Hi everyone!
We’re in the last hours of Champion of Earth’s Kickstarter now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth
I’d like to thank everyone who’s backed this Kickstarter. We’ve had massive support and could have achieved any of this without your help.
I hope you’ll join us in defending the Earth!
– Ed
Hi everyone!
With just 36 hours remaining on Champion of Earth, make sure you don’t miss out on the chance to join us! You can join the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth
Today, I’m going over a few more of the enemies, at the request of a couple of people following these posts!
I’ve got a great selection below!
We have the classics as well as newer ideas for the Undead – the Ghost and the Mummy are important parts of the Undead line-up!
The Aliens have pets, too! This is the Alien Attack Pet, which actually affects nearby Creatures as well!
For the bottom end of the Undead, we’re bringing out the classic Zombie Hand!
The Aliens are here to colonise Earth and they aren’t playing around: a load of colonists with their personal defence systems are landing!
This small Alien, inspired by Men In Black, has been unlocked as a Stretch Goal and will be joining the invading force!
This is the Alpha Werewolf. Like the other werewolves in this game, it gains power based on other Creatures in the Oncoming Horde, so you’d better watch out! This one is pretty strong even before that.
Finally, we have the Ogre, a classic Creature which joins the battle!
Thanks so much for all your support throughout the Kickstarter and thanks again to anyone who’s read over all of these posts!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Last year, I mentioned that Ed had a long list of potential expansions for Consortium. It’s true. He’s been collecting ideas for over two years, each one bigger and better than the next.
We delivered quite a few of them during our Kickstarter last year, which is now just finishing fulfillment… but, now that we have this pool of great ideas we need to start deciding which ones will go into our next Kickstarter. That’s where you come in.
Oh sure, we could just toss a dart at sticky notes or pick names out of a hat, but we want to know what kinds of games you’d like to play. What game is going to make you stay awake at night planning epic sessions that leave your team saying “Yes! More of that, please!”
So, you tell me which of these are your favorite…
The options are nearly limitless and whichever ideas you like, those are the ones we’re going to include in our next Consortium expansion Kickstarter. Have an idea for something amazing that we haven’t listed? Message us and you just might see your own idea come to life as an expansion book.
It’s an exciting time to start playing The Consortium. The world is getting larger by the day and the depth to which you can explore is not stopping anytime soon!
See you next week with more updates!
-A
Hi everyone!
There are just 2 days left on the Champion of Earth Kickstarter! Please do think about whether you’re joining us, there’s not much time left to save the Earth!
Today, I’m talking about Interrupt weapons. Several weapons in the game actually have Interrupt, meaning you can play them during another person’s turn and take the perfect kill.
That allows you to optimise the use of all your weapons in return for the small (?) risk that you accept by using them outside your turn. This could be vital to achieving victory over the invasion, so choose wisely!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Another fantastic Kickstarter is coming to a close. Our fast-paced and lighthearted card game, Champion of Earth, ends on Sunday! Ed has been releasing daily information about this game on our Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/shadesofvengeance/] and you’ll find everything you need to join us on the Kickstarter page, [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth]. This game is over 100% funded so all you need to do is swing by and start picking out your rewards. This quirky game combines some of our favorite aspects of all our other games; scifi themes, humorous content and easy-to-pick-up rules. Go on, give it a try, I think you’ll like it.
Besides the upcoming Era: Survival expansions, Ed has also begun work on another Pocket Game. I don’t have details just yet but stick close and I’ll keep you up to date as information becomes available. 2017 is the year of new games and we plan to put out just as many as possible!
I hope you’re getting ready for the Survival expansions because the factions on Gaia are excited to get to know you. First off the press is going to be the Swarm, known for their extreme approach to keeping things “Infected Free”. Ed’s given us another glimpse into life on Gaia with an image of one Swarm member hard at work making his area safe.
See you next time!
-A
Hi everyone!
Today, I’m talking about Equipment that has both a bonus and a penalty!
This is the Armoured Assault Vehicle:
Because it can literally run down the Undead, it gains a bonus against them.
Equally, because it’s a primitive machine by Alien standards, it has -1 versus Aliens.
This sounds like a lot of modifications for one card, but it means that the game is a little more varied, and provides a few more high-powered cards for the players to call on in an emergency!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
With just a few days to go, I’m bringing you the Arcing Death Ray, one of the coolest weapons in the game!
This piece of Equipment has the ability to attack multiple enemies. Everything that it kills will vanish and then the attack will move to the next face-up Monster in the Oncoming Horde.
This actually means that it can beat a whole stream of enemies in a row, as it arcs from one to the next!
Deploy this at the right moment, and you could win the game…
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
I’ve described a number of special abilities in the last 32 days and some of you might, quite fairly, wonder how you’re going to defeat them.
Well, there is a card in the deck which instantly removes a Monster’s special ability if it is played. This is the Truck Full of Gas Canisters!
This slightly dangerous-looking situation actually has the ability to remove the ability from any card, from the Elder Vampire’s increased strength to the Illuminati’s ability to change the entire Oncoming Horde.
Definitely something handy to have available in a pinch!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
Today, I’m talking about the Monster Homing Beacon and the Teleport Backpack.
These two pieces of Equipment have the ability to change the active player. The Monster Homing Beacon makes it any other player’s turn and the Teleport Backpack skips your own turn.
This can be tremendously useful at some points, particularly if an Alarm is played or an enemy with a similar ability is activated.
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
As of today, we have a little under a week left on the Kickstarter. Things have been going really well for our first card game and I’d like to thank everyone who’s supported!
I hope you’ll consider joining us there if you’ve enjoyed these posts!
I also want to remind everyone that there’s a limited set to get the hang of the game with!
I thought I’d cover one of the least powerful pieces of Equipment in the entire game!
Of course, the Brick is a Level 1 piece of Equipment with no special abilities, so it is arguably the weakes piece of Equipment in the game. I put to you, though: is it really weaker than the Ultraviolet Light, which only affects 1/3 of enemies at 3?
– Ed
So, you’ve heard me talking over the past few weeks about several of our fantastic Consortium Expansions. If you didn’t get a chance to jump into our Expansion Kickstarter you might’ve been feeling a little left out. Well, worry no more because Ed has just confirmed that various Consortium Expansion books are going to be showing up on our online store very soon! Keep an eye out on that page because this is the first time that anyone who didn’t join the Kickstarter will have a chance at this incredible collection. [https://www.era-games.com/store/]
Work is progressing to finish the last of the Expansion books. Revival is coming along but it’s certainly not the only thing that Ed is working on right now. He’s already thinking about the next set of Consortium expansions. If you’ll recall, we had plans for 30 expansions! We still want to make those books for you and Ed is gearing up to release another Expansion Kickstarter towards the end of this year. More great books to close out 2017!
Alongside finishing the Revival book and starting these new expansions, Ed is also working on a new Consortium comic. This upcoming book will be Part 1 of a planned 5 book series called the Bug War Anthology and will feature a character I’m sure you’re all familiar with, Hai-Xang Hayden. Keep watching this page for more details as we get closer to this Kickstarter. I’ll leave you today with the cover image, there’s plenty happening during the Bug War and I can’t wait to see where this leads!
That’s it for news today, I’ll see you next week!
-A
Hi everyone!
Today, I’m talking about 3 cards that have the power to change the game that also have a very specific set of targets.
Sunrise, Occam’s Razor and Bacteria each have the capability to wipe out every example of one of the types of Monster in the Oncoming Horde.
Bacteria, in a fun little War of the Worlds reference, wipes out all Aliens in the Oncoming Horde.
Sunrise kills all Undead in the Oncoming Horde instantly (with a single exception!).
Occam’s Razor is a well-known problem-solving principle: Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.
Personally, I am of the opinion that most of these Creatures don’t actually exist and there are explanations with fewer assumptions, so this card defeats all Creatures instantly!
However, writing that on a card is perhaps a little boring, so John (again!) came up with the idea of a guy called Occam with a huge razor… Well, you see above where that went when Sophia got hold of the idea… I think it’s perfect, personally.
The largest difficulty with these cards is deciding exactly when you use them. Is 3 corpses enough of a trade-off? Is 2?
Patience may be rewarded, or may be a disaster if the Other Kind of Man in Black has anything to say about it. That’s one of the things that makes this game so exciting!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
Today, expanding on what I covered yesterday about bonuses, I’m looking at the Ultraviolet Light.
I really like this image!
This piece of Equipment is only effective against Undead. It is a Level 3, but will do nothing to Creatures or Aliens.
While it may look like a moderately strong piece of Equipment, this limitation forces a more strategic use for this card.
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
I’m sure you’re wondering what exactly you can expect to find in the upcoming Survival Expansions Kickstarter so I’m here today to break it down for you.
Just like our Consortium Expansions, there will be 3 books available right out of the gates. After we reach 100% funding, a new expansion book will be made available for each Stretch Goal that follows. The rewards here can really stack up as more people join the Kickstarter everyone will benefit with additional Expansion books. We will also be creating a “Death-finitive” Edition Era: Survival Rulebook which will include loads of bonus material! I’ll have more details for these books as we get closer to the event but trust me, you’ll have everything you need to get inside the world of Survival and create some amazing sessions.
Ed is also going to be offering a new Campaign group through this Kickstarter which will focus on the many trials and tribulations of establishing a colony on Gaia. One such tribulation is Infected Sharks. I’ve been given an image to share with you today of this beast, just one of many creatures you will have to endure if you want to survive this game. This image comes from the upcoming Aqua expansion and is created by Mikhail, the original artist from Survival.
So, now you have some more information to help you plan how best to get in on these great expansions. There’s going to be a lot available!
Aside from Survival news I just have one other thing to share with you before I go today. I regret to inform you that Era: The Chosen has been delayed. The writer who was working with Ed is unable to commit to completing the project. We are sad to lose a good writer but you shouldn’t worry because Ed will definitely be coming back to this game again in the future. Our timeline has extended but we will get this game to you!
That’s it for me, I’ll see you on Saturday for Consortium news!
-A
Hi everyone!
Today, I’m going to talk about the Grandmother’s Revolver Equipment Card as an example of the bonuses that some weapons have against certain types of enemies.
The Grandmother’s Revolver is loaded with Silver Bullets which, obviously, means it’s much better against Creatures than your standard weapons!
While it’s normally a Level 2 piece of Equipment, it gains a +2 bonus against Creatures. It’s one of several pieces of Equipment that offer a bonus or a penalty against certain Creature types. Sometimes, this can totally turn things around, so keep an eye out for these!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
Today, I’m talking about the Butterfly with a Bomb.
Sophia very kindly brought to life this wonderful little reference to Spaced’s Rorschach Test.
I felt it would make a perfect Level 1 Creature to join in the assault against Humanity!
In fact, in one of the games I’ve played, we defeated every single Monster in the Cave, except for this final one. The Butterfly with a Bomb defeated the heroes, who had run out of Equipment, and destroyed the world!
Not bad for a Level 1.
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
The Micro-Alien is an example of a card in this game that I was, personally, very unsure of when it was suggested.
It was thought up by Johnathan Lewis, a long-time writer on our projects and general “silly ideas” man, who suggested this particular one.
Every player who’s come across it has loved the idea of an inch-high Alien who can barely do anything buzzing around. It’s been a massive success as an idea and I credit John totally with that one!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone,
Today, I wanted to share the Alien Scout with you.
I can’t quite put my finger on why, but this is one of my favourite images in the whole game. For me, it captures the essence of the Aliens – they are intelligent enough to have a scout. They are a little ridiculous (using a rope to climb into a rock when they clearly have levitation technology?!). And they copy Humanity just enough to make it a little uncanny.
The Alien Scout is a Level 4 Alien enemy.
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone,
Just a reminder: all this is about the Champion of Earth Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth). It’s up for another 2 weeks or so, so don’t miss out!
Today, I’m talking about the 6 characters that are in Champion of Earth.
They don’t provide any mechanical difference, it’s all for flavour. But you can’t forget where you’ve come from, right? In my case, it’s Roleplaying Games, so I’ve given them all a backstory of their own…
I won’t bore you with the details, but I will point out two things…
Firstly, the Vampire Slayer has the best hair. That’s all Sophia, I can take no credit for that. But she has the best hair out of anyone ever.
Secondly, is it me, or does the Ninja get way more love than anyone else in this picture? I’m sort of beginning to believe that Sophia might have a favourite character?
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
There are quite a few moderately subtle jokes in Champion of Earth. As today is a day particularly associated with bad jokes in my experience, I thought I’d share one of those with you.
This joke also involves a pen being jammed into an Alien’s eye. I mean, what more could you really ask?
The Pen is a Level 3 piece of Equipment. Well, if you’re ready to jam it into someone’s eye, it can do a lot of damage. Most importantly, the Sword is a Level 2 item.
Of course, that means that the Pen is mightier than the Sword!
Thank you.
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Get yourselves ready because the physical rewards are starting to ship!
Expansions Volume 1 is only 2 pictures away from being finished, we’re nearly there! The index has been added and the whole thing has been checked and proofread by our team. It’s good to go! The Definitive Edition is undergoing some editing and proofreading on various sections and we’re optimistic that it should be finished by the end of April as we had committed. Revival is coming along right behind everything else.
As you know, Revival has been the last book to reach a finished stage and you might be wondering why. Well, Ed and long-time collaborator, Johnathan Lewis, had the option of just doing the bare minimum with this book. It was originally slated to come in at 60 pages. However, after getting into things, Ed and John became hooked with the story and this book is now a 150 page labor of love for them both. They’re convinced that this book is going to be fantastic and they really feel you deserve to have the best game they can make. I can’t wait to see what they’ve created once it’s all finished.
Thank you for your continued support and patience, we know that you’re going to love all these expansions!
-A
Hi everyone!
Today, I’m going to talk about the “Wounded Alien Soldier”, which is significantly different to the “Injured” status that players experience.
In fact, in this case, this was just an excuse to prove that:
a) Yes, Aliens can use swords and still look cool.
b) Yes, they really do bleed purple.
And, of course, Sophia made her usual amazing image to hammer the point home. This enemy might be down, but its far from out. Underestimate it at your own risk!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
Today, I wanted to talk about the Giant Eyeball.
I was asked a little while ago in a playtest exactly what it did to damage you (it’s a Level 1, and the individual in question felt I was being insanely generous!)
We eventually, after a significant amount of discussion (the parties just don’t stop at SoV Playtests!), concluded that it stares at you slightly unsettllingly, which might make you back away or try to get behind something. In the process, you may fall down a hole and injure yourself.
Hence it having a 1 value instead of the assumed inability to hurt anything!
I just thought you guys might consider that something important to know…
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Thank you to everyone who participated in our special one-week Kickstarter event for Era: Hitman. In only 7 days, over 150 fantastic people came together to help fund this game! After its successful Kickstarter run and development, Era: Hitman was delivered to all backers last week. Have fun playing this unique assassin-with-a-twist game and feel free to let us know what you think!
Now that we’re moving back to the world of Survival we’re going dim the office lights and lock all the doors, I suggest you do the same. Our survival horror game is returning in grand fashion with a stack of expansions! Right now, work is moving along well on the books and Ed is busy pinning down exactly what order he’s going to be putting the books out as Stretch Goals. Very soon we will be starting the process of getting the Kickstarter assets together so this event is coming right along.
The last thing I get to do today is one of my favorite things; show off artwork! Ed is letting us in on a special place, the Sea of No Return. This is one of the locations in the Aqua Sourcebook, one of our many Survival expansions. It’s certainly a cold and brooding place and I’m guessing nothing good happens near these dark waters.
Enjoy this sneak peek into the world of Survival and I’ll see you next time!
-A
Hi everyone!
We’re now halfway through this Kickstarter.
I’m really pleased with how well we’re doing: as a company which has never created a card game before, we weren’t sure what to expect from our Roleplaying Game fans. I’d like to thank everyone who has backed and helped us pass Stretch Goals for their interest!
We were funded in 36 hours and have continued to break through Stretch Goals, enhancing the Champion of Earth Deck further as we do!
We’re going to keep moving forward, keep pushing, getting as many reviews and as much exposure as we can, to bring you the best Champion of Earth we can!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
By now, if you’ve been following along, you’ll know that many of the cards in Champion of Earth have some interesting special abilities.
The power of them in this game, though, can be massively improved by using them in combination. I’ve mentioned the Flamethrower briefly before, but not what it does.
This card does 4 damage to every face-up Monster in the Oncoming Horde!
Now, that’s pretty powerful in itself, but if you then add another card to it…
This is the Parallel Dimension Duplication Device. It becomes an exact copy of any other card you play. That means, you then have two Flamethrowers, so you do 8 Damage to every face-up Monster in the Oncoming Horde.
That should be close to enough to beat pretty much anything!
This is just one of a huge number of combinations that Champion of Earth offers… just imagine what you can do with some of the other cards I’ve already described!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
The Illuminati is a game-changing card. It can turn an easy-to-defeat Oncoming Horde into your worst nightmare, or just as easily make some of the biggest problems in the game simply return harmlessly to The Cave.
The Illuminati is an Alien card which, when you turn it over, shuffles every Monster in the Oncoming Horde back into the Cave. It then deals out the same number of Monsters again from the Cave, and the same player’s turn continues.
There are some excellent tactical uses for this, especially combined with the use of the Site-to-Site Teleporter (I’ll talk about that in a bit, keep an eye out!).
Powerful and dangerous, changing the situation at their whim… what else would you expect from the Illuminati?!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
“OR” is a word you will find on several Equipment Cards, such as the Segway.
The Segway is a Level 3 piece of Equipment, but it also has a special ability. While some cards are able to use their special ability as well as attack, any card that says “OR” is not able to.
Instead, you must choose between using the Equipment Card to attack and using the ability listed on it. In the Segway’s case, you can simply ride past the first monster in the Oncoming Horde, which can be immensely useful, ignoring a strong monster to fight several weaker ones!
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
Hi everyone!
I promised you yesterday that I’d talk more about “The Other Kind of Man In Black”. Well, here he is in all his glory!
This is the reverse of the Man In Black. When he’s turned over, he takes all of your Equipment Cards. The deck is shuffled and the player responsible for turning this card over is given one piece of Equipment. That ends their turn.
This card can turn a game around in a second, changing a strong hand to nothing, or giving a vital piece of Equipment to someone who has nothing good in their hand anyway…
– Ed
You can join the Champion of Earth Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/champion-of-earth – we hope you will join us in defending the Earth!
The Consortium expansions are getting down to the last several steps before arriving at your doorstep. I can tell you that the Definitive Edition Rulebook is now with the proofreaders. Thanks to some last minute work we’ve been able to add a few more stories than was expected to part 1. I think you’re all going to love the extra content! Also, Ed finished off the editing during this week in order to deliver the Definitive Edition to the proofreaders. This just leaves the Expansions Volume 1 and Revival left to finish.
Expansions Volume 1 is currently with the indexer giving it that special bit of last minute touch up we all adore and will be ready for printing very shortly. Revival is still being written but is moving right along. We don’t have a firm end date for this book but I promise to let you know just as soon as the details come to me.
All of the information is with the distributor and the remainder of the books should arrive within about a week. We’re really at the mercy of printing queues at this point but Ed hopes to get everything sent out by early April which is just in time to plan your summer around all these great new expansion games!
That’s it for me today, head back here next week and I’ll tell you where we’re at!
-A
