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on December 28
Dystopian Holdings
backed a project
Rise! Break Ground and Make It Yours! by Crash Games
Rise! A game that truly shapes to the player's favorite theme. With an ever changing & modifiable board no two games are ever the same!
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116% funded $17,518 pledged
- 410 backers
- Funded Dec 31, 2011
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on December 28
Dystopian Holdings
backed a project
Pizza Theory - The Pizza Toppings Game by Keith Blume II
Greg and Brian Powers' deliciously fun game. It may be as easy as pi, but can you come out on top?
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192% funded $8,042 pledged
- 222 backers
- Funded Dec 30, 2011
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on December 28
Dystopian Holdings
backed a project
FrankenDie: The Party Game for the Madly Insane! by NutForge Games
FrankenDie is a game of dice rolling, frantic dashing to the graveyard, body part gathering and racing to reanimate your creature.
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138% funded $13,127 pledged
- 248 backers
- Funded Jan 08, 2012
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on November 29
Dystopian Holdings
Posted project update #5Entering Phase Two
Well, we missed our goal by $680. The clowns are sad today! But that does not mean that they are not still out there... brooding... waiting... to rise again... in an alternate format?
We're scheming about making a CLOWNPOCALYPSE Wide-Release Beta available in a different format, one that might require less financial outlay at the outset. But during this regrouping and restrategizing phase, we'd like to know what formats might interest you, our cherished backers. Towards this end, we've concocted a one-question survey that we're hoping you would take a look second to answer.
We need you to complete the following sentence: I'd be interested in seeing CLOWNPOCALYPSE made available in the following format(s):
Follow the link for five checkboxes, and check all that apply. The whole exercise should take maybe ten seconds, but would provide us with really useful data about how to proceed.
http://feedbackfarm.com/surveyengine/s.php?i=5ja
And feel free to circulate the link among non-backers who might be interested, too.
Best, Jeremy (Lead Designer)
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on November 21
Dystopian Holdings
Posted project update #4Meet the Clowns! #2: The Revenant
Post CommentSecond in our series of specially-powered Clowns, we have "The Revenant."
During the game, the players will attempt to score kills against the Clowns. Successful kills allows a player to remove Clowns from play, and add them to his/her Kill Piles, where they count as victory points. The Clowns can swap this clown, the Revenant, for a more powerful Clown in an opponent's kill pile.
One week left in our fundraising drive, and we still need 1K, so help spread the word! We're hoping to pull through in the final leg...
Best, Jeremy
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on November 19
Dystopian Holdings
Posted project update #3Meet the Clowns! #1: The Devourer
Post CommentIn our video, we allude to "clowns with special powers." We thought you'd enjoy getting a look at some of those.
So here we have "The Devourer." The Devourer allows the Clowns to strengthen their forces by discarding low-ranking Clowns from their hand, and replacing them with new cards from the deck. Put another way, this Clown finds the weakest clowns and... eats them. Brr.
Nine days left on the fundraising drive, so help spread the word!
Best, Jeremy
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on November 8
Dystopian Holdings
backed a project
Schlock Mercenary The Board Game by Nicholas Vitek
Schlock Mercenary:The Board Game is based on the popular web comic by Howard Tayler. A fast shooter board game with funtastic art.
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328% funded $82,056 pledged
- 1,111 backers
- Funded Dec 19, 2011
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on November 7
Dystopian Holdings
Posted project update #2Clown Encounters: How do they work?
Post CommentIn our last update, we described the basic mechanics of the game. As you may remember, the players playing Survivors look over the Resources that are out in the center of the play area, and the Clowns strategically defend these Resources by placing Clown cards face-down in front of the Resources.
But once a player has decided what they're going for, how is the Clown encounter resolved? That's the subject of today's update. Note that what's here is the bare-bones version: in actual play it's a little more strategically interesting, as both the Clowns and the Survivors have Morale that they can spend to modify die rolls. In the interest of keeping this update at a readable length, we've left the stuff about Morale out.
Clown Encounters
Once you’ve declared what you’re attempting to Travel to—or announced that you’re Staying Put—the Clowns can flip over the card(s) they’ve placed at that Resource. Most Clown cards have a number on them, indicating the force of the Clown(s) depicted on the card. The larger the pack, the more difficult it will be to face off against.
An “Encounter” doesn’t necessarily mean that the Clowns have attacked you; it just means that you’ve spotted them. The safest thing to do is simply try to Sneak away—although there are also reasons why you might choose to initiate contact.
Sneaking
The smaller your Team, the easier it is to move around undetected. So in order to sneak successfully, you need to roll above the size of your Team on a six-sided die. Of course, this means that once you’ve reached a certain size, it will be very difficult for your Team to sneak.
If you make a successful Sneak roll, the Clowns don’t see you, and the Encounter ends. The Clowns take the card back into their hand.
If you fail your Sneak roll—or if you choose not to make one—the Clowns detect you, and they attack.
The Defense Roll: Escape, Kill, or Join the Circus
At this point, you have to fight your way to freedom. Look at the number on the Clown card, which indicates the Clown’s force. The stronger a Clown card is, the more difficult it is for you to reach safety. Consequently, for your Team to Escape unscathed, you must throw the six-sided die once, making a Defense Roll. In order to be successful, this roll (including any modifiers that may increase it as a result of Locations, Weapons, or special characters like the Clownreaper) must be larger than the force of the Clown card.
A roll of one is considered a sign of catastrophic error on your part, and it eliminates all bonuses that may have increased your roll.
If your Defense roll is larger than the force of the Clown card(s), you Escape: you successfully fend the Clowns off. The Clowns take the card back into their hand.
Any Defense score that is a six (or above, in the case of rolls that have modifiers) is better than an Escape: it’s a Kill! The Clowns are destroyed. Take the slain Clowns and add them to a pile which will represent your personal Kills. When the game ends, the Clowns in this pile count towards your victory.
If you fail your Defense roll, though, you’re in some trouble. One member of your Team has joined the Circus. The Clowns pick one Survivor card from your Team members—of your choice—and add it to their hand, along with the Clowns who abducted them. The Clowns may not take your Team Leader unless it is the only card you have remaining. If the Team Leader of any player joins the Circus, the game is over, with the Clowns victorious.
Thanks for reading! More updates to come. Also, thanks for your support so far: with 21 days to go, we're 65% funded. Help us out by sharing this short link: http://kck.st/pIUdpI
Best, Jeremy P. Bushnell, Lead Designer
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on October 23
Dystopian Holdings
Posted project update #1So how do you play? (Part One)
Post CommentIn the video, we allude to the game's strategic richness, but in the interest of time we don't really elaborate. But we didn't want to keep you in the dark, so we wanted to take the time to share a short overview of the rules here.
In Clownpocalypse, each player playing a human Survivor leads a Team. At the start of the game your Team is just a single Survivor, but a big part of the game is rescuing other Survivors and attempting to lead them to safety. Each Survivor you shepherd to safety at game's end is worth a victory point, but having a large Team during the course of gameplay can create problems: the larger your Team, the more attention they attract from the Clowns.
It also gets tougher to feed them. In classic survival horror fashion, you start the game with only a limited number of Rations, and you'll need to use your quickly dwindling supply to feed each member of your Team every turn. If your Team gets too large too fast, you're going to have trouble, and then you're going to need to do a hard moral calculus: do you let someone starve? Do you cannibalize your own Team? (Each of these choices has their own pros and cons.)
After you've fed your Team, you get the option to Travel. Traveling is the main way you move through the game deck, uncovering resources and, eventually, the Way Out. There will always be three cards in the gameplay area displaying three possible resources to Travel to. Those resources could be Locations, Rations, Salvage, Weapons, or other Survivors, and part of your strategic thinking in the game will involve assessing which resources your Team really needs--you can only attempt to get one per turn, leaving the rest on the table for your rivals.
And of course, there's danger. The Clowns want to stop you from reaching those resources. So, each turn, the player playing the Clowns places one Clown card, face down, in front of each resource on the table. This is where the game becomes a battle of wits. The Clowns have some cards that are stronger than others, and so they need to carefully choose where they place their best cards. Which resource on the table is the most valuable to the player whose turn it is? Is that the one that the Clowns should defend the strongest? Or should they bluff, placing a weaker Clown there in the event that the player decides to grab up a lesser resource, in the hope of avoiding confrontation? Being able to predict your opponent's strategic choices is an important part of this game.
Once you've declared what resource you're travelling to (or opted to stay put, which has its own risks), the Clowns flip the card they uses to defend that resource, and a confrontation ensues. But more on that in the next update.
--JPB out
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on October 21
Dystopian Holdings
Posted project update #18New Dystopian Holdings title ("CLOWNPOCALYPSE") now on Kickstarter
Post CommentHello there everyone.
It's been a year since we received delivery of INEVITABLE, and during that year we've been busy prepping a new game. Entitled CLOWNPOCALYPSE, it pits humans against an army of malign clowns who have ravaged the world.
Designed by INEVITABLE design team members Jeremy Bushnell and Crystal Olesh, it contains a lot of the black humor that made INEVITABLE a fun project. But it's a more streamlined and elegant game: easier to learn and quicker to play, without sacrificing strategic richness.
As supporters of INEVITABLE, we thought you might be interested in hearing about CLOWNPOCALYPSE, and we hoped you'd consider lending it your support. $25 gets you a full copy of the game, and if you're on a budget you can get a PDF version for as low as $9. After only three days of fundraising we're already 29% funded, which is exciting.
Take a look! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dystopianholdings/clownpocalypse-a-horror-card-game-with-a-sense-of
Thanks!
Jeremy B
Dystopian Holdings
The Dystopian Holdings Team Jeremy P. Bushnell (Lead Designer) Jeremy P. Bushnell, age 38, is an award-winning fiction writer, educator, and illustrator who lives in the Greater Boston Area. He is the designer of the dystopian tabletop gam... view more
As a huge fan of Inevitable, I'm terribly sorry you guys weren't able to make your goal, I'm really looking forward to this game though. Best of wishes to you guys getting it out there.
+1
Do us all a favor and post an update to this project when you have something available for folks to buy so that backers don't miss it.
Absolutely. I check this page every few days, just to make sure I haven't missed a chance to get the game. Really, realy want to see this one in print. Let us know what we can do!