Monstrum… And a Question
over 5 years ago – Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 06:13:24 AM

There you were, having yourself a fine, average Saturday, when suddenly MADNESS DESCENDS FROM ABOVE LIKE A PLAGUE OF FLYING JELLY SCORPIONS WITH WEE LITTLE BABY FACES! AAAAHHH! RUN AWAY!

Ahem. Now that that's out of the way, how are things?

The campaign keeps rolling on, and we have more fun stuff for you today. First, a video popped up in my news feed today that headlined with Deep Madness. DM's only in it at the start, but it's a pretty fun little mention (she calls us "the success story of the week." Blush.) 

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Next, we also have part two of Adam's playthrough for Rolling Solo!

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We're also getting close to finishing our next social stretch goal, which is for a brand new scenario utilizing The Faces of the Sphere!

Be sure to keep chipping away at the BGG stuff so we can get this scenario in the bag! (We're getting so close!)

Also, be sure to keep checking in at Kicktraq so we can stay on their Top Ten list!

Thanks, everyone! You're the best!

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MONSTRUM NEWS

Well, you've been wondering when it was coming. And the answer is… Today. Mostly.

That's right, we finally have details we can shed on Monstrum!

Monstrum is the second box in our storage solution (with Profundum being the first. Read more about Profundum Here.) And it will be one premium box. Here are a few of its features:

• Monstrum's cardboard will be double thickness. This will be one big, sturdy box.
• It will contain 6 layers (!) of foam inserts. You heard that right. 6.
• It will measure 435mm x 323mm x 280mm (or 17.16in x 12.72in x 11.02in). Which means it will have the same width and length as Profundum, but it will be almost three times as deep!
• It will hold every miniature currently available for Deep Madness. Which, as of this moment, is over 260 miniatures.
  

In short, this box truly is a monster. Even just writing this, I kept thinking, "Wait… It's almost a FOOT DEEP?" But I think that, for many collectors, it may be a dream come true. For those who are searching for the perfect storage solution, this could be exactly what you're looking for.

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We'll have more info for Monstrum and Profundum in the coming days, so stay tuned.

In other news, I asked yesterday if people would be interested in doing a little Choose Your Own Terror story with me, and the answer seemed to be pretty positive. So, what I'm thinking is we'll give it a spin, but I won't put it in the main updates. Instead, I'll make a separate update just for the story, so that those who don't want to participate can just skip over it without missing any important stuff. (While this will mean more updates, hopefully this will be a best-of-both-worlds situation.) I'm getting close to finishing up the first part, so you may even see it later today. We'll gauge the interest off of the initial one, and then decide how far we want to take this. =)

Well, I think that will do it for today. Oh, wait -- I forgot. I said in the headline that I was going to ask you a question, didn't I? Yeah, I sure did. All right. Well, here goes: who'd like to participate in helping us design a card (or two - or maybe even three) for Deep Madness?

The Visage of Horror
over 5 years ago – Fri, Nov 09, 2018 at 06:24:11 AM

Hi all! It's time for your daily dose of Deep Madness!

Today we'd like to focus a little bit more on The Faces of the Sphere. And we're going to start with a change that we've been toying around with.

THE VISAGES

When we announced that the creatures in The Faces of the Sphere would be called Sphere Faces, we heard from a number of you that you weren't thrilled by the name. So, we thought we'd experiment a little bit, and see if we could settle on another one. We threw around calling them Refractions, the Transmuted, or a number of other choices. But at last we decided we'd try out the name Visages. (For those who aren't familiar with the word, Visage is a very deep, profound word which means… Face. Yep. We went creative with this one. =D)

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THE RELIEF EXPERT IS LOOKING STRESSED

Now, as we (strongly) hinted in the last update, our next stretch goal is coming - and it's none other than Jacob Clarke! Jacob's driving force for even coming to Kadath was to avenge his dead wife (and to stop others from sharing her fate), and so it seemed only appropriate that he and she would have a tearful reunion in Jacob's Visage.

Jacob's Visage will be joining the fray when we hit $560,000! Score!

Now, some might be wondering why we're seeing Jacob's image before we've even seen Ward's. Well, Ward's is coming, no doubt about it. But our artist got really excited about "Dead-ing out" with this one and jumped the gun a little bit on it. But don't worry: we should have Ward's Visage within the next couple of days to show you.

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SIZE COMPARISON

Now, some have wondered how the size of the Visages would compare with other miniatures, and if these figures would actually be worth the purchase. So, we thought we'd see what we could do by offering you a size comparison of the Visages next to their original forms. Here they are:

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ARTHUR'S CORRUPTION

Now, let's take a look at another of the Visages: Arthur.

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Arthur stumbles and falls in the knee-high murky water, cursing as his metal case slips from his hand and disappears into the dark, silty grime. This is too much. He is so tired of trudging through this hell. He used to be someone. He had power - real power. Influence. Wealth. How did he ever come to be this low? How could his sins, which seemed so small with distance, have condemned him to this cesspool?

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The facility seems almost peaceful for a moment. Perhaps you finally have an instant to rest. Sinking to the floor beside Arthur, you offer him a canteen. He takes it with a nod and guzzles its contents. You still can't completely figure Arthur out. He's undeniably smart. Maybe even a genius. There's a quickness behind his eyes, as if decisions and calculations are taking place instantaneously. But there's also something almost… dirty about him. You wonder if he'd stab you in the back if it meant he could get ahead. No, surely not. That's probably just this place affecting you. If anything could make you paranoid, it would be Kadath.

"So Arthur, I never asked you how you landed this cushy gig," you say, trying to make conversation.

Arthur chuckles, running one hand through his hair. "So you've never heard of me before, eh? Well, that's -" He stops abruptly, a look of alarm dashing across his face. He scrambles to his feet. Turning, you see it enter the room.

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Arthur's hand wraps around his briefcase, half-buried in mud and grime. Finding the handle, he jerks it upward. The only problem is, the muck it's sunk into comes up as well. The slimy dirt is alive. It swirls up Arthur's arm and, as he opens his mouth to shout, it pours down his throat. Arthur feels his feet become enveloped in vile excrement, followed by his legs. Then, in a flash of panic, he realizes what this dark ooze truly is. It's his past. It's every person he lied to. It's every friend he stabbed in the back on his way to the top. It's his lies. His heartlessness. The charcoal that has entombed his soul.

Arthur wants to scream, but the filth is still choking off his air and filling his mouth. He feels it filling up his stomach, bulging out his gut. His body begins to twist and snap as it starts to change. New appendages are pushing out of his back. His arms are elongating and thinning, his right one displacing his shoulder blade as new limbs join it that seem to belong to some enormous viscous insect. Another arm sprouts from his side that looks half human, half diseased spider leg. As his stomach ruptures, allowing his diseased innards to spill out, his briefcase also bursts open, allowing a myriad of tentacles and arms to tumble into the open air. At last Arthur can shriek in pain and horror. The sound that emerges is far from human.

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The creature that is shambling towards you is a horrific amalgamation of bulging human cadaver, black widow, and grimy squid. Perhaps you would feel sorry for it if it weren't so horrifically revolting.

Behind you, though, you hear Arthur begin to sob. "I didn't deserve this!" he yells. "It wasn't my fault! I'm no worse than any of the people who put me here! You can't do this to me. You can't!"

You have no idea what he's babbling about, until it at last hits you: in some sick way, what you're looking at is a reflection of Arthur's diseased soul. And he knows it.

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Arthur's Visage directly affects the items you carry, and the future of the search deck. If you perform an attack while it is in the same room then be sure you use your least favorite weapon, because you will have to discard it as soon as the attack is over. Now, it's not all bad news: you will then be able to draw the top three cards of the search deck and decide from amongst those what your replacement will be. But if you have to use your one gun that rocks the world, then you will lose it and potentially get nothing but a utility knife to replace it with.

So the question is, do you chance it?

Well that's all for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more fun. But, until then, have a great day!

(Also, a side-note. At the start of this campaign I promised that we would have a Choose Your Own Terror story that would be taking place during the campaign. But I just realized we're now 14 updates in and haven't even started it yet. Is that something you guys would be interested in us moving forward with at this point? Or do you think there's enough story-driven stuff going on in the campaign right now? Let's discuss that and the newly-coined Visages in the comments.)

About Lucas, Shattered Seas, and Another Glimpse Into the Future
over 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 08, 2018 at 06:17:10 AM

Another day, and more Deep Madness descends! Man, you guys seem to have really liked Profundum. (Which we're thrilled about, by the way.) Yesterday was one of the biggest days as far as funding since the first couple days of the campaign! Thanks so much to everyone who upped their pledges, and welcome to our new friends!

We've got some more fun stuff and news for you. But, first of all, Beasts of War posted their playthrough video! They didn't use sanity quite as we would recommend and they died horribly, but they seemed to have fun doing it. =) Here's the video:

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We also didn't realize it, but back when we launched we were mentioned on Mark van Der Upwich's blog on BGG, where he says, "Get what you want or get what's new… But get it!" So that's pretty cool. You can check it out (and the other games he mentioned) at https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/82562/final-roll-kickstarter-news-episode-187-tuesday-oc.

One last thing: there are several places where constant exposure can really help the campaign out. One is Board Game Geek, where we have been on The Hotness pretty steadily since the campaign began. (However, we have slipped a couple spots in recent days, so if you'd like to pop over there and help us finish off a couple of our last remaining social stretch goals you can find our page at:

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But another one is the website Kicktraq. Kicktraq has a Top Ten list on their website that shows off what projects are currently getting the most attention on their site, and Deep Madness has been on there pretty regularly since launching. But in recent days we've slipped off a couple of times, so if you wouldn't mind helping us out you can go to the like below and see some cool stats, add some nice tags, and ensure that we stay on that Top Ten. =) Thanks so much! You all are the best!

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ANOTHER STRETCH GOAL BUSTED!

Speaking of those social goals, we've beaten another one! Woohoo! What have we unlocked this time, Johnny?

Well, Byron, I'm glad you asked. Today we've unlocked the audio book for Deep Madness: Shattered Seas! Everyone in both the first and second campaigns will get this, and it should be quite a bit of fun when it's finished. We might throw in some atmospheric sounds and other extras, too, to make this a very tense and exciting experience.

This means we're only two more achievements away from another scenario! SCORE!

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LUCAS KANE

So I said yesterday that we'd focus a little more on Lucas Kane, and now we're going to. This might not be our last look at Lucas because the character is still very much in development, but I wanted to give you a few insights into him, anyway. For starters, in a few graphics and text blurbs we initially said that Lucas was going to be a mathematician. Whoops. Turns out he's a marine biologist. Why the change? Well, there's two reasons. The first is because I am not so good with the maths, and the only reason to have a mathematician as a major part of the story would be if it could add something measurable to the plot. But I'm just not sure I could do that, whereas I am much more likely to be able to work in marine biology. (Trust me. It'll be great. =D) The second and more important reason, though, is that it felt much more natural for the character. But enough about that. Let's focus a little on his back story.

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Lucas Kane doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about his past, because every time he does it feels like sharp pieces of glass are piercing his brain. Furthermore, when he tries to sleep he sees the most horrible things: flames consuming the world, and mind-rending monstrosities arising to stalk the streets. What disturbs him the most about these events, though, is that they don't feel like dreams. They feel like memories.

Lucas, a marine biologist, has been brought on to serve as a consultant during Kadath's construction and subsequent operations to ensure that the facility's environmental impact aligns with international law. To begin with it is simply a figurehead position, but shortly Lucas' collected samples begin to take on an increasingly mutated and alarming aspect to them - a problem that worsens drastically with the retrieval of a mysterious sphere from the depths. Lucas begins to fear that something is going terribly wrong in Kadath. But then he meets a teenage girl named Regan, and everything changes.

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We're still working out some of the niggling details about Lucas, such as his abilities and his sculpt. (You know, the minor stuff. =D) However, here are a couple of work-in-progress shots of Lucas's investigator card and miniature. Now, please keep in mind, these are far from finished. We've asked for some further tweaks to the miniature from the sculptor (he looks a little too put together for what we've imagined), and we obviously aren't going to leave his second ability as "Now you just see something useless." (His first ability's not really real, either – though it could be a kind of superpower if it were.) But they'll give you an idea of what we're shooting for, and it'll also show you a new look that we are considering for his card. Be sure and tell us what you think of it.

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SHATTERED SEAS TEASER TWO

Now I'd like to give you your second taste of Shattered Seas. This won't make a lot of sense if you missed the first part, though, so if you haven’t watched/read that one be sure to check out its update at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diemensiongames/deep-madness-second-printing/posts/2335364 before reading any further. (Also, sorry for my speech seeming to be set at fast-forward during the start of the next teaser video. It does slow down once I reach the story. I promise.)

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The water grew warmer, and then the man felt seaweed and anemones brushing against his toes. Something smooth and fleshy slid across his shin.

The world burst into focus as sand enveloped his fingertips. The man scrambled up onto the shore and whirled around to see what was behind him, falling on the wet beach with a thump. His heart stopped in his chest.

Other people were crawling out of the surf. Or at least they had likely been people at one point. A ten-foot-tall man stumbled as he stood up, his arms and legs unnaturally long, like taffy that had lost its shape. As he gained his feet, though, his torso bent backwards, his hands splashing down into the waves as his body became an inverted human “U”. Then his head drooped downward, his mouth elongating further and further until his hair drug in the sand. A guttural sound emerged from the thing’s cavernous gash of a mouth that was far from human.

A woman, meanwhile, rose from the waves. As she did, however, her legs dissolved underneath her, her shins ripping off at the kneecaps before her thighs disengaged from their sockets. Her waist was the next to go, leaving ropes of intestines trailing out behind her. Still she advanced, though, pulling herself forward on arms that cracked and shifted. Then the crab legs slid out from the depths of her guts, and as she looked back at her new appendages she screamed.

The man felt his whole body threatening to seize up on him. His mind couldn’t process the things he was seeing. Perhaps that was why it was some time before he saw the thing rising from the water.

The crown of the creature’s head formed a wake on either side as it advanced, its scales slick and gleaming. More of it arose from the ocean as the water grew shallower, and soon its bouquet of black fish eyes could be seen gleaming like clusters of caviar in the sun. Next its mandibles emerged, churning as they dripped. Then the spines. Then the whipping tendrils.

The man howled. Scrambling to his feet, he forced his limbs to obey him as he ran up the beach for the forest in the distance. His mind was frozen by numbing shock, his heart hammering in abject terror. Behind him he still heard the shuffling, scuffling, slithering procession of the damned as they made way for the monstrous horror that followed.

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And that's it for today! We'll have more of the story coming your way in a few days, and there's more fun to be had tomorrow. Have a great day, everyone, and we'll talk with you again --

Oh no. Not again.

It's hazy, but I see it moving. In the distance. Something's approaching, surrounded by tendrils… I see a man… And a woman… No, what is she --

Lucas Kane, Faces Dice, and Profundum!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Nov 07, 2018 at 06:26:31 AM

Well boy! It's been a big day for Deep Madness! Let's take a look at what's been accomplished!

Oh, but first, if you're new to Deep Madness it might help you to see more reviews. Board Game Quest (and DM backer Richard Pain) just posted a review of Deep Madness, so if you're interested in reading it, you can find it at https://www.boardgamequest.com/wp-content/cache/wp-rocket/www.boardgamequest.com/deep-madness-review/index-https.html_gzip.

Also, we were featured on Beasts of War's Weekender show! It's late in the video so we cut right to it in the link. You can watch the segment at the link below.

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(They should have a playthrough video coming soon, too, for those who are interested.)

There's also a new playthrough video from Rolling Solo, in which Adam takes us through scenario two of Deep Madness.

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LUCAS AND THE ANOTHER DAWN DICE

On to the stretch goals!

Today we not only hit a funding stretch goal, but a backer number stretch goal as well!

Lucas Kane has officially been unlocked, meaning he'll be riding along with every copy of the novel Deep Madness: Shattered Seas, as well as starring in the accompanying scenario that we unlocked earlier in the campaign.

What's more, we have officially completed every one of the revealed stretch goals based on backer number! This means that we have unlocked the really perty Another Dawn dice! These nine dice will be included in every copy of The Faces of the Sphere expansion.

We'll have more about Lucas Kane in the next day or two, along with the next snippet from the book. But first, I'm pretty sure we know exactly what you want to hear about: Profundum.

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MONSTRUM PROFUNDUM

Over the last few days we've been hinting that something was coming. And now we're just about ready to reveal it. Let's take a look.

Many of you have asked for a storage solution for Deep Madness, particularly our returning backers. Well, for that we are pleased to announce Monstrum Profundum. Monstrum is Latin for a monstrosity, a portent, an oddity. It also can mean simply monster. Profundum, meanwhile, means the deep. A chasm. Or the abyss. Perhaps together you could take them to mean monsters of the depths. And, together, they make up the storage solution that we have been hinting at and that backers have been asking for since the start of this campaign.

Both boxes will have the same footprint, but Monstrum will be significantly deeper. (Ironically.) That's because Monstrum will contain places for every miniature across Deep Madness and all of its expansions, while Profundum will have hold every tile, card, token, marker, standee, die, and more that Deep Madness can throw at it. Profundum will furthermore have compartments to store the various components in, keeping them separate and organized, while also leaving room for sleeved cards.

We're still waiting on the render for Monstrum, so for now we'll turn our attention solely to Profundum. Profundum is 435mm x 323mm x 118mm (or 17.16" x 12.72" x 4.64" if you prefer inches). It has a very simple, elegant design on the outside, and will contain three different layers of blisters to store everything on the inside. It will also be included in your pledge for free.

You heard that right: Profundum is one of our next stretch goals! When we reach $666,666 and also get 6,666 backers, we will unlock Profundum for everyone who has pledged at the Deeper Terrors, Investigator, or All-In pledge levels. For those who don't want to move up to one of these pledge levels (or if you want more than one of them), then Profundum will also be available as an add-on. We're still working out the final price as we solidify how much it will cost to make, but it will probably be between $25-$35. (Sorry for the wide range there, but there's still several factors we need to work out, and these boxes are not cheap!)

For those who also want Monstrum, it will be available strictly as an add-on. This is because Monstrum is going to be even more expensive to make (as well as larger), so we just aren’t able to balance it out financially. (Plus, some people might be content displaying their miniatures in-between play sessions or have other storage solutions, and so won't have need of this box.) Once again, we're still working out the final cost.

Now, we also want to stress that Profundum is NOT the next stretch goal. We will have more goals in-between. But we wanted to show you a little bit more of what's coming and get you excited for the future. We will also have more info on Monstrum Profundum in the coming days, such as when we get our samples in our hands. (Or the render for Monstrum.) But, in the meantime, consider this your first official look at the future of Deep Madness storage.

We'll talk to you again tomorrow, guys, with lots more fun and exciting stuff! (I'd also like to say thank you to everyone who joined me on the live stream today! I had a great time hanging out with all of you! We have tentatively scheduled another one for next Tuesday at 2pm PST, so mark your calendars!) Have a great day, and we'll talk to you again soon!

Diving Into Dagon’s Depths
over 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 06, 2018 at 04:58:45 AM

Hey all! Hope you've had a great day. Today we're going to go over one of the classics of Deep Madness, the big box expansion Rise of Dagon.

But first, our achievement progress!

We are getting really close to unlocking the audio book through our social goals. Which means we're also getting really close to unlocking the scenario for The Faces of the Sphere. And we're also getting really close to unlocking those awesome dice for The Faces of the Sphere! And we're also so, so close to unlocking Lucas Kane! EEEEE! SO MANY STRETCH GOALS ABOUT TO BE BUSTED!

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RISE OF DAGON

Before the investigators ever came to Kadath, there was another group who descended into the depths of the underwater mining facility. They brought with them a very special charge: the asset. And, when the asset was introduced to the sphere, everything changed.

The New Investigators

Rise of Dagon features three new investigators: the celebrity "single mother" who runs the Leng Corporation, Meredith Waite, her sheltered but oh-so-special daughter, Regan, and a strange writer who seems to have stepped right out of another century, Ward Phillips. (Remember him?) Together with a hapless repair crew, these three will be thrust into a nightmare from which they may never escape.

Here are the investigator cards for the three investigators, showing their abilities as well as their backstories:

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The Horrors

Rise of Dagon is also populated with several new horrors. There's the Deep Ones: mutated, shambling creatures who were once men and women. There's the Hydras: High Priestesses of a dark, malevolent, and very present power. There's the Shadows of Filth: oozing, nightmarish beings who cling to their matching investigator like a bad rash. And then there is, of course, Dagon himself, the Lord of this otherworld of terrors. Or is he?

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New Mechanics

Rise of Dagon features several new mechanics, both for good and bad. First of all, Rise of Dagon functions as an ongoing campaign. Search cards, infection cards, filth cards, infection tokens, and filth tokens are carried from one game to the next, and the three scenarios must be played in order. Which brings us to the next new mechanic in Dagon.

It is very possible to slowly lose your humanity throughout the course of Rise of Dagon. At the start of chapter one each investigator is given a face-down infection card. When it is revealed, that investigator will begin to receive filth tokens. If an investigator ever has three filth tokens then that investigator will become infected and begin the slow transformation into a Deep One.

However, it's not all bad news in Dagon. Specifically, there's the new Domain and Enlighten mechanic. When you rest during Dagon, you will take a domain card. These cards are sometimes good, sometimes not so good, but often feature a trade-off: a positive effect for a negative effect. However, when you take these domain cards you also take a domain token of a certain color and shape. When these are collected, investigators can begin, once per activation, to build enlightenment cards. And enlightenment cards are incredibly powerful. (Want to restore a room that's been devoured? There's an enlightenment card for that. Want to heal 1 wound from every investigator? There's one for that, too.) And what's more, once these cards are used they aren't discarded. They're just wiped clean, and you can build them again.

Rise of Dagon contains 5 room tiles, 116 new cards, 108 new tokens, markers and standees, 3 new investigators, and 24 new monster figures. This big box expansion costs $50 ($45 for returning backers.) If you'd like to add Rise of Dagon to your pledge, just click on the "Manage your pledge" button (in the upper-right-hand corner on computers, or on the bottom of the main campaign page on mobile), then click "Change your pledge." Next add the amount for the expansion to your pledge and click Save. That's it! We'll figure out what your extra funds were for in the pledge manager following the campaign. (Rise of Dagon is included in the All-In pledge level.)

Also, just a reminder that I will be doing another Kickstarter Live video today (Tuesday) at 3pm PST! I hope you'll be able to join me! Have a great day, and here's to us potentially unlocking a whole bunch of stretch goals today!

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Wait, I see it again! The mists are parting! It’s getting closer! I can… almost… make it out…