Euro-inspired dungeon crawling sequel to the 2017 smash-hit Gloomhaven
Latest Updates from Our Project:
A Tower in the Distance
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Apr 03, 2020 at 11:57:07 PM
As our numbers continue to rise, something else rises in the distance! Is it giant spike of black ice, or something more sinister? There's a new threat to Frosthaven that could, by some, be characterized as a... DARK TOWER.
That's right, it's time for a Return to Dark Tower tie-in! I've added some scenarios to the main campaign which revolve around a certain towering object with a darker hue.
Maybe that'll look familiar to some people? Maybe.
I don't want to get too heavy into spoiler territory here, so I think we'll just leave things at that.
Except, what? There's another announcement? Justin Jacobson, president of Restoration Games, is also going to be a guest designer?
Justin was a backer of the original Gloomhaven Kickstarter, and contacted me right after the game was released because he loved it so much. He wanted to know if I would be interested in working on a little project with him and Rob Daviau called Return to Dark Tower. I said yes, and the rest is history!
Justin is a great guy and a paragon in the field, bringing wonderful games like Downforce and Fireball Island back into the hobby. He has also been a huge help in figuring out how to implement our retailer pledge level. I couldn't be happier to have him on board!
The battle continues! Unfettered are starting to pull away a little bit, mainly due to less vocal support for #TeamAlgox on Reddit and other sites. #TeamLurker continues to step up, but will the grass roots (kelp roots?) movement be enough to make up the gap? This video (posted by Reddit user Cthonctic) shows what could be possible:
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And on to the daily puzzle! Due to a mistake on my part, there were actually two versions of the puzzle yesterday: one where the Blinkblade had six health (AKA easy mode), which was posted on the main page, and one where he had three health (AKA hard mode), which was posted on Tabletop Simulator. I'll try to not have that happen again, but here's the solution to the harder version:
And next we have a puzzle for the Necromancer. It is probably the most challenging one so far, as it asks you to consider what the Necromancer has to think about all the time: correct monster positioning to make sure your summons are going to the right place and attacking the right things. I believe Marcel called me "devious" when I sent it to him. Just remember that even though your attack modifier deck is full of +0s, monsters will still move away from you when performing ranged attacks.
Oh, also, I know there has been some feedback on the presentation of these in the Google drive. I'll be working on making more presentable versions today that don't require you flipping through multiple images.
Guest designers have arrived!
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Apr 03, 2020 at 12:30:23 AM
Hello! You are continuing to crush it! How does it feel to absolutely crush it? Those Algox out there know what I'm talking about!
Today we're gonna talk about guest designers! Out of all the things that will be announced over this campaign, I'm pretty sure I am most excited about our guest designers. So many cool people out there love Gloomhaven (including you, of course!), and I have just been blessed by how many of those cool people have agreed to come on and design either a single scenario or a whole quest chain of scenarios.
While the campaign missions of Frosthaven have been planned out and (mostly) designed, there are still a lot of holes in all the side scenario content I want to include, and that is where the guest designers come in. They will help flesh out the side content with all the cool stuff in their head, and we will all benefit from their awesomeness.
So, with that said, we're going to start this list off right with two names you are hopefully familiar with and may have already cursed in the past: Marcel Cwertetschka and Mathew G. Somers!
Marcel has, of course, been very involved with Gloomhaven since the early days. He designed seven scenarios in the original Gloomhaven. Most of them were personal quest chains, including the infamous Seeker of Xorn. And then he also designed Forgotten Circles and all the crazy puzzles and challenging end-game content for that. He also helped with play testing and development on Jaws of the Lion, and will be doing the same on Frosthaven as well. And then, last but not least, he designed the Geminate, the most challenging class in Frosthaven, along with another locked class. So expect more complicated and thematic stuff from him in his scenario designs!
And then we have Mathew, who makes everything better in so many big and small ways. He is Cephalofair's main editor, and so is the unsung hero of consistency in terminology, grammar, and everything else. All the books would be a mess without Mathew. But not only that, he designed nine scenarios in the original Gloomhaven, and they were all fantastic. I realize some of you may hate him for what he did to you with the Oozing Grove, but you can't deny the simple, brutal genius of it. I'm happy to have him on board making more scenarios for Frosthaven!
Stay tuned for (lots!) more guest designer announcements throughout the campaign. It's going to be epic!
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The war between the Algox, Lurkers, and Unfettered is well underway! We had huge turnout in the BGG poll, where the Algox and Unfettered are neck-and-umm, triangle? But the Lurkers are about a thousand votes behind. The poll is dominating the tally at the moment, but I suspect avatars and other social media chatter will become a much bigger factor over the long run. And in those spheres, the Lurkers are dominating, led by Themris and his clack-rhyming ways (though there are some great Unfettered posts on Reddit as well). Keep up the fight! I think it could pay off in the long run.
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And then, of course, the daily puzzle! First we have the solution to yesterday's Deathwalker puzzle:
For today's puzzle, we have the Blinkblade in a sticky situation! Can you help him get out of this maze of angry machines? Remember that it doesn't count if you die in the process of killing your enemies.
Time to pick a side!
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Apr 02, 2020 at 11:45:51 PM
Well, congratulations. You broke a record. Over $5 million in the first 24 hours! I'm not sure if that's a record across all Kickstarter projects, but it certainly is for board games.
Internally, I would sometimes reference $5 million as a plausible end goal, but you all did it in less than a day. Thank you.
And the party's just getting started! It is time for your first daily announcement!
It's time for an Algox vs. Lurker vs. Unfettered showdown! Whoever wins, we, umm... we all win!
What is going down is we are going to run a popularity contest between these three Frosthaven threats!
I mean, one of them looks cooler than the others, right? Maybe the Algox pull at your heartstrings a little? Maybe you should make peace with the Lurkers instead of slaughtering them all? I know the Unfettered are trying to obliterate your town, but maybe they just need a hug?
There are three ways you can show your support for these poor, misunderstood creatures. First is very straightforward: just vote for them! There is a BGG poll running (BGG account needed) through the campaign where you can toss one point their way.
If you want to generate more points, you can take it a step further with avatars. You can find the avatars for these three new races at the bottom of the main page. We'll be watching in the comments and on other social media sites. If we spot an avatar of one of the races, we may add some points to their total.
If you want to take it even further, really, the sky is the limit. Anything else you want to do - art, fan fiction, costumes, etc. - just tag us on the social media site where you post it, and we'll drop plenty of points on the creature you're supporting. #TeamAlgox #TeamLurker and #TeamUnfettered will also be helpful!
We'll keep a running tally of each race's points on the main page. Then, on the last day of the campaign, we'll crown a winner!
So what does the winning race get? A little extra love in the campaign. Maybe a couple extra scenarios focused on them. A couple extra events where they attack the town and smash it to bits. You know, good stuff like that.
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A brief update on taxes. We've updated the main page making the discussion of taxes more prominent and providing a chart for more clarity. This is an evolving thing for us, so if you have questions that are still unanswered, we are continuing to work on answering them.
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And finally, daily puzzles! First off, here is the solution to yesterday's puzzle:
And today's puzzle features the Deathwalker. This one should prove more difficult. If you need a little help, I've provided a couple hints below this image. Otherwise, I'll see you in the comments or tomorrow with more cool stuff!
Hint 1: The goal is just to survive until the end of round 4. It doesn't matter if you'd exhaust at the start of round 5.
Hint 2: Consider all options you have for increasing your longevity.
Frosthaven is Flourishing!
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Apr 01, 2020 at 12:38:06 AM
Wow. Wowowowow WOW!
Umm, trying to stay cool here, but you all CRUSHED IT. $2.8 million and CLIMBING RAPIDLY.
I'LL STOP USING ALL CAPS NOW.
So, yeah, just a big thank you to everyone for turning the launch of Frosthaven into a massive success. You are all superlative people!
We've got a lot of cool stuff planned over the course of the next month, so I hope you hang around to participate in the party. First off all, we will have a new big announcement every day of the campaign, starting tomorrow, so I hope you at least check in for those. I am particularly excited about what tomorrow's announcement will bring!
Also we have daily puzzles! You can check them out on the main page, and they'll also be available in the Tabletop Simulator module. Some of them will get quite tricky, so be prepared!
I don't want to drag out this celebratory message too long, but I do feel like we should talk about taxes sooner rather than later. It has understandably been a sticking point for some people, so I just wanted to explain clearly what the situation is.
First of all, to reiterate the shipping section on the page, we will be charging taxes in the pledge manager where applicable. Countries have become more stringent in the past couple years regarding e-commerce, and we want to make sure we are complying with all laws.
This means that if you live in Canada, UK, EU, Australia (and New Zealand), where we are importing our games directly, we will have pay the normal tax rate to legally get them into the country to ship them to you. This is 5% in Canada, 10% in Australia, and somewhere around 20% in Europe, depending on which country you are in.
In addition, we also have to pay sales in tax in the US when selling to customers who live where we have a physical presence, which is California, Indiana, and Michigan. There is also the possibility, if we pass certain thresholds of sales in other states, that we will have to pay sales tax there as well. We don't expect that to happen, but I wanted to mention it as a possibility.
All of these taxes will be charged in the pledge manager. Other creators have to pay these taxes as well (or should, anyway), but they are typically hidden in the price of the game itself or shipping charges. We wanted to be more clear about what those charges are, and so decided to itemize them separately in the pledge manager instead of over-charging you for shipping.
Being transparent about these prices does not invalidate our country-friendly shipping claims. Friendly shipping means that when you receive your game, you don't have to pay extra VAT charges that would be higher than the normal rates. These are charged when shipping packages internationally, but our multiple fulfillment partners allow us to avoid that.
I hope that clarifies things. I am happy to discuss it further in the comments.
Thanks again for an absolutely monumental first few hours!
