Extraordinary Reveal: Prides Entourage!
about 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 10:30:02 PM

Dear Backers,

I'm Jacob, and today marks the beginning of something extraordinary. Pride’s arrival is on March 16th, as announced on the campaign page, and to celebrate, we're introducing our plans for the Pride. Pride is more than a Battle Pack, its an entire entourage, a prideful pre-party.

Starting this Tuesday, we’ll roll out the red carpet in honour of Pride. Every day, for 14 days, we’ll reveal a new free upgrade to the core games; more and more amazing and well-integrated gameplay will be added.

This is not a display for your wallet. This is a display of admiration for what you've already pledged, and everything will be free, even the Pride Battle Pack (added to the Triple and Deluxe Triple Pledge for free). We hope this will help unlock more stretch goals by getting more backers on board. So, help us spread the word.

Prides Entourage

But before we get to Pride, let us unravel this gift of gameplay, day by day. We hope you'll stay with us and enjoy the show as the entourage arrives.

We asked what you wanted, and the response came in multiple answers. To be honest, we just wanted to know if you were ready for what we had planned. It seems you are more than ready!

When I designed this game more than a year and a half ago, I wanted to include so much more, but I also knew that I had to be realistic as a first-time creator. What we have is an amazing deck-builder with so many unique twists. But we've funded almost 300%, which is enough to take the next step in our plan for SINS. So, today, we’ll scratch the surface of the SINS evolution and reveal a bit of what's in store over the following weeks.

One of the things I wanted from the beginning was miniatures and tokens; not just for the sake of minis and tokens, but being able to stand face to face and battle each other, champions on opposite sides of the table, using miniatures, made for such a uniquely immersive experience around a great card game. What we have in store will bring not only miniatures, but also tokens, cubes and asymmetric characters with unique strategies, background and lore.

What we have in store, will take this from a deck-builder, and make it into a game of SINS. 

We hope you are as excited for the next weeks of reveals as we are! Let us know in the comments!

Sincerely Jacob and the rest of Luudos Studio.

Daily Reveal: March 2nd
about 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 06:07:07 AM

Hello backers,

What an amazing day. Our first reveal of the week, introducing characters and tactical placement. As we previously posted, we've been wanted to do this for a long time, adding more depth to every corner of the game, without sacrificing the core system; the cards, the choices, the tension, and the combos.

With these new incredible upgrades, revealed day by day, each phase will have a distinct and tactical feel. Please check out the campaign page for hints of what is in store. 

Over the curse of the campaign, we’ll post updates about gameplay examples in both images, text, and videos. The first play-through video of the skirmish play will land on Tuesday, once we've revealed enough chracters to play a game. Morten and I will fight for dominance, using our favourite SINS during our next video. 

Danto's Revenge...

“The feeling of hatred had begun to stir, ignited like fire, fueled by each pump of the heart, as it circulated with the blood in Danto’s veins. Anger, rage, contempt; it was all there. It was growing stronger, meaner, boiling like a kettle, heated by an infernal fire, giving him the power to do what was needed, feeding the urges within him.”

“Danto lifted his axe.”

“Then in one quick motion, he swung. Petrucci screamed for his life as the heavy sharp axe made way into his skin and flesh. It cut through arteries, blood spilling out, finally muting his scream as it reached the vocal cord. Hereafter followed a cracking sound as it broke the neck bone, once more, penetrating the thinner layer of flesh and skin of the neck, separating the head from the body. The axe made its way out onto the other side. Here it filled the air with red droplets, like a drizzle on a rainy day.”

“The axe had fulfilled its purpose.”

Skirmish...

A character set consists of a character card, 10x asymmetric starting-cards, 10x influence cubes, common-tokens, and common-cards. 

The starting cards are tailored to your chosen character and a SINS strategy like Wrath (destruction), Gluttony (discard), Pride (despair), Greed (gain), etc. Your starting cards will either strengthen your gameplay or hinder your opponents, depending on your tactical placement around the Realm, placing your character-miniature in the most optimal place between opponents. 

Each starting card, in contrast to common-cards bought in the Realm, is without weakness, and some require influence to unlock their powerful effects. You'll gain influence during the game based on your character-card and your starter-cards. How you play your specific character, understanding its inherent strategy, how to move and gain influence will strengthen your strategy. 

CHARACTER CARD

Your character-card has a variety of effects, which are always available to you throughout the game. Some are STATIC effects, which will remain active during your entire turn, and some are REACTION effects, which will trigger when certain conditions are met. 

These effects are part of your basic strategy; knowing when to use them or combine them is crucial for your character's success. 

STARTING CARDS

Starting-cards play in favor of your character and will combo your character’s effects. Most starting cards will have a COST effect, that can be activated if you discard the required influence listed on the card. COST effects can also have a repeat-icon, and can thereby be activated repeatedly during your activations. 

Some cards will show a target-area in the top right corner. These cards and their effect will target all opponents (red x), relative to your placement (black droplet). Target-areas can span across cards or adjacent opponents. Place your character for optimal effects during all phases.

INFLUENCE

You'll gain influence throughout the game, either from card effects or most prominently from your character’s effects. 

When you gain influence, place them in your play area. They can be used immediately to activate COST effects during your activations. 

When you end your turn, you may store the remaining influence on your character card depending on its available slots. All leftover influences are placed onto common-cards in the Realm, wherever you choose. 

GAINING CARDS

When you gain a card from the Realm, you also gain its stored influence-cubes, matching one of the SINS on your character-card. The influence-cubes of other SINS are discarded. 

SETUP

Each player chooses a character amongst the available sets. 

Place the character card on your right. 

Take the 10 matching starter-cards identified by your character-icon in the top right corner. Shuffle and place them facedown on your left. This is your draw pile. 

Place all cubes and tokens from the chosen sets in a common pool, within reach of all players. 

Shuffle all common-card together and place them in the center of the table. This is known as the Top of the Realm. Draw five cards into the center of the table to form the market row. This is known as the Realm.

The starting player places their character miniature(s) or miniatures first, then, in clockwise order, the rest of the players places their miniatures. 

Over the next 14 days, we’ll post more details and gameplay examples, diving into the world of SINS. Tomorrow we'll update the campaign to showcase these new elements. 

We hope that you are as excited about these free add-ons as we are. We have been working on the best way to evolve SINS, without losing its fundamentals and what makes the game special in the first place. We believe this is the strongest and most immersive version of SINS, taking its design philosophy to the next level.

Join us tomorrow for another reveal. Please post your comments here, we’d love to answer your questions. 

Until then, have a wonderful day!

Sincerely Jacob, Louise, Stephanie, Morten, Jeppe, and the rest of Luudos Studio. 

Daily Reveal: March 3rd
about 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 04:08:10 AM

Hello Backers,

Another day, another reveal. 

Greetings everyone, I'm Stephanie. We at Luudos Studio were so excited about the amazing feedback yesterday for the first reveal, the Wrath beast, and the introduction to the skirmish gameplay. I admit we were a bit nervous that you might not like our vision for SINS, and we are glad that you're all on board! Though we heard some concerns, we would like to reassure backers that the core game will never change. At it's heart, SINS is a deck-builder, but the system and the SINS lore inspire us to seize this opportunity (with your support) and make a great game, even greater...

Daily Unlock...

Today, we eagerly reveal the demon baby siblings, or as I like to call them, Wrathlings, from the deepest fiery caverns in the six realms. These little critters are adorable in all their tiny fierceness.

Picking up on the gameplay from yesterday, the new Character Pack introduces not one, not two, but three characters to play. Each character adds a more advanced level of movement, and all minions cater towards a more strategic or advanced playstyle. 

Gleakz' Mob comes with three miniatures, which are all placed in the Realm during setup. Each mini will make targeting effects seem like a breeze if it wasn’t for the targeting conditions attached and the destructive nature of these cute Wrathlings.

The starting cards feature a couple of self-destructive effects if you like to sacrifice your Wrathlings for the greater good (I promise I won't judge you too much 😉 ). Or, if they haven’t been eliminated you might want to place them in a specific pattern to wreak havoc upon adjacent enemy characters. 

We hope that you like what you see. Tomorrow we'll reveal another free unlock.

Exploring the SINS: Gluttony...

Do you feel hunger? Do you feel the starvation creeping up on you as Gluttony grows within you this very second! Today's update also brings you a twisted, sick short story from the muddy underground of the Realm of common Men, also known as Ce’Munia. 

The Price of Kindness Short Story

The pain from starvation has long subsided, and where it used to be, a feeling of emptiness has taken hold. As I look around, everything seems less brightly colored, as if autumn had replaced summer in the blink of an eye. I cannot tell if what I’m hearing is the growling of my stomach or the murmuring of townsfolk walking by, paying no attention to the dying man on the sidewalk as anything but an obstacle. I remove myself from the road with what little strength I have left so that my body might not be as heavily disfigured as it would have become had it remained there like a corpse. If I had any money, I would sooner buy a coffin than a meal. A coffin would last longer. I attempt to spit at the ground next to me, imagining in my head how the filth will soak and turn darker in nuance,  but nothing happens. Starvation has left even my salivary glands dysfunctional. I close my eyes and lean my back against the wall of the building which I have been sitting next to. 

A gentle breeze caresses my face. At the very least, I can still feel the touch of the wind, I tell myself, unsure of how that is of the slightest use to me. In a sudden movement, I open my eyes wide, scouting my surroundings frantically as if I had been a simple animal. The wind had carried with it the scent of food. In my bewilderment, I am blind to see that the source of it is right in front of me, and when an elderly man makes his presence known to me, I stare at him in a state of confusion. He has kneeled down in front of me on his one knee, supporting with his hands a tray containing a meal not unfit royalty. He smiles at me and places the tray on the ground before me before rising to his feet. As quickly as he had emerged, he was gone. At first, I approach it hesitantly, placing my hand upon the tray without touching the food. This would not be the first time a cruel joke had been played on the lowlives of this town. But nothing leaps from the shadows with canes raised high, ready to strike. I know that I should savor it, but the hunger within me is too great to be contained, and in a matter of mere moments, the entire tray has been emptied of all traces of nutrition. In the distance, I see the silhouette of the elderly man. 

I follow, equipped with the tray as an excuse, drawn towards the source of my newly acquired appetite. He enters the pathway to a large mansion, and at that moment, it becomes clear to me that what I had in fact feasted upon were the remains of a meal and not the meal itself. The man had been merciful, not charitable. The sheer ferocity with which I consumed his gift had been enough to disguise even the texture and taste of bones. I had eaten it all. Having for a moment been lost in thought, the man who I was following had gone out of vision, but I knew that he had entered the mansion. Holding the tray out in front of me as if it was a shield, I knock on the door only to be answered and rejected by servants. I hold out the tray so that they may at the very least return it to its owner, seeing as he had shown me great kindness, but as one of them grabs hold of it, it is only to throw it away in disgust. Since I had touched it, he explained, it could never be used in the household again. 

At that moment, the door slams before me, and it is clear that the generosity has ended as abruptly as it had begun. Rather than leaving the premises, I continue my search for food, and before long, it has led me to a section behind the mansion that is shielded completely from vision. The mansion has no windows facing this way, more likely than not because this area seems to be designated for the disposal of garbage of various kinds. Stacked against a wall are numerous sealed sacks, oozing through their soaked linen, creating a stream of foul-smelling fluids leading to a sewer hole located in lower terrain only a few feet from there. A loud sound, the slamming of the front door, sends me into a panic. I search desperately for somewhere to hide, and in lack of options, I slither down the sewer and into the underground. Above me, I can hear the servant who had dismissed me earlier. Judging by the sound, he places another sack within close proximity of the existing pile of garbage and hastily takes his leave, forced away by the foul stench. To me, however, the stench has already become associated with a sort of haven, a home. I look around and soon notice that there are sacks of garbage all around me, similar to those I had encountered on the surface. The servant from earlier seems to regularly visit the garbage disposal above me, and it appears that the household is responsible for a great many feasts. 

At one point, some of the sacks are tossed down the sewer as a means of clearing space. Tryingly I untighten one, for it is nightfall, and I have not consumed anything since that which was offered to me by the lord of the mansion. The stench is more intense when untightened, but my hunger is even greater. The passion that I had once felt for food is gone, and I begin chowing down the contents of the sack with little care about what I am in fact eating. As long as it is sating, it will suffice. I do not know how much time passes in the sewers, but when I return to the surface, it is under cover of night. Having remained in the sewers for so long without a source of light, my eyes have adapted to the dark, altering my vision. I now see clearly in the dark, and my eyes find their way to a peculiar sight: the servant who had rejected me earlier has collapsed near the mansion, lying motionless in the grass. Only a single moment passes before I stand bent over him, having leaped through the night with ease. 

There is a stench of alcohol coming from his mouth. He has passed out from heavy drinking.  Having determined that he is indeed passed out, I seize his feet with both arms and begin dragging him with me towards the sewers with a steady pace. Before long, he lies next to me, soaked in the filth of the sewers and the garbage that he himself has placed there. Without hesitation, I drag him into a small stream of grimy water running through the sewers. His mind is far too intoxicated for him to become conscious before he drowns. With a rusted piece of scrap metal, I begin carving my prey. It sustains me for a while, but soon hunger returns to me. 

As I continue to hunt, my agility increases, and as I continue to feed, my hunger grows. Soon my hunger has become greater than any other feeling, and the further I devote myself to the pursuit of satiety, the greater my strength becomes. Before long, I need not wait for my prey to stray from the flock, for the flock itself has grown too weak to resist its predator. In a matter of days, the mansion has been emptied of servants, and when I again see eye to eye with the elderly man who had fed me, he no longer smiles. Horror has taken hold of his heart, and it is with fear that he stares at me, unknowing that he was the one who saved me: the one who made me what I am. Part of me wishes that it did not have to come to this, a part that died long ago. As I leap at him from across the bedroom, the mirror by his bedside breaks, and when I later drag his corpse with me through the broken pieces, I see the reflection not of a man but of a beast. I do not care. The man who starved has died, and from his corpse has emerged the beast which feeds. 

The beast does not even make it to the sewers before its hunger becomes too overpowering for it to ignore, and it begins tearing the flesh of its victim, forcing its limbs apart with raw strength to the unsettling sound of bones snapping. It lets out a howl at the scent of the blood that now flows from the maimed corpse. Soon its body has been smeared in the blood of the man which it once considered its savior, his head staring at it with dead eyes from the remains of the corpse to which it is attached. As if its stare makes the beast uneasy, it severs the man’s head from his torso, resulting in the unmistakable sound of sinews tearing. The skin that had once connected the neck and torso begins wrinkling now that it is no longer tensioned. It places the severed head between its jaws, which quickly turn all the more crimson. With it, it heads to the sewers, leaving a trail of blood and entrails leading to its lair. As soon as it is embraced by the toxic atmosphere of the sewer, it is overpowered by tiredness and rests next to the severed head, instinctively placing it within its reach. 

When a noise startles it, it is because a creature has made its way towards the beast, examining the severed head next to it. The owner exposes its teeth in what resembles growling. The creature, also a beast of some sort, snarls back at the first beast, unwilling to seize its hold of the price. It has clearly been starving, for its reflexes are dense, and within a single moment’s passing, the one beast has overpowered the other. But it does not kill it. Instead, it seems to offer it a small part of its prey, which it devours with great speed and satisfaction. From the shadows, more beasts emerge, some of them bearing a slight resemblance to the humans that they once were, others born as beasts. The first beast offers each of them a share in the feast, and from that moment on, an insatiable hunger takes hold of their souls. As they remorselessly share in devouring the severed head, the first beast – the alpha – howls triumphantly. Beasts are the most merciless when they are ravenous, and their pack knows only hunger. 

Tomorrow...

Let us know in the comments, which of the SINS you think this is, or what it is?

Thank you all for tuning in, we hope you're enjoying the show and the red carpet that we're rolling out in honor of Pride, coming March 16th.

Sincerely Stephanie, Jeppe, and the rest of Luudos Studio.

Exploring the Keywords: STACKS
about 5 years ago – Tue, Mar 02, 2021 at 09:39:32 PM

Hello SINS Backers,

In Season 2, we are introducing different keywords; one of them is STACK. What it is and how it can help you dominate your opponents are questions we will explore in today’s update. We hope you will enjoy it!

You might have read or heard us speaking about Minions. You might even be among those of us that were intrigued with the growling wolves Minions or the tiny (cute) wrath Minions from the teaser video. One of our Facebook followers quite fittingly even named them “Demon Babies” 😈.

Though they might look cute and innocent, they are far from it; they are sinister creatures infested with SINS, seeking to give you and your opponents despair. Along with other minions in the SINS universe, they are infecting this second season of SINS.

As your minions grow in numbers (when you stack them), their effect also grows exponentially stronger. When playing a card with a stack effect, a player must choose how many cards are fed to the stack. One card, all cards in hand, or something in between. The more cards in the stack, the stronger the effect. Think of it as sacrificing other cards to enhance a single card beyond its limits. The more cards you feed into your stack, the stronger it gets. 

With Watchful Imps, it is possible to remove your opponent’s defenses. This can be highly beneficial if the opponent is in a position of Omnis weakness. It also adds an element of decoy and draws the cards out of the enemy’s hands.

In the opposite scenario, Watchful Imps can be used in defense to remove the powers that you cannot match with weakness. Since Kosmos cards can be used in stacks, it is possible that Kosmos might actually help you out in defense instead of just taking space in your hand. You can’t add cards to a stack once they have been played, except for special card effects. You must commit to your stack when it is played.

We hope that stacks will introduce new ways to view the cards on your hand, as either individual effects or as fuel to enhance your SINS experience.

Once again, thank you all so much for your support.

Sincerely Jacob, Louise, and the rest of the Luudos Team.

Exploring the Modules: Sinister Beliefs
about 5 years ago – Tue, Mar 02, 2021 at 01:21:53 PM

Hello, SINS Backers,

In today’s update, we wish to shed some light on one of the new modules  from the  Spawn of Minions Trilogy Box. The Module Sinister Beliefs expands upon the theme of STACKING in the Mark of Lust Battle Pack by giving you stacking resources to gain new passive and active abilities. At the start of the game, you each choose on of the six Sinister Beliefs to play. On the backside of your belief-card, is a small lore text which introduces the core beliefs. On the other side, you’ll find the abilities that a group of believers provides; the more believers, the better the effect.

Before we begin, remember to set you clock for tomorrow's grand event: 14 days of free add-ons, revealed in each update every day at approxemately 2 pm CT / 9 pm CET ❤️‍🔥

Followers of Dema (Expample):

The followers of Dema believe in greed and that everything has a price and anyone can be bought. Even Death.

A player can store a follower whenever they have played a card; instead of adding it to their discard pile, they may feed it, (place it face down), beneath their belief-card, as a follower. You will notice the numbers on the effect side. These numbers indicate how many followers a player needs to have stored in order to have access to the effect of the Sinister Belief.

Only non-Kosmos cards can be feed. As such, a Pride card may be added as a follower to the Dema even though the religion has Greed as its primary sin.

Dema’s followers focus on gaining cards for less, which fits nicely with their primary sin being Greed. With the first power, players will be able to spend more than five power in a round if they have stored followers face-down in the previous turn.

Even death can be bought,  which means that the followers of this cult might even spend a follower to gain a card that would otherwise be destroyed. When a follower is spent they are destroyed (removed from the game) and as such, they are a precious resource. 

We hope that the choice between gaining a follower or keeping the card in your deck will create interesting choices for players and even more possibilities for how players build their decks and gain dominance.

Once again, thank you all so much for your support.

Sincerely Jacob, Morten, and the rest of the Luudos Team.