Armello: The Board Game

Pledge Manager Coming Soon
6 months ago – Mon, May 06, 2024 at 12:18:58 AM

Hi all,

We just wanted to check in and let you know that we are actively getting the pledge manager set up. We hoped to have it up and running already but a few things behind the scenes are taking a little longer than anticipated (mostly shipping estimates from our logistic partners). 

Thank you very much for your patience - we hope to have everything ready soon!

In development news, Rob, Jay, Jackson and the Fire Opal Games team are continuing their fine tuning of the rules and preparing for the final edit. We anticipate locking everything down by the end of July, then we move into the next phase of preparing all the files for print layout and production.

Armello Has 4,913 New Heroes!
7 months ago – Thu, Apr 04, 2024 at 09:58:32 PM

Hi, everyone!

That's a wrap on this campaign! What an incredible result - we are truly humbled by and grateful for your support. We've had a blast getting to hang out with you all for the last few weeks and share the love for Armello. We've loved seeing your enthusiasm for the game and the deep, insightful discussions that sprung up around the game. We can't wait to get Armello: The Board Game to your tables!

Project Schedule

Here's what to expect in the months to come:

• We've budgeted about 3 months for additional development work. This will be to finish the mechanics we added during the campaign (alternate map, Amulet cards, Guppy) as well as do some final polishing and balancing. The rulebook will also be finalized.
• After this we'll complete any additional art and graphic design that is needed, including the rulebook.
• Once all of that is wrapped, production of the game will start. 

During the months to come, you can expect to receive updates from us around once a month (though that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be on the same day every month). We'll continue to monitor comments in between updates so if you have questions, feel free to continue using the comment section. We'll be sharing milestones and progress updates with you all throughout the process so you can see each step of the game getting closer to final.

Pledge Manager

We will soon be launching our pledge manager, which we're running through BackerKit. If you haven't used a pledge manager before, this is a separate site where you can finalize your order, update your shipping address, and pay for shipping. We'll share more info about this when the pledge manager launches. 

If you know someone who missed the Kickstarter but still wants to get a copy, they'll be able to pre-order through the pledge manager when it's ready. 

Foreign Languages

If you're a backer hoping for news about foreign language editions of the game, stay tuned for this - we'll post updates here as we get them from our foreign language partners. 

------------------------------------------

A sincere thank you again from the whole Armello team!

Design Diary Part 5: Paths to Victory
7 months ago – Wed, Apr 03, 2024 at 06:27:26 PM

Hi all,

As we enter the final 24 hours of the campaign, we're pleased to share with you Part 5 of Rob Heinsoo's Design Diary: Paths to Victory! Today we'll talk about the paths to victory in Armello: The Board Game and how they compare to the video game experience. 

Paths to Victory

Armello: The Board Game’s developer Jay Schneider is a former chess pro, a Magic the Gathering OG maven, and a highly rational game developer. I’m pleased to say that Armello: The Board Game still presents a big strategic challenge for him! So much going on, and it’s always unpredictable and full of mini-ambushes. 

The game’s multiple paths to victory are part of that. On most game designs, with Jay as developer, he’d argue to peel elements away, starting by cutting down to a single clear objective, one way to win. But that wouldn’t be Armello! 

Digital Armello’s Three (four-ish) Ways to Win

Prestige: The most likely way to win is to have the most Prestige when the King dies his Rotted-out death. Like all Infected or Corrupt creatures in the digital game, the King loses a point of Health every Dawn. No one heals the King, so this slow drain is the game’s timer. The King *will* die and someone will win a Proclamation Victory as the Hero with the most Prestige, it’s just a matter of time.

If you’re lucky and another player is foolishly brave, you can gain a version of the Prestige victory when an opponent slays the King but dies in the same fight. The player with the most Prestige gets the win. 

King Slayer: The most dramatic way to win in the digital game is to brave the Palace Peril, end a turn in the Palace, and then on your next turn fight the King, survive, and win. This gets somewhat easier to pull off as the game progresses, because the King is losing Health. It plays a little differently if the Hero trying to kill the King is Corrupted, but a Rot Victory is still fighting the King to the death.

Spirit Stone: The least likely way to win the digital game is to collect four Spirit Stones and enter the Palace to purge the King of his Rot. You win a Spirit Stone victory. As strategies go, it’s a bit iffy—you usually have to get lucky and be in the right place at the right time… several times! 

Armello: The Board Game’s Two(ish) Ways to Win 

Regicide: The biggest change is that we don’t decrease the King’s Health every Dawn. He starts tough and he stays tough. The biggest reason is that in a deckbuilder, Heroes are expected to keep getting stronger, especially if they build towards a) combat and b) taking out NPCs like the King. In this version of the Armello story, the King isn’t getting weaker—it’s the Heroes who want to fight the King who are getting stronger. The longer the game goes on, the more likely it is that a Hero should be able to gain at least 30 Prestige (the Regicide threshold), defeat the King in combat, and survive to take the Crown with a Regicide Victory. 

But beating the King is a little like shooting the Moon. It can be done, but it’s risky, and it’s not usually the first option for most Heroes. 

It’s worth mentioning that if you and the King slay each other, you do NOT award the victory to a different Hero. The King is revived, you come back in Clan Grounds on your next turn, and the game continues, but you are forbidden from trying for a Regicide victory again until another Hero has entered combat with the King. If no one else wants to try and fight the King, you’ll have to try a different strategy. 

Proclamation: The automatic victory condition that replaces the King’s failing Health is a 70-point Prestige Victory. The first Hero to reach 70 Prestige wins a Proclamation Victory, the hero of the people. Any combination of successful questing, combat victories, and Prestige-oriented card effects will do. 

Spirit Stones: What then of Spirit Stones? There are two modes of Spirit Stones you can play. In the version we recommend as standard, Spirit Stones accumulate Prestige. A Hero with 4 Stones will have accumulated 30 Prestige. That’s enough to put them over the Regicide Threshold if they want to fight the King. What’s more likely is that they will have acquired the Stones by running around the board completing Quests and exploring Dungeons, and 30 points (or even the 15 you get from having 3 Spirit Stones) goes a long way towards scoring the 70 Prestige you need for a Proclamation Victory. 

(If you’re a long-time Armello player wondering about becoming a Spirit Walker, you’ll want to check out the Power Stones variant in the rulebook in Update #8!)

How Heroes Win (often)

Any of the Heroes can win any of the victories, and have in our playtests. There are, of course, paths that seem more likely than others, but sometimes opponents try to shut those down! 

Amber’s advantage in exploring Dungeons makes her somewhat more likely to discover Spirit Stones. Combine that with her good movement cards and she may aim at Proclamation Victories more often than not. 

Mercurio loves running around the board taking other Heroes’ Settlements. That can lend itself to finishing Quests for a Proclamation Victory. It also tends to irritate other Heroes who then seek combat, so Mercurio doesn’t seem strongly inclined one way or the other. 

Sana’s advantage against Corrupt creatures means she may want to fight the King. But building a combat-oriented deck when you’re Sana doesn’t always feel like the way to go. She’s a wild card. 

Thane has a bit of a combat advantage against NPCs like the King! Sometimes that pays off earlier with a lot of combat victories that start stacking up towards Proclamation. 

----------------------------------------

Thanks for reading, and for helping us have such an amazing campaign! Let's have a great final 24 hours! 🎉

$500k! All Stretch Goals Unlocked!
7 months ago – Wed, Apr 03, 2024 at 01:10:11 AM

We've just surpassed $500,000, which means you unlocked our final stretch goal! Now, all copies of the Collector's Edition will come with a bonus Guppy mini and mechanic!

That means you've unlocked all of our stretch goals! We're so floored by your tremendous support for this campaign—we're truly grateful, and can't wait to bring this game to your tables. And thanks to all of you, it will be even more impressive than we had dreamed with all these stretch goals you've unlocked!

Painting Your Minis

Prior to this campaign, we had sent a few minis to painters Sarah Wahjudi and Nathan Ash to see what kind of color schemes they came up with. We love Sarah's more traditional and naturalist take that is reminiscent of the original character designs, as well as Nathan's bold colour palettes that add a whole new look to the characters! 

We're sharing some more photos here to provide you with some inspiration for when you receive your own minis. So, what are your plans—do you think you'll recreate the characters from the video game, or come up with some designs all of your own? We can't wait to see!

Design Diary Part 4: To Rot Or Not
7 months ago – Tue, Apr 02, 2024 at 12:34:08 AM

Today in the latest entry of Rob Heinsoo's Design Diary, we're here to talk about Rot! Corruption! (& Trickery!)

Our core Armello game skips the cards that accumulate Rot and trigger Corruption. How did we reach that decision?

When we began developing the rules we started with a full set of Rot cards and rules for corrupted Heroes. We played that way for a couple years. (Remember, the board game has been in development for 5 years!)

Then we reviewed the size and complexity of the game and started thinking that there was enough material to develop the mechanics into a separate expansion and in doing so, give it the attention it deserved with more development and playtesting time. 

We really wanted to concentrate on making the core game as robust and playable as possible. Whilst Rot and Corruption are certainly important features of the digital experince, they add another level of complexity and management that might not suit all players, there already being enough baked-in rules exceptions and paths to victory. It was decided that for the benefit of the total experience this additional level of gameplay could be optional for a player who wants to go deeper. 

Therefore the decison was made that such features should be developed and playtested separately and if the interest is there, crafted into a worthy expansion to the game that players could decide to include, or not.

I proposed that we save Rot and Corruption as a hugely exciting expansion idea that would let us focus on the Rot cards to make them the star of the show. Our Developer, Jay Schneider, loved the idea because he had been trying to cut down on the huge number of cards and believed that the material we were dealing with justified separating the expanded rules and components into an optional addition to the game.

When we handle Rot, we’ll be introducing a slew of new Item, Treasure and Spell cards, new Quests, and somewhat different ways to play. There are a couple different ways this could be handled in a deckbuilder (well, a couple we’re thinking about seriously), and we decided to set things up so that Corrupted Heroes could be fully realized and fleshed out.

Visually, I’d love to do new Corrupt Hero playmats, and that might lead to slightly different abilities for each Hero when corrupt. Similarly, I’d love to try something big where entire regions become Corrupted by Late Declarations by the King. Or perhaps a region will be lost to the Rot the first time each Hero becomes Corrupt.

There’s also the possibility that alternate versions of a few cards will show up in the Rot expansion. You’ll choose to play with or without the Rot rules, and that will determine which set of cards you’ll use. That may turn out not to be necessary, but it's a simple trick I won’t feel guilty about if it helps everything work smoothly with and without Corruption.

What About Trickery? 

The Trickery cards ended up in the same expansion-basket when we settled on versions of the cards that played a bit differently than anything else. The level of vehement sabotage the Trickery cards were applying to opponents in our playtests felt like the kind of damage that would fit perfectly in an expansion dedicated to experimenting with Corruption and betrayal.

So, it’s most likely that the Trickery cards will show up in the same expansion as the full suite of Rot cards and Corruption mechanics. When they’re cards like the Emissary, they provide an entertaining path to screwing with opponents that doesn’t require you to move entirely to the dark side. When they’re cards like Biff’s Black Market, they’re simply entertaining!