Dark Souls Boardgame by Steamforged Games - Kickstarter NOW LIVE!

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**PrinceOfMadness**

Agreed. I would also like to see them adding more game boards...maybe with some environmental hazards? Some of my most memorable moments from Dark Souls were in travelling through the areas where the land itself was trying to kill you.

**TheDraconicLord**

Another one bites the dust.

Hey Unkindled!

Another stretch goal has been surpassed and we're getting awfully close to the £1,500,000 mark. Keep it up! This time you have unlocked Titanite Demon Behaviour Cards, be sure to watch out for it's Titanite Catch Pole.

Our next goal is £1,500,000 and will unlock Havel's Set

The speed at which the Armour Sets will start to unlock is set to increase after £1,500,000 so keep on sharing the campaign via Reddit/Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr/Imgur etc.

Praise the Sun \[T]/

He sure isn't lying, maybe they are done with the cards because the next goal is another armor set:

**sadysaneto**

Yeah, sets are cool and all... But I need more bosses to jump in

**overtyrant**

Very happy with the progress thus far.

**Alpharius**

Has the super new Super Customer Relations Super Team showed up yet?

Have they answered the questions on game-play, carryover, persistent worlds/characters yet?

**Nostromodamus**

Alpharius wrote:
Has the super new Super Customer Relations Super Team showed up yet?

Have they answered the questions on game-play, carryover, persistent worlds/characters yet?

Apparently someone from Steamforged was on earlier but didn't really answer anything.

Maybe the super justice community relations mega league is still awaiting approval?

**Alpharius**

Nostromodamus wrote:
Alpharius wrote:
Has the super new Super Customer Relations Super Team showed up yet?

Have they answered the questions on game-play, carryover, persistent worlds/characters yet?

Apparently someone from Steamforged was on earlier but didn't really answer anything.

Maybe the super justice community relations mega league is still awaiting approval?

OK, I like your version better!

But they really do need to answer those questions, and soon, I think!

**NewTruthNeomaxim**

Alpharius wrote:
Nostromodamus wrote:
Alpharius wrote:
Has the super new Super Customer Relations Super Team showed up yet?

Have they answered the questions on game-play, carryover, persistent worlds/characters yet?

Apparently someone from Steamforged was on earlier but didn't really answer anything.

Maybe the super justice community relations mega league is still awaiting approval?

OK, I like your version better!

But they really do need to answer those questions, and soon, I think!

Agreed... otherwise I might have to spend my money on... (God help me, I can't believe I am about to write this) some models to play Age of Sigmar with. :-p

**overtyrant**

I'm happy to wait until the final day before making a final decision.

**Hanskrampf**

The way this Kickstarter was handled from the beginning is really sad. If it wouldn't have the Dark Souls name on it, I would have never backed this. The core game looks still like a good value, even if the rules turn out to suck.

**highlord tamburlaine**

I know I probably wouldn't have bothered at all if it wasn't actually Dark Souls.

I already have Darklight coming and Kingdom Death at home, so outside of the IP I don't think I'd be considering this one based on how many issues have already cropped up.

**Mymearan**

Yeah obviously the IP is the big draw, otherwise it would've just been a less thought-out Darklight just weeks after Darklight ended. Still hyped as hell as I would like to think that Steamforged knows how to make good rules, but I really need to see how the game works beyond a short snippet from a boss fight...

**Pacific**

While the total is pressing on 1.5 million it hardly feels like.. "show the rules.. or else!"

Would definitely be good to see something, but you have to have a little bit of trust that a team that made Guild Ball (which is a bloody well designed game for all accounts) isn't going to lay a turd on us, and then presumably retreat to the bahamas to swim in champagne-filled pools spending all the money they've taken.

And, the pledge cose really isn't that much money when compared to a lot of other stuff on the market and considering the lisence. I'd view it as worth a punt even without another rules update, although obviously would be nice to see what they have planned.

**Nostromodamus**

Seems like it's a no for game-to-game progression.

We don't currently, however each session of gameplay is designed to have a campaign feel with progression towards taking on the final boss fight.

As for rules and videos...

We do not have plans to release beta rules during the KS campaign. A new gameplay video is currently being finalized and will be released as soon as possible.

**infinite_array**

Nostromodamus wrote:
Seems like it's a no for game-to-game progression.

We don't currently, however each session of gameplay is designed to have a campaign feel with progression towards taking on the final boss fight.

Oooooh, no. Nope. No.

C'mon, Steamforged, really?

As for rules and videos...

We do not have plans to release beta rules during the KS campaign. A new gameplay video is currently being finalized and will be released as soon as possible.

**NewTruthNeomaxim**

Yeah... I kind of assumed when my sources that should've been able to answer did the whole non-answer shuffle.

Love Dark Souls, but no game-to-game progression means i'm probably out.

**Barzam**

Wow, that is just really stupid. What's even the point of having treasure, armor sets, and equipment then?

**highlord tamburlaine**

Disappointed.

Will keep an eye on this. Curious how it all plays out.

At the very least this stuff will flood the market upon release, so I should be able to find figures I want then.

Plus I'll probably have Darklight in my hands prior to this game ever praising the sun, and at least in Darklight I'll have character persistence. And orphans to raise. And giant mutant warhorse mounts. And mechanical limb replacements. And irradiated gemstone teeth to bite my enemies with.

**infinite_array**

Exploration Gameplay Walkthrough

So while we wait for the exploration gameplay video to be approved, we thought it’d be fun to take you through how this side of Dark Souls™ - The Board Game works.

Featuring a “fast setup, long reveal” mechanic, the game gets you into the action faster and builds the locations out as you explore. The set-up is minimal, mainly just building a couple of decks of cards and laying the first tile down.

There’s a number of ways to play Dark Souls™ – The Board Game, but the standard way is to choose the main-Boss you want to take on and then select a mini-Boss from those you have available. More details on this in the full rules of course, but let’s just assume you have selected the Dancer and the Titanite Demon for this game.

The decks you pull together are; a number of Boss Behaviour decks, a single Treasure deck and an Encounter deck per Boss. Let’s look at these in a little more detail:

Boss Behaviour deck is the way the boss is controlled by the game…samples of how this works is in the current gameplay video on the main project page. Each Boss has a number unique Boss Behaviour cards; to build a deck simply deal face-down a number of cards as determined by the difficulty level of the game session. For a standard game you will face a mini-Boss and a main-Boss…if you have a mega-Boss Add-on you can extend your game even further to include this as an extra challenge or just make this the main-Boss!

The Treasure deck is pretty straightforward, it includes a number of standard Treasure cards, a number of ‘rare’ cards such as armour sets / weapons etc. and any Boss-specific treasures. Shuffle this deck and you are good to go!

The Encounter deck is as easy to put together. You will need an Encounter deck for each ‘boss’ you are facing…so in our standard game example, there will be a deck for the Titanite Demon (the mini-Boss) and the Dancer (the main-Boss). Each deck is made up of the Boss card and 5x Encounter cards randomly dealt (facedown), each deck is shuffled before being ready to go. Note that there are two types of Encounter card, the easier encounters are used in the mini-Boss Encounter deck while the harder encounters are used for the main-Boss Encounter deck. This means the game scales in difficulty so the further you progress, the harder it gets!

Phew! Lots of words but it should only take you a couple of minutes to pull these various decks together. Final step is to gather the location tiles for the area you want to explore. Place the bonfire tile down on the table and shuffle the rest…you are now ready to play. Movement during exploration is tile-based, when you meet a bad guy you switch to combat-based movement which uses the nodes shown on the tiles.

To explore, choose an unexplored exit from the current tile you are on and flip a location tile from the pile. Place this tile exit-to-exit with the current tile and move your models onto the first node. Now flip the top card from the relevant Encounter deck, so in our example this will be the Encounter deck for the Titanite Demon mini-Boss. Each Encounter card contains the following information: DESCRIPTION, ENEMY, EVENT and REWARD.

The DESCRIPTION fills some flavour into the world and conjures images in your mind of the dark and dangerous locations you are exploring. The ENEMY details what enemies are spawned in this location. The EVENT describes any special circumstances for this location such as an area littered with barrels (which block nodes) or traps. Finally, the REWARD describes what the players receive should they defeat the enemies and survive.

Rewards allow players to draw from the Treasure deck, while defeated enemies will release souls to collect. Players can return to the bonfire at any time during the Exploration phase (i.e. once all enemies are dead) to spend their Souls to level up and purchase equipment. Of course, doing so will reset the encounters you have discovered so far so be careful how often you do this…

Continue to explore tiles, lay them out and build the location as you search for the mini-Boss to test your skills against them. Eventually you will discover the lair of the Titanite Demon, at which point you take a mini-Boss tile and place it down exit-to-exit and the door slams shut! Fight or die…or both!

If you have carefully explored and have levelled up and bought equipment wisely, with skill you should be able to defeat the mini-Boss. At this point the exit from mini-Boss area opens up…

Now gather all the tiles currently laid-out, shuffle them and then flip them over. Place the bonfire tile down exit-to-exit with the mini-Boss tile. Now you are ready to find the main Boss…don’t forget, the encounters are now much more dangerous but the rewards are far greater.

Continue exploring as before…gather resources, find armour and weapons before facing the Dancer in a fight to the death.

There’s a bunch of other nuances that add details to the game that you will find in the main rulebook…for example, things like Gravestones which allow you to reveal a Boss Behaviour card to give you forewarning of what the Boss will do which will allow you to prepare accordingly. And there are the Invaders…

Well, that's interesting, but nothing that I feel like I need to kickstart to get into. So there's an early bird pledge going up soon.

**Hanskrampf**

Oh a second video is being finalized? I don't think this could have been prepared before the Kickstarter. So not only did they not get all the approvals from Bandai, but they didn't even think they should prepare important informations about the game itself? Like I said, if not for the Dark Souls name, I wouldn't even bother...

**Alpharius**

Well, that's me out too then.

Probably for the best as I'm not the biggest Dark Souls fan to begin with, and this 'saves' me money to spend somewhere else.

Best of luck to everyone in and still interested, of course, and I hope this games ends up meeting your expectations!

**NewTruthNeomaxim**

Just ditched my Early Bird so if someone wants to try to catch it, by all means.

Explorations, loot, and leveling-up just feels uninteresting to me if ultimately its a boss-rush game, with no persistence. What a shame.

**ced1106**

infinite_array wrote:
I mean, what are they thinking? When they had their own kickstarter, they put out the beta rules in the first six days. Sure, the game has changed a lot since then, but at least backers had an idea about how the rules worked.

Bamco is involved, and approvals (or restrictions) from them are hampering the KS presentation.

As for game-to-game preservation, I though the different versions of DS took place at different times, not that wouldn't prevent you from expecting game-to-game preservation for bosses within the same time period. The game *does* have leveling up, which is more than some games with gtgp (eg. Myth) offer.

The game resets encounters when you return to the bonfire. Dunno how well this will work with a boardgame.

**highlord tamburlaine**

But at least with Myth's system, there is still progression. Even when things reset, you're progressing through the loot bag, and as you unlock titles you're making new abilities and gear carry over and persist with your character.

Whereas we aren't seeing much of that here.

**Nostromodamus**

I'm still in. Even with games that offer persistence between sessions, we play one-offs just as much. Sounds like fun from what we're seeing!

**TheDraconicLord**

Well, this was unexpected, the Asylum Demon? News to me. In either case:

Hello Unkindled,

You've done it! You hit £1,500,000 and have unlocked the Asylum Demon Boss Expansion, let's hope you've got some Black Firebombs on hand.

You've also unlocked Havel's Set:

If you missed the AMA with Mat Hart (one of the game's designers) we are currently compiling the answers, and will be posting an update with them. We are looking forward to doing more AMAs in the future,

Also, we have posted an Exploration Gameplay Walkthrough in Update #21 so be sure to go and check that out as well.

Keep up the great work and as ever...

Praise the Sun \[T]/

**The Fragile Breath**

Oh my God, they added Big Butt?! That's amazing!

Admittedly, no between game persistence is a huge let-down, but I'm still in for now. My wife and several of my friends love watching Dark Souls, but don't feel brave enough to play it themselves, and they're all super stoked for this game, so I know I have a group to play it.

**overtyrant**

This game is getting better and better!

**Mymearan**

I don't really mind there not being campaign play, in fact I might prefer it! I already have Darklight coming, and I don't have a group where I regularly play board games with the same people. I do have a gaming group but we mainly play miniature games, with board games as a fun diversion you throw out sometimes and ask if someone wants to play. Keeping a campaign going in that environment isn't easy, and two would be nearly impossible. The only other game I have of this type is Zombicide, which is quite different both in theme and rules. So a boss rush Dark Souls with no persistence between games might be exactly what the doctor ordered!

**Nostromodamus**

Reading the exploration example again and, correct me if I'm wrong, but it really doesn't pay to explore further than 2 tiles in each direction from the bonfire. Any further and you're just creating more enemies to respawn and fight on the way to the boss tile again if you ever get killed or return to the bonfire yourself.