$1.40 off Shipping for all Backers, Looking at Assistants
over 1 year ago – Sat, May 06, 2023 at 10:45:33 PM

Gold count = 358

More Savings!

We are now over 700 backers! That means we now have reached our stretch goal to lower the cost of shipping by $1.40 USD for all backers.

Let's Talk Assistants

I know there have been many questions about Assistants, what are the new ones going to do, etc. I am going to share with you some rough ideas of what we are working with. I know it is not as graphically awesome as seeing what the actual card looks like but when that happens, I promise to share those images with you. For now though, here are some notes and ideas we have been putting together for all of the Assistants.

Current Assistants and Overall Powers - 

Badger Apprentice - An extra worker who helps you in the forge, gives you an extra action in the Production phase. However, still learning so may need some guidance so he is a dice worker.

Noble Patron - Gives you a strong start by upgrading your entire forge in order to give you the ability to focus on contracts and recruiting new guild members. 

Guild Advisor - A truly wise individual who gives you an early start on building your guild workshops while also allowing you unqequaled versatility on trying to build engines for your workshops as guild members can work in any workshop. They can even be moved later to adjust for the situation.

Raven Broker - An additional worker that allows you greater flexibility in all phases of the game and though is quite flexible and useful, is a bit of a mercenary. Looking at a change where if anyone takes the Raven die, they owe the player with the Raven Broker card money. Yes, they are good and it helps people but they will be paying you for it.

New Assistants and Overall Powers, Notes and Thoughts -

Cleric - The ability to use Talismans to an even greater effect in order to get the most out of the dice workers. Always working to get the very best results from your workers. LIkely starting with Talismans to get the efficiency started from Turn 1.

**New** Scrivener (Scribe) - The always get the very best from completing contracts and making sure the blacksmith gets the most out of every job. Looking at extra gold per contract complete and potentially gaining an available contract at the beginning of every season before the season starts. Thus always giving them a priority on items.

**New** Mystical Metallurgist - Has their own recipes in order to get the most out of finishing contracts and gain special benefits that no one else can access. Potential for gaining goods when finishing a contract, more money, more reputation, use mystics other than Mithril and Embergems. 

**New** Title Master - Gain one of your own title cards that only you can achieve. Plus, you can always gain another title even if it has already been completed but gain only half the benefit from completing that title.

If you have any ideas for any other Assistants, please let us know. We will be doing some extensive playtesting soon and a few more ideas can lead to some very interesting abilities.

Thank you again and until next time, keep forging on!

-Sam Stockton

BGG Hotness List #16, Stretch Goal Unlocked w/ a Bonus, Triple Gold Weekend!
over 1 year ago – Fri, May 05, 2023 at 03:52:43 PM

Gold count = 318

Stretch Goal Unlocked...and a Bonus!

We have officially unlocked the 300 gold stretch goal for Spotted UV on box and components, plus we are adding in a bonus. We have been on the BGG (Board Game Geek) Hotlist at #16. Which has never happened to us before and we want to thank all of the backers for making it possible! So, we have listened and we are adding an additional New Assistant card to the game that has unlocked with the Spotted UV stretch goal.

Here is the layout for the Stretch Goals until the end of the campaign.

Shipping Stretch Goals

Also, remember that in addition to this, we will be lowering shipping for everyone based on the number of backers. For every 100 backers, we lower shipping by $0.20 USD. That currently brings us to $1.20 USD, though very soon that will be $1.40 USD once we hit 700 backers.

Triple Gold for Sharing

It is time. It's the last weekend before the Kickstarter is over on Thursday, May 11th. We need to let people know that they are missing out. I know there are only a few of us, but I can honestly say I have been delighted to chat with you in the comments section as well as on the various social platforms. 

We have been able to claim a Top 10 spot on Kicktraq, get #16 on the BGG Hotlist, be Camilla's, from the Dice Tower, Crowdsurfing Pick of the Week, and have numerous content creators saying, this game is great and we are backing it. We need to let people know we are here and they should join us. Even if only for a $1, they will help reduce shipping for everyone backing the game on Kickstarter. 

So, until the end of the campaign, we will award 6 gold towards stretch goals instead of 2 for every post or share someone does on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you even send me a screenshot/picture of you sharing on Reddit, your own local game store, or anywhere else, email it to me at [email protected] and we will award that as well for 6 gold each. 

Until the next update, it's time to turn up the heat!

-Sam Stockton

$1.20 off Shipping for Everyone, New Assistant Unlocked, New Ways to Gain Gold, Armor and Shield Polling
over 1 year ago – Tue, May 02, 2023 at 02:52:03 PM

Thanks to You!

Wow, the campaign is starting to pick up steam and we want to thank you, our backers. We want to thank everyone who has joined the campaign, whether you were here day 1 or day 12. However, we do want to call out those backers though who have stayed with us the entire campaign, we had some slow times, but you held on and with that perseverance, we are now building up some serious momentum. 

Now that we have 600 Backers, shipping to everyone is decreased by $1.20 USD!

New Assistant Unlocked

We reached our goal of 200 gold and now we have unlocked a New Assistant Card! For those just joining us, an Assistant Card adds some asymmetry to the player experience by adding variable player powers. These allow you to focus and play with different aspects of the game in order to earn the most money and become the next Forgemaster! 

We will be showing you a graphical version later this week so stay tuned.

New Ways to Gain Gold for Stretch Goals

We are doing Stretch Goals a little differently on this campaign by focusing on Social Stretch Goals. By following our pages, sharing content, tagging us on social media, we are giving the community gold to accumulate that will unlock new cards, componenets, and upgrades for the game.

So how do we get this gold? How does Kicktraq work? 

I linked the images here for your convenience and I will also be adding them to the main page. 

For BGG (Board Game Geek) you can go and hit the fan button as well as subscribe. We will be retro actively giving gold for this since we announced it last week. Also, feel free to browse and post in the game's forums. We have had some FAQs posted there as well as the rulebooks.

For Kicktraq, it is a website that tracks  movement, funding, # of backers, trends, etc. for crowdfunding. The main way it does this is by people visiting the Kicktraq page of the project and use the visit website button. It is also helpful to post comments on the Kickstarter. Those are the two main ways to boost your Kicktraq score. If we get enough traffic, it will place us in the Top 10 for crowdfunding and create more visibility for the campaign. You can do it multiple times a day but you must at least wait 30 min. between checks.

Armor and Shield Polls

Note, for the following polls, they will both closeout Saturday Afternoon.

For armor, it is time to rank your favorite names!  Armor Up!! 

For shields, it is time to submit your names! Raise Shields!

Until next time my friends, keep forging on!

-Sam Stockton

Poll Results, Tie Breaker, and $1.00 off Shipping for Everyone!
over 1 year ago – Mon, May 01, 2023 at 04:27:21 AM

**Current Gold Count = 179

 Poll Results for Weapon Names 

Without further ado, I give you your weapon name winners...

We have a tiebreaker for this one. They both ended up with a score of 28.5 and now we need to finalize that name! Until Wednesday 9pm Central, you can cast your vote for Aurora or Dawn Breaker by posting in the comments in our main comment section. Let us know which one you prefer.

Those are the winning names for our weapons! Remember to vote Aurora or Dawn Breaker in the comments section of the Kickstarter. You have until 9pm Central this Wednesday.

$1.00 USD off Shipping for Everyone!

We are now over 500 backers and rising. Which means we now discounting shipping for everyone by $1.00 USD. Remember, for every 100 backers, we will decrease shipping for everyone by $0.20 USD.

We have new polls coming very soon, as well as new ways to gain gold for our stretch goals! 

Until next time, keep forging on!

-Sam Stockton

Unlocked 3 New Guild Tokens and New Stretch Goal!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Apr 27, 2023 at 04:10:28 AM

**Current Gold Coin Count = 129

New Stretch Goal Unlocked!

Our newest Stretch Goal will be for 200 gold coins. Note that this weekend, we will be adding 1 or 2 more ways you can earn gold for the campaign to unlock those Stretch Goals.

New Guild Tokens

We have unlocked 3 new Guild Tokens for the game! I will be working with our graphic designer to get you some final files but let's talk about Guild Tokens and give you some insight into what they are.

Guild Tokens are a major part of the engine building aspect of the game. You can recruit them from the Guild Hall on the main board and when you do, you place them onto your player board in the appropriate Guild Workshop. Whenever you take a die from the board to gain resources, etc., you will place that die in a matching guild workshop. This is done by matching the color of the die to the workshop portion of the board. Then you will activate all of the actions your guild members can do from that workshop.

Designing Tokens

When designing Guild Tokens there are 3 major elements: the guild they belong to, the resources gained, and the cost. 

The Guild

Each guild has 3 elements that identify it as being a part of a certain guild. The top left symbol, the color of the token, and the resources associated with the guild. In this example, this Guild Member or Guild Token, is part of the Harvester Guild. They have the Harvester Guild symbol, the color green associated with that guild, and the gaining of Goods (Wood, Charcoal, Ore, Leather, Steel). Note that the guild symbol is not strictly needed but is used to aid those that may be colorblind to better help them navigate the boards.

The Resources

Each guild in the game specializes in a type of task. The Alchemist's Guild (Yellow) works with Mystics (Talisman, Dragon Scales, Mithril, and Embergems). The Harvester's Guild (Green) works with Goods as mentioned above. Then finally the Merchant's Guild (Purple) works with all of the resources and gold. Their abilities are based around exchanging resources for gold or gold for resources. 

In the above example, since it is a Harvester, they will gain Goods in some way. However, in this case, they also gain a one time bonus. Anything in that grey stone area means you get that resource or bonus when you initially recruit them. You will not get that bonus again when running your guild workshops.

The Cost

Every guild member has a cost associated with them when recruiting them to be in your workshop, gold. In Forges of Ravenshire, you win the game by having the most gold so be careful how you are spending those well earned "Victory Points." However, when recruited and used properly, they can provide powerful benefits for your engine (your ability to gain resources).

Until next time, keep forging on!

-Sam Stockton