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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:

Sunday review
over 2 years ago – Sun, Jul 02, 2023 at 10:09:51 AM

Good day! I hope everyone's having a relaxing weekend. Another short update today, as I just want to once again highlight episode 3 of Old School that dropped yesterday. It ended up going live a little late, so sorry for the incorrect times yesterday.

I think this episode had a lot of good stuff in it, from additional uses of skills and backgrounds, to some other way GMs have of limiting character stamina to increase tension, to camp logistics, to a combat that felt a little more free and unknown than what you'd encounter in the board game.



A lot of these mechanics have been covered in previous updates, but I did also want to touch upon something briefly that comes up in the middle of combat here: the fact that you can spend movement points to interact with objects. Now if you want to do something complicated or difficult, that's still going to require an entire action and a skill check. But if you want to do something simple, like kick a sleeping companion awake or flip over a light table, you can just spend a movement point during one of your move abilities.

Why would you want to flip a table over? Well, you can also spend movement points to take cover behind objects. Line-of-sight still works the same as in the board game, but if you've spent the movement to get into cover, and a ranged attack's line-of-sight goes through the object covering you, you'll get Shield 1 for partial cover and Shield 2 (plus the attack will be disadvantaged) for full cover.

Just one more way we've added more freedom to the combat to create more dynamic encounters!

We're not airing any new streams today, due to the holiday weekend, but we'll be back tomorrow with more streams and more updates. Later!

The Weekend!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jul 01, 2023 at 10:09:03 AM

Good day! It's the weekend after a very long week, so we're gonna take it a bit easy today and just hit you with a recap.

First off, RPG play with Pixel Circus! GM Kailey Bray led Saige Ryan, Carlos Cisco, Gina DeVivo, and Anthony Carboni through the criminal underworld of Gloomhaven, to hilarious results.



Then we had a lovely Fireside Chat with Zac Cohn and Alexander Theoharis, two of the members of Satire, who wrote the scenario and event narrative for Gloomhaven: Second Edition. We talked a lot about how to write good events, using the section book to tell more complete stories, and "Xain on Your Wedding Day". There's a lot of great tidbits in this one.

And what's going on today? Just a little bit more Old School! We are finally back with the second episode of the RPG campaign I am running with my friends. The party gets deeper into the mystery of the missing wagon. Do they find it? Is Derrick of any help at all? Which one of them hits a critical miss at the worst time and leaves the whole party in jeopardy? Find out at 10am PST (oh, that's right about now) on the main page. (Edit: Actually, we're running a bit late rendering the video - should go live around 10:30 instead.)

                         

I hope you have been noticing and joining in the polls we've started posting each day. It's just a little something extra I thought would be fun - a community-driven text-based RPG where you decide what happens next in the story. We've already made our character real fast and are now into some action. In order to keep things moving, sometimes I'll make decisions on my own about whether to use skills or backgrounds, but when we get to a check, I will randomize it and run with the results.

Today we did a finesse check and didn't get a great result, but it was an opposed check, where we were testing finesse versus the guard's focus, and luckily they didn't get a great result either (where they also added a base score to a random card flip). Anyway, I hope you continue to participate. I have no idea where this is going!

Also one thing I touched upon briefly at the top of the chat is that a significant announcement is coming next week, so that is something to look forward to!

And that's about it. He is your link to the discussion of the Silent Knife puzzle. Catch you tomorrow!

Some page updates and GM guidelines
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 07:54:56 AM

Good day! I've got some potentially exciting page updates to share with you on this lovely Friday, but first let's go through the stream schedule!

Yesterday was a relatively light streaming day. I joined Drew in the morning for a two-player run through of a Gloomhaven: Second Edition scenario. We were showing off some Angry Face updates (and I was just playing a Cragheart) and a scenario that saw some more significant changes than some of the others we've played. Did I die? You'll have to watch to find out.



What we've got for today is an exciting RPG play from Pixel Circus, starring Kailey Bray as the GM and Saige Ryan, Carlos Cisco, Gina DeVivo, and Anthony Carboni as the players. That'll be going live at 11am PST and is definitely worth a watch!

And then we've also got some more miniature painting from Tabletop Minions that goes live at 8am PST which is coming up real soon!

Not to mention the usual Friday stuff: a fireside chat with me at 4pm PST, and a new puzzle for the Silent Knife down at the bottom of the main page!

                           

Okay, exciting shipping update! Price has been hard at work figuring out better shipping rates for Asia, and the following countries are being incorporated under the existing China & Hong Kong rates to bring their rates down significantly.
  • Japan - JP
  • South Korea - KR
  • Malaysia - MY
  • Philippines - PH,
  • Singapore - SG
  • Taiwan - TW
  • Thailand - TH
We'll have these rates updated on the main page soon, and know that Price is still working on getting better rates in other regions too!

And then I just thought I'd update you on some smaller page changes. First of all, we did an audit of all the miniatures on offer and made sure all the graphics were correct and displayed the correct counts of minis. Sorry if the previous versions confused anyone. In addition, we've given exact counts on the base rings and flight stands that come in each separate product, which should be plenty to field whatever comes in the box.

I've also added videos and a stream schedule to all the pledge level pages, so if you're looking for videos on a specific project, you can look there to find everything aired so far for it and what will air in the future. I hope that helps!

                           

For the rest of the update, let's talk more about the RPG! Yesterday I gave some info on how a GM runs monsters, but what about how a GM should handle the rest of running a game? I figured the best way to answer this would be just to pull out a few sections of the core rulebook pertaining to the matter. Here are the two other major considerations: managing a party's stamina throughout an adventuring day, and guidelines on attribute checks.

Managing Stamina

A successful adventure comes down to the GM’s ability to present a challenge that is neither too easy nor too difficult. If the adventure is too easy, the players will feel underwhelmed. Most players enjoy a challenge, but they'll often feel frustrated if it’s too difficult, believing their choices could not change the outcome. Sometimes the trick of striking this balance is juggling their Ability Cards and Stamina.

An adventure can span a single day or multiple days, but the main key to ensuring a day of the adventure is challenging and tense is properly gauging your party’s Stamina through the number of Ability Cards they discard, ending the day just as they feel the pressure of running out of cards. Note that not every day of an adventure should be tense and leave everyone on the brink of exhaustion, but if you want a day to be tense, you should budget for your players to discard, on average 35-40 cards.

Characters typically discard their cards in the following ways:
  • Attribute Check Outcomes If players are doing something strenuous, and the check doesn’t go as well as expected, a result can be that they discard cards, signifying an expenditure of stamina.
  • Combat As a rough metric, 1 point of creatures at the recommended campaign level (see below) will cause one character to discard four cards. This depends on how many creatures characters face at once, but it can be used as a general rule of thumb. For instance, if four characters face 12 points of creatures in a room large enough to maneuver tactically, you can expect them to discard about 12 cards each on average (ending the combat in about 6 rounds). If you place four characters in a confined space with 36 points of creatures, however, they are likely just to get overwhelmed and exhausted.
  • Other Strenuous Effort Even if something doesn’t require an attribute check, a GM can ask players to discard cards for something their character is doing if it is strenuous. It’s recommended that characters discard 1 card every 20 minutes of travel.

Let’s say you are planning a day’s adventure for your party. They will be tracking down a missing caravan wagon.
First, they need to get some initial leads, talk to the population of a small town, and look for clues. Each player is anticipated to discard 2-3 cards in the attribute checks to gather information.
An initial lead sends them to an abandoned fort on the edge of town where some local ruffians are holed up. Next, they must climb over the fort’s walls, a significantly strenuous effort that requires discarding 4-5 cards in movement and attribute checks.
Once inside the fort, the players must fight a group of ruffians to get answers. Four characters face 12 points of creatures, resulting in about 12 cards being discarded.
The players discover that those in league with the ruffians took the wagon south to another hideout. They must travel for 2 hours, discarding another 6 cards.
Arriving at the hideout, the characters are tired but have enough gumption to fight another 12 points of creatures, discarding a final 12 cards. This brings the total to 36-38 cards, putting the characters on the edge of exhaustion.

Testing Attributes

Part of being a GM is determining when an attribute check is called for. If a character is attempting something mundane that they could do with ease as part of their class skill set, they can generally perform that attempt without needing a check. However, even the simplest actions may require an attribute check if they are attempting the same thing under duress or in high-stress situations, like under a flurry of arrows or while being attacked in combat.

Occasionally, the players will ask to do something strenuous that requires an Attribute Check. They will describe what actions they are trying to take and what they are trying to accomplish, and it is up to you to decide which trait should be tested for that check. Remember, you decide on any disagreements as the GM. Still, if a player has a compelling argument or gameplay circumstance for why a particular trait should be allowed, it should be worth considering. 

Other times, it is up to you as the GM to request a passive attribute check. This is used when you want to test a character’s abilities for more passive circumstances. For example, you can ask for a focus check to see if the character is paying close enough attention to notice something. You can ask for a Finesse check to see if the character can keep their footing on a crumbling path. You can ask for a knowledge check to see if a character recalls a specific bit of information.

The main difference between active and passive attribute checks is that passive skill checks do not require an action in combat.

On either type of check, it is up to you to determine the target difficulty of that check. You can start by determining the level of challenge for each character. Use this table to determine what the base difficulty rating should be. 

Skill Check Difficulty Ratings
  • Very Easy: 1-2
  • Easy: 3-5
  • Moderate: 6-8
  • Hard: 9-11
  • Very Hard: 12+

Some characters may be better suited to a particular attribute check based on their size, strength, class, background, or other elements. An easy check for some may be moderate or even difficult for others. An attribute check may also sometimes be easier or harder based on external elements such as weather, terrain, or other circumstances surrounding the check. What might be an easy check on most days can turn into a moderate or difficult check during a storm. A sight-based focus check will be harder on a foggy day, but a hide check might be easier. 
Explain the difficulty to the player and allow them to perform the attribute check. It is also up to you to determine what happens if the character misses or hits the target number. The non-binary success system means checks are not simply passed/fail. If the character comes close to hitting the target number, they succeed with a complication. Common complications are taking damage, discarding cards, or requiring additional attribute checks. If they surpass the target number by a healthy margin, they succeed with benefits. If they miss by too wide of a margin, failure is, of course, still an option. Whenever a check is outright failed, the character gains a luck token, which, when expended, gives them advantage on a check.

Do not be afraid to challenge players with passive checks or raise the difficulty of attribute checks to pressure them during an encounter. Attribute checks can be used to provide challenges just like combat encounters.

                           

If all of that sounds a little strenuous, worry not! The core rulebook also features a 20-hour adventure full of helpful guides and tips and can act as a great example for you to ease into the role of GM with. I hope that provided you with some useful insight, and you can see some of these principles in action today with the Pixel Circus stream (at 11am PST), and episode 2 of my Old School campaign, which will air tomorrow at 10am PST. Next, I'll be talking about loot and character progression.

I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll catch you tomorrow!

Running monsters in the RPG and more about Forteller
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 07:54:05 AM

Good day! Did you notice that yesterday was so packed, I was in two places at once? We aired our marvelous Frosthaven game with the folks over at Penny Arcade yesterday morning, which I think was very entertaining. I created a custom Frosthaven scenario fittingly titled "Lost Arcade". It had a fun little arcade mechanic in it where characters could activate arcade games for different effects while fighting monsters, and the best news is that you can play it too! Here's a link to the PDF, and you can watch the video below.



After the game, Penny Arcade also went into a painting stream that featured a lot of the newer sculpts you probably haven't seen up close before.



But then while that was still going on, I also hopped over to Gaming Rules! to be interviewed by Paul Grogan about RPGs, miniatures, Euro games, favorite movies, Spacehaven, and the best ever year for board gaming. It was a lot of fun, and you should watch it!



And the day wasn't even over! After that, I got to play a Gloomhaven: Second Edition scenario with Ella Ampongan, who is one of my favorite people in this industry, and I was so happy to spend time with her, along with Drew and Dennis, on her Dice Tower stream.



And speaking of Drew and Dennis, we are going live at 8am PST (the reason this update is going out a bit early) to play some more Gloomhaven: Second Edition, because you can never have enough of that.

A roundup of BGG threads:
Here is a link of the Angry Face class preview written by Drew and Dennis.
Here is a link the discussion on puzzle #4 with the Mindthief.

                           

After posting the general overview on the RPG yesterday, I now wanted to take some time to further dive into specific mechanisms. On Monday, I talked about character creation, and today I thought it would be illuminating to discuss how the Gloom Master controls monsters in the RPG.

We can start with a look at the bestiary entry for everyone's favorite enemy: the ooze.

Now, obviously the graphic design, writing, and pretty much everything else is not final, but it should still give you a good idea of what you are working with.

The top half of the page is information that should look familiar: stat blocks for normal and elites at all levels and a list of potential actions (with initiatives) that are essentially analogous to the ooze ability card deck. This is so that if you own a copy of Gloomhaven, you can use the monster components from the box instead of the bestiary, if you find that more convenient (the bestiary will represent the stats of monsters in second edition, but no one is going to stop you from using first edition monsters - or Frosthaven monsters for that matter).

Note that levels for monsters are the same as they are in Gloomhaven. It is recommended that GMs run monsters at the appropriate campaign level (half the average character level), but GMs are free to run monsters at higher or lower level (and mix and match in the same combat), with rules on how to adjust point values. And yes, there are point values for monsters (in parentheses after "Normal" and "Elite"), along with general guidelines on how many points' worth of monsters would be challenging at different player counts.

All this is leading up to saying that the main difference between monsters in the board game and monsters in the RPG is that AI controls monsters in the board game, but the monsters are fully controlled by the GM in the RPG. The GM makes the decision of what action to perform each round and also all the details of how that action is performed. It is no longer about mindlessly going for the closest, fastest enemy. Monsters can now think, work together, and go after the biggest threats, so long as they have a reasonable tactics level.

Tactics level? Yeah, so this isn't about the GM just playing each monster as hard as they can to run the players into the ground. It is about setting up thematic encounters that are challenging and fun. Not every monster is going to act like an expert in military tactics, least of all the mindless ooze. Each monster will have a write-up about their tendencies in combat and some suggested actions for a number of situations.

And you may also notice there are some (not final) timing icons to the right of some actions, giving them cooldowns to reinforce to the GM that the monster shouldn't be using these over and over every round.

It is recommended that GMs just have each monster of a type all perform the same action in a round for easier bookkeeping, but if they're up for it, they could have different monsters act at different times with different actions. It is also, of course, recommended to stick to these action lists, but there's not really anything stopping GMs from creating their own action lists for monsters (or their own monsters for that matter) just to keep players on their toes.

And the other important thing to note about combat is that the GM can withhold whatever information they want (for instance, hit point values or initiative values). The characters no longer know what the monsters are doing in a round, which changes the dynamic of combat significantly.

And finally, you'll notice some more thematic text at the bottom of the bestiary, giving players some background and lore on the different monsters they will be facing. I hope all of this shed some light on how GMs use monsters in combat and how it compares to combat in Gloomhaven! Next time we delve into the RPG, I'll talk about more GM tools and some rules and tips for creating challenging, epic adventures.

                           

Lastly today, I wanted to spend a little time highlighting one of our partners, Forteller, and the audio narration products they are offering as part of their campaign. Here is Forteller talking about what they have on offer:
  • Gloomhaven: Second Edition - an immersive narration to amplify these brand new Second Edition scenarios. 
  • Frosthaven - Over 20 hours of professional narration and receive an extra discount while ordering your reprint copy!

The Forteller team is excited to dive back into Gloomhaven and tackle the Second Edition! The current campaign offering can be found:
  • As a separate Addon!
  • In “Ultimate Gloomhaven Set” pledge tier
  • In “The Big One” pledge tier

Why back now? 15 USD will be the deepest discount offered for backers during this celebration. Gloomhaven: Second Edition will include all 101 scenarios.  Based on the demand, the additional road and city cards may be added to complete the narration with an additional 3 to 4 hours (the road and city cards estimate) of audio content.

On behalf of Forteller, we are all grateful to the support from the community and giving us the ability to produce these amazing audio narrations and fuel our passion. We exist because of you, thank you!

                           

With that, we're going to call it a day. There's just the one early stream today, so I'm kind of looking forward to having a slower day to care of some more work from the backlog. And maybe take a nap? It's doubtful, but a man can dream. Either way, catch you tomorrow!

Intro to Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game
over 2 years ago – Wed, Jun 28, 2023 at 10:54:48 AM

Good day! In lieu of a normal update, we wanted to really, truly highlight Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game for those could use more information about it. Be sure to check out today's stream schedule and puzzle on the main page!


Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game is a whole new way to explore the immersive world of Gloomhaven. Empowering players to create their own characters, mixing and matching the Classes and Ancestries from the Gloomhaven and Frosthaven board games and bringing them to a role playing setting. 

This campaign we are bringing two new role-playing products to life, with Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game Core RuleBook and Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game Deluxe Set. 



The Core Rulebook is the single unified resource for both players and Gloom Master. The book includes an expansion bestiary, with narrative backgrounds, stat blocks, and combat inspiration for over 30 iconic Gloomhaven enemies. The book shares new immersive lore, which has been newly collected and written by a handful of RPG industry veterans and Cephalofair team. Featuring lore and story with history, characters and events about the city of Gloomhaven and the surrounding regions. The book also showcases detailed cartography, with work by the renown Francesca Baerald, exploring 8 regions in and surrounding Gloomhaven, with highly detailed maps, setting and location entries and interactable cities, towns and geographies. Included in the core rulebook is an adventure for any new or experienced mercenaries, taking you on a 20-hour module which will take place over multiple sessions. 



While the Gloomhaven board game offers a highly tuned tactical combat experience, this new role playing game inserts that combat experience into a new RPG framework that allows for Gloom Masters to tell their own stories and build their own adventures, while allowing players to fully realize and embody their characters. The slick combat is there, but it does not have to be the focus. We are encouraging players to interact with the world of Gloomhaven however they want in all new ways. 




If you've already pledged, you can add the Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game Deluxe Set as an add-on here

 

We have already had some exciting adventures, with both Penny Arcade and RealmSmithTV, featuring players such as Jerry Holkins, Laura Stringer, Jasmine Bhullar and Luis Carazo, Deborah Ann Woll, Noura Ibrahim, and Joel Augé. Both Alexander JL Theoharis and Jason Azevedo have taken them on adventures which explore all new ways to play in the world of Gloomhaven. Check out their one-shot adventures:







For more about the rules, game mechanics, character previews and more, be sure to check out the Gloomhaven Grand Festival campaign page as we share more previews, gameplays and more.

In the meantime, here are some helpful links from around the project.