An Update on Dark Domains –

I’m going to try something different with my blogs going forward. Where in the past I touched on a little of this and a little of that, today I’m going to go into a whole lot of this and none of that. Today’s excursion is into the realm of Dark Domains and specifically how it is coming to our world.

First, I’ll cover the day to day processes and then Jakob Voll-Kappan will bring it home with some other thoughts.

First off, we received the PPC (pre-production copy) of the game and played it a couple of weeks back. Everything was as expected and quite attractive. The four of us (Jonathan on the left above, Carla and Todd) played a game and tested out the functionality. No issues were found and so we pressed the “go” button with Panda. That got us rolling prior to Chinese New Year and puts us well ahead of schedule at this point. 

We are now working on getting our shipping costs narrowed down using the new 2019 rates. Once that is determined, we can open the Pledge Manager again to take shipping payments. If you backed the game, as soon as we have that info, we will be contacting you.

One of the things we need to look at now is the expansions possible for the game. Over the past 10 years while waiting to bring this one to market, we have worked on a number of concepts that each changed the game in a fundamental way. None of these seemed to fit into the base game without altering it fundamentally. Each has its positives and its drawbacks. In case you haven’t heard this from me before, Carla & I always want our base game to be as accessible to as many people as possible. Things that maybe lead players into one path over another are removed, but sometimes not forgotten. That is what we like to do with expansions, completely re-direct the base game. 

We feel the best model for that is Ticket to Ride. That game has a great core game but when each expansion is added, you have to adjust your style of play a bit from the base game to succeed at the new variant. Sometimes its a minor switch, other times it is a major re-thinking that is required. I don’t think anyone would expect the base game to include that mess of parts at the start and not everyone wants every expansion. There are some I like, some I hate and others that I can take or leave. But I respect all the attempts to breathe new life into the original. 

Dark Domains has its set of variations as well. What I am curious to know is thematically, which of the following expansions appeals to you the most:

Warlords: Players may actively engage their opponents with military forces.

Resistance: Players can fight to keep a level of good resistance in their opponents Domains.

The Deep: Ocean-front property and an area-control aspect with navies and pirates.

Chthonic Forces: Adding the subterranean world and the introduction of Bloodgold, a spendable victory point.

Hidden Winds: An eastern flare focused on new magic.

Clockwork: Clockwork creatures, steampunk science, new resources and doomsday devices. 

Now I will let Jakob finish the post.

We have slightly less than 700 copies of Dark Domains left unsold. I demand that the lackeys at Laboratory H get rid of them by the end of the summer. To that end I have instructed them to re-open pre-orders in the Spring and sell every last one of them. Any that are still around by the time Origins and Gencon come to pass will be sold by the most estimable gentleman, Sean Brown and his traveling show known as Mr. B Games. I have assured my followers that all of the current Masters of the Domain will be retired with this run and we will see in the future if the game was good enough and the if the market demands a reprint. 

Thank you to all that have purchased and all that will purchase this fine game. We look forward to many years of meeting your gaming needs.