£3,200,000 - Stretch Goal Unlocked - Eygon of Carim & Dark Souls™ - The Board Game 101
over 8 years ago
– Mon, May 16, 2016 at 12:42:06 AM
Hello Unkindled,
You have successfully unlocked another Summoned NPC! This time around it is Eygon of Carim.
The next unlock is:
Dark Souls™ - The Board Game 101
New to the Dark Souls™ world? Some of the jargon confusing you? Here's a 'cheat sheet' to help you understand your Dark Souls™ The Board Game pledge, what you're getting, and what can be added.
Clarification of Enemy status:
Grunts - These are the Dark Souls™ The Board Game representation of the 'standard enemies' you come across in the video game, much more simple to tackle with a smaller, more predictable move set and less health. However, be aware of being mobbed.
Invaders – These are the Dark Souls™ The Board Game representation of the Invaders you come up against in the video game. Throughout the video game your character has a chance to be invaded by NPC (Non-Player Characters) Phantoms, they react much like a player would; blocking, rolling to dodge, healing and of course attacking with vicious flurries of attacks. In the Board Game Invaders are treated fundamentally similar to the Mini-Bosses, but as to when they turn up is very much an uncertainty. Much like the Mini-Bosses, these battles can take place on the standard tiles that come in the Core set.
Mini-Bosses – These are the Dark Souls™ The Board Game representation of, well, Mini-Bosses. Throughout Dark Souls™ the video game you come across enemies with greater health pools, or that do more damage. Or both, consider them an 'elite' if you will. These fights can take place on any of the standard tiles, so again, you don't need anything outside of the Core set to take them on.
Bosses – These are the Dark Souls™ The Board Game representation of the bosses you come across in Dark Souls™ that are extremely difficult (it is Dark Souls™ after all), but aren't necessarily the biggest of the bunch. The Dancer is a prime example, she can be seen in the demo video, she is a very challenging boss but due to her size no extra tiles are needed to fight her outside of what comes with the Core set.
Mega-Bosses – These are the Dark Souls™ The Board Game representation of those big nasties that you come across in the video game. They come with their own tiles and combat takes place on these specifically designed tiles. A 'standard' game is run with a 'Boss' and a 'Mini-Boss', a 'Mega-Boss' isn't required to play the game, but adds another degree of difficulty if you want it after tackling the 'Mini-Boss' and 'Boss'. Alternatively you can swap out one of these two bosses and simply replace them with a Mega-Boss if you're short on time and want to tackle one of the big boys!
Clarification of other pieces available:
Playable Characters – Nice and simple one, these are the models used to represent the character(s) you are playing as. They have a 'Character Board' to accompany them, and this is where you keep track of stamina, health, equipment and other stats via tokens, no need for dry wipe pens.
Expansions – The Expansion Add-ons are a collection of models we've put together, often focusing on iconic areas from the video games. The expansions are themed according to these areas and will contain a mixture of the various types of enemies described above (currently excluding Mega-Bosses, but bear in mind the game is still in development so this is subject to change). They still operate perfectly fine on the Core set tiles, but due to overwhelming requests we have added tile sets designed to fit in with the expansions aesthetic if you fancy them which will be covered below.
Tile Sets – The Tile Sets Add-ons are available to those that want to run a game with tiles that fit aesthetically to the Expansion Add-ons we have available. They have different artwork on them to match up with the areas used in the expansions and will have different node placement to the Core set.
Armor Sets – In the video game enemies can drop goodies, often equipment they are wearing or using themselves. But once they're dead they don't need it, so if you're lucky enough you can take it for your own use. Occasionally armour can be found just lying around, but you need to keep your eye out for it! This is the same in the board game, these Armour Sets have a physical representation in the form of a miniature and are accompanied by cards to tell you what you gain, or lose from wearing them.
Equipment cards – These are the cards which hold the information on various items of equipment and armour as mentioned in the 'Armour Sets' description, some items will come with a tradeoff, so these cards will feature information as to what bonuses and in some cases penalties come with equipping items. They will also contain some flavour text to help build the world, this is something we've carried over from the video game where much of the story is developed through text attached to items.
Treasure cards – These are the cards which tell you what goodies you've received from killing enemies, different enemies drop different amounts of treasure which is located on the stat card of the enemy killed. Treasure cards are placed in a deck, and drawn from this deck when you have slain the enemies holding the treasure.
Boss AI cards – Bosses in the video game have a move set, depending on your positioning you seek to take advantage of this move set by acknowledging the animations and making the most of safe windows to attack. We replicate this in the board game with a deck of cards, each card has its own movement and attack used on it. This deck cycles through, and is then flipped over upon completion. You then flip the cards again, the deck isn't shuffled at this point so if you've remembered the order the abilities came out in you can position yourself to take advantage of the weak points they present.
Boss 'Heat Up' – In the video game bosses often have a 'Heat Up' or 'Berserk' timer, usually triggered as they reach a specific amount of damage (down to 50% of their health as an example). This will tend to make the boss more aggressive and see new moves appear in the move set which will punish you if you get caught out by them. In the board game we have much the same thing, once the 'Heat Up' criteria is met, an extra card is added to the AI deck and the deck is shuffled. That card order you remembered to take advantage of, yeah. You can go ahead and forget that, things just got real.
Encounter cards – In the video game the rooms you enter will contain several things; some have enemies, some have traps with no enemies, some have traps and enemies, some may be seemingly empty but for a chest... But is it really a chest? Or is a chest with limbs and a gigantic mouth filled with teeth that'll eat you up if you look at them funny? Yes, we have mimics. In the board game these enemies and events that take place on a tile as you enter it are controlled by Encounter cards, which are put together to form an Encounter deck. When you enter a room you draw an Encounter card and that tells you what you're facing in this room. You can find an example of these in the Exploration video. These decks scale in difficulty according to the boss that is lying in wait at the end of them, if you're facing a Mini-Boss you could expect the Encounter deck to be less difficult than if you have a Boss lingering around for you to stumble into its abode. But it's still Dark Souls™, so 'less difficult' is certainly a 'relative' statement.
Basic overview of the game:
Here is a basic overview of a 'standard' Mini-Boss and Boss playthrough.
Pre-game -Select the Mini-Boss and Boss you wish to play against, arrange the appropriate AI, Encounter, Treasure, and Equipment decks along with your Tiles. Once the correct decks are created and Tiles are chosen, give them a shuffle. We are ready to begin.
- 1) Start on Bonfire tile.
- 2) Draw Tile from Tile stack.
- 3) Choose direction to go by placing Tile at an exit.
- 4) Enter newly placed Tile, draw Encounter card from Mini-Boss Encounter deck.
- 5) Place specified enemies, events and hazards.
- 6) Fight enemies that have been placed on the tile, this can have two outcomes which are stated below.
- 6a) Gain treasure and Souls upon defeating them. If successful you can 'Homeward Bone' or walk back to the Bonfire, your Estus Flask will be refilled. Anytime you return to a Bonfire enemies will respawn. Here you can spend Souls to upgrade you character. Alternatively you can press on further if you don't feel the need to return to the Bonfire.
- 6b) Die trying, when you die you will return to the Bonfire ,everything will have respawned. Any Souls you were in possession of are lost upon dying. Now you can try again by either entering the same room again, attempting to regain any lost Souls in the process. Alternatively you can draw a new Tile and place it at a different exit and try a different direction.
- 7) Repeat steps 1 through 6 until you have defeated the Mini-Boss.
- 8) Once the Mini-Boss is defeated you place the Bonfire Tile on the exit of the Mini-Boss Tile. Pick up all placed Tiles, shuffle them and proceed through steps 1-6 (replacing the Mini-Boss Encounter deck with the Main Boss one) until you have defeated the Main Boss.
- 9) If you take him down, congratulations you've won... Unless you have a Mega-Boss lying in wait.
Bonus tip: If you haven't ever played a Dark Souls game, and don't intend to within the campaign but still want to pick up a Mega-Boss Add-on but have no idea which one we recommend jumping on to YouTube and watching the boss fights from the video games on there. The AI decks we're forming are designed to replicate these move-sets, so you'll get a good idea of what to expect from there! Failing that, ask our community in the comments section; they're always happy to flood you with their own opinions as to their favourites!
Praise the Sun \[T]/
Final 24 Hours! Don't Forget to Back!
over 8 years ago
– Mon, May 16, 2016 at 12:07:28 AM
Hello Unkindled,
We are in to the last 24 Hours of the Campaign. We are continuing to unlock Stretch Goals even now and it's all thanks to you. When you pledge £80 you will receive:
- Core Game
- Player Character Expansion
- Core Game Expansion
- Iron Keep Expansion
- Armour Set Expansion
- Invaders Expansion
- Summoned Expansion
- Solaire Summoned Model
If you'd like to increase your pledge to include an Add On then follow these instructions:
Click on 'Manage' located on the Main Page:
Then click on 'Change your pledge':
Finally, type in the new amount (for example £115 if you wanted just the SOULS Pledge + The Darkroot Expansion) and click 'Continue'
The Mega Boss Expansions (+£28 Per Expansion) are additional purchases you can make to enhance your board game experience. These models are big - the Gaping Dragon is around 12-15cm tall!
They also come with additional items to support their gameplay:
- A Tileset for the Mega Boss Encounter (vary in quantity dependent on the boss)
- 1 Boss Dial for tracking damage
- A Unique Mega Boss AI Deck that fully replicates their movements and attacks within the actual game itself
- Specific Mega Boss Treasure Cards
The £28 Mega Bosses are:
- Gaping Dragon
- Black Dragon Kalameet
- The Guardian Dragon
- The Four Kings
- Asylum Demon
- Old Iron King
- Vordt of the Boreal
The Darkroot Basin Expansion is available for £35, and contains Sif and Artorias:
If you want to explore some new locations within the universe then the Darkroot Basin/Iron Keep Gaming Tiles Add-On (+£15) is for you! These double sided tiles will feature artwork from the Darkroot Basin and Iron Keep environments from the game and will allow backers more options of exploration during their game play sessions.
Thank you all for your support on this ground breaking campaign so far.
PRAISE THE SUN \[T]/
