When Gloomhaven came out in 2017 it took tabletop games by storm. Board gamers got a campaign experience similar to what role playing gamers have been raving about for years. Role playing gamers got something that offered the lasting storyline of an epic campaign with the crisp mechanics and clean up of of a board game.
Cephalofair Games is currently crowdfunding the enxt generation of Gloomhaven games. This includes a new edition of the original game, reprints of the follow up Frosthaven, a full RPG experience and a travel version built to play in spaces as small as a fold-up tray in an airline seat.
“The inspiration for Gloomhaven came from a lot of different places,” said Isaac Childres, creator of Gloomhaven. “Chiefly, it came from playing RPGs like D&D and tactical campaign board games like Descent and just wanting more from the combat. I love the genre and the visceral excitement of running through dungeons killing monsters, but there are so many dice! These systems used the randomness of dice rolls to resolve combat rather than giving a player the agency to decide their own fate. I wanted to make a dungeon crawler where players were empowered to make meaningful decisions. And from there, I wanted the campaign to feel like an expansive JRPG in the vein of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or Phantasy Star, where there was so much to see and explore. I wanted it to seem endless, which is why the box ended up so large.”
Gloomhaven Second Edition
Gloomhaven Second Edition offers an enhanced, rebalanced experience for fans coming back to play again as well as those how haven’t had the experience. Components have been revised and upgraded to look better and oresent information more clearly. The game also sports a new reputation system that will impact the storyline even further based on what people think of the choices the players make.
“Our current crowdfunding campaign started with offering miniatures for our board games,” said Childres. “It’s an expensive endeavor, and we don’t know how many we should print to satisfy everyone who wants them, but crowdfunding helps with both these things. We can get an exact count of how many we need, and collecting funds upfront means that we can even do it in the first place. Then as we began to develop more and more products, like the Gloomhaven RPG or Gloomhaven Second Edition, we thought we’d combine them all into that same campaign and just make it a big party. Not only that, but we have built a wonderful crowdfunding community that has contributed immensely in past projects, offering suggestions and even designing certain elements of the game. We are looking forward to seeing all their input on this campaign as well.”
Gloomhaven Role-Playing Game
This crowdfunding run marks the reveal of something Gloomhaven fanshave wanted for years; a full-blown RPG. The card based system allows players to create their own characters to make new adventures. The core book includes a 20-hour campaign to explore the setting.
“When we first started discussing the RPG,” said BJ Hensley, Art Director for Cephalofair Games. “One of the things I felt most strongly about was that this should be a product that bridges board and roleplaying games, not just some bits of lore that become a clone of other popular RPGs. With this in mind, I wanted to ensure we preserved as many of the crucial bits of combat as possible so that fans would have a sense of coming home when they sat down to play the game. I believe we’ve accomplished that so far, and I can’t wait for the community to dive in and have fun when we finish.”
Players can choose to get the core book which contains all the information players and GMs need to play along with the cards that power the game. There is also a deluxe option for fans who want a similar experience to the original Gloomhaven big box. It includes a deluxe core book, cards, character sheets, game aids and more all in a box that looks like treasure looted from a gnarly monster.
“I’m excited with how we were able to reconcile the roleplaying and attribute checks of the RPG with its robust combat system,” said Childres. “Roleplaying should be open and unrestrictive, but that can feel incongruous to the combat system, which is tightly controlled and balanced. But by bringing some of the combat mechanisms into the roleplaying in unobtrusive ways (like the modifier deck mentioned earlier, and using a character’s hand of ability cards as a source of stamina, even outside of combat), we were able to marry the two sides of the game very well.”
One of the things that RPGs provide are deep dives into lore. Players can;t get enough of the setting, be it through playing Gloomhaven or the sister game Frosthaven. The RPG promises to reveal hidden elements and small details to long time fans.
“We’re having a fantastic time fleshing out ancestries,” said Hensley. “diving into the histories of enemies, and even putting together fun facts about native cuisine. All of these little bits are coming together to bring the world of Casskia to life, and I’m excited to share everyone’s hard work with Gloomhaven fans.”
The Gloomhaven Grand Festival crowdfunds until July 19th.
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