March Update: Coming Down the Home Stretch with the Core Box!
Back Blood Throne Here!
I'm very happy to report that we are rapidly approaching the home stretch for the core box and the Ghorgantus expansion, with only the final steps remaining before pre-production! At this point, we are in the polishing stage, adding some quality-of-life details, which I'll outline below. The only remaining task at the creation level is the campaign map. While it is technically complete, I wasn't satisfied with the quality and decided to rework it to make it look more epic. However, compared to everything else, this task requires a relatively low time investment and should be finished quickly.
All of the small details needed to polish the product have taken much longer than I anticipated. As the saying goes: the last 10% of a project is harder than the first 90%—and boy, am I living that right now!
After months of feeling massive amounts of "Will I ever get this thing done?" I finally have the wind in my sails as action items that had been lingering on my project outline are being ticked off rapidly. The end result is turning out even better than I had hoped when we started. The books are looking absolutely amazing—so much nicer than the average board game. Here are a few sample pages to illustrate my point!
We added splash art from the extensive collection of artwork we have accumulated to fill empty spaces and add polish and professionalism to the books. Between that and the incredible full-color art created by our art studio partner, Sonderflex Studios, which brings the setting of the core box to life—along with the 3D map layouts—I think the final product will have a real wow factor that sets us apart.
Below is an example from the Quickplay Guide, where we walk you through the first two scenarios step-by-step to make it easy to get started with Blood Throne. This is just one page of that section—on the others, we break down each part of the process with examples. After playing through the first two scenarios with this guide, it becomes a breeze to navigate the rest of the PvE campaign on your own!
We also added a Feat & Forge card for each class to include in their tuck box. We had some extra space on the card cut sheets, so we decided to add these in to make life easier for you, the player, while navigating the game. These handy reference cards provide useful information for each class. On the front, you'll find a list of General Feats that all classes can select and use during the game. On the back, there is a list of class-specific Feats and Forge upgrade options that you might need to reference during play.
As a reminder, General Feats are available to all classes at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. At level 1, you get two choices, which is why that list is longer. Levels 5 and 9 offer a Stat Boost Point, which is why there are no options listed for those levels on the card. Class Feats are unique to each class, and Forge upgrades are enhancements that can be added to a Hero's equipment once you have built the Blacksmith building in your siege camp.
The objective of these cards was not to provide a comprehensive list—since that wouldn’t fit on a single card—but rather to highlight the Feats and Forge upgrades you may need to reference during gameplay. In the case of Class Feats, we included only those that are not already covered on a Class Skill card. Class Feats that upgrade a Class Skill are included directly on those cards for ease of reference. Additionally, any part of a Feat that doesn’t need to be referenced during gameplay was omitted to save space.
For example, the first General Feat, Blinding Speed, also increases your initiative by +2. However, since that upgrade is managed on your Hero Board—by placing the appropriate number token in the relevant slot—and is permanently tracked on the Hero Sheet, it doesn’t need to be shown on the reference card. We only included the portion of the Feat that impacts gameplay, being able to rotate in place as a Simple action (which is surprisingly good in a game where model facing is important!).
Only those Class Feats that cannot be easily referenced anywhere else—aside from the Hero Sheet in the campaign workbook, which stores all of each Hero’s information—are included. The Hero Sheets contain a lot of information that isn’t needed during gameplay, so we streamlined the data on these cards to reduce cognitive load and make gameplay smoother.
The General Feats are not applicable to every class. For example, you’re unlikely to give a Barbarian a Familiar that aids in casting spells, or Shield Training to a class that cannot use shields. However, they are included for quick reference in case a situation arises. As a funny side note, if you wanted to build a custom Barbarian that specializes in carrying scroll Item Cards and acts as a sort of super-buff faux-wizard, you could—and then take advantage of a Familiar. Would it be effective? Maybe not, but it would certainly be amusing to try!
These cards are also designed to be universally applicable, so if you create a custom Hero using the Hero Expansion, the cards will still work for the corresponding class. They are not limited to the pre-built Heroes.
I have also added the Sundrop-style paint option add-ons to Gamefound. A big thank you to those of you who patiently waited for this! We will keep the pledge manager open for a bit longer to accommodate anyone considering this option and then close it thereafter. I anticipate this will happen within the next 2–3 weeks.
We recently attended the GAMA trade show—a convention for professionals in the board game industry to showcase their latest products and services. We had the opportunity to present our full range of products, including Blood Throne, to fellow industry professionals, and the feedback was fantastic. The models and terrain were major selling points; as people passed by, they couldn't help but stop to pick up the models or try out the mega-easy pop-up terrain. The ease with which the terrain pieces could be popped into place—and then flattened for storage—was a big hit.
It was incredibly satisfying to see other miniature manufacturers marvel at the quality of the Blood Throne minis (including some of the manufacturers for the BIG indie games)! Many of them kept asking us who manufactured them because the quality was so impressive.
The Hero Boards, Campaign Tracker, and Initiative Tracker also attracted a lot of attention—not only for their color-coordinated design but also for their recessed layout, which makes it easy to place tokens without worrying about them being knocked out of place during gameplay.
The ease of using the Monster Cards was also appreciated by those who enjoy adventure board games. Having the AI script on the back of each card made it very simple to understand how to handle each type of Monster. We are currently in the process of adding a final layer of polish to these cards, so the finished product will look even better and be more intuitive to use!
Overall, we were very pleased with the reception. Many game store owners who checked out the game expressed interest in carrying it in their stores, which is always a great sign!
Prior to attending GAMA, I was at Frontline Gaming HQ in Las Vegas for our annual administrative meetings. During that time, the team and I played through the PvP campaign again (we didn’t quite finish as we ran out of time but got close to the end). I had actually forgotten how fun that play mode is since I haven’t been able to play much lately due to work and personal obligations. It was a blast to run through it one last time before preparing the Hero Expansion book for layout and publishing. This also gave us a chance to catch any minor errors and identify areas for improvement.
The PvP campaign plays out similarly to the PvE campaign but on a compressed timeline. While the PvE campaign is an epic, sprawling adventure to save the world of Cheol from the clutches of a potential god-tyrant—played out over months—the PvP campaign is a smaller-scale endeavor designed for essentially infinite replayability with campaigns running roughly 10 rounds.
Warning: This Section Contains Story Spoilers
The PvP campaign takes place after the events of the Tower of Sacrifice saga—the PvE campaign—in which the survivors of that conflict begin to rebuild, using the Siege Camp you constructed during the PvE campaign as the seed of a new city and a new hope for the world. The heroes of the core box, once allies, now become bitter enemies, divided into the camps of the Adherents to Zenith and Iconoclasts. They struggle to decide the fate of the spoils of war left after the fall of Belphegore. Joined by reinforcement heroes from across Cheol, each faction engages in covert actions to influence the population of the newly emerging city of New Jasmir.
Will they use Dehvathae—the essence of sentient beings—as a resource, or release it back into the cycle of creation and destruction? Built upon the ruins of the famed city from before the Throne Wars, New Jasmir is now the only place in all of Cheol not under the boot of the daemonic Viceroys of the Immortal Host, who hold dominion over the rest of the world. As the city contains vast stockpiles of Dehvathae and swells with droves of refugees, it is both the most valuable and the most vulnerable city in the world. What will become of it? You will determine this in the course of the PvP campaign!
Mechanically, the campaign functions as follows:
The two factions are split along ideological lines and must each build a base of operations in the ruins of the city. You, the players, will command one of the two factions and decide how to construct your base, with each building providing unique bonuses and costs. Each turn, a random event will influence your choice of scenarios. You’ll also have a deck of Strategy Cards to play, such as bribing a city guard to look the other way while you pilfer resources, or causing a crisis in the city and framing the other faction for it! It is a ruthless campaign for control of New Jasmir’s future. While outright war is not an option—since all factions need New Jasmir to remain politically stable—your heroes can and do engage in a shadow war to influence the hearts and minds of its citizens. Think of your factions as fantasy versions of the CIA and KBG during the cold war.
A selection of possible scenarios with various benefits and deployments is available each Campaign Turn. Your choice of which Strategy Cards to use will influence which player gets to select the scenario. The more powerful a trick you play on your opponent—or buff you give yourself—the less likely you are to be able to select the scenario, so choose wisely!
The Scenarios are split between standard and assault missions. You will always have a choice of each. Assault missions are more difficult for the attacker but have an asymmetric reward structure, meaning you can earn more points than your opponent. The defender has an easier path to victory but with a lower possible reward. These missions are great to try and catch up if you are falling behind, or to put the nail in the coffin if you are winning!
When direct conflict is unavoidable, you’ll try to tilt the odds in your favor before playing a tactical scenario by using any means at your disposal. You’ll then select your heroes for the mission, assign tasks to those not participating (in which they earn XP, can craft items, forge their equipment, etc.), and play intense head-to-head battles! As in the PvE campaign, heroes can be injured or, if they participate in too many scenarios in a row, become exhausted and need to rest. This requires you to think strategically—not only about which heroes to use for the immediate mission but also about who you want available for subsequent scenarios. Overall, it provides a unique and extremely fun experience to test your skills against a friend or multiple friends (it’s quite easy to play 2v2, 3v3, 1v2, etc., by splitting up control of heroes).
You’ll level up, gain loot and magical items, and customize your heroes and tactics as you progress. For even more replayability, you can create custom heroes! With the variables that come up each Campaign Turn and the ability to swap in custom heroes, every PvP campaign playthrough is a unique experience.
Lastly, if you find yourself falling way behind your opponent, you can risk it all in a desperate gambit to even the odds—but failure means campaign defeat! Use this option only if you feel you have no other way to catch up, as it’s an all-or-nothing play. We added this as in playtesting it was not uncommon for one player to start falling behind and felt like they may as well concede the campaign as they felt they had no way of catching up. It is no fun to end a campaign on a flat note so we included this as a way to go out with a bang or get back in the game!
Some of the highlights of our campaign included the Priest—Brother Boldstand—managing to knock out not one but two opposing heroes in melee during a single game! The Priest is surprisingly competent in combat if you allocate a few stat points in the right places. Everyone was laughing hysterically as the dour little Gnome went around knocking heads with his incense maul.
Jemden, the Arcane Trickster from the ancient desert cities of the First Builders—a hero available in the Hero Expansion—proved to be outstanding this campaign. The Arcane Trickster class specializes in crowd control magic, stealth, and objective-grabbing. While dealing almost no damage, the ability to control the actions of other heroes, combined with the class's incredible mobility and objective-focused skill set, made her a go-to choice for missions that required securing treasure chests to win the scenario. In previous testing she sometimes felt underpowered due to having nearly no offensive capabilities but with some tweaks we added to give her more oomph, she was fantastic. A notable ability is her spell Invisibility, which grants herself or an ally the very powerful Invisible status which makes a hero invisible outside of Short Range!
My main man, Kechi'Wayho—a Monk from the savannahs of Mutamba and a hero available in the Hero Expansion—was a standout this time around. He belongs to the same faction as Amara the Warlord from the Core Box. The Monk class can be tricky to play, as it specializes in mobility and dealing massive amounts of damage to low-armor targets but has limited defensive options, relying primarily on parrying to reduce damage. It’s very easy to misplay this class and have them get knocked out early. However, with some patience and careful positioning, you can get incredible returns on investment from the Monk!
Their class ability, Fists of Fury, allows them to always make an extra unarmed strike when they attack, representing their exceptional martial arts skills. This means if they are not using a weapon, they get THREE attack rolls per Melee Attack Action! While they’re not as effective against heavily armored targets due to the way Damage Reduction is applied to each successful Action Roll, they are truly lethal against lightly armored foes. In this campaign, Kechi'Wayho was balling out of control—blasting through the backlines of the Iconoclasts with devastating efficiency.
Saabir the Paladin, hailing from the now-destroyed city of Ira'Bar and the last living member of the Order of Zaied Habbak, was an absolute powerhouse. Available in the Hero Expansion, the Paladin has been a standout class throughout all the years of playtesting. The combination of durability, light healing, and incredibly powerful offensive output makes the Paladin an easy choice for many players.
Normally, a Dwarf in heavy armor would have a meagre movement of 3, but thanks to the level 1 General Feat, Mule, he was able to boost this to a manageable 4—plus gain the added benefit of being able to carry two objectives! Combined with a weapon featuring the Reach keyword for longer range, he was able to wade into the thick of combat, tanking blows, healing himself or nearby allies with Lay on Hands, and delivering deadly attacks with his Zealous Strike ability. His presence on the battlefield was rightly feared and respected by the opposing forces whenever he took the field.
Ttama the Witch, hailing from the jungle cities of the People of the Sun's homeland—another Hero Expansion character—also made waves this campaign. The Witch class is the most unique in Blood Throne. Like the Arcane Trickster, they do not have massive offensive capabilities but can summon a unique pet, the Witch's Totem. This not only provides defensive benefits but also allows them to cast spells at Long Range—an incredibly powerful ability, as it means they can affect any model they can see.
The Witch specializes in powerful curses that apply debilitating, game-long debuffs to opposing heroes. These curses are extremely potent, with effects such as reducing a hero's Accuracy or Metaphysics to 0—meaning they gain no positive modifier dice when performing the relevant actions such as attacking or attempting to cast a spell—or preventing them from healing altogether! Once a target is cursed, the Witch can damage their Totem or themselves to deal twice as much damage to the cursed target anywhere on the board—even if the Witch cannot see them.
The Witch can be a challenging class to master, as you have to carefully consider your positioning before summoning the Totem as it slows the Witch's movement dramatically. However, if played smartly, the Witch can turn even the scariest heroes into easy targets and quickly become one of the most feared classes in Blood Throne!
However, without a doubt, the man of the match was Dextrioth the Warlock—an expansion hero who hails from the Immortal Host and serves as the right-hand man to Inquisitor Kalth from the Core Box. Dextrioth went absolutely red-hot this campaign, racking up a record of three heroes defeated in a single match and tallying the most KOs overall by a significant margin!
The Warlock class, much like the Monk, can be tricky to play. Warlocks specialize in mobility and DPS but have the versatility to strike powerfully at both range with their Hellfire Blast and in melee with Hellfire Strike. While their defensive abilities are limited to relying on not being hit with their high Evasion, their raw offensive output means that if you position them correctly, few foes can stand against them. At level 3, the team opted to give him the General Feat, Long Stride, which grants +1 movement point. Combined with his already speedy Infernal Elf base movement of 6, this gave him an impressive 7 movement points! In addition, his Warlock ability to teleport short distances—allowing him to jump out of combat or through terrain—made him extremely difficult to pin down. He danced around the Adherents to Zenith, reaping heads left and right. He was definitely the team favorite this time around.
It’s always fascinating to see how each PvP campaign evolves differently. With so many variables influencing the flow of the game, the demands of the moment mean that different heroes rise to the top each time. In previous PvP tests, Ajax the Fighter and Dalnon the Rogue were always top picks, but this time, they both struggled to gain momentum. Jib Job the Alchemist, however, was an all-star as he seems to be in every single test campaign we run. His ability to do so many things decently well at range makes him consistently useful, and this playthrough was no different. AoEs, DoTs, HoTs, smoke clouds and more mean he always has a tool for the current situation. The little Goblin once again proved to be a great choice in any game!
It was also just great to play the game again—it reminded me that we really have created something special! A big thanks to the whole team for taking time after work to toss dice with me.
So, there we are—definitely coming down the home stretch now. At this stage, all my time each day is spent reviewing material to catch any errors and then sending it to the factory for pre-production review to ensure everything is ready. I anticipate that we are only weeks away from handing the Core Box and Ghorgantus Expansion to the factory to begin the manufacturing process!
Thanks so much for reading. I’ll have the Inquisitor in-depth article in the pipeline no later than next Friday.