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Okay, so I’ve introduced you to our Savage Planet, now let’s talk about the Legacies…

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Legacies are individuals who are hired to run your Citadel. They are the gears and cogs that bring more Iridium into your stockpile. Iridium, or “shards,” is the currency of Fantos, the Savage Planet. We think of it a little like the spice melange in Dune. Fantos inhabitants use Iridium as food, fuel, building material,  and some even say the shards are an aphrodisiac. So it’s a desirable commodity.

Legacies are the hired leaders that harvest the Iridium mine fields, declare war, defend your riches, vie for tribute, and look out for your best interests. Each Legacy is a unique snowflake possessing its own personal strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities.

In our The Fate of Fantos card game, players are assigned a Citadel located on the Savage Planet, and they attempt to run them in ways that gain the favor of Zodraz,  the Cosmic Warden. They do this by hiring Legacies to work for their Citadels. Once hired, players task the Legacies to different actions depending on the roll of a die and/or the decisions of other players.

Legacies are also the only game characters allowed to play cards from their Citadel’s hands. Each Citadel holds a hand of 5 cards made up of bonuses, buffs, and disruptions, which Legacies can use to alter the course of the game in different ways.

I’ll get into more information about the specifics of these cards another time, promise. But, for now, let’s discuss some game mechanics…

Each Citadel starts the game with a stockpile of Iridium, and they can use the shards to hire Legacies out of a randomly drawn pool.

Each Legacy has a Hiring Cost, which is indicated in the top right corner of each card. So, let’s say I want to hire The Alchemist out of the current Legacy Pool. He’s going to cost my Citadel 5 Iridium shards. So I take 5 out of my Citadel’s stockpile, and I place them on top of the Alchemist card, which I have placed face up in front of me.

You might be wondering why I put the shards on top of the card? This is one of the things about the game that I really like. The Iridium on top of The Alchemist represents 2 things: (1) the shards are now his, which he can use to pay the costs of cards played from his Citadel’s hand, and (2) they represent his Hit Points. So, if The Alchemist chooses to play a card from the Citadel’s hand, you would discard the proper amount of Iridium shards from The Alchemist to pay the cost of playing the card from your hand. Discarded shards are placed into The Trove. (This is name we have given to the mine fields where Legacies go to harvest Iridium—it’s simply a big pile of Iridium tokens on the game table—The Trove sounds better.)

Defeat in war may also cause a Legacy to lose shards, which are also placed back into The Trove. Additionally, events and trials that may occur during the course of a game can reduce a Legacy’s shard count. If a Legacy runs out of shards, that card must then be discarded. So, a Legacy’s Iridium shards signify its buying power and its health, which all begins with its hiring cost.

Let’s look at the bottom of a Legacy card now. The first icon in the bottom left corner signifies the card’s Phase Condition—every Legacy character possesses one, and it tells the Citadel when the character’s unique ability can be used—and the other icons and numbers represent the stats this Legacy can contribute to three different types of Fantos Actions: Harvest, War, and Tribute. (I’ll go into how these different actions work at another time, but it’s important to know that the icons aren’t just for decoration.)

Finally, let’s discuss the Ability of the Legacy, which is described by the text on the card. Abilities are different for every single character, and can really add a boost to your Citadel that can also create problems for others. So, it’s important to read them closely and look for opportunities to to use them wisely throughout the game. All of the Abilities are activated in different ways: some are passive, some have cost, and others require you to task the Legacy to do it.

At this point you may be wondering what “task” the Legacy even means, right? Well, Citadels have to Task their Legacies in order to get them to do stuff. They don’t just magically read your mind and know what needs to be done. They must be Tasked. This is where Darth’s idea for a “Game of Middle Managers” comes into play. But, I’m unable to go into this right now, as I myself am being “Tasked” at the moment; family beckons!

So, I’ll go over Tasking and Un-Tasking Legacies next time, when I become Un-Tasked.

Until then, be sure to play some games and make some mischief.

-Travis Watkins, Leader of The Imps

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Savage Planet: The Fate of Fantos is now in the playtesting phase. If you would like to join our growing group of playtesters, please contact us on Facebook or send us an Email with answers to the following questions.

1. Your experience as a playtester.
2. The average size of your gaming group on any given game night.
3. What types of games you typically tend to enjoy the most.
4. Your physical location.
5. The days with blocks of time that you are usually free to play.

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Hello from behind-the-scenes of the Imp House, where the mischief and magic begins!

For the past year or so we’ve been quietly developing a new game. Or, more to the point, we’ve been creating a new world and then decided to make a game out of it. Let me preface the following introduction to our new world by proclaiming our love of 80s Saturday morning cartoons, particularly the weird fantasy ones. Such as: Bravestarr, Thundarr, and, of course, He-Man.

Last year, after watching the final episode of Game of Thrones Season 5, we started joking about what it would be like if Westeros was swapped out for Eternia; changing Jaimie Lanister to Prince Adam, Jon Snow to Skeletor, The Hound to Man-At-Arms…you get the idea. Then it hit us; this could make an awesome game!

Darth has been playing with a game mechanic idea for some time in which players can’t directly play the cards from their hand, but can instead hire characters in the game to do their bidding for them. I guess you could call it a “Game of Middle Managers”—which sounds terribly unappealing when described that way.

So, with a ludicrous Saturday Morning cartoon concept and a weird game mechanic, we set off on an adventure to a fantasy world, searching for a new game along the way. What we discovered was Fantos. A festering melting pot of a planet, brimming with diversity and corruption. A planet where it’s normal for humanoids to interact with monkey-like aliens from another world and start a war with lizard zealots from a different dimension. Where android elves search for their creator in hopes of learning a life purpose. This is a universe populated by treacherous space vampires made only of gas and enormous monolithic flying heads with god-like powers. This was our Savage Planet.

After finding Fantos, we had so many questions we wanted to answer. The planet itself is sick. It is polluted and dying; how did it get that way? The humanoid natives of the planet—The Feral—are horribly mutated; how did that happen? The creatures from other planets and dimensions—The Marked, The Hollow, and The Cult—how and why did they come to Fantos? The android elves known as The Enlightened; what is their purpose? Who made them? The giant god-like flying stone heads known as The Overseers; what the @#%! are they all about?

The answers we discovered on our journey go something like this…

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Once upon a time, Fantos was a happy, healthy planet rich with a substance called Iridium. This is a desirable star mineral used for many things throughout the universe in which Fantos exists. It’s used as a currency, as a fuel, and as a building resource; some races consume it and others worship it. The natives of Fantos—the ones now called The Feral—and The Enlightened elvish androids who lived among them, responsibly used only the Iridium that they needed and no more.

Then one day, new lizard-type creatures appeared from the swamp lands through a giant river whirlpool known as The Tempest. These lizard beings worshiped The Tempest and the now dormant ancient being that created it, and quickly they set out to convince the natives to join in their devotion. They were very convincing. Soon, they had the natives mining Iridium shards in mass quantities, in order to erect temples and pay tribute to their God. As word spread about the wealth of Fantos, more and more lizard zealots came through The Tempest and demanded even more shards for their God. This race became known as The Cult.

Fantos had never been mined like this, and what came next was disastrous. The planet began to leak a toxic gas from the Iridium fields. The Feral natives, being the closest to the operation, were hit hardest. Generations of Feral families were wiped out and others were horribly mutated. Because of this, the natives revolted and began fighting their Cult oppressors, thus beginning the Iridium Wars.

With a fight on their hands and few left to harvest the shards for them, The Cult leaders began searching the universe for someone else to enslave to their cause. It was about this time that the gas vampires known as The Hollow were attracted by the heavy toxins leaking from Fantos.

These parasitic space vampires made their way to the ice mazes of the north and quickly became acquainted with The Cult. After hearing of their need for new workers, The Hollow suggested the strong ape-like creatures they had observed on a nearby planet.

The Cult set out in an interplanetary ship built from resources they had harvested. The ape-like beast men never saw them coming. They were ambushed overnight, branded with a mark of ownership, shackled, and stowed on the vessel. By morning, they realized they had been stolen from their planet, destined for a life of slavery. But, The Cult under-estimated them. Before the ship made land-fall on Fantos, The Marked broke from their chains and took over the ship. Unfortunately, they did not know how to pilot the ship, and they crashed into the forests of the west. But, they were free, and they were angry.

Generations pass. The planet is sick, political alliances have been made and broken, mercenaries from all races have arisen, skirmishes are constant—when, finally The Enlightened decide enough is enough and call out to the universe for help. This is when god-like beings known as The Overseers show up on Fantos. They are minions of Zodraz, The Cosmic Warden. When a planet is ill and all hope seems lost, Zodraz and The Overseers arrive to help usher it back to health, as they have done for Fantos in the past.

Zodraz has decided that Fantos needs a cleansing. The Overseers will join the battle to help expose those who are unworthy of the planet, and Zodraz will award the most capable and responsible Citadel with the fate of leading Fantos into a healthier and more peaceful era.

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Okay, I know what you may be thinking: this all sounds pretty epic and amazing! We feel the exact same way. So, let me tell you a little about the game we brainstormed to accompany this cosmic mouthful of awesome…

Each player in Savage Planet: The Fate of Fantos plays as a Citadel. Citadels are the main strongholds where inhabitants of Fantos gather for trade and protection. Each was founded by a particular race during the early days of the Iridium Wars, but are now populated by beings from all races doing whatever they can to stay alive. Each Citadel has its own Iridium supply, which is used to hire workers and mercenaries to help run the affairs of the stronghold. These hired individuals are known as Legacies. They harvest shards for their Citadel, go to war for it, defend it, and represent it in political matters. Legacies are also the only ones able to play cards from your hand and take actions for the Citadel. They do this by using their own stock of Iridium shards, which they have built up by being hired. These shards also represent their health…

…and…I’m pretty sure this is where I lost all of you reading this. So, I’m going to take a step back and explain the Legacy characters in more detail for my next Design Log.

Until then: gather your friends, play some games, and make some mischief!

-Travis Watkins, Leader of The Imps

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Savage Planet: The Fate of Fantos is now in the playtesting phase. If you would like to join our growing group of playtesters, please contact us on Facebook or send us an Email with answers to the following questions.

1. Your experience as a playtester.
2. The average size of your gaming group on any given game night.
3. What types of games you typically tend to enjoy the most.
4. Your physical location.
5. The days with blocks of time that you are usually free to play.

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Now that Chaos of Cthulhu has arrived in homes and places of worship around the world, cultist have begun asking about painting suggestions for the grey resin Player Token that comes in the game. So we put together a little guide for how we painted ours.

There are numerous designs and styles to draw inspiration from when painting your token, we decided to make ours look a bit like a found relic.

STEP 1: The first thing we recommend before painting your token is giving it a quick bath. Ready a small amount of water with a drop of dish soap. Then gently scrub it with an old toothbrush. Or just rubbing your fingers over it should do. Then rinse and dry it off.

STEP 2: Cover the entire Token with a coat of primer. We chose to use Testors Black Matte Primer.

STEP 3: We wanted the Token to have an aged copper feel to it. So we created a teal color mixing together some green, blue and white. We then dry brushed the color into the background areas of the Token. If you get paint anywhere you do not want it, just wiped it off with a paper towel.

STEP 4: Using a gold paint pen, we gave the gate symbol a stroke. Once it dried, we flipped it over and scribbled across the back until it was covered in gold streaks. After letting the back dry, then cover the edges in gold.

STEP 5: Once the gold is dry, cover the Token in a black wash. We used Vallejo Black Wash. This gives the coin a dirty weathered look. It doesn’t take much to get this effect, so use the wash sparingly.

STEP 6: Lastly, we gave the Token a coat of anti-shine to dull the paint and age it a bit more.

We can’t wait to see how you customize your tokens, please share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

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During our Kickstarter campaign for Chaos of Cthulhu, we offered sculpted Cthulhu altars as add-on items. While these do not do anything to increase your chances of winning the game, they certainly do increase your favor in the eyes of The Great Dreamer.

With the altars in the hands of cultists worldwide, we thought we’d put together a simple painting tutorial for customizing them. So let’s get to it.

We decided that we wanted our alters to look weathered like they’ve been sitting out in the elements for many many years. To get this look, it’s quite simple.

STEP 1: The first thing we recommend before painting your alters is giving them a quick bath. Ready a small amount of water with a drop of dish soap. Then gently scrub them with an old toothbrush. Or just rubbing your fingers over them should do. Then rinse and dry them off.

STEP 2: This next part is optional. We say this, because we didn’t do it for ours. But you might have a better result if you do. Cover the alter with a coat of white or grey primer. You can find this at your local hobby stores like Michaels in the model paint section.

STEP 3: For the next step, we used Vallejo Black Wash. If you’re not sure where to get it, we found ours on Amazon, but you can probably find a similar wash at your local shop.

Pour a small amount of wash into a color pallet if you have one. Or you can do like we did and just use a paper plate. Then, using an small paint brush, cover the alter in it wash. Try not to let it pool in the flat parts, and get most of it around and into the recessed glyphs and Cthulhu heads. We used two different brushes for ours. An older brush with flimsy bristles for the covering part, then a smaller, fine brush for the small details that are more difficult to get into.

When using a wash, it’s important to remember that it isn’t meant to be used like a regular paint. You aren’t trying to put an even coat on the altar. You want there to be variations and unevenness, with the majority of the wash pooling in the cracks and crevices to bring out the details.

STEP 4:  Once the wash is dry, seal it in with a coat of varnish. We used anti-shine from Army Painter.

FINAL RESULTS: And here’s the results. We’d love to see what you do with yours. Please share some pictures with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

After wrapping up our Kickstarter reward fulfillment whirlwind, sending Chaos of Cthulhu games to our wonderful supporters around the world, we’re going to be exhibiting at Comicpalooza 2016 in Houston, TX, from June 17-19! We’ll be selling games, shirts, buttons, and maybe even doing a little playtesting for some of our upcoming games. We may even have a few of those sweet sculpted Cthulhu Altars leftover for some lucky cultists to snag. So if your looking for an awesome con to attend, head to Houston, and visit us in HALL B at Booth #1310.