The Stygian Society is a cooperative dungeon crawl by one of the greatest dungeon crawl designers, Kevin Wilson!
More than many other cooperative games, The Stygian Society often requires heroes to sacrifice themselves and their own actions for the good of the party.
The project page is getting pretty long, and it might be hard to figure out what's new. I added this new section so you can easily keep abreast of current events and see what's coming up.
New Today (10/15)
- $88K Stretch Goal unlocked - 6 new treasures!
- 1000 backer Stretch Goal added and unlocked - 4 nice chests!
- $100K Stretch Goal revealed - new hero!
- Added Cursed Library expansion Mary Shelley and early cover art
Want to know more about The Stygian Society and its heroes? Author Elaine Cunningham has absolutely nailed it with the short fiction that she wrote for the game.
The core game is set in Austria during the 1800's.
Kevin Wilson is the brilliant mind behind such iconic games as Game of Thrones, Arkham Horror, Sid Meier's Civilization, and Descent: Journeys in the Dark, which was my favorite fantasy dungeon crawl game of all time until he created The Stygian Society!
There's a lot more to the game, so you can read the (totally unformatted) rules, here.
Don't take our word for it - see what the experts are saying!
Ryan and Katie at Tantrum House took a preview copy of The Stygian Society home from Gen Con and had this to say about their experience playing.
Rahdo called The Stygian Society a blast, but in a two-player game, he wanted each player to control just one character. We understand that and we're working on a way to combine skills for two characters into one hero deck.
Click here to read his full review!
With dozens of rooms, enemies, mini-bosses, and wizards The Stygian Society has vast replayability. But that didn't stop us from creating even more content!
The Stygian Society: The Tower Laboratory
by Philip duBarry
Philip duBarry has created two games for APE - the highly successful Spirits of the Rice Paddy and its successor, Rice Dice.
The Tower Laboratory takes place in America during the early part of the 20th century. Four new heroes include the psychic, mechanic, electrical engineer, and chemist. Each has a new accompanying set of skills!
This expansion also includes two new mini-bosses, two new bosses (including the mad scientist seen here), a bunch of new enemies, and lots more treasure!
Vincent Jaubert, who did the art for our Moa game has once again lent his talents for The Tower Laboratory expansion.
Elaine Cunningham also wrote fiction for The Tower Laboratory!
Contents:
- 4 hero mats
- 28 hero skill cards
- 1 cardboard hero party marker standee
- 2 boss mats
- 2 mini-boss maps
- 5 lower room cards
- 5 upper room cards
- 12 enemies
- 8 lower treasure cards
- 8 upper treasure cards
- The Tower Laboratory short story by Elaine Cunningham
Unlocked Tower Laboratory Stretch Goals
- Kickstarter-exclusive mid-boss
- Kickstarter-exclusive main boss
The Stygian Society: The Cursed Library
by Scott Almes
Scott Almes (The Great Dinosaur Rush) has created an entirely new Stygian Society experience with The Cursed Library.
The heroes are famous authors trying to fight their way through the Cursed Library in an attempt to defeat the villain who had brought the authors' vilest characters to life. As they progress through the library and defeat foes, they can recruit good characters using ink. These characters will fight on behalf of the heroes, but are just as susceptible to damage, so the heroes must fight wisely as they climb.
The big change in this module is using ink instead of experience. When an enemy is defeated, the party now controls the book. In the game sense, this means the book is flipped over from the ‘bad’ side to the ‘good’ side, and the players can then take control of the good character by spending ink. These goods characters can help fight, and using them will be critical to bringing the library to order.
Contents
- 4 Authors, each having 1 Author Mat and 12 Special Cards (6 characters and 6 abilities)
- 4 Final Boss Mats
- 4 Mid Boss Mats
- 6 Lower Floor Cards
- 6 Upper Floor Cards
- 36 Book Cards (Double Sided). There are three for each floor, and each is double sided with a good guy on one side and a bad guy on the other
- Additional Wooden Health Tokens
- Wooden Ink Tokens
- 12 Status Cars (3 for each hero)
Background story fiction for The Cursed Library expansion by Elaine Cunningham.
Watch this space for cover, hero, and villain art!
There is a lot of gameplay in the base Stygian Society game, but here's even more! Just increase your current pledge by the amount of the add-on and we'll sort it out in the post-project pledge manager!
We already have 14 stretch goals lined up. Many of those are exclusives that won't be available in the retail version of the game!
Note that exclusives WILL be available after the project via the APE website or at conventions.
APE works with fulfillment centers around the world to keep your shipping cost low. The Stygian Society will be a large, heavy game. The base game box is 295 x 295 x 140mm (picture Mansions of Madness second edition.)
Why Kickstarter?
Kickstarter provides a symbiosis where both the publisher and backer win. It provides small companies like ours a way to bring you super-big games like The Stygian Society. You win because you get the game for far less than retail price, and with a bunch of exclusives that won't be available in retail!
Risks and challenges
APE Games has successfully run and delivered all of our Kickstarter projects. We have a dedicated staff that works year-round packing and shipping orders. We use fulfillment companies for overseas fulfillment.
One concern is that shipping prices increase drastically before we're able to get this game to backers. That would be unfortunate, but that is one reason we wait to charge for shipping in the pledge manager.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterQuestions about this project? Check out the FAQ
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Funding period
- (28 days)