Frosthaven has launched on Kickstarter - Gloomhaven sequel goes cryogenic

The Kickstarter for Frosthaven - the highly-anticipated sequel to the 2017 tabletop behemoth Gloomhaven - has now launched, and it has raised over $5 million in the first 24 hours.

As with its predecessor, backers can expect to receive a gargantuan box chock full of sumptuously sculpted miniatures, map boards, scenario books, cards, tokens, dials, tiles & more. While the gameplay will be similar to Gloomhaven, there are some pretty exciting differences; two in particular have caught our eye here at Cthulhu Reviews. There is a puzzle book that players solve as they progress through the game. This will require them to pay attention to such things as a small detail from the artwork or a clue secreted deep in a scenario, and will reward players with the strange, dark history of the Northern Coast. Frosthaven also introduces a new Seasons mechanic. The campaign will cycle through two seasons: Summer and Winter. The game begins in Summer, which plays out like Gloomhaven, and then moves to Winter, when the game becomes harder and the environment far more dangerous.

Here's the full lowdown from the publishers to whet your frosty appetite further:

Frosthaven is the story of a small outpost far to the north of the capital city of White Oak, an outpost barely surviving the harsh weather as well as invasions from forces both known and unknown. There, a group of mercenaries at the end of their rope will help bring back this settlement from the edge of destruction.

Not only will they have to deal with the harsh elements, but there are other, far more dangerous threats out in the unforgiving cold as well. There are Algox, the bigger, more yeti-like cousins of the Inox, attacking from the mountains; Lurkers flooding in from the northern sea; and rumors of machines that wander the frozen wastes of their own free will. The party of mercenaries must face all of these perils, and perhaps in doing so, make peace with these new races so they can work together against even more sinister forces.

Frosthaven is a standalone adventure from the designer and publisher of Gloomhaven that features sixteen new characters, three new races, more than twenty new enemies, more than one hundred new items, and a new, 100-scenario campaign.

In addition to having the well-known combat mechanisms of Gloomhaven, Frosthaven will feature much more to do outside of combat, such as numerous mysteries to solve, a seasonal event system to live through, and player control over how this ramshackle village expands, with each new building offering new ways to progress.

Characters and items from Gloomhaven will be usable in Frosthaven, and vice versa:

As revealed during PAX 2020, Frosthaven will be interchangeable with the original Gloomhaven board game. To an extent, anyway. Namely, you can use Gloomhaven's characters in Frosthaven and vice versa. What's more, some of the first game's items will become available throughout the sequel.

It looks very much like Isaac Childres and Cephalofair Games have done it again!