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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:

Gloomhaven production continues
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jan 02, 2025 at 05:38:42 PM

Good day! I hope you had some happy holidays! We all enjoyed our festivities and are now back at our desks to continue to work toward getting everything across the finish line in the new year.

We've got progress reports on all outstanding projects, so let's get to it!




Gloomhaven

We spent a lot of time over the holidays continuing to work with the factory to make sure backer copies get out of the factory before the Lunar New Year. By all accounts, we are still on track with this, which is great news. Arch did some final physical proofing of components that needed color correction after the previous physical proofs, and we have started receiving some encouraging photos from the production line as everything goes full steam ahead.





We'll have more definitive confirmation next update as to whether we'll get everything shipped out on time, but we are confident everything should continue as expected.


Miniatures



In addition to a handful of new digital modifications and red wax samples, we also received received 38 polyurethane (PU) samples for previously approved models. The Cephalofair team is very pleased indeed with the quality we're seeing from our manufacture and it's exciting to have so many production ready miniatures in our hands! Seeing them side by side and first hand, we really think these miniatures will elevate whichever Gloomhaven campaign you're playing, or even better BLOW OPEN the amount of character and enemy model options for your Gloomhaven RPG campaigns!

Depicted below are a box of those latest samples, and a sampling of the notorious Gloomhaven demons next to an outnumbered City Guard.






RPG

From Danielle:

Happy New Year Mercenaries!


I have a couple of updates for you today. They are small, but definitely moving us toward a finished product on a timeline I’m happy with. Before I do that, I want to do a small “year in review” for the development of this project. While many of y’all might be familiar with board game creation, timelines, and production, RPG production is a completely different animal. It requires more people, more time, and larger (though certainly not more) art pieces. So without further ado, here’s a small snapshot of the RPG’s production cycle:


  • Nov. ‘23: I started reaching out to and contracting authors. During this time, I’m also working with a small design team to hammer out final mechanical details.
  • Jan. ‘24: First drafts rolled in slowly starting at the beginning of the month, through the beginning of February.
  • Feb. ‘24: I read through all first drafts making corrections and suggestions inline for authors to implement changes.
  • March ‘24: Authors return final drafts and the team meets for a playtest of the core book’s adventure.
  • April ‘24: After testing, we decided to overhaul the entire system and rework all the powers. This required a system document rewrite and a card rewrite for all the documents. 
  • May ‘24: During the systems and card rewrites, we decide to reframe carded abilities as Skills. I also begin the work of doing a final development pass on the setting material to send off for editing chapter by chapter. I kicked off convention season with UKGE at the very end of May/beginning of June where I ran playtests of the game for folks.
  • June ‘24: As the Skill mechanics finished up, I contracted authors to write them out in plain language for the book itself. Edited chapters returned and I worked on accepting and making suggested changes.
  • July ‘24: This month was for finishing up mechanical work, and development on that mechanical work.
  • Aug. ‘24: The final mechanical files passed through editing and we got everything ready for art and layout.
  • Sept. ‘24: We started layout and an art buy at the same time, allowing for a quicker process. As our layout artist did rough flow, he gave us spots for art and I wrote up briefs. We began internal playtests with playtesters using characters at higher levels.
  • Oct. ‘24: Art and layout moved, albeit a bit slower than I would have liked.
  • Nov. ‘24: Art continued apace. Playtesting concluded and we began implementing suggested changes.
  • Dec. ‘24: Before the holidays, we hired a new layout artist and got them up to date on the project. Art also continued to flood in. Additionally, Skill card layout began, and many classes have had their cards laid out.

That brings us to now. 
I’ve got all but 2 pieces of art in and ready to go. Those two pieces are moving along, and the artist has been in contact with me regularly. We’ve got most of the book flowed for layout, and now I’m down to implementing the tiny corrections necessary to get it into printable standard. We should hopefully have a proof PDF soon, and shortly after that, we can send it to our printer.



                                       

There's nothing much else to update you on this time as we settle into the new year. Next update, we'll be back to the regular Tuesday schedule, meaning it will drop on Jan. 14. Catch you then!

Entering production on Gloomhaven and a PAXU recap
over 1 year ago – Tue, Dec 17, 2024 at 03:53:12 PM

Good day! We are all back from PAXU, where we had a great time and we were also very productive, shoring things up with Gloomhaven and planning our next year. You can read more about that below, so let's get to it!



Gloomhaven

Reviewing the physical proofs, we did find some issues that needed addressing (mostly color correction and assembly stuff), so we've adjusted the files one last time and should be giving the factory a go ahead to start printing on all files within the next day.

A lot of effort went into this game at every stage, and it is super exciting to finally see it through! From here, our window to the Lunar New Year is small, but it looks like it is still possible to get all copies needed for fulfillment out before it closes. We'll keep you updated if anything changes on that.

Miniatures

Gloomhaven mercenary miniatures are in mass production for wave 3 backer copies of Gloomhaven. These were the first components approved and put into production/assembly ahead of the game shipping. We've been focusing on getting Gloomhaven out the door, but we still kept progress across a couple of other miniature SKUs and are working with our manufacturer to hopefully expedite their sample submission process in the New Year to see more of the results we're hoping for. Also, many congratulations to our production manager on the factory side, Anson, who recently returned from his wedding and honeymoon!




RPG

From Danielle:

Season's Greetings Mercenaries! First, let me wish you a very happy holiday. No matter what you celebrate this month, it sure is a time for travel, visiting family and friends, and playing some cool games. I was able to engage in each of those three seasonal activities the other week at PAX Unplugged. We ran a bunch of tables of the Gloomhaven RPG, connected on some important internal Cephalofair business, and looked forward to next year and what we're going to be doing with future RPG projects. While we haven't settled on any specifics yet (we still have to do the final push on the core), we're eager to explore the lore and intricacies of the Septhonic Plane.

At each convention I've gone to this year, I've made minor adjustments in how I run sessions, what parts I emphasize, and how we explain gameplay to players. B and I took some time to go through some of our internal playtester feedback prior to PAXU, and tried to brainstorm small, but effective, changes we could make and test at our last show before we go to print. At this point, based on feedback and player responses, I'm confident in the system and how it runs. The changes between the boardgame and the RPG feel subtle at first, but make a huge impact on the pacing and narrative elements of the game. We were able to sit down and explain some of those changes to fans as they came by our RPG room, and the ease with which folks grasped not only the changes, but what the changes were intended to facilitate left me feeling really good. (Which is great, because we shouldn't be making huge changes at this point in creation anyway.) Most of the feedback we've gotten simply requires clarifying text, a few more cross-references to make important rules easy to find, and a table or two to make complex information easier to parse.





                                         

In other news, the Frosthaven community-driven campaign is over! I had a great time with this, and I think the scenarios turned out really well. The last scenario is a huge boss fight, so enjoy that. And it's not too late to start playing it if you're interested. You can no longer participate in the polls, but you can still play through the story, all of which you can find here (thanks to Any2Cards for compiling it all in one place).

And thanks to everyone who came out to PAXU to play the RPG and Gloomhaven and Buttons & Bugs! We had a great time with all of you, and I thought I'd share a few pictures.











At the show, we were selling B&B promo packs (seen above) that included the four bonus scenarios we released at different conventions over this last year. You can now also pick this up for $5 in our webstore here!

And that's all I've got. Since our next update falls on New Year's Eve, we're going to push it back until Thursday, Jan. 2, so I'll catch you in the new year and happy holidays!

Tariffs and physical proofs of Gloomhaven
over 1 year ago – Tue, Dec 03, 2024 at 02:34:33 PM

Good day! We are in between Thanksgiving and PAXU, doing a lot of shuffling around and traveling, but we've still got some exciting updates for you this week. Most notably, we've received some physical proofs of Gloomhaven from the factory to go over. A lot of that review will be happening when we're all together at PAXU, so a full report on the proofs will be coming next, but you can see a few images down below.

Also, I know there has been some concern in the comments over tariffs. For US backers not in the know, our president-elect has promised to raise tariffs on imports, which has the potential of increasing our costs. This is something our industry as a whole is concerned about and getting questions about, and we will have to figure out the best way to move forward as events unfold over the next few months. It has never been our intention to go back to backers asking for additional money, and we'll be doing everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen here either. We can absorb some costs, but there are a lot of unknowns at play here, and a lot of things out of our control, so we can't make a definitive statement at this time. We'll just have to update you as things develop and we get more information.


Gloomhaven

If you didn't notice the graphic, we're officially done with 100% of the art and graphics and have entered the production stage! As said above, this currently involves reviewing physical proofs. Below are some pictures of the components we currently have for review. These just arrived today, so we'll take some time and give you more info on the proofing process in the next update.








Miniatures

We have received and approved 12 new miniatures physical samples and 7 digital modifications since last update. In addition, final production line Gloomhaven mercenary miniatures have also been approved for mass production alongside the rest of the game components.




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From Danielle:

I’ve seen at least one person asking a couple of times about the adventure that’s included in the core book, and playtesters have asked about the structure for adventures in the future. So today, I wanted to talk about the themes of Gloomhaven, how we structured the core adventure, and how we plan to structure adventures in the future.

First, I need to talk about the themes for Gloomhaven and what parts of that we want to emphasize with the RPG. 


Dark Fantasy: Gloomhaven is set in a fantastical world with many uncomfortable and oppressive elements to sometimes evoke horror. Gloomhaven is not a horror game, but the players may sometimes find their mercenaries in terrible situations, forced to do terrible things, or fighting against horrific antagonists. 


Gray Morality: Evil and morality are choices, not a feature of birth or even environment. You portray mercenaries who must work within these gray moral lines, and often face complex moral quandaries which could lead them either way. 


Irreverence: Gloomhaven is a game of consequences. That doesn’t mean the setting is grim, or so dark that there is no light. Gloomhaven strives not to take itself too seriously, and holds an irreverence toward some of the darker fantasy tropes, applying dark humor and outright absurdity.


Reluctant Heroes: Your mercenaries have personal goals, and risking life and limb doesn’t always serve those goals. Mercenaries are also beholden to the factions who fund them. Players must navigate a balance between their mercenaries’ personal goals, their faction’s goals, and successfully finishing the job.


Semi-Cooperative: Your mercenaries are all part of a crew, but that doesn’t mean they are always aligned on every aspect of a mission. They each belong to different factions who may want different things, and sometimes those things are in direct opposition to one another.


The core book campaign hooks the mercenaries into the action with a simple mission request: go clear out a bandit camp, report back to the Shields. Of course, when they get to the bandit camp, there’s more to discover there. I’m not going to reveal the entire storyline and plot, but we’ve built in ways for the story to diverge based on character actions. The adventure is structured in a series of scenes with notes on where to go next depending on how the mercenaries act, what they choose, and how things go.


The Gloomhaven RPG is set a short time after the events of the Gloomhaven board game. We want to draw in players who have played the board game and give them a sense of what the city looks like after intense political struggles, assaults on the city, and some power vacuums that need filling. We have chosen a canonical ending for the board game (even though there are definitely more endings that are each equally valid) just so we have a sense of how to explain the current state of the city. The adventure in our core book explores a power vacuum, and what happens when someone tries to fill it.


We have another adventure planned as part of a starter box that we intend to use as a smaller introductory mission, with fewer branching paths, to lead up to the events of the adventure in the core rulebook. If you don’t ever play through it, you won’t be missing a ton, but it does explore some of the political fallout from the events of the board game between the Merchant’s Guild and the Shields.


In the future, I want to have two adventure structures: introductory and advanced. Introductory style adventures will be similar to what you’ll see in the core rulebook. They lead GMs on a scene-by-scene basis through a story, accounting for various branches and endings depending on mercenary choices. These will have several branching options, but if we give too many, they start to become unwieldy. Advanced adventures will present a bit of a sandbox with a set of events and situations at a tipping point. The adventure will lay out the situation, give advice for how to get the mercenaries engaged with them, ways the events advance with or without mercenary interference, ways they escalate, and how they resolve depending on what the mercenaries do. These adventures will likely include a lot of moving parts, subplots, side characters, and interconnected story threads. They will be written in a way to allow GMs to utilize as much or as little of complex features to tell their own story around these important events.


Also, for those still anticipating art, here are a few new pieces I got in.







                               

If I haven't said it enough yet, we are out at PAXU this weekend, so come say hello if you are also in attendance.



You can sign up for RPG sessions through the PAX app, or just come by room 104A to check it out.



Or stop by booth #2827 where we'll have merch, a new Buttons & Bugs promo scenario (which will also be available on our website after the show), and lots of cool people to talk to.


Catch you next time!

RPG Designer Diary and Gloomhaven proofing
over 1 year ago – Tue, Nov 19, 2024 at 04:05:55 PM

Good day! There's not a whole lot to report on in this update. Things just keep moving along, so let's get into the details.





Gloomhaven

We have finalized and digitally proofed everything but the rule book and setup guide, which we are putting finishing touches on.

As we turn the final corner on digital proofing, full color samples should be finished and shipped to us by the end of the month for physical review.

We anticipated having eyes on the final GH2E production miniatures this week, but are being told the molds need another week or two so we're expecting to see our first off the line minis around this time too.

Raw materials for the full production run of games and accessories is being placed in preparation for a December scheduled to be full of mass manufacturing!



Minis



Unfortunately there is not much new to report here, as we haven't gotten anything actionable from the factory, but we continue to communicate regularly and should have more to show next time.



RPG

For the RPG, we have another designer diary from Danielle:

Greetings Mercenaries!


I know it’s been a little while since my last update. There hasn’t been too terribly much to report, and I’ve been deep in the process of art direction along with playtesting. I wanted to chat a little bit about the back end processes of game book creation today, as I think these are the murkiest of processes that we don’t hear a lot about when talking about game design and production.


Folks are familiar with the concept of writing, feedback, editing, etc. But the visual design of a book is extremely important as well. Layout isn’t just putting the text into a PDF with a nice background and calling it a day. It’s also designing breakout boxes for special text that are both noticeable and accessible. It’s picking colors that are easy on the eye, and are accessible to folks with color blindness. It’s picking a font that is legible to the least common denominator. It’s also framing paragraphs, headers, bulleted text, and a myriad other things to ensure readability, cohesion, and aesthetic appeal.


Then we have to consider the art. I know the last time I updated, I talked about getting art contracted, but there’s more to it than just contracting an artist and telling them to go. We have to define where the art is going to be in the book. Do we want an image that takes up a whole page, just half a page, a small spot in a corner? And what text is near that image? Is it something we can illustrate to give a visual example of? Is it a person, place, or thing that we want to ensure captures the reader’s eye along with their imagination?


Then, we decide what the art should look like. We can’t just give the artist the accompanying text and expect them to envision exactly what we think would be interesting there. Instead we need to explain how many people, what the action is, what the setting is, maybe even time of day and colors to use. The more direction we can give on large elements, the more creative the artist can get with the details.


Then we go through three rounds of progress checks. First an initial sketch to ensure the basics of the action are what we’re looking for, correct number of characters, general location, no real details. Second, we get a color rough, where the artist has filled in the colors, given options, and filled in some larger details. Last, we get a final detailed image with all the little details filled in. At each of these stages, we go back and forth with the artist to ensure the image is where we want it to be. We ask for corrections on stuff like “quatryls only have 4 fingers on each hand, and vermlings have 5 fingers on each hand” and “inox are completely furred, so make sure their skin doesn’t look smooth.” But we also ask for other things, “this is really cool, but I think it would be even cooler if this character had a black eye and bloody nose!” 


All the while, we’re trying to ensure that each illustration gives a representation of the Gloomhaven world along with what characters in this world look like. In the board game, art is essential to know what you’re looking at. We have so much art to show off every character, monster, and maps. In the RPG, we want to show characters, but more importantly, we want to show where they are, what they are doing, and how they interact with each other. We want to show off cool ceremonies, big fight scenes, dark rituals, and creeping doom. But we also want to show loving comrades, people at play, and the lighter side of Gloomhaven that makes this game dark, but also extremely compelling. So, we pick artists with a variety of styles and we choose to illustrate action and drama over landscapes and cityscapes.


So you’re probably going to see a variety of art for the Gloomhaven RPG that evoke many different emotions. That’s a good thing, I promise!

Speaking of, here’s a sneak peak of a small portion of a 2-page spread we had illustrated which shows off all 19 of our playable factions. This is the Shields, Merchant’s Guild, University, and Way of the Robin.



And here’s a not quite yet final piece of art of our harrower quartermaster forging a new weapon.


Finally, we also needed new symbols for all the factions. So, I hired Rich Thomas, an accomplished artist for Revised Magic the Gathering, VtM, VtR, and many others. And he absolutely delivered. Here’s the Sect, Shields, and Merchant’s Guild symbols:
 

I think that’s enough for now, until next time!

Danielle

                                               

Just a reminder that the team will be out at PAXU. Come by booth 2728 to get your hands on the Buttons & Bugs 2024 convention scenario card! Or if you want all four promo cards that we've released this year, you can now buy them all together in a pack, which will also be available in our webstore shortly after the show.



In addition, you can check out the RPG all day every day in room 104A, either signing up through the PAXU app or stopping by and seeing if there are openings. See you there!

And you can find the latest scenario from the Frosthaven community campaign here. There's just one scenario left after this!

Have a happy Thanksgiving (if you're in the US) and we'll catch you next time!

Art and minis galore
over 1 year ago – Tue, Nov 05, 2024 at 03:13:04 PM

Good day! Welcome back to your bi-weekly Gloomhaven update, where things keep moving along! We've got progress reports on Gloomhaven, which is so very close to completion, along with the RPG and minis.

There were some concerns about the content of the RPG brought up in last time's comments, which we'll do our best to address down below, so let's get to it!



Gloomhaven

All files have been sent to the printer, except the startup guide (the piece of paper that gets put on top that tells you how to organize the box), which is in progress, and the rule book, which is in the final editing stages. Digital proofing is well underway, and once those final components are in a good place, we'll be moving forward with physical proofing as quickly as possible so that we can still hit the milestones we need to get the game out of the factory before the Lunar New Year.

Here are some images of cool stuff!





Minis



This week we have some exciting photos to share of a selection of approved miniature samples that we finally have in hand! These are all polyurethane (PU) samples that were already approved in the previous red wax phase and are representative of as close to final production detail/quality until mass production begins. It's really exciting to have these in hand, and we're very happy with the detail and character in each. Price took some photos next to the City Guard miniature we've shown off previously for scale.

We have a few other models that passed through digital modifications since last update, and we're continuing to put pressure for more wider sweeping progress with sculpting now entirely behind us! We're also being told the final production Gloomhaven mercenary molds should be completed in the next two weeks, so we'll be sure to share final samples in another update or so once we have them.



RPG

Update from Danielle:

This week we have a few updates. Some good, some not so great, and some just a little neutral.
  • The good: we’ve still got more art coming in, and it’s looking great! I’m excited to share a few pieces with you today. 
  • The not so great: our layout artist, Miguel, came down with a rare version of Dengue Fever that nearly hospitalized him and has left him unable to continue freelancing while trying to catch up on his day job and recover. Thankfully, I know a lot of people in the industry, and I was able to tap a replacement layout artist the same day Miguel informed me that he needed to step away, Adam. So while we’ve lost a little time from Miguel’s illness, we won’t lose any time from this point on. 
  • The neutral: I saw a lot of folks asking about mechanics and play on our last update. I’ve written up a bunch of designer diaries over the past year that delve into mechanical considerations and talk about how the game works. You can find them all here: https://cephalofair.com/blogs/blog. Additionally, we’ve tried to include those in our bi-weekly updates, and I’ve included some mechanics in our updates separately from that. But if you missed those for whatever reason (or just forgot because it’s been a hot minute), I’ve got some basic mechanical stuff from the introduction here to share with you that should get you up to date. 

The Rules 

Gloomhaven: The Roleplaying Game uses a unique rules system based on the board game’s mechanics. Mercenaries use Attributes, Backgrounds, and Skills to interact with the world around them. Attributes measure the character’s innate abilities, Backgrounds represent the character’s upbringing, attitude, and past circumstances, and Skills represent their education, training, and cultural ethos.

Whenever a mercenary wants to interact with the world in a way that carries risk, the player uses their Modifier Deck to determine the outcome. The Modifier Deck starts with 20 cards, which are shuffled together to create a random draw pile. The player draws the top card and adds the number printed on the card to their action’s ability to determine the end result.

Modifier cards have two numbers on them, one (in a hex on the right side of the card) for challenges that use Attributes to determine a success or failure outcome, and another (in a circle in the center of the card) for attacks to determine the amount of damage inflicted. Certain cards might create a critical success (x2) or critical failure (Null) state, and players can add additional bonuses and modifications to their Modifier card draw via Backgrounds, Skills, and a system called Advantage and Disadvantage (draw twice and take the better/worse result).

The game assumes mercenaries are competent individuals who can successfully perform most tasks associated with their profession, such as using their weapons and dealing with the necessities of travel. Therefore, success and failure are not binary pass/fail results. Sometimes failure still achieves the desired outcome but carries consequences for the action. Sometimes success can be so great that it carries additional benefits.

And here’s a modifier card for reference:
Perk cards will similarly carry an Attribute modifier number as characters advance in their class.

As for Skills, all ancestries and classes have Skills (ability cards) that explain their abilities. These are similar, yet different, from what you’re used to in the board game, and they’ve been renamed and given utility for use outside of combat. You can use Skills outside of combat to cast magic, do things normal people just can’t, and get bonuses on mundane actions. Using them this way gives a bonus to the check and Advantage. Then in combat, you still choose two actions from the set of Skills, but you also have two always available Talents that you can use, which never get lost or discarded. All mercenary classes have an effective “hand size” of 6 Skills made up of both class and ancestry Skills, and players must pick carefully which Skills they want to use after each Long Rest.

Finally, here’s that art I promised to share. 

       
                                   

If you live in the US, it is election day! This is just a simple reminder to please vote! Even if your options don't excite you, it is still vitally important to make your voice heard. It's the best way you'll get to see the changes you want, even if they are slow and incremental.

Also, if you're planning a trip to PAXU in month, know that we will be there with a dedicated RPG room! If you're interested in checking it out, we'll be running 4-hour games every day at 10:30 and 3:30 in room 104A. You can sign up with the PAX Nav app the day of, or just walk in and hope to get a seat. More info here!

And that's it. Catch you next time!