About a year ago, my friend and co-designer, Darth, sent me the picture you see below. I asked him what it was, and he said “a dice game.” It didn’t look like any kind of dice game I’d ever played, so my interest was piqued. Then he said it was a Lovecraft dice game, and I reminded him of all the different cult-magic, tentacle-faced game variations that already existed. But, he assured me this one was unique. I thought he had gone mad. How could he possibly bring something new to the Lovecraftian game table?
Original Chaos of Cthulhu concept art…madness!
The next day he sent me the following picture, and the idea started to appear a little less insane. He went on to explain how each player had a set of dice that made up their monster, which was used to fight other player’s monsters and also act as your hit points. I had never seen anything like it. I had to know more. I had to play it.
Early sketches of complete Old Ones
So, I set out to make my own copy to dive into the madness. I rolled my mix-matched abomination and instantly loved the game mechanic of matching dice rolls to activate my monster’s various abilities. What I loved even more was that I could add and subtract my dice values to make new numbers, so I could set my own strategy. It was awesome!
The very first Elder Dice mockups!
During one of the first rounds of public play testing, it didn’t go quite as planned. A game that was designed to last 15-30min (maybe 45-60 in extreme cases) ended up lasting 3 hours. It was a battle of attrition, and we learned learned a lot from it. Through many more play tests and discussions the game became more balanced, strategic, and aggressive. We came up with multiple win scenarios. Players helped us brainstorm ideas for bringing order to the chaos. (That’s where the player aid mats, action tokens, and secrecy screens came from.) And then, out of it all it came the most popular suggestion: the dice should be giant to show off the stylized art.
We set out to make Chaos of Cthulhu a unique, collectible dice game that stands out from other Lovecraftian projects, and I believe we succeeded. We just didn’t succeed enough to fund…this time. But, we did learn a lot from the experience. With a better understanding of how Kickstarter works and some slight adjustments to the game, we’re setting out for another campaign in mid-to late July, 2015. I hope to see you again then!
I greatly appreciate all the support we’ve received on this first campaign and want to keep the momentum going. If you have any suggestions for web sites, or places you we should contact for previews, reviews, or interviews in the gaming, horror, or Lovecraft world, please leave your comments in the Chaos of Cthulhu Facebook Group. Plus, we’ll send out a few more updates in the coming months to keep you informed of the progression leading up to July’s re-launch.
Thank you all, and we’ll see you back here very soon!
Yours in mischief,
Travis Watkins
