Description

From the publisher:

Carpathia is a table top skirmish game for two or more players set in a dark fantasy world with steam-punk elements. Players take control of a party of heroes and adventurers on a common quest. The core game is designed to be played in around an hour depending on how large of a party you choose to hire. Before the start of the game, players agree on the amount of gold they will each spend on hiring and equipping their party.

You must first choose a hero to lead your party. Heroes are persons of great renown throughout Carpathia and the rest of the world. They are natural born leaders and usually excel at fighting, magic, or even crafting. Once you have hired your hero you can then recruit the rest of your party, purchase additional equipment for your adventurers, magic spells, or other items. The hero you choose will determine the alignment of your party. There are three alignments in Carpathia, good, neutral and evil. You may have guessed that if you hire a hero of the good alignment, you will not be able to hire adventurers that are evil. Neutral heroes can hire either good, neutral, or evil adventurers; although you cannot have both good and evil in the same party. Each of the 14 available factions in Carpathia is of one of the three alignments. Hiring your party entirely from the same faction gives you small stat bonuses. However, each faction also has a specific style of play. Some factions excel at magic, while others are expert warriors. Some are masters of deceit, while others are master tacticians and strategists. The ability to hire your party from multiple factions gives you the option to customize your play style.

Each character in Carpathia comes with his or her own stats, equipment, spells, and other items. All of this information will be found in the rulebook, as well as all the additional equipment you can purchase. Supplied with the rulebook, you will also receive a blank character sheet. This is what you will use to record your heroes and adventurer’s statistics, equipment, spells, items and abilities. Not only will it make it easier to quickly look up character attributes during a game, but will also make it easier to change them, as they can often change during a game, or especially if you are playing a Quest.

Quests in Carpathia are a series of games. During each game your adventurers gain experience, acquire loot, and gatherer resources. However you must be careful because heroes and adventurers can also be hurt or even killed. In between games you will be able to apply gained experience towards new abilities, skills or to increase statistics. You will also be able to attempt to heal any hurt or wounded characters as long as your party possesses the necessary spells or potions required to do so. The loot, whether in the form of gold or items, can be used amongst your party, sold, or even traded to other players. Finally the resources found can also be sold or used to craft weapons, armor, or items if your adventurers possess the required skill sets. Our hope is that these features will add a level of emersion into the world of Carpathia and make the games more rewarding and fun. The Carpathia rulebook will have a number of Quests, but we also encourage players to develop their own.

Those who have played table top war games before will find the core rules of Carpathia familiar, while those new to war gaming should have no problem quickly picking them up. Each player will take their turn, in which he or she can move his or her adventurers, use items, cast spells, engage in combat, or hunt for treasure and resources. The game turn is divided into four Phases. First is The Action Phase, followed by The Movement Phase, then The Combat Phase, and finally The Magic Phase.

During The Action Phase you can activate certain items such as food or magic weapons, attempt to claim resources, or attempt to recover adventurers who have been knocked down or unconscious. During The Movement Phase you may move your adventurers, attempt to climb, jump, swim, or take cover. The Combat Phase is when both shooting and hand-to-hand combat is resolved. Finally The Magic Phase is where characters with any ability in manipulating the winds of magic can attempt to cast their spells. During phases in which you come in direct contact with your opponent, he or she will have the opportunity to retaliate if not otherwise incapacitated. For instance after you charge an enemy adventurer during your combat phase, but fail to either knock down, out, or kill him or her, your opponent will have an opportunity to retaliate with an attack of their own.

Our goal is to make individual games of Carpathia fast paced but also fun and engaging. The Quests are meant to provide further emersion and give players the ability to play out epic stories as they journey across Carpathia in search of honor, glory, treasure, knowledge, power, or the dark energies that inhabit it.

The Carpathia rules are based on a D6 system, and we recommend playing on a 4 foot by 4 foot playing surface. The main rulebook will include the complete rules, 6 quests, full rosters of heroes and adventurers for each of the 14 factions, lots of additional spells, items, weapons and equipment; resource counters, as well as blank character stat sheets. Also in the rulebook will be the full history of the world, as well as the background and history of each faction. Carpathia itself is only a portion of the greater game world. So far we have planned three expansions providing the success of Carpathia, which will explore other portions of the world, offer additional quests, characters, items, and content.

Our goal is to continuously release new miniatures to represent various heroes and adventurers, as well as introduce a guide for building your own characters in one of the planned expansions.