Evil Jon Becomes Canon, and Jared Visage
over 5 years ago – Wed, Nov 14, 2018 at 06:39:43 AM

Hey guys! We hope you're having a great day!

Deep Madness continues its steady advance toward overtaking the world. It's just a matter of time now… (And they said we had no ambition…)

First of all, I'd like to direct your attention to a sweepstakes going on with Board Game Revolution! Deep Madness is currently being featured in a contest over there, where Thomas and friends are giving away an all-in pledge. You can find it at https://www.facebook.com/729635570472234/posts/1483737291728721/.

Also, I'd like to remind you all that the new DM expansion is currently up for Most Anticipated Game of 2019 on BGG! Even cooler, currently we're at #1 in the nomination stage! Wow, that's awesome! Thanks for your help with this! If you hadn't had a chance to vote yet, then head over to Board Game Geek at https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/248375/item/6539254#item6539254 and give us a thumbs up! The top 50 nominations will be entered into the final vote for the top 20.

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EVIL JON BECOMES CANON

So a few days ago we asked for your help in designing a monster of Evil Jon, and said that we may end up making that into an official card. Well, now we're making it official. Evil Jon will be our next stretch goal, and it's coming up fast. When we reach $600,000 we'll commit to making Evil Jon a real monster for Deep Madness. This means we will include a monster card in all five languages for Deeper Terrors, Investigator, and All-In pledge levels, and we will furthermore include a copy of the grey Jon miniature in every Investigator and All-In pledge. (The rest of you should already have him.)

We will leave the comments open for more ideas until this stretch goal funds, and then we will take our favorite ideas from your suggestions and work them into the finalized Evil Jon card. If you'd still like to submit your ideas for Evil Jon, then go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diemensiongames/deep-madness-second-printing/posts/2341053 and post them in the comments!

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JARED'S VISAGE

We've slowly been working our way through the stories of the Visages, and today we'll turn our attention to Jared Drake.

--

Jared raises his pistol, his heart hammering in his chest. This, this isn't right. He feels hunted. Cornered. Powerless.

It's been so long since he felt this way. He became the strong one so that he couldn't be bullied anymore. He became cold steel so that no one would be able to break him again. But now he's alone. Alone, and cold, and… frightened.

--

You find the hidden food cache and let out an exultant cry. Jared offers you a withering look from his place at the hatch standing guard.

"Keep it down," he growls. "Unless you want to bring all of them down on top of us."

"You need to lighten up, Jared," you say, tossing him one of the food bars. Jared deftly catches it in one hand without lowering his pistol. "Learn to enjoy the little pleasures."

"Why don't we enjoy them in silence?" he says. Even still, he rips in to the food bar and takes a big bite. You almost think you see a fleeting glimpse of happiness on his face. But then you both hear the sound in the corridor.

--

"Who's there?" Jared calls. There's a shuffling, scraping sound in the distance. Whatever it is, it's big. Really big. Jared raises his pistol, ready to fight back. He's the bully now. He's the big man on campus. Whatever this thing is, it's not going to be able to change that. He'll take it down just like he took down all the others before it.

Then he sees the big man. It lumbers toward him, an amalgamation of everything he has ever feared and everything he tried to make himself become. Jared's knees give out beneath him. He can't even make himself run.

"P-please," Jared murmurs as the horror looms over him. It offers him the same mercy he would have.

--

Cautiously Jared peers around the edge of the door. The sound is growing closer by the second.

Jared looks back at you and motions with his head out the door. "Go," he says. "It's just down the next corridor." Nodding, you dart out the hatch, Jared falling in right behind you with his pistol raised.

You hear Jared gasp behind you. Glancing back, you stumble, overcome by the sight of the thing coming toward you. The horrific lumbering brute advances relentlessly down the corridor, little chattering faces scuttling over its body like fattened spiders. Its head is lost behind the rusted grate of a cage, its right arm a macabre conglomeration of brutal metal instruments. But the thing that shocks you the most is what it carries in its one remaining hand.

Jared opens fire on the thing, his eyes closed tightly shut. He can't look at it, you realize. Because, if he does, he will see his own eyes staring back - empty, cold, and dead.

--

Jared's Visage is an engine of destruction, and it frankly doesn't care who (or what) it hurts. When it is in the same room as either a monster or an investigator, someone will roll a d6. The result of that die will be halved (rounding up), and the remaining total will be the amount of damage Jared's Visage will inflict on that monster - and on that monster's linked investigator (or vice versa.) In other words, this thing can be devastating both to monsters and investigators, within the same activation. (A linked investigator is the investigator directly above a certain type of monster in the activation track.) As such, Jared's Visage is one you will probably want to take out as quickly as possible - though preferably from a healthy distance away.

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Well that's it for today, friends! Before we go, though, I wanted to thank everyone who joined me on the live stream yesterday. We had an absolute blast, and it wouldn't have been the same without you all there. I also wanted to apologize to those who missed it and wanted to see the replay. Our last two Kickstarter Live videos have had a strange glitch that has kept the video from finalizing, and we've had to delete both of them. I'm sorry about that. Having said that, we are going to do at least one more before this campaign ends, and the next one that's scheduled for sure will be next Tuesday - just as the campaign ends! Come hang out with us at 2pm PST next Tuesday, one hour before the campaign ends, as we celebrate the end of this awesome campaign together! It's going to be so much fun!

And one more thing: I'm hoping to have the second part of our little Choose Your Own Terror story up later today, so keep an eye out! (If not today, then definitely tomorrow!) The last one has a whopping 210(!) comments currently, so I'm going to go wade through those to see if we're going to fight or run. =D

More fun stuff coming soon! Have a great day!

New Scenario Unlocked and Oracle's Betrayal
over 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 05:24:48 AM

We finally did it, everyone! We unlocked the last currently revealed social stretch goal! That means that every backer from the first and second campaigns will now receive a PDF of a new scenario featuring the Visages! Woohoo! Great job! =)

So what's next? Well… we're still working on that, actually. We have a few potential things in the pipeline, but we're just trying to figure out what would work best as the next stretch goals. (Apart, of course, from Profundum, which we are still moving ever closer to unlocking for every backer in the Deeper Terrors, Investigator and All-In pledge levels.)

We've also had a couple of really fun things happen over the last day. First of all, we had the first part of our Choose Your Own Terror story come out! You can find it at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diemensiongames/deep-madness-second-printing/posts/2342489. Also, we are still open for submissions for the rules and abilities for Evil Jon! If you're interested in helping us create this card, be sure to go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diemensiongames/deep-madness-second-printing/posts/2341053!

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BOARD GAME GEEK MOST ANTICIPATED

Another cool thing we've been made aware of is that we have been nominated for Most Anticipated Game of 2019 on Board Game Geek! Score! We'd sure appreciate your vote for this, so go to https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/248375/item/6539254#item6539254 and give Deep Madness a thumbs up! The top 50 nominations will be entered into the final vote for the top 20. Let's make sure Deep Madness is one of them! (They say that it's okay for us to bribe people, so we're currently working on what a suitable bribe might be. Can someone say the next social stretch goal? ;)

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THE ORACLE'S BETRAYAL

But now we'd like to turn our attention to the other major expansion for Deep Madness: The Oracle's Betrayal. During Chapter Four of Deep Madness, the investigators run afoul of Dr. William West, and at the end he (SPOILERS!) fuses the investigators' consciousnesses with his own. And some kind of nasty things happen to them, leading to the investigators' confrontation with Madness Within. But the thing is, something else happens then that catapults some of the investigators - or at least a part of them - into a nightmare world from which there may be no means of escape. The fragments of their souls shatter, and they are stripped of everything that made them who they were. As a consequence they start this story not as investigators at all, but as Victims.

The New Investigators

Oracle features three new investigators: the morally-driven detective John Murdock; the morally depraved psychologist Dr. Clarence Branom; and the star of the whole #justiceforhannah movement, little Hannah herself. There's something different about these investigators, though. They all seem to have an intimate connection with Dr. West. Are they real people at all? Or are they… something else?

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The Inhabitants

The horrific, bubbling nightmare world that the investigators find themselves in is populated by an array of new denizens and nasties. There are the Victims: lost, fractured souls who only want to survive - and who the investigators start out Chapter One as. There are the Collectors: monstrous diving-helmet-bedecked servants who exist for one reason - to harvest fragments of souls and return them to their abominable master. There are also the Dissected: creatures who might not always be as evil as their horrific appearance may at first hint at. And then, last of all, there is the devious deviant himself: the horrific mastermind Dr. William West.

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New Mechanics

The Oracle's Betrayal has several new mechanics tied in to some very unique scenarios. One new mechanism is the fusion deck. Fusion cards work by integrating two investigators together. Then, when the two investigators work together, they are able to accomplish feats they could never do apart, exhaust sanity for each other, resolve madness card instead for others, or a number of other very useful things.

It's not all happy togetherness in Oracle, though. Dr. William West's influence is constantly felt, and one way it manifests is through the William's will cards. These cards are arranged above the activation track, and each one will force the investigator below it to take a William's puppet card when a certain action is taken by that investigator. Which brings us to the William's puppet cards. Whenever a player gets one, it is placed face down beside his/her investigator card. Then, when the game instructs players to do it, all investigators flip their collected cards over at once. If one person has an image on the reverse side of Dr. William West, then that investigator is no longer an investigator: he/she has just become William's puppet. This investigator now becomes a slave to the game, and functions similarly to a thinking epic monster. The puppet's goal is now to kill the other investigators (and it burns through the search deck looking for a weapon every turn to do just that,) while the investigators will be unable to win the scenario unless they kill the puppet.

There are also the William's Trial cards. Only one of these are played each chapter, and these cards tell you what will happen if you collect too many of those pesky puppet cards. Here's a hint: it's never good.

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Well that's been a look into The Oracle's Betrayal. We'll be back with more fun stuff before long, and don't forget I'll be on Kickstarter Live today at 2pm PST! I'd love to chat with you, answer your questions about Deep Madness, and also show you some fun stuff that I think you'll enjoy! Until then, though, have a great day and we will talk with you again soon!

Choose Your Own Terror
over 5 years ago – Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 06:29:38 PM

Well, I've been promising this for a long time, and now it's finally here. Welcome to Deep Madness: Darkness and Fury, a Choose Your Own Terror story. 

First of all, there is nothing to do with the campaign in this update. It is strictly a fun little story that we're going to write together. So, if you're not into this, you are officially excused from reading the rest of this update. ;)

... Still with me? Okay. So here's how this is going to work. I will write a chunk of this story, and then, in the comments, you all will tell me what we should do next. I'll list a couple options for us to choose from, and we'll see how far we can get before we all die a horrible, violent death. =D Sounds like a great time, right? 

So let's get started.

--

DEEP MADNESS: 

DARKNESS AND FURY 

CHOOSE YOUR OWN TERROR STORY 

STATUS UPDATE 

FROM: JUDY BLAKE, KADATH FACILITY 

TO: LORD ZEISS 

Current reports have been haphazard at best, and it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate fact from rumor. However, we do know that incidents since the interaction between the asset and the catalyzer have escalated dramatically. It may not even be hyperbole to say they have skyrocketed. Dr. West and Dr. Cohen appear to be losing control of the experiment, just as Commander Ward seems to be floundering at managing the containment situation. Standing by for further orders, sir. 

With a shout you sit straight up in bed, sweat pouring down your forehead. Wildly you snap your head from side to side, then slowly let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding in. Another nightmare. They've become more and more frequent recently. And not just for you. 

“Babe!” your wife, Cynthia, says, bursting into the room with toothbrush in hand. “Are you okay?”

 “Yeah,” you reply. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just another bad dream. Looks like I’m running late anyway.”

The two of you get ready for the day and then pause at the hatch. Cynthia leans forward and kisses you. 

“It’s going to be okay,” she says, looking into your eyes. “You know that, right?” 

You force a smile onto your face. “Of course. Have a good day, love.” 

She gives you one more of her twinkling smiles, and then she’s out the hatch and gone. You’ve always envied her optimism. It’s one of the things that drew you to her. You just wish you shared it right now. 

You close your eyes for a moment, collecting yourself. And then you head out the hatch. 

People scurry quickly from one destination to another, their heads down, their mouths set in grim lines. The atmosphere is oppressive. Few speak above the occasional nervous whisper, but their haunted, darting looks say volumes. Turning left, you join the stream of drifting people. 

Your friend, Thomas, comes up alongside you. “There was another incident in dome three,” he murmurs. “Something with spines and tentacles. Somehow, they got it into an airlock and flushed it out. But then it just… swam away.” 

“Kadath is collapsing,” you say. “I haven’t told Cynthia yet, but I applied for a transfer out of here for us. I’m trying to get us on the next sub out. Come with us, Thomas. Don’t wait until it’s too late.” 

Thomas exhales slowly. “That’s a lot of money you’re throwing away. And I still believe in this place. But… I completely understand why you want to jump ship. It's getting spookier here by the day.”

People begin screaming in front of you. Your breath freezes in your lungs as a hatch explodes outward, a woman flying into the far wall with a creature landing on top of her. You stare in horror as the beast’s whipping tentacles and razor-sharp talons entwine around the woman. She looks at you, her eyes pleading, as she reaches one hand out toward you and Thomas. 

“Please –” she says as blood spurts from fresh wounds the creature is inflicting upon her. “Help me –” 

You could turn and run, trying to save yourself. Or you could try to save this poor woman, your fellow inhabitant of Kadath. Perhaps, if you ran, you could even find help for her – oh, who are you trying to kid? She’d never last long enough. But if you fight the thing, it might rip you apart just as quickly as her. The urge to preserve your own life is almost overwhelming, but can you abandon this woman to her death and ever hope to sleep at night again? 

WHAT DO YOU DO? 

A. Try to save the woman. 

B. Run for it! 

Let me know in the comments what we should do next! The option with the most votes is the way we'll act for part two!

Jacob's Visage Unlocked! The Drifter King!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 05:24:54 AM

Well hi there! We hope you had a great weekend.

We've been making some good strides with the campaign. How good? Well, we unlocked some new cool stuff, which we'll get into in a second. And we're currently 1 image away from unlocking our last current social stretch goal. You heard that right: 1. Stinking. Images. LOL!

I'd say do you think we can do it, but, I mean, it's 1 picture. So of course we can do it! Someone get to uploading! =D

We should have more info coming on Ward in the next day or two, as well as the next stretch goals. But, in the meantime, let's talk about Jacob.

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JACOB'S VISAGE

Jacob is still very much in-process. We haven't worked out his ability yet, and we don't have his sculpt yet. (Unsurprisingly.) But we can at least take a look at his story.

--

"I did this for you," Jacob says. "You're the only thing that's kept me going. I - never thought I'd make it this far. I thought I would have joined you long ago. But… But at least you're here now." Tentacles spiral up his boots, entwining tenderly around his calves.

--

"This way," the man, Jacob, says, his helmet and spine glowing with soft blue light. "We're going to gather the rest of your team, and then we're getting you out of this hellhole."

"How?" you ask, shaking your head. "The submersible crashed!"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Jacob replies. "And once we get back to my ship, the one I came down on, we'll use it to send the things in this place back to where they belong."

"But - there's so many of them between us and there," you whisper.

Jacob raises his ore cutter. "That's why I brought this along," he says. "It's great at halving my problems."

--

Dropping his helmet onto the pulsing, bulbous mass creeping across the floor, Jacob wipes tears from his eyes. "I've missed you," Jacob whispers. "So, so badly. When you left, you took my soul with you."

Long, spidery fingers trail down Jacob's chest.

--

Jacob is running full-tilt down the corridors, not caring if the horrors hear him. He swings the ore cutter with unbridled fury, ripping into anything that dares to approach. His roar is only matched by the squeals of the horrors he is hacking to pieces.

A new terror approaches. Jacob looks up at it, and lowers his weapon.

"It can't be," he murmurs.

"What are you doing?" you yell. "Kill it!"

Jacob's weapon clatters to the ground. Cursing, you raise your gun and take aim.

"NO!" Jacob screams, throwing himself in front of your gun. You stare, jaw dangling in shock, as your SMG's bullets burrow through Jacob's armor to bury themselves in his flesh.

"Not… her…" Jacob says, sinking to the ground.

--

"Darling," Jacob's wife coos, stroking his face with one clawed hand. The buzz of her voice is like a symphony to Jacob's ears.

--

-

THE DRIFTER KING

We have some art to show you today for the winning Epic Monster from the vote we held earlier on in the campaign. May we present to you the Drifter King.

--

It rises majestically before you, enthroned on its towering rocky seat. A scepter crowned with otherworldly fire burns like a maddening beacon in the night, its multitudes of thick, meaty tentacles coiling, curling, and whipping against the slimy, barnacle-encrusted stone of its dais. Staring in wonder at its magnificence, you can't help but sink to your knees. Tears well up over your eyelids and streak down your face. Reaching a hand up, you wipe them away and wonder briefly how your hands became streaked with blood.

Around you the world shimmers and shakes, reality slowly fracturing as the king's court assembles from the cracks in-between the worlds. The creeping courtiers pantomime and cavort, their movements flowing into an eldritch play that would drive even the sanest person into gibbering fits. You begin to laugh, clapping your hands, as your face starts to harden. A symbol shimmers in the air: the sign of the king.

As the courtiers collect you to offer you as a gift to the king, you realize that all of reality is nothing but a stage, and life a production of little more than sound and fury. Meanwhile the audience, beings beyond time and dimensions, look on in laughter and callous impassivity. As the king begins to feast you realize you desperately want to weep, but you can no longer move your mouth to make the sounds. Your face has become a rigid mask. Leaning down, the king removes it for you.

--

-

The Drifter King is officially available to add to your pledge today. It is not included in any pledge level, so if you would like it then be sure to add it. It costs $16 for new backers or $13 for returning backers.

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To add this add-on to your pledge, go to the blue "Manage your pledge" button (in the upper-right corner on a computer or along the bottom of the campaign's main page on mobile), then click "Change your pledge." Next add the amount of the add-on that you want to your total and save your changes. That's all there is to it!

Now, we also said that we would give three random backers who voted a free copy of this add-on. As such, we would like to congratulate Fox Whisperer, AsAufMe, and Christopher Hawkins! Enjoy your free Drifter King!

That's all for today! However, I also wanted to remind you that you can still enter your ideas to possibly help bring Evil Jon the Cat to life! Just head over to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diemensiongames/deep-madness-second-printing/posts/2341053 and comment with your best take on the card. Furthermore, I'm a couple days late on this, but I'm going to try to have the first part of the Choose Your Own Terror story out later today. And last but not least, tomorrow (Tuesday) at 2pm PST we will be doing another Kickstarter Live event! Be sure to stop by with your questions and say hi!

Talk to you soon, everyone! Thanks for being a part of this campaign!

Help Us Design Some Cards
over 5 years ago – Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 06:39:52 AM

Hi, everyone. Hope you're doing great!

Yesterday I asked you another loaded question. Very simply, I wondered aloud if anyone would like to help us design some cards. Well, the answer was pretty varied (everything from shrieks of glee to "Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!"), but the overall vibe I got was that you were saying, "Sure. I suppose we could do that."

So let's… talk about that more in a minute.

First, let's look at how our last couple of social achievements are coming along!

Man, we are getting so close to unlocking that next scenario! SO CLOSE! Think we can do it by tomorrow?

Also, we are getting much, much closer to unlocking Jacob's Visage! We're currently less than $10,000 away from unlocking it! Think we can finish that amount off today? (I think we can!)

Well, that's it as far as our stretch goals for today. Now, let's get on to some news, both good and bad.

THE BAD NEWS

So, as a few of you know, one thing we have received many, many requests for is a third plastic token pack. We've also had requests for a hardback rulebook that would contain every rulebook, scenario, etc. We've been looking into both of these things, and we are very sorry to announce that we don't think we'll be able to make these happen for this campaign. It'll just take more resources than we currently have to do these right now. As such, it's with a heavy heart that we have to announce these two items need to be tabled for now. We're very sorry for any disappointment this causes. But who knows, maybe we'll be able to revisit these things at some point in the future. It just probably won't be this campaign.

THE GOOD NEWS

Some of the other things we have received many requests for are monster cards for the Weird Statue, the Cthulhu-ish Sculpture, and, yes, Jon the Cat. (ESPECIALLY Jon the Cat.) Well, we're certainly open to the idea of making these cards, but we have a stipulation: You want them? Then you're going to help make them. =D

Because he is by far the most popular, let's start with Evil Jon. You're going to tell us what his special abilities are. What his stats are. How he acts. How hard he is to kill. What it takes to escape him. If you have any inspiration for the art that you've stumbled across. Even what his official names is, if you have a different idea than the one mentioned. In short, you're going to help us design this card.

So, here's how it's going to work. You're going to put your best ideas for Jon in the comments section. You can completely fill out his card, or you can just fill in the part that you like best. We will be looking for:

• His name
• His madness rating
• His wounds and resistance
• His damage and range
• His action pool
• His special abilities
• His trap rating
• Any images you have in mind for his picture.
  

We'll give it several days, then we'll collect the best ideas, synthesize them, and put them to a vote. Who knows: the winner may very well end up becoming a permanent part of Deep Madness.

Feel free to work together in designing this card, too. This can be a collaborative effort. (Maybe start a thread on the Facebook group to get everyone's opinions. You can reach it at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1212223532134342. Or in the BGG forums: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/202077/deep-madness.) Also, just to be clear, we reserve the right to veto, rewrite, tweak, or otherwise butcher your creations to our hearts' content. Because we're brutal like that. =D

But we have one more treat for you today. We want you guys to go wild with your creations, and not feel limited to just this one. So, if you have a creative streak (and access to Photoshop), then we've decided to make tweaked versions of our PSD files available to you. Not as a stretch goal or anything; just because we think you're cool. (Due to copyright issues we can’t supply the font files we use, so feel free to change the fonts to whatever you have on hand.)

Download Monster Card PSD Here

Download Investigator Card PSD Here

Download Item Card PSD Here

This is your chance to potentially leave an indelible mark on Deep Madness. Let's get creating!