Champions of the Hundred Halls: A Coop Strategy Card Game
Created by Thomas K. Carpenter
Harness your magic. An asymmetrical cooperative game for 1-4 Players with Increasing Levels of Difficulty and Endless Replayability.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Unboxing Champions!
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, May 09, 2024 at 09:56:22 AM
Champions of the Hundred Halls - Unboxing Video
Hello! Yesterday we received the prototype version of the game. I was so excited to see it and hold it with my greedy hands. The manufacturer, Hero Time, did a great job with it. The next step is to go over the cards and all the other pieces and give feedback for production. Then they'll put the game into the production schedule, which should be soonish. As long as nothing changes, we should beat the original October arrival date by a few months. But I can't 100% commit to that yet until we've had discussions with the manufacturer.
If you'd like to watch the unboxing video, you can go to my YouTube channel or see it here.
A couple of points from the prototypes that you might be interested in:
The deck dividers and the dice didn't make it in the prototype but they will be a part of the game.
The box is longer than the original specs, so those of you who were interested in sleeving your cards, there should be room now.
The tokens are one-sided in the video, but I've inquired about two-side tokens for easier game play (having to flip them over sucks if they're on the wrong side). I'll let you know which way at the next update.
Lore Packets, Books, Surveys, and Lock Down
Everyone should have received your eBooks, audiobooks, and paperbacks. This includes the Lore Packet. If you haven't please let me know so we can get those to you right away (but first check your spam to make sure the email didn't end up there).
We're still missing about 10% of the surveys. If you haven't filled yours out, please do so right away so that we can get your game shipped as soon as it's available. If you don't have the survey anymore let me know at [email protected] and I'll get you a new link.
With the game heading into production , and the surveys almost done, we'll be locking the orders soon. This means your cards will be charged. I'll send out another update before lock down, but if you need to change anything, or want any additional games or add-ons, that window is closing.
That's it for now! Let me know if you have any questions. If not, the next update should have the production and shipping schedule. I can't wait!
Tom & Rachel
The Books Are Here!!
almost 2 years ago
– Wed, Apr 24, 2024 at 07:46:46 AM
Hello Backers!
We've been busy behind the scenes getting all the files for the game ready for printing. Everything has passed the initial review step and is moving to the next phase, so that's good news for getting the game to you even sooner than we had originally planned. We expect to have the first prototype made in the next few weeks.
Even better news is the Lore Packet stretch reward and any ebooks/audiobooks ordered are waiting for you in your BookFunnel library! To get your ebooks, just log in to the BookFunnel app or my.bookfunnel.com using the email address you provided in your survey (or your Kickstarter email if you didn't fill out the survey yet). If you log in and your BookFunnel library is empty, log in to BookFunnel using your other email address to get your ebooks. Most times people have difficulties finding their books it is due to using the wrong email address for login. Make certain it's the address you provided Kickstarter or Backerkit. If you still don't see them, please let me know as soon as possible and we'll get it sorted out.
If you didn't order any books through the campaign, but would like to dive into the lore, you can find any of my books for sale directly from me here. If you have any questions or just want to talk books or games, please reach out to me here or at [email protected].
Happy Reading!
Thomas K. Carpenter
Surveys, Books, & Production News!
almost 2 years ago
– Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 09:24:52 AM
The Surveys Are Out!
If you didn't see the previous update, the surveys for the Champions of the Hundred Halls game are out. Currently, 82% of the backers have responded, which means we only need 60 more to be complete so we're ready for all the fullfillments!
Update on the Books
Speaking of the fulfillment, our plan is to send out any of the book rewards (eBook, Audiobook, Paperbacks, and Lore Packet) next week starting on Tuesday, April 23rd. So make sure you've filled out the survey so we can correctly send the rewards to you. If you haven't filled out the email address portion of the survey by then, we'll use the one associated with your Kickstarter pledge.
And don't worry if you see this too late, and it's the wrong email address in Kickstarter. We can always send them again if they went to the wrong place, but we want to try to get them all done at once. If something doesn't reach your inbox, just email me ([email protected]) and we'll get it fixed right away. I'll send out another update a few days after we've sent the electronic rewards, so you know if you've gotten them or not (probably the Friday after which is April 26th.)
Exciting Production News!
Today we uploaded the last of our production files to our manufacturer, Hero Time. They still have to do file checks, and then we have another round of electronic verifications, but assuming all goes well, they should be printing the initial prototype by the end of the month.
Once we receive the prototype and verify everything is correct, the game will go in the production schedule. One of the reasons we chose Feb/Mar timing for the campaign was to get ahead of the busy summer schedule for our manufacturer, which we're looking to achieve. This means that we should be able to beat the original October timing for backers receiving the game, but I'm not ready to announce any dates until we're further along in the process.
Once we're placed in the schedule, we'll have one more chance to verify the game, and then it will go to full printing. At that point, we'll let BackerKit know to charge for shipping, and then we should be able to give a pretty detailed schedule on when to expect your copy of Champions of the Hundred Halls.
I don't know about you all, but I'm excited! Knowing that we're getting closer to seeing a final version of the game in our greedy little hands is palpable.
That's it for now. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Tom & Rachel
The Surveys are Incoming!
about 2 years ago
– Sun, Mar 31, 2024 at 01:30:15 PM
BackerKit Surveys Incoming
Payments from Kickstarter will be hitting our bank account early this week, so it's time to send out the surveys. They should be arriving in your email inbox by the end of the week. We're sending surveys through BackerKit rather than Kickstarter, so keep an eye out for them.
If you can please return them right away, especially if you have electronic rewards. While we're still a ways from production of the game, we need to confirm what email you want to use for eBooks, and/or the Lore Packet. We use BookFunnel to send out electronic rewards and have been for many years. They have a great system and excellent customer service if you have any issues. We expect to send them out by mid-April.
Champions Production Status
As I mentioned above, the electronic rewards will be the first thing you receive, but what about the game? Right now, the only thing left to send to our manufacturer (Hero Time Games) is the box design. We're still waiting on information from them before we can finalize the box. Then we'll have to order the prototype, which will take a month to receive, then assuming there are no problems we can get into the production schedule this summer with an eye on fall shipping.
And as a reminder on the shipping, we'll be charging for it through BackerKit when it's about time to get them into the mail. That probably won't occur until late summer.
Pre-Order Store
If there's anything you missed during the Kickstarter, or you want to order more games, the pre-order store is live. You can go here to check it out. I also added non-Hundred Halls books at a discounted price if you're interested.
Champions of the Hundred Halls Campaign Complete!
about 2 years ago
– Fri, Mar 15, 2024 at 10:11:22 AM
Campaign Complete!
Whew! The Champions campaign is now over. Rachel and I did a shot of fireball when the countdown hit zero last night. The campaign was exciting, but also exhausting. If you've ever ran a Kickstarter campaign, you'll know the feeling of relief when it's over!
I won't go into the "What's next" since I did that yesterday. If you pledged in the last 8 hours, you missed that update, but you can see it in the update section if you want to read about the general schedule for what's going on next.
Game Design
During the campaign, we talked a lot about the layout, but not much about actual game play changes since the prototype that was seen in our videos and the review videos. Some of those showed up on the latest images on the campaign, but I didn't really talk them about except fleetingly. I'll go over them at a high level:
Changed player cards of Moriganne & Pythia to make the themes of the deck more accessible and also more on flavor for the characters from the books.
Small tweaks to individual player cards based on how often we saw them used during playtesting. One of my design criteria was that all cards should see use in certain situations. Also, that play patterns were varied based on what was happening in the game, rather than just following the optimal strategy for that deck. At least one card from every player deck changed slightly with this idea in mind.
Increased the difficulty of the Aepep, Black Council, and Citadel decks slightly. Not big changes, but I wanted more tension in game play. The higher level decks (Invasion, Circle of Scale, and Diamond Court) were tuned exactly where I wanted them to be during playtesting, so they were left as-is.
I cannot wait for to ship the game to you in the fall. Playtesting was a ton of fun and I can't wait to get the final version in everyone's greedy hands!
Multiplayer Campaign Mode
I really thought we were going to hit the third stretch reward. We were only $257 away, which is heartbreakingly close.
Since I know how much people wanted to see this included, I'm thinking about adding it as a free bonus later on using links for the rules and any Print & Play materials. Right now, I'm not doing anything with it since we're getting all our files ready for the manufacturer, but I should have the summer to work on it. I have a version ready right now, but I have some ideas on how to make it better and that should give me the time to really test those changes. Of course, since it wasn't included in the rewards, it won't come with the tokens or other materials required, but if I do a free Print & Play then you can access them on your own.
I'll keep you updated as things progress.
Next Steps
For the next two weeks, you probably won't hear from us unless something changes. The next update and communication will be around the surveys that you'll receive to help us with the shipments, but that won't come until after we've been paid by Kickstarter. So until then--happy gaming!
