Interview with Tristan Hall – designer of «Gloom of Kilforth»

Tristan Hall

Friends! Today we have one more interesting kickstarter project called «Gloom of Kilforth»! We took an interview from Tristan Hall who designed of this game. You can read it exclusively right now!

BoardGameKing: Could you tell more about the game setting?

Tristan: «The land of Kilforth» is a perilous domain filled with nefarious monsters, mysterious strangers and treacherous locations. Dominating its centre lays The Sprawl, a huge city where intrepid Heroes begin their journey to fame and fortune. Throughout the land various factions vie for power over each other, such as the supposedly noble «Order of the Rose», and the terrifying «Doom Guard». Presiding over the world outside Kilforth is the ever-present Overlord, Masklaw. Over the coming month, a deadly Gloom will descend upon Kilforth, which the Heroes must battle through to prove their worth, defeat an Ancient evil, and save the land from darkness.

«Gloom of Kilforth» is a card game of high fantasy with a Gothic edge, playable in 1-3 hours, where 1-4 heroes (ages 12 and up), working individually or together, must take their humble adventurers on a journey through a dark world of magic and peril. They will visit strange places and stranger people and overcome powerful enemies in their mission to discover mysterious artefacts and mystical spells. Players follow their hero’s tale from modest beginnings through an epic story to an exciting climactic battle for the fate of the world.

«Gloom of Kilforth» takes about 50 minutes per player to play and can be played competitively, cooperatively, or fully solo (solo players may use from 1-4 heroes). The game has been in development for over 8 years and has been play-tested by hundreds of players around the world to reach its current form.

Gloom of Killforth

BoardGameKing: Are there any specific points about the rules we should know? Maybe some tips for beginners? Are they easy to learn or not?

Tristan: The game is moderately complex in that the rules are quite detailed and there are a few moving parts. The complexity is necessary to create an immersive world that reacts to your hero’s actions. There are many cool actions players can choose from each turn but beginners should not be afraid to HIDE! 😀 It’s the one action which always gets overlooked by new players wanting to explore the map, but hiding can keep you safe from particularly nasty encounters which are formidable to overcome for low level heroes. As heroes level up throughout the game they will become more powerful and may not need to spend so much time in the shadows, but in almost every demo I’ve run we have a first day KO from a swaggering hero looking to march out brazen as you like and make his claim on the world!

BoardGameKing: Do you plan any expansions?

Tristan: Whilst the core game is an all inclusive experience, if there is enough demand from the fans there is plenty of existing material to draw from for expansions which will add more variety to players’ adventures. During the design phase we had to pare the game back to a marketable level from nearly 400 cards’ worth of encounters and treasures and so on, so the material does exist. We just need it to fund first! 🙂

Gloom of Killforth - Cards

BoardGameKing: What are your favorite board games?

Tristan: I think a gamer’s top ten is as malleable as anything but if I was pressed I’d have to say my current top ten in no particular order from a most played, most beautiful and most fun combo would be:

BoardGameKing: What inspired you to create this game?

Tristan: I’ve always tinkered with game design since I was a kid and HeroQuest gave me the power to create my own adventures. And I’ve developed a bunch of different games in different genres over the years, some much less successfully than others! I was tooling around with mods for many other games such as the D&D adventure system games, Fortune and Glory, and The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, and the response I was getting from fellow gamers was hugely positive, and before I knew it my little blog was approaching half a million hits. When I put the feelers out for opinions on my early designs for «Gloom of Kilforth» people were asking me: When is it available? Can we play it yet? So it was the encouragement of geeks from all over the world that finally made me put it into gear and start building the game engine.

BoardGameKing: Why did you decide to create it?

Tristan: I wanted to buy a game which gave me the feeling of the D&D role-playing games I’d played as a teenager. Knowing I no longer had time to invest in an RPG I wanted a condensed version that was playable in an evening. I’d seen what Arkham Horror did for the Call of Cthulhu experience and I wanted that in a fantasy universe, but with more control over your actions, and more interaction with the places and characters of the world. That game didn’t exist, and nothing came close enough for me, by either being too complex (Magic Realm) or too simplistic (Talisman) or too combat based (everything else!). Which is not to say they aren’t great games, I just really wanted to emulate that feeling of exploring, and meeting people, and having choices to make, without having to break my brain over digesting some labyrinthine rules set. So I set about making the game I wanted for myself.

Gloom of Killforth - Inside the Box

BoardGameKing: Does this game have a target group? I mean is it for your friends, family, kids or wife maybe?

Tristan: My friends are gamers, so definitely those guys, and I consider the geeks that I chat with online everyday to be friends too – so they are the target market, gamer geeks. It’s niche enough and the rules are meaty enough that maybe only people who are interested in the genre will really invest in it, but those that do will be rewarded with a much deeper, richer playing experience than something you can just grab off the shelves at a supermarket.

BoardGameKing: And the last point is what would you like to say to our readers and your potential board game players? Some greetings maybe or something like this.

Tristan: Thanks for having me! «Gloom of Kilforth» is on Kickstarter now and this is really an all or nothing project, if the game doesn’t fund it won’t get made, so if it sounds interesting come and throw us a dollar and see if you like what you see. You won’t have to pay if we do not fund anyway, so you have nothing to lose. And if we do fund, maybe you’d like to give us a full pledge and get hold of a Holy Grail fantasy adventuring game, with the most beautiful art you’ve ever seen in a board game, and unlike anything else on the market! Thanks so much for reading, and happy gaming.

This project already raised £23,684 out of £48,200 and the campaign continues! It is 20 days left before it’s over so let’s support Tristan and his wonderful game which can be interesting for everyone and not only for board game geeks!