TerraClash™ Digital: The Card and Dice RPG, in Your Browser

What on Earth is TerraClash™ Digital?

Hear ye, hear ye! Not so long ago, 103 brave souls backed a little card and dice game called TerraClash™. Kickstarter even named it a Project We Love.

Sadly, the campaign didn't fund, so we went away and built it anyway, this time as a video game.

TerraClash™ Digital is the whole TerraClash™ core game, rebuilt for your browser. Pick a hero, explore the lands of Terra, fight creatures, gather gear, roll an alarming number of dice and attempt to take down King Fendral without dying in a bog.

It plays on your phone, your tablet and your computer, with no download and no sign-up. The browser game is hosted by Eco Hosting, a UK host running on 100% renewable energy (certified by the Green Web Foundation), so your battles are carbon neutral. Prefer an app? There will be an Android app too, with the same online games and leaderboard, and it will play offline as well, so you can fight King Fendral on a train with no signal (maybe Apple, we'll see).

Try Before Ye Buy

You need not trust the word of two strangers on the internet. TerraClash™ Lite is in beta, free and playable right now at terraclash.co.uk/lite. Three heroes (one needs unlocking), ten creatures and King Fendral himself.

Play it on the bus, play it at lunch, play it on your work computer when nobody is looking (note to self - delete that last part).

If you like it, back the rest.

Why Do We Call For Aid (Again)?

Lite is a slice (albeit, a very delicious one). The full game is ten heroes, the whole creature deck, all fourteen terra cards, every item, spell and relic, online games with friends and a global leaderboard. Turning a slice into the whole feast is no small quest.

Every one of those cards has to be rebuilt, animated and taught to behave on a screen. Rules that work fine around a kitchen table (where a friendly argument settles most disputes) have to be spelled out to the letter for a computer that has no sense of humour. That means weeks of rule tinkering: rebalancing heroes so none of them is secretly unbeatable, tuning creatures so King Fendral stays terrifying but beatable, and playing the same fight hundreds of times to find the combination that breaks everything. There is always one.

Then comes the testing. It has to run smoothly on far more phones, tablets and computers than we own, from the shiny new to the held-together-with-tape. Online play needs servers that don’t burst into flames when a hundred of you log in at once, and a leaderboard that can’t be fooled by the crafty. Every card needs finished art and every land its own music and sound.

It’s a big task for two people, and it will take time to do properly. Your coin pays for the hours, the testing, the servers and the polish that turn a promising beta into a game worth your evenings.

What Lies Within the Digital Coffer

Everything in the core game, now with animations, sound, music for every land and dice that do the maths for you.

Power up your attacks, land critical hits, suffer ailments, get empowered, and generally have a worse time than your opponents.

Choose Ye Thy Hero

Ten heroes, each with their own skill set, a relic weapon and a deeply questionable reason to want the throne.

Forge Thine Own Hero

Fifteen brave backers can put a hero of their own into Terra.

• Everyone can play your hero. It joins the main hero roster, so it turns up in online games and on the leaderboard.
• You have it from day one. Everyone else unlocks it the same way as the other heroes, and the card carries a "Forged by" credit with your name (or a name of your choosing).
• Chris makes it in Adobe Illustrator. You send us your legend and any references, Chris designs it, you sign off the design, then Chris brings it to life.
• Jim breaks it, then fixes it. Jim writes the skills and balances your hero against the others. You can suggest abilities; final rules and balance are ours, so your hero is as fun to play against as with.
• Characters only. Heroes only, please. Creatures, items and lands stay with us.
• Keep it sensible. Your hero must be suitable for all ages: no profanity, nothing offensive, no real people and no characters owned by someone else. We will work with you on the idea, but final design and balance are ours.
• Table-ready. You also get a printable hero board, so your hero can join the print and play game too.

The Leaderboard of Legends

Weekly and all-time boards for every hero: fastest King slain, highest Legend score, longest win streak. This is a concept for now. Your pledge builds it.

The Expansions of Terra

TerraClash™ already has eleven expansions, all designed, tested at the table and available in the print and play bundle today. Only the stretch-goal ones are coming to digital for now. You can get every one of them today with the Digital + Table tier or the Print and Play add-on, or browse them one by one in our shop at terraclash.co.uk/shop.

Where Thy Coin Goes

Lite proves the engine works. The goal pays for turning that slice into the whole game, and for making sure it doesn't fall over. Every £1,000 splits like this:

Stretch Goals

Anything above the goal goes into making the game bigger. The Long Campaign is the multi-session mode from the print and play rules: save your game, come back to it, and watch your hero grow over many sittings.

Rewards & Add-ons

Every tier includes your name in the in-game credits. Digital tiers have nothing to post, so there is no shipping to pay. TerraBrew mugs are printed on demand, so postage is added at checkout. Mugs ship to the UK only for now; if you are overseas, get in touch before pledging. Add-ons: a TerraBrew mug (£15), a copy for a friend (£6) and the print and play bundle (£20, a fiver less than our shop).

The full game is £6.99 at launch and £9.99 after. Backers get it for less.

Playing God: About the Creators

TerraClash™ is made by Jim Prewers-Andrews and Chris Dixon. Jim designs the rules and breaks them on purpose to see what happens. Chris designs every card, hero and creature in Adobe Illustrator and builds the digital version. Between us we have playtested this game more times than is healthy.

A Thousand Thankings for Pledging

Whether you pledge a pound or forge a legend, thank you. If you backed the first campaign: thank you twice. Tell a friend, share the Lite link, and may your dice roll high.