The comet giveth, and the plague taketh away

A whole year has passed since our last update here and while the world is in turmoil, only little has changed for the setting. 

We had high hopes for 2020 including the plan for a Sealed City invitational. But with the emphasis on social distancing due to Covid-19 regulations, we just managed to play a measily four games of Mordheim that year.

On the bright side, we found the time for some work on the pdfs and missing rules, got in contact with new playtesters and finally took part in the Mordheim warband creation competition over on Facebook - judged by the man himself, Tuomas Pirinen.

We submitted three of our warbands: The Brood of Ghurash, the Clockworkers and the Silent Brotherhood. Those were the most refined and up-to-date ones, so we threw some special pdfs with designers' notes, pictures and additional rules into the fray.

Over 40 competition entries were judged by Tuomas Pirinen regarding rules, quality of presentation, creativity, supporting material and finally (as a kind of tie-breaker) how well the warbands fit the original setting.

We probably lost some points on that last criterion, but nonetheless our Clockworkers were awarded the second place!

Apart from the joy of winning itself, this means a small part of the setting gained the rules grading 1c Experimental. Described as Not released by Games Workshop, but approved of and vouched for by professional rules designers (designers who have created level 1a and/or 1b rules) this is the highest rating fan-made content is able to achieve compared to most such content being handled as 2 Reliable or even just 3 Draft.

This is a huge step and has also led to more exposure for the Sealed City as more players become aware of the setting and interested in our work.

We're currently working on old and new content for the setting including the re-work of an unreleased warband, so expect some more life signs coming in 2021 while all our lives steer once again towards normality.

With the passing of years

It has been quite some time. For the setting and also the game itself. 

20 years have passed since Mordheim's initial release and most of the team were there from the start. More than six years since we created the first brainstorming document for the Sealed City.

About two years since our last official update here on the blog.

We had big plans for the anniversary year, even a special Sealed City event in the fashion of those lovely invitationals of Inq28 & AoS28 was being discussed. Alas, with the year's end looming on the horizon this won't happen in 2019, but that's only a pleasure deferred!

Even though we didn't release more content on official channels the setting got a lot more traction - most certainly thanks to its listing on Broheim  amongst all those other splendid settings out there.

We also participated in Tuomas Pirinen's scenario competition in the Mordheim facebook group earlier this year and even though we didn't make it to the winner's podium, we received the honours of a special mention  by Tuomas himself for our Ill Angles scenario as the 

"[...] freshest, most creative scenario idea [he has] seen in ages!"

We're not going to lie - that was an incredibly huge motivational push and inspired us to revisit the Sealed City once again. Regardless of the team's really tight work and private schedules we talked about the setting itself, the raison d'être of some warbands and of course a whole lot of other content.

In the end we achieved some minor progress, welcomed a new story writer to the team and will be able to get some new releases done in 2020.

Speaking of releases, as a small foretaste we added something to the download section along with this blog post. In the scenario Gateways your warbands pass through a densely built-up area with a strange twist on how doors work...

Also on a sidenote: You may have noticed that new button in the sidebar. We implemented a feedback option using UserReport for all your questions and suggestions. This is kind of a shot in the dark, but it may be helpful to offer you some more interaction.

Expect another update to our roadmap and keep an eye out for the things to come next year.

The foretold shadows have arrived

As promised earlier this month, our new content is here! 

Head over to our download section to get your hands on all those shiny new pdfs or take your time and read a bit about what you'll get with this update.

Setting rules

First of all we have the Ambitions, which shape your warband's aims for the campaign and both grant interesting bonuses as well as eventually a condition to win the campaign. 

In Lost & Found we offer rules for all those dangerous clockwork weapons and other new equipment including a full trading section to arm your warriors between games.

Scenarios

One new 'basic' scenario is Ill Angles, a rollercoaster ride as the laws of nature and gravity itself become the warband's biggest foes.

Pillage is the first ring's special scenario in which your warriors can loot the remains of the city's former crafting district, whereas your warband needs to access the city's fourth ring to get access to The Great Library. But beware - all that knowledge might prove dangerous!

Hired Swords

Pirates and Mercenaries get support in the form of the Ogre Cannoneer (and his scary swivel gun). The other two sellswords, however, are surprisingly both non-combatants.

A Cartographer allows you to chart the city's labyrinthic layout and derive a benefit out of his maps. The Reactivated archivist on the other hand grants you an advantage against observed enemy warbands and helps exploring the city's depths.

Warbands

Finally we'll get to the spicy part as The Silent Brotherhood steps out of the shadows to stalk your opponents and eliminate their precious warriors. 

Tweaks & Patches

This would be a really long list, so some major points only:

• Layout changes throughout all pdfs.
• The Freelance Engineer vanished to make room for the Clocked Crook, a suspicious saviour of his fellow constructs.
• Removing mutations became more dangerous (now on par with regular surgery).
• The Clockworkers' Alchemist changed his speciality to metallurgy and left all that alchemy to the wizards in gold.
• Phobia clarifications for all that spreading insanity.
• Various clarifications and lots of proofreading in every single pdf.
• [...]

Great events are often foreshadowed

It's been some while since our last update, but we can assure you that we're not going to break with our tradition of at least one big update a year.

Currently we have two documents full of setting rules, three scenarios, three hired swords and one warband in the pipeline to be released this month. Additionally all existing documents will get a small overhaul both rules- and layout-wise.

And if you are lucky (i.e. if we find the time to finalise some other half-finished things), there will be even more for Christmas...

So stay tuned for more than two dozen pages of new Sealed City content this year so you can enjoy the cold weather with a good read about clockworks, madness and mayhem.

The Path to Glory

Or rather the way to a finished supplement in this case is indeed a long one, so we made a little map for that journey. From now on you can access the current state of the project on the Roadmap tab above, which allows you to keep track with our progress.

Some setting parts like additional scenarios are still missing, as there are no corresponding drafts yet, and will be added as soon as we make them up.

The lack of deadlines is indeed intentionally as our available time and motivation dedicated to the project isn't really predictable on a longer term and so a milestone-based roadmap will serve everyone way better - less pressure for us and no disappointment from passed deadlines for you.

So long, enjoy the current content and look forward to future updates.

Another year, another update

Things are progressing slowly these days but nonetheless we offer you again three new previews on our setting's content.

Entwined with the basic mood, the Madness rules are an integral part of the Sealed City albeit being thinned out from the more cartoonic results. Especially the Ambition 'Fear the Abyss' makes good use of these rules, but so do some scenarios, several results on the exploration chart and other chapters.

Next the Warlock engineer gets company in the form of two additional hired swords - the Maiden guide, a native who helps with her knowledge about the Sealed City and a Freelance engineer who becomes handy when fighting clockwork constructs.

And finally another warband makes its entrance: The three financiers' House Guards protect the members of the Houses Fierezza, Halcon and Baluardo as well as enforcing their employers' interests throughout the city. 

Additionally we will put a small roadmap online in the next few days so you can see which parts of the supplement have come how far and what is to be expected next.

Mutated previews

In our first update this year, we bring you some serious mutant powers to the download section. Dark and twisted things lurk in the dark, but it is told that most of them where considered normal before their numerous rolls on the Stygian Mutations chart.

To get some of the real horrors onto the gaming table, this update features a matching warband preview: The Brood of Ghurash. The Great Mother's warped offspring are the real natives of the Sealed City and unwilling to share their domain with someone on a lower step of their food chain.

While you had to wait some time for this update, we present you a little teaser of the setting's upcoming Ambitions:

• Fear the Abyss (The dark is full of terrors.)
• Kings' Greed (Money. Power. Dominion.)
• Knowledge is Power (The Inner Sanctum is the key.)
• Protect and Serve (The truce must be maintained.)
• Purge the Intruders (The city's secrets may not be unveiled.)
• Reign from Shadows (Pulling strings, cutting throats.)

So have some fun with the twisted 'gifts' your warbands may receive within the Sealed City and stay tuned until the next update, when we also start twisting their minds...