Laboratory Mayhem: CT5 and Flax's LCG NOW ON KICKSTARTER! :D

UPDATE:
Our Kickstarter is live now!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/821972236/laboratory-mayhem-an-alchemical-strategy-card-game

I hope many of you are interested enough to support us, but also, regardless of your personal interest level, if you could spread the word it would help tremendously. Please & thank you!



hi folks =)

I haven't talked about this much in Cardhuntria, but actually, @CT5, @Vholes, and I and two of our friends have formed a small game design partnership here in California, Lixivium Games.

We're operating on basically no money, so consider this a preview product, with about 250 'placeholder' card illustrations drawn by yours truly. But card art aside, the game is quite polished, and beyond that it is completely playable. The areas we spent the most time on are the design of the game and then testing it fairly extensively.

Based on local reception we may or may not take Lab Mayhem to the next level with a Kickstarter in order to fully fund artwork and a more legit distribution method, and maybe also pay off some of our debts.

If you are interested in what I've been working on the last few years, the product of hundreds of hours of work from myself, @CT5, @Vholes, and our other partners, please consider checking out our website. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. If you're really enthusiastic, you can support our Kickstarter!

​

Thanks for reading this. I'm happy to answer questions, though my responses might be slow as I'll be out most of the day at our launch party.

 

Collectible? Pass.

 

I noticed you put Quick Draw into this, you sneaks!
Trying to pass it off as "Quick Pick"...

 

You can purchase the full set of cards (1 copy of each regardless of rarity). We're not fans of inflated secondary markets. The booster packs are there for limited formats (ours in testing, or designed by the customers), and as a cheaper way to get new cards.

 

Some photos from our launch event!

Our product laid out, along with a fan of our final art promo cards:

A room full of people playing or talking about our game (lots of Card Hunters in this photo actually):


What we're up to now: having serious discussions about next steps. Evaluating our feelings about a kickstarter, or shopping to publishers, or even going digital. In the meantime, doing outreach in our area—trying to reach more folks, get more players. So far so good but it's a slow process.

If you want to help us in any way, remember to follow us on Twitter or Facebook!


If you've tried our game and have something nice or useful to say, consider leaving reviews on our products on The Game Crafter: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/designers/lixivium-games

Lastly and most importantly, we've caught word that our favorite local game store, Games of Berkeley, might consider carrying our game if they hear from enough folks that there's some demand for it. Write to them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BerkeleyGames) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/GamesofBerkeley) and let them know that you'd like to see Laboratory Mayhem on their shelves!

 

Last weekend, we had our first post-launch tournament at the local game store (Games of Berkeley).

One of the team took some photos during the event.



We have a lot of exciting events coming up, so if you live in the SF Bay Area, consider dropping by and learning the game!

Laboratory Mayhem events page: http://labmayhem.com/where-to-play/

=)

 

Looks like lots of fun!, too bad I will never see a CardHunter other than myself in real life

 

This Looks really great, I wish you Flax, Ct5 and Vholes all the success with it!

I for one have become sick of Mtg since they introduced wallet-walkers, er I mean, planes walkers and card valuations that have gone through the roof. It's not a game anymore, it's an money-making scam.

Anywya If you guys designed this game. I'm sure t will have some well thought-out strategies and nuances. Care to summarize the game briefly, and what makes it unique and also replay able? (Couldn't find it on the website).

 

The standout aspect of our game is that each card can be played in three different ways. To quote the site cause I'm bad with words:
You can play cards face up as a recipe (as the card itself), which is how you assemble the servants, transmutations, spellbombs, and nexuses that will determine the fate of your lab.
You can play cards upside down as a reagent (resource): When used in a room, reagents give you the ingredients you need to assemble recipes.
Lastly, once per turn, you may play a card face down as a room: Rooms "hold" reagents until the reagent is spent.

Several big implications emerge from this system. Notably, every card will find a use. The objective of the game is to destroy your opponent's laboratory (deck) and rooms, so the cards you turn into rooms not only let you play the game, but also remain relevant in the endgame, when your opponent is trying to destroy your rooms.
Another consequence is that there is virtually no "mana screw." You can turn any card into the resources you need to play! Also, as the game goes on and your laboratory takes damage, your scrapheap (discard pile) fills up, "color-screw" problems disappear. (Note: When your laboratory takes damage, put that many cards from the top of your deck into your scrapheap. Also, in Laboratory Mayhem, you typically play resources from your discard pile.) Another benefit is that our catch-up mechanic is built into the system - some cards when used as a resource produce extra resources, but can only be used once. As you take damage, you can use these resources to play more cards to get you back in the game, while still having a stable base of resources to work with in future turns.

This also lends to Laboratory Mayhem's replayability - depending on what cards you turn into reagents and rooms, the same deck can play out in different ways. New players say that each game they play feel different, even with the same deck. For myself, and for other members of our team, we're still seeing new, exciting, and creative ways players are using cards.

Speaking of cards, the cards themselves, and deckbuilding with them, is obviously a huge part of replayability. There are six disciplines of alchemy, each with their own unique playstyle and characteristics, and things only get better when you start mixing them together and produce a 2, 3 or 4+ discipline deck. And this is very feasible thanks to our reagent system! When deckbuilding in Laboratory Mayhem, it's more important to focus on the proportion of recyclable (resources available for use each turn) vs vaporize (one-time use) reagents rather than the proportion of resources for each discipline. Anyways, from the cards, a lot of viable strategies appear in constructed. Each discipline has a hefty number of tools for you to play with. You can even do reasonably well with a deck full of one-ofs (I've got two such decks cause I only have 1 of each card)!

Spoiler: Disciplines of Lab Mayhem

Spoiler: Combustion

Combustion is all about being flashy and explosive. In games, it is the most aggressive discipline, willing to burn through your resources, and even your own lab, to blow up the opponent's first. Great at vandalizing the opponent's lab, and can put up a good fight, but their servants are on the more fragile side.

Spoiler: Metallurgy

Unlike combusters, Metallurgists are much more steady and stable. They take a more defensive approach, and are the only discipline that can fortify their labs. Their servants typically have armor, which make them great at fighting other servants. Another specialty is their transmuations, which modify servants to become even stronger.

Spoiler: Reanimation

Reanimators are Dr. Frankenstein-esque mad scientists. They've got some smarter homunculi specialized for helping around in the lab, and once they've made their preparations, will stitch together servants to make stronger ones. Slow early game, but strong mid and late game between some recursion and some reasonably sized servants.

Spoiler: Astrology

The superstitious, paranoid, aloof, and scholarly alchemists. Their heads are typically stuck in the sky and clouds, which they study, and can manifest into servants. In game, this translates to a high number of fragile servants, along with the most magical effects from their spellbombs.

Spoiler: Naturalism

Naturalists are all about servants working together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Their servants tend to have high life, which make them great at fighting, and they are the primary discipline that can heal its servants.

Spoiler: Toxicology

The insidious alchemists, specializing in poisons and decay. Their signature servants, the slimes and drek, also incorporate these nasty poisons, and they can infect opponent's servants. In game, they tend to put their opponents in lose-lose situations. They can also surprise you with some direct lab damage, if you're paying too much attention to the insects.

 

Tonight we had another test of our own "Quick Draw" / draft format and those design goals CT5 described came through stronger than ever. I've been playing this game for two years now and tonight was still a wonderful surprise. New synergies, new counterplays, and card playing choices that were constrained and difficult enough to be interesting, without ever preventing you from making decisions.

As a side note, my main role on the team is worldbuilding + flavor, so feel free to ask me that kind of question!

 

We'll be in San Francisco tonight if anyone wants to come around and check out our game. I know we've got a lot of bay area card hunters, it would be nice to meet you =)

https://www.facebook.com/events/1713152468913776/

 

Europe tour when? :C

 

Wanna sponsor us?

BTW, last night was pretty fun. @LieutenantCommanderData showed up and played with us =)

 

It's really fun! I also really like all the elegant solutions to preventing mana flood/screw.

 

We didn't get to finish our game because the store closed, and I hope you'd be interested in playing again. Maybe even with more complicated decks =D

 

Now I want someone to go into your event and pretend to be some player from CardHunter who they are not (like me for instance) and see your reactions
(sorry for going off topic)

 

If someone showed up and pretended to be you that would be hilarious. Probably not that funny for your impersonator though ... j/k j/k

 

Sound a litte bit like the box format in Magic the Gathering, which is an interesting one.

Of course, all you really need to play Laboratory Mayhem is a deck of 44 cards

It should have been 42, so we finally would know the question.

 

It's probably a good thing that I'm not in the SF area for college, otherwise I'd be wasting so much time.. =)

In all seriousness, it looks like a fun game. More importantly, it's a tabletop game, which makes people actually interact with each other! (Insert dramatic gasp here)

I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes in the future!

 

@Rainingrecon - why, you could be part of the future right now, and get a little playgroup started at your school... that should be pretty fun!