The game uses our new fully cooperative game engine which enables solo play. It also uses Elzra’s Dexterity Game System and is fully compatible with Catacombs 3E. This makes the game a good starting point for players who are new to the Catacombs line, while offering new features and challenges for experienced players.

The game is presented as two “adventures”, the Overworld adventure and the Underworld adventure. The Overworld adventure takes place above ground where a new team of heroes muster the defences of the Citadel of  Arezibet. The Citadel is under siege by terrifying monsters emerging from the Khezenil Crater, colloquially known as the “Monster Pit”. 

The Underworld adventure (which is dexterity based) follows the heroes into  the darkness to deal with the threat posed by the denizens of the Crater permanently. Each adventure is played on its own side of the large,  double-sided playmat included with the game. This approach can be compared to the game “Jaws” where players play two different modes (one  on the beach and the other on the boat) during the course of that game.

Both adventures feature a one player versus many style of play, where  up to four players will control one hero and one player (the “Overseer”) will control one of the five “Catacomb Lords”. However, the Overworld adventure can be played fully cooperatively against the game without a dedicated Overseer player. The two adventures can be played consecutively as one epic story or can be played independently for shorter sessions.

Players who are familiar with Catacombs 3E can think of the Overworld adventure as being analogous to the dungeon exploration part of that game, while the Underworld adventure is similar to the final encounter  with the Catacomb Lord at the end of Catacombs 3E (with some important  differences). 

The five Catacomb Lords are the Enchantress, Dragon, Orc Warchief, Behemoth, and Vampire Queen. Players will choose one to play against as antagonist during both the Overworld and Underworld  adventures. When the heroes encounter one of these in the Monster Pit during the Underworld Adventure, they discover that each Catacomb Lord  has their own war band of “outlaws” defending them.

Both heroes and outlaws are directly compatible with Catacombs 3E.  Monster Pit features eight new heroes on the side of light: the Querling, Hunter, Ice Princess, and Battle Robot. While a reformed Rakshasa, Royal Defender, Raven Empress, and Amazon can also explore the depths of the Monster Pit. For the Overseer player, each outlaw (and the Catacomb Lord itself) functions the same as a Catacombs 3E hero,  enabling new teams of “Catacomb heroes” to be used in games of Catacomb  3E. As a specific side note for players familiar with Catacombs 3E, health for all characters in the Underworld adventure is tracked on player boards as opposed to with Heatlh Tokens (as in Catacombs & Castles) and each player is responsible for their own hero’s health.

As a standalone expansion for Catacombs 3E, the game supplies hero upgrade cards which enable both heroes and outlaws to change their base rules card during play. The game includes the new crate mechanic, which allow players to either capture something beneficial or encounter an unexpected new threat (ie. traps). Both hero and outlaws benefit from the continued expansion of the attribute system. New attributes were introduced into Catacombs 3E with the Ice Box expansion, but there are several new ones in Monster Pit including monstrous, flying, rolling, armoured, healer etc.

As befitting a game called Monster Pit, I am including a new monster card for each of the monsters we have published for Catacombs 3E so far, across all of the expansions. These monster cards (there are 70 of  them) are coloured differently on their faces, so they are easy to identify and are intended for advanced players who want a new challenge.

The Cardboard Herald Monster Pit Interview

Gameplay

Just in case you don’t already know, Catacombs is a unique tabletop fantasy experience where players skillfully flick wooden discs representing heroes, monsters, fireballs and more.

Up to four players control a party of heroes who cooperatively use spells and abilities to defeat the monsters and eventually the Catacomb Lord. Players capture gold coins from fallen monsters and then use them to upgrade their heroes by buying items at the Merchant, restoring health at the Healer or trying their luck in the Tavern.

Components (Core Box)

•  3 Double-sided neoprene Playmats
• 5 Player Boards
• 2 Game Manuals (Reference Manual, Tutorial Manual)
• Over 70+ Wooden Pieces
• 140 Cards
• Elzra’s Wall System
• …and more!

Components (Plus Box)

•  6 Double-sided neoprene Playmats
• 5 Player Boards
• 5 Game Manuals (Reference Manual, Tutorial Manual, Cavern of Soloth, Resurrection, Ice Box)
• Over 200+ Wooden Pieces
• 390 Cards
• Elzra’s Wall System
• …and more!

Videos

Note that these videos show older printings of Catacombs Third Edition.

Catacombs &  Castles™ is a standalone dexterity tabletop game featuring both  competitive and cooperative play modes, set in the land of Tellaryth.

                  Team Mode (up to eight players), features teams of heroes representing  the Catacomb forces versus those from the Castle in a fast paced,  dexterity battle.  Boss Mode (up to four players), enables players to command a team of  heroes to defeat a powerful Catacomb or Castle Lord, controlled by their  opponent.

                  The game is based on Elzra’s Dexterity Game System™, so for players who  are familiar with Catacombs™ Third Edition, the learning curve will be  minimal.

Only the playmat version of Catacombs & Castles is available during this campaign.

STRETCH GOALS

Shipping and Other Costs

You will be charged shipping after the Kickstarter campaign ends  based on the actual costs incurred to ship. We will collect this via our  Pledge Manager.

We will ship your rewards to international  fulfillment centers. Depending on where in the world you are, we will  either ship to you from our center in Europe (EU backers) or Elzra HQ in  Canada (Canadian and US backers).
 

We cannot ship to international PO boxes.

Please  know that the Elzra Pledge Manager stage of this campaign will have a  deadline (announced after the campaign in an update). If you fail to  confirm your pledges after this deadline, your rewards will be shipped  to you from the Elzra warehouse in Canada. As such, shipping costs may  be considerably higher for those outside of Canada and the US.

 For customer support: 

Please email: ks@elzra.com 

Please note also that we cannot respond to specific customer support requests on the comments page of this project. You will be directed to email ks@elzra.com.  We take pride in our excellent customer service, and aim to deal with requests as quickly and efficiently as possible when using channels that we have setup for this purpose. Note that sometimes we will receive a significant volume of requests, so please be patient while we work through them.

Follow the campaign via Twitter at @catacombsgame and use the hashtag #catacombsgame. Tweets from this account are for our Kickstarter campaigns specifically, while those from our @elzragames account are for general company announcements.

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