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Thought I'd start a new subject instead of adding to the old one that was all about the adventure game format, just to keep it all orgamized. So, we've made the decision to go forward with a skirmish game expansion next, focusing on the Skinwalkers and other beasts. This means the adventure game idea is getting pushed back and will likely be the next major project after this skirmish campaign, and it will have a more subterranean vibe focusing on tommyknockers and other things that live below us.

Going forward, Curse of the Skinwalker will be the name of the 2-player starter set instead, and this set will be the focus of the campaign. The goal will be to get the funding to produce plastic miniatures for it, since the mold costs will be really high. Been in touch with a few different manufacturers, nothing is set in stone yet as we're still waiting on concept art.

I'm hoping the contents will be something like:

1 Rulebook
1 20x30" 6-panel game board, double sided (folds up to 10x10" square)
4 Punchboard buildings, total of 5 11x11" sheets. Buildings have a 4x5" footprint.
1 Punchcard Obscales, 1 11x11" sheet. Various fences, barrels and crates
6 plain 6-sided dice
1 mini tape measure
1 5-man Human Gang - The Unsung (Monster Hunters) - Plastic
1 5-man Beast Pack - The Wicked (Alpha Werewolf, Werebear, Werecat, chupacabra, jackalope) - Plastic

I'd hope to have 1 new Hired Gun, 1 Monster, 1 3-model Human Support Pack and 1 3-model Beast Support Pack also ready to go when we launch the campaign. I also hope to sell the building & board separately, and each gang from the boxed game separately, but it will be cheaper to buy everything in the big box together.

The stretch goals will be similar to the Rebels & Reinforcements campaign, we'll unlock 1 solo mini followed by a support pack (instead of a whole gang), and these will most likely be metal figures.

So overall, it will be the same theme and settings as I've been working on, just sticking with the skirmish format and doing the adventure game later on.

I'm not sure yet, but I think we might just include a basic rulebook in the boxed game, that's just the rules and game mechanics. It will just tell you to use your cards to get the info on skills or weapons, it won't list all of the weapons or have any info on building gangs from scratch, just keep it short & sweet. Then, also doing a full color hardback BWG 2.0 book that will be the current rules plus beast rules, and undead too if it's successful enough to unlock them. Unless it would be better to just have the full rules in the box? That would be fine for experienced folks, but I worry that a big rulebook would be too overwhelming for new players ... so I'm torn.

Slight change.. instead of plastic obstacle pieces we're going to do another sheet of heavy cardstock punch card for obstacle pieces. These will be things like fence portions or crates you can fold up and that sort of thing. We're going to start out this way, since doing them in plastic would cost a whole lot for the molds. So, this way we can save the expensive molds for the miniatures since they will be needed there the most.. and we can keep the plastic obstacles in mind as a stretch goal maybe.

I should have finalized artwork for the Chupacabra, Jackalope and one of the monster hunters in the next couple days so I'll post em when I get em

I'm working on the new rules now, so I can have them ready to go in time for the new campaign. This will basically be what I'm thinking of changing for "BWG 2.0"

The actual gameplay will stay the same, the only thing really getting updated would be gang / character creation. Nothing is set in stone yet, these are just some ideas and once I put everything together I'll make a test rulebook PDF for anyone that wants to try it out

So first off, there will be a new part of your character.. your race. There will be 3 races: Humans, Beasts and Undead. Tommyknockers will be a 4th race, but they won't happen until the adventure game since they all live underground. Each race will be like it's own faction and you can't mix the races together in the same gang except with some very special skills (more later).

I was planning to have the beasts have Monsters, Fiends and Minions like how humans have Gang Leaders, Professionals and Henchmen. I think I'm going to change this to something more universal for all. Infamous Characters will be the 100 XP models, 1 must lead your gang. So, a current gang leader would be an infamous character, or an Alpha Werewolf or Ancient Wendigo would be infamous also. You can have 1 Infamous Character in your gang for every 5 models, like now.

Instead of Professionals & Fiends we'll have Elite Characters. Henchmen and Minions, I think I'm just going to call all of them "Members". Humans form gangs, so humans will have Gang Members, Beasts will have Pack Members and Undead will have Coven Members. Again, just trying to make everything universal so people don't get confused, no real need for 2 different terms meaning the same thing.

Each race will have special unique abilities. The Leader's Luck rule will become the human special ability, plus they will have access to all weapons and artillery and only humans can use artillery.

All beasts basically get the Bestial Speed ability, basically they get the Run & Gun skill for free, so all beasts can run and attack, and beasts may have Elite and Infamous Skinwalkers that have special abilities based on whatever animal they are.

Undead have the Ravenous ability, for every enemy they take out in melee combat, they gain 1 HP, and this can be added to their starting HP if they haven't been injured yet. And they will have Elite and Infamous vampires that get Bloodline abilities, but most of their standard members will be zombies.


This might be too big of a change, not sure yet but I'm thinking about removing the skills as they are now and instead treating them as special abilities, but each current skill will also be on the list.. and most abilities will have an attribute minimum you need to have, like the skills now. Infamous characters get 3 abilities, Elite get 2 and members get 1.

Some abilities will be like a special attack, like venom spit or a rending bite, others will be more like passive abilities that you always have, like having wings so you can fly. And some abilities will only be available for certain races, while others are universal. Professions, Animal Aspects or Bloodlines will each have a specific ability associated with them that you must take, but it's a bonus and doesn't count toward your minimum. Like, a Gunslinger always has the Take Aim ability or a Werewolf will have the Throat Ripper ability. A wimpy little normal gang member could learn Take Aim also, but it would be his only ability, where that Gunslinger can Take Aim, but will also have 2 other abilities to choose from.


Anyway, that's pretty much everything that I was going to change. If you have any ideas, questions or concerns, feel free to jump in

Got some finished artwork to show off

First here is the Chupacabra



Here is the Jackalope



And here is J. W. Clarkson, Monster Hunter and leader of the Unsung



Next up I'll be getting the other 4 members of the Unsung finished up in a little while

The unsung have potential.

Maybe have the axe be a little less comical on the final mini?

Yeah I think in the end it will be a more "lumberjackey" looking

Trying to decide how many models I want to have in the starter. I want them to be 2 gangs, we have all 5-man starters now but most of those 2-player starter sets for other games have a lot of models. So I'm thinking maybe we can go with 8-man gangs, and maybe 1 solo monster and 1 hired gun? So basically the same amount as 1 starter set + 1 support pack + 1 hired gun. Just kind of worried though that all those models might be a tight squeeze for a 20x30" board. So maybe less = more? And less = lower retail price too? I do want it to be a good value for what's included though, that's how most starter sets are... so still on the fence trying to decide...

On the subject of game boards for the big box set... pretend you don't already have a gaming area of your own and you're going to play BWG on your kitchen table. What would you rather have? A fold-up poster that's light and easy to use? Or a multi-panel thick cardstock board? Or something more like a cloth matt with grass & dirt & roads printed on it, kind of like GW's Dreadfleet?

Looking into the different options out there, I think the poster style would be cheap and result in a lower retail price. I was planning on the 6-panel fold up board, but was also thinking a printed cloth matt might be nice if the price isn't too bad.

Printed cloth would be sweet and easy to fold up and storage would be a breeze.

 Necros wrote:
On the subject of game boards for the big box set... pretend you don't already have a gaming area of your own and you're going to play BWG on your kitchen table. What would you rather have? A fold-up poster that's light and easy to use? Or a multi-panel thick cardstock board? Or something more like a cloth matt with grass & dirt & roads printed on it, kind of like GW's Dreadfleet?

Looking into the different options out there, I think the poster style would be cheap and result in a lower retail price. I was planning on the 6-panel fold up board, but was also thinking a printed cloth matt might be nice if the price isn't too bad.

I would think that cloth and vinyl might be a little too cost prohibitive, though something like the deadzone 'mousepad' mats might be nice.

I kind of like the printed cloth idea, I'm a little worried it would be too expensive and I don't want to drive up the retail cost a lot. I think a lot of players will be using their own wargame boards that they already have, but I just want to have an option for the folks that don't, the starter set needs to be "everything you need to play". So that's why I was also thinking of something more like a poster like dust tactics too, if the heavy cardstock board ends up being pricey. I think the mouse matt style would be too pricey though. We could unlock pricier things with stretch goals, but I would rather the goals focus on getting more figures done.

Just kind of waiting around and hoping Game Salute will want to start on this soon. The ball is pretty much in their court now. They just keep saying they have a few smaller games they need to get funded first since there's a backlog. from a publishing standpoint it's probably easier to get them out of the way first, but I'm impatient

In the meantime I've also been working on my sci fi game too.. should have some art to show off for that pretty soon

Did you see that?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1034852783/shadows-of-brimstone

Yep I've been following it. I wish I had the spare cash to back it, but right now I can only afford the Aliens kickstarter

At first I thought it was a lot like what I want to do, but it's not really... In format maybe, but not the theme. they're going for horror with a kthulu / demony kind of vibe. Curse of the Skinwalker will have a whole different feel, sticking to native american and urban legend monsters.

That said, I'm pretty excited about how much funding they've been able to get. It's a good sign that a lot of folks would be into the genre and will get behind a game that's done right with high quality components, which is what I intend to do too.. even though that means it will take longer to put it together. I was just chatting with Game Salute about this yesterday. We want to take our time and do it right. It will probably look like not much new is happening with BWG for a while, but we'll still be working hard on stuff behind the scenes and as usual I'll be sharing every little thing as soon as I can

Thats kind of why I've also been focusing on Mechadrome at the moment, I have the spare time to focus on that now and then we'll probably be focusing on BWG hardcore in the new year after the new models are released for retail.