Chikout wrote:
I must say these minis look like a considerable set up in quality from Mantic's usual work. I suddenly became interested in this kickstarter.

 Taarnak wrote:
If those last two posts by DaveC are supposed to have pictures, they are not showing for me.

 DaveC wrote:

 NTRabbit wrote:

Remember my name, FAME!
I'm gonna live forever
I'm gonna learn how to fly, high
I feel it comin' together
People will see me and cry, FAME!
I'm gonna make it to heaven
Light up the sky like a flame, FAME!
I'm gonna live forever
Baby, remember my name

HELLBOY: DEVELOPING THE GAME (PART ONE)



Today we’re kicking off a series of blogs about our exciting new project – Hellboy: The Board Game. In today’s entry, we thought we’d give a little bit of background on development and a brief overview of the game before delving deeper into gameplay mechanics over the days to come.

So, how did this all come about? Well, after the huge success of Mars Attacks and The Walking Dead: All Out War, we knew that we would like to produce another licensed game. After all, it’s a great opportunity to work closely with the creators of some of the best-known and iconic characters around. And who wouldn’t want to do that? When we drew up a list of potential licenses, Mike Mignola’s incredible Hellboy series was top of the list.

Hellboy has become a household name – thanks to the live action movies, videogame appearances and animated films – but we always loved the original graphic novels. The combination of folklore, huge monsters and, of course, Hellboy battling enemies with that famous Right Hand of Doom, has always been appealing. As a result we began talking to Dark Horse in late 2016 and we eventually signed the deal in late 2017 (that’s right, it does take quite a while to sort these things out).

Originally we saw the Hellboy game as a dungeon crawler with Hellboy and the other members of the BPRD setting off to a suitably spooky location and then battling minions before facing off against a big creature. In this original pitch we thought that – like Dungeon Saga – one player would be in charge of the bad guys, while four other players would take control of the BPRD.

However, if you’ve read the comics you’ll know there’s never really one entity in charge of all the evil minions Hellboy faces and there are different antagonists, each with their own wicked plots. As a result the first decision was to make sure Hellboy was a fully co-operative experience as the members of the BPRD work together to overcome adversity, rather than having one player take on the role of the dungeon master.

The next question was – which storyline should we base it on? There are actually so many great stories to choose from that this was rather a difficult one. What’s more, the cast of BPRD characters changes throughout the original Hellboy graphic novels and the subsequent BPRD series. So instead of being based solely on one particular story arc, Hellboy: The Board Game takes inspiration from a number of fantastic storylines to create something spectacular.

This gives us a great opportunity to bring in some of Hellboy’s most notorious adversaries, while also mixing up the members of the BPRD who work with each other. In fact, it was Mike Mignola himself who suggested having Johann join the team for the core game.

From here the pieces really started coming together quickly and we could immediately see how all the four main protagonists – Hellboy, Liz, Abe and Johann – would work together. We also wanted to ensure that the inexplicable and seemingly random events of the comic were portrayed as gameplay elements too.

DECK OF DOOM!
This led to the creation of the Deck of Doom! This is a deck of cards that triggers particular events as the BPRD agents explore the location. The event can be anything from a surprise attack by a monster to a spooky mist that rolls in to obscure line of sight. Due to the random nature of the Deck of Doom, you’ll never know what to expect when playing a mission and you can replay them for different experiences.



Even better, as the game grows with new monsters or expansions, they’ll each come with their own set of cards so you can customise your deck for unique actions. This is something that’s expanded further in the exciting BPRD Archives (and we’ll cover that in a future blog).

With the basics down, it was time to call in a top games designer and that’s where James M. Hewitt from Needy Cat Games enters the action. In tomorrow’s blog we’ll discuss how James developed and shaped the game into what we have now.

Remember, Hellboy: The Board Game will be hitting Kickstarter on April 25th. We’ve got a very exciting opening pledge level planned, so make sure you don’t miss out. What’s more, next week will be Hellboy Week across the Mantic Blog and social media. Find out more about the game, see the miniatures and plenty more!

In yesterday’s blog we talked about the early stages of development for Hellboy: The Board Game. You can check it out here. For today’s entry we’re looking at how the game progressed once James M. Hewitt (founder of Needy Cat Games) became involved with the project.

James is a very lovely chap and he’s worked with us before on the awesome DreadBall and was our much-loved community manager for about a year. He was also a designer at Games Workshop and worked on big titles like Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, Blood Bowl 2016 and Necromunda 2017, among others. He’s kind of a big deal (and he’ll let you know this within five seconds of meeting him… if he even lets you look him in the face). From Mantic’s point of view it was extremely exciting to have James on board and he once let us make eye contact in a meeting.

Immediately James began tinkering with the basic mechanics we’d established, i.e. a co-operative game for up to four players in which the BPRD explores a gothic location and hunts down a suitably terrifying beast! Yeah, so not a lot to work on…

However, something that James immediately realised from reading the comics is that there’s a huge amount of investigating involved in the original stories. Often Hellboy and the crew won’t know exactly what they’re facing. Instead they must hunt for clues at the scene and, invariably, fight some wicked minions along the way, before facing off against a towering monster (like Sadu-Hem below).

With this in mind, James began by splitting the gameplay into two key elements: investigating and, somewhat inevitably, combat. For the investigation element you’ll have to search your surroundings for clues about the threat you’re hunting down. If you fail to find a piece of the puzzle, then the final confrontation will be a whole lot tougher.

Combat is also a key part of the comics and James wanted to ensure this was as cinematic and fun as possible. As a result you’ve got Hellboy punching monsters around, Liz setting fire to things, Abe taking aim with his gun and Johann possessing his enemies. The combat (and investigating for that matter) both use a really simple but rewarding custom dice system that we’ll cover in a later blog.

With the two elements of gameplay defined, this led to the creation of the Impending Doom Track and the Information Gathered Track. The former tracks how much danger the agents are in and how close they are to the final fight. While the latter shows the amount of evidence they’ve gathered. This could be a piece of equipment or vital information that will expose an important weakness ahead of that end battle. A key part of the game is successfully balancing these two elements and there’s often a frantic race to grab that crucial info before the Impending Doom track reaches its dramatic conclusion. Stay tuned to a future blog for more details about these.



Another genius element introduced by James was the creation of the Case File deck. We always had the idea that it would be great if missions were contained in a top secret envelope so you never knew what was coming. However, James took that one step further with the Case Files. Before each mission you’ll need to crack open a small, top secret envelope to unveil a deck of cards.

These cards act as the scenario generator for the mission and explain things like how to set up the board and trigger special events. Thanks to the secretive nature of these cards, the first time you play a mission, you’ll have absolutely no idea what’s in store. Even the final boss might be a mystery. Even better, after you’ve played a mission, you can mix the Case Files up to create a bespoke experience! It also led to the creation of the thrilling BPRD Archives expansion, which is something we’ll be exploring in more depth soon.

Finally James’ other key idea was the exploration mechanic. The Case File reveals the initial set-up but after that you’re on your own. Each time you enter a new room you’ll flip over an Encounter Card. Each room is split into four areas and the Encounter Card tells you what’s inside, e.g. some monsters, a clue or a piece of furniture to search. A little like the Deck of Doom cards, these are placed randomly so each game has the potential to play differently, even if you’ve completed the mission before.

To surmise all the above, James has turned what we always thought would be a good game into an absolutely GREAT game. The playtesting we’ve been having here at HQ has been fantastic fun and you’ll soon be able to see the game in action with a full gameplay video.

HELLBOY: THE BOARD GAME: WHAT’S AN AGENT CARD?

It’s Hellboy Week on the Mantic Blog. Over the next few days we’ll be delving into key gameplay elements ahead of the Kickstarter launching on April 25th. We kicked off the blogs last week with an overview of the early development stages. If you missed those, make sure you read part one and part two.

For today’s rules focus, we’re looking at an Agent Card. In Hellboy: The Board Game you and up to three others (although you can play solo too, don’t worry) will choose your BPRD agent and then head out into the field. In the core game you’ll find four agents to choose from: Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Abe Sapien and Johann Kraus. Each agent has their own unique card with their own special abilities.

For now we’ll look at Hellboy’s Agent Card and explain all the various parts. In some cases we’ll give a brief overview as we’ll be expanding on them later in the week. This is just to whet your appetites. A rule aperifit, if you will.


Work in progress. Artwork/text subject to change/licensor approval.

Above you can see a work in progress Agent Card for Hellboy. Please bear in mind that the graphics/text are still subject to approval but this will roughly be what you see in the finished product.

SKILLS



First up in the top left are your skills. Starting from the top left and going clockwise you’ve got:

Fight (used when attacking enemies in the agent’s area)
Shoot (used when attacking enemies in other areas)
Defend (used when defending against enemy attacks)
Examine (used when examining clues and points of interest)
The different colours represent the colour of dice you’ll be rolling when making that test. We’ll be covering this in further detail later in the week.

SPECIAL RULES



Next up you’ve got the special rules for the agent. These are abilities that are always active for that agent. As you can see from Hellboy’s card, he’s pretty handy (ba-boom, tish) at punching enemies thanks to his Boom! rule. In fact, he can send them flying, which is very handy for moving them out the way or punching them into the path of another agent. It’s also good for hurling them into fire (which Liz can cause) or into furniture to cause more damage.

THREAT LEVEL



This is important for the start of the game. Ahead of the mission, you place character icons on the target priority tracker. During the enemy phase, the character in first place will be the target of enemy attacks. Thankfully this changes during the course of the game, so poor Hellboy won’t always be suffering damage.

UNIQUE ACTIONS



Here’s one of the most exciting elements of the card! These are the Unique Actions the agent can perform as part of their turn. Each costs a differing amount, so you’ll have to choose carefully when you want to perform them. We’ll be going into more depth about Agent Actions in a future blog. For now just imagine how much fun it will be to throw furniture at a frog monster. Answer: lots of fun.

STARTING CARDS



Before a mission you can spend the BPRD budget on equipment to help you successfully complete the scenario. However, agents also start with their own unique pieces of equipment or abilities (for example Liz’s Flame Tracker). In this case it’s a Heavy Pistol and Hellboy’s Coat. A coat may not sound exciting but we’ll explain more in a future entry. It might also be an extremely nice coat!

DAMAGE



No one said fighting the harbingers of Doom would be easy and the agents are likely to take damage during the game. If this fills up with damage counters, then they’ll be knocked out.

And that concludes our quick review of Hellboy’s Agent Card. As mentioned above we’ll be exploring some of the elements in closer detail over the next few days. In tomorrow’s blog, the dashing James M. Hewitt will be here to explain what Case Files are… and you definitely don’t want to miss that!

Hellboy Week: Case Files
Hello Needy Cat fans – and hello visiting Mantic / Hellboy fans, too!

Did you know that Mike Mignola himself has done a bespoke piece of artwork for the game box? Phwoar. 
Did you know that Mike Mignola himself has done a bespoke piece of artwork for the game box? Phwoar.

With the Hellboy Kickstarter tantalisingly close, Mantic are running Hellboy Week on their blog, with a different article about the game’s mechanics every day. I’ve offered to tag in every other day to give the designer’s perspective on some of the key parts of the game. If you missed yesterday’s entry (describing the Agent Cards), you might wanna check it out here. Also, you can hear a bit more about the game’s development in two entries from last week, which you’ll find here and here.

Today, though, we’re talking about Case Files.


This is my prototype mock-up type thing, and has absolutely no bearing on what the finished product will look like.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Mignolaverse, Hellboy is (sometimes) a field agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence. A shadowy organisation founded in the wake of WWII, the BPRD is dedicated to protecting mankind from all manner of occult threats, from cult uprisings and ancient gods to witches and werewolves. When they catch wind of any such occurrence, they assemble a team of skilled field agents and send them to investigate. Hellboy: the Board Game replicates this on the tabletop, with the players taking control of the BPRD’s A-Team and taking on some very serious threats indeed.

It actually took a while (and a fair amount of playtesting!) before I hit on an interesting way to represent this in the game. Case Files were the solution!

When you open your copy of H:tBG (acronym alert) you’ll find several decks of cards; you’ll also find several Case Files. Each one is tied to a particular Case (that's a scenario, in standard gaming lingo) and includes various unique cards. You'll get a deck of Encounter Cards, which will determine what’s in each location you explore (more on them later in the week), and possibly some other cards to be shuffled into the Deck of Doom or the Requisition Deck (again, more on these later!). Most importantly, though, you’ll find the Case File deck.


Again, this is just my mockup. Look, those are Star Saga minis. Nothing here is real.

The Case File deck is something you’ll want to treat with due reverence. It’s not a normal deck of cards; for starters, you mustn’t shuffle it or look through it! It occupies a space on the HQ board (which Rob’s going to tell you about tomorrow) and handles the pace and narrative flow of the game. Only the top card is visible at any time, and will give instructions for when it should be flipped over. The back of the card might reveal a hidden passageway to a new area, give the players a much-needed leg-up or contain a new objective – anything’s possible!

Some Case File cards might be put “in play”, meaning they’re taken off the top of the deck and placed next to the HQ board. These cards will show a trigger – for example, “flip this card if all the agents are Knocked Out”, or “flip this card if the Information Gathered track reaches 10” (more on that from Rob tomorrow).

Eventually, each Case File deck will come to the Confrontation, a final showdown against a Boss. Going into the Case the players won’t necessarily know which Boss they’re going to face – they’ll have their briefing, sure, and there might be some clues along the way, so they might think they know what they’re coming up against… but what would Hellboy be without a few unexpected plot twists? What’s more, there might be multiple routes to a Confrontation. If Rasputin’s cooking up an evil scheme in the basement of a crumbling manor, you’d better hope you can find him through exploring the board… but if you all get knocked out, you might wake up to the sound of maniacal chanting and find yourselves in the middle of the ritual circle, stripped of all your kit! Whatever happens during the game, the Case File deck ensures that you’ll always get to play the Confrontation, even if it means you start at a serious disadvantage; that way, every game ends with an explosive show-stopper, instead of just fizzling out because you had some bad dice rolls.

“Hey, James,” one might ask, “surely this mean you can only play each Case once! What about replayability? You are the literal worst!”

Thanks, convenient hypothetical questioner. Haven’t heard from you in a while!

During playtesting, we’ve found that playing through the same Case File multiple times is absolutely something you’ll want to do. The first time will always be special – after all, you’ll be surprised by what’s going on, and that’s always a laugh – but chances are you won’t beat it. Hellboy: the Board Game can be tough, as all good co-operative games should be, so we’ve made a big effort to make the Cases replayable. Each time you play a Case you’ll find that the Deck of Doom and Encounter Deck will combine in new ways, providing different challenges and keeping things fresh.

Right, I think I’ve covered pretty much everything you might want to know about Case Files. Tomorrow, Rob’s going to be talking about the HQ Board over on the Mantic blog, so make sure you tune in – then I’m back here on Thursday with more info about the Deck of Doom. Exciting!

 Vermonter wrote:
I understand that the board shown is a mock-up. But if they get Mignola to illustrate the board tiles, or even if they can effectively re-purpose his art to create them, the game will look outstanding on the table. I really hope they go that route rather than doing vanilla, generic-looking tiles of rooms and hallways. It'd be a bit like playing the game inside the actual comic panels.

 Vermonter wrote:
Mantic decided to switch materials again and do their Hellboy figures in metal instead of plastic, and they've commissioned new sculpts that won't require pre-assembly.

Feast your eyes on these beauties:


Painted resin masters:

Or maybe, just maybe, this post is a cruel joke in poor taste. My apologies.

HELLBOY: THE BOARD GAME – WHAT’S THE HQ BOARD?

Hope you’re enjoying Hellboy Week so far. We’ve previously covered the anatomy of an Agent Card and yesterday the delightful James M. Hewitt *swoon* talked about Case Files (with added Skeletor references) on the Needy Cat Games Blog.

For today’s blog I’m afraid you’re stuck with me (Rob) but we have got something very exciting to look at: the HQ board, featuring the Impending Doom Track and Information Gathered Track. If you’ve read our previous blog on the early development of Hellboy (which of course you have… there’ll be a test at the end of the week) you’ll know that the game is split into two key elements: combat and investigation.



This split between the two parts is represented perfectly by the HQ Board. This large board sits near the game tiles and is used to track a number of different elements. Please note, this is still the work in progress version so the design may change in the finished product. Anyway, what’s it all mean? Not life, just the board.

TARGET PRIORITY



As mentioned in our previous blog about the Agent Cards, during the course of the game enemies will target different agents. Each agent has a token on this track, and it is used in certain situations, mainly when an enemy chooses a target for its attack.

Whenever this happens, the agent whose token is at the front of the queue (furthest left) is chosen as the target. If they are not an eligible target, they are ignored and the next agent along is chosen as the target.
Whenever an agent is chosen as a target in this way, their token is moved to the far right of the track.

The agent in the first space is considered to be the lead agent and gets the final say on what the team should do! If only life were this simple. I might start carrying around my own Target Priority track for meetings.

SPACES FOR CARDS



Admittedly this isn’t that thrilling to look at when blank but this is where the Requisition Cards (equipment), Deck of Doom and Case File cards will be placed. It’s likely the Requistion Cards won’t sit here and instead we’ll be adding a discard pile for the Deck of Doom.

Anyway, once the game is running, this area will be far more thrilling as you have the suspense of not knowing what’s coming next in the Deck of Doom, while the Case File cards run the mission for you. Hopefully you’ll know all about those after reading James’ blog yesterday.

IMPENDING DOOM



Typically Hellboy stories tend to be a race against time. Hellboy and the team must locate their target before an ancient evil is unleashed or a terrifying ritual is completed. In the game this is represented by the Impending Doom Track.

During the course of the game certain events will move the Impending Doom track closer to its inevitable and dramatic conclusion. The track is moved by cards drawn from the Deck of Doom, when the agents take time to rest, if there are too many Frog Swarms on the board, etc.

Depending upon the Case File you’re playing there will be different effects if the tracker reaches specific stages of the Impending Doom track. However, the higher it is, the worse things are going to be!

INFORMATION GATHERED



On the flip side to the Impending Doom track, you’ve got the Information Gathered scale. This is used to represent how many vital clues the agents have gathered during the course of the mission. You see, scattered throughout the location are clues that could hold an important piece of evidence that exposes a weakness of the final threat.

Each time the agents gather one of these clues, the Information Gathered track is moved one or more steps. Just like Impending Doom, the Case Files will dictate what happens when the Information Gathered tracker reaches certain stages.

Learning to balance the threat of Impending Doom and taking time to hunt down all the clues to complete the Information Gathered track is a key part of the game and you’ll have to make some tough choices.

Well, hope you enjoyed this inspection of the HQ Board. Tomorrow the delectable James M. Hewitt will be back on the Needy Cat Games blog to give you a run down on the ominous DECK OF DOOM (it must be said in a shouty voice).

 mattjgilbert wrote:
Just to debunk a few myths on plastic.

"Restic" isn't a hybrid of anything. It has no resin in it. It's PVC grade 110. It's just very hard PVC. Same factory and material as Privateer Press were using at the time for Warmachine. It's not been used by Mantic for years. No idea where the whole "restic is resin and plastic" thing came from, or the name. It's not a thing.

Dungeon Saga minis, Mars attacks minis, TWD minis, Star Saga minis are ALL all grade 95 PVC. What make some appear harder than others is purely the thickness of the sculpt (and therefore the amount of material in any given weapon, arms, torso etc.). There haven't been any experiments in different plastics.

All new sculpting briefs for models destined for PVC are to go thicker.

Hellboy Week: The Deck of Doom
Evening, all! Hellboy Week is still in full swing, with the Kickstarter launching in just under six days' time. Exciting!

If you haven't been keeping up with the series, you'll find several links in my previous post, and another entry from yesterday on the Mantic Blog. The aim of these posts is to give you guys a taste of the gameplay you can expect from Hellboy: The Board Game - after all, Mantic have been showing off the miniatures for ages, so it's only right that we should focus on the rules!

Yesterday, the lovely Rob did a great job of explaining how the HQ board works, and what its various bits are for. One of these was the Impending Doom track, which acts as a kind of timer, ticking down turn by turn until it launches the Confrontation, regardless of whether you're ready for it. A shrewd group of players will investigate their hearts out and uncover the big boss before this happens, but through playtesting I've seen countless cases where the agents took their sweet time, thinking they had ages before things took a turn for the worse.

See, here's the thing: you don't always know how quickly the Impending Doom track will advance, thanks to the Deck of Doom.


This might not be what the backs of the cards look like. It's early days!

The Deck of Doom is one of the three decks that runs a game of Hellboy. You've got the Case File deck, which I explained on Tuesday, and which handles the overarching plot and narrative structure; then there's the Encounter deck (which Rob will be covering tomorrow), which tells you what's in each room you explore. The Deck of Doom completes the picture by throwing in all sorts of twists and unexpected occurrences, ensuring that no two games of Hellboy are the same.

The base Deck of Doom contains all manner of unusual and creepy effects, but at the start of each Case you shuffle in additional cards. Some of these pertain to the Case itself, adding bespoke elements that suit the story, while others are linked to the specific agents that are taking part. A Doom card might see Hellboy getting angry, or the fire that lives inside Liz Sherman battling its way to the surface.


Playing as Liz requires more than a little luck-pushing. You can keep building up her Living Flame to let her cause more damage, but if it gets too high... well, it ain't pretty. Oh, and once again, this isn't a final card. It's a mockup.

Other than this, Doom Cards can bring new enemies into play, introduce temporary environmental effects or tweak the rules in subtle (but noticeable!) ways. More importantly, the majority of Doom cards will also advance the Impending Doom track. In a given deck, you should expect about two-thirds of the cards to advance the track, and a couple might even advance it twice. You'll be drawing one of these cards at the end of each round, so there's a real sense of time pressure.


Sometimes, Doom Cards can be helpful! Ish. Mockup card, etc.

Of course, the Deck of Doom isn't the only way the Impending Doom track advances. If the board is clear of enemies, the agents also have the option to rest. This gives them a well-earned reprieve, letting them examine clues freely, rest up and heal some damage (which they'll be taking lots of, believe me!), put out fires and generally get into a better position. Resting is an incredibly powerful tool in the agents' arsenal, but it increases Impending Doom whenever you do it. As with many things in this game, it all comes down to a decision. I've really enjoyed watching our playtesters agonise over the decision to rest, especially when they make the wrong call and it comes back to haunt them later. A solid loss is so much more satisfying when you can see it was your own fault!

Of course, it would be crazy to talk about the Deck of Doom without mentioning the artwork. As you'll see from the mockup images above, the plan is to have a fair chunk of card space dedicated to some of the fantastic art that characterises the comic series. One of the true joys of working on a licensed product like this is having such a range of source material to draw from, and I can't wait to see what the cards end up looking like.

Right! That's the Deck of Doom covered. It's back to the Mantic blog tomorrow, then back here on Saturday where I'll be explaining what Agents can get up to in their part of the round. Before I sign off, though, here's a sneaky peek at what we were getting up to last night...


Do I need to mention by now that this is a mockup? Because it's a mockup.