Dungeonology: The Expedition

The Dark Lord strikes back!
almost 6 years ago – Thu, Jun 25, 2020 at 12:14:32 AM

Hello, Scholars!

Here we are back with a new update where we will continue the wave 2 spoilers as promised!

First, however, I confirm that the Pledge Manager will be reopened on July 6, 2020, as previously announced! In the coming weeks, we will give you new information on this new opening which, as already mentioned, will give you one last chance to add new items to your order, but it will not be possible to make new late pledges or add items already delivered with wave 1 (Erasmus for example).

I know that the fact that shipping costs will be paid with a further opening of the Survey in a few months has created some hesitation in some of you, but as I have already repeated several times the commitment of LMS will be to keep them as low as possible by trying to remain in a total cost range that is in line with all KS projects with a volume of goods similar to that of Dungeonology in which you have already participated.

After this premise, we go to meet an old "friend".

Aye Dark Lord part 2

Let's continue our journey started in Update # 42 to discover the expansion dedicated to Rigor Mortis! So let's get to know the other two Scholars/Minions that you will find inside!

Lex-A is the trusted thief of the Dark Lord. Silent and lethal, it specializes in extortion and debt collection.

Her "OR THE BAG..." ability allows her to threaten other Scholars by extorting their Information Cubes or Trick Cards. When Lex-A is exalted, she gains the "... OR LIFE" ability, with which she can literally empty her opponents' Hand or Board, also becoming particularly resistant thanks to the "REFUSE" ability.

When Lex-A is under Rigor Mortis' control, she will wander through the dungeon with lightning-fast moves, teleporting to the areas occupied by the Scholars in order to steal their Information Cubes to be moved to Kragmortha Castle.

The young and inexperienced goblin Matita is the personal scribe of Rigor Mortis. Awkward and fearful, she will venture out on expeditions with the other Scholars only for the sense of duty that drives her to collect information for her master's library. Matita can rely on "COPY", an ability that allows him to retrieve the Trick Cards just used by opponents. Her "AMANUENSE" ability allows her to move Information Cubes that are on her wall to quickly earn (or lose) Stars, in order to remain Exalted for most of the game. Matita, when Exalted, obtains a Hand and Intelligence value higher than that of any other Scholar of Dungeonology.

When Matita is under the control of the Boss, Rigor Mortis hops around the dungeon, collecting Information Cubes and moving them to Kragmortha Castle.

Speaking of Rigor Mortis in person, this bad guy will have two different profiles, with one he will behave like a classic Boss and can be tackled by any Scholar at your disposal, including the Goblins in their Scholar version.

But his wickedness will give his best with the other profile, where his goblins will not be able to participate in the expedition as Scholars but will be used by the Dark Lord as useful Minions.

Players must be careful of the Evil's most powerful resource, the Dark Lord's Spells. At the end of each activation, Rigor casts one of his spells, drawn from the appropriate deck. Each of them unleashes evil powers in the dungeon that will make the Scholars' expedition a real ordeal. STORM will cause lightning to fall on each Scholar by stunning him, TELEPATHY will force a Scholar to move Information Cubes to the dungeons of Kragmortha Castle, FIREBALL will incinerate anything in a Zone and in all adjacent ones!

But that is not all!!!

Each of the Dark Lord's Spells contains an indication in the lower part, consisting of some colored spheres. These spheres represent the peremptory orders that Rigor screams towards his Minions, the poor goblins that he will have sent in the Dungeon. Each Minion that has received orders will activate using its skills against the players !!!

All these rules are currently being tested and we hope to provide you with a P&P of all of this as soon as possible to let you experience new heights of evilness on the tables of Dungeonology!

And now before concluding this update a little advertising!

Sherwood Bandits!

As you may know, LMS recently founded a small studio called Ludus Magnus Lite, a younger brother of LMS that will create lighter games than those normally produced by the Major Company. This small studio will take care of creating games with a medium-low price range, intended primarily for the retail market, completely independently of LMS.

The first game of this new line is Sherwood Bandits, a fun positioning, gambling and management (and luck!) game that will put you in the shoes of the legendary Robin Hood fellows, intent on getting the best booty in the realm, being careful not to get caught by the fearsome Sherwood Sheriff!

Sherwood Bandits was developed and prepared during 2019 and was expected to be launched on the retail market in 2020. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 crisis and the consequent cancellation of all the conventions for this year did not allow us to prepare for its presentation as we would have liked and that's why we decided to promote it with a short KS campaign, to present it to both players and possible interested distributors. The campaign was conceived without FOMO and since the game is ready for printing, it can count on very fast shipping times.

If you are interested in a game that is beautiful to look at and fun to play (in pure LMS style in short) take a look at it!

That's all for today! See you in a couple of weeks for new spoilers and for the Pledge Manager opening!

Aye!

Back to the School!
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 03:35:30 AM

Hello Scholars!

The long quarantine that has characterized the last few months is finally over! In Italy, the situation is slowly returning to normal and we hope that everyone will soon be able to resume your lives and that this bad experience will become a memory as soon as possible!

As we have told you in the latest updates, the LMS staff has never stopped completely and we have continued to carry on our projects even if with some difficulties, with this update we want to resume the threads of our work and take a look with you on Dungeonology status.

Wave 2 Production

As we have told you in recent months, we continued the work on wave 2 which, also following the feedback we received on wave 1, we decided to undergo a profound revision work with regards to the design of the rules of expansions and Stretch Goals.

This decision had been made before the start of the lockdown and in our plans, it would have led to a small delay on delivery, a delay which, depending on the fact that wave 1 had already been delivered for months, we were ready to support.

The outbreak of the pandemic in Italy and the subsequent lockdown obviously ruined our plans and while the work of drafting the new rules continued, the important playtest phase was almost completely blocked by quarantine. Since the end of May, we have resumed the playtest thanks to the availability of our groups of playtesters but the work is still going on at a less than optimal speed.

As we have always done for all our projects, the quality of the final product for us takes precedence over the time factor. Wave 1 presented Dungeonology to the world and its success meant that a relatively small project like this managed to arrive in the USA, Italy, Poland, and China in a Retail version.

So we don't want to throw these results away and give you a wave 2 with a lower quality to be in a hurry to deliver. Carrying out a serious playtest phase is therefore very important for us also to improve some aspects of wave 1.

Speaking of timing, we have drawn up a new timeline for the delivery of wave 2. The playtest of the new material will continue for the next two months, intensifying the commitment of our playtesters and involving you, whenever possible, with P&P material to try together with us (as we did with the Solo mode). The printing of the miniatures will also begin in this period.

If everything goes smoothly, then, for August we will close the rules sector definitively and begin the translations and editing of the texts. This will lead to the start of factory production for the month of October and a consequent start of shipments from the factory in November, and in December from the hubs.

So in practice, we confirm the delay of about 6 months that we had budgeted in the latest updates. We hope you share our decision to invest more time in the end to have the complete, high-quality product that we promised you.

Pledge Manager

As we anticipated in the last update, on July 6, 2020, we will open the Pledge Manager to allow you to make further additions to your order. Unfortunately, as you will imagine, the shipping sector is currently one of the most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, and at this time the prices of shipments have risen accordingly. In the coming months, it is likely that the situation will become more fluid and therefore allow us to obtain better conditions for the shipment of wave 2. Given the postponement of the delivery at the end of the year, there is no real need to load at this time shipping costs.

We have therefore decided that with this opening of the Pledge manager it will only be possible to make new purchases and that the shipping costs will be charged through a new PM opening which will take place in October 2020, when the shipments will be closer.

A question that might arise will be "but then why don't you postpone this new PM opening directly to October?" 

In fact, it would be possible but in that case, we could not allow the addition of any article, given that in October the miniatures and much more material would have already been produced and quantities could no longer be changed to support new orders. In other words, we must have the final quantities of the things to produce when the factory starts printing the first materials (in our case the miniatures), after which we will no longer be able to modify them.

LMS's commitment to pay part of the shipping costs of wave 2 to ensure that all backers have to pay as little as possible remains valid, but given the world situation, we are trying to obtain the best conditions for both us and you.

So we confirm that the PM of 6 July will be the last chance to make additions to your order and that the PM of October 2020 will be dedicated exclusively to shipping costs.

I apologize for having repeatedly postponed this PM, but I hope you will understand that the general situation has not allowed us to do otherwise.

That's all for this update, from next week we will start to publish updates dedicated to the contents of wave 2 to keep you updated on the progress of the work on rules and materials.

As always, thank you for your continued support and affection!

See you next week!

You are not alone... in the Dungeon!
almost 6 years ago – Wed, May 06, 2020 at 09:53:07 PM

Hello Scholars!

How's the quarantine going in your area? Here in Italy, the situation has slightly improved and the country has entered the so-called "Phase 2" which is gradually easing the restrictions.
I hope that the situation is improving also for you and that you and your loved ones are doing well.

To help you overcome this bad period we have decided to make you a small gift-spoiler on the material of Wave 2 and therefore from today you can download the Print & Play rules of Dungeonology's Solo Play!
But let's see what it is!

 Omega in the Dungeon!

As already anticipated during the past months in this mode, only one Scholar will have to enter the dungeon and, in addition to the usual threats, will have to deal with the head of the Omega Brotherhood himself!

This mysterious Scholar is a formidable enemy and with the support of his Omega Students, it will make your life difficult in your Solo games.

 With the P&P as well as the new rules, you twist all the material to play: a standee to represent Omega, his Tome of Secrets card, and his Omega Actions cards.

But it does not end here! In the material, you will also find the 2 Omega Boss cards, so that you can use it as Boss instead of those you already own!

As I already told you in the last updates, the Omega and Solo Play Rules underwent a revision just before the Coronavirus crisis began, and at this moment, unable to create gatherings of people, the playtest phase has slowed down but fortunately not stopped. This gives us time to get you involved in part of the game development. For this reason, from now on, in each Update, we will share with you part of the material of the second wave to make you appreciate the work done. 

Feel free to send us feedback, your support will help us give you a fantastic game.

Curious to try this new game mode? Then you just have to download the P&P immediately by following this link!
Dungeonology Solo Play P&P

Pledge Manager

  As we anticipated in the last update, we decided to postpone the opening of the Pledge Manager to June 2020. At this time of great difficulty for many people all over the world it did not seem right to open it now, and waiting for a general improvement in the situation seemed the correct and most ethical choice. This will also give us more time to do a good job in its preparation.

Wave 2 Production

 At the moment we have no news on this front compared to what we have already told you in the last updates. The sudden stop that we have undergone both in production and development, will not allow us to deliver wave 2 (maintaining the quality standard of wave 1), before 4-6 months. We will update you on the progress of the work as always but for the moment we do not want to delude ourselves (and delude you) on the extent of the delay. What we can promise you and that we will do everything we can to deliver wave 2 in next autumn.

 About production, to greet you, we show you one of the last Miniatures that we haven't shown you yet: Tancredi the Architect!

For the moment, enjoy this beautiful model, we will soon be able to meet this new student!

 And that's all for today's lesson!

 Stay safe!

Rocca Civetta in quarantine times
almost 6 years ago – Wed, Apr 08, 2020 at 03:33:16 AM

Hello Scholars!

First of all, I apologize if more than usual has passed since our last update but the last month has been very complicated for all of us.

As you know in March the world situation has drastically changed because of the Coronavirus. While in China they are finally coming out of the problem, in other countries the situation has worsened considerably.
In Italy (one of the hardest-hit countries along with the US and Spain) the government has applied a drastic lockdown since March 9th, and we currently have no definite date for the end of this quarantine.

For us, at LMS this has translated into the impossibility of working altogether in our studio for more than a month.
We have applied a method of working from home with good results but there is no doubt that our work rate has slowed down notably in some aspects.
Our factory in China has resumed its activities, even if they are not yet fully operative and with a production gap of about 2 months which they must recover on all the projects they are working on (not only those of LMS) but the problem now it basically moved here in Italy.

Much of the Dungeonology material, such as the miniatures, is ready for the production phase but with the production stop in the factory we had decided to take advantage of these months to review some aspects of the gameplay on the Wave 2 material that had not convinced us and that according to our playtesters they needed a revision, first of all, the Solo-Mode and Leonardo's expansion.

This would have certainly led us to a small delay on the shipment of wave 2 but that all in all did not scare us much since all the backers have already received wave 1, and for us giving you a fun and playable product is the priority.
The virus outbreak in Italy and the consequent Lockdown hindered us in the realization of these gameplay revisions, given that at the moment we are unable to carry out our Playtest sessions on these new rules.

We are trying to apply alternative ways but as long as the Lockdown lasts we are basically blocked on the Game design front. We are still moving forward on the graphics design but there is no doubt that, as we had anticipated in the last update, all this will lead to a delay in the delivery of the Wave 2.

As soon as we get back to 100% operative we will try to push the accelerator to recover the gap but at the moment we can estimate a delay between 4 and 6 months for the Wave 2 delivery, but obviously, we will keep you updated if the situation changes.

We are sorry for the situation, Dungeonology so far was the project in which we had been more punctual and we wanted to continue to be, but we hope that you will understand the situation and that you will continue to support us even in the months to come!

In this regard, on behalf of all the LMS staff, I would like to thank you for all the messages of affection that have come to us in the last weeks. Fortunately, all LMS members are safe and our problems are only logistical, and we join you in a symbolic hug to all those who are suffering due to this terrible virus.

Pledge Manager Opening

Given what has been said so far and given the general situation in which many people are facing both economic and health problems, we are considering postponing the opening of the PM until the situation has calmed down a bit. We will inform you soon about our decision, for the moment the reopening period remains fixed between April and May 2020.

Dungeonology on Tabletop Simulator!

Many of you had asked us, and given this period of quarantine, we decided to give you this little gift.
In fact, the Mod of Dungeonology is now available on Tabletop Simulator (TTS) created by the great Ken Cunningham!

With this free Mod, you can play Dungeonology with your friends or other backers, the only thing you will have to buy is TTS!
Following this link you will find the Mod:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2052601113

In addition, you can Join the official LMS TTS Discord channel here to report bugs, provide feedback, and LFG, and eventually chat with us:

https://discord.gg/eyFBM6g

We hope that this little gift will make you spend some hours of fun in these hard times!

For this update that's all! From the next one we will return to our usual rhythm and we will return to study with you the wave 2 materials.

See you soon and stay safe!

Wave 2 Production Report
about 6 years ago – Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 11:55:24 PM

Hello dear Scholars!
As promised, this update will update you on the Wave 2 state of work.

As you undoubtedly know, China is experiencing tough days due to the terrible Coronavirus infection, and also in Italy, the situation has complicated in the last six days.

In China, the situation seems to be slowly improving, even if the total exit from the problem still seems far away. Obviously, we are very worried about our friends and partners who take care of the production of our games.

Our factory is located in Ningbo, about 1000 km from the area of ​​the initial outbreak of the epidemic. At the moment, it has not yet had the permission from the Chinese government to restart any production, and the only active staff is administrative and commercial who has returned to work in the offices these days.

Production has practically stopped with the Chinese New Year holidays, and therefore we are talking about a stop of about a month and a half. Before the halt, the factory started to working on the Wave 2 miniatures, and at the moment, it is stopped at that step.
At present, we do not know how much this situation will impact our production times. Still, we are indeed talking about a minimum delay of two months (hoping that workers will be able to return to the factory within the next two weeks).

On the sea transport front, our partners report that at the moment traffic to and from China is practically halved. Our shipments are not imminent, and we hope that for when everything is ready, this crisis will be only a bad memory, but it's possible that costs and delivery times could increase in the coming months.

At the moment, therefore, we can only move the delivery of the Dungeonology's Wave 2 to Summer 2020. I am sorry not to be more precise but in the current state of things, any promise that I can make to you may not be kept.
We are obviously sorry for this delay, we have worked hard in last months to get you the Wave II on schedule and probably we would have succeeded without these problems (or perhaps only with a minimum delay), but we are heartened that all of you have already received Wave 1 and you can enjoy the game waiting for the rest of the material.

As for the LMS staff, our headquarters it's in Rome, and at the moment, the major outbreak of Coronavirus is concentrated in northern Italy. Italian authorities seem to be having success in containing the epidemic so much that they have not yet had to implement restrictive measures that prevent us from continuing to work.

Last note on the Pledge Manager. Given the delay in production, we will take a little more time to get a better view of the times and shipping costs, and probably we may give you even a little surprise. So the PM will likely open in April.

We really hope this situation will resolve itself quickly for the sake of our friends in China.
For our part, we will keep you updated on developments in the situation.

Thank you all for your understanding, from the next update as well as continuing to update you on production, we will continue the exploration of the Wave 2 materials!

See you soon!