To the Stars

For those two of you that haven't seen it already, Mantic has announced their next kickstarter.  Starting on September 26th at 8:30 am EDT, Star Saga: The Eiras Contract.

This is the "spiritual" sequel to Dungeon Saga - a dungeon crawler "in space".

The dungeon is a research facility orbiting a far-off world, and the "heroes" are mercenaries whose goal is to retrieve stolen data plans.  Players will face platoons of minions, powerful bosses and difficult choices.  Future expansions and campaigns hope to expand upon the Warpath universe that the game is set in, to include space stations, starships, alien worlds and beyond.

There are initially two (ok, three if you include the limited number of early bird pledges) pledge levels - $100 for the base game and first two expansions, and a retailer pledge for qualifying stores.  The $100 pledge gets you the core game, the mission creator expansion and the character creator expansion.

So what is in the core box?

• The Rulebook featuring tutorials and basic mechanics for novices, as well as expanded rules for veteran players.
• The Eiras Contract Mission Book with 10 narrative adventures, two intro missions, character bios and the story behind Eiras.
• High Quality Card Sheets with floor tiles and counters
• Four Character cards
• More than 100 Game Cards for equipment, skills, and all the powers of the Nexus player.
• A Selection of Custom Dice
• 32 Highly Detailed Miniatures including:
• Four Mercenary Heroes
• Three Bosses
• 24 Minions
• plus loads of scenery

In addition, there is once again going to be a Kickstarter Exclusive Blaine model, as well as an exclusive art print.

If you have played Dungeon Saga - what is different and (hopefully) better now.  Here are some of the design changes that have been mentioned

• Combat Resolution - now uses custom dice and armor is gone.
• Cover - works similar to Deadzone - you get a clear view only if you can see ALL the base
• Nexus Player Cards (Overlord in DS) - no longer a timer, it is now more important, determining number of activations, special abilities and events. 
• Minions - the number of minions are no longer set - reinforcements can always show up.
• Events - story events are now set in the Nexus deck.
• Solo & Co-op Play - with everything being in the Nexus deck, solo and co-op play are now built into the base game.
• Character Leveling - a simple experience system is built into the game - allowing your heroes to earn skills and upgrades.  This can make the game much more replayable - as you will be able to choose different advancements each time instead of just getting the "Legendary" version.
• Mercenary Points - A simple point system will allow you to play with ANY mercenaries on any missions - straight out of the box.  It also means you aren't required to have four Mercenaries by adjusting the turn sequence.

There is no Adventurer's Companion, but instead there will be two smaller expansions - one for hero creation and one for mission creation.

The hero creator expansion will build on the base experience in the core game, listing ALL available races and classes with their strengths and weaknesses.  It will allow you to take your Deadzone strike team and drop it straight into the game.

The mission creator does the same thing for the Nexus Player.  It will be a bit loose, but have more cards and equipment.

To get you excited, here are both drawings and renders of the four mercenary heroes

Captain Erika Dulinsky: Former Captain for the Reiker Corporation. The exact circumstances of her dismissal from Reiker are unclear - her records remain classified. Whatever the case, her leadership and tactical experience put her in high demand among military freelancers, while her courage under fire make her an invaluable teammate.

Combat Utility Robot B07153: Designed as modular support, Combat Utility Robots have limited conversational skills and are almost exclusively task-oriented. That said, behavioural ‘quirks’ have been reported amongst older or battle-damaged units. ‘Curby’ is one such unit.

Francesco ‘The Devil’ Selvaggio: Soldier-for-hire with a predilection for close combat knife-work and demolitions. Selvaggio earned his nickname, ‘The Devil’, for his part in the fire-bombing campaign that laid waste to an entire planet. Since that dismissal ‘The Devil’ has made his way through the universe working for practically anyone with the credits to pay for his services, be they rebels, corporate snatch teams, or worse.

Wrath: There has only ever been one Judwan recorded as being capable of violence. Subjected to an arduous ‘training’ program and fashioned into a killer at a young age, he is now one of the most wanted beings in the galaxy, seeking the truth of what was done to him. And revenge…

Of course, the game is no complete without some minions.  Since the 'heroes' are not necessarily viewed as 'good' guys from the Corporations point of view - well the of course they will be going up against some of them.  First up are a couple of  corporation rangers

 Corporation Ranger

Corporation Ranger w/ Flamer

 Then a Lab technician

Lab Technician

 What are they experimenting with in that lab?  What does this plague victim mean?

Plague Victim

Of course, everyone loves tiles to play the game on

and you have to have something to REDACTED the REDACTED REDACTED.  If this kickstarter goes anything like the original Dungeon Saga did, then the internet will explode seeing these REDACTED.

Really cool looking, if you ask me.

Of course Mantic ALWAYS has a lot of cool stretch goals, and I expect nothing less from this kickstarter.  I do expect it to be similar to The Walking Dead: All Out War campaign in that they will build up expansions, adding to them with stretch goals, but you will only be able to buy full expansions, not individual models.  I am hoping for at least three additional campaign/adventure expansions myself.

The Star Saga Fanatics has already been mentioned on the Mantic blog as well.