Draft:Gloomfighters

"Gloomfighters" (Russian: мракоборцы, transliteration: mrakobortsy) – a collectible card game (CCG) or trading card game (TCG) (also positioned by the authors as a strategic card game) in the setting of Slavic mythology, published in 2015 in the St. Petersburg publishing house "Squirel".. with a circulation of 1000 copies. The authors of the game are Ilya Butov and Mikhail Petrovsky from Belarus. It turned out to be one of the first Belarusian games in the CCG/TCG genre. The funds for the publication were raised through a crowdfunding platform Ulej.by (now closed). The illustrations for the board game were drawn by Evgenia Sharafetdinova, Anastasia Melekh and Natalia Yurcha. According to the Tesera website, the average score of the game is 5.90.

In "Gloomfighters", the player forms his deck of 41 cards from one of three types of characters – the Church, Dark magicians and Wood children. The player is personified by the Overlord (an Attorney of the Church, a Worldly magician and the Owner of the forest, respectively), who has 20 hit points. During the game, depending on the conditions on the table, each player can bring out one of the three Viceregent whose abilities effect all creatures of a certain faction.

History of creation
The game was created since 2006 by about ten people (in addition to the creators, illustrators and game designers, there were also consultants from among folklorists). The plot of the game is based on folk legends, myths and legends of Belarus and neighboring countries. Numerous expeditions conducted by one of its creators allowed us to collect a wealth of material, including mystical rituals of our ancestors, pagan traditions, folklore, sacred geography. The game mechanics are based on the features of collectible card games, popular at the beginning of the 2000s. For the first time, a prototype of the game was presented by its developers at the annual All-Belarusian role-playing convention "Menescon" (Minsk, April 5–6, 2008). For two days, anyone could play the game in the board games section of the festival. Thanks to the feedback received, some mechanics have been adjusted. In June 2015, the final version of the game was presented at the first board game developers conference in Belarus – Igrosturm, and in October of the same year – at the Igrokub festival in Grodno. At the same time, different media such as Onliner, Vogs , Naviny etc. wrote about the planned release of a new board game. On June 1st. 2015 the presentation of Ilya Butov's first novel "Gloomfighter", which is set in the fictional universe of the game, was held in the bookstore "Presentation" in Minsk. The launch of a crowdfunding campaign on the site Ulej.by was also announced there. In June, the creators of the site Ulej noted the game as "modern, smart, but at the same time an original game with a national flavor" At the same time, the project "Gloomfighter" was selected among the three best among those that were presented at the site. In July 2015, the project collected the necessary funding. In December 2015, the game was published by the Russian publishing house "Squirel". The authors decided to distribute a couple dozen copies of them to reviewers who could review it.

In April 2016, the presentation of the board game took place in the Grodno club "Portal". It was planned to add new factions and combat mechanics to future sets. In June 2016, the authors started looking for volunteers to translate the game into Belarusian.

The main advantage of the "Gloomfighters", according to the columnist Artem Platonov, is that "it is a domestic Magic the Gathering with a correspondingly lower price and a native background" Among the disadvantages, he noted – the material of the box, the dry presentation of the rules and the fine print on the maps. Other observers noted that the "Gloomfighters" will appeal to those players who love Belarusian folk tales, legends and history. The illustrations of the game, made in a very distinctive manner and the quality of the print were also noted. Columnist Pavel Maksimov (MaxiPavel) notes the good material of the box, clear rules, but small print and the need to use protectors for cards. The game itself, as noted, develops logical and strategic thinking.

From December 10, 2019 to May 31, 2020, Ilya Butov and Vladislav Markevich, with the support of the Author.today portal, held a contest of short literary works taking place in the universe of the game "Gloomfighters"

General rules and features of mechanics
The rules of the game resemble, in general, other CCG/TCG. However, there are some differences. For example, the playing field is divided into portal and camp zones. The camp is needed to accumulate resources. The portal is the zone in which the battle takes place (only from the portal creatures can resist the enemy creatures and cause damage to their heroes). The creatures being played immediately enter the camp and only in the next turn they can be transferred to the portal, which is achieved due to the rule of the initial state of the card when played – the card enters the battlefield rotated (unfolded cards cannot move between zones). There is an infinite number of slots for creatures in the camp, but there are only 7 of them in the portal. The main task for winning the game is to reduce the amount of health of one of the players to zero, provided that each player receives 20 health units at the start.

Fractions
The Church is one of the main factions in the game, which consists of people with different characteristics (priests, warriors, knights and merchants). The Church spreads Faith (its religion) to the pagan population, converting adherents of old dogmas into their own kind. At the head is the Overlord (the Attorney of the Church), and the three Viceregents sacredly observe all his prescriptions. The type of impact is auras.

Dark magicians – this faction is mostly composed of undead, spirits and demonic creatures of the Otherworld, as well as people with supernatural abilities. Thanks to the possession of the most destructive witchcraft of this country, magicians can resist any attacks and even conduct quite successful sorties. The main advantages of the faction are the suddenness of the attack, the cheap Mithril cost and numerous bonuses received at night. The type of exposure is witchcraft.

The Wood children are a faction that inhabits forests and swamps (mainly beyond the Chronus River) and consists of beasts, spirits, undead and people with supernatural abilities. The witch doctor of this faction are the enemies using the power hidden in various plants (rainbow moss, gap-grass, moon foxtail, etc.), objects and some forest objects accumulating astral energy (witch circle). The type of exposure is plants.

The Submontane little people are a faction inhabiting the mountains, foothills and Lake Islands of the north, which was not included in the main starter kit and is planned in subsequent reissues. On some cards of the desktop version, you can find a mention of "mechanisms" that did not appear in the starter kit, but would appear in further sets.

Impacts
There are three types of influences in the game – auras, witchcraft and plants, some cards also mention the fourth type of influences – mechanisms that, as the authors said, should have appeared in the following sets.

Auras are a type of influence of the Church faction. There are 4 auras in the game: Holy Honor, Holy Protection, Holy Spirit, Holy Treasury. Auras allow you to get additional Mithril, reduce the Mithril cost, save Mithril on the maintenance of creatures or strengthen friendly troops (human or priests). To maintain cards of this type, it is necessary to have friendly priests in the game.

Witchcraft is a type of map of the effects of Dark Magicians. It consists of powerful spells that allow you to attack (Magic Strike, Dead’s Revenge), bring Mithril (Dead Man’s Treasure), make the move nocturnal (conversion), make flying creatures unblockable (fog), take control (conversion), and also resurrect and return already used witchcraft cards (Dead Rising, Open Graves). To maintain cards of this type, it is necessary to have at least one magician in the game.

Plants are a type of impact map of Wood children. Some plants allow you to return cards of a similar type from Another world (gap-grass), strengthen, regenerate beasts or play them at a low price (periwinkle, rainbow moss, moon foxtail, witch circle), heal friendly creatures (plantain), unfold plants (wood spirit), as well as bring Mithril or reduce Mithril the cost of some creatures (blooming fern). To maintain cards of this type, it is necessary to have at least one healer in the game.

Mechanisms are the planned type of impact map of the Submontane little people faction. It was not presented in the starter kits, but it was not indicated on some maps (for example, on the map of the Indrik-Beast, werecat, etc.).

Starter Kits
Creature and impacts cards form a game deck (37 cards). A total of 114 different characters were created for the game. In the game released in 2015, it was proposed to use already formed starter kits with the following composition (the Overlord, 3 Viceregents and 41 creature cards) :

Church: Attorney of the Church (Overlord), Elected Tactician (Viceregent), Consecrated Merchant (Viceregent), Church Leader (Viceregent). Cards: archer (2), deacon (2), bishop (2), skirmisher (2), inquisitor (2), cavalier (2), swordmaster (1), paladin (2), pikeman (3), novice (2), bard (2), knight (1), otherworld scout (1), tax collector (4), Holy spirit (1), Holy protection (2), Holy treasury (3), Holy Avenger (1), wandering monk (1), cleaner of souls (1).

Dark magicians: Worldly magician (Overlord), Experienced in battle (Viceregent), Experienced in knowledge (Viceregent), Experienced in Mithril (Viceregent). Cards: anchutka (2), Babai (1), bruhun (2), vedogon (2), witcher (2), witch (2), Viy (1), Dead’s Revenge (2), Vritra (1), forefather (2), karachun (2), kolovertysh (2), Dead Man’s treasure (1), ague (3), magic strike (2), Open Graves (2), Fog (1), ghost (2), grabber (2), little demon (3).

Wood children: Owner of the wood (Overlord), Great Oak (Viceregent), Guardian of the thicket (Viceregent), Pack Leader (Viceregent). Cards: storekeeper (3), bagan (1), periwinkle (1), white maiden (2), nag-noddle (1), water girl (2), werewolf (3), wolf shepherd (2), lycantoad (2), Indrik-Beast (1), anddemon (1), werecat (2), leshy (1), moon foxtail (2), mavka (2), forest dweller (2), gap-grass (2), herbalist (2), Khovalo (1), blooming fern (4).

Not all characters, descriptions are included in the starter kits and the illustrations of which were presented on the project's website.

Background of the conflict
The background of the conflict was briefly described on the box with the board game "Gloomfighters". The Great Mage of the Silver Tower is called the Overlord of this beautiful country. As they say, he knows the ways of all living things. The future and the past of this world are equally clear to him. But after some time, he stopped caring about the unimportant worldly affairs of his country and delved into the study of the Great Mysteries. Soon fear and horror settled in the hearts of his subjects. The old feuds and grievances of various peoples began to flare up with renewed vigor. The war began to capture the former beautiful state with bloody waves.

Literary series
"Gloomfighters" is one of the few collectible card board games that have their own literary series

In 2015, simultaneously with the release of this CCI, the Minsk publishing house "Register" published Ilya Butov's first novel in the universe of the board game – "Gloomfighter" ("Мракоборец") ( ISBN 978-985-7097-22-7 ). The main character of the novel is a wandering monk. The novel takes place immediately after the events described on the box with the game and related to the detachment of the Lord from governing the country (the characters already know about this).

Since 2020, the Minsk publishing house "R. M. Tsymberov" has released a number of books from the series "Tales of Gloomfighters" authored by Ilya Butov and illustrated by Anna Kultina:

2020 – Ilya Butov "Tales of Gloomfighters: The best laugh in the world" ("Сказки мракоборцев: Лучший в мире смех") ( ISBN 978-985-7236-27-5 )

2020 – Ilya Butov "Tales of Gloomfighters: How good fairy tales appeared" ("Сказки мракоборцев: Как появились добрвые сказки") ( ISBN 978-985-7236-10-7 )

2021 – Ilya Butov "Tales of Gloomfighters: "From A to U" ("Сказки мракоборцев: От А до У") ( ISBN 978-985-7236-71-8 )

In addition, the author conceived the following sequels:

2024 – "There are no roads to the City of Shadows" ("И нет дорог в город тени"). It tells about the events that brought the country to the brink of disaster and is a prequel to the novel "Gloomfighter". The first novel of the cycle. The illustrations for it were drawn by Anna Pekina. In Russian, the title of this novel is a palindrome.

In total, 4 books are planned in the cycle by Veche publishing house in 2024–2026..