Anita Begins, Cary's Grand Reveal, the All-In Launch, and Happy Thanksgiving!
about 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 06:10:29 PM

Hi guys! It is upon us! Can you feel it?

In less than an hour at 9am PST we will launch the All-In pledge at two different levels: the $288 level and the $313 level. Now, we did make a change to the $313 level. We know that this whole thing has upset quite a few people, which was never our intention. And we know that it has stressed a number of you out, wondering how you can do the $313 pledge this weekend. So, we've decided that we're going to make the $313 Gameplay All-In the price of the All-In for the entire rest of the campaign (including in the pledge manager.) We realize this will potentially take some of the excitement and wind out of the sails of this weekend, but we don't want people to feel like they're missing out if they don't get the deal this weekend. So, from here on out, that's the price of the Gameplay All-In. We just wanted to let you all know about that. 

Now, if you're wondering what's in that Gameplay All-In, here is the graphic we posted a couple of days ago once again to show you what you'll be getting:

And, if you're wondering how to upgrade to the higher pledge level, check out our last update here. Furthermore, if you're wondering about those last couple of expansions, here's a look inside one more of them: Of Art and Oblivion, the expansion for Cary James, the actor.

Cary's Grand Entrance

Cary James is an actor with ambition to spare and grand dreams. He envisions himself as the leader of a troupe known the world over for its mastery of the craft. He dreams of being the name on every patron's lips at the end of his performances. And he imagines his name headlining productions of both the stage and screen. Cary has finally found a script that he thinks will propel him into the spotlight. It has everything he could hope for in a play. Now Cary's mind is set: he is going to become the king of the stage, even if it kills him - and those around him. As the production unfolds, though, some dark, lingering questions begin to arise. Who is the man hiding in Camilla's prop chest? Why does a strange, powerful energy seem to radiate from the golden mask? And who is the eldritch Stranger who has begun to haunt Cary's dreams? The answers are coming, and they will unfold into a production of sheer, magnificent madness.

Here are the contents for Cary's expansion. (Please note that some elements of it are still in process.)

Cary's expansion, Of Art and Oblivion, is available right now for $60. You can add it to your pledge by clicking "Manage your pledge", then clicking "Change your pledge", then adding the total for it to your current amount and clicking "Continue." Or, it is also included in the Gameplay All-In pledge level which comes out today. 

Video Update

So today we had our first successful live stream! Woohoo! It was so good to get back into that! Thanks to everyone who joined me today. If you missed it, you can actually still watch the video (assuming you want to wade through two hours of me talking.) There are some spoilers in there (just minis - no stories), though, so it might be worth scrubbing through the video to find those. =) You can watch it here:

Not sure why the image is so blurry and off-colored, but the actual video isn't. And, for those who don't like Facebook, take heart: I am pretty positive we'll be able to have YouTube up and running as well for the next one. 

I also filmed the next video in our How to Play series tonight, so that should be up for you all before too long.

Anita's Expansion Begins

Today our daily unlocks split. We actually aren't quite finished with the Masquerades, but all that's left for them is cards, so they have shambled over into the Core-level unlocks. At the Otherworld level now, we are going to begin unlocking the new Wanderer expansion for Anita. We'll have more info on her soon, as Cary does not like to share the spotlight. But in the meantime, here is what we unlocked today: 

Well, that's it for this update, friends! For those around the world, I hope you have a fantastic day. And for those in the US, Happy Thanksgiving!

The Last Masquerade, The Ins and Outs of the All-In, Let's Live Stream Again, and More!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 11:18:57 PM

Hey friends! I hope you all have big plans for the rest of this week, whether you're celebrating in the US or just enjoying yourself in your own home country. Speaking of celebrations and such, we've seen quite a few questions on the All-In offer we mentioned a couple days ago, so we're going to dive into that thoroughly. But first, some more videos!

Bairnt over at One Stop Co-Op Shop dropped not one but TWO videos today: one showing the setup for the game and one showing him playing through the first round. What a guy! Now, a couple caveats on these videos: Bairnt does play through an encounter, so there are mild spoilers. (Though he played so well that actually very little gets revealed, and consequently the path he chose ended up not being very scary. LOL!) There are also a couple of very minor rules errors, mostly relating to using Domain cards (namely, you don't have to use a Domain card alone and you only have to have the matching domains on your dashboard to perform a Domain card's ability - you don't have to spend them) and Malformations (their decks should be played in order from 1-3, and engaging with a Wanderer will often end in their card being discarded), but other than that these are solid videos from a great guy that you should check out.

Let's Try a Live Stream Again

Speaking of videos, what do you say we try live streaming again? The last time was a dumpster fire, but I'm going to try the video at a different location which will hopefully mean that we won't have the same technical issues we did last time. I'm going to shoot for 3pm PST this time, as I was told 4pm was a little late in some parts of the world. I realize it's not much earlier, but I think it's probably as close to good as we're going to get. (We can always try earlier next time if this is still too late for some, but then we may be too early for others.)

I will probably be on Facebook, though I'm going to try to have it streaming to both YouTube and Facebook at once. And I will have the video embedded on the campaign page, so you (hopefully) will be able to find it right there. 

These were so cool in the last Deep Madness campaign, and I feel really bad we haven't been able to get it going thus far in this one. But hopefully tomorrow will be the day that everything works out. =)

The Ins and Outs of the All-In

We have seen a lot of comments wondering about the All-In deal we'll be offering over this coming weekend. So, let's discuss! 

First of all, the $313 pledge level will be available to everyone all weekend long, through Cyber Monday. Then we will do slightly cheaper doorbuster pledges in limited quantities of 200 each, starting on Thursday morning at 9am PST as previously discussed. If this is too early for some, then following pledge levels we can try to do later in the day.  The $288 one will be the cheapest and will come first, followed by a $293 level on Friday, $298 on Saturday, $303 on Sunday, and $308 on Monday. Once again, I stress that the $313 level will be available the whole time. If you don't feel like trying for the limited quantity pledges, then don't. You'll still be saving plenty on this pledge level. 

Next, why are we doing this? There are two reasons. The first is, we think it's a chance to have some fun with the whole Black Friday thing, while offering our backers a solid discount. (Regardless of pledge level.) The second is, we always knew it would be tough running a campaign this time of the year, but we ended up having to do it in the end. What we didn't know (or expect) was that there would be so many other surprise high-profile campaigns launching in the same timeframe, including one from a certain company with the initials AR. When we learned this - and figured out that Kickstarter had decided not to like us - we knew we had to change our strategy in order to keep the campaign moving and keep people interested. Thus we switched to the daily unlocks, and thought up this weird little experiment. Basically, we're pulling out all the stops and going against conventional wisdom to create the absolute best (and most successful) campaign we can. I always wanted this to be a campaign you couldn't look away from. I guess you can tell me at the end of it if we succeeded.

We've seen that some of you aren't very happy about this strategy, but hopefully now you can at least better understand why we chose to go this way. And hopefully you can have fun with this in the spirit it was intended, rather than getting upset. Regardless, some of you will likely still be completely against this, and that's okay. That's your right. Though I hope that, even if this causes you to leave the campaign, we can (as I've said before) still be friends. =)

But enough of this "telling it like it is", how will this thing work, and how do you get it? First and most importantly for our early bird backers, DON'T CANCEL YOUR PLEDGE. Your pledge number is the way we can tell if you qualify for the EB or not, and if you cancel then we will not know that you were with us from day one. When the pledge becomes available, click "Manage your pledge" just like you would if you were adding add-ons. 

Next, you will select your new pledge level. The first thing you'll see is a pledge that's highlighted by a blue box that says "Current reward". The new pledge level will be under that Current reward level. (If you're in the Core level, it will be two levels down, and if you're at the Otherworld level, it will be directly below your current level.) This picture isn't overly useful as there's no new pledge level yet, but at least you can see where it will be.

In theory, you could probably sit on this page and just refresh it until the pledge levels pop up, too. Not positive it would work, but not sure why it wouldn't, either. =D 

Once the new pledge level shows up, click on it and then click "Continue". This will confirm your new pledge level, and you'll be good to go. 

That's all there is to it! Best of luck, but remember: this is, first and foremost, for fun. So let's all remember to be civil to each other. Please and thank you. =)

The Final Masquerade Arrives

The great beast lumbers toward you, its head lowered, its limbs dragging on the ground. Its mask is a soundless wail, its movements making it seem weak; impotent. You almost feel pity for this creature. Perhaps...

The columns of flesh spout like harpoons out of its back, spiraling toward you like homing beacons. Suddenly this horror is not slow or weak or powerless at all. It is raging toward you, its limbs flailing, those things on its back arcing toward you. You can't escape it. It's too near. It is going to crush you under its massive bulk, and there's nothing you can do about it -

Meet Masquerade Impotent, our fourth and final Masquerade Abomination. This massive atrocity seems weak and powerless, but once you get to know it you can clearly see what a grave error you originally made. The Masquerade family is now complete, the whole set added to both the Core pledge and the Otherworld Experience.

Tomorrow we will start on divergent paths: simultaneously we will be unlocking more core game content for the Core Experience, as well as our new Wanderer, Anita! Stay tuned, because it's going to be quite a day!

That's it for this update! Have a great day, and I hope to see you on the live stream! (Fingers crossed!)

Freedom is a Masquerade, A Peek at the Future, Mordecai's Return, and Our First Video!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 10:43:41 PM

Hi guys! It's a great day for more madness, don't you think?

Well, I've been promising you this since the start of the campaign. (Actually, for several months before the campaign as well.) And today, I finally have it for you - at least the first part of it. 

Here is the first in our series of How to Play Dawn of Madness. This one focuses on the game's various components, with me deep-diving into basically every... single... one. Because of this, this video is long. Like, 48 minutes long. For some people, this might be exactly what you're looking for. And for others, this might be like the visual equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard. So I'll let you judge. I'll be back with part two soon, which will feature a couple of game rounds and which should be much more interesting (and also better lit. Sorry, I'm still learning on all this video stuff. "Dang it, Jim, I'm a writer, not a videographer!") In the meantime, though, if this doesn't sound (or look) like your cup of tea, be sure to swing by the campaign page and check out Lance's video instead. (Michael, the King of Average, also still has that great campaign intro and miniatures unboxing video on there, too.)

Well, without further ado, here it is:

So. Did you make it through all 48+ minutes? 

What's in the Box?

Well, first of all, it's not one box. No, definitely not. And, unlike in the movie UHF (which is what I think of every time someone says that), the answer is not "NOTHING!"

Yesterday we unveiled that we would be doing a special all-in deal over this coming weekend. And some have wondered what exactly would be in that all-in pledge. Well, we're not going to go into all of the details yet. But we are going to show you the boxes and start to get you guessing. (Some of them won't take too much of a guess, but a couple probably will.) So, here are the boxes for the mostly all-in pledge coming up this weekend. Let the conjecturing begin!

The Return of Mordecai

In one of the worst-kept secrets in board gaming, we are pleased to announce the return of Mordecai Ashford, the anthropologist!  

Mordecai has been haunted for years by the horrific expedition he led into the jungles. He had it on good authority where the ruins lay, but he was entirely unprepared for what they contained.  Mordecai went in with a team of his brightest students. He returned alone. Now, many years later, Mordecai is still haunted by that disastrous trip. However, the word "haunting" takes on new meaning when his students show up at his door late one night. The ritual they began on a whim was never completed. And Mordecai is the fourth pillar needed to complete the final, terrible structure. 

What horrible secrets are waiting for Mordecai to unlock them? What is the meaning of the arcane symbols etched into the stone tablets atop the altar? Why does Mordecai feel as though his skin is stiffening, becoming thicker and more leathery? And what abyssal horror is waiting patiently in that stifling jungle to be loosed from its bonds? Mordecai - and you - will find out soon enough.

The Forgotten Void is Mordecai's expansion for Dawn of Madness. Containing a full story book, Mordecai's Wanderer and three Malformations, three Aberrations representing Mordecai's ill-fated students, a plethora of new cards, and four smaller boss minis that join with the big, horrible, magnificent central boss to form The Ritual, The Forgotten Void will be an excursion into the unknown that you are not likely to forget.  

The Forgotten Void is available right now for $60. To add it to your pledge, first click on Manage your pledge.

Next, click on Change your pledge.

And finally, enter the amount of the add-on you want plus the amount of the base pledge, and click Continue.

That's all there is to it! We'll figure out what your additional funds were for in the pledge manager after the campaign is finished.

The Masquerade of Freedom

Today we are joined by Masquerade Freedom as our daily unlock! Freedom's mask is beaming with irrepressible joy. Nothing can hold her down. Nothing can stop her. Except that she is wrapped in chains. And there are metal spikes that have been hammered into her body which the chains are wrapped around. 

Masquerade Freedom wants nothing more than to share her bounty with you. She wants to entwine you in her freedom, and keep tightening until you can no longer breathe. Liberty was meant to be shared, after all, and Freedom won't rest until she's done just that. Come to her. Let her enfold you in her warm embrace. Finally, you, too, will know the joy of being truly, utterly, free.

Masquerade Freedom is our daily unlock for today for both Core and Otherworld pledge levels. I hope you like her!

That's it for this update. Oh, except for one more thing! We've been running a contest on Facebook where we're giving away 10 copies of a Dawn of Madness Otherworld pledge to people who like and share the post, and today we wanted to reveal the first winner of that contest! Congratulations, Derek Gentle! You're the first winner! If you're currently a backer, Derek, then you can just drop down to $1 so you can still get updates and notifications as well as comment on the campaign. We'll take care of the rest after the campaign closes. (We'll also contact you through Facebook.)

Did you miss this before now? Well, the contest is still running, so go to https://www.facebook.com/deepmadnessgame/posts/962957187395019 for your chance to enter!

Okay, now that's really it. Have a great day, and we'll talk with you again shortly!

The Abomination Winner, An Awesome Change in Direction, and Vote for the Next Wanderer!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 06:11:59 PM

The battle has been vicious and violent. The air is still choked with acrid fog that is now tinged with the metallic scent of blood, as well as the sounds of bellows, shrieks, and crunching bones. At last, though, you see one of the beasts straighten, its body ripped and oozing but its cry triumphant. It's not hard to see from its silhouette which one has dominated.

The Executioner has fallen. The Masquerade has won.

This means that the Masquerades will be unlocked as a part of both the Core and Otherworld pledges, while the Executioners will become an add-on a little further down the line. However, eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that I didn't say stretch goals in that last sentence.

A Change in Direction

We realized the last day or two that we aren't unlocking stretch goals as fast as we would like. So, we're going to change our strategy. We will still have stretch goals that will be tied to funding and to social sharing. However, we're going to add something else, too - something that a number of you guys have been recommending that we institute. You may have guessed it by now: we're going to start doing daily unlocks. These won't be based on any sort of goal. You're just going to get them. 

We're going to start doing daily unlocks as of today. And our first unlock will be none other than Masquerade Bliss for both the Core and Otherworld pledges.

As for stretch goals, we are growing steadily closer on both the next funding stretch goal and the sharing stretch goal. Here's where we currently stand on the sharing one:

That means that the Core goal has already been achieved, and all we have left to do is unlock the miniature for the Otherworld! If you'd like to help us unlock The Plant's miniature, all you have to do is click the Facebook share button below the campaign stats at the top of the page.

We also officially unlocked our friendly neighborhood Spider Lady! She will now be wreaking havoc in Emily's finales!

Videos

I'm sorry we haven't gotten the videos out yet to you. I know how anxious you all are to see them. It's just taken a little longer than we thought to get them done. Having said that, after the feedback from the last update we're going to start with a couple of teaching videos. The first will be going through the various components of Dawn of Madness and saying what they are and what they do, as well as explaining some of the core game mechanics to hopefully give you a better idea of how DoM works. (That one will be in our next update.) And then the second video will be a playthrough of a couple of rounds of the game so you can see those mechanics in action. (That one's probably a couple of updates away.) Then, if we want to try the fun videos I mentioned previously after that, you guys can let me know. I also have it on good authority that several of our friends in the board gaming community will have videos done shortly, so we'll have those for you likely early next week.

More Wanderers Draw Near - Which One Will Stay?

Up ahead you see them: two more weary souls, drawing ever closer to our little band. One is a woman, her clothing decidedly upscale and the smell of expensive perfume clinging to her skin, even in this wretched place. You seem to remember seeing her picture before. Maybe in a magazine? In fact, you can almost think of her name. Anita... Clavell. That was it! Now you remember: she's that author who seems perpetually stuck on the bestseller lists. You've even read a couple of her books. You never did quite understand what people saw in them, but they certainly were popular. It seems you remember reading she was a lonely person, with no real family to speak of. But you know that sometimes the written word can take on a life of its own, becoming just like a dear friend or family member. In fact, sometimes it even seems like it can become a portal to other worlds.

The man, meanwhile, has the classic look of an old college lecturer who has seen his share of the world during his time. He seems vaguely familiar, too. Not from any books, though, but from somewhere else. Newspapers perhaps...? Oh. Oh! He was the professor who led that ill-fated expedition a number of years back! He and his students had gone to study the anthropology of a lost people (specifically focusing on their religious beliefs), but only he had returned alive. A ghastly business, if you recall correctly. The poor man still looks haunted. You remember his name now, because it had always struck you as distinctive: Mordecai Ashford. What horrific things did he see in those ruins so long ago? Could that expedition have something to do with why he's here now?

Okay, friends. We need your help again. We need to know which Wanderer you want to see in our new daily unlocks. Will it be Anita, the author whose words can sometimes seem to take on a peculiar life of their own? Or will it be Mordecai, the anthropologist whose failed expedition has come back to haunt him, drawing him back to the temple ruins where he lost his students all those years before? Let us know in the comments, but be quick! This vote won't last for long!

That's it for this update! Be sure to spread the word and share the campaign so we can keep unlocking cool stuff! Thanks again for being here with us, and thanks for being awesome!

Stretch Goals Slaughtered, Fighting Abominations, Our First Live, and More!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 04:15:35 PM

Hey there! I hope you've had a great day. It has certainly been another awesome day for Dawn of Madness! As a point of reference, we just hit 6,300 backers in two days, and in the Deep Madness reprint campaign we had 7,768 backers in the entire campaign. Thank you so much for being with us! 

We've busted through a number of new stretch goals today, too. Here's a look at where we are in the Clockmaker expansion: 

There's only one more Malformation left, and then we start working on that insanely epic final boss!

But that's not all we unlocked today. We've also had concurrent stretch goals going on based on backer numbers. Here's where we are with those:

 Gameplay Focus: Fighting the Abominations

Welcome to the first Gameplay Focus, where we will take a look at a part of Dawn of Madness's gameplay! 

In every chapter of Dawn of Madness, the Wanderers will be hunted by a particularly horrific creature: the Abomination. Every Abomination is part of a family of four creatures, each one sporting unique abilities, reactions, and devastating Devour effects. Abominations will sow their Devour tokens around the board (which will activate a variety of effects through the Devour card deck, a deck that triggers when a Wanderer performs a Sentience test on a World Shard containing a Devour token, or when an Abomination's ability forces one to activate) while simultaneously trying to get themselves a tasty Wanderer lunch. And the Wanderers can, by and large, do nothing to stop them. All they can do is run.

The one exception to this is the Central Wanderer - or the Wanderer whose chapter you are playing through. The Central Wanderer will get three Resistance cards in his or her chapter, which can be used to take the fight to the Abomination. However, the Central Wanderer can't do it alone. At least, not with only one version of his or herself. 

In order to actually defeat the Abomination, you will have to call on your Malformations, bribing them with vital Memory Shards. Only through coercing them to help you will you be able to attack the Abomination - and hopefully, eventually, kill it. 

There are some major caveats to this, of course.  First of all, the Malformations are extremely dangerous, and their main goal is still to corrupt or destroy the other Wanderers and yourself. The second is that, once their deck of three cards is discarded, the Malformation will cease to exist for the rest of the game, taking any chances it had to kill the Abomination with it. 

Whether a Malformation or a Wanderer decides to resist the Abomination, the Resistance card (or Resistance section of a card, in the case of the Malformations) will trigger, and a battle with the Abomination will begin. The Sentience icons along the bottom of the Resistance card and Malformation cards show you what dice you can roll, while the effect text lists any special abilities you can use. But the Abomination is going to fight back, too, by revealing one of its Confrontation cards - cards that are all very different from one another, making it very difficult to predict how the confrontation will go.

The earlier you kill an Abomination in the game, the better for you and the entire remainder of the campaign. That's because Abominations pass on parts of themselves to the next member of their family, leaving some of their personal Devour cards behind. And the worse you do, the worse cards will remain at a higher quantity. If you are unable to kill the Abomination, it will be the worst outcome of all. (In fact, if you don't kill the Abomination in the final chapter before the finale, then you automatically lose the entire campaign.)

The core game of Dawn of Madness comes with one family of Abominations: the scorpion-like Rage family. 

So why are we talking about the Abominations now as our first gameplay focus? Well, it's because something is coming. Something that will help shape the future of Dawn of Madness. And it's coming in just a few short hours. So stay tuned! =D

Speaking of Staying Tuned...

Who's ready for a Live Video? These were really popular and fun when we tried them in the reprint campaign, so hopefully you all will enjoy them again. It won't be exactly like last time, because since then Kickstarter killed their (incredibly awesome) Kickstarter Live feature, so we will probably be on both Facebook and YouTube instead. Regardless,  we'll embed the video on the campaign page, so you'll be able to head over to the DoM campaign page to see it when it goes live at 4pm PST!

Now, because of the change in technology platform (and because I'm not exactly the most widely versed in live streaming) there may be a few technical glitches, so please bare with me as I get everything up and running. But hopefully this will again be a lot of fun for all involved. =)

Talk to you again soon, guys! And stay tuned for some more awesome stuff coming soon!