Journey: Wrath of Demons by Marrow @ $217K - New Game Cards @ $220K

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**cincydooley**

So what does everyone that's read thru all the gameplay updates think so far?

**spiralingcadaver**

It looks like a pretty fun light weight game- I'm getting it to compliment Kingdom Death (which I expect to be very rules-y) as a co-op game, in part because I didn't get in on Myth and wanted something a little more fun and less brutal.

It looks like pretty simple rules and little bookkeeping. It's what I'm most dubious about, but the minis, aesthetic, and creators' attitude (which has very clearly avoided the hard sell/huge upgrade mentality of a lot of KS's) has sold me on it. Not going all in, but happy to drop a little more than $100 on something with a good attitude that's different.

**Bioptic**

My impression is that it is focused on narrative, tactical item/skill use and positioning. The story-based nature means that you're (theoretically) not doing the standard dungeon-crawl 'breach and clear' each time, which makes it more appealing for group play. The large variety of enemies with different attack types/areas means that you're essentially solving puzzles of how to minimise attacks on you, lure enemies into dangerous areas, and blocking the path to Tripitaka.

Crucially for a co-op game, it looks to be highly scalable and reasonably fast to play. Plenty of co-op board games are just flat out hard from the off, and once you've solved the puzzle have no more appeal, but this gives you so many choices! The kill/purify mechanic adds an interesting risk/reward dimension as well.

I think the only slightly gimmicky things are the karma spinner (which is just a fancier way of doing a coin flip!), and the card wheels attached to the character cards (for karma/damage tracking I think), which I can see wearing out.

I need more co-op games that might actually see some play (so have a ~2 hour play time rather than a ~5 one like Arkham Horror frequently does), and the theme appeals to me massively more than Myth, Kingdom Death or Shadows of Brimstone did.

**Kroothawk**

Damn, thought this was just about daemons (which I am not interedted in).
Nobody told me that it is Chinese daemons! And I love Chinese mythology (and Spider daemons)!
Will eventually get game and both supplements and some add ons (mostly plastic because of wrong scale), but pledge now for game only (because of the other kickstarters) and pay the rest with pledge manager. but I am in at the last minute! i love it when games are inspiring and full of atmosphere like this!

Oh, and of course thanks to Q0rbin for keeping this thread and the first post updated

**kilcin**

Two hours left and I have two updates to share.

Update #72 Nov 23, 2013
Koorogg the Bull Demon
11 comments Like 18 likes
Journey: Wrath of Demons ends with a climactic battle against Koorogg, the Bull Demon King, so it seems fitting that our final update about the game is about Koorogg himself. This art by A.J. Manzanedo is one of our favorite images from the game and seeing it was a defining moment for us, knowing that we were starting a great collaboration with A.J.

Koorogg the Bull Demon King is a brutal but brave warrior and champion of his clan. When the seal was broken, he and the other Demons rushed forth to start their invasion of Terra. Together with his wife, Empress Iron Fan and his son Kogaiji, they expanded their borders and control most of the regions in Great Tang. Most importantly, he boasts of possessing one of the lost pieces of the Sutras which is why the four Pilgrims are searching for him.

If you read on, you will see spoilers for the final battle in the game. You may wish to skip this update or take a quick peek at the images and stop there.

As a Warrior King, Koorogg will appear from time to time in the early Narrative Quests. For example, in some quests, Bull Demon Generals are summoned with the spawn deck, but special Quest rules say that if a General is summoned and the Pilgrims have received several Good Karma Rewards, Koorogg will be summoned instead. In these random confrontations, he cannot be killed. If the Pilgrims defeat him, he escapes before they can kill or cleanse him.

From his stats, you can see that the Bull Demon King is indeed a mighty Warrior. Pilgrims need to roll 7 or more damage to generate a “one shot kill”. In retaliation, the Bull Demon King rolls three dice for his attack. The black Demon Die is explained at the bottom of his Profile Sheet. It generates extra points of damage for each number rolled, but if he rolls a 2 or 3, the Pilgrim receives a Disabled or Paralysed on-going condition. And Koorogg rolls attacks against all Pilgrims inside his large attack range.

We touched on random encounters with Koorogg, but in the final Narrative Quest, the Pilgrims have tracked him to his lair. Normally, Map Tiles are separated by Bridge Tiles when the game board is set up. For the Bull Demon King’s lair, three Map Tiles are placed together to represent one massive cave.

The Pilgrims arrive here after battling through outdoor tiles as part of the same quest. It will truly be a titanic struggle. But it will allow them to gain Good Karma rewards and search for Skill Cards, so that they are fully buffed. In this quest, they do not face just the Bull Demon King. They face Kogaiji, the Empress Iron Fan and finally Koorogg in the last chamber of the cave. Special rules include keeping the Boss Demons stationary until the Pilgrims step on to the Map Tile with them. In this fight, the victory condition is to cleanse Koorogg and collect the first piece of the Sutras, ending the final Quest.

And

Update #73 Nov 23, 2013
Spider Demon Expansion
5 comments Like 14 likes
Backers! You astound us! We knew there was a slim chance we could unlock this second expansion, but this amazing.

This close to the end of the campaign, we will only be making short updates. First a quick recap:

$370K: +2 Map Tiles in the White Bone Demon Expansion – UNLOCKED

$380K: BGU - Plastic Bridge and 5th Card Bridge Tile – UNLOCKED

$400K: Our second expansion The Spider Demons – UNLOCKED!!!!!

We are so pleased to be able make this expansion. Take a look at some more art for these minis:

Now, things are really moving, let’s see if we can give you more goodies! First, another 5-Part Narrative Quest. Help Monkey recover his lost Jingu Staff.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Less then 75 minutes left and the campaign and stretch goals are still being taken down. About $750 away from a boxed game upgrade with a spider warrior and 147 backers away from the door stretch goal.

Update #74 Nov 23, 2013
Quests Unlocked and XXL size T-Shirt!
11 comments Like 14 likes
Tripitaka is a young monk, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Tripitaka knows that only he has be power to seal the Demons back in the underworld and this will only be possible if the band can recover the Sutras. The Monkey King, on the other hand, is a light hearted trickster, telling the world he is only in the band for the adventure! But his relaxed and careless attitude has caused disaster. Somewhere in his travels, he has dropped the size-changing Jingu staff and the Pilgrims must back track to recover it.

We will construct the quests around the core game and BGU upgrades. These Quests will be perfect for Kickstarter backers, who will have extra components, compared to the future retail purchasers. We will also add instructions that give you the option to include parts from the expansions. Monkey will not be using the Jingu Staff in these Quests. We will give the stats for new weapons to use in each quest, which you can “print and play”.

Next stretch goal:

In all this rush, we forgot to post some information. Our T-shirt manufacturer has agreed to make XXL sized shirts. We have updated the Add-On list on the front page. We hope it is not too late for those of you that wanted one.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
More updates as the kickstarter comes to a close, about 20 minutes left!

Update #75 Nov 23, 2013
New Miniature
5 comments Like 19 likes
Things are racing now!

You have unlocked another free miniature for all backers receiving Boxed Game Upgrades, a plastic Zigi Spider Demon Warrior, with game cards. If you opt for the second expansion, Zige will have a larger force, but the Zigi Spider Demon Warrior can be used in the base game by mixing her spawn card into the deck and have her show up at random. You will all be able to play with this mini.

Next, we have an Expansion Upgrade. Everyone pledging for the Spider Demon Expansion will receive two more plastic miniatures, if we can get this far. 1 Priest and 1 Warrior will be added to the game making Zige’s clan more deadly.

We hope everyone that wanted an XXL T-Shirt got to see the announcement. Sorry for making this change so late.

And

Update #76 Nov 24, 2013
Empress Iron Fan – Work In Progress shots
12 comments Like 15 likes
The most beautiful woman in all of Terra and a former princess of Great Tang, Yazuiji always had too much ambition for her own good. Her father, the Emperor Tang, possessed an iron fan that can create giant whirlwinds, a powerful magic item whose origin in lost in the mists of time. Yazuiji covets both his title and the magic item and sees her chance to gain both when the Demons invade.

Using her beauty as an enchantment, Yazuiji takes the Bull Demon King Koorogg as her husband and convinces him to kill her father, leaving her free to take the title and the fan. Obsessed by both, she adopts the name Empress Iron Fan and rules the Empire with no love for her subjects, slowly growing more corrupt under the Demons’ influence. When the Monkey King asks to borrow the Iron Fan to cool the lava flowing from the Bull Demon’s lair, she does not hesitate to attack.

A powerful Boss Demon, with her high health, fast move and long range attack, Empress Iron Fan will give the Pilgrims a tough fight. Will Monkey be able to take the Iron Fan from her, to stop the lava’s flow?

Ray is working on Yazuiji as we speak. Getting these pictures was as hard for me as getting the Iron Fan was for Monkey! I hope you like them.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
And it's done, congrats to Marrow with hitting $425,553 with this kickstarter.

**Kroothawk**

Destination Reached
Is it all over? Or has it just begun?

Marrow Production has grown incredibly in past 39 days. From two guys with a silly idea to a game production company with the funding to make a core game, several “blister pack” miniatures, and 2 solid expansions. None of this would be possible without you. We can’t thank you enough.

Two people cannot do this alone. We have too many people to thank by name here, but we will thank them in person as our next task. So much of what we have shown you would not be here, if it were not for the work of other people, toiling behind the scenes.

Our main focus for the next 8 months will be to deliver the best game we can to our backers. There is a lot to do, from finishing the sculpts, balancing the quests, to striking final deals with production companies. Trust us, we will be working to maximise the quality of the game for our backers first and we will only think about our retail plans in our “spare time”. Your needs will come first. The best way we can thank you is to make Journey: Wrath of Demons everything it can be.

These 39 days were a wild ride. We funded the core game on day one, added female playable characters, scenery, Ugragosa a KS exclusive miniature, the Yau Demons, the Soul Hunters and Cleansers, the Nightmare Pack, a giant Dragon and finally 2 Expansions. The pledge total changes on the last two days were just crazy and we seriously could not believe what happened. Not only could we see long time backers making generous pledges, but many new backers joining us at the last minute. We really hope we can keep this level of excitement by sending regular updates through Kickstarter and later via our own website. We will have so much to show you before the game is delivered to your door.

This has been a once in a lifetime experience for us. We will never start our first game again. Thank you for making this happen!

**spiralingcadaver**

Well, very happy a spider warrior got into the box game, as I was hoping to paint one but didn't feel it was worth getting a whole set of them.

Also, the tone these guys have in their writing feels pretty genuine, and I'm feeling good about supporting a new first. Looking forward to this next fall (or the following spring, if KS patterns continue to hold true

)

**Azazelx**

A shame that the spider expansion didn't get properly filled out. I thought it was a mistake to add $100k-odd of stretch goals with 15 hours to go, and equally a mistake/rather cynical to gimp an expansion pack for stretch goals the way they did. Given that it now compares quite badly to the first expansion and presumably wants to end up a proper retail product. I'm not bitching about freebies, I'm pointing out things like it lacking the number of tiles and such to make a complete product.

I suspect that the eventual outcome will be that the retail version may be fully "restored" while the KS version will come with what was unlocked. Either way, I don't see much benefit of adding it via the PM at this stage, though I'll add the other items that way.

**spiralingcadaver**

Hmm... good point.

I think that, with limited time, it probably would have been best to prioritize filling out the tiles over minis, though I'm still personally happy with getting freebie minis in the core (since I wasn't intending on getting that expansion)

**Kroothawk**

The Spider Expansion itself was unlocked in the last few hours. More miniatures are not required but 2 extra floor plans would have been nice. We will see.

@Azazelx: Will you drop your pledge now?

**Bioptic**

They said in the update that basically they're not sure how many tiles the final retail version will have, but want to do right by the backers. Having said that, they suggested if the retail version will have 3, doing this by making the extra tiles print and play, or making them available as add-ons in the pledge manager for a 'nominal' fee, neither of which is ideal.

I'm still trying to get everything in one package (not even sure if this one will reach retail in the UK), but agree that the second expansion does feel somewhat lacking - the lovely scenery tiles are a huge part of the game's appeal.

**spiralingcadaver**

Cool, good to hear about their plans.

**Azazelx**

Kroothawk wrote:
The Spider Expansion itself was unlocked in the last few hours. More miniatures are not required but 2 extra floor plans would have been nice. We will see.

@Azazelx: Will you drop your pledge now?

Nah, I went in for the base game (all I can afford atm) and will add the other items via Pledge Manager. I'll look into the spider expansion at retail, which will give them the opportunity to "fix" it, and me the opportunity to play the game and see how well I like it before dropping down another $50. I find the undead miniatures more to my liking than the Driders or Drachnids or whatever they are anyway.

Wait, sorry - I mean YES I ARE DROPPOING MY PLEDGE NAOW!

**Alpharius**

Don't worry - I covered you on this one - I dropped my pledge in the last hour.

I couldn't justify the money with all the other Kickstarters I'm waiting for and pledging on currently.

It hurt though, as this one looks really nice.

**RiTides**

I didn't realize that this ended so close to when Shadows of Brimstone did- that's unlucky! (Since this campaign launched first).

Still had a really nice final day surge in pledge amount, but not in backer total:

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

**spiralingcadaver**

Wow, that's pretty odd. I guess people liked the extras a lot more than I did.

**Kroothawk**

1800 backers and a 48$ supplement unlocked the last day. Nothing odd, I's say.

**highlord tamburlaine**

Sorry for the bit of thread necromancy here, but this has still got an open pledge manager, right?

Anyone out there still got there's open? Any room for a piggyback pledge?

**spiralingcadaver**

I'll check my account later today to see if mine is.

Either way, it's open until the end of the month (forget if it closes on or after the last day, presumably the latter)

**Cyporiean**

spiralingcadaver wrote:
I'll check my account later today to see if mine is.

Either way, it's open until the end of the month (forget if it closes on or after the last day, presumably the latter)

Closes on the 30th.

**JohnHwangDD**

New update, and we're sitting on a printing delay until March, after CNY holiday is over.

It'd be nice if we could just get those coins instead of the spinners.
____

wierd that this thread went cold, given that Marrow has been doing updates as they try to finish bringing the game to market. Especially as J:WoD is nearly done and should be shipping within the next few months. Please don't lock the thread, thanks!

**Azazelx**

The thread is cold because relatively few of us went into this KS, and because despite the passable job they have been doing with updates (I wouldn't describe it as especially good) there really hasn't been anything of interest in, I dunno.. 6 months?

Of course, once we get the base box stuff in May or so, we're probably looking at another year or so to get the rest of it.

**Joyboozer**

Of all the kickstarters I've backed, looking forward to this one the most. They haven't done anything to make me wish they'd die, and are smiling in all the photos of them.
That's the real secret to a good kickstarter, don't make your backers want you dead, and when dealing with the public, smile politely and wait for them to leave.

**JohnHwangDD**

OK, sure. I get that Journey isn't a huge draw at Dakka, what with the Eastern themes and influences.

I think Journey has been doing an above average job on updates, showing real progress on getting the product together. Seeing the piles of production components as they are developed and produced gives me a good feeling, even though it is running late.

Hopefully, we receive Wave 1 in April/May, and Wave 2 by end of year. That would be great.

**spiralingcadaver**

Joyboozer- I'd argue that the secret to a KS (other than having stuff as ready to go as possible to avoid delays) is to keep your audience enthused.

They're doing a pretty decent job keeping us informed here, but I kinda' lost interest in this one because they haven't been telling us anything exciting.

....Also, they put out that PDF of beta rules and I sent them a list of feedback since they requested it, got zero reply, not even an automated "thanks for your email." That's, uh, not going to make wish them dead, but it wasn't very polite, nor does it give me particular confidence in their system.

I've been on the fence about keeping this KS for some time now, and I'm leaning towards not, since I'm feeling more apathetic than involved.

**JohnHwangDD**

What would be "exciting"?

I'm pretty excited to see the models looking so good. And they'll be big, not tiny.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Explosions,

explosions and car chases are always exciting (although it will be tricky to work them into the game)

**highlord tamburlaine**

At least you guys get updates.

I went and ended up preordering it through their store, and I basically need to periodically check on KS or here to see if anything is happening.

I actually forgot I ordered it around November or so.

**JohnHwangDD**

Couldn't you just have Transformers movies streaming in the background?

**Alpharius**

JohnHwangDD wrote:
OK, sure. I get that Journey isn't a huge draw at Dakka, what with the Eastern themes and influences.

Huh?

1 + 1 = 539?

I don't think that the "Eastern themes' are the 'problem' here on Dakka Dakka at all!