Awaiting digital proofs!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 02, 2022 at 04:48:30 PM

Hello Dragonbonded! 

Lords of Vaala, the core game, was uploaded to our manufacturer's (Panda GM) system and we are now waiting for the digital proofs to arrive before moving to the Preproduction Copy. 

Remember that by getting Lords of Vaala on Kickstarter, you also get a free copy of Armies of Blood and Dreams. This is both a cosmetic addition to your game and a quick skirmish game to experience a taste of the Dragonbond wargame designed by Alessio Cavatore and Jack Cæsar, named Dragonbond: Onslaught!  This week we are reviewing Armies of Blood and Dreams to finish the game components.

 This boxed set also includes a 40-page lore book written by Mark A. Latham —who is also working on the novels. We have finished the lorebook and it is beautiful with all the artwork!. This book is titled Valerna: An Introduction and we expect to share it digitally with you all very soon!. 

Here are two sample pages (from different spreads)

Regarding Legends of Valerna: today we will upload all files to Panda too. We finished all revisions and we think the layout for the rulebook is very clear and well-organized, it took us some extra time but it is very important to have a clear rulebook for a smooth experience with your first games. Remember that Legends of Valerna not only includes the Kadhah and Fell Knight, adding player options for a 5th and 6th player, it also includes the small expansion modules to introduce Draconic Offerings, and Heroes, plus miniatures to play with alternate generals for Allaria and Tyveria.

Creatures of Valerna was uploaded a few weeks ago and we are waiting for digital proofs. 

All of the cards and player boards for Scourge of Valerna are finished. We are working on the Rulebook and the box to have this expansion ready soon. 

As we mentioned in previous updates, every miniature from Armies of Nature and Light have been uploaded and we are waiting for any changes Panda might need to make, or for the PreProduction Copies. The Collector's big box of holding includes miniatures too: the Ellari rebels from Allaria and the Crimson Crow spies from Tyveria to replace neutral Unit cardboard tokens from the base game.

Also! Remember that you will get a couple of promo cards: alternate character cards of Elyse and Adrael.Having different abilities than the ones included in the base game when they dragonbond, and also more lore for these main characters. 

Update on the Print & Play and Tabletop Simulator/Tabletopia

We know this is taking more time than we thought but we are fine tuning all components (text editing, graphics consistency, etc) so the new update is spot on. We expect to finish with Scourge of Valerna this week and work on the Print & Play, TTS and Tabletopia updates during the next one. Thank you so much for your patience!

Join our Dragonbond Tribe and Open Beta

This is just a quick reminder about the ongoing activities and releases about Dragonbond that happen every month. 

Check out our new Tribes release, A NEW SEASON just went live! We are exploring a new realm in Valerna: Sikaria, and parts of Nwoda. With amazing concepts from Vinod Rams (Sikaria) and Tumo Mere (Nwoda). We still have early bird seats for $4 USD. You can start printing them now! 

You can also join our Open Beta, currently for the TTRPG but soon we will include Quests for the upcoming miniature wargame. You can answer this survey.  Start here to get an invitation.

––

That's all for now, as soon as we have more information regarding digital proofs we will share a new update. In the meantime, we hope you have a great week! 

Backerkit surveys reopen! Happy 2022!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jan 20, 2022 at 03:24:58 AM

Hello dragonbonded!

The first update from 2022, yaaaay! From Draco Studios to everyone, we hope you had a great time with friends and family (with health safety measures) and we wish you all the best in all your endeavors during this new year!

To start with great news, we have a great piece of art to share with you all!

The Scourge of Valerna expansion with the new realms, Nahuac & Ysval, is coming amazingly good (personally, the puka –called pints before– are one of my favorites!). Adam and Aldo are doing wonders with the art for the Action cards. Irene and Fer are also doing a great job with the Vaala cards' backgrounds and glyphs.

Our design team is finalizing the boxes and rulebooks. We plan to deliver all files by the end of January to Panda (the manufacturer) and start preproduction copies for the English language first. The translation of the core game for the other languages (German, Spanish, Italian and French) is on the works with our localization partners. 

Backerkit surveys 

The surveys were re-opened this week, you can now go back into your survey using your personal confirmation link (email) and purchase more add-ons, here some tips:

• Backers in Lock Orders status can use their survey confirmation link> Edit Your Order> Edit Add-ons to purchase new add-ons.
• Backers in Charge Cards and Lock Addresses states can use their survey confirmation link>Edit Your Address> Edit Add-ons to purchase new add-ons.
• Pre-orders backers do not have an option to edit their order, can only update their shipping address until shipping addresses are locked.

If you wanted to upgrade your pledge level instead, let us know, since that require some action on our end.

What's next for Dragonbond?

Now that development of this amazing game is wrapping up, we will enter into a stage of pre-production and logistic updates, but we are also inviting you to be part of Dragonbond's growth. Some of you may be aware that our long-term plans with Dragonbond is to create an animated TV series, but let's talk about our plans for the shorter term (2022).

We have talked a bit about the wargame but we are also preparing some amazing surprises for you to discover the world of Dragonbond along with all the stories and characters within it! Here's a sneak peak (work in progress) from a comic series coming up this year! What do you think? Let us know in the comments! 

Any ideas of what is going on there? Expect more information in the upcoming updates! 

Looking for players to join Dragonbond RPG Open beta

We are delighted to announce Dragonbond RPG (5e) will be launching on Kickstarter after fulfilling Lords of Vaala.  You will be able to enjoy the art and live your own stories with these 3 corebooks (setting book, rulebook, and bestiary) plus a Campaign book series to take you from level 1 to 20 while discovering the world of Dragonbond. 

We plan to nurture a community of players and GM's where you can earn XP points for completing playtesting quests, get rewards for your XP points, discover the art & lore first, and be part of its development with a proper playtester credit forever imprinted on the books.

Stay tuned for more news and how to join. 

Pleasecomment if you are interested to join the open beta.

--

For now, we wish you a happy New Year full of adventures and dragons! We are honored to start a new round around the sun with you! 

Charging cards soon / Updated Rulebook
over 2 years ago – Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 12:28:55 PM

Hello dragonbonded! 

We have an important reminder today:

Tomorrow, Thursday 16th of December, we are charging cards in Backerkit, we are doing this to agree on printrun quantities to the manufacturer of each item and pay for the expansions production. After today, no more cancellations will be possible, but you still have the money-back guarantee once you receive your rewards next year.

The pledge manager will stay open until March! So you still have time to add new expansions, we are producing a percentage of additional quantities for each item because we are aware many of you planned to add optional buys later next year. 

Tomorrow, surveys will be temporally locked prior to charge (it will appear as a charge from Stripe / Draco Studios) and next week surveys will be unlocked again to continue adding items if that's your plan. In any case, if you need support, please reach out to [email protected] and we will happily help!

Updated rulebook backer access

As mentioned before, the Print and Play files already sent were the preliminar version but we were expecting changes after fine-tuning and balancing. 

Here's the link meant for backers to check the rulebook. Feel free to add any comments!

You can also find the Example of Play and some graphics if you would like to share with your friends. 

—They can join to preorders in Backerkit here: https://lords-of-vaala.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/ 

We will soon update the files to send the final version of the Print and Play cards and boards.

Other expansions development

We have been doing great progress, playtests are super fun and we are super happy with the results. Your feedback and thoughts in our Discord server are very much appreciated and has helped us more than once to find great solutions. 

We playtested the game using Scourge of Valerna expansion to try new combinations such as playing with 4 generals, Will described that as MASSIVELY FUN, if you are in our Discord, you might have read it already but here's a quick recap: 

"...the denizen cards take a very important role. I (Will) played as Allaria and played aggressively moving a 6-unit army from one region to another. Ehrli player Nahuac and played conservative building his army in the south (3 regions). By the 4th round we were both at 7 power and threatening Bucentaur Wilderlands, which had 2 neutral units and 3 power. Thanks to the City tokens, we collided in Allaria for combat. By that time I had played my Vaala card, Prophecy, and saw that I could win in Lower Primalian Range. Ehrli had the Mun Kisuut shriekers which ignore foes Denizen card abilities. So my Galadyan Hammerguards ability to retreat before applying criticals or my Ogerron Cain-tossers ability to sacrifice and ignore the next hit were ignored. My only chance was to have Ehrli roll few critical hits.... He rolled 8 criticals. Best roll I've ever seen. My army obliterated, and my general Elyse wandering alone, target from all other generals' attacks... I ended the game with 3 power and Ehrli won in the next round... "

Thanks for making Scourge of Valerna and Armies of Nature and Light a reality!

Sounds like a lot of fun, I heard Will all over the other room yelling and laughing at his sadly lost game but! I confess that I loved the 4 dragons playtest because of the feel: all dragons racing to devour the neutral units and hoard until the time they need to attack each other in a Dragon vs Dragon epic combat! 

Both combinations, 4 generals and 4 dragons, offer a unique feel where the Dragonbond mechanic is not present. 

Speaking about denizens, here's fresh from the oven, a Vespidae Shredder!

We haven't stopped creating and working in the expansions art, here's the Deploy card from the Nahuac army! 

We are also wrapping up development of Legends of Valerna, including many different expansion modules such as the Kadhah, Fell Knight, Hero units, Draconic Offerings and Lairs! Thanks to your help unlocking a few of them.

We will be back soon with more news, thanks for all your support and patience. We are very excited with this game and we are sure you are going to love it!

Shipping fees adjustment (EU base pledge and digital tiers)
over 2 years ago – Sun, Nov 21, 2021 at 11:42:12 PM

Hello Dragonbonded!

Thanks so much for sharing your issues and questions, it has helped us correct settings in the pledge manager:

Shipping fees

• European Union base pledge shipping fee - corrected

We noticed that the shipping fee for the base pledge or single add-ons to EU countries was incorrect. This has been fixed and you should now see $18 USD for the base pledge. Thanks for letting us know about this. This has been updated in the system, so it should be reflected for all EU backers, those who have already answered their survey and those who haven't.

• Digital-tier backers

In digital tiers, Backerkit does not ask you to choose your country in the first screen so if you choose to add physical items, the system uses the shipping table for "Other countries/Rest of the World" which has higher shipping fees. Once you proceed to the shipping address section you can select your country and you should be able to go back to the add-ons section (and refresh page) to see the updated shipping fee. 

In addition, we adjusted the shipping fee for picking low-weight add-ons (Sleeves or extra dice set). But another common add-on for digital tiers is the Collector Big Box of Holding with the deluxe wooden tokens.

Switch to higher pledge levels

Upgrading to $320 and $170 has been enabled (thanks Gwennaëlle for letting us know about this issue).

Also, friendly reminder for backers who pledged $1 that you still get the free Armies of Blood & Dreams if you choose to upgrade to get a copy of the game. 

About sleeves

• 2 packs of sleeves are needed if you plan to get 1 or more expansions (even Scourge of Valerna).
• 1 pack is enough to sleeve just the base game
• Collector Big Box of Holding can hold sleeved cards.

Oversized Rubber mat

If you plan to use your miniatures from Armies of Blood & Dreams or Armies of Nature & Light we strongly recommend getting the oversized rubber mat (25% larger).

VAT + Our KS philosophy 

Being backers ourselves from outside the US (most of Draco staff is located in Mexico), we can relate to the feeling of shipping fees + duties being a large percentage of the to total costs in comparison to the rewards cost.  Some publishers hide part of these costs in the pledge tiers but we lean towards transparency to mark VAT and shipping fees separately instead of artificially transferring some of that cost to the items' cost.

We knew VAT would be a big deal for our European backers, so we made sure to offer a great deal for you to still get more value and perks in the Kickstarter. because we are very very thankful with our backers' trust. Draco Studios exists thanks to our Kickstarter backers and we will never forget that —which is why we always offer loyalty rewards to returning backers.

Please keep in mind that you are getting a free copy of Armies of Blood & Dreams with your game ($60 value). Some expansions are also $5 below RRP. Plus the upper reward tiers offer an additional $10 discount. When we presented the base game of Lords of Vaala to distributors, they expected an MSRP of $59 dollars but we went for $49 dollars instead. As creators, we really want you to get a ton of value for your pledge (including backers in the digital-tiers). We can only wait for the day when you get your rewards and hear your thoughts!

Scourge of Valerna and Armies of Nature & Light

Here's a status after 20 hrs of sending all surveys (Spoiler alert: you are doing great!!)

• Survey completion (35%)
• Scourge of Valerna (76%) - 118 more to unlock
• Armies of Nature & Light (56%) - 210 more to unlock

You are very close to introduce new dragon broods and realms to Lords of Vaala!

We are very grateful for your trust and support. We will be back soon with more development updates.

All surveys sent! - Frequently Asked Questions
over 2 years ago – Sat, Nov 20, 2021 at 12:52:50 AM

Hello again Dragonbonded!

Just a quick update to let you know that the rest of the surveys in Backerkit have been sent and you should be receiving an email very soon. 

If you do not get it within the next hours, you can retrieve your survey with your email linked to your Kickstarter profile in this address: https://lords-of-vaala.backerkit.com/

• Please help us answer your survey as soon as possible so we can finalize production counts and determine if the new expansions will be unlocked (we believe in you!). 
• Cards will be charged in December 16th but the pledge manager will remain open many months in case you want to modify your order.
• Reminder for upgrading pledge level: Once you access to your survey click in Switch your pledge level (Backers who pledged $1 can still upgrade your tier and get the FREE Armies of Blood & Dreams with Lords of Vaala). 
• Reminder for Local Pickup in Mexico: Instead of choosing Mexico as your country, choose Local Pickup.

Let's unlock the new expansions! 

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions we collected for your convenience:

FAQ

About VAT

As mentioned in the campaign, we are collecting VAT for European backers in the pledge manager using a feature from Backerkit. We will handle VAT and custom charges once goods are imported to Europe so you don't have to pay duties to receive your package.

About the New Expansions

• If unlocked will they fit in the Collectors Big Box of Holding? Yes
• If not unlocked, will I be charged for them, VAT and their shipping weight? No 
• Can I use this to play a game with 4 dragons or 4 generals? Yes, we are working with River Horse to have that option
• Can I play a 5 or 6 player game with this one too? Yes, you can mix this with the base game and/or Legends of Valerna to have games with more players
• Do I need the miniatures from Armies of Nature & Light to play? No, (but they are very nice!) Scourge of Valerna includes 4 main miniatures and cardboard unit tokens for the armies. Each player who controls a general can use the included cardboard unit tokens or their colored minis from Armies of Nature & Light (for Nahuac and Ysval realms) and Armies of Blood & Dreams (for Allaria and Tyveria realms) to replace the cardboard tokens. We highly recommend getting the oversized rubber mat to play with miniatures. The miniatures represent the players' Infantry, Ranged, Cavalry units. The ability from each unit is indicated on the Denizen cards (of each type, Infantry, Ranged, Cavalry) that the General players get during the game.
• Are the miniatures from Armies of Nature & Light colored? Yes, red for Nahuac miniatures and teal for Ysval miniatures.
• Is the design for miniatures in the new expansions final? Scourge of Valerna miniatures are still in progress to have more table presence with more expressive poses and scenic bases. Armies of Nature & Light miniatures are final. They will come in red and teal color just as the realms they belong to.
• Can you tell us more about the new realms and dragon broods? We are still in the game design stage so none of the following is set in stone yet, but in addition to offer different combinations for games with 4 generals or 4 dragons, these include a new player board and action cards (with more amazing art) offering different options. For example Exor is a draconic brood of tough predators, so their combat value starts at 3 dice and gets higher as it is wounded, with 5 wounds. Coatl brood have more Arcane action cards (3) to play vaala cards, but their essence track might require more units. We will share more info in future updates so let's unlock this expansion and the army miniatures!