Above and Below studio’s next release, Rift Knights, is an asymmetric team game about invading demons
Uprising in the underworld.
Prevent the barrier to the underworld from being broken or lead a demonic invasion in Rift Knights, an upcoming release from Above and Below publisher Red Raven Games.
Rift Knights is a fantasy board game for two to six players that sees players splitting into teams to control opposing sides in a fight between a band of knights and a pack of demons.
Sequestered away underneath a clifftop monastery lies a portal to the underworld guarded by an order of knights whose duty is to prevent the seal to this entrance from being broken. However, waiting below them are a cabal of demonic beings whose opportunity to escape comes on the longest night of the year, during the winter solstice, when the seal on the portal becomes weakened. When the demons break through, a battle begins between the knights sworn to protect the surface world and the creatures determined to invade it.
In Rift Knights, players can choose to command either the holy knights or the demons as each attempt to fulfill their own goals. Being an asymmetric game - meaning that players have differing objectives depending on who they’re playing as - players in Rift Knights will either be looking to protect the elders until dawn as the knights or break the seal on the portal to the surface as the demons.
Throughout the game, players will be working together against the opposing team to move through the monastery and performing actions to reach their objective. Players will need to play cards from their hand in order to perform actions. Depending on how the monastery has been laid out before the start of each game, players may encounter different location tiles that can trigger various events.
Each side in Rift Knights has its own set of unique playable characters for players to choose from, including the Flame Knight - whose special ability enables them to set fire to surrounding enemies - and the Bone Crusher, who can summon skeletal minions to their aid. Whichever side achieves their set objectives before the other is named the winner of the game.
Rift Knights was designed by T. Alex Davis, co-creator of Small World expansion Sky Islands - which added seven new races and powers to the core game - and this year’s oceanic-themed board game Deep Vents, which had players competing to develop the most bountiful underwater ecosystem.
Red Raven Games, apart from releasing Rift Knights and Above and Below, is known for the game’s treasure-hunting sequel - Near and Far - and quick game Eight-Minute Empire, which has players attempting to build a complete civilisation in the fastest time possible.
The Kickstarter for Rift Knights is live until November 23rd, with a pledge of $50 (£38) getting backers a copy of the core game set to arrive next June.