Dungeon Saga by Mantic Saga
Mantic has unveiled their latest game Dungeon Saga – hitting the shelves next week. Gather your party and prepare for adventure!
Take it away Mantic:
Over the course of the next few days we will have a look at all aspects of the upcoming ‘Dungeon Saga’ game. This week in particular we’ll have an in-depth look at ‘The Adventurers Companion’ and what that is. There are features on some new art, designer’s notes and as many photos of models as we can cram in. We hope it will be interesting to both backers – veterans of every update, and new inductees discovering Dungeon Saga for the first time.
Prepare for the adventure by familiaring yourself with these ancient texts:
– Dungeon Saga: Cover Story – The Art of Dungeon Saga
– Dungeon Saga: Becoming Legendary – Character Development
– Dungeon Saga: Mighty Heroes – Production Miniatures Showcase
Before we start the week off, let’s go back to where the journey started…
Although these days most of Team Mantic live in the tabletop wargame hobby space, many of us got started with gaming in a dungeon. For the older generation it was 1st edition D&D (i.e. me – and yes I am THAT old!) for a huge proportion of the rest, their first foray into fantasy came with Heroquest, the TV-advertised game from Milton Bradley.
Mantic has always had a classic dungeon crawler on our radar. The original ‘Dwarf Kings Hold’ was a forerunner to Dungeon Saga and back then, we had to use pre-existing tooling to make the game, and had Jake writing it in his spare time. In the intervening years Mantic has progressed and learnt a lot about production quality, different forms of tooling and we now have a full time team dedicated to new products.
I also knew that if we were to do a sword and sorcery dungeon game it had to be perfect – the packaging, the art, the miniatures, the game play, the graphic design all had to be first rate. Every component had to mesh perfectly with the other – and be excellent in its own right.
The game comes in innovative packaging designed to look like a magical tome you might find on a wizard’s shelf.
As we studied what was currently available we knew there were already several excellent adventure games – such as Descent and Super Dungeon Explore – but interestingly we thought none of them lived in the ‘classic’ space. Each had developed a unique take on the genre, be it moving out of the dungeon or using anime styling. Our plan was to go back to the roots of dungeon adventures – and take each to a new level using the technology and skills that we could access.
We wanted…
– the game to be set in a dungeon – where if you opened a chest or went through a door – you actually do ‘smash down a door’ or ‘open a chest’ – if the minis are 3D so should be the environment, right?
The game includes a fully interactive 3D dungeon, including plastic dungeon furniture.
– the game to come with a ‘Quick Start Guide’ that welcomes everyone by using a step-by-step process to get gaming,
– to use fantasy archetypes as the access point – the Elf, Dwarf, Wizard and Barbarian – these would make up the party, against an evil overlord.
– career progression between games – yet still be simple enough to set up and play in minutes.
– to set this within a bigger narrative that was an integral part of the Kings of War universe.
The team have aspired to create something special inside that very cool looking box.
Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest
And yet all of us veteran gamers crave depth and complexity – we want to make our own characters, and set them adventuring in our dungeons of our own creation – filled with lots of varied and fiendish monsters. Over time we want to see our own characters develop – if they don’t die on the way of course! All this and more is what ‘The Adventurers Companion’ does. It gives you the tools to create your own adventures.
So, whether you are a hard core team of gamers with level 80 half-elf paladin-bard-fighters or a father desperate to share his love of gaming with his kids, we hope you’ll enjoy great evenings of rolling dice and moving miniatures – and make some new legends with Dungeon Saga.
Enjoy the week and let us have your comments – and if you like what you see please do tell your friends, family and gaming club.
Thanks for reading and best wishes,
Ronnie
Dungeon Saga is now available to pre-order from your local retailer and Mantic’s website. Order before the 31st June and get an exclusive Legendary Mortibris necromancer figure included. Discover more here.
This looks like a fantastic set, and will be particularly useful to any existing RPGers, with all those cool minis and terrain, doors, and adventure items. I’m also a big fan of the “book” box format.
We will have more on Dungeon Saga in the days ahead.
