Coming Soon To Kickstarter:
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The Living Maze is a single player, rogue-lite, dice rolling, dungeon delving, adventure card game and is a game idea I've had rattling around my brain for the last couple of years. The idea was of a card game that builds a maze as the you venture through it, which means it changes not only each time you play, but each time you go through the maze...and thus the living maze was born!
After much deliberation and piles of paperwork, you were able to finally purchase a large chunk of beautiful land containing natural wonders, such as "The Golden Hill of Greener Pastures", "The Ancient Barn of Hallucinatory Hay", and "The Crystal Stream of Rejuvenation".
However, upon further inspection of the fine print, there seems to be even finer print stating the following: "Whomever shall be "lucky" enough to own this spacious and lovely land henceforth becomes soul-bound to the dark and ominous labyrinth nearby, lovingly referred to as "The Living Maze".
What does this mean for you? Well, it means you've been assigned the task of attempting to stop the ancient evil before time runs out by any means necessary.
Being the more...pragmatic type, you decided the best bet is to hire a party to search the maze and discover the secrets found within the ever-changing halls and hope the adventurers are up to the task of defeating the beasts wandering the dreaded halls.
The goal of the game is to, as per the land ownership contract, defeat the ancient evil trapped in the halls of the Living Maze within 8 weeks (game play-wise, that's 8 runs through the maze).
As the player, the number of adventurers you have is represented by ten-sided dice (d10s) while a standee represents the party location in the dungeon. As your dice pool represents party size, the more dice you have means higher attack skill and party health.
Standing in your way however will be devious traps, unpleasant monsters, and vicious bosses. Fear not as the maze also holds knowledge, contains secret passages, and friendly healing wells to aid your adventurers on their quest!
Starting with a randomly chosen Final Boss and 2 dice (the number of dice equals the number of adventurers you have), you'll draw and play cards from the deck to create a maze while moving the party standee throughout, attempting to increase the strength of the party and locate artifacts rumored to be hidden within.
The Final Boss will be chosen randomly and placed into a deck with the Week 1 cards. Draw and place cards from the deck to build the maze, moving the player standee to each newly placed card, and resolving that card when necessary (resolving a card includes fighting monsters, disarming/bypassing traps, and searching rooms/halls).
This continues until the Final Boss is revealed. Once revealed you can choose to continue searching the maze while risking the Final Boss escaping or take the safe option and exit the maze immediately, allowing your party to return and granting you the opportunity to hire additional adventurers.
After leaving the maze, the remaining cards (which includes additional Monsters, Traps, and Bosses) are now shuffled into the deck, increasing the challenge your adventurers will face while increasing the chance to gain experience and earn artifacts.
Cards are again drawn from the deck to build the maze with cards being resolved as they are played; however, you will now alternate between building a path for yourself and building a path to the Entrance from the Final Boss space.
Once a path is created for the Final Boss, their Ability may activate, which can cause Monsters to be reanimated or Traps to be rearmed (some Final Bosses may have an ability that affects their attack, defense, or movement). The Final Boss will now try to escape the maze, generally moving one space for each turn you take, and, as with Week 1, if the Final Boss reaches the Entrance before you, they will successfully escape their prison and the game will be lost.
While traversing the maze, if the path to the Final Boss exists, you may choose to fight them at any point, however, the fight will be tough and it may be in your best interest to exit the maze to hire new adventurers.
OR this is used for GAMEPLAY
Once the Final Boss is chosen (which is generally done randomly but can be chosen based on preference), the remaining boss cards will be shuffled into the main deck.
Cards from the main deck will be drawn connected to existing cards (though the first card is connected to the Entrance space). Once the first card is drawn and placed, move the standee (which represents party location) to said card and resolve it as needed (to resolve, monsters/bosses are fought, traps are either disarmed or bypassed, and rooms/halls are searched).
After resolving your card, a card will be drawn and connected to the Final Boss space in an attempt to create the shortest path to the Entrance space. This process will continue (draw and resolve a card then draw and connect a card to the Final Boss path) until a path is completed between the Final Boss space and the Entrance space.
Once the path is completed, cards are no longer drawn for the Final Boss, instead, during the Final Boss's turn, they will move 1 space closer to the Entrance.
You may continue to draw and resolve cards while the Final Boss moves until you choose to fight (and defeat) the Final Boss, all dice are lost via combat with monsters or traps, or you choose to have the party leave the maze. If, while travelling the halls, the Final Boss reaches the Entrance before your party, the Final Boss will escape and the game will be lost.
Don't worry though, if you don't feel your party is strong enough to defeat the Final Boss, you may have the party leave the maze, shutting the door behind them. This allows you to hire a new party member (represented by added an additional die to your dice pool). With each week passed, a new adventurer will be added to the party until the 8th and final week where no new adventures are available to hire.
-Please note that designs are subject to change-
There are 2 boxes available:
The Standard Edition which includes the deck of cards, ten d10s, two standees/meeples, and 20 tokens for tracking resolved cards
The Deluxe Edition includes all the previously mentioned items
Plus the 28 in by 23.5 in neoprene game mat
Smorknim, the master of fingergun-fu, is only available to backers!
Shipping will be charged after the campaign ends.
- Kickstarter Ends: March 2024
- Order sent to Manufacturer: April 2024
- Product Received from Manufacturer: July 2024
- Products Shipped to Backers: August 2024