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Gloomhaven Grand Festival

Created by Cephalofair

We invite you to join the celebration and check out the latest in the city of Gloomhaven. From Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs, Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game, Miniatures of Gloomhaven, Gloomhaven: Second Edition and more, there is something for everyone.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Road to the Gloomhaven Grand Festival
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jun 02, 2023 at 07:19:57 PM

Greetings Mercenaries! 

The Road to Gloomhaven begins as we kicked off our Launch Party Live Stream yesterday. We are glad to have the announcement for Gloomhaven: Second Edition out in the wild. Today, the design team played through an early scenario and shared a first look at some of the gameplay changes, including previews of new cards, monsters, and more. 

We know everyone will have a lot of questions about the world of Gloomhaven and all the products that are going to be included in the upcoming Crowdfunding campaign, so we thought we’d take some time to answer some of the most burning questions. 

Will there be an upgrade pack?

We are listening to the outpour of feedback about an upgrade pack and want to do right by this wonderful community. The first thing to make clear is that the overwhelming majority of the game has been reworked with new content and graphics. Only a small handful of components from the original box would even carry over to this new edition, so an “upgrade pack” would essentially be the full game. Internally, this is where the conversation stopped until yesterday - an upgrade pack simply doesn’t make sense. However, after listening to the community yesterday, it became clear that there may be enough interest in just the character boxes to support the printing of those as a separate upgrade product.

So in the end, we are happy to give the community what they want, and we will introduce a Mercenary Upgrade Pack to the upcoming BackerKit campaign. 

This will be an add-on for backers, which will be able to be added to any pledge level, including the $1 level. 

The Mercenary Upgrade Pack will include the following for all 18 characters:

  • Ability cards
  • Attack modifier cards
  • Character mats
  • Punchboard sheet(s)

Additionally, it will include one punchboard sheet with new condition tokens.

It will not include the miniatures, but those are already planned as an add-on in the Miniatures of Gloomhaven line.

We do not have a price point for this product yet, and it will only be made if enough people pledge for it. We would also like to emphasize that, much like how the Frosthaven characters can be played across all games but were designed around Frosthaven, these new versions of the Gloomhaven characters are cross-compatible, but they were designed around the new version of the game, and you may run into select mechanisms that don’t work as well in other games. With that said, if you’re not interested in purchasing an entirely new game, but still want to enjoy the new characters, we feel this is the best way to do that. 

What is new in Gloomhaven: Second Edition? 

In our live stream yesterday, we touched on some of the new updates to the Gloomhaven: Second Edition board game. The design team of Isaac, Drew, and Dennis can’t wait to share more, and we will have plenty of time to deep dive on all the updates. In case you want to take a closer look, you can already see the starting cards for the Mindthief and Tinkerer on the Gloomhaven Reddit. Here is a full list of updates to the next edition of Gloomhaven:

  • Rebalanced and redesigned characters (18 characters, including the one that wasn’t in the Gloomhaven Box)
  • Updated map and overlay tile art
  • New card design/layout/artwork
  • New monster/character artwork
  • New, redesigned, and rebalanced items
  • New and rebalanced monsters
  • New scenario and section books, with new, redesigned, and rebalanced scenarios
  • New campaign tracker
  • New world map
  • New miniatures (same as Mercenaries of Gloomhaven Box Set)
  • Revised story and entirely new events (written by Satire)
  • New faction reputation system that will lead to difficult decisions and unique rewards
  • New puzzle book and town records story
  • New optional difficulty mechanic
  • New faction envelopes
  • New conditions
  • New and rebalanced random dungeon cards
  • Solo Scenarios (sold separately)
  • Removable Sticker Set (sold separately)

What is all included in the Gloomhaven BackerKit Campaign?

This crowdfunding campaign is going to be the most ambitious project that Cephalofair Games has done to date. There will be options to pledge for Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game, Miniatures of Gloomhaven, and Gloomhaven: Second Edition. We will also have add-ons for the second printing of Frosthaven and Frosthaven accessories, game inserts, and even more that we haven’t announced yet! 

This is unlike any campaign we have done before, and we are looking forward to you joining us for this celebration of Gloomhaven. Hopefully there will be something for everyone, whether you are a long-time Gloomhaven fan, finished your first few adventures, or just joining in for the first time. Thank you for your support. 

What about Forgotten Circles or Jaws of the Lion? 

At this time, we do not have plans to make second editions of any other products, and nothing from those products will be a part of Gloomhaven: Second Edition

How can you stay updated on the latest previews and announcements? 

There will be multiple channels and places to find out about the upcoming announcements, videos, and previews for the world of Gloomhaven. Drew and Dennis are already answering questions on the Gloomhaven Reddit, and you can find Isaac and team on the Gloomhaven: Second Edition BoardGameGeek page.

We have an upcoming Live Stream on Gen Con TV on June 7th, 7:00 pm - 8:45 pm EDT where our art/creative director BJ Hensley and cosplay team member Monica Paprocki will be joining host Richard Ankey to paint preview miniatures from the Miniatures of Gloomhaven line.

For those who really want to dive in, there will be a Reddit AMA on r/boardgames on Monday, June 12th at 9am PST with Isaac, Drew, and Dennis. 

We have some exciting actual plays lined up for Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game that we can’t wait to share too. 

Thank you for all your excitement and support as we head into this Gloomhaven Grand Festival!    

ANNOUNCING GLOOMHAVEN: SECOND EDITION
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jun 01, 2023 at 11:18:55 AM

Cephalofair Games, publisher of Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion, and the most recent Frosthaven, is excited to announce the release, Gloomhaven: Second Edition

As Cephalofair heads into their most extensive crowdfunding campaign yet, launching on BackerKit June 20th with Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game and Miniatures of Gloomhaven line, the team is pleased to announce the surprise rerelease of the flagship game that started it all… 

Gloomhaven: Second Edition is a revised and elevated version of the award-winning core game of Gloomhaven. This is the culmination of everything Isaac Childres and the growing Cephalofair Games team have learned since Gloomhaven’s initial release, including feedback from the community, playtesters, co-designers, and developers. This new edition is the new best way to experience Gloomhaven.

The world, story, and challenging gameplay are all still the same, but there is a plethora of additional content to explore. Even for those who have played Gloomhaven before, this edition brings new material to the table, with rebalanced and redesigned mercenary classes, items, and scenarios, as well as brand new artwork, newly written narrative and events, updated miniatures, a new faction-based reputation system, and more. 

For those that haven’t played Gloomhaven or have only played Jaws of the Lion, this will be a fantastic way to jump into a larger, epic experience. For people who have already played, this is a great way to revisit the legendary game, see all the updates, learn more about the world, and discover new secrets. 

From Isaac Childres, Founder, Cephalofair Games

“While Gloomhaven is well-loved, I'm not sure anyone would call it perfect. I am excited to have the opportunity to make this incredible game even better with a lot of polishing and refining of the content, based on what I and the team have learned over the past six years by listening to fans and playing the game a lot ourselves. This new edition is going to be even more fantastic.”

From Drew Penn and Dennis Vögele, Project Leads for Gloomhaven: Second Edition -

“Drew and I have spent the last six years reading the community's feedback on all of the Gloomhaven games, so we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve with this project. We hope you enjoy playing Gloomhaven: Second Edition as much as we enjoyed working on it.” 

Gloomhaven:Second Edition will be an additional offering during the BackerKit campaign, showcasing the range of abilities that BackerKit has to offer for this expanding crowdfunding project. 

From BJ Hensley, Art/Creative Director, Cephalofair Games - 

“I'm thrilled to be working with a team of incredibly talented artists such as Paola Andreatta, Francesca Baerald, Phan Tuấn Đạt, Sarah Dahlinger, Mates Laurentiu, Chris Lewis, and others to bring the imaginative world of Gloomhaven to life, both in the board game and the RPG. I have fallen in love with the art and people of this world and hope that through our efforts, others will be able to do the same.”

We are glad to be able to finally announce this project which has been in the works for some time with our design and development team. Bringing all that has been learned over the years into the newest experience to play Gloomhaven

From Maxwell Salzberg, CEO, BackerKit

“Cephalofair’s newest project promises to take the Gloomhaven experience to extraordinary new heights with a thrilling combination of immersive role-playing and intricately designed miniatures. We're confident that both veteran fans and newcomers alike will be blown away by this remarkable gaming adventure. It's a privilege for us to be part of this inspiring journey."

In addition to a new journey into the Gloomhaven board game, this updated edition provides a whole new array of components, tiles, encounters, and more as Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game enters the scene. The game and all it contains will provide hundreds of game assets, which can be used as a tool box for Gloom Masters and roleplayers as they look to expand their journey into the world of Gloomhaven through the roleplaying game. 

Please join us for the Gloomhaven Campaign on BackerKit on June 20th and be part of the Gloomhaven Celebration! Sign-Up and be part of the Launch Party on BackerKit.