The Enclave

Flavor backstory:

The Enclave is a city of opportunity and adventure; a place to earn a name for yourself. It's treacherous surroundings offer endless chances to take on daring quests and slay fearsome monsters.Of course slaying monsters requires quality gear, and you won't just find it laying around. But no worries, there are always tasks to be done to earn some coin; such as helping the blacksmith forge some tools, or helping the Inn Keeper fix up the place. While the Enclave has always been known as a "safe haven" from the terrors that surround it, recently it's fortification has been tested due to a Dragon that has made home near by. Although adventurers do come through often, not many are brave enough to go toe to toe with a dragon. That's where you come in! It's about time someone stood up to that gigantic, fire-breathing, armor-like-scale covered, razor fanged, flying pest. No true Hero wants to share that glorious triumph, so your on your own. It's time to forge your legacy!

Gameplay Description:

Each player stars the game by choosing a Hero. There are 4 races to choose from, Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Orc. Each has a unique starting deck of skill cards and 1 unique trait card. The skills are Strength, Dexterity, and Focus. These will be the power behind your actions. Each side of the main deck has 4 revealed cards. One side represents outside the Enclave, the other represents inside it. You will use the cards in your hand drawn from your deck to interact with the revealed cards. This includes slaying a monster, completing a task, or buying gear. Your actions reward experience in the form of skill cards. These are collected and then added to your deck once you level up. You can either buy bigger and badder gear, or upgrade what you have. You can also spend all of the cards in your hand to gain a new talent card which is added to your deck. Once you feel your ready to go, you can face off with the Dragon. Defeat it, and you've not only won the game, but also forged your name in glory for all of eternity! Or at least until an expansion comes out with a bigger dragon....

What makes it Unique:

Experience: Unlike other deck-building games, you don't "buy" cards from the main pool and add them into your deck. Instead you complete tasks and defeat monsters to earn "experience" in the form of skill cards. Those are what get's added to your deck. How does more of the same card help you? Most importantly, adding MORE of these cards allows you to level up your character. This also gives you a chance to really fine-tune your character. If you want to wield a sword, you'll need strength behind it, and so completing Strength tasks earns you more Strength cards. The more Strength cards in your deck, the more often you will draw them. Also, the more cards in your deck, the more turns you can take before you need to rest (recycling your discard pile for your deck). There are also trait cards such as Relentless, Fearsome, Agile, and Clever. Each of these provides a different effect when played. At the end of the game, you've built a truly unique Hero with a unique deck of cards to power it!

Leveling: Each player only starts with a hand of 3 cards, which is then increased by leveling up your Hero. The larger hand size gives the player more potential power behind their actions, which is not only required to defeat the Dragon, but feels very rewarding.

Theme implementation: The tasks in the game are simple labor jobs but the skills required to complete them are intuitive and logical. For example, the Blacksmiths' task requires Strength to forge ingots while the Alchemist' task of preparing potions requires Focus. This helps eliminate that disconnect many deck-building games have.

These are just some of the many unique mechanics that make The Enclave a deck-building game that we feel truly stands out among the rest!

The game is set to release at the end of April, 2015.