I’ve been mostly taking a break from Deadzone today, looking instead at the tiles for DKH 4. Of course, “looking at the tiles” means working out what’s in the rooms which means knowing what the scenarios are which means basically deciding rather a lot more than just how many squares big the space needs to be.
I’m quite excited about revisiting the first of the board games Mantic ever did and giving it the treatment that was simply impossible the first time round. And I get to do my alternate style of play too 😉
Looking forward to having the space for more background and story, and some between-dngeon amusements too.
Quirkworthy 
so given mantics recent history is this likely to be a normal release or a kickstarter?
KS, I’d imagine. That will enable us not only to put a load more into the boxes but also to generate a community before launch. That will be appropriate for DKH as I’ve always thought that there would be a bunch of people creating their own adventures and scenarios, and even though I included all manner of tools within the sets to help out I saw very little of this. Perhaps the buzz of a KS would help that along.
In terms of simple production, the spec we could do on our own will simply not have as many different adventurers, or as many monsters as we could get on a successful Kickstarter.
interesting, I love DKH so am definatly looking forward to this
DKH has always been well liked. The summary of all the reviews I’ve ever read is that the game is great but the components could be on heavier card. Well I think we can fix that problem this time…
I purchased DKH a while back and sadly, it’s sat on the shelf. I’ve had to many kickstarters come in that have kept me busy. I’ll have to give this a once over in the coming weeks so I’m up to speed when you start talking about future changes/goodies.
That would certainly help you to keep up. You never know – you might even enjoy playing it 😉
Never played it however ill definately give it a look if it kickstarts
Awesome, looking forward to this! Any idea when is it likely to be kickstarted/released?
The guys at Mantic will want a bit of a lie down after the craziness of Deadzone. Can’t see it being Kickstarted sooner than 2-3 months. I don’t know the exact date though.
DKH is an amazing game. I think you would find people creating and sharing their adventures more openly if there was a piece of software that they can build the dungeon and story with, much like the Descent:JItD dungeon builder where you can export you dungeon and story in various formats (although I don’t know if they still use the software with new version). Would make it easier for people to share on numerous forums.
Can’t wait to see how the game evolves.
A dungeon builder would be great. The problem, as always with computer versions of things, is finding the right partner to make it with.
Hi Jake, it was good speaking with you at the Mantic Open Day (I was the one who asked about DKH4 in the first seminar and chatted with you afterwards with the missus and Orcsbain, I was the fool wearing the Brian Blessed ‘DIVE!’ tshirt) but I’d like to ask a couple of questions about some of the things we touched upon.
First up as I as we’ve said we’ve been playing DKH almost exclusively since Christmas and have been loving every minute but now that there are a huge pool of new armies/miniatures in KOW to use (thanks in large to the excellent Kickstarter) will you be writing stat lines for them to use in the current incarnation of DKH (so PvP as it where)?
Secondly you mentioned that you like to see different versions of the game (or companion games, like Green Menace and Dead Rising) released (rather than just straight expansions) that focus on new forces, for instance DKH: Abyssal Dwarfs or DKH: Basileans. Would these be based upon the DKH4 rules and so be heroes versus the dungeon (so for example our intrepid adventurers have risked all and descended into the Abyss after learning of the resting place of a powerful relic from a bygone war. However they must not only face off against the horror of the Abyss which they find in their way but also the guardians of the relic, the Abyssal Dwarfs)?
Lastly you mentioned that you would like to have 3D tiles in DKH4 most likely printed on heavy card stock but do you think that with the success of Dreadball and now Deadzone (both of which have excellent terrain options from MDF or acrylic pitches to gaming mats and modular scenery) do you think there would be the possibility of hard plastic terrain? Personally I wouldn’t mind good quality card stock used for the walls but the have a gaming mat (much like Deadzone’s) printed up in a dungeon design with grid lines. This way you can arrange the walls differently to create each different scenario or create your own but you could also have different mats for different locations (I’d love an Abyssal board but you could have Basilean Catacombs or the classic Dwarf Kings Hold). I know the 5000 moq is a tough one to get over but if Ronnie works his magic and gets the manufacturer to print smaller runs of multiple designs that add up to or over their minimum then this would give excellent variety and much like Deadzone’s mat could be used over various different games and so potentially increasing there demand.
Thank you for your time both at the open day and here, I can’t wait to see where DKH4 will take us (not to mention Deadzone).
Phil
Hi Phil. I remember the T-shirt 😉
New stat lines. Certainly possible. I’ve not gone through what’s coming up to see what’s missing from the DKH listings. When Alessio has finished the relevant books (which are almost done) I can look at that. The DKH stats need to bear at least a passing resemblance to the stats in KOW…
Expansions are never as popular as stand-alone games and there have been confusions with this in the past. For example, despite us saying many times, some folk still think that Green Menace is an expansion to Dead Rising (which it isn’t). Anyway, yes, I think I’d rather do more stand-alone games, though having said that the nature of Kickstarters is that they can go all sorts of exciting and unexpected places if they’re popular, so in many ways it’s up to you guys. If it really took off who knows where we’d end up?
In the close confines of a DKH board, 3D walls actually get in the way a lot. There are ways round this, though I think for the moment we’ll probably stick to 2D tiles/mat/whatever. I really like the idea of a 3D dungeon, but liking the idea and it being practical to play on aren’t the same thing. In terms of plastic walls and scenery, I’d question how much demand there would be. Sure, details like barrels and boxes always have uses, but walls? Hirst Arts make moulds for dungeons and have for years, a recent KS did very well selling pre-made walls and there are various resin manufacturers who supply them. Is there a place in the market for another set?
Quite correct, as much as a 3D board would look impressive once set up I can just see myself inadvertently collapsing half the dungeon while trying to move one of my minions. I think there would be room in the market for hard plastic modular dungeon tiles that have the adaptability of the Deadzone terrain, but I guess the market for them may not be as large as the one for mass battle gaming.
In the end I think we would all be happy if the tiles where a good quality card stock with matching or perhaps acrylic or resin markers/tokens (something else that might be nice would be an add on to get the pre-existing tiles done on the same material),
How about talking with the Dwarven Forge folks? They recently had a KS, and making the scenarios compatible with the two-set DF pledge would allow us to use the tiles we have. I’d also like players to be able to use their existing fantasy miniatures (eg. Kings of War) in the game. If you can use the miniatures in another Mantic game, I’d like to see rules (eg. stripped down introductory rules) of other games included. If any of you have a favorite RPG system or RPG designer who should be better known, contact them to add a freebie to the KS (cf. Reaper’s Sword and Sorcery RPG) or even design an RPG adventure using the KDH components!