Weekly Newsletter Update #5
Our Kickstarter is approaching. There are only four more weeks, and only four more weekly posts & emails from Ortus Regni, before we kick it off.
This week we are showing off two of Ortus Regni’s Table Decks. Shown above are the Battle Deck and the Joust Deck. How are these used?
When Infantry, Knights, Lords, Vassals, Champions, a Prince, Mercenaries, the King’s retinue, or the Vikings are fielded into a battle an Earl can predict what is likely to happen, but occasionally things can take a dramatic turn. Fate plays its part through the Battle Deck, which actually changes as the game progresses. Battles are an important part of the game—as you might imagine—but it is also possible to win a game of Ortus Regni without winning a single battle in the field.
Battle Deck result cards shown include Normal Battle, Attacker Wins, Defender Wins, and Church Decides. But the effects of those cards are not even as absolute as their names imply.
What about the Joust Deck? Think of Jousting as a risky and disruptive but potentially very rewarding game of chance within Ortus Regni. There is even a style of Earl (player) deck design that we call a Jousting deck.
The Joust Deck result cards shown include No Luck, the Joust Prince card, and the Joust Vassal card.
As you can see, all of these cards, from both decks, continue the iconographic style shown last week on our Property Cards; rules, multiple icons and numbers do not hide these images. This aesthetic choice was perhaps the very first design choice that we made, and we never strayed from it once over the years of game development.
Ortus Regni also lacks victory points, hit points, and resource (money) chits. While the rules of Ortus Regni are quite simple, taken individually—and play fast and clearly when learned—be prepared to find your first game to be challenging. We believe you will be rewarded for overcoming that challenge!
Next week we will be revealing the full suite of Earl (player) Cards, from which you can design your Ortus Regni game play deck.
As we enter our final pre-Kickstarter month, we are also announcing an additional giveaway to folks on our email mailing list. Starting next Tuesday (May 6) we will be drawing one winner of an Ortus Regni core game box. This will be shipped to the winner, free of charge (when we receive our first allotment of games). This giveaway will run each Tuesday throughout May and June (our Kickstarter month). And don’t forget we are still running our Gen Con 2014 pass (badge) giveaway from the same list until August. Happy gaming and good luck!
Thanks again for following our pre-launch!
– Jon Sudbury & Team Ortus
