Hello Explorers!

Today is a big, long designer diary update. Grab a snack and a soda, it's going to take a bit.

Go read this thread in the backers' forum. It's a really good thread. Seriously, go read it before reading the rest of this post, because it is all connected.

Go ahead, I'll wait.

All done? Good. Let's chat about some things.

I had made most of my planned changes to the beta rules last weekend. Then I read the above post. It has given me a lot to think about over the week. A LOT to think about.

In short, it gave voice to a concern that has been itching at the back of my mind for awhile now which I could not quite place.

When we first created Super Dungeon Explore we had a singular vision. All three creators were (and still are) miniature gamers. We wanted a tactical miniature board game. However, we're also RPG and lore junkies, so we created a giant world for the game too. We gave voice to that world in little snippets in card text, and people latched onto it.

It was not long before we saw people asking for and developing their own stories, scenarios, and RPG-lite elements. We loved it. It tickled our own RPG tendencies and desires. While we loved that the game was essentially a battle game Heroes vs Consul, we intimately understood how people wanted the game to have even more. Heck, we wanted more too, we have so many cool ideas to share! We also saw the rise of people disliking "competitive" play and only wanting a cooperative experience, with no one playing the Consul. Everybody wants to be a winner! That's cool, we could get behind that. Then we saw calls for solo play. Heck ya, we wanted to play a game when we were bored and didn't have friends over. We could do that.

Fast forward to Forgotten King. We were about to begin our foray into solo publishing, and had just found out that there was a very similar product being created. This required us, as a new company, to have to deal with direct competition in the chibi-style dungeon crawl market for the first time, and straight out of the gate. We had been planning 2nd Edition, but our timetables suddenly changed drastically. We felt we needed to strike while the iron was hot! We saw all this enthusiasm for Super Dungeon, all these exciting things that people wanted to be able to do with the game—things we wanted to be able to do too. So we did them all, thus blurring what we first intended Super Dungeon to be.

Super Dungeon Explore's basic structure groaned under the weight of so many new additions all at once. Don't get me wrong, Forgotten King is friggin’ awesome, and there are many incredible play experiences contained within. But it requires a judicious hand, and some tailoring to your group. We knew this. It's why we have difficulty settings in the back of the book. We also don't think it is a bad thing. As miniature gamers, we always come up with cool scenarios to play for our games. As roleplayers, we love tweaking things for story and fun. However, it did change the core experience of Super Dungeon Explore. It went from a battle board game to dungeon board game toolkit—here are the base rules to play, now do what you want! Some people love it. Some people dislike it. For people who live and breathe based on BGG ratings it kept pretty much the same rating, actually bouncing up .5 points. But one thing is undeniable, Super Dungeon Explore changed its identity between First Edition and Forgotten King.

That brings us to Super Dungeon Explore: 2nd Edition, and back to my original point from the beginning. Something has been sitting wrong with me. I couldn't place it though until I saw the linked post. Bam! There it is.

Right now, we’re building 2nd Edition off of Forgotten King. That means we're using the "whole kitchen sink." But we don’t have to. Not anymore. Now we have Super Dungeon: Legends. Legends is our RPG-lite expansion built upon Explore’s mechanics. Super Dungeon: Explore can go back to being fast and furious dungeon combat. Super Dungeon: Arcade is our cooperative and solo-play expansion. The unlocked pets will get rules in the form of Super Dungeon: Pet Parade. Pet Parade will be a fuller and more robust ruleset introducing pets into the game. These core systems will join the upcoming, Super Dungeon PVP Arena as the foundation of the Super Dungeon: 2nd Edition experience. Just to recap:

SUPER DUNGEON: 2ND EDITION

Super Dungeon: Explore. Core game rulebook and game components. Introduces the Super Dungeon: 2nd Edition rules. Focuses on Consul vs Hero dungeon combat, loot, treasure and battle.

Core game rulebook and game components. Introduces the Super Dungeon: 2nd Edition rules. Focuses on Consul vs Hero dungeon combat, loot, treasure and battle. Super Dungeon: Arcade. Rulebook, requires Forgotten King or Super Dungeon: Explore components. Introduces “Hero only” cooperative play and solo play.

Rulebook, requires Forgotten King or Super Dungeon: Explore components. Introduces “Hero only” cooperative play and solo play. Super Dungeon: Legends. Rulebook and Legends specific components, requires Forgotten King or Super Dungeon: Explore components. Introduces campaign play and roleplaying elements, including narrative games and custom dungeon creation.

Rulebook and Legends specific components, requires Forgotten King or Super Dungeon: Explore components. Introduces campaign play and roleplaying elements, including narrative games and custom dungeon creation. Super Dungeon: Pet Parade. Rules and models, requires Forgotten King or Super Dungeon: Explore components. Introduces pets and animal companions.

Rules and models, requires Forgotten King or Super Dungeon: Explore components. Introduces pets and animal companions. Super Dungeon: PVP Arena. Stand alone game, requires models. 2-player, head-to-head tactical battle game set in the Super Dungeon universe. (Note: PVP Arena is not part of this Kickstarter, and is only included in this list for completeness.)

Each ruleset represents unique gameplay options. They will all build on the core Super Dungeon Explore experience.

IMPORTANT ITEMS

New cards or models are NOT required for veterans. Your current collection of cards and models built upon Forgotten King are all used.

required for veterans. Your current collection of cards and models built upon Forgotten King are all used. Each pledge will receive all of the content it is due.

Delivery time is NOT affected. We are still within our window for writing and delivering final text for production. If this changes you will, of course, be notified.

We are still within our window for writing and delivering final text for production. If this changes you will, of course, be notified. The Dark Consul pledge will now include a print copy of the 2nd Edition rulebook. Since core components such as tokens and boards are not changing, these rules are all you need to play in the 2nd Edition environment with your current Forgotten King components.

copy of the 2nd Edition rulebook. Since core components such as tokens and boards are not changing, these rules are all you need to play in the 2nd Edition environment with your current Forgotten King components. All pledges of Explorer and above will include a print copy of the Pet Parade rules.

PLAYTESTING

Okay, so where does that put us for playtesting? Well, a lot of the changes I made based on feedback before this week are being scrapped. I will be taking the current 2nd Edition rules and moving many of the rpg-lite elements into Legends, where they belong. I will then turn to reprocessing the huge amount of feedback I’ve received on 2nd Edition with a new eye. The goal is to take the best of Forgotten King and the best of Super Dungeon Explore: First Edition and merge them into a new almighty, all powerful, true-to-identity Super Dungeon Explore. Mwhahahahaha! I’m going to burn midnight oil to get these turned around ASAP.

Weekly updates will continue. However, I’m going to start sending them on days when new material is ready for playtesting, instead of a fixed day. We will return to fixed day updates when the rough edges are smoothed out.

I will be posting this update in the backer forums. I will keep my eye on comments here, but I will do most my discussion there, since it is far easier to keep up with and track.

Until next time—

SPARKLEBURST!