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

Honestly it's a primarily a monetary thing, and secondarily a logistical thing (since we're doing all our fulfillment in-house).

In my mind, if someone outside the US wanted to buy the game and just added the international shipping to their pledge (and messaged us on KS to clarify that they're outside the US), we could probably fulfill it. But the question is: what is the shipping cost? Are there taxes etc? This stuff gets super expensive super fast. I took a brief look at DHL from Berkeley to Europe and the best quote I could find for a package that would contain 4 sets (our $110 tier) was $130. Admittedly researching optimal, affordable shipping isn't something in which I have a ton of experience. I am open to suggestions.

But probably what would be best is if folks outside the country who are willing to pay a premium for the game could get in touch with me so we can figure out exact shipping costs, and then I'd ask them to pledge for reward + that shipping cost (at a minimum). I say probably because at this point I can't guarantee international fulfillment --but again, if there's enough demand, I'll see what I can do.

 

I've watched some videos, popped through the blog (including reading the really fun 5-discipline tournament-deck post! ha ha), read/skimmed the full rules and glossary, etc., and 1. this game looks really great $E^ J making me lament that my offline friends don't really like card games for some reason $:^ \ and 2. I still can't seem to find an answer to a question... From the Kickstarter page:

Whatever the function which "rarity" might have, there's literally nothing rarer about any given card; each is 100% as accessible as another; there is even an exact 1-to-1 ratio for every single card in the set, ha! I mean, the exception might be that some cards will be harder to replace if a person accidentally performs Blacker Lotus on it (how's that for an obscure joke? heheh) because of some card or another being generally regarded as better or something, but ... yeah, why rarity, what is rarity here? ("More rarely played because it's harder to get its full effect on the table"?)

Thank you in advance, and regards,
Bob $:^ J

 

@ParodyKnaveBob card rarity is primarily relevant for drafts (at least the way we've been drafting), in which you would first make "packs" of cards (2 rares, 4 uncommons, 10 commons per pack). Since rarity is like a measure of card complexity (and sometimes power), this means we won't have drafts of all the most wacky, standalone cards out there -> you can find cool synergies in the draft.

 

We're over 100 backers and over 80% funded.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/821972236/laboratory-mayhem-an-alchemical-strategy-card-game

 

You should be all set now.

(annoyed I missed out on having a gulo-personalized card, haha. but good luck!)

 

Woo! Funded! Well done!

Can we move back to working on CH please? :c

 

Thanks gulo

Can't quite express how pumped I am. Gonna do some social media stuff announcing our first stretch goal and thanking everyone.

Yes, actually

 

For the record, I am looking to make a Witcher-inspired laboratory with a combination of toxicology, naturalism, and metallurgy. That being said, I have not watched the video on how to play yet, so while I assume I can construct "Gulo's Nefarious Laboratory of Natural, Toxic Metals", I am not certain this can happen yet.

 

You can combine any number of disciplines in your deck, so go wild

 

1 hour to go...!

 

So! How's this going for you folks?

Thought of you especially in the last day or so because of my own ideas rattling around and such. Short version: of the various game ideas I sometimes write down, the last week or so has had me fleshing out a battle card game idea to the point that I actually started programming a generic "card battle system" where I could do my thang, and I've had some ideas for how to keep the resource-asset balance fun and fair yet tactical etc., and so of course while I considered resources allowing assets but also assets allowing resources, your own brilliant multi-use card system came to mind. $:^ ]

(Obviously, for my ideas to get anywhere near reality, I'd need an insane amount of help, chiefly with power & balance stuff, but I'unno ~shrug~ nice to just dally in the ideas for the moment I guess.)

Anyway, got curious to hear about updates. Popularity, moolah-makin', expansions/cycles, whatever news ya gots. $:^ J (Website appears to have not been updated in two years?) Also, did you ever pick up the awesome stories you hoped for with someone championing Super Nova? $:^ b

Regards,

 

Hey! Well, we had a successful Kickstarter and printed the game. All our backers got their cards, and I think some of them enjoyed them. I've got a bunch of boxes of extra product in my garage because our general partnership never really made it as far as popularizing or further developing the game. We poured a lot of time into trying to build a community in our area, and it kind of worked, on a very small scale, but it was a side gig for all of us and things kind of fizzled out.

After that, I made a digital card game with CT5's help, separate from the work we'd done with the other Lab Mayhem folks. That reached a kind of 'public beta' level before we ran into a similar situation where we just didn't have the resources or know-how to grow the game. It was an epic labor of love but, again, a side project, and neither of us is a businessperson.

Now I work for a mobile game company in China, writing scenarios and cutscenes for an RPG

It's great to be on a big team (working with Jon, Farbs, and Ben on CH was fun, and working with my friends on our little projects was fun, but there's something nice about only being responsible for one part of something and in all those positions, I had to wear a lot of hats) and I love writing. I think I'm doing a pretty good job, too! That'll probably hit 1.0 sometime this year, so if you're interested I'll let you know when it's out.

 

On popularizing and delineating roles better: I know you have staunch economic views that differ from the average company CEO $:^ } but have you (Lixivium / you+CT5 for the vg) considered seeing if you could find some company to license your game(s) to, so that you keep creative control, but they make money off distribution and marketing?

I unfortunately never bought Mayhem mostly because "with whom would I play?" – my vg-loving sister flat-out said she wouldn't play Munchkin if I bought it, and when my offline friends and I had a big (long story) Alice-themed Friday the Thirteenth tea party many years ago, the only standard-deck card game anyone could muster enough knowledge to play was Go Fish. $¦^ o Just... NO one around me anymore enjoys card games. $:^ ( For the Flak-CT5 video card game, I just didn't have the spending money anymore was all; otherwise, of course I was interested. (UNO, Milles Bornes, Monopoly Express, nothing. CH, MTG:Arena, even blech (lol) Hearthstone, nothing. This is why I already shake my head at my own card game ideas over the years – no one to feasibly bounce ideas off.)

Glad you're getting somewhere with this new endeavor. I don't want to turn this post into a "poor me" thing, but it's obviously on my mind at the moment, and it's kind of relevant. I posted a job thread in a nicely visible place – professional proofreader / copy editor available for your video game projects – and despite rave reviews, in over a year's time, I only got one taker, on a not-exactly-a-game project, and despite my giving a huge 33% off MSRP (so to speak) quote and demonstrably fast promised turn-around AND offer to utterly negotiate as needed, I got an instant-never-mind after all. $:^ (

Anyway. It's open to all of Lixivium, naturally, but you didn't answer if anyone ever blew up Super Nova (and/or built specifically for it). $}^ } You know I would, LOL.

 

My best wishes for your endeavors! I know very well what it is like to struggle with underemployment.

And yeah, Supernova saw play! A lot of our weird cards got played at least a little. I mained a Doom Board + Scrapnado deck for a while. =)

 

My off-line friends sometimes play card games (spades, hearts, rook, rummy), but mostly we play music and drink to excess.
Actually, they drink a bit and I take up their slack because we're at my house and I don't have to drive.
I suspect the only reason I can play Card Hunter is that it keeps track of my cards for me.
Still and all, I wish you all the best in your ventures even if I can't keep up!

 

$:^ D

 

Tonight, I was eating some nuts, crackin' shells, tossin' 'em away, etc., when I saw some shells that got caught on the side of a bag and attempted to move them via tossing other shells at them hard enough to jar them away. This kind of made me think of marbles, but for some reason especially made me think of Pogs milk caps—which I've never played nor even seen played—which then somehow made me think of Lab Mayhem (since cards have been in the back of my mind lately I guess. (Who'm I kidding? Aren't cards always in the back of my mind? If not front? Anyway.)) That made me curious enough to ask:

Was the act of vandalizing a laboratory, scrapping its stacked top into a shattered pile of upturned mess, in any way inspired by slammin' milk caps? (Come to think of it, when "Pogs" spread from Hawaii, California was one of its biggest nexi, pardon the pun, truly.)