Important note: All the work on Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game is done externally by MOOD Publishing and the designer, Ole Steiness, with us from Ghost Ship Games supporting as IP stakeholders and playtesters. Here at GSG, we're still hard at work developing more Deep Rock content for Steam and other platforms. More on that soon. :)
Hello Miners,
When the board game adaptation of Deep Rock Galactic shipped, it was in the biggest possible box that MOOD Publishing could find. There just wasn’t a box big enough for all the ideas they wanted to include.
"The box for the original Deep Rock Galactic board game is the absolute biggest box we could get,” says Jonas Springborg, Art Director at MOOD Publishing. “The factory we worked with, their machines couldn't do a bigger one, so they would have had to hand-fold every single box. So we were literally out of space for stuff to include in the base game."
Now, the team’s back with two big expansion packs for Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game, to bring in all the ideas that couldn’t fit in the first box.
The Kickstarter launch for this project is just around the corner -- but before that kicks off, here’s a quick look at what’s coming in these new expansions.
Completing the original vision for the board game
This new Kickstarter focuses on two separate expansions to the original Deep Rock Galactic board game: the Space Rig pack and the Biome pack. Both draw from familiar elements from the computer game, further adapting the Deep Rock Galactic experience for the territory of tabletop gaming.
Both these new expansions are standalone – you don’t need one to enjoy the other, but they of course also work in combination. You do, however, need the base board game to use these expansions. Rasmus Berggreen, Executive Producer at MOOD Publishing, says that these expansions complete the initial wishlist for what the team wanted to include when they first set out to adapt DRG into a board game.
“We'd talked about putting all these additions in one single expansion, but we figured this allows players to pick which part of the game they want to expand,” he says. “Maybe some people only wanted new biomes and creatures, maybe others really just wanted new mission mechanics and modifiers."
The Space Rig Expansion
Most Deep Rock Galactic fans know the Space Rig as a social space: it’s where chipper little Lloyd (the Bartender Bot) pours up frothy pints, and where you hit the Abyss Bar dance floor to shake away recent mining-related traumas. But since plastic minifigures can’t dance, the MOOD team had to rethink the Space Rig for the tabletop version.
For the board game, the Space Rig Expansion brings more layers of game mechanics to the experience. The expansion focuses on giving new depth to equipment upgrades and more complexity in each mining mission, as well as a small overlay board for each player's character.
Here are the highlights (including stretch goal content):
- Introducing Assignments: Like a Deep Dive, but better. Level up and invest in your dwarf with overclocks and upgrades that carry over across a 4-mission campaign. Tackle the Assignment over the course of a few weekends, or slam out the whole run in a single night of heavy-duty gaming.
- Side objectives from Management: You’ve been tasked with a bit of overtime work. Collect extra minerals to unlock upgrades – but at your own risk. Greedy dwarves might soon find the caves to be their tombs.
- 9 new “Mutation” mission modifiers: Difficult terrain, low oxygen cave systems, extra speedy bugs and other such perils add a new twist to each and every game.
- 2 new mission types: Mission Control’s cleared you for some tougher assignments. On-site Refining and Escort Duty missions make their way to the board game, complete with new miniatures for pumpjacks and our dear beloved drilldozer, Doretta.
- Beer: Mining is thirsty work. New Beer Cards give a buff to the whole team before each mission, thanks to Lloyd’s delicious draughts.
The Space Rig Expansion is about bringing more variables into play, to make each mission more complex and more memorable. Plus, it adds some light RPG elements that the team wanted to see from the start.
"We wanted people to feel like they were part of a journey, and to get attached to their character in the game,” says Rasmus. “We had so many ideas from the video game that we wanted to put in the board game, but we really just ran out of room in the box. It’s exciting that we can now give all these other ideas their own release.”
Playtesting the new content. Pictured are Mikkel Pedersen, Game Director at GSG (outer left), Jonas Springborg, Art Director at MOOD Publishing (center left), Søren Lundgaard, CEO of GSG (center right) and Ole Steiness, Lead Game Designer for DRG: The Board Game (outer right).
The Biome Expansion
A big part of the Deep Rock Galactic experience is the distinct biomes beneath the surface of Hoxxes IV, and all the different plants and animals that can murder you. The Biome Expansion brings some of those treacherous territories to the tabletop, each one with their own unique dangers.
Here’s what’s inside this one (including stretch goal content):
- 4 new biomes: Magma Core, Glacial Strata, Fungus Bogs and Azure Weald are now open for mining operations. Each comes with its own set of printed tiles, and a new range of dangers unique to each biome.
- Exciting new ways to die: Get caught in a scalding blast of lava from a volcanic vent, frozen solid by a bursting Cryo Bulb, or poisoned by the noxious spores in the Fungus Bogs. Each biome comes with exclusive miniatures for these new environmental hazards.
- 6 new creatures: Down in the caves, you’ll now have to contend with grisly threats like the Q’Ronar Shellback, the Naetocyte Breeder, the Stingtail, and an all-new creature in the Deep Rock Universe: the hard-headed, bulldozer-like Rammer.
- The mighty Dreadnought: The original boss fight makes its way to the board game. This massive Dreadnought is the game’s biggest minifigure yet (with a footprint filling three game tiles), and comes with its own deck of action cards to ensure it’s an unpredictable threat each time you hunt it.
While the Space Rig pack focuses on new meta-level game mechanics, the Biome Expansion is all about enriching the feel of each cave, and how you move and fight through each mission.
"There are new strategic and tactical considerations when you go into each biome, which brings out some richness to the world,” says Ole Steiness, Lead Designer on Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game. “We’re excited about the new creatures, especially the Rammer, as it’s the first one that’s entirely exclusive to the board game’s universe.”
The Fungus Bogs is one of the four new biomes included in this expansion. The noxious green game tiles are fortunately not scratch 'n sniff.
MOOD’s been humbled by fans' response so far
As the original board game ships out around the world to its Kickstarter backers, the MOOD team is extremely proud to keep the momentum going with these expansions.
“We’ve been really humbled by the support for this project so far. It’s been a long journey, and it’s great to keep adding more exciting stuff to this world,” says Kasper Mouritzen, Producer at MOOD Publishing. “It’s also been great to design these expansions with the feedback we’ve gotten from the first edition. We’ve been listening for things we can improve, so we’ve also focused on things like improving and iterating on the rulebook, making it easier for new players to get started with the game.”
Kasper didn’t want to say whether there are more expansions coming. For now, he says, the team is just excited to see more of the Deep Rock Galactic universe making its way to the tabletop, and the feedback they’ve heard from players.
“We’re really proud of this one, and especially with the reviews of the game we’ve gotten so far. It feels good knowing that people who came to this from the Deep Rock Galactic computer game can see the universe they already enjoy, but can experience it from a whole new direction as a board game.”
What's next on the road ahead?
The Kickstarter for these expansion packs is launching very soon -- we'll announce the exact date in a week or two. Stay tuned!
If you want to be among the first to back that Kickstarter, or catch the latest updates as these two projects make their way into the world, just head to the link below:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/120302834/deep-rock-galactic-space-rig-and-biome-expansions
And, yes, the original base game for Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game will also be available in the Kickstarter in a bundle with the new expansions.
Thanks for reading – and as always, Rock and Stone!
With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew