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Update: Kickstarter is live! 48-hour early birds available:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/necromolds/necromolds-monster-battles






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So I just had this pop up on my facebook as a recommended ad https://www.necromolds.com/

It looks really cool. Something I would have loved as a kid. Any Dakka users on here with kids see this as something that could end up succeeding?

Who needs kids? I think it looks fun for me!

That's a really cool idea!

 MegaDave wrote:
Who needs kids? I think it looks fun for me!

I totally agree there. I just see it as a good gateway game and I curious what the other parents thought.

Depending on the price I may totally get a copy for myself. lol

I totally agree there. I just see it as a good gateway game and I curious what the other parents thought.

Depending on the price I may totally get a copy for myself. lol

Talk about a beer and pretzels game! It would be a "smash" at parties!

I could see my miniature-adverse friends getting a chance to play this.. signed up for notifications and would totally support this.... it it is not Games Workshop level of pricing..

That's just awesome

Success might depend on production costs / how much they need to sell to break even. But man, what a great idea!!

 MegaDave wrote:

I totally agree there. I just see it as a good gateway game and I curious what the other parents thought.

Depending on the price I may totally get a copy for myself. lol

Talk about a beer and pretzels game! It would be a "smash" at parties!

Especially if you could make the creatures out of edible dough* or jelly.

* yes playdough is already edible, but it tastes horrible

I shared it with a couple of my mini wargame friends with young children and they all plan on getting it. So hopefully this project succeeds. We need a good breakout kids game in the hobby. Heroscape got me into it. We need something for the new kids.

I like the idea, I'll keep an eye on this one.

Hi everyone!
My name is Clint and I'm the creator of Necromolds. A friend on Dakka pointed me to this post and I wanted to see if I could answer any questions. I'm new to Dakka and it seems like a great group of players.

I know someone mentioned Heroscape as their gateway to wargaming. I'd love to hear what other wargames or experiences got others into the hobby.

Growing up, I always enjoyed creating large scale battles with action figures and green army men - but it wasn't until later in life when I signed up to play in a Little Wars convention game that I got to experience a full wargame. I can't recall the exact scenario, but it involved French troops fighing off a horde of orc warriors. I had a blast and have tried to get into one or more miniature battle games at every Con I attend ever since.

Welcome, Clint. Looks like a fund concept.

Hi Clint. Good luck with the project!

Thanks bbb and Samurai! I'm looking forward to kicking it off after the last two years of development

Need multicolored putty for chaos. I know you can just mix some yourself, but it’s a great gimmick. Unicorn rainbow or chaos swirl.

I have two boys in mind for this game.. can you say if it would be appropriate (complexity) for 7 and 10 year old kids?

@Theophony - three/four-player games get super chaotic with so many colorful monsters smashed on the gameboard! I'm actually designing and including a volume measurement tool so people can purchase any soft modeling clay and use it with the game. It's a fun and easy way to make sure each player starts with the exact same amount. Plus. you'll be able to use and mix any colors you choose! You can also buy a lb of clay online for super cheap and make it last all year.

@Porkuslime - I've designed the base game for fast and easy learning and then added "advanced" rules older players can add-on to the game to add more complexity and strategy. Your 10 year old son will definitely be able to play the basic ruleset, and probably add some of the advanced rules after getting used to the game. So far 9-11 year olds have been very competitive and interested in learning all the rules. I've found that children under 9 usually enjoy Necromolds more as toys and are not as interested in learning and following rules. They seem to like to make up their own rules as they build and fight their armies. Of course, that varies a bit from kid to kid.

This weekend I'm running a playtest for a family of four - with a 12, 10, and 8 year old. The father is going to play one game with their 8 year old, so I'll let you know how well it goes for them!

 Clint_the_Necromoldlem wrote:


@Porkuslime - I've designed the base game for fast and easy learning and then added "advanced" rules older players can add-on to the game to add more complexity and strategy. Your 10 year old son will definitely be able to play the basic ruleset, and probably add some of the advanced rules after getting used to the game. So far 9-11 year olds have been very competitive and interested in learning all the rules. I've found that children under 9 usually enjoy Necromolds more as toys and are not as interested in learning and following rules. They seem to like to make up their own rules as they build and fight their armies. Of course, that varies a bit from kid to kid.

This weekend I'm running a playtest for a family of four - with a 12, 10, and 8 year old. The father is going to play one game with their 8 year old, so I'll let you know how well it goes for them!

Not my kids.. mine are in college.. lol

Their parents are gamers though, so I suspect that they have some "pre-loaded" ideas of how gaming works..

I totally understand if you cannot say at this time, but how much fundage are you looking at asking for for the Battle Box or individual tomes?

I've got some fun surprises for both the battle box and the monster packs!

The battle box will include everything required for a two-player game (battle map, terrain pieces, rulers, dice, clay volume tool) plus 3 monster tomes and two caster rings.

Monster packs will be sold as pairs and will include a caster ring as well.

When you purchase a monster pack, you'll know what monsters you're buying ahead of time - so it isn't a random booster box. The monsters will always include a card version so that two players can share a single monster mold when playing the game.

For cost - I'm working to keep the pricing in-line with toys you'd find at Target or Walmart vs GW pricing. The final pricing comes down to manufacturing costs, but I'm hoping the battle box will retail for $30-$40 price range, while the monster packs will fall somewhere between $15-$20. In the KS I'll be offering bundles that will reduce the cost.

Oh man. That's way cheaper than I was expecting. Yeah, this is getting blasted out to all my nerd friends with children when it goes live.


One of the interesting things I saw in the trailer was the idea of letting the clay harden and then painting the minis. A friend of mine started teaching his daughter to paint and I can see them buying the game just for this until she is old enough to actually play.

How big do the minis end up being once they are molded into shape? Is this a DnD 1-inch grid/hex or are they closer to a 28mm scale? or smaller?

Definitely closer to the 1 inch grid DND size. Here is a quick pick of some dried monsters made from play-doh from my desk:

https://imgur.com/a/zYzQUq9

When they dry, the shrink a bit. Not all soft clay dries the same. I've found Sargent Art to work the best for both playing and drying: https://smile.amazon.com/Sargent-Art-85-3198-Art-Time-Multicolored/dp/B00N34OSN0/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=art+dough&qid=1570204138&sr=8-10

I dried a bunch of the monsters to hand out to the kids after the video shoot. They were really excited about the ability to paint them. Graveghoul was probably the overall favorite of the monsters I had available.

I imagine that the hardened monsters are not something you should ringsmash..

So, are the rings "collectible" in that they would be random? You said 7 monsters and 7 rings, so I was thinking that there was a 1-1 correlation, but if it is one ring per pack, with 2 tomes per pack, how would you "pokemon (collect them all)"

 porkuslime wrote:
I imagine that the hardened monsters are not something you should ringsmash..

So, are the rings "collectible" in that they would be random? You said 7 monsters and 7 rings, so I was thinking that there was a 1-1 correlation, but if it is one ring per pack, with 2 tomes per pack, how would you "pokemon (collect them all)"

In a comment on the video, he suggests that if you also dried out some clay you had smashed with the ring to use as tokens, you can swap those out for defeated monsters and still get the same effect. And he made the point that it isn't necessarily something you'd choose to do on purpose, but that clay is going to eventually dry out anyway, so you might as well have it dry in the shape of a monster.

Haha dry clay isn't the best to smash. In theory, someone could dry out the smashed monsters and paint them up as tokens - simply swapping them out during the game with fallen monsters.

I'm hoping to expand the rings beyond the monster count since I should be able to more cost-efficiently batch manufacture them due to their design and small size (multiple ring slugs per injection mold tool). As currently planned, in the monster packs the ring will be random. The idea being that it's always fun to get a bit of a surprise/anticipation when opening the box, and the ring itself isn't as critical of a purchasing choice (like the monsters are). If I do expand the rings to a higher number, I'll probably package and offer the rings on their own so a collector can get them all. I'm also hoping that the rings will allow for kids to trade with each other if they get duplicates or have a favorite.

OK.. that makes sense.

I would urge you, however, to make the rings that come in the Battle Starter Set unique to that set.. gives a slight motivation for folks to buy it, AND guarantees that if I bought the starter box, and 1 of the pair packs, I would BE SURE that I would not get a duplicate

I'm glad you mentioned that! Yeah, the battle box will come with pre-determined rings, so you know which two you'll be getting - and they'll only be available with the battle box (just like the 3 monsters).

Great.. thank you SO much for taking the time to engage here and be available for questions..

I have signed up for the email alert for kickstarter, but havent yet watched your video..

I don't get what the graveghoul is. Is it a walking coffin?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Does the creature on the ring matter? Or is it just for keeping track of which player destroyed a monster?

The Graveghoul is what would happen if a wizard raised a golem out of the earth within a graveyard - so it resembles a walking coffin, but is also twisted with soil, bones, a gravestone, and a dead tree.

https://imgur.com/a/npbQ39I

Most of our series 1 monsters start as the question: "What would it look like if a wizard raised a golem monster from...?" Then we try to figure out what twisted creature would result of the dark magics within a Necromold tome.

One of my friends is a writer with Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, and we worked together on writing some great lore/historical passages for each monster to be included with the rulebook!

The creature on the ring doesn't matter game-wise and is just used for tracking your smash count. - which is used when breaking ties.

So, the rings are really only a player's id.. there is no "spell" or "power" associated with them

so in that regard, I can totally understand why you don't need to collect them all, because you are not missing out on "The Scuttling Power of the Spider!" spell or somesuch..