Designers: Eric M. Lang (Arcadia Quest, Blood Rage, DC Comics Dice Masters: Justice League, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-Men, Marvel Dice Masters: Uncanny X-Men, The Others, Quarriors!, Rising Sun, Star Wars: The Card Game, Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, Warhammer: Invasion, XCOM: The Board Game), Michael Shinall (Rum & Bones, Xenoshyft: Dreamire, Xenoshyft: Onslaught)

Artists: Arnaud Boudoiron (Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice), Henning Ludvigsen (Android: Netrunner, Arkham Horror, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, BattleLore, Battle of Westeros, Blood Rage, Cosmic Encounter, Descent: Journeys in the Dark, A Game of Thrones: The Board Game, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, Mansions of Madness, Merchant of Venus, New Angeles, Nexus Ops, Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game, Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Star Wars: The Card Game, Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game), Aragorn Marks (Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice, Mythic Battles: Pantheon), Mike McVey (Blood Rage, Dark Future, Project: ELITE), Edgar Ramos (Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice)

Publisher: CMON Limited (Arcadia Quest, Arcadia Quest: Inferno, Blood Rage, Blue Moon City, Dogs of War, Dragon Castle, Ethos, Gizmos, The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, The Grizzled, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Massive Darkness, Modern Art, Newton, The Others, Potion Explosion, Railroad Ink, Deep Blue Edition, Rising Sun, Unfair, Xenoshyft: Onlsaught, Zombicide, Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak, Zombicide Season 3: Rue Morgue, Zombicide: Black Plague, Zombicide: Green Horde)

Genre/Mechanisms: campaign driven, cooperative play, deck building, hand management, miniatures, modular board, storytelling, time track, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Bloodborne: The Board Game is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 17x the initial funding goal.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: A board game adaptation by Eric M. Lang and CMON of the video game Bloodborne, featuring plenty of miniatures and card-based gameplay.

How It Works:  Similar to your typical dungeon crawl, except that CMON had done away with dice rolling on this campaign and so Bloodborne’s focus is exclusively on card mechanics and tactical choices versus randomness. The base game comes with 4 campaigns of 3 scenarios each.

Comparisons: Probably best to compare Bloodborne to other CMON games (like Blood Rage, The Others, and Rising Sun, at least in terms of production value) as well as other dungeon crawls (and for CMON, that means Zombicide, Massive Darkness, and Arcadia Quest). Lots of gameplay with lots of miniatures, but also lots of boxes and a high cost for the all-in. And of course, there’s also the video game itself for comparison. It seems CMON has tried to recapture the slow, concentrated effort and learning-over-time required by the video game to defeat its tough bosses, and CMON has largely achieved this through card mechanics.

What Should I Pledge?:
$100 Blood Moon Pledge: the base game, the exclusive Kirkhammer Hunter, and all applicable stretch goals.

Add-Ons:
$60 Forbidden Woods Expansion, a Limited Print Run
$60 Forsaken Cainhurst Castle Expansion
$40 Hunter’s Dream Expansion
$40 Upper Cathedral Ward Expansion
$40 Yahar’gul, Unseen Village Expansion
$40 Byrgenwerth Expansion
$250 Full Moon: All-In Set: includes all of the above expansions at a $30 discount.

KS Exclusives:
The base game, Blood Moon Pledge, includes 3 extra boxes: the Chalice Dungeon expansion, a Promo Material box, and Mergo’s Loft Campaign. I assume that the Chalice Dungeon expansion will be sold at retail, but sold separately and not included with the base game. However, both the Promo Material box and Mergo’s Loft Campaign are Kickstarter-exclusive and will not be sold at retail. These two packages contain 51 miniatures, 60 cards, and a doubled-sided tile. Additionally, every single one of the Add-Ons is a Kickstarter-Exclusive and will not be sold at retail.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $100 for the Blood Moon Pledge, $250 for the Full Moon: All-In Set, and approximately $50 in shipping for a total of $400.

Bloodborne: The Board Game completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, May 14th and tentatively ships in May 2020.