Kreel Manor: Citadel of Horrors Update 2
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 15, 2023 at 07:52:39 AM

Hello there,

We're chuffed to bits with the steady progress of this campaign – thank you so much for your support in making this happen. :D

Project We Love - from Kickstarter

This is really a huge deal for us: we are delighted and very privileged to have earnt the much coveted 'Project We Love' badge from Kickstarter! And whilst this is a brilliant boost for us, the biggest boost we can get is from you guys sharing and talking about Kreel Manor across social media and in any board game forums you can think of, whether it's championing the game or even if it's just objectively asking what people think of the campaign. Spreading the word is absolutely key to our success and making the game the best that it can be, so thank you to each and every one of you who are already doing this for us. :)

Path of the Dead - Necromancer Hero!

Choose the Path of the Dead with the Necromancer hero expansion, in Kreel Manor: Citadel of Horrors – The Dungeon Crawl Card Game. This expansion delivers the gorgeous, double-sided Necromancer hero board + a shed-load of cool, new cards including assets, skills, upgrades and story cards, which will quite literally raise the dead...

A New Hero?

Would anyone like to see one more new hero expansion before the campaign ends? If so, let us know in the comments below and we'll reassess should the campaign approach six figures. Looking to the future of this game system, there's a large roster of superb, thematic heroes (and adventures) lurking in the shadows waiting to come forward and join the Best Dungeon Crawl Card Game Of All Time*. Years of steep experience has taught us to be laser-focussed on delivering quality and not over-stretching the logistical requirements of a project. But I'm prepared to put in the extra hours and resources for one more hero if you guys can bring that even extra, extra level of love and support...

* in our unbiased opinion :D

Hall or Nothing on BGG

We absolutely buzzing about having our games discussed at length on the mighty BGG podcast. The lovely Candice Harris and Rob Oren (Rob’s Tabletop World) bring the goods, talking about all kinds of cool games, and they also had lots of really excellent things to say about us and our games too! Well worth a listen:

Gameplay Overview Video

In case you missed it on the Kickstarter page, here's the longer (15 minute) version of the gameplay overview video where I also talk a little bit about the theme and other elements of Kreel Manor: 

FAQs

Following much discussion in the comments, and from our previous Kickstarter campaigns, the FAQ is now active on the main page, and below are some of the more salient questions. Let me know as always if you have any other questions and I'll be around in the Comments section as soon as I have the opportunity. :) 

• Can I upgrade the basic pledge to a higher pledge for the same price in the pledge manager?
• The deep discounts on offer are available throughout the duration of the Kickstarter campaign, but the prices will revert to RRP when the pledge manager opens.
• Will there be retail pledges?
• Yes - retailers should simply pledge for one copy of the game and then contact us directly after the campaign has finished, email [email protected] to arrange your order.
• Will the game be available at retail?
• We do not have confirmation of wider retail distribution yet, though individual retailers can support us directly, as above.
• Will there be solo play?
• Heck yes – we love solo games! :D Kreel Manor has ‘true’ solo play so you can control a single hero against the game without having to change the rules or use a bot, or manage multiple characters (though you can still play as a party of heroes instead if you prefer).
• Are there any Kickstarter exclusives?
• Yes, the Playmats are being made to order so they will not be available at retail.
• Is the playmat full bleed art, or does it have graphics?
• The Kreel Manor playmats are currently full bleed art, but if the campaign does well enough I could look into maybe making them 2-sided, and putting graphics layouts on one side. :)
• Who does the art?
• It's our usual power band of artists: Jose Del Nido, Mikhail Greuli, The Creation Studio, Wietze Fopma, Roman Hodek, Carlos Villas, Mario Teodosio, Hachiimon.
• Can I see the rulebook?
• I'm working on the rulebook but it's a bit epic, so it will take some time yet. You can get a good feel for Veilwraith (very similar system) by watching any of the videos on the main page. :)
• What about International Shipping? For EU backers, what about duty taxes, and VAT outside the UK?
• We’re shipping from international hubs (including from within the EU) to make things as smooth as possible for everyone, but we are not responsible for customs fees or local taxes. We have an EU hub in Germany, so though we don't cover any local fees/charges we do already pay the import VAT/taxes.
• Card sleeves: what are the size of the cards?
• ~200+ regular (63 x 88mm) Cards & ~200 US sized mini (41 x 63mm) cards & 32 tarot sized (70 x 120mm) locations.
• Will there be a Pledge Manager? If so, how long with the Pledge Manager be open?
• Yes, most likely BackerKit. We will try to keep it open for as long as we can.
• I need a shipping cost.
• We won't have the final shipping prices until the pledge manager opens. This was the case with several of our previous successfully delivered Kickstarters. We require extensive consultation with our fulfilment hubs using the finalised backer information first to determine the most effective shipping techniques, distribution splits and costs, and to maintain responsibility for all of our backers' games, and for our business' sustainability. One reason why we were able to deliver Veilwraith in the middle of the pandemic – and why we’re able to continue operating as a tiny publisher in a sea of escalating shipping costs – is because we don't make up shipping costs, or try to roll them into the prices of our games. As outlined on the main page description, when it comes to shipping: you pay what we pay.
• How do I purchase other Hall or Nothing games? Can I add other Hall or Nothing games as add-ons in the pledge manager?
• We cannot guarantee add-ons this time around as our stock is currently selling through very quickly. If you would like something shipping straight away you can order anything we have in stock directly from our website here: https://www.hallornothing.net/shop
• How do I pledge for extra copies of anything?
• Click Manage Your Pledge on the main page and just add any extra copies you’d like. Whilst shipping will be more cost effective this way, there is no further discount for ordering multiple copies, so we would have to charge whatever we are charged for shipping.
• Thematically speaking, in what chronological order do the World of Kilforth games take place?
• In chronological order, the games would go: 1. Kreel Manor, 2. Gloom of Kilforth, 3. Shadows of Kilforth (close to Gloom, but the gloom spreads from the west), 4. Call of Kilforth, 5. Veilwraith

And that's all for now, I hope you have a bloomin' fantastic week, and if you're able to throw our campaign one tweet or share, we'll be even more made up than we already are for your brilliant support, if that's possible.

Cheers!

Tristan xx

Kreel Manor: Citadel of Horrors Update 1 - Funded in 40 bloomin' minutes!!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Aug 10, 2023 at 05:19:55 PM

Hello there and welcome (welcome back, to many of you) to the beautiful lands of Kilforth. :)

Thank you!!

What a brilliant opening for our new game system! Even though this is our eleventh (11th!!) Kickstarter, a new launch is always an incredibly exciting albeit nerve-wracking time for us. But your warmth, generosity, support, and your lovely comments have once again eased us back into this shared creative space in the utterly beatific manner, which we never take for granted, but which you have made us so thoroughly accustomed to many times before. Family and friends think we're joking when we say our project funded in 40 minutes, and it sounds ridiculous saying it out loud, but that's the kind of people you are – you get things done.

As I said, we take nothing as given, and I can only harken back once again to our very first Kickstarter game (Gloom of Kilforth), which took an excruciatingly brilliant 27 days out of 30 to fund, all the way back in 2015. There's definitely a Sliding Doors-style timeline in an alternate universe where an alternate version of me sighs dejectedly at the end of those 30 days, a million miles away from our funding goal, and has to give up on his dream.

And whilst I've never worked such crazy hours (it's well past 1am here in the UK), I'm literally living my dream job, and I have you to thank for it. So, thanks for being here, and for picking up your sword/bow/staff to come dungeoneering with me in the deadly underbelly of the really ridiculously good-looking World of Kilforth...

Art of Kilforth

The misty land of Kilforth has been illustrated beautifully these past ten years by an inimitable roster of brilliant artists, which is why we're also so happy to be able to offer the Art of Kilforth Artbook in this campaign to showcase their skills. A big-shout out to our comrade in arms, Darren Marks AKA Depart Creative, who helped assemble this sumptuous hardbound book, and who works his graphical magic on our games too. May you forever melt my brain with new tricks in photoshop and indesign, sir.

Sound of Kilforth

Sonically, this Kilforthian fantasy universe of ours has been scored to perfection musically by my redonculously talented wife and business partner, Francesca L Hall, whose musical skills you'll already have experienced if you watched the campaign video. Many of you will have dealt with Francesca by email/social media because she's the clever one who gets all the business stuff done whilst I'm drifting into other dimensions and designing games. You have no idea the number of hours Francesca has put into recording and perfecting the sound that makes our campaigns and particularly our Kilforth games so distinctive. What you hear in the piano tracks for our videos are not digitally assembled tunes, but her complete, live piano performances. I'm biassed of course, but for my money there's no better option on YouTube than sitting and basking in the entire official soundtrack album for Gloom of Kilforth, which happens to dovetail beautifully as a soundscape for Kreel Manor: Citadel of Horrors too...

The Dungeon Crawl Card Game System

I'm particularly excited about The Dungeon Crawl Card Game because it offers a metric tonne of creative opportunities for me as the d̶u̶n̶g̶e̶o̶n̶ m̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ game designer. Thematically speaking, in this iteration of the game we're going back in time to the earliest point yet discussed in the history of Kilforth. This game illuminates the days leading up to a pivotal moment: the mysterious Breaking of the Veil, whereupon a deadly gloom is unleashed from a hideous netherworld onto the unsuspecting citizens going about their business in these already dangerous lands. This toxic gloom leads to the epic events that follow, and which are experienced in our Fantasy Quest Games line: Gloom of Kilforth, Shadows of Kilforth, and Call of Kilforth.

There are no limits to where we can go with this system. I aim to create whole new and compatible base games using this same ruleset in different environments too. We could send you into forests, deserts, icy tundra, or just loads of new dungeons, the possibilities are endless. I'm laser focussed on delivering this game at the highest quality levels that our backers have come to expect.

Please feel free to tell your friends about Kreel Manor, and get them to come on some of the best adventuring you can have at a gaming table, whilst we knuckle down and smash through the remainder of this triumphant Kickstarter campaign with all the delicate grace of a Dwarven Berserker plunging headfirst down a 20' pit trap into a nest of hungrily awaiting, slavering trolls.

We literally couldn't do this without you, and whether you managed to read this far or even if you just skimmed for the TLDR: thank you once again so much from the bottom of our hearts for joining us and letting us create yet another cool game – we'll see you in the Boreal Tower, with a grim smile and a friendly axe, to help you face off against the Lord of the Manor and his legions of chaos.

Have a brilliant rest of the week, get yourself off to the cinema to watch Oppenheimer if you haven't already, and that's all for now from the team here at Hall or Nothing.

Cheers!

Tristan xx