An Amazing Second Day

We blew through our Stretch Goal plans for the second day of the campaign as we continue to exceed our projections. Thank you all so much for supporting Thunderstone Quest. Because of the level of support we’ve received we are busy planning out even more potential Stretch Goals and product upgrades.

The Miniatures Are In!

Early this morning your pledges unlocked the Plastic Figure Stretch Goal. The Meeples (may they rest in peace) have been replaced. We will have more information about the Plastic Figures in future updates.

We’ve seen backers starting to talk about what it would take to save John’s Yellow Meeple. We actually can’t find the little guy – he may have gone out on his own Quest for reasons unknown. If you see him, let us know what he’s been up to.

Heroes And Stretch Goals

We have been getting some questions about the Heroes, and the Heroes in the stretch goals, and what the unlocked Heroes are.

The game comes with 24 copies of the starting Hero, 6 copies of the starting Hero for up to 4 players. This is the Hero that begins play in your deck.

Each Quest has 6 additional Heroes. Each Hero comes with 14 copies: eight Level 1 Heroes, four Level 2 Heroes, and two Level 3 Heroes.

In Thunderstone Quest the Village is set up with one Hero from each class, Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard. So you have four heroes available in each game. You will decide before you start play which 4 of the 6 you want to use in that game.

Some (or all) of your starter Heroes need to be upgraded in play in order to make your deck capable of taking on many of the threats in the Dungeon so you will be looking to upgrade the starting Heroes in your deck from the Heroes in the Village.

Each Quest has 3 scenarios that use different combinations of Heroes (and Support cards in the Village and different Monsters). The Quests tell the story of the game. Each Quest has a story in the story booklet that explains the plot and provides lists of cards for each scenario.

Of course you can use the Heroes in random village set ups by creating your own Scenarios using all the cards you own!

In the Adventurer Reward you’ll get 1 starting Hero, 6 Heroes from A Mirror in the Dark, +1 Hero from the Bandits of Blackrock prologue, and all the Heroes unlocked via Stretch Goals. As of the start of Day Three that is currently +4 Stretch Goal Heroes. So as of the publication of this Update you would have 11 total Heroes for the Village (made up from four different classes) plus the starting Hero.

Already the Adventurer Reward has the equivalent number of Heroes as a base set of previous editions of Thunderstone. And it’s just going to keep getting better!

In the Champion Reward you’ll get all that plus 12 more Heroes: 6 from Risen from the Mire and 6 from At The Foundations of the World.

Let me give you an example of the heroes that might come in a Quest:

• A Fighter that can equip multiple weapons
• A Cleric that buffs your other heroes as well as looking after your wounds
• A Wizard that works well with spells, but much better with a subset of spells
• A Rogue that is very effective with the equipment tokens
• A bruiser Fighter that gets you the weapon you need if you are short of one
• A multi-class Wizard Rogue, that lets you do things in the village and the dungeon on the same turn

So far the Stretch Goals (as of Day Three) have unlocked:

• A cleric that is a more specialist healer and can turn wounds into card draw at the highest level
• A rogue that is a weapon specialist
• A fighter that is better against higher level monsters
• A wizard that increases certain attack values and gives them magic attack

Each class of hero tends to bring a slightly different element to the table. Clerics usually interact with wounds to some extent, Wizards with spells and magic attacks values, Rogues will often interact with the “table” in some way (light, gold values, and so on) and Fighters tend to be best with weapons overall and have the best physical attack.

We’ll be providing lots more insight into the rules of the game, components, strategies, and story in future Updates.

— Mark Wootton

Thunderstone Quest Project Lead

(All art & design elements are not finalized and are subject to change.)

Thunderstone Backers,

Wow BIG First Day!!! Thank You!

We were sure that Thunderstone Quest would be well received but you never really know until you launch. We were massively impressed with your first-day support and we are way ahead of our optimistic projection for the campaign. Again, thank you.

Now the campaign becomes all about stretch goals, upgrades and bonus items!

Dice

The dice in the Reward graphics are not representative of our plans for the dice in this game. We are gamers. We love cool dice. We are going to be working on making the Thunderstone dice cool.

Tokens

We hit the Stretch Goal to upgrade the cardboard tokens to wood tokens. The example tokens in the Reward graphics are just placeholders and don’t represent the way the final tokens will look at all. They will be awesome.

My Yellow Meeple

Let’s talk about my yellow Meeple.

For 9 months I have been playtesting with my buddy the Yellow Meeple. Now, yellow is not my favorite color plus he gets picked the least by our playtesters, but even so I adopted him for office playtest sessions. If I can win with yellow, I can beat anyone!

The heroic figures (i.e. my Yellow Meeple) represent the location of your party. You’ll move your figure to show that you’re in the Village or the Wilderness or the Dungeon, and which room of the Dungeon you are in.

But I will miss my yellow Meeple because his days are numbered.

A Sneak Peek

We are closing in on a major Stretch Goal and we wanted to let everyone know a bit in advance. Meeples will be upgraded to really cool plastic figures.

We are incredibly excited that your support will enable us to bring these figures into the Rewards. We are working with awesome sculptors and artists to create a fantastic selection of high-energy action-posed figures for use as your playing piece for your Thunderstone Quest adventures.

Of course we can’t spoil the whole surprise so we’re going to give you just a taste of the figures that are coming soon to Thunderstone Quest. After the Stretch Goal is unlocked we’ll be writing a lot more about these figures.

Sometimes Just for Old Time’s Sake

Don’t be surprised if we meet at a show and are playing Thunderstone Quest and I pull out my yellow Meeple. I’m old school and it’s been fun making this game with my Meeple buddies and well, you know, Yellow does pretty well against the competition.

Now go spread the word and let’s get those figures unlocked today!

— John Zinser

CEO, Alderac Entertainment Group

Thanks to all of you early risers (and those of you elsewhere on the globe taking advantage of your time zone!) We achieved success at 9:15am this morning and are now UNLOCKING STRETCH GOALS!

Such an amazing response everyone and we are so grateful for your support. Now let’s keep spreading the word to as many people as we can and take the campaign as high as it can go!

Meet the Heroes!

There are four classes of hero in the Thunderstone Quest. You will always have access to at least one hero of each of these classes in the Village.

FIGHTERS

Fighters have the the best skill to work with weapons overall. This is particularly helpful, as heroes can now attach gear up to the their current skill rating. Meaning a fighter with a really high skill rating can effectively dual-wield (or even carry a whole stack of daggers for hurling at monsters!). Each fighter tends to have their own niche – blunt or edged weapons for example. Although some have slightly more nuanced abilities, their primary goal is to deliver physical attacks on the monsters.

Subscribers to the Thunderstone Mailing List received an expanded version of this post with details on all the Classes!

THE BANDITS OF BLACKROCK ARE ALMOST UNLOCKED!

This week has been amazing in terms of the support that is pouring in from the community. We achieved our goal of getting 2,500 subscribers for our Mailing List and we’re closing in on getting 6,000 Likes on the Thunderstone Facebook Page. Please forward this message to any of your friends who are Thunderstone players and ask them to sign up and Like Thunderstone today!

Thanks for all your support!

— John Zinser & The Thunderstone Quest Team

By Brett Satkowiak

“Open the gates!” the call went out. What passed through them afterward shook the peace of Thunderstone Keep. His clothing gave him away as a merchant and a wealthy one at that, but he looked as if he’d just come home from the battlefront. One leg was visibly broken, the fabric around it torn and shredded. His shirt was stained red with two long slashes exposing deep bruises underneath. His hair and beard were matted with dried blood from a wound behind his temple. A number of women gasped and various men began to murmur their concern as two guards carried the broken man from the portcullis to a low wall near the gate.

The Bandits of Blackrock was a pre-Kickstarter promotion. Subscribers to the Thunderstone Quest mailing list received the rest of the story. Follow this link to sign up today!

John Zinser & The Thunderstone Quest Team

Shout out and thanks to our star: Becca Scott Kerns, our director: Joseph Ruzer, and our sound technician: Greg Jones, who shot the Kick Starter Video at the AEG offices.    Here are some pics of the shoot.   My wife Julie and I had the important role of Craft Services meaning we made sure that there was food water and goodies to eat.  Then I got out of the way and let the team do their thing.

Subscribers to the Thunderstone Quest mailing list received an even more detailed look at the shoot with more behind-the-scenes pictures. Follow this link to sign up today!

John Zinser & The Thunderstone Quest Team