Gloomhaven Role Playing Game Announced!

[darjr]

Cephalofair Games, crowdfunding publisher of the record-breaking board games Gloomhaven and Frosthaven, is pleased to announce our latest project set in the same high fantasy, high strategy world we all love.

Last year Cephalofair announced plans to crowdfund a fantasy miniatures line to complement our catalog of boardgames – providing highly detailed sculpts for each of our in-game enemies, bosses, and summonable creatures typically represented by 2D cardboard standees and tokens. Now, we’re excited to reveal that we’re planning so much more than just miniatures with our brand new product—Gloomhaven: The Roleplaying Game!

Looks amazing and some amazing folk have worked on this. BJ Hensley posts over on facebook.

The secret is out! I’ve been working as the Creative Director for the Gloomhaven RPG! Even more exciting, I can FINALLY talk about all the fun we’ve been having working on it since I hired on!
We have such a fantastic group of designers, authors, artists, editors, and play testers on our team and I’m honored to be helping them create the best version of the Gloomhaven RPG possible.
Please Note - The art collage featured in this article is made up of various characters created by the talented artist, Phan Tuấn Đạt who worked extra hard to have them done in time for the announcements. We appreciate you, Dat!

announcement

 

[Scribe]

(typo in the title!)

 

[darjr]

Announced at PAX!

 

[darjr]

They are sticking with the reduction in randomness thing too. Intereseting.

Unlike other RPG systems reliant on dice and set character build structures – Gloomhaven: The Role Playing Game will continue to uphold one of Cephalofair’s core mission statements – to “minimize randomness and reward player savvy”.

 

[prabe]

They are sticking with the reduction in randomness thing too. Intereseting.

Gloomhaven is a terrific tactical game, but I do not think it'd be possible for me to be less interested in their RPG, for a couple of reasons.

I think it's ... cute ... that they think their system is less random than dice.

I also hope they have better scenario design than the city and road "encounters" in Gloomhaven. Those are like the worst possible TRPG encounters run by the worst possible GM.

 

[darjr]

Gloomhaven is a terrific tactical game, but I do not think it'd be possible for me to be less interested in their RPG, for a couple of reasons.

I think it's ... cute ... that they think their system is less random than dice.

I also hope they have better scenario design than the city and road "encounters" in Gloomhaven. Those are like the worst possible TRPG encounters run by the worst possible GM.

There was a game played at PAX on stream. I'm looking for that.

 

[GreyLord]

Does their system use cards that you keep recycling...and you gain new cards as you level?

Not sure how this would work as an RPG that doesn't cost an arm and a leg...

It would be a different and creative approach though.

 

[darjr]

Does their system use cards that you keep recycling...and you gain new cards as you level?

Not sure how this would work as an RPG that doesn't cost an arm and a leg...

It would be a different and creative approach though.

I believe it does use cards, yes.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I am interested in how they intend to do this. The playability/challenge of the scenarios in Gloomhaven are really contingent on a specific number of actions being required to accomplish (such that wasting your action or needing to discard a card to dodge a fatal blow is significantly threatens success). Extrapolating the game out to a freeform RP environment may challenge this -- people complain about D&D balance going haywire if you mess with the encounters/opportunity to recharge assets; Gloomhaven is like this on steroids. Unless there is serious guidance on encounter/adventure design, I can see this being the kind of game where inexperienced GMs could drive players to frustration.

 

[SteveC]

This looks really interesting. I am SO GLAD to hear the system is going to be kept in house rather than seeing it use something like 5E. I will be following this with interest, since I've played a lot of Gloomhaven. I think the lore is really interesting, and the resolution system could be very special if they manage to successfully riff off of the game's card deck mechanics.