Hello and welcome to the Trait Pack 1 Reveal! Today, I'm going to be talking about Ivion's new product line, the Trait Pack. This will be the first of many to come. Each Trait Pack will have 11 all-new mono and multi-colored traits, a mechanics card to teach you about whatever new keywords we introduce and a small punchboard for any associated tokens. They'll be packaged in a tiny booster wrap and you'll then integrate them into your full collection. Because these traits won't be associated with a larger set, we have a lot of freedom in what places and people we represent and what mechanics we explore. We've chosen to begin with a debut keyword that allows traits to be much more powerful, but also a lot riskier—Charged. Let's start with Lightning Spear. The effect of this card is straightforward, but it's also quite strong for its cost in the feat zone. Stunning an opponent on demand at range two with respectable damage and power generation is nothing to scoff at. However, there is a catch! As you begin the game, place Charged tokens on Charged feats equal to their Charged value. As an additional cost to play a card with Charged, you must remove one of the Charged tokens from that card. If a feat with Charged has no Charged tokens remaining, it can't be played anymore this game. If a feat with Charged fails to resolve, the Charged token is not returned. Most feats usually aren't worth countering because your opponent doesn't lose a card and can simply play the card again next turn. With Charged feats, the effects are more powerful, rivalling or even surpassing that of a card you draw from your deck, but disruption from your opponent is a far more real threat. Mute has a single Charged token. If your opponent prevents it from resolving, that's it! However, if you can resolve it at the right time, it can be absolutely devastating. Silencing 4, even alone is a crippling debuff that will reduce your foes' options on their next turn significantly. This card also shows off a character from a realm we've never visited or spoken of before—perhaps we'll visit it one day? Each card in this new Trait Pack won't have Charged, however. We're adding traits that supplement a variety of playstyles. If you like getting attach cards out on yourself, your opponent, or using them to control the battlefield, Nurture is an interesting option. With Druid coming in Winter's Bite, Nurture can find Duration healing effects, fill your discard for Verdant Burst, or pair with an entirely different attach strategy now or in the future. It also features a lovely lady nurturing a flower with the help of her spirit companions. Go team! The last card I'll show today is quite a bit more brutal and single minded on an entirely different axis. While Mark doesn't have Charged, it does bear a similar weightiness. Gaining an initiative and a mitigate at the start of each of your turns is quite exceptional, but it requires you to only target your opponent with cards, nothing else. Of course, you can still play cards that don't target anything. Mark requires and turns on interesting deckbuilding and will shape how you consider what cards you play for a significant payoff. It's also quite susceptible to being destroyed, as you'll have to consider if it's worth investing the resources for payoff later or not. Alright! Those are the cards I have for you today. These cards and the seven more included in our first Trait Pack will become available on Tabletop Simulator for playtesting on August 16th, as our Kickstarter launches. The Trait Pack will be available for purchase via the Winter's Bite Kickstarter and our Pledge Manager afterwards until Season Two begins shipping later in 2023. I hope you enjoyed taking a look at these cards and may they bring you victory!

Hi Ivion players! Ivion has been central to my life for the last seven years. I'm working nearly every day to improve the game in some way. With the Kickstarter fast approaching, I felt it appropriate to write up the main points of my current thinking on Ivion. I would like to begin a tradition by writing a 'State of Ivion' post before each Kickstarter we launch, or in the future, before each release, depending on how Ivion is delivered. These posts will be for communicating our stances, plans, and goals for the growing Ivion community. I invite and encourage you to engage in the overall conversation discussing Ivion and what you'd like to see in the future on our Discord, where many Ivion players congregate. Aaron and I are also quite active there. So in anticipation and celebration of Ivion, the people of its community, and the memories it makes for us, let's explore what Ivion has been, everything it is right now, and what it could be in the future. Contents Crowdfunding - Kickstarter, Gamefound, and Ivion's place in them Game Design - The state of Ivion's card design, archetype fulfillment, and metagame Art - How I commission illustrations and what I think about Graphic Design - Our current status and my thoughts on the overhaul Lore - Why we aren't making stories and what I'd like to see in the future Customization - Complexity and design space in how Ivion decks are created Manufacturing - Quality of our releases and what I'd like to improve Products - What we offer and what I'd like to offer Formats - How Ivion is played and how it could be played in the future Organized Play - Musings on how we can create a thriving, consistent community Tabletop Simulator & Tools - Ancillary elements that surround the game and Aldenwar's deckbuilder Exclusives - To exclude or not to exclude and my philosophy What's Next - What the future holds more specifically CROWDFUNDING I want to kick us off (no pun intended) by talking about Kickstarter and crowdfunding platforms. Kickstarter has been a godsend for the project; I can't imagine Ivion would exist right now without it. I am eternally grateful that crowdfunding has allowed projects such as Ivion to come to fruition. The Winter's Bite Kickstarter is going live on August 16th, 2022! Things change over time, however. Kickstarter remains the most powerful force in the industry, but a new platform competes with it. Gamefound is a crowdfunding platform that caters specifically to board games. If it continues to gain traction, Ivion may also make that transition. In many ways, Kickstarter is perfect for small companies like Luminary Games, but it is not without its foibles. Kickstarter lacks a lot of features, which makes running a project more difficult for us. And while Kickstarter is slow to address these challenges, Gamefound is ready to offer solutions. Simply put, Gamefound is something we are actively keeping tabs on. What do you think of Kickstarter? Have you tried Gamefound? What about Indiegogo? It's also possible that Ivion will transition from crowdfunding to a more consistent, wholesale-oriented release cadence, such as working with Team Covenant or even straight to retail. There are clear benefits for this route, as it would allow Aaron and me to focus our energy entirely on making Ivion as awesome as possible, and less so on marketing and designing Kickstarter Campaigns. However, there is something wonderfully personal about the direct connection we have to you all as a crowdfunded game, and we would be remiss to abandon that entirely. But we can cross that bridge when we get to it. For the foreseeable future, I'm very happy to work closely with supporters via crowdfunding platforms. It remains the best way for indie games to find exposure and catalyze their audience. We are a small operation and those of us who work on Ivion wear many hats to get the job done. Your support is critical. Thank you! What do you think about crowdfunding and Ivion's place in it? Would you rather Ivion remain crowdfunded or become a retail product? GAME DESIGN The core of Ivion is its gameplay. Raw, instant, gratifying, combat. From counterspell clashes to heroic haymakers; zoning threats to incisive control, the roads to victory will only grow in number. We are always working and thinking on ways to improve Ivion’s gameplay. This means creating a smooth experience for beginners just as much as it means adding to the elegant, violent, depths of advanced deckbuilding. Like any card game, there are unlimited ways to play and enjoy the game—our goal as designers, publishers, and players ourselves is to make the game its best for anyone and everyone who wants to jump into the action at any level! One of the many amazing things that will continue to change as the community grows is that more eyes will scrutinize the game. More strategies will be discovered and more gameplay avenues will open. We'll all learn more about the game as more perspectives have more to teach us about it, which will enable us to hone it even further. I'd like to talk about how I perceive the current state of the game in the context of our current community. What's working? What isn't? How did Season One go? What about our original box? What kind of changes might we see in the reprints of Winterstorm, and a lot more. Winterstorm Ultimately, I think Winterstorm did a phenomenal job of creating a tight and balanced gameplay environment, given the context of how the game was released. If Ivion drew crowds large enough for organized play, I’m sure that imbalances would reveal themselves. But it is more than suitable for an off-the-shelf experience. There are two major design decisions I would reconsider if I could go back in time. First, whether a class like Druid can be range one, or if we should save fantasy archetypes for creating the classes that people expect from them. Second, I think I would have gotten started on defining a color pie from the get-go. Calbria Calbria sought to undo the slower pace of our first set, transforming Ivion's metagame from a game of outlasting to a game of outpacing. Enchanted terrain replaces difficult terrain, enabling players to move across the board far more freely. Enchanted terrain also meant that Power became more readily available, completely redefining what it means to have a lot of power generation. Calbria was also designed to be an introductory experience, a soft reboot of the game. We intentionally created each specialization to be fairly simple (I’m actively avoiding eye contact with Confuse). Relics, Chivalry, and Unleash were all created with simplicity in mind. Each one is a highly-immersive mechanic that takes advantage of 'piggy-backing'; 'piggy-backing' is the concept that game mechanics are easier to understand when they're linked to evocative themes. We were much more conservative with our card designs and made sure that most new cards were new player friendly. Winter’s Bite Now we're returning to the Skels with Winter's Bite. No longer Winterstorm, it is new and shiny with our updated graphic design, fresh illustrations, card overhauls, and entirely new content, like the Trait Pack and Make-A-Trait cards from the community. Winter’s bite is designed to be a facelift of Winterstorm, not a rework. There are two main goals behind Winter's Bite. The first is to bring older cards into the new format, and the second is to bring older designs into line with contemporary philosophies. Although each archetype’s game plan is unchanged, we want to ensure that every class and specialization brings something new to the table. To this end, we have tuned some numbers and replaced some cards across the set. Winter’s Bite is what we feel represents a fully-realized Ivion product. Looking Forward As we continue to release sets and refine our design and development process, there are a few things I'd like to see shift overall. More instants. First, I think we cut back too much on instant-speed interaction in Calbria. Of course, Knight and its specializations were designed to forego that gameplay to stay honorable, which did work pretty well. Nevertheless, I do think it hurt one of the key components that make Ivion exciting and action-packed; the unpredictability of what your opponent could be hiding, and what they can do to disorient your sequencing. Without instant interaction, Ivion becomes primarily about sequencing your effects. In what order do you play your cards to escape control, maneuver across the board, and deliver your game plan. This is a good thing, but it gains tremendous depth when you need to account for how your opponent can fuss with your turn. Decks must be resilient and capable of performing under pressure. Without it, it can feel a bit flat after many games. One of the most important things about Ivion is its replayability, which we work hard to create as much of as possible. The randomness of relics exemplifies that. Without as much instant interaction, games can, over time, skew too close to the norm. More variance. Some may groan at the thought, but we want Ivion to be a fair bit more random. Right now, a highly-experienced Ivion veteran will rarely be defeated by a novice player. This may sound like a good thing, but it is deceptively dangerous for the better player to always win. Most people won't learn a game they cannot win. Although deck construction games are random by nature, we don't believe this is enough in Ivion. Experienced players still have a massive leg up on their opposition. To make the game more replayable, exciting, and fair to new players, we will strive to make more effects with random elements. Color Pie The color pie is the fundamental system of Magic: the gathering. In Magic, your cards can be one of 5 colors, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Due to Magic’s resource system, you can’t use all 5 colors in one deck. This means that all decks of a particular color share certain characteristics, mechanics, and most importantly, vulnerabilities! Magic’s color system is a big inspiration for Ivion, so we want to explore what Ivion’s color pie could look like. The short answer is that we’re not quite sure yet, but we’ve started to define it. We can’t just divide all mechanical concepts among Ivion’s 6 colors, because the color pie is more than that; it also represents the feelings that each color evokes. We need to decide, for each color, what kind of heroes does this color represent? Once we land on these archetypes, we can start choosing what mechanical strengths and weaknesses each color should have. There will be a lot of exploration necessary. We've begun narrowing down effects and mechanics we'd like to see more or less of in certain colors, only in certain colors or not at all. A good example of this is what colors have access to card destruction. Since the effect is so critical to the game, all colors will have access, but we'd like to take it as an opportunity to make some cards have more efficient destruction than others. This isn’t a direction we are heading simply on a whim, we believe implementing a color pie is incredibly important for the future of this game. With a properly-supported color pie, over time players will learn to recognize, bond with, and appreciate certain color's capabilities, know what they can expect, and generally work towards their character's available colors. It will also help us create a more diverse metagame where not all characters necessarily have access to every tool they'd need at peak efficiency to handle situations. You'll have to emphasize your strengths and dampen your weaknesses as best as possible. An example of something we are planning is in Gray. Moving forward we will be designing Gray to have the least efficient card destruction. The way we can do this while still giving them access overall is to limit gray specialization's access to card destruction, increase the costs of those cards while also improving their effects, or keep their costs low while making the way they destroy cards more narrow. Over time, gray-focused decks will have worse card destruction options than other colors, and the idea is that players would subtly recognize this and associate gray with poor card destruction—and another color, like red, with excellent card destruction! This gets further complicated when you consider Ivion's customization system. Classes and Specializations should have their own themes as well, refining the availability of options you have. To do this, we plan to focus on very specific themes of color or a color combination in the case of multi-colored specializations. We'll take that and carve out a unique identity for that class that fits within the overall color theory it represents. The color pie won't limit the kinds of specializations we can design, but will help inform us on what colors those specializations should be. It'll take a lot of time to fully hone and represent the wide swathe of effects we can assign to each color, but I'm very much looking forward to it! What do you think about the design of Ivion? How would you like to see the game change over time? As new players join us, do you think the way we perceive the game will change as new strategies become uncovered? As we work towards a clear color pie, what colors do you think to represent what mechanics to you? ART The beautiful illustrations and artwork commissioned by our talented artists breathe life into Ivion. Without each of their unique touches, the game would just be complex ideas on otherwise blank pieces of paper. Art is an integral element of what makes Ivion what it is, arguably more important than the gameplay itself. At any given time we're commissioning about three to five artists to create Ivion art. Some of the professionals we work with change over time, some stick around and clearly enjoy working on the project over the long haul. I love working with multiple artists because I feel it portrays the world of Ivion through multiple lenses, not just one. It's exciting to see a character be realized through different minds. I am also privileged to work with so many individuals from so many places in the world—artists from Brazil, India, Indonesia, France, Sweden, Poland, and many other countries have contributed to the project. Working with many artists to create the same style of pieces risks a sense of dissonance; a world portrayed from so many perspectives that nothing fits together. However, I work diligently with our artists to ensure that those elements come together to create one holistic world. That doesn't always turn out amazingly perfect, but I prefer this way over a singular voice. Especially for a game that demands as much illustration work as Ivion does! Ivion's original art style inspiration was Guild Wars 2 concept art. You can find that in a lot of Ivion pieces, such as Verdant Slash, Spitfire, or My Realm. A lot of our artists don't go exactly for that vibe, but that's OK. Folks prefer different styles anyways, so it works out. You can read more about the art direction I work on for Ivion in this post courtesy of Joseph Chen (creator of Fantastic Factories) from a while back. As Ivion and Luminary Games grows, I'll eventually hand the reins of art director off to another, more talented individual than myself. They'll help bring the game into a new era and impart their own, unique vision of the world into the game's DNA. For now, however, it's good ol' me at the helm! Now, there's an elephant in the room regarding our art style and something we addressed a while back: representation of minorities in Ivion. This is a very important topic to us, and we will continue to make strides as best we can towards an equal future where, no matter who you are, you can see yourself in our game and envision yourself as a hero. It's not just about creating characters that anyone can relate to, either. All cultures are worthy of exploration, and many don't get the time in the spotlight they deserve. With our latest trait pack, we'll be exploring many places in the world of Ivion that foreshadow all the wondrous lands we would love to visit in the future. It's a very exciting time and there are still a lot of blanks to fill in, but we can't wait to visit new realms of fantasy that aren't traditionally explored. What if you could play as an Aztec Eagle Warrior? An African Medjay? A Navajo Shaman? A Japanese Samurai? All these concepts can be just as or more exciting and badass than an Arthurian Knight. What do you think of the art in Ivion? How has the representation, or lack thereof, of people of color in the game affected your enjoyment? What kind of art styles would you like to see more or less of? Graphic Design Lucky for us, we still have the pleasure of working closely with Mike Hojgaard (Owner of neue.pink, graphic designer of Fog Love, and of course Ivion). His insight, expertise, and decades of experience in numerous fields have elevated our project to a level we didn't think possible. It's been an honor for Aaron and me to work with him, and we plan to continue working with him as Ivion continues to grow and change. He doesn't poke around often on Discord, but I suspect he'll be talking on our next Kickstarter! We've talked about this before in the past, but it makes sense to reiterate it here. We chose to overhaul our graphic design because we had actually commissioned one of our illustrators to create our graphic design. Now, I believe that he did a phenomenal job for an individual that hadn't done much work on that side of the fence before, but he still had trouble appealing to a wider audience. It nailed the fantasy of Ivion but didn't ultimately invite folks in as much as we'd like it to. We wanted something that felt more modern and approachable. I'm very happy with the holistic graphic themes of Ivion now. A lot more partners have been interested in the game and working with us since the change, so I'd consider it an overall success. We currently have no plans to change the theme and will continue to iterate and improve on the style as we expand the franchise. What do you think of the new graphic design? Would you like to see changes with it or not? Lore What makes the world of Ivion tick? What secrets lie buried in ancient tombs? Who even is this silly Lady everyone keeps talking about? All these are questions that we must direct to the category of lore. Lore in Ivion has waxed and waned. In the beginning, we focused a great deal on fleshing out the lore of the Skels with short stories. Back then, we were all starry-eyed college students dreaming of the next big thing. Now, a lot of us have moved on to new projects and more stable positions. We no longer have the folks on our team that worked hard (and had the capacity) to write fiction that brought the world of Ivion to life. It's unfortunate, but Aaron and I can't consistently deliver exceptional fiction. We'll eventually want to hire someone who can become our 'loremaster' and write creatively for us. For now, we eke out what we can amongst all the other hats we wear. This is the section that writing about hurts my heart the most, as I love reading about the crazy worlds that fantasy games inhabit. I can't wait to reach a place where it's more feasible for us to include lore to a much greater degree than we currently do. One win we had for Season One that I'm very happy about is three unique flavor text snips per card. Because Ivion is delivered in the expandable card game model, we can change each copy of each card we create. It was really fun to write up three unique lines per card that had space for flavor. It puts a smile on my face when someone tells me they noticed it for the first time! Anyways, with all that in mind, I'd like to talk a bit about what our aim was for Calbrian lore. The idea was to keep it nice and light and open to expansion in the future. We set the stage for a lot of different threads. Who is the Lady? Why are the Invokers so angry about the Ley? What secrets do the Archmages guard? Where are the Illusionists from? Why is King Roderic Mayfel gone? Chances are, even if you're an avid player you probably don't know what I'm talking about with at least some of these. But that's okay! There will be a lot more to come next time Calbria comes around and we're more fit to capitalize on this foundation. We wrote the vast majority of Skelic lore quite a while ago and we had a lot of time to do it while we were building the structure of the game. Each Class and Specialization has a very clear role and interacts with many other archetypes. They all have their own perspectives and grudges. I'm quite happy with how it all turned out, as I think it's a fairly unique take on a Viking-esque fantasy realm. We even wrote quite a bit of lore that hasn't seen the light of day. I hope we return to the Skels another time in the future so we can unleash some pretty spicy nonsense. In the future, I'd love to reach a state where we can write fiction more consistently and deliver it on our social media channels and website more efficiently. Cinematic trailers would be an amazing addition, but there are a lot of costs that go into those. For now, the lore will mostly be taking a backseat, though we'll continue to flesh out characters and realms as we release new sets to better prepare the world for grander stories in the future. What did you think about the Calbrian lore compared to the Skelic lore? How would you like to see the lore change over time? Would you like more emphasis on the lore? In what other ways do you think it could be delivered? Customization While customization wasn't originally one of the primary pillars of the game, it quickly became so as we iterated on the project. Aaron and I can definitely say that Ivion’s Customization system is one of the greatest strengths. Customization in Ivion is intended to primary create one unique element of the game and solve one problem. Ivion’s customization system solves a systemic issue with Magic/Hearthstone/Yugioh style deck construction games—only the best cards are played in decks. Every new card printed has to compete with all previous cards ever created. Ivion’s archetype system fixes that. With Classes and Specializations, we further refine what card decks are allowed to run. The ten best cards in Ivion are spread across ten different archetypes, and you can only pick three archetypes. Every card in Ivion is a viable choice because its competition is limited to the 49 other cards in your card pool. In Magic and similar games, you can run all of the awesome cards at once. While this does make for some awesome decks, it doesn't leave a lot of room for the 99% of cards that don't quite pass muster. Not so in Ivion. We simultaneously double-down on the character-construction fantasy of a roleplaying game, roll it up into a hybrid card/fighting game package and deliver it to your door. Nifty, right? Well, yes and no. Ivion’s deck construction rules are also more complex than a game like Magic, which makes it harder for folks to dive into. Many people dislike games where you need to construct a deck to learn to play, but you need to learn to play to construct a deck. Not to mention, is deck construction even very fun? For many, the answer is a resounding “no”. This is an ongoing problem that we'll do our best to mitigate, though one that has and will continue to trouble the genre. Herocrafting was a direct answer to this problem. Smash Up had a cool 'shuffle building' system where you could customize your deck but in its simplest form. Only two choices were required. I thought we could pay tribute to that system, given that one has to make three archetype choices in Ivion, plus a couple of traits. For now, there are no plans to make any major changes to the customization systems in place. Herocrafting has been a success, and full control deck construction is still popular with those who enjoy that. I'm sure we'll find ways to experiment in the future, but we sail steady as we go right now. What do you think of Ivion customization? Is there anything about it you'd like to see changed? Could Herocrafting be improved? Manufacturing The graphic design overhaul of Season One wasn't the only thing that had a massive change. The way Ivion is delivered was also significantly altered. Instead of a singular, massive box, we opted for smaller boxes that told a quicker story. There are quite a few reasons why we made this change, and I'd like to spend some time lending insight into them. There are five reasons that all strongly contributed to our decision of splitting the game up into more bite-sized boxes: price for consumers; Price for us; release cadence; expandability; and finally, approachability. We are a relatively unknown force in the tabletop gaming world. We aren't a big publisher that has years of experience and other titles under our belts. We don't have trusted franchises we're porting to the tabletop world. We're a starry-eyed company bringing our own IP into a difficult genre. These factors all contribute to consumers furrowing their brows a lot more at a larger price point. The ability to dip your toes in for $39 instead of $60 (and far more if we kept our old model) is a nice place to start. Touching more on the $60 price point of the Winterstorm box. That was a horrible financial decision for us! Each box ended up costing about $39 per unit. In the tabletop world, a general rule of thumb is to sell your product at five times your total manufacturing cost to generate a profit. If we were to follow that rule with Winterstorm, we would have instead sold it for $200 per box. That's too much! Especially with my first point in mind, there's no way we could continue to sell a product like that and expect people to take us seriously for the content we'd provide. And as a side note, I know there is a group of folks who, if the cost were less than $200, would gladly say "I'll pay less overall for a single box!" Yes, definitely, I probably would too, as a player. However, the reality is that the group that would do that is the minority—we need to think about retail viability. A window shopper who reads the back and thinks it's intriguing isn't going to be willing to drop $100 + on an unknown competitive card game. But if it's $39 instead, they might pick it up to try. And some of those players will convert into diehard fans who will spend far more than $200 over their time enjoying the game. That works a lot better for us as a company and a community. This model allows for us to fully embrace the 'expandable card game' niche that Ivion fits in. Running Kickstarters for massive boxes of 6 Classes and 12 Specializations would take even longer than it's already taken us to get new projects up and running. The cost of that much art and development time to ensure the set is balanced is quite staggering for our current operation. It's much easier for us to prepare 3 Classes and 6 Specializations each on a more regular basis at the moment. It's also way easier for folks to feel like they're expanding their collection and that they'll constantly have options to improve their choices as we move forward. Even with Season Two's release and especially when Season Three rolls around, having nine boxes available to complete your collection will allow people to go hunting for the specific archetypes they'd like to make characters, then pick and choose what they'd like to add later. It makes the game, as a whole, feel like there is more to discover. Last but certainly not least, the smaller boxes have created a far more approachable environment for new players to try Ivion within. Each box comes with a pre-defined matchup, little stories for players to immerse themselves in, a board catered to that specific duel, and introduction decks designed to introduce core concepts. All these factors combined make Ivion easier to enjoy on your first playthrough, and ensure our long-term success as more players will stick with the game. These reasons combined led to the overwhelmingly clear decision that we should split our product up and swap to this model. I'm happy with how it's going but I know there are still pain points, especially for enfranchised players that would like all content and a way to seamlessly store that content. While the majority of the feedback has been positive, there have also been criticisms. Some are fair, some too demanding, especially with what I stated above in mind. The most prominent one to surface here is the frustration with the storage solutions mentioned above. The good news is that we are working on fixing that in Season Two with the Anthology Box! There are some clear elements that I think could be improved. Firstly, some health trackers didn't fit nicely into the board. That was a big problem, and one we intend to ensure is solved for future printings. Additionally our miniatures don't quite hit the mark, so we are searching for a new sculptor to partner with for Season Three and beyond. Finally, opinions on how the Gametrayz store collections have been mixed, which I think is fair. We're investigating how we can alleviate this issue and create some new, more long-term solutions with larger Gametrayz for the Anthology Box. Something we've already improved for Season Two that I'm very excited for folks to see is the detail and perspective on our boards. Each board has a more unified scale and a lot more fun details that better mesh with the size of our miniatures. What improvements do you think could be made to our physical products? Are there any categories that stand out to you as exemplary or worse than you'd like them to be? Products A lot of new is coming in Season Two! New art, new cards, and most of all, new products! As I mentioned before, products were our focus this season. One could call it the 'Season of Products', though that does give off a bit of a dystopian capitalist vibe... We got a lot of feedback from Season One about products. Folks were excited to have the option to snag some playmats, sleeves, or a storage box. We coulding deliver on those ideas right away, so we took the time between Season One and Two to make a lot of that happen. There will be five add-ons available that won't be making their way to retail on this Kickstarter. Sleeve Pack. This pack will include 93 "skill" card sleeves (the cards you shuffle) and 7 "feat" card sleeves (the cards you don't). There will be enough in each pack to sleeve two Ivion decks with a little extra in case anything goes awry. They come in an Ivion-themed tuck box that can also fit a deck! Trait Pack. This is the gameplay add-on we'll be offering. I'm super excited about it because it will include 11 all-new traits of various color combinations that explore a new trait-only keyword, Charge. We'd like to create new Trait Packs consistently to include with new projects. Our philosophy surrounding these traits is that because they require prior knowledge of the game or more significant buy-in, we can afford to explore wilder concepts with them. That isn't to say they won't be understandable or fun, and some are still very simple. The overall variety should add a lot of options for deck construction! The pack also includes a punchboard for new tokens you'll need and a reminder card to reference for new mechanics. Acrylic Tokens. This pack will include some nice and shiny acrylic plastic versions of the resource, control, and initiative tokens. A simple upgrade to deluxe-ify your Ivion experience even further. Neoprene Playmats. These playmats will be high quality and edge-stitched. They'll feature your choice of the Rune & Rime, Ram & Raven, or Fox & Forest box illustration. Two of them perfectly fit together with a board on top and extra space for holding cards to play a two-player duel! Anthology Box. This will be our shiny new storage box. We're working on creating a new Gametrayz that will be more comfortable and accessible and fit up to six boxes worth of content. It'll also have a separate compartment with some nifty sleeves that will hold your Learn to Play, Rules Reference, and board from each of your six boxes. Sleeve Trove. This is an extra tier I didn't count in the five because it's ten of the Sleeve Packs. We are including this as an option so it will have a discount for bulk orders. Originally we weren't going to do this, but we had to price the Sleeve Pack slightly higher than originally planned because we opted for higher quality printing. We still wanted an overall cheaper option for people that wanted to sleeve their entire collection, so we're going for this as a compromise. While all these new add-ons are mostly an experiment, I'm excited to see what the community thinks. I hope it will be a great way for us to push Ivion further and enable us to continue expanding our operation! There is so much potential for Ivion products in the future it's hard to even know where to begin. Draft Packs? Specialization Packs? Class Packs? Playmat Boards? Pre-Painted Miniatures? Event Decks? 2v2 Sets? Some kind of Boss Rush mode? Solo mode? All and more are on the table, but we have to take it one step at a time. We've locked in on the goodies we're offering for now, but the future is bright for what kind of goodies we can conjure up in the future. What kind of products would you like to see in the future? What do you think of what we're offering in Winter's Bite? Are there improvements you think could be made? Formats As a card game grows, so do the options on how to experience it. The primary way that Ivion is played, believe it or not, is the starter deck experiences. Most people will either only ever play with the introductory decks. It's our job to make that gameplay as smooth and enjoyable as possible so they're excited to keep playing more. As more people take the plunge into the depths of Ivion customization, we will shift our design emphasis towards constructed play. We still put a lot of time and energy right now into making that happen, but the time we spend on constructed testing pales in comparison to the time we spend on intro decks. As the constructed scene grows, so too will the need for a comprehensive rules document. Aaron has resigned himself to writing it some day, but for the time being I can't convince him it's worth his time (it is). Let's swap gears a bit and talk about one versus one relative to two versus two. I love 2v2 Ivion. Truly the ultimate in Ivion experiences to date, two versus two is a brain-burning, epic battle of wits that exemplifies all the work we've put into making Ivion a compelling game. At least, in my opinion! I've immensely enjoyed all two versus two matches I've played and I highly recommend it if you have four players who are all literate in the game. The depth of strategy, ability to defend your ally and focus an opponent down, the board and body-blocking for your friends, how card's effects become more or less powerful, it's all terribly interesting and very fun. We'll likely continue to test the waters and see if we can compel folks to try more two versus two in tournament formats in the future, but there may be too many barriers to entry—at least for now. It will be critical for us to streamline the onboarding process and make the format as appealing as possible without stepping on the toes of one versus one. One versus one constructed will remain the primary way for players to test their mettle and play Ivion. But that may not always be the case! There are other formats out there that may arise, such as the inevitable 'Standard' if we continue making Ivion for long enough. Paragon, where one plays three Specializations instead, remains a dark horse waiting to arrive as well. What kind of formats would you like to see? Do you think additional formats are good for the game? Organized Play Organized Play, or OP, is key to the living card game community. Regular events to prove your mettle, try new ideas, or build within certain restrictions. Juicy, exclusive prizes. An excuse to gather with friends and meet new ones. Magic keeps many stores alive by itself with how many players it grabs and brings out to support their FLGS. Some day, we would love to provide product and support Ivion organized play, but that is still a ways away. Also we have no idea how to do it yet, so that will be a fun challenge to figure out. Personally, I'd love for Season Three to become the season of organized play. Setting up organized play over the next couple of years would be an excellent boon for the game. With a growing player base, we can better support something like a monthly tournament / casual play night, or support stores in setting up their own leagues with achievements and prize support. A larger 'season' of play, probably per each set release, would also be fun. We could allow folks to log games they play during officially sanctioned events, then host tournaments to earn extra points towards prizes throughout the season. It would also be delightful to host a capstone invitational around the time the next season's Kickstarter is running. The best players competing for the ultimate prize each season? With commentary? Sounds awesome! Over time, I think it would be very nice to additionally allow supplemental formats to earn points towards organized play. Including two versus two and other emerging officially supported formats to earn points towards the season would encourage players to play the way they'd like and be allowed to participate in the overall fun. Opportunities for rewards are also very exciting for organized play. Playmats, acrylic tokens, alternate art cards, even promotional miniatures could happen. Because Ivion is an expandable card game and we utilize miniatures, I think there are multitudes of ways we can let players strut their stuff. What would you like to see in organized play? Would you participate in online organized play? Physical? Why or why not? Are there rewards that you think are best suited for organized play? What about ways that organized play is set up? Tabletop Simulator and Tools Ivion has been on Tabletop Simulator since its debut back in 2016. It has been and continues to be an integral part of how we reveal and test new ideas. Originally, we'd print and cut hundreds of cards on printer paper, then sleeve them in front of Magic cards. Those days are long since gone, though it did have a certain charm to it. Regardless, let's talk about Tabletop Simulator and how it assists us in preparing Ivion for everyone! Currently, our Tabletop Simulator mods serve two primary purposes: to exist as a means for players to play games of Ivion from around the world and to exist as a beta testing ground for new sets. Both of these are very useful, though it's possible in the future we may need to more formally separate beta sets from release sets. In another vein, recently a member of the community, Aldenwar, created an amazing tool online for constructing Ivion decks. It keeps an up to date record of cards in the game and automates the process of selecting archetypes. After you've constructed the deck, you can take a look at advanced statistics, like the resource and range distribution, control you apply or are susceptible to, total damage and tons of other nifty factoids. It can also import directly into the Tabletop Simulator mod. Check it out here. Finally, we've spun up a rudimentary Ivion card database on playivion.com/realms. You can search through for any card that is currently released. I'd like to improve it in the future by improving the user experience and eventually finding a way to host a deck construction tool on our own website. What do you think of these tools and what kind of additional tools would you like to see? Exclusives Exclusives, exclusives, exclusives... a double-edged sword that both excites and infuriates players. No one wants to miss out and everyone wants to get in. FOMO is a powerful tool and one I personally believe is overused. We see it a lot in the world of video gaming where predatory 'dark mechanics' dominate the phone market and seep into mainstream culture. Some AAA studios spend their time devising how to (ab)use player's dopamine levels through scientific theory rather than finding the fun and providing excellent experience. In my opinion, this approach takes the soul out of gaming. The tabletop world is different in that we provide physical goods. Everything we sell comes with the real-world guarantee of a box showing up at your doorstep. I've spoken with many folks who think both ways; it's fun for crowdfunding campaigns to have reasons why you would back them now instead of waiting for retail. I've also spoken with folks who grimace at the thought of missing out on everything. I think both perspectives are fair, and I've come to appreciate the exclusive side more as a creator. It does give us additional tools to electrify our audience, and makes folks feel more like they're a part of development, which is cool. For the Winter's Bite Kickstarter, new exclusive content will become available. How and where we offer that exclusive content is something that we'll continue to refine over time as we find a happy balance that the community appreciates the most. Make no mistake: most exclusive products we will offer on kickstarter we'd be happy to bring to retail if we felt we had the means to. With the above in mind, I want to stress that this content won't just be available on Kickstarter. There will be more ways to access it. After the Kickstarter, we'll launch our Pledge Manager and exclusive content will be available there for as long as the Pledge Manager runs. Additionally, as we make our way across America in the convention circuit, we'll bring what promotional content with us that we can and sell it there for con-goers. Something like the set specific Make-A-Trait cards will likely stop appearing as bonuses once we stop selling a given set, but variations of playmats will return. Things like the Trait Pack, Acrylic Token set and Sleeve Pack will possibly make returns depending on demand. We don't want anyone to feel like they've missed out; we want folks to participate and join us when we need support the most. I think those two feelings can seem diametrically opposed at times, but I ask if you feel that way, that you understand where we're coming from as indie developers and work with us to improve our offerings over time. Money is a thing we absolutely have to think about, and not from a 'how much do we have to sell for our new yacht' perspective, more of a 'how much do we have to sell to pay rent' perspective. In the future, I'd like to see both more ways for players to feel like they're customizing their collection and more avenues for players to acquire what we create. As I stated before, Season Two is where we're focusing on expanding our product offering, so this is our first major step towards achieving that goal. It would be cool to see things like Specialization packs with alternate art for their cards as well as two new miniatures choices (one man, one woman). There are many, many more ideas we have and I'm sure many more you guys have on how we could expand Ivion even more and make it exciting to be a fan of. To wrap up this section, I'd like to say that we did purchase a small bulk order of Calbrian-themed playmats to sell at Gen Con and future conventions! We're using this batch as a test run to see how successful that kind of product will be. If you're heading to Gen Con or other cons in the US in the future, ping us and let's see if you can snag one. Plus, it's always fun to meet new people! What are your thoughts and what would you like to see out of Ivion exclusives? What's Next? For the next two months, we'll be completely dedicated to running our Kickstarter, of course. We'll have a lot to talk about and will be engaging with everyone in the comments, hosting let's plays, and staying active on the Discord. Naturally, however, there is more on the horizon! After the Winter's Bite Kickstarter, we plan to focus and push hard to finish all manufacturing work for Season 2 and its supplementary products. There will be quite a bit to do here, as we're not only creating the three new boxes but five new ancillary products as well. This is a big step for us, and was our primary focus to go along with Season 2—improving the product lineup of the Ivion franchise. Once we've given our manufacturer the final clear and production begins, Aaron and I plan to spend some time improving our workflow. To do this, we'll move more of our files to the cloud and future-proof our operation. With that done, we'll be able to continue making content faster so there's less downtime between releases. While all this is happening, we'll be continuing to brainstorm and prepare for our next step. As you might imagine, there will be three more boxes coming after Winter's Bite. Whether that will be the remainder of unreleased Skels content or something new is yet to be determined. I'll be hosting a poll after the Kickstarter ends to parse how people are feeling and where the community would like to go next. It's hard to look so far in the future and say anything with certainty, but what I'd like to focus on improving for Ivion in Season 3 is our organized play. At that point there will be six released boxes and three more on the way, providing numerous options for players to customize and prove their mettle. The community will also have grown, and my current thinking is that it will be an appropriate time to introduce more formal structure to how expert players can find opponents and win rewards. Wow! We really did have a lot to go over here. Thank you for taking the time to read through this post. I'll try to keep next year's "State of Ivion" shorter and focus on expanding my stances here, plus updates on what's changing. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share about what I've written (or really anything else about Ivion, because that is what this was about), please join us on the Discord and discuss with us! In the meantime as we approach the Kickstarter next month, I'll be posting more about our Trait Pack reveal and showing off some neat images plus maybe even a teaser trailer. If you're going to Gen Con, stop by our booth! See you for the Kickstarter, and fingers crossed we can beat our last record of $44,636! And if you're reading from while the Kickstarter is live or afterwards, hello from July 2022! Like us on Facebook Join us on Discord Support us on Kickstarter

It’s your first turn. You’re playing an Errant. You’ve drawn a fist full of melee attacks. You spend your three actions and initiative to advance. You do not live to see turn two. The situation described above is the classic new player mistake in Ivion. Rushing down the battlefield on the first turn often results in a grim fate for the aggressor, who has suddenly opened themselves up for the onslaught of their foe. At its core, Ivion is a competition between two (or four) players. And as with any competition, experience is king. There are numerous ways a seasoned player can gain an edge, and there are several pitfalls that can bring a fledgling hero’s journey to a lethal end. In this article, I’m going to cover some tips that can bring you victory on the field of battle. Move Methodically. Players begin the game six tiles apart. The most common new player mistake is to spend all three actions to charge into the fray. This issue is that almost every viable hero a player can make is able to engage and cripple a player three tiles away. Or, if your opponent feels merciful, they have been given a free turn as their opponent has been kind enough to come to them. Instead, you should take the first turn to generate some power. When making your hero, you will have many options for cards that cost actions and generate power that do not require an opponent to be within range. Pay attention to these kinds of cards, and make sure you have a couple in your deck or feats. Draw Cards Often. Ivion is a game of cards. In order to win the game, players need to play cards from their hand that deal enough damage to defeat their opponent. The more cards in a player’s hand, the more options that player has available for achieving this goal. One of the simplest ways to ensure a steady stream of cards to play is to try and use your Initiative to draw as often as possible. Your position on the board is very important, but if you don't have cards to take advantage of your superior ground, your ground is not superior at all. Save Up Resources. It can be tempting to use all of your actions each turn, but this is often a tactical misstep. As I mention in the previous point, it is beneficial to give yourself as many avenues of attack as possible. The two ways to increase your options each turn are cards and resources. By saving up resources across multiple turns, and hopefully having instant cards at the ready just in case, you expand your choices and enable potentially lethal combos that your foe isn't capable of preventing. Generally, when you can manage your resources better than your opponent, you have control of the game. And control of the game will frequently translate into victory. Remove Control Efficiently. Speaking of resources... It's easy to simply remove Control by spending a resource. However, that's usually not the right call. Often times, there are avenues to escaping the Control without sacrificing too much—saving a card like Tenacity for a tough situation, reserving your Heroic cards for the perfect out, or simply re-structuring in what order you play your cards that turn to slip out unscathed. There are many ways to escape Control effectively, and it's always a unique puzzle based on your hand, the board, and the Control affecting you. Apply Control Incisively. Befuddle is a cheap way to put a lot of Control on your opponent. It feels good to spend an action, gain a power, and hit them with three instances. That's super effective, right? Well... not always. Control is situational. If your melee opponent is right next to you, Slow is far less effective. If your opponent is planning on spending all their actions to run away next turn, Disarm isn't going to do you any good. It is hard to predict what your opponent will do, but applying a great deal of Control all at once is more likely to disrupt their strategy. Try to hold your Control close to the chest, until it will really hurt. And that's that! If you can take these five concepts to heart, you'll be poised for victory. Remember to check out our new Kickstarter, coming September 1st!

When we started laying plans for more Ivion content, we also took this opportunity to tweak and smooth a number of oddities. This article lists the major changes coming to the core rules in our next release. 'Near' and 'Free' When writing rules text for a card, you have very limited real estate to work with. Our first two changes are new wording for old effects that pare down the number of words necessary to explain something. The first change is near. To be 'near' something it to be 'in or adjacent to’ it. Moving forward, instead of using in or adjacent to, near will be used instead. Second is free. When you play a card for 'free’, you are playing that card “Without paying or gaining resources”. Type update In Ivion, cards have types. Previously, there were a full SEVEN types: Instant, Travel, Aura, Ability, Attack, Buff, and Debuff. A card’s types were determined by what that card did. In the new rules, there will only be two: Ability and Attack. The new system is simple: if the card can deal damage to a target as soon as it resolves, then it is an Attack. Otherwise, it is an Ability. One of our main goals when we updated the Ivion card format was to remove unnecessary information on cards. It was very rarely relevant that the Huntsman’s “Runic Slaughter” was an “Ability Attack Debuff Ultimate”. One of the removed card types, ‘Travel’ does appear on a number of cards, such as the Ultimates of Wilder and Ancient. In these cases, a ‘Travel’ card is any card whose effect causes a player to “Travel”. Feats One of the big changes coming is how players qualify for Feats. Previously, a “monocolored” archetype would count as 2 instances of that color for the purposes of qualifying for feats. So an Ancient Giant Druid’s colors would be “4 red, 2 green”. We are changing this. Monocolored archetypes now will only provide 1 color towards qualifying for Feats. That same Ancient Giant Druid’s colors now are “2 red, 1 green”. As part of this change, we are removing a color pip requirement from each monocolored Feat in the first set. Moving forward, Feats that would have required 2 instances of a color will now only require one. This means that Jarl can now qualify for Resilience even if it does not have a gray Class. Playing Cards We are changing when players pay Resources during card resolution. Previously, a card’s Resource costs were only paid upon the card’s resolution. But between the card being played and resolving, those resources were ‘allocated’. Allocated resources were nebulously neither spent nor in a player’s Resource pool. We are removing this middle step. When a card is played, Resources are immediately spent. If that card is Meta-Countered, its controller gains back the Resources spent to play it. For the card-slinging aficionados reading, this has some notable gameplay implications. Since Control is removed whenever a player spends any Resource, under this change Control is removed as soon as a card is played, even if it is later Meta-Countered. This change speeds up gameplay by allowing the active player to immediately remove control instead of waiting for their opponent’s response, reduces complexity by removing the awkward and rarely relevant “allocated” Resource status, and increases interaction by allowing players to remove response-blocking Control upon playing rather than upon resolution. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out our new Kickstarter, entering the fray on September 1st, 2020!

Hello! I'm Aislyn, one of the creators and designers of Ivion: The Herocrafting Card Game. Thanks for joining us! Our next Ivion Kickstarter is launching very soon, and it's time to introduce the concept of Herocrafting. Now, you may be wondering: what's a 'Herocrafting' card game? It's not a term used elsewhere, but does it have any substance? Does it mean anything specific, or add anything to the genre? The answer to these questions is yes! First, let's start with context. Oftentimes, when folks think of a card game—especially a competitive one—they think complex, difficult to learn, and even more difficult to enjoy 'properly'. Making your own deck in these games is very difficult, requiring immense knowledge of the game's mechanics. It's easy to accidentally create a deck doesn't even function. It can be even more painful with smaller card games, as you can't look up a meta to learn what's best or most fun. Because of the myriad hurdles to make your own deck, you may not even enjoy making your own deck, which can be a huge turn-off to the entire game. Originally in our first product, we had no means to overcome this challenge—Ivion suffered from the problems laid out above. However, our soft '2nd edition' addresses this with the Herocrafting system. When creating an entirely custom deck in Ivion, you must choose two classes, one specialization, and two special powers to compliment your character. Each card choice is yours, and you'll need to ensure you have enough attack cards, as well as enough defense, destruction, movement, and counter cards to make your character powerful. It's all a lot to take in. Enter Herocrafting. Instead of picking each card yourself, you simply must choose your one specialization that looks or sounds cool, then two classes to compliment it. Those three choices define a new character that you can construct. That's it. After you've chosen your three 'archetypes' (one specialization and two classes), you'll need to find each card within those archetypes that has the Herocrafting icon—the forging hammer. There are exactly enough cards within each of these archetypes to create a complete deck, cutting out the choice paralysis of constructing a deck from scratch. We've meticulously chosen each of the Herocrafting cards within each archetype to ensure any combination will have enough attacks, defense, counters, movement, anything you'll need to be an effective hero on the battlefield. And the greatest beauty of all of this is that you don't lose your agency. You still make choices and create your own hero, but you don't need intimate knowledge of the game to do so. Picking up all three products among our new boxes that include it net you the necessary cards to utilize the Herocrafting system. Within those boxes are thirteen combinations, creating the possibility of many characters right from the start. Even with one more Kickstarted set of boxes, we'll unlock dozens of more possible Herocrafted characters waiting to be unleashed! I hope that the Herocrafting system appeals to you! Thanks for reading, and may you find the most absurd and amazing characters made possible by this feature. We look forward to you joining us in our Kickstarter, launching September 1st, 2020, and as always, thank you for your support!

Explore the red specialization of Calbria in this reveal! Invokers focus on dealing variable amounts of damage with Unleash, gaining massive amounts of power, and Invoking their cards randomly for incredible swings. Feel free to discuss the Invoker's mechanics below!

Check out the second Specialization story of Calbria by Aislyn Hall! After many months of work, the Astirith Academy had stolen something that Lucias had worked towards acquiring. And he would take it back, no matter the cost...

Explore the White Specialization of Calbria in this reveal! Saints focus on gaining the powerful Relics, enduring throughout the battle with faith and healing, and dealing massive damage with brutal greatsword swings at the right time. Feel free to discuss the Saint's mechanics below!

Check out the first Specialization story by Jake Dardzinski! Sir Gawain has decades of experience under his belt, but a new threat has wormed its way into the courts of Calbria. He's unmasked the culprit, and must now do the Lady's work...

Explore the Blue Class of Calbria in this Ivion reveal! Wizards focus on playing their cards efficiently with Cantrip, dealing heavy damage at a long range, and manipulating their cards and Resources with various effects. Feel free to discuss the Wizard's mechanics below!

Check out the third and final Class shorty story by Glenn Anderson! Lynette is a new student of the Academy, and is finding it troublesome to begin casting blue magic—red magic just seems so much easier! But her instructor has a few tricks up her sleeve...

Explore the Red Class of Calbria in this Ivion reveal! Sorcerers focus on gaining tremendous amounts of Power and Unleashing their cards to deal massive damage. Feel free to discuss the mechanics of the Sorcerer below!

Like a lot of other games on the market, before a game begins, you'll build a deck in Ivion. The thing is, it's not quite a deck. Or a character. It's both! If you're not into that, no worries. You can find some starter decks here. If you are into that, let's talk about how the rules actually work. It's pretty cool. There are quite a few ways you can approach deck construction, but we'll pick and choose one formula to instill you with essential knowledge. I call deck construction in Ivion the Archetype System. The core of building a deck is that you'll be picking three archetypes. Some Archetypes are Classes and others are Specializations. If you've played an RPG like World of Warcraft, this will come naturally. At the bottom middle of most Ivion cards is the Archetype they belong to. In the example below, the cards on the left belong to the Warrior Class and the cards on the right belong to the Steward Specialization. How do I know which one is a Class and which a Specialization? Well, the Class cards have a golden border while the Specialization cards have a platinum border. There you go! Well... what's the difference between a Class and a Specialization besides a name? A Class has a larger pool of cards to choose from than a Specialization. More on that later. Specialization cards are generally more focused and feel more powerful, while Class cards help add core aspects of playing Ivion to your deck: damage, healing, interaction, resource generation, stuff like that. If you like thinking of things in terms of a character, your two Classes are your character's core development, while their Specialization is their powerful focus. Anyone can be a Warrior, but only a chosen few can become a Steward. Now, at this point, you don't really need to know anything about a Specialization to pick one. Choose it based on how cool its art is, or the name. Set that pile of Specialization cards aside. One of them will look different... The card on the left is the Steward Specialization's Ultimate card. This card has a different format because it exists in the Feat Zone. Unlike the rest of the cards you'll be choosing, this card won't be shuffled into your deck. It will be available to you at all times during the game! Some Ultimates are passives, which means they'll always be active. Usually, they grant you a permanent, powerful bonus, or a one-time boost. After you've chosen a Specialization, you'll need to choose a Class. You can choose two Classes if you'd like, but that isn't necessary to build a deck. Set your chosen Class(es) aside in their own piles. Classes don't come with inherent Ultimates like a Specialization does. One of your Classes must have a color at the bottom left or bottom right of each of its cards that matches one of the colors in the same places on your Specialization cards. Now, you have two (or three!) Archetypes in front of you. The time to build your deck has come! A few additional rules to get you started: you can have a max of three copies of the same card in your deck. You'll need exactly 15 Specialization cards and 30 Class cards. If you have two Classes, those Class cards can be in any combination from both Classes. There are some good things to keep in mind while building a deck, which you can find in here. If you'd rather not, the two most important things are to put in a lot of cards that generate power and put in a lot of cards that deal damage. Once you've chosen 45 cards, you can set the remaining Class and Specialization cards aside. It's on to choosing your two Traits! Something to note before choosing your Traits is that each of your Archetypes contributes two color bars to your deck's identity. If you chose Warrior as your Class and Steward as your Specialization, you'd have four gray color bars. Traits, like Ultimates, exist in the Feat Zone. They're outside of your deck, never shuffled in. They to choose a Trait for your deck, you must have an equal or greater amount of color bars in your deck's identity of that color. To pick a double gray Trait, Warrior or Steward would suffice. To pick a triple gray Trait, you'd need both Warrior and Steward, or another source of gray from another Class or Specialization. And that's the basics on how to build a deck! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below. If you think you're ready to move on to what makes a deck cool and interesting, check out this article.

Check out the new short story by Jake Dardzinski!

Explore the White Class of Calbria in this Ivion reveal! Knights focus on melee damage, the Chivalry mechanic, and gaining powerful Relics. Feel free to discuss the mechanics of the Knight below!

Check out the first Knight short story by Glenn Anderson!

Need a deck to try out the game? Well, you're in the right place. These decks can all be built from our first product release, Ivion: Winterstorm. If you need a refresher or a quick-start on the rules, check out the back page of the rulebook provided with your copy, or in the Tabletop Simulator mod. STEWARD The Steward raises his shield high, focusing on staying alive first, and crushing his foes under the iron weight of his hammer second. He is a range 1 character that must get close in order to deal damage. Ultimate - Shield Slam Traits - Strike and Hold Steward Cards 3 Hammer Strike 3 Banner of the Steward 2 Crushing Weight 2 Determination 2 Split Bone 1 Hammer and Anvil 1 Shield Bash 1 Reflect Warrior Cards 3 Tenacity 3 Challenge 3 Banner of the Warrior 3 Crush 3 Battle Lust 2 Duck 2 Block 2 Fight with Honor 2 Careful Strike 2 Seize the Day 2 Lame 1 Warrior's Slash 1 Dismember 1 Intimidate This deck is provided within the box, so no need to build it if you're just opening your copy. WINTERBORN The Winterborn commands icy power with deadly mastery. She keeps foes at bay by slowing them down, then finishes them off in a flurry of hail and snow. She is a range 2 character that relies on control to win. Ultimate - Winterburst Traits - Icicle and Fragments Winterborn Cards 3 Snowclutch 3 Winterheart 3 Ice Flurry 2 Blizzard 1 Freeze 1 Frigid Gale 1 Frostbite 1 Shiver Cryomancer Cards 3 Sleet Blast 3 Attrition 3 Icebolt 3 Snowslide 3 Rime Shock 2 Snow Blast 2 Wintertide 2 Glacialize 2 Flash Freeze 1 Avalanche 1 Hailstorm 1 Coldshape 1 Thin Ice 1 Cryostasis 1 Everfrost 1 Frostsnatch This deck is provided within the box, so no need to build it if you're just opening your copy. JARL The Jarl fears no man, wielding his massive claymore almost as if it were a toy. He may charge into battle with little care, but he is as difficult to kill as he finds ease in slaying others. He is a range 1 character that must get close in order to deal damage. Ultimate - Heraldic Mail Traits - Beneath Me and Punch Jarl Cards 2 Banner of the Jarl 2 Vanquish 2 To the Fray 2 Bladeblock 2 Overwhelm 1 Backhand 1 Succeed 1 Dominance 1 Spit Upon 1 Conquer Giant Cards 3 Clobber 3 Demolish 3 Fault Line 3 Munch 3 Stunning Blow 3 Toss 2 Bumble 2 Grab 2 Smash 2 Giantskin 1 Enrage 1 Raze 1 Thinking Time 1 Giant's Strength You'll need to construct this deck in order to play it. EBON MAGE The Ebon Mage has gained power over disturbing, dark magic. He flings spells from afar and curses his enemies with vile sorcery. He is weak, but capable of dealing massive damage if left unchecked. He is a range 3 character that must maintain distance in order to survive. Ultimate - Night Infusion Traits - Curseweave and Howls of the Lost Ebon Mage Cards 3 Ebon Bolt 2 Shadowfeed 2 Blackout 2 Shadow Lance 2 Nightfall 2 Ill Omen 1 Taint 1 Doom Hex Witch Cards 3 Raven Bolt 3 Dark Litany 3 Life Drain 3 Black Flight 3 Pain Hex 3 Feel the Signs 2 Raven Sight 2 Feel the Signs 2 Ravenshift 1 Cursebolts 1 Harrow 1 Withering Curse 1 Spirit Siphon 1 Black Magic 1 Curse of Dementia 1 Bewitch 1 Witchcraft You'll need to construct this deck in order to play it. Whether you're using these to help teach a friend or need some more spice in learning how to play, I hope you enjoy these decks! Hit up the comment section for any suggestions or comments.

Curious about what the coming months are going to mean for Calbria? Look no further! We've done some brainstorming, and we've got a plan to share with you. Please keep in mind that all of this information is subject to change. We're a small group, we're doing our best, and chances are, if what happened doesn't line up with this post, we've got a reason. Feel free to approach or comment on this post if you find that to be the case! Calbria was announced last week, and it's been super exciting. We're gearing up for some big content drops, and I'm excited to share some insight on how we'll be approaching that. Each Monday, you'll find a new illustration from concept to final, and a brief bit of insight on its creation on our Instagram feed. Each Wednesday, you'll find a new post here at www.playivion.com about one of two things: The brief lore introduction to a new Class or Specialization, or a mechanics introduction. With the lore introduction will be new art to check out and insight into the kingdom of Calbria, while the mechanics will be heavier, involving gameplay, and show off some of the new cards you've been waiting for. Each Friday, you'll find a new illustration on Facebook and be able to participate in a silly caption forum. Beyond that, as we near closer to completion of Calbria, we'll be streaming Tabletop Simulator games each Saturday. You'll get glimpses of cards we've shown off, and potential decks and match-ups that you could play in. Every other Sunday, there will either be an Ivion Development Diary where members of the team talk about the experiences, challenges and innovations we've made while working on Ivion, or Design & Conquer, a less Ivion focused discussion where Aaron and I talk about gaming in general. There's much more than this, but it involves things that aren't quite ready to be announced, or one off announcements that we're not ready to show to the world. A few other important things to note, however... The current plan is to launch our Kickstarter sometime in April. That is completely subject to change without notice, as it entirely depends on the state of the game and our Kickstarter page. We're not going to launch until we're ready. We'll also be launching all content on Tabletop Simulator, completely free to play, in concurrence with the Kickstarter launch. Same as before. Because we love you. <3 Sometime early next year, we'll begin 'Spoiler Season', where we'll show off a new card every weekday in some capacity or another. Entire archetypes and deck potential will be clear in no time! We've also got some big plans for packaging, how components are laid out, and ultimately how Ivion is played in a physical space. More on that later. So, join us as we march towards the Calbria Kickstarter. Get your friends into Ivion. Get your local game store owner into Ivion! We've got a wild journey ahead of us, and it's going to be a lot of fun.