Dark Rituals: Malleus Maleficarum

Solo Mode – Part 2
about 5 years ago – Fri, Feb 08, 2019 at 01:13:00 AM

Hello Heroes!

In the second Solo Mode update, we’ll show some worked examples of the Hero AI Cards.

First a disclaimer. The art on these cards is clearly WIP. The text on the cards is from current decks, but it is expected the wording will become more precise. Development has been focused on finding combinations of Actions that work and we will complete the art and polish the text soon.

The rules will explain how to interpret each of the short statements on the Hero Activation Cards. For example:

Move To: Move to the indicated Area. If you are in the Area already, or cannot reach the Area, skip this Action.

Move Towards: Take the shortest path towards the indicated Area, including Moving into the Area. If you are in the Area already, skip this Action.

Attack: Attack any valid target. If the Hero has a ranged Attack, it is legal to use it. Target the Enemy with the lowest Health if there are multiple options.

Attack <Type>: Attack Enemies of a specific <Type>. If the Hero has a ranged Attack, it is legal to use it. Target the Enemy with the lowest Health if there are multiple options. An example would be Attack Minion.

Attack <Type1>, <Type2>: Attack Enemies of a specific <Type1>. If the Hero has a ranged Attack, it is legal to use it. Target the Enemy with the lowest Health if there are multiple options. Repeat the assessment for Enemies of <Type2> if no Enemies of <Type1> can be Targeted. An example would be Attack Minion, Creature.

Once you read these rules, we are sure you will be able to remember what each instruction means during the game. 

During setup a Default Hero Action Card is given to each Hero. Here one such card has been assigned to the Assassin. These images are too large to show on Kickstarter, but you can click on them to enlarge them.

In this Encounter, her Default Actions are to Move towards the Objective and Attack it. She has a ranged Weapon, so she might be able to Attack the Objective before she enters the Area. But the Default Actions are only used as a “backup plan”, so she will not just be doing this repeatedly. As well as Default Actions, the Card assigns her an identification number, shown at the top. She is Hero 1 in this game.

There is also a Hero Activation Deck:

At the start of the Heroes’ Turn, one of the Hero Activation Cards is flipped:

Now you start to resolve the cards. The top card on the Hero Activation Deck says that Hero 1 will Activate this Turn. The Hero Activation will make her get some loot and Attack a Minion. If that is not possible, she will move towards the Objective.

Now let’s resolve the cards with actual game examples. We will use the same cards in each example, and you will see exactly how the same cards will produce very different behavior in different situations. It’s best to imagine these are different, but similar games, not a continuation of the same game. If they were different Turns in the same game, different Hero Activation Cards would be drawn.

In the first example, the Assassin is able to use the new Sprint Action to move two Areas to get to a Chest. Then she will Search it. Remember, in Solo Mode the Loot Deck only contains Weapon Upgrades and they are equipped automatically, regardless of Attribute Restrictions or Weight.

Let’s try another board setup.

In this game, the Assassin is already in an Area with a Chest, so the first Sprint Action is skipped. The Assassin Searches for Loot and Equips it, then Attacks the Condemned in her Area. If the Condemned was in an adjacent Area, she could use her ranged Crossbow and still Attack it.

One last example. We’ll show an example that needs the Default Action Card. Since it is a different game, let’s give her a different one.

So, she does not need to Sprint, she can Search. In this example, there are no Minions to Attack, because the Condemned is out of Range. The Assassin can perform one more Action, so she starts resolving her Default Action card. She can perform the first Action and moves towards Pekka.

We hope you can see that the combination of Hero Activation Cards and Default Action Cards will give the Heroes a wide range of different behaviors,  that are a little different from just Move and Attack. Each turn, a Hero will get a different Hero Activation Card and each turn the Heroes will activate in a different order. The Default Action Card gives them some consistency during an Encounter, but variation from game to game.

If there are more questions about Solo Mode, we can answer them in the comments or on BGG.

Pick a side!

Solo Mode – Part 1
about 5 years ago – Thu, Feb 07, 2019 at 01:02:29 AM

Welcome Witch Masters!

This will be a combination designer’s diary and information update, describing our goals for solo mode and the rules. There is a lot of information here, so we split our description into two parts. The second part will have pictures showing some examples of game play and the cards. We hope to post that late tomorrow or early on Friday.

Designer’s Diary

Dark Rituals: Malleus Maleficarum is a finely balanced asymmetric One vs. Many game. The variation in the number of characters and objectives makes this ideally suited for a competitive game, but also makes it much harder to automate. How could we achieve this?

First, we made this task much simpler for ourselves. We decided not to automate the Witch Master. The Legion of Darkness could be controlled by AI cards, but it would be very hard to retain the concept of Minions, Creatures and Witches all playing different roles in the game. We did not want them to be mindless zombies and it would take many decks of cards to provide different behaviors for all the members of the Legion. Unfortunately, this means no co-op game.

Although the Heroes are very different from each other, automating four Heroes seemed more manageable, giving us the option for Solo Mode.

What were our goals? From day one, we intended the Witch Master to play the game with the smallest number of rule changes. More, we want to provide Objective-based game play against a tough opponent. We really wanted the Witch Master to get the full Dark Rituals’ experience. 

Although the Witch Master plays by the regular rules, our first attempt at solo mode made it clear that Heroes could not. It was simply too complex for one player to manage. For example, consider Stamina: the solo player would have too much overhead to do if they managed one Stamina pool for themselves and four (or more) for Heroes. This adds our final design principle. Although the Heroes must be a difficult opponent, they need to be simple to operate. The Witch Master needs to play the Witches, not both sides.

Here is the last change. In many co-op games, the AI controlled enemy is quite numerous. This solves a couple of problems: there is strength in numbers and if you have a lot of them on the board, then there can often be one in the right place to harm the human player(s). Although we had a working solo game, we really wanted to play it with more Heroes.

Backer response on Kickstarter was overwhelming and solved this problem completely. If you get the Lone Defender pledge, with the Swordsman, you have 9 Heroes and more if you have The Cursed Fjord expansion.

We always intended the Dark Rituals core game to be a 1 vs Many game.  The introduction on the front page says ’Dark Rituals is an asymmetric “One vs Many” game for 2 to 5 players‘. Solo Mode will be a separate expansion included with the Lone Defender and Attacking Hordes Pledges, using a combination of the Solo Mode cards, 5 new Encounters and all the Heroes. While you will need the Stretch Goal Heroes, you do not need any Add-Ons to make Solo mode work.

So now you see where we came from, we can describe the rules for the game. As we talk about the rules, we will refer back to the design principle above.

Rules Summary

Setup. This section tells you how to start the Encounter and also introduces some cards that will be described below. Only the Solo mode specific tasks are listed.

· Create the Hero Miniature Pool. The Encounter will tell you how many Heroes to use in the Hero Pool for this Encounter, typically 6-8. You are free to choose which Heroes.

· Place some of the Heroes on the Board as shown in the Mini Map.

· Arrange the Hero ID Cards and randomly assign each Hero ID Card a Default Action Card.

· Put out 1 Attribute Board, with no marker cubes in the tracks.

· Shuffle the Hero Activation Deck.

· Remove all Items from the Loot Deck. Keep the Weapon Upgrade Cards.

Witch Master Rules. The Witch Master plays by the normal rules of the game with one exception. When it is the Witch Master’s Turn, they may not pass if they have Stamina. They must take 1 or 2 Actions if possible.

Hero AI. Heroes are controlled by 2 cards, both of which have several Actions, listed in order. The randomly drawn card from the Hero Activation Deck identifies the Hero that will Activate and lists 2 or 3 Actions. These Actions are resolved in order, if they are possible. For example “Move Toward Objective” cannot be done if the Hero is in that Area, and “Attack Minion or Creature” might not be possible if the Hero is not in an Area with any of those Characters. If the Hero cannot perform 2 Actions for the randomly drawn card, then start resolving Actions from the Default Action Card (placed beside the Hero ID Sheet during setup). These Actions are more general and are more likely to be triggered. Actions are resolved until the Hero has performed 2 Actions or all Actions have been checked and rejected.

Heroes do not use Stamina at all. Actions and Reactions can be performed without considering the Heroes’ Stamina (which means Heroes can always Defend).

It is quite possible that you will draw a card for a Hero that is not on the map at the moment. If the Hero is in the Pool (never placed yet, or killed) then the Hero is spawned. If the Hero is not in the pool, then the Heroes take no Actions this turn (like passing).

New Hero Actions. Heroes will be given from some new Actions to ensure they are competitive. For example:

If Heroes Move, they do still perform the Evade check (normal rules).

If Heroes Evade, they automatically pass the Evade Check and move one Area.

If Heroes Sprint, they move two Areas, automatically passing the Evade Checks.

Level Advancement. This is an important part of the core game that we wanted to preserve in Solo Mode. Witch Masters level up normally. All Heroes share one Attribute Board, think of it more like group morale, when the battle is going their way, they all fight better. 

The Attribute Board shows the Attribute bonus. Start with no cubes in any of the tracks, meaning no bonus. When checking a Hero’s Attribute Value use “base value + bonus value”. The Attributes only advance from Actions on the Hero Activation Cards, so they will advance slower than normal, but all Heroes advance tracks on one board, so they will advance a little faster. When a skill advances, always advance the skills from top to bottom on the Attribute track, until all Attributes have advanced one step, then start Advancing them to the next column.

Weapon Upgrades. Again, this is an important part of the core game that we wanted to preserve in Solo Mode. Heroes will be instructed to Search via Hero Activation Cards. They can equip any Upgrade Card automatically, ignoring attribute and weight restrictions. If a Hero is killed, it will lose its equipped cards if it respawns.

The Actions and Reactions on Items are too complex to trigger from the AI cards and are omitted from the Solo Game.

When the Heroes search a Chest, the token is not removed in the solo mode.

Alchemy. It is important that Heroes cast Alchemy Spells, but this has been simplified a great deal. It is too complex for the Witch Master to manage a hand of Ingredient Cards for each Hero. Instead, the Activation cards simply “give” Heroes a set of Ingredients to use and the solo player selects the highest level Alchemy that can be resolved from a special Solo Mode Alchemy card.

Encounters and Objectives. The Solo Mode Encounters will only have Objectives for the Witch Master. All Objectives will have a health value and can be Attacked by the Heroes, for example, the Witch Master may be collecting souls on an Altar and the Heroes can Attack the Altar to destroy it. The Witch Master’s role will be to protect and advance the Objective while the Heroes are attacking the Legion of Darkness and the Objectives. If the Heroes destroy the Objective or Kill all the Witches, they win.

We are continuing to refine this system, with the main goal of removing as much overhead for the Witch Master as possible, while preserving the character of the game.

In the next Solo Update we will show some cards and worked examples.

Pick a side!

Welcome to the Nightmare
about 5 years ago – Thu, Feb 07, 2019 at 12:30:46 AM

Hello Heroes!

Mara was alert and excited. Night was falling and it was time to feed. She lay back in her bed, closed her eyes, and slipped into a deep trance-like state that was as close as she got to sleeping.

Her mind drifted across the dreamscape, looking for a psyche to invade. Her mind probed minions, taunting a Condemned with thoughts of freedom, a Ravenous with visions of a barren land with no food and a Twisted with a hale and beautiful body. But there was no sport and little sustenance in such weak beings. She needed something with more power to drain.

Suddenly, the Astral Plane warped and reformed around her, as another entity left the waking world and began to exert its own will on the malleable landscape. It could only be another Witch, certainly a meal worth taking. Mara watched carefully as the being revealed its likes and fears in its growing manifestation. No, this was not a Witch, it was a Demon. Still, perhaps the risk was worth taking. If Mara could drain a small fraction of its essence while it was distracted by her visions, her power would grow immeasurably. 

As she conjured images of weakness in the Demon’s slumber, she realized she had overstepped: she was losing control of the dream! Was the Demon simply waking? Or was it taking control? She had moments to decide if she should flee or gamble all for her prize. Then the truth became clear. She was waking! This was her esoteric domain. Never before had she been dragged from it. 

She tensed for an attack as she struggled to focus on the physical world. But all she could see were swirling mists as she was drawn into the Conjunction. 

Dark Rituals: Night Terrors is a Kickstarter Exclusive mini-expansion that contains everything you need to add a new Witch, Mara, and the Twisted Minions to any of your games:

· 7 highly detailed plastic miniatures

o 1 Mara

o 6 Twisted

· Large Mara ID Sheet

· Twisted ID Card

· Grimoire

· 5 Witchcraft Cards

As well as the miniatures, the expansion contains ID cards for the new Characters. Since Mara is a Witch, she will have one of the large ID Sheets with all her stats and powers. Instead of using the spells from the core game, she has 6 new spells on her own Grimoire. There are five new Witchcraft cards that you can shuffle into the Witchcraft deck for any game. These spells will continue the dream-like theme and are especially atmospheric when used with Mara.

Mara and the Twisted can be used in any Encounter. You can mix and match any Witches with any Creatures and Minions in any game. We will give you complete instructions to balance your Encounters, which will be as simple as adjusting the Witch Master’s Stamina pool.

We have over 130 first-time Kickstarter users! Wow! Here’s some information for new backers. Add-ons are optional extras that you can purchase to extend the game. Neither the core game, nor the Cursed Fjord expansion, need these Add-Ons to be enjoyed. You pledge for the Add-Ons by simply increasing your pledge total to cover the items you want. Much later, you will be sent an invitation to the Pledge Manager, where you choose the individual products.  Click here, for full details in Update #10. 

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Night Terrors is our third and final Witch and Minion Add-On. If you wanted something smaller, we have revealed all our cross-over miniatures, too. If you are interested in one, or some, of these Add-Ons, you have seen them all and can make your choice!

Related to this, there have been many questions about an “All-in” pledge that makes it easier to get all the Add-Ons. We will create this bundle once all our Add-Ons have been revealed. Although we have completed all our smaller, mini based Add-Ons, we still have something to conjure up for you. 

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We have some disappointing news for those of you asking for The Order of Vampire Hunters.  We are incredibly pleased that so many of you are interested in the game and it is hard to let you down.  We were totally surprised by the level of interest in the comments and PMs, especially since we took late pledges.

Here is the current situation.  We have limited stock and it is stored at fulfillment hubs in different locations around the world.  There are many factors involved in getting this remaining stock ready for sale and we could not complete all the tasks during this Kickstarter.

Currently, all we can do is tell you our plans. Obviously, we will be ready to sell the remaining stock at some point. It is possible that this will happen while the Dark Rituals Pledge Manager is open, but since this involves coordination with several other companies, we can make no promises.  We cannot let this delay Dark Rituals. 

Pick a side!

Mini Update
about 5 years ago – Wed, Feb 06, 2019 at 01:00:36 AM

Welcome Witch Masters!

No, this is a not a small update, it’s an update about our miniatures. We have had many questions about the size, material and quality, here are some details.  Finally this update closes with information about our resin minis. 

A normal human-sized miniature is 32mm from the bottom of the foot to eye-level. There is a little variation between the humans and a lot of variation for the Legion of Darkness.

As you can see our largest miniatures need a different term! Backers have asked other size questions: bases for Heroes will be 25mm in diameter; the Soul and Botanical 3D Tokens are 15mm and the Summoning Circles and Chests are 20mm.

It is sometimes useful to see new miniatures compared to existing miniatures:

We were asked some size questions about Horvath and Dagon and for different angles of some minis. I hope these images help.

We could just say we will produce great miniatures. If you believe us, you can stop reading. In the rest of this update we will pull back the curtain and explain the steps we are actively taking to produce state-of-the-art board game miniatures. That’s a bold statement! Read on.

A good miniature starts with a great sculpt. You have seen many of our renders and we are getting extremely positive feedback. Thank you all. By working with highly talented artists who generate great concepts and sculpts, we are off to a perfect start.

Next, you need a sculpt specifically designed for the scale of your miniature. A wonderful, but totally anatomically accurate, sculpt will simply not translate well to a mini. My wrist is about 1.75”, or 44mm, thick. Scale that down and it would be less than 1/20” or under 1mm. My belt is 1/8” thick, it would be invisible scaled down. Sculptors exaggerate details so that they are visible on the mini, without looking cartoony. We are working with artists that have seen many of their sculpts in production and this experience is invaluable. We are confident that we have sculpts that will make great miniatures.

But we are not simply hoping that the translation from render to miniature will work. Improving on our experience with Vampire Hunters, we implemented a new process to sculpt the miniatures for Dark Rituals. Once the first sculpt is ready, we 3D print it to see how these details will come out on an actual miniature. Our goal here is to see if the sculpt we can see blown up on the screen will still look good as an inch high figure. We think our sculpts look fantastic when they are little minis! For some of them we also cast resin prototypes, so that we can see exactly how these details will stand out once they are painted.

The material used for the mass produced minis plays an important role. The minis will be PVC, as expected, but there are many grades of PVC available. We are selecting a slightly harder PVC than we used for The Order of Vampire Hunters. This will retain details a little better, but will still be able to flex a bit, reducing breakage. For Dark Rituals, we will use a different plastic, ABS, for the extremely thin parts, like weapons. ABS stays straight, preventing thin parts bending when they are ejected from the mold or during transport. No more wavy spears!

Miniatures are cast in steel molds and the process for making them is continuously improving. Our artists will be fully involved in the review process for the molds, too. Because our artists have been through this process before, they know the maximum level of detail that can be obtained in the mold and will push to ensure we get the best results possible.

Manufacturing is not just a matter of pressing a button on the injection molding machine. Many factors affect final quality, for example the temperature of the plastic being injected, the pressure, the temperature of the steel mold, and the set time before ejection. We will work with factories that understand these factors and have experienced operators to fine tune the machines. We are taking two steps to ensure this. First, we are in direct contact with the factories. There is no intermediary that will filter information, make decisions for us, or switch us to a different production line. Second, we are only considering factories that have already produced miniatures that fit the bill as “state of the art” game components. Finally, we will have an expert in miniature production review the samples from the factory, to ensure the quality matches the requirements we set for the manufacturer.

So, in summary, we are quite pleased with our first experience with miniature production for The Order of Vampire Hunters, but we intend to push the envelope and do better by:

· Starting with great art.

· Working with experienced miniature artists that have lived through production cycles.

· Upgrading the materials for manufacturing.

· Being involved with production at all key steps.

· Working directly with manufacturers with a proven track record.

We have always been amazed at the support our backers have shown.  Even more so at the enthusiasm for getting our resin prototypes!

There has been too much interest to supply them as Add-Ons to this Kickstarter.  Don’t worry, we have a plan!  We will be making some resin miniatures available after this Kickstarter ends with the intention of delivering them to you as soon as we can.  We want you to have the chance to paint them before your game arrives.   

We have two options, direct sales from our website or a small, short Kickstarter project.  Our first thoughts are a set of the 4 core Heroes, a set of the 3 core Witches and Haborym, the Demon Lord in the core box.  Please let us know in the comments on this update if are interested in a Resin Mini Kickstarter campaign, and which minis we should offer. The more information we have, the more likely we can make backers happy.

Pick a side!

Black Rose War Collaboration
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 05, 2019 at 01:12:18 AM

Welcome Witch Masters! 

Earlier in the campaign, we saw some backers asking for a male Witch and other backers asking for a Black Rose Wars cross over. It was so hard to keep quiet! Now all can be revealed.

We have worked with the guys at Ludus Magnus Studio before, giving them the Vampire Lord, Marku, for Sine Tempore. It was great fun to play the Dark Rituals: Malleus Maleficarum demo with them at Spiel in Essen last year. Now it is time to borrow something from them!

Here is our version of Howard and Dagon, reimagined as one monstrous combination, a Witch and Familiar as one entity, Horvath and Dagon.

All Witch ID Sheets are double sided and they are flipped when the Aura of Evil triggers the Witch Master’s forces to advance to their stronger forms. This Witch ID Sheet is double sided too, but we are doing something a little different.

At the start of the game, you will use the stronger side, representing Horvath and Dagon. As the pair takes Wounds, it is actually Dagon that is taking the damage. Horvath is able to draw on Dagon’s life essence to ignore the damage and also to cast more powerful spells. But when the Heroes have done sufficient damage, Dagon is killed and the ID sheet is flipped to Horvath alone. The Horvath side has lower stats and different spells. Similarly the Witchcraft spells are weakened when Dagon is killed. 

This Add-On gives Witch Masters an interesting option, a slight boost early in the game with the risk of a setback later on. 

We have also included another free gift with this Add-On, the cards to add another Creature to the game if you have a suitable mini! Black Rose Wars’ backers already have their own Dagon that can be used, but if you want to use these cards, you can use any miniature in your collection.

Pick a side!