Tournament of the Mythic Kingdoms: Illustrated Playing Cards
Created by Jim at BoardGaming.com
A beautifully illustrated and designed fantasy-themed set of standard playing cards (52 cards + 2 jokers).
NOTE: Preorders for non-Kickstarter backers are currently unavailable. Cards are being printed, with an estimated shipment in March, 2021.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Highlighting the Queen of Clubs and the game President
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 07:47:19 PM
Hi Backers!
We've continued to have some fun discussions in the comments, and we think that has impacted our ranking on Kicktraq.com. We're almost in the top 10 today! See below for today's Questions of the Day.
"The Queen of Fate gets a little aggressive with her die rolls. In fact, her damage roll is going to hurt no matter what number it is."
The Art: The Queen of Clubs is sometimes referred to as the "flower queen," and historically she holds a flower, so Greg added an iron rose at the end of the orc queen's flail. The "Queen of Fate" title refers to the D20 that she uses for her flail.
Game Highlight: President
The game President, also known as Scum, Kings, Peasant, and other names is one of my family's favorite games to play with large groups (5+ people). After each round you change places around the table and everybody is constantly trying to dethrone the current reigning King or President. The Scum is just trying to get out of the mire.
Modification for the Mythic Kingdoms: You can of course play President without any changes. However, for the Mythic Kingdoms instead of shedding sets of 2 or 3 cards (or the very rare 4 cards), you can try a variation where you shed runs. For example, the starting player could play a 2,3,4 run of Spades. The next player would either pass or play a run of 3 cards starting with a card higher than 2, such as a 3,4,5 run of Hearts. This variation to the game allows you to stick with the theme of the individual suits/kingdoms working together to win.
Joker variation: In addition to the Joker being able to outrank the highest individual card, you can use it as a wild card to help form a run.
You can use the special treasure card to mark the President's seat or use it as the ultimate card that beats not only a single card but also any joker, set or run combo.
Questions of the Day
Here are the new questions for today:
QUESTION 1: What are some of your favorite fantasy characters, classes, creatures, kingdoms, or realms (besides Orcs, Skeletons, Elves, Dwarves)?
QUESTION 2: What are your favorite game mechanics (for card games or board games)?
Example mechanics for card games include: trick taking, bluffing, card shedding, bidding, deck building, card drafting, matching, etc. This is an opportunity to think more deeply about why you like the games you play.
I wanted to share another Kickstarter game that I backed recently that looks to be very fun for the family. This game is a crazy chaotic food fight! You can dodge and throw epic food combos to avoid elimination. Who will reign supreme in this cafe chaos? Click HERE to back on Kickstarter!
Highlighting the Progress of the Jokers
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 01:17:28 PM
Hi Fellow Gamers, Today we are highlighting the jokers which are getting really close to the final versions. The environment in these cards really helps add to the nature and magic aspect of the theme.
The Fairy is a protector and the Imp is a trickster. Not only are these traits typical of fairies and imps, but they also play into the theme of the game Mythic Challenge.
The jokers have some subtle interaction occurring between the Fairy and the Imp. For example, the Fairy's shadow is the silhouette of the Imp and vice versa. The tip of the Fairy’s wand is a puppet of the Imp and vice versa. Many traditional jokers show the jester holding a puppet wand.
A Glimpse of The Wizard
Somebody caught a glimpse of a Wizard today. A sketch artist was able to whip up the picture above. Whether we see the Wizard make a permanent appearance will depend on a difficult-to-reach stretch goal. The Wizard would appear in the Four-Color Set replacing the double-backer card. The witness didn't see what color his cloak was - maybe green, maybe purple, maybe multi-color.
Questions of the Day
We had a fantastic response to the questions in the comments yesterday about the influence of art in game choices and what you like about collecting cards. And we think this really did affect the ranking on Kicktraq.com! So, here are new questions for today:
QUESTION 1: What do you like most about the Kickstarter campaigns you have participated in?
QUESTION 2: What card and/or suit in the Mythic Kingdoms is your favorite? If you'd like to explain why, that would be great, too.
Bonus Card Upgrade, the Ace of Spades and the game Nerts
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 08:07:10 AM
Hi Fellow Gamers!
Today we reached the $40k Stretch Goal which unlocks the new treasure card illustrations for the second bonus card (the 56th card) in the standard decks. The treasure card can be used as a third joker, as a first player marker, a trophy to present to the winner of the game/tournament, or a moving marker for the current winner of a game. We appreciate all of the great ideas for the bonus cards, and we love how these treasure cards perfectly within the theme.
About the Sets
We've received quite a few messages from people confused about how we are using the term "set" in our campaign, so let's define it: A "Set" is the combination of one green nature deck and one purple magic deck. Here is an image that shows the difference between the original Standard Set, new Premium Set, and new Four-Color Set.
Difference between the Standard Set, Premium Set, and Four-Color Set
The tuck boxes for the four-color set will be similar to the Standard Set, but with some color and label differences. The custom seals for the four-color set will also be numbered separately from the standard set.
“The Bone Dragon is the champion protector of the undead kingdom. Already considered the most fierce guardian of the land prior to the undead curse, losing its fire mattered little compared to the fear instilled by the immortal undead dragon.”
The Art: Spades are usually considered the highest ranked suit, with the Ace of Spades the highest value card in many games. Traditionally, the spade symbol on the Ace of Spades is noticeably larger and ornate compared to the other aces.
The dragon is not only a magnificent creature with wings that form a wonderful silhouette of a spade, but the dragon is both larger and more physically powerful than the other aces.
Greg sculpted the dragon out of clay to aid in lighting and to use as a reference for the pose. We’ve included a photo of his clay maquette in the image above.
Traditionally, the Ace of Spades also includes the logo or information about the manufacturer, and that is why we also designed our Ace of Spades to include the BoardGaming.com logo.
"The ace rose to prominence in 1765, according to the IPCS. That was the year England began to tax sales of playing cards. The ace was stamped to indicate that the tax had been paid, and forging an ace was a crime punishable by death. To this day, the ace is boldly designed to stand out." from The Atlantic
Game Highlight: Nerts
The game Nerts, also known as Pounce, Racing Demon, or Nertz (with a "z") is a very fun and fast-paced game similar to playing multi-player solitaire with shared foundation piles.
Nerts is one of the games that we had in mind as we designed the cards for Tournament of the Mythic Kingdoms. Like Solitaire, you alternate placing red and black cards in your tableau, so the red/black indices are important for gameplay.
Our standard green and purple decks are ideal for 2-player games (because each player needs a deck with a unique back). It would be pretty awesome to also have a blue and an orange deck, so maybe that's an idea for a new Kickstarter some day. 😀
Mythic Kingdoms Modification:
A very simple rule modification for Nerts is to make the jokers act as wild cards. If you have other ideas for how to use the jokers or ideas for special rules to apply to Nerts, let us know in the comments.
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Thank You!
McKay Anderson of TheBoardGameCritic.com provided many great suggestions for the game Mythic Challenge, which earned him one of our few prototype sets. He also posted a short video review which you can watch on his website here: Back That! Mythic Kingdoms
New Stretch Goals: Premium Set and Four-Color Set
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 06:34:43 PM
Hello Gamers,
As we come close to the last week of our campaign, we have some news that a lot of people are going to like: We are splitting up the Legendary deck stretch goal into two different stretch goals. This will benefit a lot more of our backers and will also make it more feasible for us to manage from a budget point of view.
$45k Goal: Premium Set
A Standard Set consists of one green nature deck and one purple magic deck. For each pledge level with 3 or more sets, one set will automatically be upgraded to the premium tuck boxes at no extra charge. The premium tuck boxes are made with matte colored paper, three metallic foils and embossing. We will also create a new add-on that will let you upgrade a Standard Set of decks to a Premium Set for $10 per set.
All 12-deck bricks will include one Premium Set, and the signed decks in the Ultimate Pledge will also be the Premium Set. This means that the Ultimate Pledge will actually include two Premium sets at no extra charge.
$50k Goal: Four-Color Set
When we talk about the "Four-Color Set" we are only talking about the corner indices — the numbers, letters and suit symbols in the corners of the cards. The red/black indices in our the Standard Set make it easier to play games like Solitaire, Nerts and Canasta. A Four-Color or "no-revoke" deck helps in games like Hearts, Spades, Rummy, and of course Mythic Challenge 😀.
To be very clear, the center pips of the number cards and the background colors of the face cards are already four different colors in all versions of these decks. The difference in the Four-Color Set has only to do with the indices (see image above). These corner indices are crucial to gameplay.
Here is the part that many of you are going to like ... swapping a Standard Set with a Four-Color Set will be a free option. We will make this option available via our pledge manager (BackerKit) and/or survey after the campaign.
Important: Instead of combining the four-color decks with the premium tuck boxes, the premium tuck boxes will only be for the standard red/black decks.
QUESTIONS / ANSWERS
What if I already added $12 to my pledge for the Legendary Deck? Thank you, but you may be able to reduce your pledge down to the normal pledge tier amount and still get the rewards you want, or you can use the $12 to help get a different add-on.
To help reduce the confusion, here is a list of the pledge levels and how these stretch goals will affect them if we reach both goals:
One Deck of Your Choice: No Change. However, to be eligible for the Premium Set or the Four-Color Set you will need to increase your pledge to the next tier.
The Set: No Change. However, you can either pay $10 to upgrade to the Premium Set or you can swap your standard set for the Four-Color Set.
The Collector (2 sets): No Change, but if you want one of each type of deck you can swap one Standard Set for a Four-Color Set. You could also upgrade your Standard Set to a Premium Set by adding $10 to your pledge.
Collect-Play-Gift (3 sets): One of the sets will be upgraded to the Premium Set at no extra charge. You can upgrade a second set by adding $10 to your pledge, or you can choose to swap one or two of the remaining Standard Sets with the new Four-Color Set.
Mixed Brick (6 sets): One of the sets will be upgraded to the Premium Set at no extra charge. For the remaining 5 sets, you can choose to upgrade to the Premium Set for an extra $10 per set, or you can swap one or more of the sets with the Four-Color Set.
Double Mixed Brick and Triple Mixed Brick: Each brick will include a Premium Set at no extra charge. For the remaining sets, you can upgrade or swap as many as you like but we will package the decks in the brick boxes in a way that will make our fulfillment job as easy as possible.
The Set + Art Book: Same as The Set, but with an Art Book.
The Art Collector: Same as The Collector, but with an Art Book.
The Penultimate Pledge: One of the 4 sets will be upgraded to the Premium Set at no extra charge.
The Ultimate Pledge: The signed decks will be upgraded to Premium signed decks at no extra charge. The brick will include a Premium Set at no extra charge. You may customize the remaining 5 sets by upgrading to Premium Sets for $10 per set or swapping them with Four-Color Sets for no extra charge.
These updates also apply to the Early Bird and the Mid Way Deal pledges.
If you like board games, this is a great magazine full of reviews and articles for the "casual" board game fan. It's also a great place to learn more about the designers and publishers behind the games. As an added bonus, each issue comes with a free print-and-play game.
Highlighting the Ace of Hearts and an In-Depth Video of the Cards
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Aug 08, 2020 at 10:09:01 AM
Hi Fellow Gamers! It's been a great week and we can't thank all of you enough for helping make this project a reality!
"In the Mythic Kingdoms, the White Hart stands on the threshold between the realm of nature, spirit and magic, both as aguardian and asa symbol of the forest—the home of the Elven kingdom."
The Card and Art: Hart, spelled h-a-r-t, is a very old word for a fully mature deer or stag. In this case, it also makes for a great play on words for the suit.
The collar is part of a modified tack set that the Elves use to ride the great stag (on the rare occasion when the hart will let them). This gives them something to hold onto because the hart has no mane like a horse for riding bareback.
In-Depth look by The Card Guy
If you'd like to see a great overview of the cards, as well as an in-depth look at some of its finer details, definitely check out this video by The Card Guy:
