Return to Ravingspire

You know how you work on something in secret for ever and then its time to release it and you can't really wrap your head around showing it to anyone, even though you're super proud of it? That's kind of what its like to work on Ravingspire. We make fantastic art and we work through unique gameplay ideas but we keep things close to the chest until we can make sure our choices of manufacturing are  ready for launch and their quality is good. We've launched the Kickstarter so I can FINALLY start showing off what we've done and what we're doing. Problem is, there's so much at this point I almost don't even know where to start!

Well I guess, how about with the dope 1980's commercial we made for the game?

You can tell we miss those old TSR commercials.There was one for like D&D, Marvel Super Heroes, and Indiana Jones RPG all in one mashed up commercial with tons of silhouettes and smoke machine going on. That one was great.

Anyway, we're finally going to release Return to Ravingspire on Kickstarter on April 16th! I'm super psyched about it, because this game is gorgeous and really fun to play. Even the box is awesome. Its an embossed leatherette-wrapped wooden book-shaped box, and really looks and opens like a stout book. Its made of wood too so won't be falling apart and need to be held together with rubber bands after just a couple plays like most boardgame boxes.  Plus if its stored on a bookcase instead of hidden away in the boardgame closet (and the fact that its solo-able) there's a much better chance of folk playing it over and over. How many games have I bought for $50+ only to have played them once or twice before they get lost in the boardgame closet? Too many! We're hoping the decorative nature of the box helps keep this game on display and accessable.

But anyway what about the gameplay? Is it cool? Let me tell you that YES, it is cool! We've combined dice-battling with a choose-your-path style story-heavy adventure game, and I think it works really well. We made big colorful illustrated Tower Cards with storylines on them that each give two options for the Party to follow. One of those options is almost always fight the pictured level guardian head-on, but the second option can get crazy. It involves escaping through a portal into another dimension for a short jaunt and then returning to the tower after a short time. We put in a whole separate book of adventures in there that I think is really unique to boardgaming these days.

Also I've come to dislike having piles of chits everywhere when I play boardgames. The number of tiny ziploc bags I've had to buy just to keep track of sanity tokens over the years borders on ridiculous. So we've made tracking the Fight, Skill, and Charm values in combat into a single board that also contains the player progress and doom trackers. Just move it up and down the tracks as you roll the dice. Its straightforward and keeps things a lot tidier than piles of chits. I'm pretty happy with it.

Also one thing I really love is tactical skirmish combat, but that's difficult to emulate in a quick-play adventure game without the gameplay getting bogged down in maps with grids on them and 5-foot steps. So on that same combat tracker we've put a Marching Order diagram. Where the players can decide whether they want to have their heroes take the front/melee position (usually more dangerous but first choice of loot) or whether they want to hang back and fight with ranged weaponry (usually less dangerous but second choice of loot). Each Tower card will show whether the Hero in that position will take more or less damage, based on the monster they're fighting.

We knew this added a bit of complexity to the fights, but its a simple +1/-1 damage modifier and I think it really adds some fun to the game and helps me envision what kind of attitude the Hero I'm playing has when they're exploring.

Oh my gosh there's way too much to talk about all at once on the development of this game. I put tutorial videos up on the Kickstarter and I'll throw them on Youtube as well. I'll talk more about the game over the next few weeks as the Kickstarter goes on, but if you've got any questions on why we did what we did in the game give a shout and I'll holla back! :)