As you may garner from the title of this update, we are canceling this campaign, with the plan of relaunching in 2025 after implementing the valuable feedback many of you shared.
Before anything else, we want to say a huge THANK YOU to the backers who supported us in the first 48 hours of the campaign, demoed Defenders at conventions, and helped share the word wide and far.
To everyone who commented and shared their feedback, we are listening. We hear your passion for this game, and know that there are several hurdles preventing many of you from backing (and therefore enjoying) Defenders.
Reasons for relaunch
With that in mind, we do plan to relaunch the campaign next year. This is simply a pause to let everyone enjoy the holidays and give our team time to address all the notes.
We’ve compiled all your comments into three main categories:
Price point
We know there was some surprise at the price of the starting pledge level. We love the table presence of seeing the heroes and villains vying for control of Monarch City, but understand that for many of you, miniatures aren’t necessary to feel immersed. Our development team and manufacturing partners will collaborate on creating the best product possible, with the same great gameplay, but at a lower price point.
Achievement types
As supporters of other crowdfunding campaigns, you’re accustomed to certain types of achievements. We’ll work on redesigning the achievement list and organization so that your excitement for the campaign is reflected in the unlocks you help achieve.
Timing
This is a hard time of year for everyone. We didn’t want to disappoint, after already pushing the campaign launch, but good things take time. Instead of asking you to choose between holiday gifts or backing this game, we’ll make the choice easier and relaunch in 2025.
Communication plan
For the near future, all of the work to implement the above changes will happen behind the scenes. The multiple occurrences of “Oh, here’s an idea! Nevermind, it won’t work for ___ reasons” is not worth additional notifications in your inboxes.
We’ll plan on updating you at key points of the relaunch process, such as when the relaunch date is chosen, when we’ve got major progress on changes, and, of course, when the new campaign is live.
For those of you who backed the campaign, rest assured that no money will be charged and your pledges will be canceled.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please let us know here, on BoardGameGeek, or by emailing [email protected]. For those of you reading this without having backed, you can also stay up to date by subscribing to our newsletter.
Hello, heroes! Wow, what an incredible first day. Thank you for joining us here on this great campaign. We certainly can't do it without you.
Quick update to let you know that we have heard your feedback! We have turned on the pay-over-time feature on! So, you'll be able to pay in increments of 4 instead of everything all at once. Exciting! That's only four monthlty payments of $37.50 for the base game!
Our first stream went fantastically! We did not win, but we had a great time answering your questions and playing the game with each other. We got to tell you all pretty much everything there is to know about the bosses and heroes in the core game. Be sure to join us over on Twitch on Thursday from 3-5PM CT.
Welcome, heroes! Thank you to all 97 of you for joining us so far. We’d like to give you a warm welcome to Defenders of the Realm: Legends Edition. We’ve got a few things to cover for this first update, so let’s see what we have!
Achievements
The achievements for this time around are a little different! Each achievement adds to either an expansion or the core game, beefing up each Defenders of the Realm product more with all of your help on the campaign’s continued success! Knales, our first achievement, unlocks the Unusual Allies expansion, which will be available as an add-on as soon as she is unlocked — all backers at any level will get her for free, but you can opt to buy more of her expansion through the add-ons!
The rest of the achievements are labeled indicating which expansion they are added to when that goal is reached! For instance, Tr’vyr’s up next and he’ll be added to the Flames of Corruption expansion once we’ve reached that goal. Each achievement adds to an expansion (or the core game in the case of Pernicia!) and adds more bang for your buck as we reach — and hopefully zoom right by — each achievement! So, it’s with all of your help that we’ll reach these goals! Tell your friends, your foes, your allies, your minions, heck, even your bosses! Everyone needs to know about Defenders of the Realm: Legends Edition!
And don’t forget about our social stretch goals as well! Your engagement on various social media platforms adds to counts that unlock more great things! For more information, check out that section on the main page.
Updates
This campaign, our updates are going to look a little different. We have so many heroes and villains ready and waiting that there’s too much to update directly here on BackerKit! Instead, all write-ups about characters as they unlock will be featured on our blog. You can already see our write ups about the current core heroes and villains there.
Here we will be making updates to keep you in the loop on what’s unlocked, where to find links about the new characters, and answering questions as they come up throughout the campaign. So, join us for regular weekly updates on every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the campaign, sharing every unlock, blogpost, livestream, and more! Speaking of livestreams…
Stream Schedule
Yes, we’re going live! On most Tuesdays and Thursdays, we’ll be streaming on Twitch playing the game, maybe painting minis, and maybe even a stream with designer Richard Launius. That last one depends on you and our social goals! Our times are:
Tuesdays from 12-2PM CST
Thursdays from 3-5PM CST
Notably, there are two exceptions to this. Thursday the 28th and Thursday the 5th will not feature streams! One is Thanksgiving in the USA and the other is PAX Unplugged! You can find us in booth 2150 at PAX and stuffing our faces on Thanksgiving. Actually, that’s inaccurate. You won’t find us on Thanksgiving. But you definitely can at PAX Unplugged! Be sure to drop by and say hello.
We’re so glad to have you here and we can’t wait to talk more about this great game. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments! I’ll be in there as much as possible.
The minions grow and expand... they seek out every inch of the map to spread evil and feast... Who will be the ones to stop them? You, of course! Yes, the game will launch with four available expansions, each with their own set of 20 miniatures and minion card. Let's take a look at the cards below. These awesome minions can be traded out for any minion of that color. You can run all expansion minions in a game or just one!
Assembled Dead
The Assembled Dead expansion comes with the Necroguards. These cultists are primed and ready to fight good and bring evil upon the land... What will they summon? Who knows...
Vile Growth
The Vile Growth expansion comes with the masses of Sporlings. These Sporlings are not to be trifled with! They grow and fester and ready themselves to attack
Skittering Brood
The Skittering Brood expansion comes with a cluster of Attercops. These spiders will spawn faster than you can think if you're not careful...
Flames of Corruption
The Flames of Corruption expansion comes with the demonic army of Flaming Skulls. These strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest among us!
These are the expansion minions ready and waiting to take you down. Will you be the mighty hero that stops them?
Within the Unicorn Forest lives a tribe of druids. Long have their traditions held, passing down from one chieftess to the next. They know that in order to survive correctly, one must live with the land and not against it. One must understand the beast in order to build a better community, forest, and peace amongst yourself. That is the life that Knales knew growing up—one with those around her.
Now, though, her grove is threatened. In order to protect her home, she has ventured forth, against her mother’s wishes, to fight. She believes that there will not be peace in their perfect forest until there is peace across the land. She can’t stay here and do nothing while those around her suffer - lest her people be the ones to face the threat next. And, of course, now minions are starting to rear their ugly heads at the edges of the wood. She and her beast form will conquer the bosses and bring balance to nature once again!
Knales the Druid is ready to take action! And we have been taking action ourselves.
Here, though, we are bringing you info on our first stretch goal hero: Knales the Druid! Don’t let her looks fool you. She’s tougher than she seems.
“Wait,” I hear you saying. “What about her stats like might and skill? Magic? Where are her other two abilities?!”
Aha! Here is where it gets particularly interesting.
Knales has different abilities and stats based on whether she is in her caster form or her pandolin form (that’s a panda-pangolin hybrid, obviously). You switch between the two when her deck runs out, as you can see from the above. You may also notice that she has one less ability than those around her. That’s because her cards pack one heck of a punch.
For her cards, there are either caster (foot) or pandolin (paw) that she can follow, depending on what state she’s in. Typically, the caster side is going to allow for more strategic movement and healing of her comrades. The beast side is going to allow her to hit harder. She also has the option of a utility at any time on most of her cards. Though some are still only move, attack, or utility.
Oh, and she comes with two miniatures for you to switch between. Not only her human form, but her pandolin form as well. You'll have to wait and see those in action as the campaign goes live!
Knales is a mighty hero who should not be underestimated because of her adorable stature. She is ready to use the might of nature to fight those who would do her people wrong.
