Bloodstone Brings High Fantasy and Brutal Combat to Tabletop

Skybound Entertainment has launched the Kickstarter for Bloodstone, a new PvP/PvE tabletop game that serves as the launch point for a planned multimedia fantasy franchise. Bloodstone, created by James Hudson of Druid City Games, is a new combat arena style game set in a high fantasy world. The game is set in an arena watched over by the power-hungry sorceress Vanira, who used the fabled Bloodstone to conquer the empire of Stormwrath and has placed its champions in a brutal cycle of violence and death inside of the arena. Players will choose one of eight characters, each with their own playstyles and backstory and reasons for trying to conquer the arena and kill Vanira herself.

The aesthetic and feel of the game evokes memories of World of Warcraft or League of Legends, with the boss fights resembling a MMO raid. Bloodstone comes with two distinct styles of play - an arena-style PvP game built around survival and rapid shifts in combat and the campaign-style PvE play, where the players team up to fight escalating bosses, each with their own unique and deadly abilities. Combat uses a combination of unique dice that fuel abilities and initiative cards that determine turn order and provide additional boosts to combat. The initiative order helps mitigate some of the randomness of dice rolls, although using a card's ability removes it from play for the remainder of that combat. The board itself is a hex style grid, providing players with the room to maneuver, while avoiding needless complexities.

Conquering the bosses will provide the players with perks that can be used in future fights, and there are also a variety of different traps and other nuances that keep combat from feeling repetitive. All combatants in the arena are represented by fantastic miniatures, with all the player characters coming with their own unique dice. As part of Bloodstone's launch, ComicBook.com can share images of two of the boss characters - the Skybreaker and Grevvar, The Knight of Graves. The Skybreaker is a raptor of immense size, while Grevvar is one Vanira's most trusted lieutenants and a powerful necromancer in his own right. You can check out images of the two boss characters below:

In addition to the tabletop game, Bloodstone will also be the subject of an upcoming fantasy novel written by Ari Marmell. The novel will focus on four of the characters and will be available to backers. Hudson noted during a media event that Bloodstone and its tie-in novel are meant to kick off a trilogy of games, with a full storyarc (with fatalities) planned.

Due to the component costs, Bloodstone will not be coming to retail stores, so the Kickstarter is the only way to obtain this exciting new game. A core pledge of $125 will come with the base game, while a $160 pledge comes with the base game, an expansion, and a copy of the novel. The Kickstarter will run until March 12th and has a $150,000 goal. You can find more information about the Kickstarter here.