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After all this time the BattleBones Kickstarter has now launched

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sanctionedchaos/battlebones-fight-for-sorroah

Read the Background http://www.sanctionedchaos.com/#!sorroah/c1p19
Follow On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SanctionedJP
Like on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/SanctionedChaos

This is a fantasy dice game for two or more people where players take on the role of a CleroMancer one of the MageCaste who use ancient Artefacts of great power to control the armies of the land. Through the use of these BattleBones, warriors and heroes are summoned to the field of battle, where great battlelines are created with which to attack the enemy.

In the next week we will be sending the art files (and set up fee) over to the dice manufacturer to start getting the first production samples. The plan is to have these in hand first to gauge the standard of production, and secondly so that we can show off the final look of the dice in our gameplay videos and pictures.

Should we get an amazing amount of funding, we would like to develop the rules leaflet into a small booklet, but that will be down to the amount of interest shown.

In the meantime I'm building a new website which will have a vast amount of background about the world of Sorroah as well as our plans for the future.

Do you have any dice design shots you'd like to share? This sounds like a very visual experience and so far you've shown a lot of text.

September 27th is also very specific for being 3 months away

Sounds intriguing, looking forward to seeing a concept pic, too.

I was waiting till we had the production dice back but here are a couple of shots of our Core Set playtest dice, showing all the symbols. There will also be another dice with the 6 pip replaced with our logo, same as the one in my avatar pic.

Those are really elegant designs. In the 2nd one, do the dagger and sword do different things? Across the table they may look really similar. I thought they were the same at first glance.

A quick overview of the game: The dice (or BattleBones) represent the forces that the Cleromancers of Sorroah can summon to do battle, each represented by a face of the die. There is a hierarchy to these faces with a higher valued face beating lower valued ones. Lowest to highest:

1. Dagger - these are scouts or assasins
2. Sword - these are your foot soldiers and infantry
3. Bows - are your ranged troops: bows, crossbows, javelins or other thrown weapons
4. Horse - these are your fast attack troops representing cavalry or flying creatures
5. Shield - this represents your heroes, wizards and standard bearers
6. Monsters/Dragon - this is for your monsters or warmachines

Each player gets 10 dice - your army. You roll them and this is what appears in your force. The simple game is layout your batteline in the order you want to play your attack: EG roll 3 bows, 2 daggers, 2 shield, 2 horse and 1 monster I could play in this order:

bow-dagger-dagger-bow-shield-horse-monster-horse-shield

Starting with the first die, players compare. Highest wins and goes back into that players encampement for next round. Loser goes into their graveyard. Keep going until one players entire army is in the graveyard.

That is the basic outline for the rules. More detailed rules allow you to create Special Battlelines by upgrading your dice. So add two daggers to a horse to assassinate 1 opposing horse.

I'll be posting a beta set of the full rules in a week or so's time, but for now you could play the basic game using standard D6 as outlined above.

I'm currently at work but will try to reply whenever I can.

Cheers
JP

Looking great so far

just thought I'd leave this here

EDIT: the first image wasn't quite right so our talented artist took another pass and just sent me this through. Consider this our first official piece of BattleBones art and you guys get to see it first.

And here is the prototype for the Power Die (also to be used for the Sanctioned Chaos Games Club dice). The actual die going into production will have the new logo (see my avatar). I think that's enough sneak peaks for today. Thanks for the interest shown and don't forget to check us out on twitter and facebook for more sneaky peaks.

Cheers
JP

Not been able to do much today as the PC was out of action for most of the day while carpets were being laid, so I turned my attention to some of the add-ons we're looking at including in the Kickstarter. I did a few in the Tables & Terrain campaign for War & Peace and most popular were the shirts. So first up here is our first design fo a t-shirt.

We'll also have a mug and possibly a tape measure - depends what people want. So here's where I turn it over to you - what sort of add-ons would you like to see for this game? Remember this isn't a miniatures game so there'll be no toy soldiers for this campaign (and don't say expansions because we have that covered - I'm such a tease).

Drop a comment below with the kind of thing you'd not only like to see but also pay good money for and who knows...you may just see it added.

Just got the final dice designs back from our very talented (and fast working) artist, Matt. Very similar to our initial concept but slightly more elegant and the numericals look 100 times better (we know there's no 1 at the moment). Let us know what you think as we'll be sending these off for a first production test soon.

EDIT: files not working at present. Let me get on that.

After last nights attempt at uploading images went a little awry, I got up early this morning to give it another shot before work. Seemed our broadband providor was having issues in the area which interupted our loading times, but anyway. Here (fingers crossed) are the APPROVED final designs of the dice for both the BattleBones and the Power Die (which doubles up as our Club dice as well).

The Core Set dice represent the humans of our world, a fairly adaptable bunch and so each of the faces are present (1 of each symbol on the human BattleBones). Now, if we're lucky enough to start going for stretch goals, these will fund Faction Expansion packs which include 10 BattleBones of a new race with a different combination of the symbols and the SC logo as well.

And speaking of stretch goals, I've attached my concept for a BattleMat (our graphics wizard is working on a final version) - somewhere you can place and organise your dice into Battle Lines. This will be printed on mousemat like material, and we're in talks with FF-Fields to do the printing as their fantasy football mats are amazing quality. The Encampment is from where you draw your dice, and the Graveyard is where your dead ones go. As you can see, there are three rows for Battle Lines, with the numbered row being the dice that get played. The others are where you can place dice to upgrade the one below - but that's all in the Expanded Rules

Let me know what you think of the look of these.

We are looking for some artists to help bring the world of Sorroah to life. If you feel that's you, then please get in touch via the links below, ideally with examples of your work.

This is time sensitive so please get in touch ASAP.

Many thanks
JP

Proofs in for the first draft of the rules leaflet. All artwork shown are just placeholder images while we wait for commissioned artwork to arrive (all rights remain with their creators). We'll be releasing a Beta copy of tje rules to a select few, so if you'd like to help us shape the game get in touch.

Things are starting to really gather pace now. We got the first draft of the BattleMats from our graphics guy last night and they are looking awesome. We've asked for a few tweaks (so that they can also be used for our second game) and once we get that back I'll post an image here.

I've built the structure of our new website as well - adding our online store as well as pages for our upcoming weekly games Club and background to the world.

Please check it out and hit the Facebook page as well. Should have more to share in the next few days.

Cheers
JP

Okay guys, I showed my concept for the BattleMat a few days ago. This is where players place their BattleBones in battle lines ready to fight. We're hoping to get FF Fields to do the printing, and we're now waiting on their quotes. This will be added to the Core Set if we can get the funding and you'll get 2. They will also be available for sale through our website after the campaign.

What do you think?

We're narrowing down on our dice manufacturer and getting quotes in. Chessex was our first choice. Unfortunately they can't create the quantities of dice we need in a suitable timeframe which is a real shame. So today emails are going out to some UK manufacturers to nail these prices down once and for all, so we can finalise our costings. This is exactly why we started so far out from the suggested launch date of the KS campaign; these little snags can come out of nowhere fast, and having deals and contracts nailed down well in advance limits any potential damage and delay to you - the backer.

But that's all boring behind-the-scenes paperwork. More good stuff.

We've got a new Facebook page for the company, so please head over and give us a Like. http://www.facebook.com/SanctionedChaos We'll be posting more pics and some snippets from the rules leaflet later this week, along with some more background about the different races of Sorroah and the power of the BattleBones.

Cheers
JP

Good luck on this, if I understood correctly the launch date is September 27th? That's a bit far away from now, don't you think? Maybe stirring up interest during the whole month of September when even more stuff is available would be a wiser choice instead, but I comprehend the enthusiasm to share what you are creating.

I'll be watching this one, hope new pics and rules are as promising. Will there be a beta version to test?

It is a little ahead but we want to make sure people have enough time to ask lots of questions and for us to get everything lined up 100% so it limits any potential delays later.

We're also launching a games club next month so trying to keep everything tied together as closely as possible.

And we'll have some beta rules shortly

We have now settled on our dice manufacturer - Q-Workshop who have a very exciting range of dice and have created bespoke dice for the Dragon Age RPG game as well as have an extensive range of fantasy,Cthulu and steampunk dice.

We have just sent them the EPS files of our dice and should get some renders of the actual dice we'll be creating back next week which we can show off.

Have a great weekend everyone and we'll see you back here next week for some more sneak peaks. In the meantime check our website or FB or even Twitter as you never know what secrets we might let slip.

Cheers
JP

We've launched our webstore with a couple of items, mainly to start raising a little extra cash prior to the KS so that we can commission some more art so our KS looks awesome. Available to PRE-ORDER are:

T shirt
Mug
Tape Measure

all with the Sanctioned Chaos logo.

We'll be adding these as Add Ons in the KS as well, along with a few other items (which we're still deciding on).

Cheers
JP

While waiting on the renders of our dice which I'll show as soon as they ping into my inbox, I thought I'd show you our final design for the BattleMat and give you a sneak peak at some of the extra rules. This will be our first stretch goal once funding is complete for the BattleBones themselves and if successful will mean each Core Set will get 2 of these added.

The BattleMats allow players to organise their dice, with set points for their Encampment (dice which can be used each turn), the Graveyard (dice which have been slain in combat) and the battleline (the red squares) where dice are placed in the order to be played. But as you can see there are two rows above that - what could they be for? Well, this is where the fun begins, as an old smuggler used to say. You now have the ability to upgrade your initial dice rolls by placing 2 or 3 dice together to create unique effects.

Place a dice on the bottom RED row of the battlemat, this is now your Target Die. All other BattleBones placed above will affect this die in one way or another.

Example 1: placing 2 daggers above any die gives you the ASSASSINATE special rule. 1 enemy die of the TARGET type is automatically slain. It can be taken from anywhere on the Battlelines, including upgrade rows.

Example 2: Darken The Skies: place 2 bows above the TARGET die. ALL dice of this type are weakened by a hail of arrows and retreat back to the enemy Encampment and can't be used this round.

As you can see there are a lot of possible combinations. These will be added to the rules should we get the funding.

COMPETITION TIME
I'll post a basic BETA version of the rules as soon as our Facebook page hits 100 Likes. We start today on 20. This will allow you to try out the basic core rules using standard D6. So head over there now, give us a Like and tell your friends about it. As soon as we hit 100 Likes (and as long as I'm back from work) I'll post a link to download the rules.

Cheers
JP

We have the production renders in for the BattleBones which represent the human tribes of Hannan, and the Power Dice, used to determine who goes first each turn as well as some other special effects.

We are so lucky to be working with some very talented people who have brought our idea to life. Now we just need to complete the funding and that's where the Kickstarter will come in.

We can't wait till we get to 100 Likes on Facebook, so we're releasing the early Beta rules today. These are our playtest rules which cover the core principle behind BattleBones, allowing you to get to grips with the engine that will drive the game. It really is as simple as rock-paper-scissors, but we're also adding rules for creating special BattleLines and race specific rules as well, which we'll showcase later on.

Go to our website to download your rules and start playing. Feedback is greatly welcomed.

Cheers
JP

ps: oh, and give our Facebook page some love. You never know what may crop up there in the near future

Couldn't resist (again) showing you these new renders which have just come in of our planned Faction Dice which represent the other races of Sorroah

Grotesque (grey) / Enoah (blue) / Dru (green) / Skarn (bone) / Arrid (red). The white BattleBones represent the human tribes of Hannan. If we successfully fund the core set, we'll be looking at adding these as stretch goals. They'll be available in an expansion pack which will include 10 Faction Dice, 1 Power Die, a rules leaflet and a BattleMat. They will also be available as a 10 dice pack as an Add-On .

We're waiting on art work we've commissioned which will show you the different races. When they come in we'll start posting more of the background to the gameworld in which all our games are to be set. In the meantime, please download the beta rules, give them a try and tell us what you think. There's been a lot of interest shown in the thread but we're not seeing many comments - hopefully that's a good sign, but if you have anything to say please do as we want to make sure we're bringing you the best game we can.

Cheers
JP

Over the next few weeks we're going to release some snippets of background, along with artwork that details the six races of Sorroah. We're gaining Likes over on FB which is great news. Up to 31 now and to celebrate passing the big 30 (which I did personally way too long ago) here is the first sneak peak at the background to the Arrid. Once we reach 60 Likes we'll release the background for the next race: the Hannan.

THE ARRID

The Arrid are a Dwarven race. Small and stout the tallest recorded warrior was Hallak Meridius, a fierce fighter who fought in many campaigns, and towered above his fellow Arridians at an impressive 4 foot 5. They live in the cold plains of Arridene, toiling not beneath the surface but residing in the vast city of Arrid itself, ruling over all their subjects with a firm hand.

Water is their power. Using captured slaves to dig the aquaduct system that runs across their land, expanding out like a trees roots, the Arrid overlords use their control over the supply to keep the citizens in line. The farmers rely completely on the canal, lock and aquaduct system that conveys this water to them, and as such are little more than serfs, trying to grow enough crops to pay their taxes to the city of Arridene. Those that fail are dealt with in a swift and deadly manner.

The Arrid men of the city wear tunics and decorative trousers. Inside the confines of the city these are quite light because the Arrid can pump heated water through the city keeping it at a constant warm temperature. The soldiers of the Arrid protect their bodies with shining armour and plumed helmets, with their firs turned inside out to protect them against the cold temperatures of the land.

UPDATE: we submitted the project to KS HQ for their review, expecting them to come back with maybe one or two things to change. How surprised were we when they gave us an immediate green light!

But we're not pressing the green button yet. We've just paid for a test production run of the core BattleBones and Power Dice, which will give us an idea about the quality of the dice and the manufacturing process. It'll also give us a taste of how long from order going in to delivery will take, making sure we can get delivery times as accurate as possible.

It also means we can host some playtesting sessions using actual dice in the coming weeks.

Now we just need final quotes and samples of the Battlemats.

What do you think so far - lots of views and downloads of the Beta rules but not much feedback so far? Please let us know what you think...we purposely started posting this far out so our potential backers can let us know what they think, what we are doing right and what you'd see changed.

Cheers
JP

We now have a preview page for you to check out which tells you a little more about BattleBones and what you can expect. There's also a link to download the beta rules and give BattleBones a try. Feel free to share the link with your gaming groups and let us know what you think.

Cheers for the support
JP & Lucy.

In related news, we've now added a webstore to our site. We will be selling Bolt Action and Black Powder from Warlord Games, Kings Of War, DeadZone and DreadBall from Mantic Games and the Army Painter range of hobby accessories alongside our own Sanctioned Chaos releases.

Discount on Warlord, Mantic and Army Painter is 15% with orders over £55 UK / £75 ROW shipped free. Orders less than that are £3 UK / £8 ROW. Orders can also be collected from our games club at no shipping charge (discount code to be applied).

Please check us out and give us a try. Anything not on the webstore (yet) just drop us a line and we'll be able to sort you a price out.

Cheers
JP