Return to Dark Tower – Kickstarter (Preorder)

The coolest game to ever hit the planet first appeared some 38 years ago, featuring an electronic tower that lit up, played music, and somehow ran an epic fantasy adventure game with its state-of-the-art technological wizardry. That game was Dark Tower. We want to bring you that same sense of awe and wonder, pushing the boundaries of what a board game can actually do. After 3 years of painstaking work by a team of two dozen designers, engineers, and artists, we are thrilled to present to you a game with echoes of that long-gone wonder but ultimately unlike any game you’ve ever experienced.

Return to Dark Tower is a game for 1 to 4 heroes who undertake epic quests, fight fearsome foes, and test their mettle against the looming darkness of the titular tower. Now featuring both cooperative and competitive play. Designed by Rob Daviau and Isaac Childres — designers of the two highest rated games of all time on Board Game Geek — along with Noah Cohen, Brian Neff, and Justin D. Jacobson, the streamlined rules offer players difficult choices about when to advance their objective, gather resources, deal with threats, or level up.

Each player controls a unique hero with their own starting inventory and special abilities. Along the way you gain helpful items, powerful virtues, and trusty companions to help you achieve your goal: Find a way into the Tower and defeat a powerful adversary.

Figuring out the best way to utilize all of these assets is the key to victory. The game actively works to stop you, responding to your decisions and taking advantage of your missteps. Foes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, will stalk your hero and assault your buildings.

Our innovative combat system leverages the power of the processor. Within the app, select virtual “cards” from each foe’s unique deck, revealing the potential consequences of the fight. Then, use your hero’s advantages to modify those results. Will you mitigate losses across the board, or focus on one to gain valuable resources for your effort.

Looming over the board, the Tower itself is the greatest menace you’ll face. Each turn, you drop a skull in, representing the threat of corruption. You decide where emerging skulls are placed, making those buildings less useful. At times the Tower itself springs to life, releasing trapped skulls in a single wave or revealing glyphs that sap your will.

The path to victory is fraught with peril. Battles and events can give your hero corruption. If you don’t cleanse skulls from the buildings to keep them in check, the supply quickly dwindles.

Tarry too long and face the risk of having all of the seals of the Tower break. Corruption, skulls, and time: Any one of these pitfalls can spell defeat.

Return to Dark Tower constantly presents new challenges. The adversary within the tower, the plan to access the tower, and the suite of foes you will face can mix and match in thousands of combinations. Play the same array over again or try something completely new.

Created by a world-class team of designers and engineers led by Tim Burrell-Saward, an expert in technology-augmented games, the Tower itself is a game component without equal. From its very foundation, it’s been devised to play an integral role in the game. Using a collection of magical-yet-reliable technologies, it generates game moments that simply wouldn’t be possible without it. The Tower literally and figuratively dominates the table, drawing upon all of these powers to foil you. You will grow to curse its name.

The Alliances expansion offers new rules and components to add further depth and variety to the game. It includes two new heroes, who can be used in any game. The Archwright fortifies buildings to protect the kingdoms; the Haunted Recluse dabbles in forbidden lore to powerful effect. Influence is a new resource that can be used to form alliances with powerful guilds or to thwart the capricious whims of the nobles. It also features new treasures and allies with more intricate abilities for experienced gamers.

The Dark Horde box contains stunning sculpts by Punga Miniatures of all the foes in the game. These figures bring the foes to life. (Keep checking back here as we unlock new foes and show off new sculpts.)

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Part of the fun of Kickstarter is achieving new heights and unlocking those sweet stretch goals. We’ve already packed a ton of content into the game, but we’ll manage to find a way to get even more goodies in there. So let’s break those seals!