Hey everyone. We’ve got a special treat for you today. Our own, beloved, Jared Miller has written up a preview of some of the new things you can expect to see in Arcadia Quest: Inferno, which will launch on Kickstarter on Monday. So without further ado, take it away, Jared!
Welcome back to the city of Arcadia! There are beautiful sights to see, wonderful shops to spend your hard earned coin at, and if you’re the adventurous type, you can even join a Guild of heroes to fight against the occasional monster (or other Guilds) for loot and glory! Over here we have the city’s fountain. Uh oh. Looks like it’s spewing molten lava at the moment. Well, that’s not normal…
And thus Arcadia was pulled down to Inferno, which is where players will find themselves in the new Arcadia Quest: Inferno from Spaghetti Western Games and CoolMiniOrNot. Coming to Kickstarter November 16th at 3pm EST, Inferno is both a standalone game and an expansion to the original Arcadia Quest. Two to four players will build a Guild of heroes and play through a campaign consisting of different scenarios leading them to a final battle with The Underlord, the big meanie that brought the city of Arcadia to Inferno in the first place.
From Arcadia Quest to Arcadia Quest: Inferno, the core mechanics of the game remain unchanged. Players can take move and attack actions or rest their Guild to recover heroes. Along the way, there will inevitably be combat between heroes, or between monsters and heroes. On a player’s turn, the monsters are controlled by the person to their right. All combat is dice driven, with modifiers from the heroes’ equipment. There are different objectives to complete, items to discover, and maps to explore. Of course, the design team didn’t just remake the same game in a new location. Arcadia Quest: Inferno introduces 12 new heroes, 7 new monster types (with 19 miniatures in total), 5 Angels (more on these winged protectors later), tons of new items and abilities, and several new gameplay mechanics.
After getting a chance to play the game, the new mechanics Inferno brings to the table make the whole play experience fresh and new. Borrowing from Arcadia Quest: Beyond the Grave’s Tombstone cards (an expansion to the original game), Inferno introduces Brimstone cards. Heroes may use one of their movement points to activate one of these diabolical stones in their space, which is great for them but usually bad news for others. One Brimstone card, “Minion on the Prowl,” allows the current player the ability to activate a monster, letting them attack another player if they so choose (and who wouldn’t!) These Brimstones cards also rely heavily on one of Inferno’s other new (and key) mechanics, Damnation.
There are times when a Brimstone card or an enemy may target the hero with the most Damnation, or hit harder if a hero is Damned. So what is Damnation? Being set in Inferno, heroes will have an opportunity to dabble in the dark powers. Some weapons or spells will require a player to receive a Damnation token to gain bonuses on their attack or defense rolls. For example, the “Tainted Bow” allows a hero to take 1 Damnation to roll 1 extra attack die. As the old saying goes, “With great dark powers, comes a price that must be paid.” And that’s where those Brimstone cards or Damned-hero hunting monsters come in. So while it’s great to have that immediate gratification of power, later, you might suffer a penalty to a dice roll or be forced to exhaust an equipped card.
It may seem like everything is all brimstoney and damned, but there is a light in the darkness. That’s right, I’m talking about the Angels I mentioned earlier. Next to Damnation, the Angels seem to be the next biggest change to the game. Along the way, heroes will find these glorious beings in need of rescuing. Once the protectors of Arcadia, The Underlord has captured the Angels, holding them prisoners. Once freed from their bonds, players can choose to have the Angel join their Guild. However, Guilds can only have 3 heroes, so you must pick one of your heroes to leave behind. Perhaps old Trandir (one of Inferno’s newest heroes) has too many Death Curses. You could leave him behind in exchange for the Angel you just saved. I mean, he was just holding you back anyways, right? This new Angel could really do wonders for your Guild’s future profit margins, and, you know, help you save Arcadia.
Not all scenarios will offer you a chance to save an Angel, so you’ll want to be the Guild that does so when the chance presents itself. However, you might also just skip right past the opportunity with Inferno’s new branching campaign structure, offering players two potential paths through the game. Depending on the path chosen, certain quests in scenarios won’t be completed, which will come back to haunt players later in the game. In our case, an Angel we didn’t save in one quest reappeared in a more corrupted form later on. I guess Inferno just has that effect on people, or Angels in this case.
Arcadia Quest: Inferno builds on the already solid structure of the original game to build a completely new yet familiar experience. The new miniatures all look amazing, which is to be expected from a CoolMiniOrNot game, and the new Damnation mechanic gives the game a welcomed dose of push-your-luck. If you enjoyed the original game, Inferno is a must have. All of the games are compatible with each other, so you’ll have plenty of goodies to play around with and maybe even make your own campaigns combining them all! If you’re new to the series, Inferno is a great jumping on point. The Arcadia Quest: Inferno Kickstarter goes live on Monday, November 16th at 3pm EST. As with any CoolMini Kickstarter, I’m sure there will be tons of goodies and plenty of surprises along the way.