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Orcs Must Die Unchained Set To Invade Tabletops
Robot Entertainment has announced plans to bring its in-development MOBA, Orcs Must Die Unchained, to tabletops. Petersen Games is planning a Kickstarter effort to fund the creation of the board game.
Board game Kickstarters have had a good run lately, with Monolith Board Games raking in over $3.3 million for Conan and Cryptozoic closing in on $1 million for its official Ghostbusters game (in progress). Robot Entertainment has enlisted Sandy Petersen to lead the project, after his successful Cthulhu Wars Kickstarter raised $1.4 million.
We had the chance to speak with Peterson via email to learn more about how Orcs Must Die Unchained will work as a tabletop experience. It turns out that some of the elements of the MOBA were a good fit for a board game.
"Our goal isn’t to create a hard-core simulation of Orcs Must Die for the tabletop, but to get the flow and feel of the game correct," Petersen told us. "The basic key is to know when a game feature is a core experience – and if so, how can we turn it into a tabletop version? Obviously elements such as humor and character asymmetry are easy to add (board games have been doing them for decades), but we can add new elements as well – instead of fixed attacks, we are using custom dice for different types of attack. We are also able to use a tile-based map system so players can easily and quickly throw together their own custom maps (a far more difficult process in a digital game)."
The digital version of Orcs Must Die Unchained uses a card system that allows players to summon custom minions and traps. Since cards are a common language around the table, that aspect made for a good starting point.
"Players construct their Rift Fortress; buy items, weapon upgrades and traps; and swarms of enemy attackers come pouring down the highway as you frantically try to delay or kill them," Petersen said of the board game. "We have been playtesting the game with Robot personnel throughout, ensuring they agree with the feel for the game."
Orcs Must Die Unchained is actually three different board games, with two cooperative versions (Order and Unchained) combining to make a third competitive version. One team controls the heroes and the other manages the villains in a mode most similar to the Orcs Must Die Unchained video game.
The Kickstarter campaign will be coming soon, and we suspect there will be tiers available for those that simply want either Order or Unchained variants and others for those that want both. We'll let you know once the campaign is live. For now, you can take a look at some images of the components in the gallery and the trailer above. For more on Orcs Must Die Unchained, check out our most recent preview of the digital version.
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