Different Breed of Dungeon Crawler
Of Dragons, Devils and Kings…
A truly tactical dungeon crawler.
A truly co-operative adventure.
A truly narrative-driven board game.
Truly epic!
Kingdoms Forlorn is a solo-operative dungeon delver for 1-4 players with a focus on loot, tactical battles, character building and storytelling. It’s something we’ve been working for more than 2 years now, since before our highly successful Kickstarter campaign for Aeon Trespass: Odyssey. As AT:O nears completion, we thought it high time to reintroduce Kingdoms Forlorn to the wider audience!
In the coming months, I’ll be slowly unveiling the magnificent beast that is Kingdoms Forlorn, and showcasing each and every major theme and concept, as well as highlighting the innovative mechanics we hope will reinvent the somewhat stale genre of ‘dungeon crawler board games’. And of course, along the way, I’ll give you a sneak peek at the exquisite art we’re using to illustrate it: from Monsters, Knights and Kingdoms to Gear, Maps, Saints, UI elements and the next generation of our miniatures!
Ser Sonch and Little Ser, the Scout Monkey
The night is dark and foreboding as Ser Sonch rides at full tilt through the countryside. It is as if death itself compels him to haste, though he is not running from it, but giving chase. As he cuts through the thick Starkwaldian forest, whipped mercilessly by heavy branches, nocturnal animals howl all around him, a mournful threnody foreshadowing what awaits him at the end of the road.
He tries to remain hopeful and if hope is found wanting, then resolve will do. Resolve and the calm of a knight at peace with his fate. All these years in the army turned his nerves to steel. He’s used to stressful situations, this one is no different. And yet it is.
If only he can get there in time!
But he never does.
All he sees is a giant winged shadow soar above his estate, consumed in black flames.
Sunken Kingdom
Different Breed of Dungeon Crawler
Dungeon crawlers have a storied history, letting us live out our fantasies of becoming adventurers, heroes, champions facing unspeakable evil, unravelling nefarious byzantine plots, and delving into the unknown, be it infernal dungeons, murky catacombs, ancient castles or uncharted jungles, and going on epic quests across strange, fantastic lands rich with history and ripe with secrets. P&P role-playing games present us with boundless possibilities of anything our minds can conjure up, while video games can indulge in bombastic spectacle, frantic action and a fully choreographed story. Board game dungeon crawlers of the last decade? They’re somewhere in-between… and seem to be lagging behind!
So imagine this: you’re a unique knight with your own abilities, weapons, upgrade trees and choices, playing a deep, intimate story revolving around you and you alone; those choices decide who you really are and how your story plays out, and also influence the tools and talents available to you. They decide what kind of missions and quest you’ll embark on – and there’s no do-overs!
Now imagine you’re playing solo or in a group of up to 4 friends. The stories scale and intersect, the delves evolve, the combat gets tougher. Imagine that each delve is different, its map made on the fly by your informed decisions and unexpected events that force you to prioritize… yet it still pertains to your individual stories and missions, with unique mechanics and locations.
Ascending the Red Keep
Imagine you encounter wandering monsters and oddities, and battle mobs of enemies and giant bosses in tactical combat on a separate board and that those battles are shaped by the choices and encounters you made during the delve.
Imagine your story continues, shaped both by your successes and failures. That your delve involves surprise encounters tailored to the kingdom you’re visiting and that, among all those threads, there are mythologies and secrets to uncover, the world stories if you will that can have a lasting impact on your quests – and all your games going forward!
Eggknight
And let’s be frank: for many dungeon crawlers, mechanics aren’t the priority. Place a handful of monster minis on the table, chuck some dice, add some modifiers, kill some monsters – or spend 3 turns in a row rolling ‘1s’, doing nothing. At Into the Unknown, we strongly believe in elegant, thoughtful mechanics that reward critical thinking and clever plays, with a touch on unpredictability to keep you on your toes. We’ve based many of Kingdom Forlorn’s rules on designs we have been playtesting for years, while others, completely new, will go through a painstaking process of prototyping and iteration.
So, the combat is highly tactical, with strong luck mitigation and involved co-op mechanics, the delves are driven by choices and clever use of abilities. You loot monsters, as well as craft items and gear tailored to your knight, playstyle, quest and kingdom.
And the kicker? Your personal knight story will, sooner or later, come to an end. But your adventures continue in endgame and postgame content with new missions, new levels, new items, and an almost infinite amount of customization.
Ser Sonch
Just like with Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, we plan ahead, build worlds that are both expansive in scope and deep in lore, so you can truly immerse yourselves in the experience… and so that they can live for many years to come!
Got all that in your mind? Well, that’s the premise of Kingdoms Forlorn. An uncompromising dark fantasy setting with quick, tactical gameplay and stories you can discover at your own pace… or you can just jump into any kingdom and see what the fortunes have in store for you!
