Bad Lands: Curse of the Skinwalker - Kickstarter now EU-Friendly!

[Necros]

Last time, I said I would go more into detail on the campaign system, but I decided to change things up and do the first Hero preview instead. So, here are the first 4 Heroes, plus a bonus Hero courtesy of Bombshell Miniatures!



Azalea is a new recruit for the Widowmakers gang. Her pistol skills rival even the most infamous Gunslingers in town, and her short fuse has earned her quite a reputation in just the few weeks she's been around.



J. W. Clarkson is an infamous hunter of beasts, come to town at the request of the church to investigate the recent Skinwalker curse plaguing the land. He comes from a long line hunters, roaming the land protecting an unwitting populace from dark things that lurk behind the shadows.



Gina calls the Tranquility Crew her family, lending her gun and her know-how to Captain Reinholt and the rest of the crew. With her keen eyes and a longarm she can take down at any target at any distance.



As his name might suggest, Cookie is a cook. He works at the Golden Coin Saloon, where his new specialty, Jackalope Stew, has been filling the bellies of hungry miners and gunslingers alike. "All the flavor's in the horns," he says.

Special Guest Star



We included Dusty Paige in our original skirmish game, Blackwater Gulch, as a bonus hired gun. Due to popular demand, we will be including her in Bad Lands as well! She will have a downloadable PDF hero card, along with all of the original Blackwater Gulch characters, and you can use her miniature instead of a pawn. You can buy her figure from the Bombshell Miniatures online store.

That's all for today! Tomorrow we'll show off some of the Villains

[Necros]

What would a survival or adventure game be without lots bad guys to kill? In Curse of the Skinwalker, your primary villain is going to be a faction of sorts, simply called Beasts. In time, I hope to have several other boxed games based on other factions, with Undead things planned for the next one, and also mixing in lots of other folklore critters along the way too.

We call all bad guys "Villains", and there are 3 types. Minions, Fiends and Bosses.



Minions, like this Chupacabra, are like Villain foot soldiers, or cannon fodder. They are weak, but numerous. In a 1 on 1 fight with a hero, chances are they will be squished pretty easily, but if you aren't careful and allow them to group up around you, you'll be in for a world of hurt. Minion cards have a green border, and most of their stat lines are going to be pretty much the same as what's above. But, each one will have a special ability to set it apart from his minion cousins.



Fiends are a bit tougher than Minions, but still not too difficult 1 on 1. Again, they rely on outnumbering hapless Heroes, and some like this Werewolf with his Pack Hunter ability will be even more formidable in greater numbers. Fiend cards have a yellow border.

(You may notice he's not called a "Skinwalker Wolf" anymore. I decided to just stick to were-whatever for these beasts, just feels more natural that way.)



Lastly, we have the Bosses, denoted by the red border on their cards. Bosses are as tough as Heroes, and they all have two different abilities. For Skinwalkers, they will always have an animal aspect ability, in this case, all Werewolves have the Pack Hunter ability. His second ability, Throat Ripper, will make sure a fallen Hero stays down. Smellin' Salts won't work if your jugular is missing!

Perhaps you would like to know more about the Skinwalker Curse? Here is a page taken from the church's definitive guide on Lycanthropy, by Dr. Samuel D. Manchester III, Esq., Monster Hunter Extraordinaire.



That's all for today! Next time I'll show off some loot, because what would a survival or adventure game be without lots of loot?

[Necros]

I'm happy to announce that this campaign is now EU-Friendly! Sorry we didn't start out that way, but there were some details that had to be worked out first. Good news is EU shipping will be a little cheaper than the rest of the world, pretty much the same as the Canadian price. I've created a new pledge level for EU shipping, even though it's the same price as Canada, just so it won't be confusing. If you're in a EU country, feel free to switch your pledge to the new one I've gotten more than numerous requests for a EU-Friendly option so I'm hoping this will bring in new blood! As usual, go tell your friends about Bad Lands

Next up, I've also gotten a lot of requests for info on more stretch goals. So, I added the goal for the Wererat beast pack, which will also include a bonus Epic Boss added to the core game, the Jersey Devil. Epic Bosses are even tougher than your average alpha skinwalker. The wererat pack will be a $41,000 goal. We basically need $8k for each new beast pack. I've also got plans for lizards (werecroc?) and insects (Mothman?), but I don't have any art for those yet.

Last but not least, I'm also going to start sculpting the Beast miniatures for the eventual Blackwater Gulch beast faction expansion. Just like the gang members, you can also use the beast minis in your Bad Lands games if you want. It will take quite a while to sculpt everything, I'll just be doing 1 or 2 new sculpts at a time and selling them on my site. The first sculpt I'll be doing is the Alpha Werewolf, he's being sculpted by Clint McLean, the fella that made the infamous Sharktipede! Best of all, I will include a free copy of the Alpha Werewolf miniature for all backers who are pledging to receive a copy of the game (basically $55 or more), and I'll also offer him separately too. I'll make a more official announcement about that around the web when I get some screenshots to show off, but I'm not sure when exactly.

[Necros]

Here is the first screenshot for the Alpha Werewolf miniature that will be free for all backers getting a copy of the game

So far he’s unposed, and lacking a lot of detail like hair and a tail and other things, but still a great start. I'll post new pics as I get them.



He’s going to be “a head or 2” taller than your average man, but I want to try and still keep him on a 30mm base. Most of the men we have are a bit small for our 30mm bases, so he should still fit good. Once he’s all done, we’ll be tweaking and reposing and shrinking him down to make 2 different normal werewolves too, those will be normal man sized. I love 3D sculpting

[Necros]

Hey folks

Got some more sculpt screenshots Now we have the Alpha Werewolf with the totem staff, and 2 regular werewolves without weapons. I just asked if we can add in the detail to the staff like we have it on the artwork, and to vary the ripped pants a little so they aren’t all the same. But we’re almost there

Wadaya think?








Also, here’s a wall of text about the new campaign, from my previous update:

I’m still waiting on the final prices from the printer and don’t expect to have them for a couple of weeks, but I do have some guesstimates I can use to prepare for the next campaign. I’m mostly just waiting on the costs for sending a shipment to the UK. What I’m planning on is a new funding goal of $30,000 for the next campaign, but the price of the game will be $45 USD ($60 CAN/EU & $65 ROW). And all pledges $45 or more will get the Alpha Werewolf miniature for free. We’re still looking at mid-march for the relaunch.

I have stretch goals planned that will all add in something new to the core game permanently. The first goal will be to add in an extra punchboard and more encounter cards for a wider variety of villains and will include things like zombies, ghouls, wendigos, witches and more (rather than doing them in a whole separate expansion later on). Then the next goal will be to add in 2 bonus board tiles and some new heroes & loot. The 3rd goal will include a printed “Adventurer’s Guide” book, that will have all of the rules for custom heroes, adventure mode (having a GM control the beasts) and a multi-part campaign. If we don’t hit that goal, the Adventurer’s Guide will still be done as a free PDF and print-on-demand book, the stretch goal is to be able to include the nice printed book in the game box.

For add-on items, we’ll have the Blackwater Gulch miniatures again, but Game Salute has just dropped the prices on them, so they will be much cheaper. Gang sets will be $15, solo hired guns will be $5, and the BWG rulebook $10. I’ll also have separate copies of the Alpha Werewolf plus 2 different standard werewolf minis, and I’ll see if I can get some more sculpts done too, but I’m not sure how much they will cost yet.

I’ll also have Hero Mats done for add-ons as well, they will be a 9.25” x 7.75” custom printed mouse mat for $10, or a pack of 4 for $35. They’re designed for you to lay out your Hero Card and loot and kills to keep things more organized. I wanted to stick to that smaller size so they can fit inside the 10x10” game box for easy storage without folding or rolling them up.

So that’s where I’m at now. I’m waiting on pics of the final werewolf sculpts, and new art for the Wendigo, Rake and Zombies so I’ll share that as soon as it comes in

[Digits]

I like the wolves, especially the last pose.

[Necros]

Today I got the concept sketches for the Rake creature and the Wendigo. Both of these will be undead, rather than Beasts.

The rake is a more modern myth (like the Montock also, which is based on the Montauk Monster), but I wanted to include it because it's so creepy. He'll be a mid-level Fiend. There will be lots of different Wendigos, this first one is more of a Native American, but there will be cowboy and girl wendigos too. In Bad Lands, they are basically vampires.. but much more savage and brutal than your usual vamps, and they definitely don't sparkle.

I'm also making progress updating all of the cards to the new look. I should have them done in the next few days, then I'll send them off to get printed so I can take some new photos. I might try and redo the how to play video too.

Lastly, it looks like there are a lot of big companies planning campaigns in March. I'm a little worried that they will draw a lot of attention and backer dollars, and it might make things harder for us. I haven't decided yet, but I may wait and reboot more around early April now. That will also give me more time to get more done so the game will look even better. But we'll see how it goes.

Here's the new art! First, the Rake:



And here's the Wendigo



Here's an update for the card pics, the cards I showed last time were just mockups, this is more of the final version. Also, for the Chupacabra encounter card, the little wolf icon at the top shows it's a Beast. Undead will have a little skull over there, demons will have a little devily head, etc. It's so you can tell which race they are, because some Heroes or special weapons give you bonuses against them.



That's all for now.. back to work!

[Necros]

Still waiting to get my new printed cards so I can make my new how to play videos. (I’m impatient)

Wanted to share this new Zombie pic. He’ll be combined with the Wendigo and Rake from before and I’ll use them to tease the Undead stretch goal in the next campaign.



I’m still putting together my thoughts on how the undead faction will be made up, for both Bad Lands and Blackwater Gulch. Humans are pretty diverse with all of the different professions, and Beasts are too with all of the different animal aspects that give different bonuses. For undead, I’m thinking of having 4 different types of villains making up the faction, each one with 3 unique levels of toughness, same as the beasts.

So we’ll have Zombies, Ghouls and Revenants. Then Cannibals, Wendigos and Ancient Wendigos. For witches we’ll have Cultists, Brujahs and Posessed. The 4th will be Creeps, and this is where all the creepy things will go. Rakes, Slenderman, Mothman, demons and other things like that. The highest level types will all be unique named characters.

I’m planning on having 2 different Encounter decks if we make it to that stretch goal, 1 for beasts and 1 for undead. Each pre-made scenario will say what villains you are fighting so you know what deck to use. If you make your own you can pick the deck you want, or mix them all together. You can also tailor your deck to a specific storyline too if you want, rather than making it completely random.

You’ll have to build your Encounter deck for each game. You pick a final boss monster for your story and set that aside, then you draw 5 cards for each Hero (usually a total of 20 cards with 4 heroes), shuffle em, and stick the final boss at the bottom. I’ve also decided to change the way they spawn, where you roll 1D6 to see how many cards you draw each turn to make the encounters a little more random, but instead of letting you choose where they spawn, they will always spawn at the objective closest to the Hero that won initiative.

So that’s where I’m at now. Hoping to get some final sculpt pics for the werewolves soon so I’ll share them when I get em

[Necros]

Howdy folks

I’m still waiting for the new printed cards to show up }:( hopefully they’ll show up this week. I want to get started on my new videos, but I need them first. I’m going to be making a bunch of shorter 2-3 minute videos showing each part of the game, rather than one big one that drags. I thought that first one came out kinda boring.

I have the 3D sculpts for the werewolves all finished now. Here they are.. lots of parts, but that’s the only way to get the poses to come out good. The pyramid style plugs on each joint will make the parts fit together easy, so you just need a little super glue and you’re all set. We also had to close the mouths on all of the heads for them to come out right, if not the jaw would have had to be a whole other separate piece, or would have had to have a lot less detail.





I’ve decided to hold off on getting the 3D prints done right now and go ahead and get the Chupacabra sculpted too. I was going to just release the werewolves first but they kind of need some minions to make a proper starter set. So he’ll have 3 different poses, but since he’s a minion he’ll be a little smaller. Then all of them together will make up the Werewolf Starter Set for Blackwater Gulch. 1 Alpha Werewolf, 2 Werewolves and 3 Chupacabras. They’ll also be sold separately in packs of 3 Chupacabras, a pair of werewolves or 1 alpha. Those are also the amounts that we will have in Bad Lands, so players that want minis can get those and not have to worry about not having enough or ending up with too many. So I will have them all featured as add-ons in the new campaign, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get other beasts sculpted before the new campaign ends. Guess we’ll see how it goes

Right now it’s looking like the new campaign will happen around the 2nd week of April or so

[Dewbakuk]

Look cool, the only thing I'd really alter is the waistband on the centre wolf, it's flush in line with the body. Once it's been printed and cast etc that'll mostly disappear. I'd thicken the cloth so the line is obvious, once printed at correct size etc it will look right and give the paintbrush a line to follow.

[Necros]

Good call, gonna fix that

Hoping we'll be able to get started on the Chupacabra in the next few days