Lockwood's Asylum

Happy New Year!
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jan 03, 2018 at 12:01:28 AM

We're ushering in the new year with some more art!

We talked about the Tattered King and the Mirror's Secret in previous updated, and now we have some amazing art to go with them, courtesy of David Romero.

The Tattered King has changed a bit since you last saw it. Its global ability only works in the Asylum now, so if you purchase it and send it to an opponent's Room, it will stop driving your allies insane. Its Slain effect also turned into a Survive effect, which encourages players to deal with the Horror before it can ruin their next turn with a hand of awfulness.

The Mirror's Smile has also gone through some changes as a result of playtesting. Let's take a look at the new version:

Originally, the Mirror's Smile was intended to be a trap that players could spring upon their opponents, but it ended up being a Horror that nobody ever wanted to purchase, due to the high chance of it boomeranging back around to harm them. Thus, it received a few changes and became the punishing card you can see above. If you have a deck that can drop lots of Allies into your Room during the Action phase, that you can probably weather not having a Purchase Phase. If not... well, you're just too busy getting choked to call out for help.

This year isn't just about terrible monsters, though! We also have some twisted occultists who summon terrible monsters!

The Furtive Occultist is one of the most expensive Allies you can purchase, and for good reason. His Action is a gamble that can benefit or hinder you, depending upon your luck and your ability to pay attention to how many Monsters and Horrors you still have floating around in your deck, but his true strength lies in his Survive effect. If he survives the battle, he can draw upon his occult knowledge to send defeated Monsters right back to the person who (probably) purchased them.

The moral here is not to mess with occultists, I suppose?

Happy Holidays!
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 11:36:40 PM

Happy holidays, everyone!

Things have been going well with Lockwood's Asylum. The RPG is coming together pretty quickly, the backer playtesting phase is going well, and we've been working on some production stuff with the manufacturer. The primary goal at the moment is to just finish up the art we need.

There's a "Secret Santa" exchange at the Asylum this year, and we drew the name, let's see... oh, it's Head Nurse Tanis!

Well, it looks like she already has a present for someone. Maybe we'll just let her hand out whatever is in that needle and come back later.

Before we run off to hide in a supply closet, let's take a quick peek at her card.

Head Nurse Tanis is something of a wild card. As soon as she shows up in the Asylum, the turn order completely reverses, meaning that you're now sending Monsters into the Room of the player who previously had been tormenting you.

If you have the misfortune to end up with Head Nurse Tanis in your Room, then she has a healing effect similar to other nurses... except that she takes your Health and gives it to your enemies. That seems appropriately Christmas-y, doesn't it?

Dr. Lockwood & Patient #502
almost 7 years ago – Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 11:35:49 PM

Hey everyone!

We've received our Kickstarter funds and have paid our deposit to our manufacturer, so things are moving forward at a steady pace. We've also started to fill some of our art-based pledge levels, as you can see below!

First up, we have Dr. Lockwood herself!

Such science!

Here's how the piece looks on the card:

Though her Damage isn't quite as high as other Horrors, Dr. Lockwood is still witheringly powerful, as she forces Monsters and Horrors to apply their Damage before Allies, which drastically changes the way the game is played.

If the good doctor wanders into your Room, it might be worth letting her survive: when the battle is over, she can send a Monster to plague whichever player has been annoying you!

For a more hands-on sort of Horror, let's take a look at Patient #502:

Patient #502 is one of the most dangerous patients in the asylum. Before he was captured and handed over to Dr. Lockwood for treatment, he was known in the newspapers as "the Lakeshore Slasher."

Just how dangerous is he?  Well...

In addition to having a high Damage, Patient #502 increases the cost of all the Allies in the asylum, which slows down everyone's deck. Of course, if you send him into another player's Room, he's really only going to be penalizing that player... and if he's not killed, the Lakeshore Slasher murders two Allies, removing them permanently from the game.

We'll have some more updates for you as the art comes in!

Playmat Options!
almost 7 years ago – Sat, Dec 02, 2017 at 12:43:56 AM

Hey everyone!

We're working our way through the list of art backers to get their chosen card and pictures, so if you're on one of those reward tiers and you haven't heard from us already, it should be very soon now!

For now, though, let's take a look at playmats!  The playmats will be available in the Backerkit and will cost a flat $20, which includes shipping. They're 11”x17” in size and provide enough room for sleeved cards.

We have four potential designs, which are shown below. If you're planning on ordering a particular style, please reply to this update to let us know which one(s) you're planning on getting, which will give us an idea as to which ones and in what quantity we should order.

At the moment, we're only planning on making Asylum Deck playmats, but if there's a desire for Room playmats, we can make those in the same general style as the ones listed below. Just let us know if there's an interest!

Without further ado, here are the prospective designs:

 Please let us know which themes interest you!

Campaign Finished!
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 09:44:53 PM

This campaign has been really exciting for us, from the first moment we clicked the launch button to the very end. Ultimately, we succeeded because of our amazing backers, so thank you!

We're planning to have playmats available in the Backerkit, but we have to settle on a design. Instead of us choosing, we're going to have an update later this week with a few different options that you backers can vote on. Stay tuned for that!

For the D-Block Patients, we'll have some playtest files going out early next week for you to use in your testing. These files are just going to have playtest filler art in place of the final art, in order to make it easier for your poor printers. We'll also make the Vassal playtesting module available for your use, if you want to test online!

Otherwise, our primary goal is to finish up the last of our art. If you backed at a level that involves getting your likeness on a card, you'll get a message from us this week with a list of cards you can choose from and a request for two pictures that we can give to our artist.

Once again, thank you everyone for backing us. We won't let you down!