plastictrees wrote:
Pledged...for now.
It's not a TTG, so it doesn't count...just need I keep that line going for 25 days.

Update #29 Oct 29, 2013
Game Play Update #4 – Custom Dice
8 comments Like 11 likes
Backers! A short rules update today, prompted by some questions on the white dice.

We have said from the start that Journey uses custom dice. They are engraved, not stenciled, and the numbers have a clear Chinese look to them, to strengthen the thematic feel. You might be in your dining room, but we want you to forget that completely.


Some games, 5mm scale war games for example, have a large number of dice to roll and count. Journey is the opposite, it has very few dice. Game play is not interrupted by counting out the dice you need, trying to roll them without disturbing the board, and then counting the hits. We wanted to keep the game play fast and furious.

Many games have custom dice, where the high number is an in-game symbol. That is not what we mean by custom dice: the six sided Journey dice are not numbered 1-6. Further, our dice have different numbering from each other, which is why we talk so specifically about Attack Dice, Defense Dice, Pilgrim Dice and Demon Dice (yes, we can say Pilgrim Dice now that you are getting two, due to the KS Exclusive Boxed Game Upgrade).

Red Attack Dice Numbering: X, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3.

Blue Defense Dice Numbering: X, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3.

White Pilgrim Dice Numbering: X, X, 1, 1, 2, 3.

Black Demon Dice Numbering: X, X, 1, 1, 2, 3.

What are the X’s? If you are rolling numbers, the X is 0. So a 2 dice attack roll of (X & 2) is a total of 2. If you are rolling for success or failure, X is failure, you will see this on some skill cards. Pretty simple, X’s are bad.

When do you use the various dice? Attack and Defense dice are opposed dice rolls made during attacks, fully explained in the Attacking Video Update. The Pilgrim and Demon dice are used in special situations explained with the cards. For example, Tripitaka’s Profile Sheet says his attack includes a White Pilgrim die and his Weapon Card, the Pewter Staff, shows how to interpret the dice result. In this case, rolls of 1 and 2 give you one extra point of damage, a roll of 3 gives you 2 extra Damage. X gives you no extra damage. Poor Tripitaka is not the best Pilgrim for combat. If you look back at Video 1, you can see The Monkey King’s Attack and Weapon card.


The Pilgrim Die is also used during the Cleansing Ritual and for many of the Pilgrim Skill Cards too. The Demon Die is very similar and is referenced on the various Demon sheets and cards, but does not come into play so often, mainly with the Boss Demons. If this is the first rules update you have seen, you can click here to find the previous one.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588487845/journey-wrath-of-demons/posts/642555

Update #30

Oct 30, 2013
Show Some Initiative
15 comments
20 likes

We are still moving forwards!

The pledge total of $190K unlocks the Initiative Tokens upgrade. Here’s a micro rules update: There are times when the turn order is not totally obvious. For example, if you are playing a two player game and controlling two Pilgrims each, which of your two Pilgrims moves first? There is no need to remember, the Initiative Tokens will remind you. They are marked 1-4 to show the turn order and are placed next to each Pilgrim Sheet at the start of the game.

The game comes with card Initiative Tokens, this stretch goal converts from card to 3D tokens for all backers getting the Boxed Game Upgrade.



Onwards with another Boxed Game Upgrade. Because you asked for it, double-sided Map Tiles.

Update #31

Oct 30, 2013
Game Play Update #5 – Movement
6 comments
11 likes

Welcome to another rules update. Thank you for the reception these updates are getting. We hope you can see that by the end of the project you will know quite a lot about the game.

So here is the movement video, it’s pretty simple really:

https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/assets/001/257/329/18936142d9dbe5c57955ec8b7add4894_h264_high.mp4

But not so simple that we could get it right! Yes, movement is forwards, in the direction you are facing. Did you spot the deliberate errors? There is no sideways or diagonal movement! You will have to forgive the hands of our video team for making a few missteps. Okay, back to the explanation. Each turn, Pilgrims get 2 Action Points that can be spent on any actions from this list:

Move
Attack
Search
Break Down a Door
Rest (requires 2 action points)

Demons get 2 Action Points, but a shorter list of options. You can pick any of these, in any order, even taking the same action twice. We are only going to explain Movement in this update. Pilgrims and Demons move the same way.


Let’s start with a little background. Journey is a board game, not a table top war game and movement is quite different between these genres. Board game movement is normally constrained to the squares on the board. No measuring, no arguing about taking that extra ½ cm to get into cover, but it can be a little artificial. Journey is not a simulation of battle, it’s a fast paced board game. Even inside the board game genre there are differences. Some board games have facing, some don’t, some have diagonal movement, some don’t.

Journey has a very simple movement system. On the Profile Sheet you will be given a number of movement points. Spend one movement point to move one square forwards, in the direction you are facing. Spend one movement point to turn by 90º. You can mix stepping forwards and turning any way you want to. Specifically, so long as you have the movement points to spend, you can turn as many times as you want.

Some miniatures are on rectangular bases. When they turn, keep one square still and rotate around that point. It is your choice which square is the pivot.

The board is covered in obstacles. At no point can any part of your base be in the same square as an obstacle. You can’t move through walls, etc, even if you do not step on the square.

If you take a double move in one turn, add all the movement points up and move it all together. So if your MV is 3, a double move lets you spend 6 movement points. That will let you travel further over slow terrain than taking 2 separate moves at MV 3 points each.

If your base is large and partly on a special board tile, partly on a normal tile, you still pay the penalty (one foot in the water? Movement is slowed). If many squares of your base are on the same type of special square, you only pay the penalty once (both feet in lava? Just one Health Point of damage).

It does get a little more complex, because the basic rules are overridden from time to time. Some Skill Cards and Karma Rewards give you extra movement points. Some board squares cost two movement points to enter (turning is still one point). Some Skill Cards allow you to pass through obstacles while the card is in effect. You will be given reminders about this – explicit instructions on the cards or colored boxes on the board, or something. We don’t want you flicking through the rulebook as you play.

Someone asked about moving the wide miniatures over the narrow bridges, but the bridges and doors are actually big enough to let all miniatures pass. No special rules are required.

What happens if you forget and make a sideways move? Nothing really. Monkey is the trickster god and he doesn’t like rules, either.

The next rules video will be attacking, perhaps the most important part of the game. We may post some other updates first.

Are you just joining us? We have more rules information posted here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588487845/journey-wrath-of-demons/posts/644380

Update #32

Oct 31, 2013
Spread the Word!
3 comments
9 likes

As a small new games company, we need all the help we can get spreading the word. We are confident Journey stands up for itself, we just need gamers to look at it. Please take a few minutes to bump up our profile around the web. If any of you use these gaming sites, could you make a little noise occasionally, to support us?

BoardGameGeek

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/145599/journey-wrath-of-demons

You’ll need an account, but please become a Fan. This is a great place to post info, messages and ideas for other gamers to see. We’re already trying to get our updates copied into the BGG forums too. If we can keep that going it would be wonderful.

If we can get noticed over there, we’re sure it will draw a lot of people over here.

Awesome Gaming Projects (AGP)

http://www.awesomegamingprojects.com/#!recommend/c24p

You don’t need an account to recommend us, but there are a few fields to fill in. It takes 30 seconds if you have the KS page open for copy and pasting. If we can get on the top twenty list, that would be awesome! See what we did there?

DakkaDakka

DakkaDakka has a good thread going that has a lot of our updates copied already. Nice work, people!

Kicktraq

Staying on the Hotlists at Kicktraq is not just due to having great backers like you. Listings come from the Kicktraq community, from things like the number of hits on the Journey Kicktraq page, so please visit it at

http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/1588487845/journey-wrath-of-demons/

Or from Kicktraq links & charts on blogs or forums, click on the Mini-Chart tab or go to

http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/1588487845/journey-wrath-of-demons/#chart-mini

to get copy and paste code for embedding mini-charts into your blogs, websites and forums. Embedding the charts significantly improves our Kicktraq rating.

Also from the nifty tools for Firefox or Chrome users at http://www.kicktraq.com/tools/ that allow you to see news and stats when you visit our Kickstarter page.

Facebook

Don’t forget to share on Facebook, whether it be any of the sites mentioned above, others, or personal comments.

Avatars

And last but not least, you’re more than welcome to use the images in Update #7 as Avatars all over the web, not just on our Kickstarter page.

We know this sounds like work, but if you can help us get more backers, that’s more stretch goals unlocked for you!

Update #33

Oct 31, 2013
Trick or Treat
28 comments
14 likes
Treat! We can see the pledges people are making and many of you are really going beyond the call of duty to support us. We’d like to call all backers that pledge more than $320 (including shipping) Warrior Monks and give you a special avatar to use with pride:



See this update for instructions on setting your avatar.

What? That’s not much of a treat, you say? Egg our house, you say? Okay, all Warrior Monks get a free Jiangshi, a Chinese Zombie resin miniature, with all the game cards. So who gets this free miniature, exactly? If your pledge total, including the shipping, is $320 or above at the end of the campaign, you get it. So if you pledge for Deluxe Journey, you get it. If you pledge for the T-Shirt and add an awful lot of Add-Ons, you get it. It’s simply linked to the dollar total, not to your pledge type.


He is also available as an Add-On, $12 for a resin miniature. These are weak in the game, so you could have quite a few hopping around your boards at once. Yes, hopping. Rigor mortis gives Jiangshi a unique gait. They are a bit like vampires too, draining your life force once they get you.



So if a zombie horde would be good, $12 for resin minis could be a bit steep. How about we make them in plastic and offer a bundle? That’s right, plastic Jiangshi are unlocked now! The bundle price is $15 for 4 Jiangshi, coffin scenery marker and all necessary cards. One pack is good, two packs are double the fun!



Zombies come out at Halloween, but where do you find them? Cemeteries, of course. Henning Ludvigsen has created an eerie Chinese cemetery Map Tile as one of the nine tiles in the core game, which we would like to share with you now:



The high res image looks so much better, click here for a peek!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WdxrJb8As_w/UmvPpc---9I/AAAAAAAAACA/rN6jkqCcWis/s1600/Map+D+Cemetary+WATERMARK+Post.jpg

Have fun on Halloween!

 cincydooley wrote:
This and Shadows of Brimstone and combating each other for my gaming $$. Can't decide which I like the look of more.

Update #34 Oct 31, 2013
Double-Sided Map Tiles
7 comments Like 4 likes
The trek continues! $200K has such a nice ring to it.

The pledge total of $200K unlocks the double-sided Map Tiles Boxed Game Upgrade. By keeping the stretch goal list close to our chest, we can make small adjustments based on what backers are saying. So far, we have been running pretty close to plan, just swapping goals here and there, but this is a big change. It was suggested in the comments that we print the board art with the colored boxes on one side and without on the other. As you get the hang of the game, flip them over and play with no distractions from the lovely art by Henning Ludvigsen. If a new friend comes over, play on the color coded side for that night, so they can see what is going on. We like it! Thanks for the idea.

So, 9 Map Tiles, 9 unique maps, double sided with 2 slightly different versions of each map.


And next another scenery Add-On, real bridges. But there’s something more, we will offer them in plastic and resin!


Remember we said we would do the plastic Soul Hunter, Captain Xi Fung? Soon.

Update #35

Nov 1, 2013
Size Doesn’t Matter!
10 comments
17 likes

We have had many questions about the scale of the figures and we would like to show you the actual size, rather than talk about numbers.

Journey was developed as a standalone game, with physically imposing monsters. The Demons are supposed to look big, solid and threatening as they rush towards the Pilgrims. We are really pleased that people want to use our miniatures in other games, and we think this should be possible for some of the figures. The ones where the miniature is supposed to represent some large and terrifying monster.

So in this first picture, we can see that Tripitaka is quite large. We have shown pictures of him next to a ruler before, so no surprise here. We admit it would be hard to use Tripitaka in a 28mm game, but he is not the most reusable mini anyway.



On the other hand, we think the various demons could be used in many games where a striking monster is required. Take a look at the same shot with the Bull Warrior:



He’s a very solid Minotaur, but if you've ever been near a bull, you know those things are big.

Other miniatures are shown for comparison purposes only. Our lawyer has not seen this post, please don’t sue us.

 grimkeeper wrote:
Really liking this range, its the first kickstarter i've backed. Thanks for all the updates. I wouldn't of known about it if you haden't posted

Update #36

Nov 2, 2013
Game Play Update #6 –Attacking
14 comments
10 likes

So after all the stretch goals, giveaways and other updates, it’s time for more rules.

But first, great job backers spreading the word! You pushed us to #2 on the Kicktraq hot list. Awesome.

We know, we know, you want to see how attacking works, it’s a big part of the game. Did you read this intro or did you click play already?

https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/assets/001/271/464/b15438d6ba8f6d8ee75653a295cc0208_h264_high.mp4

So we want to keep the update short and simple and this is a big, important topic. Attacking is fairly uniform in the game, meaning a Demon makes an attack in pretty much the same way as a Pilgrim, but to keep the language simple and skip a few exceptions, we will talk specifically about Pilgrims attacking Demons here. Remember, you are learning more than just how Pilgrims attack.

We have shown some prototype cards in the video and these will change. We want more memorable abbreviations (CR for Cleanse Ritual, perhaps), and want more information on the cards (the karma values for killing).

Attacking is one of the Actions that the Pilgrims can choose. They have two Action Points (normally) and can spend all of them on Attack Actions if they have enough targets.

First, the Pilgrim picks a Demon to attack. The Attack Icon indicates which Demons will be in your range. There must be no obstacles between you and the Demon (the same obstacles that block your movement). All the Pilgrims have different attack patterns, making them different to play. Pilgrims only attack one target at a time, as stated on the Profile Sheet.



Do you have a valid target? Good, let’s attack it.

The Profile Sheet tells you what dice to roll under ATT. Use a certain number of red Attack Dice plus the Pilgrim Die for your weapon. Every Pilgrim has a different weapon and some roll a different number of Attack Dice (2 for Monkey, 1 for Tripitaka). The Weapon Card says how much damage is generated from the Pilgrim Die, we saw that in the Dice Update. Simply add the Attack Dice total to the weapon damage to see how much damage you do.

Bullheaded Bull Demons do not defend, so no Defense Dice and no Defense Results are used when Pilgrims attack a Demon. We will cover Defense in another update.

Remember, we said a lot of the game is driven from the cards. If you look at a Demon Profile Sheet, Demons have no Health Track to count down the damage, just a single Health Value. This is a reminder that you do not count off the damage you do to Demons. You must defeat them in one shot, or they just shrug off the hit. Is your damage equal to or greater than the Demon’s Health? If so, you defeat the Demon. If not, it is unscathed. Luckily for Monkey, he rolled 3 points of damage, plenty to defeat the Berrok, the weakest of the Bull Demons.

So, is that it? Not quite. Monkey’s target is defeated, not dead. Pilgrims are now faced with a choice. Kill the defeated Demon or start the Cleansing Ritual, to save the Demon’s soul.

Killing a defeated target is automatic, so it is an easy choice, but it comes with Bad Karma. Consult the Demon’s Profile Sheet and look up how much Bad Karma you receive. Adjust the Bad Karma wheel on your Pilgrim Profile Sheet. Get too much Bad Karma, and your game stats begin to suffer.

Or you can take the high road and try the Cleansing Ritual. It is part of the Attack Action and does not cost another Action Point, but the result is not automatic. Roll the white Pilgrim Die and see if you can equal or exceed the Cleanse Ritual value on the Demon Profile Sheet. In our example, Monkey rolled 3 and cleansed the Berrok’s soul. Instead of Bad Karma, he adds the Berrok’s Karma Value to his Good Karma wheel. If Monkey can get enough Good Karma, he’ll get rewards not penalties.

So it’s a good idea to try the Cleansing Ritual, right? Not always. What if Monkey had failed? The defeated Berrok would have lurched back to his feet, ready to fight again.

To keep it short, we omitted one step. When you declare the attack, you can play Skill Cards from your hand. Each card explains its own effect, from damage bonuses through re-rolls to automatic results. There are many Skill Card effects and we will show you some in a separate update.

Players will have to make several important choices, with factors that change as they face different enemies, gain different rewards and have different Skill Cards in their hands. Although attacking is quick, simple and driven by the cards in front of you, it is not 1 dimensional.

New to our rules?

Find an older rules update here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588487845/journey-wrath-of-demons/posts/645520

Update #37 Nov 4, 2013
The Dragon Princess, Xiao Yan
54 comments Like 36 likes
This is a huge update! We are at the halfway mark in our campaign and we have a great announcement to make. It’s perfect timing, we literally saw this wonderful art by A.J. Manzanedo just minutes ago.

We wanted this. Backers asked for this. Now it’s ready. A fifth Pilgrim. A female Pilgrim! The Dragon Princess, Xiao Yan.


First some background. In the original story, Tripitaka’s horse is referred to as a Pilgrim, even though the story often talks about 4 Pilgrims. Confusing? Perhaps this is because the White Dragon Horse is just a horse and does not play much part in the storyline. The White Dragon Horse was originally the third son of the Dragon King of the West Sea, the Dragon Prince, transformed into Tripitaka’s trusty steed after eating Tripitaka’s first horse and being defeated by the Monkey King.

The trickster Monkey doesn’t mind if we bend the rules a little. We wanted a female main character, but changing the gender of one of the 4 Pilgrims in the core boxed game was too much of a change for us to make. Transformation is very much a part of the Dragon Prince’s story, so we were happy transforming him to the Dragon Princess. We will also call the Xiao Yan a Pilgrim and we hope she plays an important part in your Journey, not a back seat role.

So how does the Dragon Princess fit into the game? Is it a 5 person game now? Officially, no. The quests are balanced for 4 Pilgrims so the official use would be to choose 4 Pilgrims from the 5 that are now available. However, the way the rules are written, there is nothing stopping you playing with 5 Pilgrims. The hardest part will be selecting a starting square, near the 4 shown for the original band, and we think you are all capable of that. Although the rules don’t change, the quests will play a little easier, because you have more Pilgrims to launch your attacks. But you can easily increase the difficulty of the game by adding tougher Demons to the spawn deck, or removing weaker Demons from the deck, or playing the existing cards a little differently, for example spawning one extra Bull Warrior every time that card is drawn. We can give you many suggestions. So, officially it is still a 1-4 player game but you can easily play it with 5 if you want to.

What is the new miniature? Perhaps you have noticed this announcement was not a stretch goal? We knew she was coming from the start and we always planned to have the steel mold for plastic production. She will be offered as plastic and resin immediately, with nothing to unlock. Want more? We will create a Kickstarter Exclusive pair of dragon wings and you can choose to assemble her with or without the wings. You get the Dragon Princess Profile Sheet and the standard 10 Pilgrim Skill Cards. Do you have one more question? How much will this cost me, perhaps? You should know better than that! Nothing. The Dragon Princess is a plastic Boxed Game Upgrade and a resin Collectors Upgrade. She is free to most backers! Just a way to thank you for supporting us and a celebration of being halfway to our destination.


We have not decided the final retail packaging, but the Dragon Princess will not be part of the core boxed game. She will be a separate expansion pack that will be completely optional, although the KS exclusive wings will not be included.

Update #38 Nov 5, 2013
Important Shipping Update
Comment Like
After talking to many distribution companies in Europe, it is certain that we will now have a distribution centre in the EU. There will be one bulk shipment to this point of entry and then all European shipments will ship from inside the EU to our backers. Some last minute details depend on the size, weight and number of items in the final product, so we will sign the deal closer to the shipping date, which means we cannot announce the company and the warehouse location yet.

Good news for Hong Kong backers: shipping will be free. When you set your pledge, Kickstarter will realise you are not in the US and add shipping automatically. If you click “Manage Your Pledge” there is a small section at the bottom left that says “Since you're outside the US, be sure you've added $40 to your pledge amount. In the US?” Just click the “In the US?” link to pretend you are in the US and Kickstarter will stop adding the shipping fee.

For China, we will be shipping via Shun Feng. You will pay shipping, but you will pay the actual shipping cost and it will be paid on delivery. So you should also change your shipping costs in Kickstarter to $0, but remember you will have to pay shipping later.

Both Hong Kong and China will be shipped from Hong Kong, so you will not have to wait so long!

Update #39 Nov 5, 2013
Large Scenery Update
18 comments Like 24 likes
Our Pilgrims are still marching on their journey. Thanks for keeping them company.

So this is a large scenery update in many ways. We have unlocked bridge Add-Ons that can be placed on the bridging tiles to bring the game to life. Individually, these are large items. They cover 3x2 or 2x2 board squares but they are a little larger than that because there is plenty of room for the minis to stand on the bridges. The resin models are heavy. They are most certainly not small objective markers.

Next, it’s a large release, in the terms that there are four different bridges. There are different kinds of bridges drawn on the Bridging Tiles, so we have a model for each one.

And finally, because these are our favorite scenery item, these are being released in both resin and plastic. We really like the way the large bridges bring a 3D feel to the board and how the miniatures physically interact with them. We hope our backers like them as much as we do.

Here are some pictures of the resin versions so you can see the different styles, the size in relation to the minis and physical size against a ruler.



When they are painted, they look fantastic on the map. We want to show some painted scenery soon.

Many backers have asked how many gates or other scenery items you need and we will try to answer. Without giving too much away, we have “official” Quests in the rulebook, so we could look at those and tell you the maximums for all scenery. But we also have a guide for making your own Quests and we don’t know what you are going to do. Further, we plan to have a Journey website, and backers (and us!) could publish Quests there. So it is hard to tell you the most you will ever need in all circumstances.

On the other hand, game play tends to concentrate in a small section of the board. Even if you have a huge board you could use a few scenery items near the minis and use the card tokens in the game for the rest. Just move the scenery around as the Pilgrims move to new areas.

So you could use somewhere between a few and a lot of scenery items! We don’t want to recommend that you buy a huge number and then play with half of them most of the time. Back to bridges, there are four types and you could arrange the Bridging Tiles so that there are at most six bridges in play at any one time. The maximum from a Quest described in the rulebook is 5 bridges in play. Our suggestion for the fifth bridge is the stone one (A) and for the sixth, the wooden one (C). With that in mind, here are the prices:

1 Resin Bridge: $12. (Four models available A, B, C, D).

4-Pack of Plastic Bridges: $20 (All four models supplied. Not a random assortment.)

Additional Plastic Bridges: +$3 (Four models available A, B, C, D. You must first buy the 4-Pack).

The survey will let you indicate which bridges you want. The low price for individual plastic bridges is only available to backers that get the plastic 4-Pack.

We hope you can find an option that suits your table top. If this is your first Journey scenery, we are sure you will be happy with it.

So we have had a couple of Boxed Game Upgrades and Add-Ons. Time for a Collectors Upgrade. Remember the plastic Jing Yau Boxed Game Upgrade from ages ago? Come on, resin backers, did you think we would leave you out? One free Jing Yau in resin, to backers getting Collectors Upgrades, when we reach $215,000. When this unlocks, we’ll make a small announcement about a bundle price for demons. More info in the next update.


We have shown a few more stretch goals on the front page, with a little more info in each banner, such as the price. We will not be doing this forever, so enjoy it while you can. Really, we wanted to let you know that there is more planned than scenery, so we wanted to show you the twenty cards and a few more figures. The doors are still in the pipeline, but we have much more to show you. We are nowhere near finished with the big reveals.

Remember we said we would make the plastic Soul Hunter Captain Xi Fung, and our deal with the early backers getting Boxed Game Upgrades? Well you will not have to wait too long!

Update #40 Nov 6, 2013
Game Play Update #7 – Defending
1 comment Like 4 likes
We have been running rules updates for some time now. If you are a new backer, you can find the older rules updates here. You need understand attacking before you read this one.

The Defense Dice roll is made when resolving some attacks. Take a look at this quick video for an introduction:
https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/assets/001/289/242/1f9ff8c00bd6dd6bc273e112dd04401c_h264_high.mp4

Like we said, short and sweet. No-one stepped sideways this time, but did you see Monk Sha cheat! I’m sure he rolled 1+1 before the camera zoomed in. We’ll let it slide, he has a real chip on his shoulder about that curse and his monstrous arm.

Like all the steps in playing the game, the cards play a driving role in reminding you how to play. When resolving an attack, look at the attackers Profile Sheet for the Attack Dice, the defenders Profile Sheet for the Defense Dice and roll. The final damage result is the attacker’s damage minus the defender’s defense.

When we discussed attacking, there were many sources for the attacker’s damage, the Attack Dice, the Pilgrim’s Weapon, Skill Cards played as part of the attack. The same is true for defense. The base number is the total from the Defense Dice, but the are other bonuses, such as cover from special terrain and Skill Cards once again. Total up all the defense and reduce the attackers damage as much as you can, to zero if possible.

The video says the Demons do defend and this is true of the Bull Demons in the core game. But don’t memorize this fact, look at their Profile Sheet. If the defender has not Defense Dice mentioned on the Profile Sheet, the defender does not defend. Simple, the cards always give you a clue. There is one little wrinkle: if you do not roll Defense Dice, you do not defend at all. If you do roll the dice, you do not get to use cover, etc. (Perhaps the Pilgrims will meet an enemy that defends later in their journey!)

This opposed dice roll mechanic is quick and easy. Simple math, no tables. Attacks proceed quickly, but with the terrain, Karma Rewards and Skill Cards there are plenty of buffs and debuffs to keep things interesting.

We still have more to come, including some the highlights of Skill Cards and the Search Action. How the Demons are controlled will be coming later, but this should be a popular post!

Update #42 Nov 7, 2013
Spread the Word 2!
8 comments Like 10 likes
Here at Marrow, we’re happy when you, our faithful backers, are happy. We’re so glad that you liked the Dragon Princess that we’ve made you a special avatar to celebrate her addition to our trusty band of Pilgrims.


If you want to use these outside Kickstarter, please do! The more people that know about Journey, the greater the game will become. See this update for instructions on setting your avatar.

Setting your avatar is just one way to Spread the Word. We will be having a contest on BoardGameGeek starting Friday 8th November and closing at end of day Thursday 14th November. Please enter, it is not just for non-backers. You will have the chance to win a copy of Journey and some collectors resin miniatures. Good Fortune, Pilgrims!


While you’re over at BoardGameGeek, don’t forget to become a fan of Journey and recommend our forums. If we can get on the BGG Hotness list, it will drive more people here.

If you like our miniatures head over to Cool Mini or Not and vote for the Marrow sculpts. You do not need to be logged in or have an account. Go to this site http://www.coolminiornot.com/browse and set the "View only images" field to “marrow”, then press “Go” to find them. Click on the thumbnail to view the picture and vote. It will automatically advance to the next picture in the gallery once you have voted.

We know this sounds like work, but if you can help us get more backers, that’s more stretch goals unlocked for you! See this update for other ways to get new backers to join us in our Journey.