Arkham Horror and Elder Sign co-creator behind The Stuff of Legend board game
Beware the Boogeyman.
An upcoming board game based on The Stuff of Legend comic book series and created by the co-designer of Arkham Horror and Elder Sign - Kevin Wilson - is on its way.
Adapted from a series of comics about a group of toys who have vowed to protect the boy that owns them, The Stuff of Legend is a co-op board game for three to six players. In the game, players take the roles of the beloved toys from the comic series as they search for a boy in a scary and otherworldly plane called The Dark. Lurking within this world is the Boogeyman, a terrifying being who seeks to whisk children away forever - the players must rescue their cherished owner from the clutches of the Boogeyman.
However, all is not as it seems, as there are some toys who are not, in fact, loyal to the boy, but have pledged their allegiance to the Boogeyman himself. At the start of the game, players are randomly assigned cards to dictate whether they are loyal to the boy or to the Boogeyman. Should players be working for the Boogeyman, then they will subtly try to lead the group towards failure, whilst trying not to be discovered. Allegiances are not permanent in the game, as players’ loyalties can be switched throughout the course of a playthrough.
As the players travel across the world of The Dark they’ll encounter minions working for the Boogeyman. Minions in The Stuff of Legend can hide in any of the game’s locations and can pursue or lie in wait to fight again if the player characters should manage to escape their clutches. Players will need to move quickly, as whenever a player runs out of cards - or they are allowed to discard their hand - then a coin is flipped, the result decides whether the boy moves further into the Boogeyman’s clutches - with additional rules being put into play to make the experience even more challenging.
In order to win, the good toys who are loyal to the boy must discover a way out of The Dark before the boy is lost to the Boogeyman forever. By travelling along one of four paths, a player - who is collectively selected by the group - can peek at the facedown exit card to see if it’s the real exit or a fake one. When the toys reach the end of the path together they check to see what exit lies there - a real one grants victory to the loyal toys, whilst a fake spells a win for the toys controlled by the Boogeyman.
Apart from creating The Stuff of Legend Board Game and co-designing Arkham Horror and Elder Sign, Wilson is also responsible for co-creating the dungeon-crawler board game Descent: Journey’s in the Dark - Second Edition and Cosmic Encounter, a board game about rival alien species attempting to take control of the universe.
The Stuff of Legend is being published by Th3rd World Studios, the studio behind another tabletop title adapted from a comic book series called Arcane Academy - which is based on the Finding Gossamyr series.
The Kickstarter campaign for The Stuff of Legend Board Game is live until October 21st, with a pledge of $70 (£52) getting backers a copy of the game that’s estimated to arrive in June 2022.