Gladiators

You are a young man, dreaming of fame and glory in the Arena. You are a former soldier, hunting easy pickings amongst inexperienced rivals. You are a slave, fighting to earn your freedom. Whatever your origin, you are a Gladiator of the Roman Empire, and the Gods have one of two fates in store for you: Glory or Death.

 

Gladiators is an exciting new board game set on the blood-stained sands of the ancient Roman arena. Pick one of 12 unique Gladiators; fight arena threats and other players as you hack, slash and bleed your way into the hearts of your fans. Gladiators is a mix of visceral combat and cunning tactics. You cautiously negotiate the Arenas deadly traps and dangerous beasts as you seek the best spot to strike at your opponents. In Gladiators, every game is different, a new opportunity to be the greatest fighter of all time.

Who are we?

Gladiators is conceived and developed by us: Geoff Rollins and Patrice Combatalade. Check out the video if you want to see our fine Roman features. We are two game designers, with long experience in the video game industry. One day we said to ourselves: I bet we could make a great board game on our own. No programmers! No limitations! No free coffee Almost a year later, we have a coffee maker and Gladiators, a game that oozes blood, swords and sandals.

Why we need your help

We turn to you, the gaming public, in our hour of need. We have hired a specialist company to help do the art, box design, figurines and initial publication needed to take Gladiators to prime-time. We need $9,000 to pay for this, and for the promotional material theyre also helping us create. We want Gladiators to be the first in a long line of great games, and we need your help to make this happen! Give that which is Caesars unto us instead. For Rome! For Glory! For a great new game!

What do I get out of this?

Aside from a warm fuzzy feeling, youll get great rewards for throwing some cash our way. For $20, you get special thanks in our Instructions booklet and/or on our website (depending on how many people we have to thank). For $50, you get thanks and Caligula, a special promo character available only to our projects supporters. For $100, you get thanks, Caligula, and a copy of our game, once it comes out. Just a warning: we fully expect our game to retail for $60. Were asking $100 for the pre-order to help get us over that $9,000 money-hump.

 

At $250, you get all the other rewards, plus youre entered into a draw to have a promotional character made with YOUR face, and skills of your choice. You and other donors at this level will receive 5 copies of this character, to keep or pass around as you wish. Finally, we have our ridiculously generous donation level of $500, where we GUARANTEE you a promo character with your face and the skills of your choice. Well send you the draw winners character and all the other rewards as well.

 

Note: Characters other than Caligula will be provided in the form of character cards, and a recommendation on which figurine to use to represent him or her. At a later date, we plan on creating 3D models of all our characters, which can be turned into figurines using 3D printers.

Caveat Emperor

Meet Caligula, our promo character and one of the most infamous of Romes Emperors. He created an official cult which worshipped him as a god. He slaughtered hundreds of Romans who refused to worship him as he thought he deserved. He was said to mix the blood of slaughtered heretics with his evening wine. He fought matches in the Arena, quasi-executions where he was rarely in danger.

 

Our game twists history a bit: Caligula can definitely lose, but his bloody tendencies are fully in place: He fights as a Scissores, a type of Gladiator who can literally carve opponents to pieces. Caligula has a unique skill, Worship Me, where he forces the crowd to cheer him on (or else).

 

All donors at the $50 level and above will receive a copy of the Caligula character card and figurine, sent to the address of your choice (North America only).

Our Future Plans

We will be posting updates to this campaign at least once a week, where we will look at some or our playable gladiators, cards, and game-play elements in-depth. We will also be show-casing the art we receive as it comes in. You will be kept up to date on conventions were going to or live demos were planning as the game comes closer to completion. If youre in or near the Montreal area, our first live demos will be there.

 

Once this campaign is over, well still have to actually publish and distribute the game (which were doing ourselves). We are searching for publishing and distribution partners as we speak, but having cash in hand will let us negotiate the best deal, rather than having to take the first offer that comes our way. Any money we receive above and beyond our target $9,000 will help us achieve this goal.

Break out the Salt-Shaker

Roman Legionnaires were often paid in salt; thus the word salary. Artists and printers, however, are paid in money. Please give generously to make Gladiators a reality.

 

Legal Note:

We are using clips and music from Star Trek under the terms of Fair Use. We are not selling Star Trek products or related materials. Star Trek is owned and copyright by CBS.