special ability cards. This took a good while to complete, but I'm happy to say THEY ARE DONE and all of them came out great. Finalizing these cards really brought us a major step towards completion.

I really took my time with each one these. I created ones that truly fit that certain hero, and were easy and fun to use. So here is some posters I put together so you can see all of the abilities the heroes will have. I worked with the most awesome artist Tom Feldmann for creating the special ability icons you will see on the cards. Most of these he just took it upon himself to create something he envisioned. A huge thank you Tom! They all look superb! :) 

There is actually one more special ability card that is universal across the board for all the heroes. Each hero has a counterattack ability. This is used during the monster phase when a monster is attacking a hero. When activated, it allows the hero to select one of the warfare traits on the monsters card, and instead of defending in that certain phase, that hero may counterattack. 

So at the start of a game, each hero receives one of these cards...logo will not be on final card ;) .....

So there you have it! 109 special ability cards for all the heroes of Dungeon Crusade. And I'm going to say this again...THANK the GODS these are completed, and out of the way. During some advanced playtesting, these may be tweaked a tad, but these are very solid as of right now. 

INTRODUCING 5 OFFICIAL HEROES FOR DUNGEON CRUSADE: 

Something here that is really special to me about Dungeon Crusade....  

When I launched the campaign for Dungeon Crusade on kickstarter last year, I had these "create a hero" packages. Each package came with a Master of the Realm edition of the game, and 1 one of the heroes in the game.  

There were 12 of these create a hero packages, and each one had a unique hero associated with it. Such as a knight, barbarian, rogue, wizard, cleric, etc. I, did not want to name these heroes, nor write a backstory for them. I'm perfectly capable of this, as I'm sort of creative ;) 

But my vision was to have 12 backers create these heroes, as in giving them names, where they hailed from in the land of Avalon and writing a backstory for them that will appear on the back of their hero card, along with their name for their contribution to Dungeon Crusade. 

 I charged $0.00 for this. To me, you can't put a price tag on creativity & imagination. I just wanted to have these backers help shape Dungeon Crusade into the game it would be, and make it an awesome, pure experience all around. I'm seriously enjoying seeing what these guys are coming up with for the game. 

Furthermore, any other games I/we bring to the kickstarter platform under Groovus Games Unlimited, this will always be in place for backers to grab these types of packages and help create the game with their creativity & imagination, and of course it will be free of charge.  

So, introducing the first 5 official heroes for Dungeon Crusade! These guys did such an awesome job on these heroes. So let's do this...take a look at the create a hero promo posters for these, and I'll be back to tell you what's going on with the other backers we need to get a hold of to finish up the remaining heroes...

Well...I do have another hero here. But not a human hero, but a very awesome and cool dog named Albus.  

First and foremost, I think many of you know I truly love dogs. I have 3 very rowdy, loud, loving and just highly energetic dogs. Simply put, dogs are just plain out awesome. :)

But in developing/creating Dungeon Crusade, I integrated a game mechanic that you will be using alot while playing, and it's quite a strategic and fun one . And what it is, is the heroes fetchhound Albus.  

You see, when your heroes journey into the dungeon to complete their quests, they're in their until the task is complete. There's no running back to the village for some R & R, they're their to do a job until it's done. Now of course after the quests are complete, they return to the village for Celebration Day.  

But while within the dungeon, Albus is the heroes link to the village. Your heroes must give the gold to Albus, and then he travels to the village board to retrieve what items the heroes may need. Potions, torches, weapons, armor, etc. He then returns to the dungeon with the items the heroes need to continue the fight.  

There will be plenty more on Albus in the near future and a very cool story I want to share with everyone on the real world Albus. But for now, check out his poster I created for him and a little backstory on Fetchhound's in the land of Avalon....

First of all, I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Freddy Lopez the artist who painted the heroes of Dungeon Crusade. He did just a truly epic job on them. I would like to also thank him for not killing me on how nit picky I was on the creation of Albus! ;) 

So what is going to happen is this. We need to get a hold of the rest of the create a hero people to finish up these official heroes. 

If you're one of those create a hero backers reading this, feel free to message us to get the ball rolling. Here is what we will need from you: 

CREATE A HERO INFORMATION THAT IS NEEDED:
HERO'S NAME: We need to know the first and last name of your hero.

WHERE YOUR HERO HAILS FROM: Below this, is a map of Avalon. You need to select one of the villages on where your hero is from. Gold stars on the map note all the villages in the land of Avalon.

I had to divide the map in half, as when I posted the full map, it cropped it considerably. 

WESTERN AVALON:

EASTERN AVALON:

2 VERSIONS OF THE BACKSTORY OF YOUR HERO:

SMALL SUMMARY OF THE BACKSTORY:

Take a look at the posters above to see the length of this small summary backstory. It should be about this length and it tell a little bit about this hero. 

LONG VERSION OF THE BACKSTORY:  

This version can be about 3 to 4 times the size of the small summary backstory, and tell a more in depth description and past of your hero. 

So there you have it guys. I really am enjoying this process of getting the official heroes lined up for the game, and reading all of backstories  these backers have created. This was right on the money for what I had envisioned for the create a hero packages. 

In closing out this section, I would like to show you a prototype hero card. This is a great example of what the final one would look like. 

However, there was an update to these cards. I felt after seeing this picture the lockpicking icon was a little too blue. Shaun was nice enough to go back over this icon and now it's more silver in tone, so just keep that in mind. :) 

So I hope you are liking what you are seeing for these hero cards. I will have more for you next update. 

A LOOK AT SOME FINAL MONSTER CARDS AND THE 3 DIFFICULTY LEVELS:

Another huge thing I managed to get completed from the last update to now, is all of the minion monsters (level 1-3) are all completed for the game. These cards came out looking fantastic. 

Minions level out through the game to level 3. There are 6 unique minions, and 3 versions within each group for a total of 18 minions per level. There is a red, blue and green version of each minion, and if you look to the top left hand corner of a minion card you can see what color it is by the crystal. The colored bases are the easiest way to tell what minion it exactly is. 

So here is a few small posters I put together to show you how these turned out...

This is another big thing that brought us another step towards completion. So I hope you like the final look of the minion monsters in the game! ;) 

Before I started to put this massive update together, I was well into the final level 1 champion monster cards in the game. These are coming together really quickly and looking very awesome. 

Take a look at this promo poster for a level 1 Tenderfoot Warlock champion monster. This will give you an idea of how far these cards have come along, and how great they look now for the final game...

LOL, I wanted to draw attention to a cool little thing I added to this certain dungeon background.

Notice in the far back to the left, the broken door and the level 2 Skeleton Warrior behind it in the adjacent chamber! Don't worry! You won't have to fight it!

But it came to me to put some cracks in the door and break away parts of the door and do this background for a few other monster cards and put some different monsters behind it....maybe a little Easter egg could be in there also! ;) 

Here's the bigger version for you to see it better. The DC logo will not be on the final card. This may be hard to see on the final cards, as it will be pretty small, but you'll know it's there now ;) 

Here is a look at that level 2 Skeleton Warrior's champion monster card...

I wanted to pint out a little feature to the champion monster cards that made them look very classy I think. 

First of all, if you look back at the champion monster cards, remember that red bar midway on the card to the left? It said in white letters and numbers, "Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4". This has changed for the better...  

That red colored bar now shows the level of the monster and a color, so it's like this....

-- level 1 is blue,
-- level 2 is green,
-- level 3 is red
-- level 4 is purple.

So instead of all the champion monster cards having the same red bar, they're color coded now.  

Furthermore, Annika had made these 4 colored crystals in different shapes for something in the game we never used. So I took those crystals, and turned each one into the colors I just mentioned and inlaid them on those colored bars.

It was a small touch, but they look REALLY good on there, and makes the card look very professional I think. Here is how they turned out.....

 
I'll be revealing more final champion monster cards in the forthcoming updates, but I hope you like the final look, and see how far these have come to look this good.

NORMAL, EXPERT AND HEROIC DIFFICULTY:

So Dungeon Crusade comes with normal difficulty monsters. These will be challenging, but not too tough. There is Expert and Heroic difficulty monster decks available. If you're like me, I'm going to take all of the monster decks and mix them together. LOL, yes! I'm crazy and love the element of surprise and a tough game! 

My initial thought was to simply have small letters somewhere on the cards that define what difficulty they are. Such as N, E, H. But I wanted something easier, better, more elegant and unique.  

Take a look at this poster I put together to see the system I came up with...

In addition, you have probably noticed those small skulls in the top right corner. I was talking to a backer in the comment section, (JoeHandyman), and he brought up about some gamer's that might be suffering from color blindness. 

So I asked Annika to create some very simple, not too detailed skulls for me. LOL, I think this took her 5 minutes or something. So now besides the colors, you can tell the difficulty of a monster by how many skulls it has. 

Here is a small chart for you to check out...

So as we close out this section, I hope you liked everything you have seen here, and like this color coding/skull difficulty system we put together for Dungeon Crusade. :)

THE FULL REVEAL OF ALL 4 DUNGEON BOARDS FOR DUNGEON CRUSADE:

So let me start with this. I truly loved creating these boards for everyone. I simply love creating dungeons! As you have probably seen, I never rushed these, and took my time to give everyone 4 awesome and different dungeon boards experience, and always keep the game fresh. 

A few of these boards we have seen, but a few of them have been tweaked to make them perfect. The Ancient Ruins especially. I took brand new pictures of these boards so all of them you will be seeing look cohesive on how they will be displayed. 

You guys believed in me, and Dungeon Crusade and I poured a ton of passion, focus, creativity and imagination into each and every board and every corner in designing these dungeons. All 4 of these dungeon boards are truly different and unique. Each one will offer a different environment to quest and adventure in.  

And to the AMAZING & TALENTED artists who recreated these, Shaun Ellis & Damien Mammoliti, I love you guys! You took the time to create some of the most incredible, unique and beautiful dungeon boards I/we have ever seen in a fantasy dungeon crawl game. Your guys art is just outstanding, and it was an honor & pleasure to work with you on these dungeons. 

But...don't get too relaxed! We will be doing a new double sided dungeon board for next year's HUGE official expansion, so get ready! :) 

And lastly before we get to these boards, there will be a 5th and free dungeon board available for download early next year. I will be creating it on my own, and it's going to be in the style and spirit of the original Origins board we saw on kickstarter last year. 

This board will have the same chamber/quadrants as the Ancient Ruins dungeon board for the final game, but I'm going to mix up all the quadrants so they're in different places in the dungeon. You will be using the quest cards for the Ancient Ruins board to play on this 5th dungeon board. 

This dungeon is on the map of Avalon, and I'll announce at that time where this dungeon is located at on the map. I just want to consider a few things ;) 

One last thing. These boards were printed out locally. So they are not final. I'm 100% sure the game company is going to make them look even more incredible. So these are not final.

Also, the patrol routes and a few assets are not on these boards. These will be added of course. 

 OK, it's dungeon reveal time...let's do this! 

ANCIENT RUINS DUNGEON BOARD: 

In designing this board, I wanted a board that was retro in nature, and in the spirit of a few awesome board games I grew up with, which are Hero Quest and Warhammer Quest. 

But there is enough uniqueness in the style and design of the Ancient Ruins board that makes it fit perfectly within the Dungeon Crusade universe.  

This board was painted by the outstanding artist Shaun Ellis, and he really nailed an awesome retro vibe with the art style and colors he chose. Out of all the 4 boards, I really think I like this one the most. Maybe because it was the first one? 

But of course, all of the dungeon boards are simply stunning. Thank you very much Shaun! Great work!

And...here is the Ancient Ruins! 

 
And there you have a look at the Ancient Ruins board! :) 

CASTLE BLACKWOOD DUNGEON BOARD:

When I started to layout the design, or rather blueprint for designing the Castle Blackwood board, I knew a little about castles. I wanted to make sure that Castle Blackwood was on par with a real castle layout.

For about a month I researched castles in video and books and then started doing the design of it. I learned about Oratory's, Solar's, upper & lower Bailey's and other rooms/chambers in castles. It was a really cool experience to learn about what makes up a castle.  

I passed off the rough draft I created to the most incredible Shaun Ellis to paint the final board for the game. The pics speak for themselves on what an astounding & incredible job Shaun did. This is probably one of the most incredible boards I have personally ever seen. His choice of design, colors, textures, props, etc couldn't be any better. He created a masterpiece simply put. A huge thank you and kudos Shaun! :)  

BTW, he is the one who thought of having the outside of the castle with a winter setting. Originally it was just the castle grounds. GREAT addition Shaun! If you look to the back of the castle, there is a east & west ballroom. I'm writing a small chain quest called "Music of the Night" pertaining to that specific area of the castle.

And let's take a journey into Castle Blackwood! 

And there you go guys. Castle Blackwood. I hope you enjoyed a look at it. 

THE 2 BRAND NEW DUNGEON BOARDS FULLY REVEALED:

Ok, so here we go with the 2 huge reveals for the final dungeon boards for the game. Cavern of Lost Souls and the Tomb of Kaladar. 

THE CAVERN OF LOST SOULS DUNGEON BOARD:

With the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board, I feel there is a sense of vastness with it. Most of this board is outside, and the rest is within the cavern itself and some small dungeon areas within the cavern. 

I wrote a chain quest tells a story through out this board, and sets up a new race of monster that will be coming to Dungeon Crusade in the first expansion next year. To the very north western part of this board, there is a small village called Briarwood. Villagers have been mysteriously disappearing. 

Your heroes must head to this village and discover whatever they can about what is exactly going on there. 

A huge THANK YOU and KUDOS to the most awesome artist Shaun Ellis for the recreation of the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board. I supplied Shaun with my prototype/blueprint for this board, and he just did an outstanding job on the entire thing. 

The colors he chose, the effects, making the board more cleaner in nature and putting his own creativity into the design, adds up to be a superb dungeon board that I think people are going to really enjoy playing on. A total masterpiece Shaun! :)

I have 2 videos here for you. The one is about a month hold, and it was a commentary video about this board. There is some other information in here as well. So if you like, check out this video >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYnM9l71Ym4&feature=youtu.be

This video here is the official reveal video for the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board. Here is a link for you to check this out >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xzRwi5jW5I&feature=youtu.be

OK! Here are some pictures for you of the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board! 

So there you have a look at the Cavern of Lost Souls. I also wanted to say there was a few revisions to this board after these pics were shot. The only thing that changed is I added 3 more chambers to a few of the quadrants within the cavern, but that was it. 

So I hope you like the look of the cavern of Lost souls board! 

THE TOMB OF KALADAR DUNGEON BOARD:

This dungeon board in particular was really special to me. I wanted to give fellow gamer's the ultimate in a truly fun, challenging and deadly dungeon that was pretty innovative & unique. I poured a ton of creativity, passion & imagination into the creation and design of the Tomb of Kaladar. 

I've played these types of games since I was a kid, and I really wanted to knock the ball out of the park for everyone and give them something to really enjoy playing. I really took my time planning out and blueprinting this dungeon, and really thought what would comprise this dungeon with the various rooms, chambers, traps, vaults and hazards.  

I wrote a small backstory for the Tomb of Kaladar. Aleister Kaladar resided in the village of Mystvale, until one day he was outcast from the village for a crime he didn't commit. 

As he left the village of Mystvale, he traveled west to a long forgotten and abandoned tomb that was once a final resting place for the brave heroes and soldiers of Avalon. 

There, he practiced in the dark arts of magic and summoned creatures from the underworld to assist him in getting revenge on the village of Mystvale. 

He started creating traps & hazards through out this tomb each one more deadly then the next. He kept Black Rock Vipers as pets that would slither throughout the tomb. The minions & creatures he summoned grew in power and became stronger. 

Then one night, he returned to the village of Mystvale to have his revenge. He captured many of the women and children and brought them back into the tomb, and locked them away, daring anyone to come for them. 

And that's where you as player enter in. Your heroes have been summoned to the village of Mystvale, and you must journey into the Tomb of Kaladar and complete the quests & scenarios to put an end to the Tomb of Kaladar.....sounds like fun stuff right? ;) 

For the Tomb of Kaladar, I created a unique trap system exclusive to this dungeon board. Every time you play on this board, the traps will be changed all around. A hero may encounter a trap, or it may misfire. The traps are always changing from game to game. 

One of the biggest things I kept under wraps is something I call, "dungeon hazards." Your going to notice in the pics there is many areas in the dungeon that are quite deadly. Oscillating pendulums, a noxious vapor chamber, a chamber full of rotating blades, a Black Rock Viper pit, a pit your heroes must swing across to reach the other side and a crypt loaded with blood thirsty crazed bats. 

When your heroes enter these areas and step on the red glowing areas, they are going to have to test a certain attribute to see if they managed to pass the hazard. On fail, they could take damage, lose essence or some other bad effect. 

In closing out this section, I simply LOVE dungeon crawl games! And it was a true pleasure to create & develop something like this for Dungeon Crusade and give people a really unique experience to try their hand at, albeit quite difficult! ;) 

This STUNNING and INCREDIBLE art for the Tomb of Kaladar board was created by Damien Mammoliti. It took all of these pics to get across all of ultra detail Damien put into this board and design. The attention to detail is simply staggering. 

Damien created many things for the game already, but when he created the Heroes vs. Monsters board for a House of Chance game, which is a small dungeon, that's what got me thinking what would it be like if Damien created an entire dungeon for Dungeon Crusade, and by the same token it would get the game done quicker as Shaun was working on the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board, which is also awesome. 

Just a HUGE KUDOS to Damien! I think you guys will agree after seeing all of these pics, this is one of the most incredible looking dungeon boards you've ever seen. 

OK all! Prepare thyself! For you are entering into the Tomb of Kaladar! 

LOL, and remember when I posted this poster about Black Rock Vipers awhile ago? Now you see why! ;) 

So wowsa! There you have it...The Tomb of Kaladar dungeon board, and for that matter all of the dungeon boards for Dungeon Crusade. 

Something else I want to say about the Tomb of Kaladar board is there will be 2 official modes of play in the rulebook. 

As of right now I'm calling them "softcore" and "hardcore."  

In softcore, all of the dungeon hazards on the board will be inactive and will be treated like normal spaces, and the trap system will not be used. I think/feel some players my want to play on this board without the worry of hazards and traps, and just enjoy the board as the other 3 boards are.  

I don't want to deter any players that think they "have" to play this board with hazards and traps. It's fine not to use these added game mechanics. We'll just say that Kaladar stepped out of the dungeon for awhile and forgot to load all the traps and turn on the power for the hazards! ;)  

Hardcore is of course all of the traps are set before playing and all the hazards are active.

We are going to be going over the Tomb of Kaladar board in the few weeks ahead, as there is some stuff I would like to discuss about it, and explain while playing it. 

But for now closing this section out, I hope you liked this very extensive look at all the boards for the game, and without saying getting all of the dungeon boards complete really brought us a major step towards completion.  

SOME OTHER THINGS TO DISCUSS QUICKLY:

THE RE-SCALING OF THE CARDBOARD MINIATURES:

I explained a few updates ago that the game company will be cutting the cardboard miniatures to the shape of the character art. But what I'm going to do is scale them down just a bit. The guardians for sure are going to get downsized and make them a little smaller.

The heroes and minions will also be downsized just a bit. They still will be very detailed however. But after seeing them on all of the boards, and still considering the game company will be cutting them to the shape of the art, I think they could be a tad smaller, especially the guardian ones. 

I'll keep you updated of course, and post pics for you to take a look at and see what you guys have to say. 

MY MAIN FOCUS AND PRIORITY RIGHT NOW IS GETTING THE REST OF THE GAME CONTENT FINALIZED:

With everything you saw within this update, and the update before, much of Dungeon Crusade is complete. I would say we only have about 8%- 9% left to finish to call this game done. 

I said this recently in the comment section and I would like to share this here with everyone. 

Last year we thought July was a very realistic date to have the game completed. As you saw for about a year, I was doing weekly updates showing everyone our progress. I had to stop a few months ago with the weekly updates as I had to take the time to put the final content together for the game, which is getting done of course.  

LOL, after 8 years of working on this game, I'm truly ready to say it's done! But Dungeon Crusade is truly vast. It's just a huge game, it's a pretty innovative & unique game, and I personally don't want to rush it. 

But in saying that, there's not that much left to do. Freddy has to finish up the expansion heroes, (4 left),  I have to finish up the monster and loot cards, which should go quite quickly, a few more quests have to be written, and I have to work with Annika for about a day on the graphic design for the scenario page. 

There are some other things, but it's not anything that huge. The hard work for the game has been completed. I know for a fact, this game will be done within this year. There's no question about it. 

I can "guesstimate" and say I would like this to be delivered by the very end of this year. I know there are high expectations and excitement for the game, and every day I'm on it for hours trying to get it wrapped up for all of us. I mean just from that last update to now, look how much got completed. 

I assure you we are getting to the end of the development cycle. No one else besides me wants this game in everyone's hands so we can all enjoy it together. 

So I hope this shed's some light on what's going on and where we are at. There truly is light at the end of the tunnel! 

IN CLOSING:

Well everyone, this was quite a juggernaut of a Dungeon Crusade update. I hope you truly enjoyed it! 

This was head and shoulders above any of the other ones in size for sure. I think it was a very essential one as you saw alot of content that is very close to being finalized for the game. This was a fairly complex update to put together for sure, it took me about a week to get everything ready to show you, but I'm very happy how it came out. 

Tomorrow I'm getting back on the final champion monster cards to get those knocked out, then putting the loot cards together. Once those 2 things are done, it's new playthrough video time! I'll be printing out and assembling everything for the playthrough video, and of course working on a few other things for the game that need to be completed. 

OK all, as usual I'll be in the update comment section and the regular comment section to hang out and see what's going on. 

Have a great night/day all, we are getting to the end very rapidly! Talk to you soon...Rodger :) 

MASSIVE UPDATE! Final cards shown! Encounter deck! Blessing cards! Treasure Chest cards! Secret Room cards! 2 new guardians! The Tomb of Kaladar sneak peek! Final affliction cards! Final Celebration Day Gift cards! Much more!
almost 7 years ago – Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 12:25:25 AM

(Hey all! Rodger here, and it's 12:40 A.M. August 24th). Before you get into this update I wanted to say I'm so sorry to be late with it. It took me 3 days to compile all of this for you. I wanted to have it done on Sunday, but I just couldn't get it all done. So I hope you enjoy this massive update! :) ) 

Hellooooooo everyone! :) Rodger here and WOW! It's been a few weeks since our last get together for our usual weekly update. Let me tell you what's been going on and what we are up to. 

First off, it's always nice to be here with you guys and discuss the game, and I hope everyone's summer is going great!. :) 

And the really great news is, there is maybe 15% - 17%  left to do in the game and this thing is done! As in getting all of the art completed and cards finished and finalized. YES!! LOL, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we are rapidly approaching it.

So if you have been following the comment section you can see what we/I have been up to. I'm in there almost daily giving play by play of what's going on. LOL, YES! I'm obsessed, consumed and highly enthusiastic for Dungeon Crusade being finally completed and getting it to everyone already! :) 

For the past few weeks, I have been putting many of the cards together for the game and doing print test runs making sure these look perfect. I managed to finish the encounter deck, treasure chest deck, secret room deck, blessing deck, tweaked the celebration day gift deck. 

The encounter deck alone has 83 unique cards and each card has exclusive art to it. This deck took the longest, but WOW! I'm seriously happy how these came out, and I think you're going to enjoy these very much while playing.

The other deck that took some time was the treasure chest deck. There's 30 unique cards in that, and wait until you see how those look! Kez did such an awesome job on the art for these.

The only 3 decks that are fairly big that I need to get accomplished is the loot deck, the various monster decks and the adventure cards for the Avalon Adventure board game. Those will not take long at all though. I already have a headstart and a system for the loot deck so I should be able to get those done pretty fast. The monster decks are pretty straight forward also 

Aside from that, I managed to get the design docs done for Magmus and Lord Blackhand (which they are within this update for you :) )  I got the 6 expansion heroes to Freddy for him to get painting, wrote all of the expansion heroes special abilities, (18 unique ones, each one levels up to level 3), and managed to get done a few other small things.  

Bottom line is, we are getting this game done guys, quite quickly, As I said from the start, there's maybe 15% - 17% more to complete.  

"OK! OK! WE GOT IT! 15% -17% MORE! SO HOW MUCH LONGER MR. GROOVUS GAMES UNLIMITED!!!???"

LOL, I hope you didn't mind that format of saying that, as I know you guys want to know! And trust me when I say, no one more than myself wants this juggernaut and into your hands! :) 

Here is what I'm thinking...Shaun & Kez have finished up the 193 pieces of loot for the game. Wow...that's just alot to say even...Shaun is of course doing the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board. I have to get with him and ask him what time frame he is thinking it will be complete. I do know it's pretty far along already.

Damien is more than half done with the Tomb of Kaladar board. Sneak peeks are within this update for your viewing pleasure. I think he should be wrapping this up by the end of August guesstimating from what i have seen. 

Freddy has got to paint the 6 expansion heroes, then we will be working together on the box art. And oh wow...I have had this image in my head for years...I assure you, this will be one of the most awesome box covers for a dungeon crawl game you've ever seen. I would like to have posters made for you guys of it at a later date, after we get Dungeon Crusade wrapped up however. 

These 3 things I named here are the 3 biggest things to get complete. But 2 of the 3 are almost completed.

Aside from the things aforementioned, there is me doing the loot cards, (very quick to get these done), the monster decks, (something that should take me a week, and that's all 3 of the difficulty decks...normal, expert and heroic). Then typing up the final quests, heroes special abilities, and a few smaller things....like running the patrol routes on the few boards and passing it off to Dean so he can add the footprint trails. 

So considering everything, I would hope to have all of this completed towards the end of September. I think this is very obtainable. Everyday for hours, (as you guys know) I'm getting things done for the game, and from my perspective as the creator, I think we're on target for wrapping it up by then. 

But before we get into this huge update, consider this.....

Last year, it took some time when the project ended to get all of the artists rounded up, assign them to the various tasks for the game, getting a plan together, etc. Dungeon Crusade is truly something different and unique, so it took some time for everything to fall in place. 

Full swing production didn't start until the first week of August-mid August, some time around there. Almost one year later, considering the size of this game, we truly got so much accomplished in that short amount of time. Looking back at everything, 4 36 x 24 inch dungeon boards, dungeon U.I. board, village board, 20 decks of cards, 4 house of chance games, the Avalon Adventure game, 50 adventure cards just for that, 13 heroes, 36 special abilities for the heroes, 42 unique monsters, 5 angels, plus all the tokens, doors, etc...LOL, this was quite an accomplishment to pull off! 

So I want to say, I'm truly sorry we missed the July ship date. Back then, we truly thought we could make the date for everyone. I will say this, I personally learned so much over this past year. So many different things to name. The next game Groovus Games Unlimited brings to kickstarter, I/we will apply this knowledge and it WILL be a much smoother experience for all involved. 

I feel like I really "leveled up" in life, and I would like to greatly thank all of you for this incredible life experience and this opportunity for ALL of us to make a game like Dungeon Crusade together. :) 

 As you know I don't script anything, I just type how I feel, and what's going on with everything so you have a true insider's view on where we are at. 

In closing out this section before we get to the main update, I want you to know my primary focus and full attention is getting Dungeon Crusade wrapped up and sent to the printers. We are getting there guys! I promise you this! LOL, if you look at my track record, and my comments within the comment section over the summer, you'll see we are making great progress towards completion.   

PLEASE REMEMBER  to check the comment section if you don't see a update. I'm at the point of putting the game together, so I feel that time should be spent on that so we can get this thing done! Once we've completed a good amount of final content, we will roll out a huge update like this one. 

 OK! THE UPDATE OFFICIALLY STARTS NOW! 

So as we always do about this time, here is a link to the last update for you. This past one was another massive one. If you didn't check it out yet, check that one first, then come back to this one.. >>> 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357343358/dungeon-crusade-book-i-genesis-of-evil/posts/1946570

A NOTE ABOUT WHEN I SAY "FINAL CARDS":

There is alot of final cards you will be seeing within this update. When I say final, these cards are parked and awaiting my tech writer Charlene to look over to make sure they are right as rain. She lives in my town and she's been an English teacher for years and is certified to teach gifted children. She's a real stickler for grammar, punctuation, etc. SUPER nice girl, and she loves what we are all doing with Dungeon Crusade.  

She's on vacation right now, but we are going to take a few days and everything will be gone over by her, then another person to make sure everything is looking good.  

But I took my time to make sure all the text was looking great, sized well and reads perfectly.

SHAPES OF THE CARDBOARD MINIATURES:

Awhile ago, me and Dean were speaking about the cutout shape for the cardboard miniatures. 

The game company said they can cut the cardboard miniatures to the shape of the hero or monster art, however, we have to have the cutout shape, (tracing) already setup before submitting.  

I brought this to the attention of Dean and we were discussing it. I showed him a mockup of what we needed these to look like. I sent him the knight hero to put into his program and trace around the knight for the cutout shape.  

Within just a few minutes he sent it back to me PERFECTLY traced out around the knight with a little bit of the background still showing! It looks REALLY good, and very reminiscent of those awesome cardboard miniatures from one of my favorite board game Legends of Andor.  

Here is a pic I put together for you to see what these will look like. Excuse the DC logo on the minis. I have noticed these images show up in google results, so I wanted to tag them as part of Dungeon Crusade.

This will eliminate alot of the background of the character art, so we're left with just the hero/monster art and a little bit of the background, and should look truly awesome. 

However I will be re-scaling a few of the guardians, and of course have Dean work his magic on them. But you can expect the monsters, (minions & guardians) to have similar shapes. A huge thank you to Dean for his help with these!

I would like to discuss something here with all of you...prepare thyself hero...for there is a die known as a D3 in Dungeon Crusade! Read on if you dare!!

"HEY MR. GROOVUS! WHAT THE HECK IS A D3??!! HUH??!!"

As you guys know, I'm very much an old school type of fantasy/dungeon crawl type of gamer, and I'm carrying over what is known as a "D3" into Dungeon Crusade.  

Very simply put, a D3 has 3 results. 1, 2 and 3. You actually use a D6 to simulate a D3. Let me give you an example....I think you're going to like D3's ;) ...  

"A hero has found a chamber within the dungeon that at some point was used as a laboratory. As the hero illuminates the chamber with his torch, a flock of vampire bats rush towards the exit of the chamber! Some of the bats graze the hero on their departure from the chamber. Roll 1D3. The result is damage taken."  

So what you would do is roll 1D6 to simulate a D3......  

If you roll a 1 or a 2, the result is 1.
If you roll a 3 or a 4, the result is 2.
If you roll a 5 or a 6, the result is 3.

And that is a D3! There has been some cases where I create something in the game like a monster giving damage, a certain challenge, a certain event, etc, and I REALLY want to use a D3. I don't want to use, "Roll 1D4 -1. "

It's super easy to remember, and it gives me the freedom to create very precise things for the game. So I hope you liked learning about, and the example of the D3 in Dungeon Crusade.

The D3 will be used in some of the encounter cards for the game, some of the monster cards, adventure cards from the Avalon Adventure board game and other places you'll see it pop up. I wanted to discuss it with everyone and get people acclimated to what it is, and of course it will be in the rulebook clearly explained.

THE ENCOUNTER CARDS FOR DUNGEON CRUSADE: 

So here is a very cool reveal for you, the final encounter cards for Dungeon Crusade, and a look at a few of them.

When I started designing/creating Dungeon Crusade years ago, I was very passionate about many aspects of the game. I really wanted to give fellow gamer's and people a very fun and immersive experience while playing.

One of my most favorite things to create and write were all of the encounter cards players would have to deal with while inside the dungeon. I didn't want just text describing what was happening, but a visual, or rather an image associated with the card to immerse the player even more in the game.

I worked with a really great artist named Camron last year where he took my prototype encounter card art, and recreated all of it for the final game.

There will be 83 unique encounter cards for the game, all with unique art. Within this deck, your heroes will experience challenges, environment changes, events and interludes. Interludes are a card type that throttles the encounter deck a bit. 

Here's a promo poster for you to check out a few of them...

 I love to write very descriptive, and creative things for the game and for people to enjoy while playing, but I had to keep it to a minimum for these cards as space was pretty limited. I think I struck a great balance for setting up the encounters, and explaining them with the space I had to work with. 

The test prints of these cards came out PERFECT. You could read these cards from 6 feet away. I hate tiny, thin fonts on cards. I stuck with the size of font on these encounter cards and carried it over to the other cards in the game. 

Here are those cards but closer up for you to check out....

Challenge:

Event:

Event:

Environment:

 Challenge:

 Interlude:

I'm really trying to keep the lid on all of the encounter cards for you. I would like to surprise you when you receive the game! These are bound to turn up in the playthrough video however, so you will get a glimpse of a few more. 

Setting up the encounter deck for a game is super easy. There are 10 interlude cards, and 73 unique encounters. Shuffle the 73 encounter cards and deal out 30 of them face down. Then take the 10 interlude cards, randomly set 1 aside. Take the 30 encounter cards and 9 interlude cards and shuffle together. Finally take the 1 interlude card you set aside and place it on top of the encounter deck. There is your encounter deck for a game! 

So you can see, you will always see something different in the encounter deck from game to game. The interlude cards help to throttle the encounter deck like I said earlier.

And before we close out this section, I love writing & creating these different encounters! I shared this one with someone in the comment section, and it's a really good one....

I wrote one that describes your hero entering into a small, misty chamber and there is a stone gargoyle statue with no eyes. A message is etched into the wall next to the gargoyle that reads....

"The gift of sight brings fortune, while eternal darkness brings agony..."

LOL, Oh wow...this is a really good one! Prepare thyself hero! I think players are really going to enjoy these and look forward to the encounter phase for what will happen next in the game. 

One thing I want to make clear about these that alot of these aren't bad at all. I don't want to give people the impression encounter cards are bad, and will hinder the heroes. They're a very unique game mechanic, and some are quite beneficial to your heroes. 

THE TREASURE CHEST CARDS:

So another deck of cards I got completed a few weeks ago are the treasure chests cards. There will be 30 unique treasure chest cards in the game. Again, the text upon these came out perfect and very clear. 

But not all these treasure chests are good! Some of these treasure chests could be trapped! Some could be empty, while some have powerful artifacts within them.
The treasure chest deck is truly risk & reward....you never know what your heroes will find within these archaic chests.

I would like to thank the most awesome & outstanding artist Kezrek for her stunning work on all of the treasure chest card art I used to put these together for the game. 

And here is a promo poster for you to check out! :) 

I see it really cropped that poster...I cut this in half so you could see it better....

Here are a few more for you to take a look at. Like the encounter cards, I'm trying to keep these a surprise for you. Just know, there are a ton of different ones within this deck...wall of arrows, poisonous gas, etc, I really pulled all the stops out for these! 

So I hope you enjoyed a quick look at some of the final treasure chest cards. :)

FINAL BLESSING CARDS: 

Another thing I got completed were the final blessing cards for the game. These turned out extremely well I believe. As you may remember, there are 5 angels. Angel of Healing, Angel of Essence, Angel of Vengeance, Angel of Swiftness and Angel of Luck Each one will give a hero a bonus in a certain area. Also, there are a few different angels within each category.

 

When an angel joins a hero through a blessing, the bonus is for that hero only. The angel will remain with him or her until the end of the game, or the hero decides to pay for another blessing in hopes to gain a different angel. In that case, the angel he has now would be removed from the game. Heroes are only permitted to have 1 angel at a time.  

We have seen this before, but here is the card backing for the blessing card.

And here is a look at the 5 angels for Dungeon Crusade. Do remember, there are variations for each angel within the blessing deck...

However Crusaders...you are not guaranteed to receive an angel every time you receive a blessing. Sometimes despair could play apart in your long journey ahead! 

Despair effects last until the following Celebration Day, and then you may remove the card from your play area. I'll share a few with you guys, but you will have to wait to see the others!!! ;) 

So there you have a good look at the blessing deck. I think you'll see while playing when you have an angel at your hero's side, this can greatly benefit them in certain situations that could come up.

SECRET ROOM DECK:

So another deck of cards I managed to complete for the game is the secret room deck. If you remember, secret rooms randomly show up each game. A hero must be adjacent to a secret room chamber and must test willpower to "discover it". They only have a few chances to discover this secret room however.

Here is a look at the secret room tokens to refresh your memory....this is final art BTW ;) 

If they fail to discover it, you would flip the token over....

  After the secret room has been discovered, a hero must attempt to pick the lock on the door.....

 From a mug or bag, you randomly pick a lock token and use the games lock pick mechanic in hopes of opening the chambers door. On a fail, you would flip the secret room token over, as this chamber is now permanently locked.....

But if the hero is successful in picking the lock, you get to draw from the secret room deck. a hero will have 2 outcomes...a desolate chamber or a treasure chamber! 

So here is a few of the final secret room cards for you. There is many different type of gold amounts your heroes can find within these chambers, including loot, and there is a good amount of desolate chambers in this deck also! ;) 

 These are one of the smaller decks of cards in the game, so the text upon these is the perfect amount. 

So I hope you like the look of the secret room cards! :) 

FINAL AFFLICTION CARDS:

Since we are on final cards and content for the game, I would like to bring back a few things that are also completed for you to check out.

Heroes can suffer afflictions in Dungeon Crusade, and there are many different things that can happen to them as a result. 

The amazing Shaun Ellis assisted me in creation these. He came up with these awesome images to depict the various afflictions in the game..

LOL, I see KS is up to it's old tricks again! I split the poster in three so you could see these better.....

CELEBRATION DAY GIFT CARDS:

I showed you guys awhile ago the Celebration Day Gift cards that the amazing Annika created. But when I went to do test prints, the fonts were SUPER small. At the time, myself and Annika thought the size was fine. 

But now that were getting game content ready for the printing process, I'm making 100% sure EVERYTHING is right on the money for the game and looking great. 

So a few weeks ago Annika increased the size of the fonts and made them bolder. When I ran some test prints, they came out perfect. The text looked great. The background of the poster was taken from the village board of the game. 

So here is an update for you guys to check out for the final CElebration Day Gift cards....enjoy! :) 

LOL, I can see it now....a few of your heroes have died in the dungeon, hard fights were fought...your heroes arrive in the village for celebration day. You get to draw one Celebration Day Gift card from the deck...you draw, and it's.....

"The villager's have gathered together to give your heroes....a big thank you!"

LOL! I'm seriously smiling right now, as I really think you guys are going to enjoy this game and have MANY stories to tell of your adventures of what transpired! :) 

So here you go...another deck of cards done for the game. 

HEROES SPECIAL ABILITY CARDS / EXPANSION HEROES ARE COMING:

So I put this all together here. As I said at the top, we are moving into the expansion hero phase of development. There are 6 expansion heroes... paladin, ranger, bard, warlock, priest and battlemage. Freddy is of course painting them, Tom will be doing the special ability icons as he did for the cards you are about to see, and Dean will be creating these incredible special ability card backings for the game. 

I have written all 18 unique special abilities for these expansion heroes, and of course each ability can be leveled up to level 3. I think you're going to find the expansion heroes special abilities just as fun as the first set for the 6 iconic heroes, but maybe just a little more though. I really got creative in writing and developing these to make them fun to use, and to be honest, I can tell I really leveled up even more over this past year in game development and just the fundamentals of good & fun game design. 

As these heroes get completed along with their special ability cards, I'll be sharing them with you in the weekly updates I'm truly trying to get back to for all of us. 

So since we are on final content for the game, I would like to share with you the awesome work of Dean Spencer, Tom Feldmann and Freddy Lopez for the final special ability card backings 

Dean is the mastermind of this card backing. The hero art is of course Freddy, and Tom's awesome special ability icons are centered on the card. I LOVE that dungeon background Dean painted for these! These card backings just look K-I-L-L-E-R with no filler, and they're just pleasant & awesome to behold while playing. 

So without further ado, here you go! 

And there you have the first 6 hero special ability cards! If you notice at the top right, that number will tell you the level of the special ability. I, II or III. 

So as Freddy gets the expansion heroes completed, and Tom and Dean get the special ability icons done and cards, I will be sharing them with you. 

LOL...we are not even close to being done yet... much more on the way!

THE 7TH GUARDIAN....LORD BLACKHAND:

And a HUGE KUDOS to Freddy on this incredible piece of art for Lord Blackhand! The guy is just totally awesome for what he creates. I supply him with a design doc for what I am envisioning for these characters, and he just injects his own creativity and vision into the design and the results are outstanding. 

 I created a few different types of factions in the game that will be opposing the heroes. One of these groups is the Blackhand Army. 

The Blackhand Army is led by the evil and malign Lord Blackhand. The soldiers of this wicked army are human, but their souls have been corrupted and they are now considered to be within the demonic type of monsters and creatures your heroes will experience in the game.

You'll notice that when you encounter these type of monsters in the game, all of them have unique masks they wear. They keep their face hidden from all. 

I was very particular about how I wanted Lord Blackhand to look for the game. A flowing cape, a helmet where you couldn't quite see his face, and a unique weapon and shield.

The weapon I created for him is called "Trinity of Anguish". It's like a flail, but on the ends of the chains, I put skulls with metal spikes protruding out from it. This weapon has a very powerful special ability if it hits...watch out! ;) Freddy did an awesome job on the recreation of this weapon I think.  

The tower shield he carries has a special ability that pertains to the blue mist being emitted from it. The ability is called, "Into the Void". Lord Blackhand obtains it at level 3. LOL, you don't want to go into the void I assure you fellow crusaders!

But enough of that! Let's take a look at Lord Blackhand's monster card when he obtains level 4, and his special ability, "Trinity of Anguish"...warning! It is brutal!

Before we get into the brutality of Lord Blackhand at level 4, I would like to point out how nicely the text is formatted, and how it will be for all text on the final cards. On test prints, this came out super clear and very easy to read. 

Another thing I worked on is the monsters name, or rather that effect it gives. Notice how his name has that yellow glow behind the black fonts, I really think it gives the card a striking look and just a unique look. All monsters will have this effect with their name. 

OK, now we can discuss this card! Lord Blackhand is a seriously deadly foe in the game. The Trinity of Anguish ability, if it hits could do massive damage to a hero. Without giving too much information or tips out...an angel of healing watching over a hero could truly help in this situation. 

But I don't want to say to much about strategy and tactics, the fun is playing Dungeon Crusade and finding out for yourself how to deal with situations that arise. 

So let's take a look at a battle poster with Lord Blackhand's cardboard miniature. Remember, these cardboard miniatures will be cut to their shape. The stuff you'll see here is what I produced from my production room. It looks pretty good, but the real stuff from the game company is going to look fantastic. The colors will be more vibrant, clear and more pronounced, etc. But this will give you a good indication of what the game will look like.....

So I hope you like what you're seeing here. I like the cardboard miniatures with this design I came up with, but I think when they're cut to their shape, they are going to look epic. 

And truth be told, I honestly feel and believe cardboard miniatures belong in Dungeon Crusade....for the retro vibe, gameplay, the unique look they have,  and just that undeniable charm they have. 

So get ready!........A rift has opened in the underworld! And a massive creature is coming! 

THE 8TH AND FINAL GUARDIAN IS HERE! MAGMUS!!!!

Now THAT is how to make the toughest monster in a game! So Magmus is finally here, and first off, Freddy Lopez. This piece he created is just epic awesome to the 10th power. He has really brought such a unique look and identity to Dungeon Crusade. I say this alot, as I think that's something not easy to do. His style of art just feels so at home in Dungeon Crusade. And for this, I just can't thank him enough. :) 

When I gave him the design doc for Magmus, I pictured an arch demon of course, But I wanted Magmus to be carrying a huge demonic bow as his primary weapon and hell forged arrows.. 

We always see boss like fantasy creatures wielding huge swords & axes, and I wanted to explore unique special abilities with Magmus using his demonic bow and hell forged arrows. I think he is a perfect representation for the toughest monster in the game. 

So let's take a look at when he levels up to level 2....

With his special attack he can potentially deal out 2 afflictions to a hero, and for a level 2 monster, that's some pretty high damage output towards a hero. But when I crafted all of these guardians for and what warfare traits they are versed in, and the values, I balanced them very well. 

You won't see a bunch of guardians with chaos warfare, or a bunch of them with ranged warfare. Everything is very well balanced. LOL, I'm total OCD about balancing things! ;) 

And here is a battle poster with Magmus's cardboard miniature. Like I said above, these cardboard miniatures will be cut to their shape. The stuff you'll see here is what I produced from my production room. It looks pretty good, but the real stuff from the game company is going to look fantastic.

I think Magmus's cardboard miniature came out great. I think the scale is right on for him. And this is something I would like to mention why I believe cardboard miniatures are a great choice for Dungeon Crusade and other fantasy games. 

Playability. It's so easy to place them on the board, and move them around. And I came up with a simple rule for when they attack a hero, or move for that matter....

"When placing cardboard miniatures for moving, or attacking a hero,  you would orientate them the way that thematically makes the most sense. If the back of it's miniature or sides would protrude into a chamber, wall or other object, this part of the miniature would not be a legal part to attack, and is simply ignored."

It's pretty simple, and works perfectly in the game. Could you imagine using a huge miniature on the board? I love huge plastic miniatures, but for gameplay sake, they're not too practical to use. So anyway, that's my 2 cents on it. :) 

Please understand, I do love plastic miniatures, and at some point AFTER Dungeon Crusade is shipped, not before...AFTER, I would like to produce exclusive ones for the game, however, I want to be in on the design and do some things I'm envisioning that they would still be huge, but fir the board. Maybe a new way to go about making them. LOL, my gears are always turning with something! 

So closing out this section, I would like to share with you the champion monster cards and the final look of these you will receive. 

For those of you that have been around and followed the game from last year, you know these champion monster cards went through ALOT of revisions before we settled on a great design. 

So I have started putting these together for the final game, and wanted to share one with you. Take a look at a Skeleton Warrior level 2 (elite).....

These have come along way for sure. I really like the look of these. Notice again the text is perfectly aligned with space on each side. On test prints you can read the text from 6 feet away. 

So I'm starting on these at this point. I'll be sharing some of the final ones with you over the forthcoming updates. 

A SNEAK PEEK AT THE TOMB OF KALADAR DUNGEON BOARD:

And yes guys...I simply cannot contain myself anymore with Damien's recreation of the Tomb of Kaladar...you really must see this, and I want you to see it. It's truly incredible.

LOL, I thought I was the king of ultra detail. Nope, Damien takes the cake. I want to say more, but let's get these pics up for you to see.

PLEASE NOTE!! After the main poster pics, you'll see some scenes I setup for you. These shots were taken from a LCD screen. So it the colors are not that true, it looks really good, but take it with a grain of salt. When Damien gets the full dungeon board done, we will of course be printing it out, and doing a proper reveal like we did with the Ancient Ruins board and Castle Blackwood.

OK! Check it out! :)

LOL! Do you people see what I'm talking about now with Damien's art style!!! Just the little I showed you, (only 2 quadrants), it's like this early 80's dungeon board, yet a dash of modernization to it. Just wait until you see the rest of it, and the ultra secret thing about this dungeon board. ;) 

But I just had to show you guys this slice of awesomeness, and I hope you liked it. 

And remember, you are going to be equally dazzled with Shaun's work on the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board. That should be getting done coming up very soon. As always I'll keep you posted. 

So I hope you enjoyed a sneak peek at the Tomb of Kaladar dungeon board, and in the forthcoming updates I'll release a few more for your viewing enjoyment. :) 

OTHER CONTENT DONE FOR DUNGEON CRUSADE:

Alot of other content is done for the game as well. I'm going to list a few things here for you...

--- The House of Chance games: Tower Attack! / Skull Jack / Heroes vs. Monsters / The Adventures of Bravely the Knight

--- The village board

--- The dungeon U. I. board

--- The first 6 iconic hero cards. (I'm tweaking the values and stats on these presently, but these hero cards are done)

So this is stuff you may have forgot about and didn't know, but this content is completed also.

INTERACTIVE VIDEO / RULEBOOK:

(I shared this in the comment section and would like to share this with everyone here in the update as well...)

"I'm not sure if any other creator has done what I'm going to do. So here goes. I want to make a very comprehensive, interactive gameplay video. 

Of course I will be writing a great rulebook and I'm looking forward to it actually. But what I mean with this interactive video is this. When the video starts, I will be sitting at my gaming table with my copy of Dungeon Crusade in the box. You will be doing the exact same thing I'm doing in this video. 

I'm shooting this video right after the game is sent off for the printing process by the way. So I'm going to HIGHLY encourage everyone to watch this video while the game is being printed. You will have such a great advantage of knowing this game, so when the game arrives to you, you're going to know right away how to play it, and just skim the rulebook for clarifications on a few things.  

But getting back to this interactive video. So the first thing I'm going to do is pull out the Ancient Ruins board tiles and put it together. I'm going to say pause the video and do this now.  

The next thing is I'll take out my doors for the chambers and place them on all the chamber entries around the board. Again I'll say pause the video and proceed doing this with your game.  

Next, get your 6 heroes cards and Albus's hero card from the box, and slip the plastic sliders on the starting position for health and essence for each hero card. Pause the video and proceed to do this.  

I think you get the picture. But then I'll go to the various decks of cards and explain about them, then finally play a scripted game with you. Meaning you will be doing everything i do, finding the exact card I have, moving a hero to a few different places, doing quests, Celebration Day, etc....  

I firmly 100% believe, when someone, especially the creator of the game takes the time to fully explain the game to you in a video format type of rulebook, it will make learning that game SO MUCH easier for the player.  

LOL, this probably makes me an oddball to do something like this, as most other creators I don't think would do something like this. But, you guys truly mean the world to me, so to me, this is my form of customer service to make sure you fully understand this game and get the most enjoyment out of it, and always be here to answer questions that pop up you need clarification on while playing."

OK, I'm back. But I hope you guys like the sound of that, and I would love the opportunity to do this for you. People in the comment section really liked the sound of this. 

BEFORE WE GET TO THE "IN CLOSING" SECTION,  A LITTLE SURPRISE POSTER FOR YOU:

And there you are! the 8 guardians of Dungeon Crusade! Freddy did an outstanding, stellar and killer job on all of these guardians. It's something to see all of them together like this. 

I do have to mention however, a very awesome close friend and artist to the project, Joseph Arnold did the incredible sketch of Nafarion, and Freddy did the colors for it.

I feel these 8 are really iconic to Dungeon Crusade and fit the game really well. I originally had 12 guardians, but this game was so massive already, I/we had to remove 4 of them. Last year, and into this year,  a guardian named Kilgore was in the game, but I swapped him out for Red Widow. 

But I do promise you, if there is a massive expansion for Dungeon Crusade, Kilgore, Netherclaw and the other 2 guardians will be in there for you. :)  

IN CLOSING:

Whew! Now this was a update of epic proportions, and I'm really happy I could do this for all of you. You saw alot of the final content for the game, and hopefully you see why I had to miss a few weekly updates. I have been ULTRA busy. 

But I want you to know, it's truly all downhill from here. My plan is starting tomorrow to create the preliminary patrol routes on the Castle Blackwood dungeon board, and forward it to Dean. If you remember, instead of the dashed lines I had, he created 4 unique footprints for the patrol routes. He did an awesome job on the Ancient Ruins board, and he will be doing the same for all of the dungeon boards. And I have to say, he is such a great and awesome friend to me and you guys and the project. Well, all of these artists are for that matter!

So I'm going to take a day to accomplish this, then I think I'm going to do all the monster cards and get them out of the way. After that, do the final loot cards. This will probably take me a few weeks to get all of this done, but getting these 2 things done is a HUGE step towards completion. Plus, for the playthrough video, I would like to use all of the final game content. I was going to do it with the prototype content, but we are going to be promoting this video. and it would just not be right to have half & half. 

After that, it's just some small decks of cards to work on, the trap cards, the 6 tavern tasks and the quest cards and the various tokens for them. Of course the tokens Annika already created. 

So I think you see what the other's are up to. Shaun and Kez have finished all of the 193 pieces of loot, Shaun is doing the Cavern of Lost Souls dungeon board, Damien's doing the Tomb of Kaladar board, Freddy is on the expansion heroes, and Tom will be doing the special ability icons. LOL, we are busy! 

So as usual I'll be in the update comment section to see what's going on and chat with you. And please remember! If the next update is a little delayed, check the regular comment section. I'm always in there telling everyone what's going on and what we are up to. 

OK all...I hope everyone has a great evening or great day depending on where you are at in Avalon, er...I mean the world. I hope you enjoyed this "girthy" update for Dungeon Crusade. I know I am FIRED up, and just in high gear and wanting to see all of this come together for YOU. Well me too, but more you guys to be honest. I just really like to create, write and develop stuff for people to enjoy. LOL, if I played games all the time, I couldn't do this! 

Take it easy all, I'll be talking to you soon....Rodger :)