Voting Results + New Stretch Goal!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Jul 10, 2021 at 01:59:02 AM

The votes are in! Thanks to everyone who participated!

With two of the top votes already in the deck, our seven winners for the Fan Booster are:

• Silver Tom – JourneyQuest
• Undead Turkey – Dorkness Rising
• The Cat – Dorkness Rising
• Mort Kemnon – Dorkness Rising
• Cabbage Farmer – Dorkness Rising
• Therin – Dorkness Rising
• Natalie – Hands of Fate

Based on the runners up, we clearly need more JourneyQuest and Dorkness Rising boosters, so stay tuned for future opportunities to expand the game!

New Stretch Goal

Before the campaign began, we ordered a complete set of card samples from the manufacturer so we could test every card stock, feel it in our hands, and even see which ones retained ink nicely (so fans could get them signed).

One card stock stood out above all the rest—the deluxe linen air cards. But we thought it would be out of reach, since the minimum order was 1000 units. That's why we're so excited to announce our next stretch goal: upgrading every card to this gorgeous stock. It feels amazing in the hand, it's manufactured on offset printers with incredible color and sharpness, and has a great snap when shuffling.

For players who don't use card sleeves, this deluxe card stock will help keep your game in excellent condition for years to come.

Deluxe linen air cards unlock at $100,000!

It's been thrilling to watch our game expand the core set from 70 to 140 cards, to upgrade the box, and now to shoot for the this quality upgrade! Thanks for believing in us—we can't wait to deliver an awesome experience!

A Teaser for the Future...

Yes, we're already chatting with producers of some other Fantasy Network shows about bringing their IP to Ultimate Dungeon Showdown in future boosters and expansions!

Wooden GM Screen + Waffle Dice Box Revealed!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 07, 2021 at 02:03:04 AM

Thanks to your support, we're close to unlocked the final booster pack for Ultimate Dungeon Showdown, bringing the total number of cards and characters from 70 to 140! 

This means that when we hit $85,000 we'll not only have doubled the size of the game, but we'll have unlocked a larger, magnetic box that can store your entire set of cards.

With 808 votes cast so far, Silver Tom remains in the lead, but other characters remain in flux. "The River" from JourneyQuest is moving up the charts quickly, while Natalie (Hands of Fate), The Bandit King (The Gamers), and the Ballista (The Gamers) are within a few points of each other for the seventh coveted slot.

Revealing the Ultimate Add-ons

With $90,000 by Friday entirely possible, we're excited to reveal two more add-ons that we'd like to bring to the campaign.

Created by Nerd Wood Designs, the first is a unique ZOE Waffle GM screen with our logo on the front and gorgeous metal gate hardware.

The second is a canarywood dice box, laser-engraved with the ZOE waffle logo.

Given the technical issues that some backers have been experiencing with upgrading their pledges (we've submitted a bug report to Kickstarter) our plan is to make these available in BackerKit after the campaign. There's no need to add funds to your pledge now–consider this a preview of goodies to come!

New Art Preview!
almost 5 years ago – Sat, Jul 03, 2021 at 01:38:10 AM

Thanks to the early funding of this campaign, we were able to move quickly and commission additional art from Jacob Blackmon, who has illustrated much of the world of JourneyQuest and Gamers over the years.

This week he's bringing our Metaverse set to life and we have three new images to share with you!

Voting Update 

443 people have cast votes for the final seven characters appearing in Ultimate Dungeon Showdown. It's looking like a Dorkness Rising booster, plus Silver Tom, which should be a lot of fun!

Haven't cast your votes yet? Do so here!

Expansion Pack Development

Balance and playability are essential parts of keeping the card game and RPG fast, fun, and cinematic.

That begins with making sure that the distribution of abilities ranges from average to very rare. When playing the game, you can expect to see average cards most often and the most-powerful cards more infrequently. (And of course, average cards are likely to have enough stackable abilities to take down the too-powerful rare creatures.)

The original 70-card deck went through extensive playtesting to find the right distribution on a bell curve. Similarly, what's likely to be a full 70-card expansion (with just a couple stretch goals remaining to unlock) will need to have the correct distribution. We've built the math already, but are holding on assigning exact ability scores and resilience until those last seven cards are finalized. For example, we'll need to ask the hard questions, like "Could the Undead Turkey beat anyone other than Flynn the Fine? And what about Lodge's cat, can Gwen wipe the board?" Those debates will then determine our internal rankings, from two new cards with a full resilience of 8 to 15 new cards with a resilience of only 1. 

Once those rankings are finalized we'll know that our distribution is not only mathematically sound, but justified by the story and the world. Unless any major changes happen in our current poll, our final seven cards are looking pretty locked in, which will let us lock the entire 70-card expansion.

And yes, to answer the people who have asked, this is expanding the entire core game for everyone!

Adding More Cards

We've revealed two of four Kickstarter bonus cards that we'll be adding to the game. But what about future expansions?

Ultimate Dungeon Showdown is released under our Shared Cinematic Universe License Agreement, which means that anyone can create (and sell) boosters. But how does that affect playability?

Just like other content created under the SCULA, it's all about Canon approval. If you want your expansion cards to be considered for tournament play, you'll need to have the team take a look at them and give their approval.  We keep that process pretty pain-free though.

We have many more cards that we'd love to release. Plus, of course, new boosters for new Kickstarter campaigns—a new Gamers film could mean an entirely new expansion! And there are many more cards based on fan-created characters in the queue as well, because you all are awesome!

New Stretch Goal + Bonus Nodwick Card + Voting Update
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jun 28, 2021 at 12:14:02 PM

One of the most fun parts from over ten years of creating stories at Zombie Orpheus has been the contributions that fans have made to our stories.

Today, through a combination of science, magic, and dropping books to see where they open (because there are HUNDREDS of canon, fan-created characters), we're happy to share our penultimate character-based stretch goal: seven new cards based on historical figures that some of YOU created for the World of Fartherall!

Each of these characters is part of the history of the world of JourneyQuest and The Gamers, expanded by author Matt Vancil into a canon part of the story.

At $80,000 raised we will unlock a card game and RPG booster featuring:

•  Hansenian Deliquesce – A brilliant but eccentric inventor, Hansenian was famous for creating the most convoluted (but functional) invention of the decade, an award that he won three times in a row. He traveled the world seeking inspiration and new material. Unfortunately, when a young child contracted leprosy during his travels, Hansenian shifted his focus to creating a machine that could treat and cure not only the child’s condition, but several other diseases, as well. Whether he succeeded or not is a mystery, as he was never seen in Eulomegne again. Sadly, none of his inventions survived the end of the Eighth Age. (e.b. Hawke Robinson. Thanks to Hawke for many years of technical assistance and guidance!)
•  The Scarlet Tutor – The world’s only migrant demigod, the Scarlet Tutor came to Fartherall from the Counterweight World during the height of the Centuries War. Clearly of the Unseelie, it is unclear whether she was born amortal or ascended to divine status in her world of origin. What is known, however, is that she excelled in intrigue and sleight of hand, and carried with her a book of secrets said to reveal the fate of any who would peer into it. Easily identified by her shockingly red hair, her dress—which no one ever saw her change—always seemed to be at the forefront of fashion. (e.b. Laura "Red" Scott. Thanks to Red for the unwavering encouragement.)
•  The Potato Pope – One of the more eccentric orcish clans in history was the Red Realm, whose obsession with potatoes sadly led to their decline during a potato blight in the early years of the Centuries War. After starvation halved the clan’s population, the remainder disbanded. Out of the ashes of the clan rose a singular individual, a robed priest who could channel great power to create food out of nothing. Known as the Potato Pope, this presumably orcish cleric wandered the war-torn Afterlands blessing the hungry with bounties of blight-free potatoes. It is unclear which deity, if any, granted the Potato Pope divinity. The orcs of the Afterlands believe that he is the Red Realm reborn, incarnated as an amortal demigod. (e.b. Douggie Sharpe. Thanks to Douggie for always speaking candidly and offering much-needed reality checks.)
•  Investigator of the 1042 – After the Orgedjorlak Event, a human paladin of the GIHOT rejected the official account of what had happened, and petitioned the order for permission to investigate further. This paladin, who was as known for his integrity and kindness as he was for his martial prowess, had his request denied. He was offered command of a fiefdom to drop the matter. He turned it down, and resigned his commission to pursue the truth, taking as his new moniker the Investigator of the 1042, to protect his identity and loved ones. When he arrived in Sanatos, the Investigator had so impressed Turan with his investigative acumen that the god raised him to divinity, enlisting him under his authority for a pair of purposes: to investigate the lives of souls about whom Turan required more information to make a fair judgment, and to track down the rare shade that had managed to escape from the Underworld. (e.b. KVH. Thanks to KVH for the tireless memes and promotion.)
•  Ralmetaine Ottilie – A cleric of Therin before her ascendancy, Ralemtaine caught her goddess’ attention by protecting the Afterlands’ human populations displaced by the Red Exodus. Not all such populations were southern enough to cross the Winnowgate, and so many of them wound up trapped in the Afterlands’ northern regions. Ralmetaine sought out these refugee settlements, wherein she tended to the ill before evacuating them to Forgelight, often only miles ahead of the orcish warbands sent to slaughter them. When asked by the humans why she was helping them, she responded that it was the will of Therin. Therin was so moved by her sacrifice that she raised Ralmetaine to divinity—without getting permission from Eleuthera first. Even after her ascendancy, Ralmetaine preferred the Afterlands to Iños, opting to stay near the familiar territory where her brother was buried. (e.b. Meranda Tuttle. Thanks Meranda for the social media support when times get hard.)
•  Dockar the Defiant – Dockar was the brother of a human sheriff who had been killed by the Assassins’ Circle after falling out of favor with the Kings. Fleeing the blades of the assassins himself, Dockar took flight for the lawless zone between powers. In the mountains, Dockar flourished. He plied his skills on the fomenting border, defusing conflicts between orcish and human settlements before tensions could escalate into open conflict. He famously overthrew Lorga of the King- Chiefs in the Wild Woods, allowing Lorga’s captured human serfs to flee, and also blocking retaliatory strikes against orcish towns that had nothing to do with the King- Chiefs. By the time that he died, Dockar was respected by both humans and orcs alike, and it was their joint prayers of praise that convinced the gods to elevate him to divinity. (e.b. Benjamin Mobley. Thanks for the many, many ways that you support our communities.)
•  Lorki the Half-orc – (e.b. Robert Schimmel. Thanks for all the awesome gaming sessions.)

BONUS NODWICK CARD!

We're introducing our second (of up to four) bonus Kickstarter-exclusive cards and characters: Aaron Williams' Nodwick! His card joins Zoe Adastra as a special thank you for this campaign's backers. Aaron has been writing The Gamers: Nodwick's Tale for several years now, a comic strip following Nodwick and Princess as The Shadow sends them on nefarious quests.

These cards are internal stretch goals and will be included as a bonus in any pledges that receive the card game!

VOTING STILL OPEN

Have you voted yet for the seven final cards? 

The current top results are below, but many dozens are still in play.

Also note that a few of these characters are already in the game in some form (for example, Flynn the Fine turns into a Mound of Dead Bards if he gets killed three times) so a top-seven finish doesn't guarantee the Mound another card.

•  Silver Tom (JourneyQuest) 133
•  The Mound of Dead Bards (Dorkness Rising) 119
•  Undead Turkey (Dorkness Rising) 114
•  Female Luster (Male Luster already in deck) 110
•  Mort Kemnon (Dorkness Rising) 92
•  Therin (Dorkness Rising) 83
•  The Cat (Dorkness Rising) 81
•  The Bandit King (The Gamers) 77
•  Cabbage Farmer (Dorkness Rising) 74
•  Natalie (Hands of Fate) 66
•  Backstabby the Ballista (The Gamers) 57
•  Mitch (Dorkness Rising) 57
•  Hunk (The Gamers) 54
•  Drazuul (Dorkness Rising) 50
• Mort Agrippa (Dorkness Rising) 45
• The River (Journeyquest) 45
• Matt Vancil (Rude Mechanical) 44
• Tree (Demon Hunters) 41
• Willem the Peasant (Dorkness Rising) 41
• Vieris (JourneyQuest) 39
• Halfling Stripper (JourneyQuest) 34
• The Dog (Humans & Households) 32
• Pantheist Cleric (ZOE Sketches) 31
• Truthful Gargoyle (Journeyquest) 31
• Rigor Mortis “RM” (Demon Hunters) 30
• Jace (Gamers: Hands of Fate) 28

Voting Is Open: You Choose the Final Seven Cards!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 01:32:18 PM

Hi everyone!

We're thrilled to invite all of our backers to help choose the final seven cards for the 10th stretch goal.

With 133 characters already in the game, dozens (if not hundreds) more remain from our library of movies, shows, sketches, and livestreams. We've left seven slots open for you to nominate and vote for your favorites!

Will it be Silver Tom? The Bandit King? Rude Mechanical's Matt Vancil?

Make your nominations and cast your votes at pollunit.com/polls/ultimatedungeon

We'll keep voting open until we achieve this stretch goal, so you have time to advocate for your favorites!