Masters of the Universe is experiencing a massive resurgence thanks to a new Netflix series, a movie project, and another animated series all either just released or in the works. Now the franchise is taking on the tabletop genre thanks to CMON, and soon fans will be able to back their new board game Masters of the Universe: Clash for Eternia on Kickstarter. While we wait for the campaign to launch, CMON has revealed new previews of its impressive miniatures for the game, including He-Man, Skeletor, Orko, and more, and you can check them all out starting on the next slide.
While you're here though, why not find out a little more about the game from co-designer Michael Shinall, who has revealed new aspects of the gameplay in a series of designer diaries. In Clash for Eternia you'll choose a side to play as (either He-Man and his allies or Skeletor's army) and whichever side the other players don't choose will be played by a single player, known as the controller.
During the game, you'll use the Power System to utilize your character's unique skills and abilities, and you can also use it to boost their standard actions to higher effect. While you will have access to your character's unique skills, you won't utilize all of them in every game. As you level up during the game you'll decide how you want to progress and evolve your own playstyle for that particular scenario, opening up a level of replayability even for those who always choose the same character.
There's also the Strategy Deck, which Shinall breaks down a bit. "So just what is this deck, you ask? As the Controller, included in your arsenal of resources are your Strategy Cards, contained within their own special deck," Shinall writes. "These cards act as secretive abilities and effects that the Controller can utilize throughout the game to either boost the capabilities of their Characters or hinder the efforts of their opponents. By spending Power (the de facto "resource" of the game) you'll have access to a number of these cards - it's a limited quantity though, so you'll need to plan just how best to use them as the game progresses."
"Now, we don't want you to think these are just some freebie "Surprise! I got you!" effects for the Controller. Oh no - like everything else in the game, drawing and playing these cards requires expending Power, and that Power must be directly spent from a Skill on the Controller Board (The Battle Plan skill, specifically). This means that the players can tell that the Controller is up to something if they begin allocating Power to this specific Skill," Shinall writes. "This also means that using these cards is a strategic and tactical choice by the Controller, and they will be rewarded for clever usage!"
You can check out all of the character previews released so far starting on the next slide, and you can head to the campaign page to follow the Kickstarter.
Are you excited for Masters of the Universe: Clash for Eternia? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things tabletop with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!