| Gentlemen! Today we’re going to take another brief look into the working of The Mekasylum expansion.
There is a more complete overview of components and such available HERE, but today we’re getting into a bit more detail about the campaign specifics.
Before we begin I want to mention that a lot of the components in this set are still very much Work In Progress, as they have some unique aspects that set them apart from the other expansions. As such, we unfortunately won’t have a lot of images of cards and such to display- we want to get these in a good visual place before showing them off, so a lot of this is going to be text-talking mechanics and what to expect!
CAMPAIGN BEGINNINGS
The campaign for Mekasylum begins with an assault on the Unicorn Club itself! The Gentlemen find themselves experiencing a relaxing moment at the club when suddenly Little Orphan Lily appears, needing asylum from the rampaging automaton Pinokio, sent by the nefarious Gepetto (a former Mekamancer of the club!) to both capture her and destroy the club itself!
In Chapter I the Gents will be tasked with defending both the Club from being too terribly damaged as well as protecting Lily. If the Club suffers too much damage (via vital parts of the building being destroyed by attack) or Lily is captured and removed from the board, it spells bad news for the Gentlemen!
IT’S PERSONAL
- Most of the Campaigns in Rise of Moloch see the Unicorn Club setting out to stop some world-shattering schemes that will destroy London itself. Not so much in the Mekasylum! This is a campaign involving a personal vendetta- a villain seeks revenge, hits the Unicorn Club on their home turf, and the Club has decided to respond in kind. The stakes here at not for the Crown or the City, it’s a personal matter of the Club itself.
GIANT ROBOT ASSAULT
- Pinokio is unlike any other Agent in Rise of Moloch. He comes with his own special Dashboard featuring upgrade slots. Throughout the campaign the Nemesis will be choosing just how he wants to evolve his giant murder-machine. Do you want to deck him out with Long-Ranged firepower? Perhaps brutal melee is more your style? The versatility of both? Customizing your very own Pinokio will be a big part of your choices throughout the campaign.
- More than that, however, Pinokio is going to be your main source of activations as well- He truly is a monster, having multiple activations per round, as well as a colossal amount of HP. In fact, each of his individual sections has their own HP Pool, so he can in fact lose his various weapons and upgrades as he’s damaged (don’t worry though, you’ll have ways to fix that).The theme that Pinokio is going to give the campaign is that the Gents have one-big-nasty-super-threatening Agent to deal with. The Gents can view it as a giant monster-hunt if they want… But its easy for the hunters to become the hunted!
TINY ROBOT ASSAULT
- Of course Pinokio wont be the only threat the Gents will have to deal with! Along with his primary creation, Gepetto has created an army of Evil Toys to carry out his plots!
- If you’re a fan of expendable Minions, you’re going to love the Evil Toys- These guys will literally destroy themselves to accomplish their goals. Don’t worry, however, when they die they’ll start dropping Cog Tokens around the board- a resource we’ll get to in a moment.
- Your new Nemesis Powers as well will function around the Toys: Making them pull themselves back together, exploding, and in general causing nasty mayhem all around them! I mean, they’re just automatons after all- you can always build more!
COGS, COGS, AND MORE COGS!
Cogs function as a sort-of new resource in Mekasylum (And anyone who picks up the expansion during the Kickstarteris getting some cool plastic tokens to represent these!). Each Chapter will have some of them laying around the map, but they’ll also be generated via other means (such as Minions being destroyed). So what is so cool about a bunch of broken down parts? I’m glad you asked!
- By going out of your way to pick up Cogs, players will gain access to some small buffs to their gear. This can range from additional dice, extra effects and powers, or minor upgrades. This is all represented by Cog Upgrade Powers– a small deck of cards that all players (Gents and Nemesis) will have communal access to. This allows a certain element of hidden surprises for both sides to use against their opponent!
- Cogs will also be vastly useful to the Nemesis, as claiming these allows you to not only build more Minions but heal Pinokio (well… That’s one of the things they can do to Pinokio, there are some other nasty surprises as well). So if the Gents don’t go out of their way to prevent you from claiming these valuable resources then… well, the consequences are on them! Of course you’re not going to want to ignore them yourself either, for just as their useful to you the Gents can use them to gain upper hands as well!
BRAWLING ARENAS
Most of the locations in Rise of Moloch represent parts of the city- the docks, sewers, etc etc. The same is true of the Mekasylum, but given the nature of the campaign each map isn’t so much “Here is a large warehouse district to explore” and more “WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOME! FIGHT!”
As not to give you the impression that this campaign is just a big fight- there is certainly more to the story than that, but each location is vast and relatively open. The Unicorn Club is a large building, but depending on how the encounter goes walls might be destroyed, sections might be engulfed in flames, an chaos will reign.
In Chapter II the Gents have tracked Gepetto to an abandoned Amusement Park, complete with modified rides and attractions- Gepetto isn’t wasting his Mekamancer skills not decking out his personal lair with defenses and deathtraps! I mean, if you can’t do that, why even bother becoming a Mekamancer in the first place?!
Chapter III, the grand finale… Well… You’re just going to have to wait and see that for yourself… Can’t be spoiling everything for you now can we?
So that’s going to cover the major aspects of The Mekasylum, Gentlemen! Hope you enjoyed the write-up.
We’ll cover the other expansions as well as time moves on, but we’ve really looked over most of the major aspects of Rise of Moloch. While we’d love to continue to post constant (weekly) updates in regards to gameplay mechanics, well, we’ve kinda covered most things and we have almost twelve months until estimated delivery.
Moving forward though, what sort of content would you like to continue to see? Production is starting up with the initial stuff, but we’re still in the preliminary stages (and January is a long ways off!) so what sort of things would you like to see discussed in the coming time? What content would you like to see? Let us know in the comments below!
Until next time Gentlemen! |
