Fallen: Coming To Kickstarter in June

Fallen is Oregon gaming company Watchtower Games' debut product and is scheduled to hit Kickstarter sometime in the month of June.  I don't know if my pocket can afford it, but this is another project that I plan to support.  Read on and maybe you'll join me in supporting what appears to be a great game.

Fallen is a two-player dungeon exploration game.  One player chooses his hero from three available characters.  The other player is the Dungeon Lord.  The premise is simple enough.  The hero delves deeper into the dungeon, in search of the dungeon's ultimate evil.  The Dungeon Lord throws traps and monsters in the hero's path in an attempt to foil the hero's plan.  If the hero can overcome the traps and monsters, the game culminates in an epic battle between the hero and the Dungeon Lord.  A battle that only one of them will survive.

The dungeon is randomly generated and made up of Story Cards.  Each Story Card is a scenario that the hero must complete in order to keep moving deeper into the dungeon.  Each Story Card or scenario contains ten challenges that branch into ten different directions that the hero can take.  This ensures that no two dungeons are the same.  Challenges can have the hero attempting to jump over chasms, solving ancient puzzles and fighting terrible monsters, among many other different challenges.

There are three heroes: the Pit Fighter, the Thief and the Sorceress.  At first glance, it would appear that the availability of only three heroes will quickly cause the game to grow stale.  However, appearances can be deceiving.  Each hero comes with 9 unique skills that allow you to build your character your way.  For example, you can build a Pit Fighter that has monstrous strength or one that has a tactical advantage during combat; a classic sorceress that calls forth devastating spells of power, or a swordmage capable of fighting toe to toe with spell and sword.  Besides the 9 unique skills, there are 10 specialized power cards and custom starting equipment.  This should provide plenty of different ways to explore the random dungeons.  The system is also set up in such a way that expansions should be plenty and prompt in coming.

There is equal diversity to the role of the Dungeon Lord.  The Dungeon Lord can choose from the Archivist of Souls, the Forge Master, and Krogarn the Ogre King.  Each Dungeon Lord has 10 unique power cards that range from necromantic spells to deadly traps.  This makes the Dungeon Lord's mission of giving hell to the hero a lot of fun.  For example, a Story Card challenge may require that the player decipher ancient runes in a sarcophagus.  The Dungeon Lord can make turn this mundane challenge into a living nightmare by sending a Shadow Fiend screaming into the room.  Each time the hero is defeated, the Dungeon Lord grows in power.  This allows leveling up of summoned creatures to give them greater strength and new abilities.  Defeat the hero enough times and the Omen card enters into play, giving the Dungeon Lord a deadly trick to play whenever the hero is at his weakest.

Four different challenges must be faced in each Story Card.  Each challenge moves the hero deeper into the dungeon and sets the stakes and type of dice to be rolled.  In this example, the hero player finds himself in the midst of a "Bloody Melee", fighting thieves in an old hall.  With his back against the wall, the thieves press their advantage causing the hero to sustain 1 point of damage (the single blood drop).  The treasure symbol informs that success in this challenge will earn the hero a valuable treasure card.  The arm inside the red circle tells the player that this is a strength challenge.

The Dungeon Lord chooses a Creature card to use for the challenge. Each Creature card shows the type of dice rolled. The Dungeon Lord rolls the dice, plays any special abilities from Power cards, and counts the total number of swords rolled on the dice. The Hero then rolls the type of dice based on their strength, agility, or intelligence. The Hero rolls the dice, plays Power cards, and counts the total number of swords rolled. Equipment such as the Iron Sword, Storm Flail, or Mana Ring can be used to help win the challenge. If the Hero rolls the most swords, then he is victorious gaining treasures, experience, and new abilities. However, if the Dungeon Lord wins the challenge, then the summoned monsters grow stronger and the dungeon becomes even more perilous.

The adventure culminates in an epic battle between the hero and the Dungeon Lord with only one player left standing.  Here, at the bottom of the dungeon, surrounded by minions and dark spells, the evil Dungeon Lord faces off against the hero.  With the skills and magical artifacts recovered from the dungeon, the Hero must rise to the challenge to finally bring an end to the Dungeon Lord.  One final battle to return the world to the light or plunge it back into darkness.