Dark Rituals: Malleus Maleficarum

Too Many Stretch Goals!
about 5 years ago – Sun, Feb 03, 2019 at 01:07:18 AM

Hello Heroes!

We are trying to limit ourselves to one update per day and that has put us behind with unlocked Stretch Goal announcements. Let’s fix that now.

At $432K, we upgraded the insert material. This is a simple upgrade and there is not much to say. It should resist wear and tear better.

While we were looking at all the minis we had unlocked, we had a crazy idea. There seem to be enough minis and other components to have a Witch Master vs Witch Master skirmish game. The Attacking Hordes Pledge has 4 Witches and those of you that get the Add-Ons could have as many as 7. That’s enough for 2 Witches per side, with the option to summon more into the game, if you have them. We will include suggestions for how 2 players can share control of each side, so it can be played as a 2-4 player game. 

Note that we don’t think we can make this work with the core game alone, so we are not calling this a Stretch Goal and we unlocked it as soon as we thought of the idea. This is just a bit of fun with your existing components and will not be an official variant in the core game. But since 90% of our backers have the Attacking Hordes pledge, most of you will be able to use these Encounters. These two scenarios and any instructions will be provided as PDFs on the Dark Gate Games website.

We showed you the Demon rules in Update #21 and posted Chalcosoma at the same time. It unlocked quickly, so now you have 3 Demons and 18 Demon Activation Cards to define who controls the Demon turn by turn.

The most recent unlock is an upgrade to both materials and game play, suggested by backer Steve Kozlowski. In our lore, Demons are the most powerful creatures on Neemoss, but the game focuses on the Witches. We had been thinking that Demons are not very enthusiastic about being the Witches pawns when they are transported through the Conjunction. After all, this a fight of the Witches’ making. Our plan for them was that they would play like powerful Creatures with high Strength and Resistance. But Steve Kozlowski pointed out they seemed a bit underwhelming and looking at them from a different angle, we can see that. So, we’ll give them a bigger ID sheet and used the extra space to add 1 or 2 more special powers to them. There are only three Demons in the game, so it will not take too long to balance.

The Facebook SSG is dragging a little, but one more card was unlocked a few days ago. We are at well over 3000 backers now. If one quarter of the people getting this e-mailed update share this post twice today, the remaining three cards will be unlocked immediately. Don’t let The Order of Vampire Hunters backers beat you! They had no trouble with 2500 shares!

 Our Facebook Posts 

Finally, it’s not really a stretch goal, but we want to give a shout out to our 106 Italian backers! That’s enough for us to translate the core rules in to Italian and give them a rules PDF. If other locations get to 100 backers we will consider doing the same for their language too.

Pick a side!

Witch Escapes
about 5 years ago – Sat, Feb 02, 2019 at 05:02:31 PM

Welcome Witch Masters!

Girtiya paced the length of her cell, at least as far as she could go before her chains stopped her dead. Turning, she paced again in the opposite direction. She could see the deep grooves she had worn in the cracked flagstone floor. How long had she been here, walking back and forth? Two hundred years? Two hundred and fifty? 

As she thought about her punishment, her tension rose, making her grind her teeth against her gag. If only she could wear through the Demon hide strap stuffed in her mouth as easily as her feet wore down the floor. The muzzle muted her powers, without it she could easily break out of here.

Those were the terms of her imprisonment. She was stuck here, listening to the others moan and whine, until she could break free. Thinking about the havoc she would cause when she got out. What a pleasure it would be to feel the energy of Neemoss leaping from her fingers once again.

With a slow breath, she calmed her mind. Focus on the power, not on the words. If she could only reach the energy around her without speaking the phrases her demon-god taught her. She stared at her chain’s anchors on the walls one more time, another breath and she closed her eyes. The anchors shattered. She stared, wide-eyed for a moment, then she concentrated on each of her fellow captives one by one, their bodies turning to dust and ash.

Her sentence was over! Girtiya allowed herself a moment of triumph as she stared at the heavy wooden door, knowing it was no match for her new magic. But before she could splinter the barrier, it dissolved as a swirling mist swept into the room, sucking her into the Conjunction. It seemed like Girtiya would not be roaming free in Neemoss after all.

Dark Rituals: Prisoners of Neemoss is a Kickstarter Exclusive mini-expansion that contains everything you need to add a new Witch and her Minions to all your games:

· 7 highly detailed plastic miniatures

o 1 Girtiya

o 6 Chained

· Large Girtiya ID Sheet

· Chained ID Card

· Grimoire

· 5 Witchcraft Cards

As well as the miniatures, the expansion contains ID cards for the new Characters. Since Girtiya is a Witch, she will have one of the large ID Sheets with all her stats and powers, with plenty of room to show her scarification. Instead of using the spells from the core game, she has 6 new spells on her own Grimoire. Together with five new Witchcraft cards, this will add more variation to the game.

Girtiya and the Minions can be used in any Encounter. While we think it is more thematic to use these minis together, 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.

It is truly amazing that we have 100+ first time Kickstarter backers. We are grateful to everyone that backs us, but it’s amazing to think that people see so many projects and then choose to join Kickstarter to back Dark Rituals.

Here’s some information for new backers. Add-Ons are optional extras that you can purchase to extend the game. If you want to get the Prisoners of Neemoss, or any of the other Add-Ons, increase the amount you pledge to cover the items you want. Much later, you will be sent an invitation to the Pledge Manager, where you choose the individual products.   Full details can be found in Update #10, click here. 

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We have another free gift for you! This is a totally new idea we thought of during the campaign, as we saw the content growing. 

As things stand, we can see no rules that would need to change to play games where two Witch Masters fight each other! All you need are enough miniatures. The Attacking Hordes Pledge has 4 Witches and those of you that get the Add-Ons could have as many as 7. We will create 2 Encounters that can be played as Witch vs Witch Skirmish games.  

We will include suggestions for how 2 players can share control of each side, so it can be played as a 2-4 player game. These battles will be played with 2 Witches per side, and the Summon Witch Action can bring other Witches into play, if you have them.

Note that we don’t think we can make this work with the core game alone, so we are not calling this a Stretch Goal and we will unlock it right now and give it to you. This is just a bit of fun and will not be an official variant in the core game. But since 90% of our backers have the Attacking Hordes pledge most of you will be able to use these Encounters. These two scenarios and any instructions will be provided as PDFs on the Dark Gate Games website.

Pick a side!

Welcome to the Cursed Fjord
over 5 years ago – Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 09:54:19 PM

Hello Heroes! 

The last rules update, Demons Revealed, completed our information on the core One vs Many game and we would like to move on to The Cursed Fjord Expansion in our sweet spot pledge. Many of you have selected this pledge and we are looking forward to describing the expansion in detail.

Skriga paddled her boat idly. Life at sea suited her fine. Sure, there were no stupid minions to kick, but no Demons to kick her either. And plenty of fish! Leave them in the bottom of the boat for a couple of days and they get really tasty. Sea dragons would fetch the really ugly fishes from the depths, if you shout at them loud enough. Ugly ones tasted best and it felt good to push the sea dragons around. They were so full of themselves! Anything could swim. She could learn if she wanted to.

Looking up she saw a storm brewing, small but close. Perfect, everyone likes a little rain in their face, trickling down their backs. She turned the boat to head towards the better weather. 

As she paddled, it became clear this was not a simple storm. Water splashed and circled in the air, the vortex moving towards her faster than she moved towards it. Then it was upon her, and everything changed. She was under the water, not on it, and her precious boat was torn to pieces around her. And it was cold, so cold. As she floated towards the dim and strangely diffuse light above her, the cold dragged her mind to a dark, silent place. And then she cracked her face against the sheet of ice above her.

Let’s start with a look at the contents and then we’ll move on to game play changes.

There are four Norse Heroes in the Cursed Fjord ready to do battle. Each Hero comes with its own Hero ID and unique Weapon Card, but it is each Hero’s Alchemy Book that really sets them apart. All four Alchemy Books have 8 Alchemy spells, triggered by the right combination of Botanical Ingredients. 

Here is Jarl, a chieftain without a people. He abandoned his town when his brothers were killed on a fishing trip. Great sailors and fishermen and powerful fighters, Jarl knew that their disappearance could not be an accident or a troll attack. He had to believe the nonsense about witches was true, even if only the children in town agreed with him. Vengeance has consumed him.

The art and lore for this update really sets it in a Norse community. The loot card, a weapon or attack upgrade, shows how the art builds atmosphere.

These lands are not only filled with strapping men.

You can see here how our art team translates concept art into a great sculpt.

Trapped beneath the ice for decades, Skriga could barely be called alive. Frozen in place, she was too chilled to draw power from Neemoss but the fading tendrils of her magic could feel the dead and drowned around her, together with the rotting flotsam and jetsam that is human decay. Her slowed thoughts could imagine new spells to use her surroundings to her advantage and when the ice began to thaw, she was a new Witch. We might call her a necromancer, although she had no name for what she had become. 

The Legion of Darkness in the expansion are led by Skriga, a watery Witch transported to the frozen wastes by the vagaries of the Conjunction. 

Skriga comes with an ID Sheet and a Grimoire. Witches have strong contact to the magic from Neemoss. They do not need Botanicals to cast spells, this power lies within them. When they Attack or Defend, they will cast spells triggered by their Attack and Defense values. These spells are explained on the Witches’ Grimoire, a unique set of powers shared by a set of related Witches. You have seen one Grimoire in the Core box, one with Karakurt and another here. Skriga effectively has 6 unique abilities.

In keeping with her necromantic powers, many of her Legion are animated dead. Her Minions, the Draugr, are a little fresher than the Creatures, but no less gruesome. These animated corpses of drowned sailors walk beside her as she marches inland.

Are the Draugr bound by magic or the ropes from washed up fishing boats? Who can tell?

This expansion has some components we can’t really call minis. Lindorm is 70mm high. There is no limit to its size, as its necro-worm form is simply dead bodies reformed by Skriga’s perverse magic. Lindorm is, of course, the source of the Lindworm legends.

The largest miniature in the box is Jotun, a long dead giant, resurrected to fight by Skriga’s side. Almost as powerful as a Witch, this monstrous combination of Earthly arcana  and Neemossian magic is a powerful ally. Or enemy.

You need to see the miniatures side by side to judge their size. Here is how they stack up, first some Heroes:

 The smaller minis in the Legion of Darkness are human sized: 

But the large minis are huge:

There are 4 double-sided 25cm square map tiles, each with unique art for this frigid and damp land. They feature in the 5 Encounters forming a Campaign that tells the story of Skriga emerging from her icy prison and forming a coven with the other Witches that are here already. You can use any of the other Witches in Skriga’s coven. And also other Heroes too, if you can imagine favorites journeying north and aiding Jarl.

Expansions are great for introducing new rules to the game, as players should already be quite experienced with the core rule set. Here are three examples of additions to game play in The Cursed Fjord. 

Lindorm has 3 Health, quite high for a Creature. Each time it takes a Wound, it spawns a smaller version of itself, the Wormling Minion.  Think of its decaying flesh reforming as a smaller worm as you hack it to death.

There is some running water, brooks and creeks, on these new map tiles.  Skriga is the only Witch that can cross the running water, other Witches treat these features as walls (water does not block LOS). This gives the Heroes some defensive opportunities.

Finally, we’ll talk about an interesting interaction between Accalia, Skriga and Alfrik Wolf-Friend. 

Accalia is a Nattmara or female werewolf bound to Skriga. She can exist as one of two forms in the game, either her Accalia were-form or Accalia wolf-form. For simplicity, we’ll say “Wolf” and “Werewolf”. Here is an abridged version of the rules.

Accalia can enter the game in two ways:

· Skriga can play the Accalia Witchcraft card to Summon the Werewolf to a Summoning Circle (this is normal behaviour for summoning a creature). 

· Alfrik Wolf-Friend has an Alchemy spell to Befriend a Wolf. This spell will place the Wolf miniature in his Area, which can then be controlled as if it were a Serf. 

Only one form of the Accalia miniature can be present on the board, so things are a little different if she is already present:

· Skriga can play the Accalia Witchcraft card to convert the Wolf to the Werewolf, replacing the Wolf miniature with the Werewolf miniature.

· If the Werewolf is in Alfrik Wolf-Friend’s Area, he can use the same Befriend Alchemical Spell to calm it, converting it back to the Wolf, swapping the Werewolf mini for the Wolf mini.

So both sides can bring Accalia into the game and both sides can convert Accalia from one form to another.

So where is this Accalia Wolf-Form miniature? We could not add it to the Cursed Fjord at the start of the project, but as you know, Stretch Goals allow us to increase our content. We are teasing our first Attacking Hordes specific Stretch Goal, Accalia Wolf-Form. If this Stretch Goal is unlocked the Accalia Wolf-Form mini and her ID Card will be added to the Attacking Hordes Stretch Goal Box. If not, we will find a way to rework this transformation to a Human Serf. But Wolf <-> Werewolf is just too cool and we trust you will reach this goal.

What? Did you think we would start with a Horned Helmet miniature upgrade as our first Norse Stretch Goal?

If you are an EB Lone Defender backer and want to switch to the Attacking Hordes pledge, check the FAQ. You will keep your EB gift Swordsman.

Finally, we will close with another thank you to our backers. This information has been in the FAQ from day one, but we want to make it clear to everyone. This game cannot be made without the backers that come to Kickstarter and show us their support. Yes, there will be a Pledge Manager and yes, we will allow $1 backers and late backers full access to it, but none of that is possible without you. We want to reward all the people that gave us their full support here and now during the campaign.

You will only be able to get the Attacking Hordes Pledge for $145 during the Kickstarter Campaign. The Cursed Fjord Expansion will be available in the Pledge Manager as a $50 Add-On. In effect, backers that get the expansion now will be given a $5 discount. Note, you will still get all the Attacking Hordes specific Stretch Goals if you take The Cursed Fjord Add-On in the PM. The only difference you will see is the $5 price change.

Pick a side!

Catching Up
over 5 years ago – Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 10:44:16 PM

Welcome Witch Masters!

UndeadViking has posted his review. We were wondering why it we did not see it sooner, but once it arrived, we knew immediately. It’s really long! He put an enormous amount of effort into this and we really appreciate his support.

Identification Rings were unlocked in the small hours of last night. These rings help the Heroes stand out on the board, especially when there are a lot of miniatures in play. We will pick the final colors in the future when we see the actual samples of colored plastic that are available (there’s a huge choice) but thanks for the feedback on your favorite colors. Green and purple were the overwhelming winners. Red and orange were next and blue was way down the list! What color will my wife play with if there is no blue?

As I am sure you realized, we wanted to time yesterday’s Demon rules update with the Chalcosoma Stretch Goal being posted. The whole update made more sense if you could see that more Demons were on their way. We don’t like to show too many SGs at once, so we kept this one back. We had always planned to have plastic inserts to hold the miniatures. This stretch goal will be to use a heavier weight plastic that will hold up to wear and tear better.

This would be a natural point to answer some questions we have had about the boxes. Unfortunately, the boxes are among the last components to be designed, so it is hard to give definitive answers. We do not know all the items we are making yet, so it’s hard to fit them in the boxes. But we will do our best. 

Q) Will the stretch goal items be packaged inside the core box? 

A) For the most part, no. If a stretch goal upgrade directly affects the core box contents, then it will be changed. So Stamina Crystals and larger Grimoires/Alchemy Books will be in the core box. But bonus miniatures will not.

Q) So will there be one Stretch Goal Box with all the extra content?

A) There will be one or two Stretch Goal Boxes. The second will be added once we start to unlock Attacking Hordes specific Stretch Goals. Lone Defender backers will get the large Stretch Goal Box and Attacking Hordes backers will get both. These will probably be plain brown boxes, but they will have inserts for the minis. No minis will be stuffed into ziplock bags!

Q) Will all the Stretch Goal content fit in the core box? Will The Cursed Fjord expansion fit in the core box?

A) If you use our inserts to protect your miniatures, no. To be honest, it will be hard to combine boxes. Some players create custom inserts from foam core or chipboard. If you do that, you will certainly be able to reduce the number of boxes. But there is a lot of content! 

Q) Will the box inserts hold sleeved cards?

A) This is such a common question. It’s harder to answer than you think!

Sleeves make the cards a bit larger, say 2mm longer and 1mm wider. Also the corners are square, not rounded. We will make the insert big enough to fit the sleeves in these directions, it’s a small change.

Sleeves make the cards a lot thicker. Sometimes more than double the thickness. We will make the recesses for cards deeper than they need to be for the “naked” cards. But we cannot be certain that the recess will be deep enough for any or all types of sleeves. We will make these recesses as deep as we can, but we will be limited by the size of the box.

Q) What will come in retail-style boxes?

A) At the moment: the core game, The Cursed Fjord and The Spider’s Brood. 

Pick a side!

Demons Revealed
over 5 years ago – Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 01:10:42 AM

Hello Heroes!

Demons keep their true names secret to preserve their power. But the Heroes have discovered the name of the Demon Lord in the core box, Haborym.  Today we are going to reveal some lore and game play for the Demons, the largest and most powerful Characters in the game.

Pekka was in a foul mood. Her breakfast, a thin Ravenous, was too fresh and only a little stringy. She wandered through the puffball forest, smashing fungus and skulls alike, but she could not find joy or distraction in the task. 

From behind, she heard the shuffle and rustle of the Scarecrow, loose from its post. “Hey, who let you down? Shouldn’t there be a stick up your ...”

“Haborym is looking for you!” the 'crow interrupted.

“Haborym sent you?”

“No, I came on my own. I thought you would want to know...” the Scarecrow paused. “So you can hide.”

“Hide! How dare you!” Pekka gestured and a throbbing ball of green goo shot towards the Scarecrow, knocking half its stuffing loose, leaving it stunned. “Okay,” Pekka thought to herself, “now would be a good time to hide.”

Witches dominate the Legion of Darkness on Earth, but on Neemoss, they are not at the top of the food chain (literally). Demons are all powerful and make life miserable for everything around them, including the Witches. 

We are really pleased with the resin Haborym. It’s more like a work of art than a game component. You can see the detail in this photo, but you don’t really get a sense of scale. This image will help, showing two Demons beside the Warden. They are suitably imposing when they are on the table top. 

There is one Demon in the core game and we have two more in the Stretch Goals. Leiurus was unlocked a long time ago and we hope Chalcosoma will unlock soon.  

All Demons come with:

· 1 Oversized Mini

· Demon ID Card

· 6 Activation Cards

Our campaigns culminate with an Encounter where the Witches perform a Dark Ritual to summon a Demon. We’re not telling you our campaign stories, but you can imagine the situation. The Witches think they can curry favor by bringing a Demon to such a soft land. Or they are losing the battle with the Heroes and the support of a Demon is worth the risk. Perhaps they just revert to their submissive nature and want to be whipped! 

Although we are keeping the Campaign stories close to our chest, you need to know how the Demons affect the game. By now, you should understand the ID card, including Haborym’s soul eating Reaction. Here’s a surprise: Demons are not fully under the control of the Witch Master! Crazed, confused and spiteful, a Demon thrown into battle directly after passage through the Conjunction is a force of nature, wreaking havoc and spreading chaos.  Think of Demons as NPCs that enter the game, mainly working with the Witch Master, but sometimes acting on their own desires, desires that are not always aligned with those of the Witch Master.

Once the Demon has spawned, the Witch Master must draw a Demon Activation card at the start of their turn. This card will dictate how the Demon is controlled this turn. As an introduction to the concept, we have created some simplified cards that are easy to understand without the full rules. 

For example, the simplest card might be: 

On the turn this card is played, the Demon is fully under the Witch Master’s control. They can choose to activate it like a normal Character and take one or two Actions. Demons are powerful, so the chances are they will use it, but they are free to use another Character. 

This should be clear too. The Demon is dazed, or considering its next meal; there is flavor text on the real cards, but we want to focus on the rules at the moment. The Witch Master still gets a turn, but they cannot activate the Demon. Other cards are more interesting! 

The Demon goes crazy!!! The Witch Master makes Attack after Attack, ignoring the normal two Actions rule. Not only will this burn up the Witch Master’s Stamina, but the Witch Master must use the Demon to Attack Characters from the Legion of Darkness too. Worse, there may be an objective in the Area, for example “Heroes must destroy the Blood Altar, Resistance 4, Health 5”. If the objective can be targeted, the Demon must Attack it too. Demons are jerks. 

The Demon is angry and turns on the Witches. This card allows the Hero Players to choose the Demon’s Action. The Stamina is still spent from the Witch Master’s Stamina Pool and all rules must be followed, but the Heroes can make the Demon Attack the Legion of Darkness Characters (or even attack an objective, if the Heroes’ objective is to destroy something). Or Move it somewhere, etc.

Some cards have more than one instruction, for example: 

When these cards come into play, the first instruction is followed as described above. The card is left in play and the next instruction is followed on the Witch Master’s next turn. These cards represent the Characters on the board being able to read the Demon’s intentions. In game terms, they let the players mitigate the chaos caused by these powerful beings. Once all the instructions have been resolved, the card is discarded as a reminder that a new card should be drawn.

This is not as chaotic as it sounds. Players will know the cards and since the decks are small there is some expectation of what will happen. A Witch Master that puts all the Witches and Creatures in the same Area as the Demon is taking a risk if the “Attack all Targets” card is still in the deck; in fact this card can work well for the Witch Master if there are only Heroes in the Demon’s Area. Further, there are more double, and even some triple, turn cards in the deck than we show on these simplified cards. You will get a chance to duck away from the Demon before it starts to rampage. Both sides need to be wary of the Demon and play with the Activation Deck in Mind. 

The Demon section in the rule book will explain the rules for interpreting the cards and exactly which players make which decisions, although we believe it is simple and clear. You may create Demon Decks by combining the Demon Activation Cards from different Demons and this will be explained too. Some cards are specific to different Demons and should only be used when that Demon is in play. This gives each Demon their own nature. At first glance, these decks may seem small, but don’t forget, they are not AI decks and the cards rarely take direct control of the Demon. They simply select which players control the Demon. 

We have focused on the final appearance of the Demons, but they do appear in early Encounters. We are not revealing all their secrets, so you will have more surprises when the box arrives. We hope you like this unusual change in the game play and that you look forwards to playing some suitably cinematic climaxes to your campaigns.  

Pick a side!