The Kingdoms of KF!

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!

Kara, the Wilder

“Don’t be jealous, Rein! There’s plenty to go around!” Kara calls out with a chuckle as she hefts a boar, a prized prey, from one shoulder to another for all the village to see.

“Hold onto this, little one,“ she adds, putting her helmet on an unsuspecting boy’s head, “And don’t you think of playing with it. It’s serious Wilder business.”

She winks. She remembers when she was his age.  

Barely able to wield a sword, she lived high in the branches, in the headman’s hut, pretending to be his long-lost daughter. During hot summer nights, she used to lounge on the terrace overlooking the village green and gaze into the stars, imagining all the great deeds and fabulous adventures that awaited her in the future. She would recount to the headman, whom she called Uncle Kan, all the things that happened to her over the course of the day, from catching a beetle to seeing a white-antlered deer to meeting a First Man. And then she would look into his unseeing eyes and find encouragement and warmth. Uncle Kan would always be there, lending a sympathetic ear and all the comfort Kara craved.

And why wouldn’t he be? He was a stone statue, just like the rest of the village’s inhabitants. There were drawbacks to living in a petrified settlement. 

“Nothing’s perfect, right?” Kara laughs to herself.

The Dark, Twisted World of Kingdoms Forlorn

Once the known world was ruled by the Grand Kingdoms. Alas its Kings failed to listen to the Good Church and follow its Commandments and when the Pope warned about the coming cataclysm and devilry, his words fell on deaf ears.

And then the curses came and with them the Deep Fog and soon the Grand Kingdoms became inaccessible, forsaken and then forgotten, a giant white spot on the world map. Years passed, the Border Duchies, no longer curtailed by their powerful neighbours, came into their own. Noble lines flourished, knight orders were established, the Church arose anew.

And then the Fog began to disperse…

Rake Devil

Telling engrossing narratives and creating strange new worlds is ITU’s mission statement, so no one should be surprised by the level of detail and depth of the stories found within and around Kingdoms Forlorn.

We talked a bit about the types of stories you’ll experience: small, incidental encounters specific to each Kingdom and region, long personal journeys tied to particular Knights, and global narratives that delve (hint, hint) into the history, mythology and secrets of the eponymous lands.

What we haven’t talked that much about is the setting and the tone.

Kingdoms Forlorn is a fully realized world that will exist well beyond the scope of your games. It’s a dark fantasy (though not grimdark!) that positions you as powerful, brave, desperate, errant and sometimes quite mad Knights that venture into the forsaken lands for treasure, glory, vengeance, closure, thrill, eldritch quarries and for much more esoteric reasons.

The setting is steeped in medieval lore, of Europe and beyond, with all the woes and eccentricities that entails. I did stress it’s a dark fantasy, leaving out the grim part, as I find that a world completely devoid of beauty and hope is… a very low stakes one!

Flower Knight

We take a different approach, and paint a setting that is more believable in its diversity of moods and tones, and colors, with countries that do not always hang precariously on the verge of collapse. There is life in the border kingdoms, there is strife, but also progress. And all that’s because… once you enter the titular Kingdoms Forlorn, it will be that much more gutting to see the rampant death and decay, and villainy.

There is an anxious air to the setting, to everything your Knights do, a hard to put a hand on feeling that something is coming. Something incomprehensible and terrible. Something that cannot be stopped. As you delve (hint, hint) deeper into the story of your Knight, past the outer shell of appearances, you begin to understand the underlying loss, fear, despair, desperation and madness that drive them.

The setting, too, tries to dive into a subset of darker, sadder emotions that are rarely explored: melancholy, a sense of passing, a sense of a low-key coming dread, helplessness and many more.

We believe that with our approach to storytelling, worldbuilding and pacing, the kingdoms, curses and stories we’re preparing for you will shake you to the core.

Flower Castle

The Barony of Bountiful Harvest

The Barony was once called the Granary of the Known World, and rightly so, for its lands were rich in fertile chernozem soils and produced crops all year long. And not just grains, but vegetables, mushrooms and spices too. The Barony sustained many of its neighbours with food exports, while its many exotic tastes drew people from all corners of the Grand Kingdoms. Yet there was also a more sinister side to all this, as poisonous plants grew here in abundance too, and many an opponent of the Barony ended up dead under suspicious circumstances.

The Barony’s nobility thus grew powerful, their might built on a robust trading empire and a web of treacherous plots. Their knights commanded much fear, due to them favouring poisonous blades, while their levy armies were well trained and better fed. The kingdom’s ruler had the ear of the Conclave of Kings, and the Church as their stalwart ally. All was well.

But the King coveted more, just like his rival from Firanzance he dreamed of an even grander throne, that of the Emperor.

King in Bloom

The Curse of Bloom came inconspicuously and in the first years it was even seen as a boon: everything grew greener, larger, riper. Once people became sick it was far too late. Everyone was tainted. Their bodies started to sprout flowers and they died in agony. Fertilizing the earth and realizing the Accursed Pollen.

In a year, the Barony was overgrown and deserted, the curse poised to spread even further. To stop its death march, a stretch of land was cleared and burned and the fires were kept burning bright and high. A volunteer guard order was formed, the Firestarters of St. Ignatz, to patrol the border and stoke the Great Fire Wall.

And then the Deep Fog came and the Grand Kingdoms were forlorn.

Now the fog rises and the Great Fire Wall is doused.

As adventurers, knights, knaves and wanderers venture into the Barony of Bountiful Harvest, looking for the lost treasures of its once mighty nobility, they find that the Kingdom is far from abandoned. There is a new King, a new nobility and a new knighthood.

Terrifying flower men and mushroom beasts infest it, vicious and malevolent, yet possessing a cunning intellect. The only thing stopping them from pouring over the Border Kingdoms is internal strife and courtly intrigue, as it seems these creature inherited more than just the Barony’s land: their treacherous nature.

Yet the most terrifying question still remains: are these monsters that succeeded humans, or did humans turn into these monsters…

Pumpkinhead

Spooky Halloween from the entire ITU team!