A card game of the Great Old Ones fighting over the end of the world. Cthulhu! Hastur! Only ONE can rule the apocalypse!
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Wrestenomicon is the first card game published by Arc Dream Publishing. Of course it’s hardly the first we’ve worked on, but working on a game for someone else is NOT the same as publishing it yourself. We are immensely pleased that so many backers supported our freshman effort.
This is Shane Ivey of Arc Dream Publishing. My partner Dennis Detwiller and I particularly wish to thank Rachel Ivey for tireless work on digital design, the websites, photography, videography, marketing, public relations, customer support, and social media; Kurt Komoda for his spectacular artwork; John Kovalic for being there when we first conceived this thing in the Before-fore Times and for contributing when it finally stirred to life; Simeon Cogswell and Adam Jury-Last for beautiful graphic design within sometimes challenging parameters; John Nephew and Jeff Tidball at Atlas Games for advice and connections; and Rob Heinsoo and his Fire Opal team—Sean McCarthy, Lisa Eschenbach, Marie Poole, and Brittanie Boe—for development, testing, advice, and promotions.
Now, what does it all mean?
Wrestlenomicon will ship in August 2019 as a boxed set with:
The Wrestlenomicon playmat will also ship in August 2019.
Bbonus cards will probably ship around the same time as the game and playmat. We will let you know once we confirm that. The bonus cards include:
And these other bonus cards will go exclusively to "Servitor of the Old Ones," "Local Retailer Destroyed," and "Willing Sacrifice" backers:
We will take the next couple of weeks to let Kickstarter finalize everything with backers. Meanwhile, we will confirm final designs for all components and set up orders with our manufacturers.
Then we will set Wrestlenomicon up at BackerKit. In BackerKit, you will confirm your pledges and delivery addresses and tell us how we should list you in the game’s acknowledgements. And “Servitor of the Old Ones” backers can tell us which Old One they serve. That will tell us whether Cthulhu or Hastur gets a bonus card.
Around that time, we will get in touch with “Willing Sacrifice” backers to get their photos for reference in the custom cultist cards.
We have tons of ideas for more Great Old Ones to join the fray! Once Wrestlenomicon is out, we’ll be paying close attention to how much fun people have with it and how to proceed. We would love to see Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, Yig, Tsathoggua, you name it.
There is plenty of apocalypse to go around.
You have seen to that.
Thank you.
Hi gang, Shane Ivey here from Arc Dream Publishing. We have less than a thousand bucks to raise! As soon as we hit that goal, that guarantees that Wrestlenomicon ships to everybody in August!
What comes next?
With another $5K ($25K total), we unlock the Nyarlathotep deck and EVERY deck gets 70 cards instead of 60.
With another $10K ($30K total), we unlock the Yog-Sothoth deck and EVERY deck gets 80 cards instead of 60.
Let's push this thing to the end of the world and beyond!
Backers have asked about boosting their pledges to help drive toward the other Old Ones.
The Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth decks will cost $15 each (plus S/H to be billed later). If 400 backers add $15 each to reserve the Nyarlathotep deck, that guarantees Nyarlathotep. If 400 backers add $30 each, that guarantees both Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth.
Of course, if we reach the Kickstarter’s end and don’t hit those goals, you can reduce your pledge, use that extra pledge amount to buy a spare copy, apply the extra to your shipping & handling in BackerKit, or just get it refunded if you don’t reduce the pledge in time.
Backers have asked how the $100 Willing Sacrifice reward compares with the newer $40 Servitor of the Old Ones reward.
Other rewards are as listed in the pledge descriptions.
So sign up to be a Willing Sacrifice if you want to be memorialized as a cultist for the ages!
Fandomentals Unboxing and Overview:
Detailed Geek Dad Review:
https://geekdad.com/2019/04/kickstarter-tabletop-alert-cthulhu-vs-hastur-in-wrestlenomicon
(Their bottom line: “a somewhat silly game with some potential to be a serious tactical duel.” YES!)
Daily Dope’s How to Play and Review:
Plot Points audio interview with Dennis Detwiller:
Servitor cards are exclusive to Kickstarter backers. When the game allows you to gain a Cultist, you can add a Servitor instead. And they can be mixed up. Cthulhu can use Hastur’s Servitors and vice versa!
Each Old One’s Servitors do different things. Here’s how they work:
Wrestlenomicon artist Kurt Komoda put together the art that will be featured on Servitor cards. I saved some of our back-and-forth to show how these images come about.
Here’s what I emailed to Kurt:
HASTUR SERVITOR CARD: The Dead.
CTHULHU SERVITOR CARD: Deep Ones.
I also added a note to the effect that if he has an idea that works better visually, then let me know or just run with it. I am a writer, not an artist.
Then Kurt sent rough sketches to see if he was going in the right direction:
I checked with Dennis, we both agreed Kurt was going in the right direction, as usual. I told Kurt, so far so good.
Then Kurt sent finished colored versions for review:
And Dennis and I agreed they were awesome. As usual.
And that is why we keep hiring Kurt Komoda.
If we unlock more decks, those will get Servitors of their own: the mi-go for Nyarlathotep, that bringer of strange joy to Yuggoth, and the spawn of Yog-Sothoth for, you guessed it, Yog-Sothoth.
Servitor cards are exclusive to the $40 “Servitor of the Old Ones” reward, the $60 “Retailer Destroyed” reward, and the $100 “Willing Sacrifice” reward.
Sign up now, and tell your friends to join in, to make sure you get yours!
We have hit our goal! After lo these uncounted aeons, hoary Wrestlenomicon comes shambling and slavering to your game table in August, and IT WILL SMASH STUFF UP.
We have three more days to smash it up even harder!
The first stretch-goal for Wrestlenomicon will bring us two bonuses.
Nyarlathotep is the mind and soul of the Outer Gods, and the Old One that most often hangs out with humanity. Nyarlathotep is everybody's bro. Nyarlathotep is always down for a good time. And he’ll probably bring you down with him. Hard.
THE WORM THAT BREAKDANCES: Dominance attack. Draw a card for each card you have on the track in spaces 1, 3, and 5. Deal 2 damage for each card you have on the track in space 2, 4, and 6. Slams Ranged: Same, but draw two for odd spaces and deal 3 for even spaces.
PSYCHE! (WARD): Bizarre attack. 2 damage, + damage equal to the Momentum of a random card from enemy hand. Slams Dominance: Enemy disards hand and draws one less card.
MAKE IT RAIN (RATS): Ranged Attack. Deal 1 damage per card on enemy track. Then bump 2 of those cards 1 space each. Slams Viscera: Bump those cards 2 spaces instead of 1.
Nyarlathotep doesn’t deal as much immediate damage as Cthulhu, and doesn’t have as many tricky tactics as Hastur. But the Nyarlathotep deck has two major innovations that set it apart: Mastery attacks and the Pyramid of Power.
In Wrestlenomicon, attacks get extra slam damage if they counter certain other kinds of attacks. A Bizarre attack slams if your foe’s last was Dominance. A Dominance attack slams if your foe’s last attack was Ranged. And so on.
Nyarlathotep has a few attack cards with an ability called Mastery. A Mastery attack gets the slam bonus as usual, AND it gets the slam bonus on attacks of its OWN kind.
TURNING CREATURES INSIDE-OUT IS KIND OF A SPECIALTY: Viscera attack. 1d6 damage. Slams Bizarre: +3 damage if attack's first damage cards include a Viscera card. Mastery: Also slams Viscera.
THE ATOM BOMB? I CAME UP WITH THAT ON MY TOILET: Ranged attack. 2 damage; Bump 2. Slams Viscera: +1d3 damage and destroy an enemy Permanent. Mastery: Also slams Ranged.
Thanks to Mastery cards, Nyarlathotep gets more awesome slams.
We’re experimenting with a really fun ability for Nyarlathotep, the Pyramid of Power. It still needs practice and playtesting before we commit to it, but it has been great so far. The Pyramid lets Nyarlathotep build up massive power late in the game.
The Pyramid of Power gets its own space on the game table. It is built with six cards: three on the bottom level, two in the middle, and one on top.
When you bring an attack to Ground Zero, the previously Zeroed attack becomes a brick in the Pyramid. (That means you start building it only on the second attack at Ground Zero.)
Some Combo and Permanent cards deal with the Pyramid of Power…
CYCLOPEAN SELFIE: Combo. Play after you attack. If your Pyramid is complete, deal +3 damage. If Pyramid incomplete, draw 2 cards.
DUDE, PYRAMIDS ARE THE FUTURE: Permanent. If your Pyramid is complete, draw a card whenever your enemy fails to attack on their turn. Immediate effect: Add an attack from your discard pile to your Pyramid.
…but the Pyramid REALLY brings the power after you lay that last brick.
When the Pyramid is complete, every card that forms it adds a bonus when you play an attack card of that kind. Some spaces on the Pyramid give +1 damage when an attack of that kind hits Ground Zero. Some allow you to gain a Cultist or draw a card when you merely play an attack of that kind onto the Attack Track.
The Pyramid of Power has some interesting tactical wrinkles. If you have only one or two kinds of attack on the Pyramid, then when those attacks come up, they hit HARD. But they are less likely to come up, since you already played so many forming the Pyramid. If you spread out your attacks, the Pyramid doesn’t hit quite as hard, but comes into play more often.
The Nyarlathotep deck joins the fray when we hit $25K. It will cost $15, plus S&H and VAT (if applicable) to be charged separately. If you want to help make sure Nyarlathotep gets his spot in the ring, you can add $15 to your pledge now. If we hit $25K, you get the Nyarlathotep deck! (And if we don’t, we can apply that $15 to your S&H or VAT costs for the main game, or give you credit toward a second copy, or just send a refund for the overage, whatever you want to do.)
And either way, WRESTLENOMICON IS REAL. Thank you for helping us make this game!
