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No news on monsters changing (and I'd doubt it will happen), but one of the designers has mentioned getting a rules pdf up before things end

and update



For the cardboard replacement completionists amongst you, we are improving the Goldilocks Token Pack ($12) with a free upgrade of EIGHTY GUILD TOKENS if we hit this stretch! That's a lot of plastic!

But wait, there's more!



Nobody paid much attention when Dr. Spider was expelled from Arcadia University for excessive experiments into Necromancy. Even Lord Fang ignored him after taking over the city, and the bad Doctor pillaged the cemeteries and mausoleums of Arcadia for test subjects. Obsessed with his experiments, Dr. Spider retreated to his secret lab and worked long hours to tease the secret of immortality from the universe, and to prove, once and for all, that he should have fame, fortune, and (most importantly) tenure! The accidental revivification of the Dread King to his mortal form was merely a side effect! Nothing to worry about. … Well, nothing for Dr. Spider to worry about. That's what heroes are for, right?



Beyond the Grave is an expansion to Arcadia Quest that takes place after the overthrow of Lord Fang. Arcadians really can't catch a break as zombies, skeletons, ghosts, ghouls, mad scientists (and their creations) and an ancient evil take over the city! … AGAIN!

Beyond the Grave contains:
•- Brand new campaign
•- 3 new tiles
•- New Upgrade cards
•- New Quest cards
•- New Tombstone cards with a new game mechanic
•- 2 new Heroes
•- 22 new Monster figures


Dr Spider master model


Frank master model


Chaz!

MSRP - $60



Arcadia Quest: Beyond the Grave features an entirely new deck of Tombstone cards! This is a new deck of cards that are put directly into the map according to the Scenario and add a variety of exciting new events and effects that interact with Monsters and Heroes alike!



We're offering the Beyond the Grave expansion for 20% off our proposed MSRP of $60! Just add it to your pledge and we'll sort it out after the campaign ends through our pledge manager.

But wait, there's even more!

"Fear my gaze. FEAR IT!!!"

A medusa-in-training, Elysia's powers are coming along nicely. But, she hadn't quite earned her master's degree when the invasion banished everyone from Arcadia. She can stun with a look, but, alas, her career as a 'real-life' sculptor is on hold. (Yes, 'real-life'. Not 'still-life'.) While some University students often wondered about the morality of her particular field of study, Professor Morgan assured everyone that she was one of his most promising students. This wasn't the ethical violation they were looking for. We can go about our business. Move along.


Elysia master model

Get this great exclusive Hero free with the Beyond the Grave expansion if we hit this stretch goal!


Well I like this a lot (more monsters is very good).......

but 20% off is pretty much standard discounter price (although you do get the extra hero and I guess it might upgrade a bit more?),

and since this lot are clearly not all sculpted if we hit this I'll bet it means the November ship date slips, and December (xmas production/shipping/customs), January (post Xmas lull) then Feb (Chinese New Year) so my guess would be April



Automatically Appended Next Post:
and from the comments I was wrong

CMON
Everything in the expansion has been sculpted, but we don't have pictures of all the master models in acceptable resolution - they're being molded now, but as you can see Chaz is done in production plastic.

so delay worries reduced a lot if not eliminated


Automatically Appended Next Post:
We've heard you guys loud and clear! You want Elysia! So in response to your feedback, we're opening up Elysia as an optional buy! So for $10 you'll be able to add Elysia to your rogues gallery of Heroes without the need to purchase the Beyond the Grave campaign!



However, if you buy the Beyond the Grave campaign and we hit the $400k stretch goal then you're going to get Elysia for free!

3 more heroes revealed, and still not one can invest in a shield or a helmet. Sigh.

Expansion looks to have a good variety of monsters to fight.

I wonder how many more expansions they've got up their sleeves? I'm going to bet at least one more. Maybe something that changes how monsters work.

I think we'll still see some more loot cards, and maybe some sort of big super bad guy boss (like a dragon or monster form for Lord Fang).

I'm sure there's still a few more heroes in the works.

I like the character villains. Exactly what my chibi bestiary needs.

I suspect the gameplay will appeal to boardgamers who want everyone on equal footing opposed to RPGers or Wargamers who want co-op or story-driven stuff.

Anyone have an idea if those two heroes are based on anything? I love Young Frankenstein and Igor!

Still not a fan of their minis on the whole. But the Marty Feldman Igor art is pretty damn awesome. Credit where it's due and all.

Igor should get a hero card. Let him get played as a turncoat double crosser or some such nonsense.

It looks like a mish-mash of all my favorite games in one. SDE, City of Thieves, Zombicide, I can even see a little of mansions of madness in there with the Dead cards, and the critical hit dynamic looks like it really ramps up the suspense on dice rolls. Seems like it could be one game to rule them all... Yet I don't see it making quite the splash that Zombicide made for some reason.

With regards to the models, I understand what people are saying about not quite liking them. I think it's because some of them look more bobblehead than chibi, which is kinda cheesy looking (especially Chaz) . And the painted example of Kanga looks a bit fugly, like an Amazon meets Disneys Lilo. That almost put me off buying... but I'm pretty sure it's just the paint job, and with a bit more weight on her eyebrows and lashes she would look more like her artwork.

It would be great to be able to mix and swap these guys with SDE. I haven't seen any scale comparisons yet, but my gut tells me these heroes aren't going to be a match, which is a bit of a shame but they're probably close enough. Some of the bad guys look like they'll be spot on though. Particularly Nameless and the Goblins. The Bowiesque Goblin King also looks like he'd make a great dungeon boss too.

I think I'm pretty much sold on this. Though I can't say the same for the optional extras... $10 for Zahra? seems a bit steep. Is she even a Kickstarter Exclusive?

Is Arcadia PvP only, whereas the new SDE game will have Co-Op?

Co-Op is going to be the determiner for me...

Arcadia certainly isn't full co-op in that your trying for a win for your guild rather than your mates

(hence no chance to play it solo as the whole thing would need changing)

at the moment this one is more a source of minis for me rather than a game

SDE: Forgotten King is promising Co-op but exactly how it's going to work who knows

(hopefully in such a way fun solo play will be possible, if so I'll try and get it for the game)

 Alpharius wrote:
Is Arcadia PvP only, whereas the new SDE game will have Co-Op?

Co-Op is going to be the determiner for me...

Sounds like this is exactly correct. Most board games are PVP. Everyone is given basically 'the same' resources and you play until someone wins.

Co-Op or RPG/Dungeon stuff is more about the team has different resources but overall work to a common goal.

Different player groups, different expectations. One of the main reasons I get resistance from board gamers for SDE is due to the expectation of 'I have to cooperate? Everyone vs 1 person a Dm? what is that?

I think different strokes for different folks. AQ is Dungeon 'Risk' where SDE is a D&D the board game.

My wife hates co-op games. She'll play some (like Flashpoint) but if we lose, it inevitiably turns into a hate fest where I'm to blame for the loss.

nkelsch wrote:

Sounds like this is exactly correct. Most board games are PVP. Everyone is given basically 'the same' resources and you play until someone wins.

That's competitive. Which is different from PVP which is where you not only compete, but can actively attack one another. There are a lot more degrees these days, but sheesh, fundamentals.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 cincydooley wrote:
My wife hates co-op games. She'll play some (like Flashpoint) but if we lose, it inevitiably turns into a hate fest where I'm to blame for the loss.

Mine doesn't mine competitive, but she generally dislikes games where we actively attack one another. On the other hand, she's fine with 2-sided games like X-Wing or LNoE.

Yeah, I leaned that when it comes to any gaming, my wife is a merciless, Uber competetive, gak talking dick.

And then there's me making the mistake of playing against her during punctuation week.....

Prince Aaron is awesome! I love that design!

I like how some of these will make great NPCs... I would kill for a civilian peasant pack or something!

Masters for the Beyond the Grave expansion to show sizes (the rest can be seen here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coolminiornot/arcadia-quest/posts/769490)



and 2 more stretch targets



“Pfft. Your mom didn’t think so.”

Adopting his namesake as a totem after a terrifying encounter in childhood being viciously bitten… err.. gummed by one, the ‘Black Newt’ is the son of a very large and wealthy Arcadian family who had the misfortune of being born last. His sisters were beautiful, his brothers were dashing, and all his elder siblings were intelligent, witty, and noble. Alas, the Black Newt had the heart of a troll. Sniping was his second nature, the cutting barb was his forte, and he even took to stealing their diaries to scrawl snarky comments in the margins. He was eventually disowned. But he had learned swordsmanship to at least a competent degree, and a Guild membership was easy enough for someone of his connections. Ironically, he welcomed the invasion as toady to Lord Fang, but was cast out when he was found scrawling derisive comments beneath graffiti the orcs would leave on each other’s’ walls.

Every Guildmaster and War Paint pledge gets the Black Newt free if we hit this stretch!

I swear you could populate an entire Kickstarter with Brian Blessed knock-offs! So many lovely characters to choose from. Also, seeing the size of some of those expansion creatures, I'm getting a tad...concerned over shipping costs.

What are people's thoughts on the usual CMON exclusive stretch goals? I can't deny that they seem to work, but I'm a bit iffy on them due to:

- frequently relying on unlicensed IPs rather than original designs
- expanding character options but not gameplay elements - making the game wider but not deeper
- the boxed game at retail ceases to be as attractive a proposition if you happen to not go down the Kickstarter route, making it hard to recommend stuff to friends.
- all of that lovely overfunded Kickstarter money is going into one-shot rewards rather than product development.

Sedition Wars produced...a single boxed game, and a single terrain pack that has literally just gone on sale at retail. Zombicide S1 produced a single boxed game with 6 characters. Arcadia is going to have at least one expansion at retail, a major improvement, but I think will still suffer from a lack of character choice - there are 16 exclusives and counting for this project!

What are people's thoughts on the usual CMON exclusive stretch goals? I can't deny that they seem to work, but I'm a bit iffy on them due to:

- frequently relying on unlicensed IPs rather than original designs

this is true, if you're really concerned with IP you'll not get involved, but on the other hand they are generally looky-likeys rather than perfect reproductions so personally I'm ok with that (in the same way I'm OK most of the bits manufacturers)

- expanding character options but not gameplay elements - making the game wider but not deeper

it's straightforward to make a new mini, making significant gameplay changes/additions is really hard, on slip and the whole game becomes unbalanced. (also a significant number of backers will be in it for the minis for other uses, extra game is no use to them, CMON realise this and tend to add to both)

- the boxed game at retail ceases to be as attractive a proposition if you happen to not go down the Kickstarter route, making it hard to recommend stuff to friends.

If the game is genuinely good recommend away (you can always proxy eg all the zombicide special characters cards can be downloaded and printed).

People who have to get everything (and who are not prepared to resort to ebay or similar) will be stuck, but then they'd be in the same position if they wanted to get into many wargames (loads have out of production models)

- all of that lovely overfunded Kickstarter money is going into one-shot rewards rather than product development

there are certainly some cases of this, but in general a well run KS (and CMONs are in a financial way anyway) will set stretches so as to more than pay for the one shot item.

So there is extra cash for the main game (or the next supplement or KS), and the fact that there are exclusives brings in money that would not otherwise have been spent(eg backers who want to resell, backers who have to have everything, fans of whatever firefly/brian blessed/black adder or whatever)

it also produced stuff to use as convention exclusives which many companies would do anyway, this way they get them done for free, and can use them to promote the new game at the next run of cons

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:


- the boxed game at retail ceases to be as attractive a proposition if you happen to not go down the Kickstarter route, making it hard to recommend stuff to friends.

I hear what you're saying here, because it's a very real "concern", but I think it's a bunch of nonsense BECAUSE these exclusives add to the width and not the depth of the game. The zombiecide survivors, for example, are really just extra dudes that have a different assortment of abilities that you can find on other survivors

I really only see this as a problem in regards to people that are anal retentive completionists.

I like what Rivet Wars will be doing. Taking a lot of those overfunded stretch goals and boxing them up to make actual expansion product.

Sure there were a bunch of exclusive heroes, but if I remember correctly a lot of them would be recast in different colors or material or something like that.

We still have a few days to go. I doubt CMON has shown everything they've got.

Yes, the completionists are the only ones who are going to be upset. And that is getting harder to do for some of the obscure games/companies doing KS's out there.

I think we'll see a big difference between this KS and SDE's KS, as far as stretch goals go. SPM has already said they have a finite number of stretch goals, so that could generate some animosity when they hit it, and then just collect money above that last goal. At least CMON keeps rolling them out with preplanned stuff, and they should (hopefully) have the backside figured out, and be able to get this stuff out on time.

I'll give Sodapop the benefit of a doubt (not sure why considering their KS track record), but I would imagine they've got things pretty far planned out as well.

Nobody likes when the campaign ends with a whimper instead of a bang- Wrath of Kings and Rivet Wars were guilty of this I thought. Then again, they did have some nice final goals as thank yous to the backers.

It's going to be interesting seeing how similar or divergent SDE and Arcadia run, considering they are both probably chasing after the same piece of the pie.

(The pessimist in me could see CMON rolling out solo/ true coop rules as a counterpoint to SDE, since that's going to be a big selling point for Forgotten King vs the base game.)

stretch hit



(you can also add her for $10 if you don't get the extra campaign, or if you want extras for friends)

Is Prince Aaron based on the Burger King?

from the Monty Python reference when he was introduced he's probably King Arthur



I've also seen suggestions he's Brian Blessed as King Richard



but your suggestion clearly has merit

Oh, I guess Python's King Arthur does make more sense

Likely its Blessed, since 'Black Newt' is a Blackadder parody

 Cyporiean wrote:
Likely its Blessed, since 'Black Newt' is a Blackadder parody

Yeah, I'm almost certain its supposed to be Brian Blessed.

 squall018 wrote:

 Cyporiean wrote:
Likely its Blessed, since 'Black Newt' is a Blackadder parody

Yeah, I'm almost certain its supposed to be Brian Blessed.

I think he is probably a bit of both. The style of the crown, the orange circle on his breast, the python quote, and the name 'Aaron', make me think that the creators probably drew some inspiration from Arthur for the concept.

The face clearly looks more like Brian Blessed though, and that fits with the Black Adder reference. He certainly looks way too gruff and angry to be Graham Chapman (AKA the messiah).

More dice added to the base game at 425

What a fair few have been waiting for

Here is the rules draft as they stand today - it's still being edited for language, diagram clarity and contents. Note internal components do not reflect the stretch goals. Have a look!



http://www.arcadiaquest.com/AQ-Rulebook.pdf

Will someone quickly dissect and review this please?

I have to figure out if I want to pledge here, or hold off and wait for the upcoming SDE KS!