Good day! We're coming up on the final weekend! There's not too much going on, but we will have the latest episode of Old School going live tomorrow. Otherwise, we'll just be gearing up for the grand finale of the Grand Festival.

Plus, we've still got some stuff for you today. At 10am PST, Price will (finally) be talking to Chris at Brushwood Minis about painting Gloomhaven minis. You'll probably hear some tips and tricks and insights there. We had a couple false starts on getting this scheduled, and I may have announced it early in a previous update, but the conversation is finally happening!

And then at 4pm PST, stop in for the Friday Fireside Chat! Today I will be joined by Satire again, but a different iteration - this time with Joe and Alexander. Joe handled the writing of the entire main story for Gloomhaven: Second Edition, so we'll probably talk about that a fair bit. We'll try to keep it spoiler-light though.

The highlight from yesterday was the Gallant Globlin's play of the Gloomhaven RPG. The story was great, and the cast was a lot of fun, so check that out if you're interested:



Drew and I also got up to some Gloomhaven: Second Edition shenanigans yesterday. We did a nice, breezy jaunt through a crypt with Two Minis (me) and Triangles (Drew). I think the biggest news there is that we agreed that Drew's next and final game, which will be happening 8am PST on Tuesday, will be Drew, Dennis, and myself - the whole crew - playing the new version of the most notorious scenario, 72. At +1 difficulty. So we'll see how that goes.

And then we had Romain on from Twin Sails to talk about Gloomhaven Digital.

It's Friday, so there is of course, a new puzzle down at the bottom of the main page. This is a challenging one for the Mindthief, designed by MadMullet.

And I am pleased to also now present you with another class preview from Drew and Dennis. This one is for Three Spears, which was one of the most extensive overhauls the classes got. Still very much the same feel (minus the infinite stamina), but with lots of new actions and mechanics. Since it is a spoiler class, I'm just going to link you over to the BGG thread, but it is definitely worth a read!

                               

So, admittedly, I am running out of things to highlight for you in these updates, but I figured I'd just tell you about what I was doing yesterday, which was editing files for the reprint of Frosthaven and the printing of the Frosthaven playsurface books.

Now, Frosthaven editing is a little boring. We're just compiling the list of typos and quality-of-life improvements that have been coming in from everybody playing the game, and making sure those all get fixed. There's nothing major or game-breaking at this point - all the major errata can be found on our website or the BGG FAQ thread - and there also aren't any balance changes, but we want to do all the little things to make the game as good as possible.

But, anyway, what I thought could be interesting to show you is a little deeper look at the playsurface books, which I've also been editing in conjunction. So here is the spread for scenario 0:



And here's a PDF version, since it's so large, it's hard to see the details without zooming in.

Most scenarios will require 2 or 3 pages, but there are a good number that require 4 pages, as well, so there will be 4 books to accommodate that. It was important that each book only supply one page per scenario for a number of reasons:

So we've got three pages on three separate books composing the scenario layout. A table of contents will direct you to what the main page of each scenario is (the page with the introduction and map layout), and then that page will tell you what other pages from other books you will need to grab, and how to lay them out to make your map. You may also notice small tabs on the edges of the pages that also help you to setup the pages correctly by matching up the tab on the corresponding page.

You'll also notice that all the text for the scenario is also in these books, so you will not need either the original scenario book or section book to play the scenarios if you have these. You've got all the introduction text under the main banner, then any door that supplies additional text will have a little arrow pointing to that text, and then the conclusion text will be elsewhere in the spread, but the scenario goal will helpfully direct you to it.

Also, the scenario key is much shorter, since, for the most part, you don't need overlay tiles! Stuff that doesn't usually get moved or removed is printed larger on the maps so that you don't need any additional components, while stuff that is more interactable, like traps, has a smaller icon for you to put an overlay tile on top of (much like Jaws of the Lion). So the scenario key only needs to tell you about monsters and the interactable stuff like traps and treasures. And if you're playing a class that can interact with the typically non-interactable terrain, the books will also come with a supply of tokens that you can place on the maps to indicate if something is no longer there.

Now, I could probably talk forever about all the different unique scenario rules that provided a host of unique challenges in translating them to this format - varying layouts depending on which way you go, larger scenarios that actually required 5 pages, disappearing and shifting map tiles - but I won't. I will just say that you can rest assured that we solved all the myriad of problems through some creative ingenuity (mostly on the part of the layout designer, Aaron), and if you're curious about a specific scenario, you'll just have to get the books and see for yourself.

And on that subject, if you are interested in picking these books up, you can add them to any pledge as an add-on when you're checking out or in the pledge manager.

Cool! So I talked about that for longer than I intended, and I need to get this update shipped out, so I will leave you there. I hope you have a great weekend!

Good day! We're going to start this update with a small announcement that you may have missed yesterday. In our stream with sculptor Sarah Dahlinger, Price made the offer that if you are a wave 5 backer (which is all the miniatures), and you also go back Sarah's current project on Kickstarter, even for $1, we will include and additional kivak miniature in your pledge. "What is a kivak?" you might ask? Well, it is one of these rock rhinos commonly used by the savvas as pack animals.



Sarah is planning on having this sculpted by the end of the Backerkit campaign, so I am looking forward to sharing some actual sculpt images. Also, it is important to note that there are only about 12 hours left in Sarah's campaign, so head over there today if you are interested! Another important note is that this creature isn't a monster or summon in any of the games, and so is not an essential mini in any way. We just thought it would be fun to sculpt as an extra thank you to those who support this talented artist!

In other streaming news, we had a nice conversation with Adam from Army Painter about the new speedpaint add-on, and where they are going as a company.

We also had Jamie Daggers painting miniatures, a surprise stream of Drew playing Gloomhaven: Second Edition with Mandatory Quest, and Monica showing off and explaining a lot of her Gloomhaven cosplay props. It was a full day!

Up for streams today, we have Drew and I playing some more Gloomhaven: Second Edition at 8am PST (which is coming up pretty soon).

Then at 11am PST we'll have Romain Messer from Twin Sails on to talk about Gloomhaven Digital and its upcoming release on consoles. We may even get in a play of Guildmaster mode if we have the time.

And finally, at noon PST, we've got another play of the RPG with The Gallant Goblin! I haven't seen this one yet, so I'll be excited to watch along as well. The players are Cay Bartholomew, Sillion L, Brent Caldwell, and Eric Wright, Theo Thourson is the game master, and the session was produced and written by Grady Wang.

That's really all I've got to highlight today, so check out the RPG play, and I'll catch you tomorrow!

Good day! Are you ready for more Gloomhaven Grand Festival news and recaps? Wonderful, because that's what I've got!

We're going to start off this update with an exciting announcement for fans of the miniatures.  We are pleased to announce, in collaboration with The Army Painter, the official Miniatures of Gloomhaven: Starter Paint Set, now available as an add-on!

The Gloomhaven: Starter Paint Set provides everything you need to start painting any number of the 600+ models across the Miniatures of Gloomhaven line right out of the box. Additionally, you can expand & restock your paint collection with any of The Army Painter's matching or extended library of 130+ colors. And if you want your miniatures knocked out fast, the included speedpaints are specifically designed to allow  vibrant colors, realistic shading, and easy highlights after single coats.

This officially branded set of paints from Cephalofair & The Army Painter includes:

If you want to hear more about this, we'll have Adam from Army Painter on stream at 11am PST today to talk with Price about the collaboration.

And that's not all the mini programming we have for today. Sarah Dahlinger, who has sculpted a huge number of the miniatures for this project, will be on stream at 10am PST to talk with Price about her process (she also has a really cool Kickstarter in its last 48 hours right now that you should check out).

And then at 1pm PST, Jamie Kraus will be on stream to do some miniature painting. Also Monica Paprocki is back for another cosplay highlight stream at 4pm PST!

And for those who missed them, we did a lot of streaming yesterday with:

Next thing on the list here is that it is Wednesday, which means a new puzzle to be found at the bottom of the main page, this is another Silent Knife one designed by MadMullet.

And speaking of the Silent Knife, the last thing I have for you is a preview of this starting character, written by Drew and Dennis.

                                 

Today we’ll take a look at the updated Human Silent Knife (formerly Scoundrel) in Gloomhaven: Second Edition.

Let’s first take a look at what defined the Scoundrel in the first edition. 

The Scoundrel was an agile mostly-melee assassin. She had some of the best movement and initiatives in the game. She had attacks that gained bonuses against enemies that were adjacent to her allies or completely isolated. She also had a poison-based subtheme, a ranged dagger-throwing subtheme, and was excellent at looting.

So what did we want to address?

Honestly, not much. The biggest problem the class faced was mostly just very lopsided level-up choices with one card that was often significantly better than the other. Otherwise, especially at low levels, she really needed a melee ally to be effective. As many parties are not guaranteed to have another melee character, especially at lower player counts, we wanted to give her slightly better tools to remain effective while fighting alone on the front lines.

So let’s see how we approached the Silent Knife in Gloomhaven: Second Edition.

Stab ‘em up!

Good day! Welcome to the new backers who pushed us over the 20,000 backer mark, we are happy you have joined us!

If you missed the stream with Lucky Duck yesterday, Vincent announced that they will be working on a helper app for Gloomhaven: Second Edition! It will more-or-less offer the same functionality as their Frosthaven app, which they have improved significantly since its initial launch. You can hear all the details in the Twitch video.

We also brought on Monica Paprocki to talk to Price about cosplaying for Cephalofair and the costumes of Gloomhaven. She has become a mainstay in our booths, and talks about her experiences there, our upcoming shows, and also her work with Geeks A Gogo. You can watch the video here.

And then we've got so many more streams today! Drew started a Gloomhaven: Second Edition stream an hour or so ago, so I'm a little late notifying you of that. He is doing his Drew thing, playing three characters and once and interacting with chat, and that's playing on the main page now.

Then Nikki, designer and resident expert on Buttons & Bugs will be running through a scenario or two of that at 1pm PST. I believe the plan is to show off the characters we haven't highlighted yet, at least doing a Spellweaver play, but maybe we'll see some Silent Knife or Bruiser action as well.

And Nikki will be back on with Joe at 4pm PST as well for the Tuesday Fireside Chat. We'll talk more about Buttons & Bugs and really whatever else we feel like.

And finally, we've got one more stream for you today! Tonight at 6pm PST I will be reunited with my friends TJ and Richmond at Brambeard Gaming in an attempt to complete our Gloomhaven Digital campaign that we started over two years ago. We played pretty consistently up until my son was born. We've been talking for a while about starting it up again, and we figured what better time than the middle of a crowdfunding campaign? The stream will feature some late-game spoilers, so be mindful of that. I think I'm playing a Squidface now? It's been so long, I can't quite remember, so we'll all find out together tonight.

Also here is your discussion page for the Spellweaver puzzle.

                         

Over a week ago, I promised some more detail on RPG character progression. To be honest, this is the part of the game that has been developed the least, but I'll do my best to give you an idea of the current vision. Most testing has focused on level 1 characters so far, but we do still have a solid idea for how this will go, based largely on how character progression occurs in the board game.

So let's talk about the five main ways your character will progress as you play through a campaign of the RPG. (Also, if you haven't yet, reading the post on character creation would hep in understanding some of these concepts.)

Each level after the first, characters will gain two +1 increases to their attribute scores. These can be allocated in the same or different attributes, but no score can exceed their current level plus 2.

This is also pretty straightforward. Characters will earn experience from the GM as they defeat monsters and complete quests, and there is the same values for leveling up as in the board game: 45 experience gets you to level 2, 95 gets you to level 3, 150 to level 4, and so on all the way up to level 9, the max level. Each time you level up, you get to choose a new class card to add to your pool of available cards, just like in the board game.

Where things differ a bit is with the ancestry ability cards, which you don't have to chose from up level up. Instead, you simply get a new ancestry card added to your pool every odd level. So at level 3, not only do you get to choose a new class card, but you also get a new, more powerful ancestry card to play with.

Skills are similar to ability cards in that you get a new one at every level. This skill can be chosen from the initial list you have at level 1, which is based off your class and ancestry, but you will also gain access to new class and ancestry skills as you level up. The concept here is similar to a wizards spell book in D&D. We don't want to overwhelm new players with too many options at level 1. But each level you get to add one new cool thing to your repertoire from an expanding list of options, so that by the time you reach the higher levels, you will have a lot to keep track of.

And then, of course, you will also get a perkmark each time you level up, which can be used to improve your modifier deck. What is new here, though, is that now modifier cards have both an attack modifier value and an attribute modifier value, so each perk improves your attack modifier in ways you'd expect from the board game, but each perk will also slightly improve the numerical average of your attribute checks. You can see this on the (preliminary) perk list for the Bruiser, where the number in the hexagons represent the attribute modifier values.



One thing to also note from this perk list is that there are not non-AMD perks. For the most part, these don't work as well in the more free-form RPG, and a lot of this design space is covered by skills anyway. Also, there are no additional perkmarks gained from battle goals or legacy retirements, so a character will only ever get eight for their perk list.

To compensate for this, we've empowered GMs to hand out additional perk cards for good roleplaying or really whatever they are impressed by. Currently, each of these cards is a rolling +1 in an attack, but provides a rolling bonus to a specific attribute in a check. So if you were making an athletics check and flipped a "+2 athletics" card, you'd get an extra 2 on your check.

A character's backgrounds are less fluid, but that doesn't mean they can't change. Backgrounds are things that define your character, and sometimes, those things change. Maybe you've moved on from your traumatic past or some new event in the campaign has left a permanent mark. At the discretion of the GM, characters may gain or lose backgrounds (though, generally, if a player loses a background, they should gain a new one so they have at least four). The backgrounds gained can of course come from selection of backgrounds available in the game, but there is nothing stopping a GM from making new background cards as well!

Money and items are, of course, the other side of character progression. As players defeat monsters and finish quests, they should also be earning money that they can spend on a wide variety of things. They can buy and equip new combat equipment, of course, though what items they have access to is dependent on where they are doing the buying. And like any good adventure game, most of your best equipment is probably going to be found in the middle of an adventure, not a shop.

Characters can also invest in non-combat luxuries: a base of operations, faster travel, crafting equipment, hirelings, etc. Most of this is still in development, but we are excited to use these concepts as a spring board to bring the world more fully to life!

I've seen the retirement question a number of times, so I also want to address this here. The concept of retirement was introduced in the board game to give players a mechanical reason to switch things up and try new characters. But this is an RPG, and players don't need that strict of guidelines! When you create your character, you're probably going to dream up some reason for them to be out adventuring as a mercenary, and part of the campaign should have you working toward that goal. But this is all just normal role playing. Likewise, if you get tired of your character and want to try something new, just talk to your GM and figure out the best way to sideline (AKA retire) one character to bring in another.

As this is normal procedure for an RPG, we didn't want to bog it down with extra rules or restrictions. So, yeah, there is character retirement, but it just happens whenever you want it to.

That'll just about do it for RPG spotlights, but let me know if you have any additional questions in the comments, and I will do my best to answer them. Catch you next time!