Gruff is a game near and dear to my heart. When the first game launched on Kickstarter, I was a very excited backer. I mean it was a gorgeously illustrated game about monster goats. Shortly thereafter, I discovered the creators were based in my city of Austin. So, I went and got my game directly from the designer, and he taught me how to play.
Then I went and did a couple of conventions with them, and then I helped grow their sales, rep them to local companies and even got to jump on to participate in playtesting and world-building. Gruff continued to grow and expand into something wonderful. This was a game about mutated monster goats in a Lovecraftian folktale inspired universe, how could I be any happier?
Let’s talk about the game itself.
The game was designed with a love for Magic the Gathering, and other card games in mind, the lovely twist to gruff is the resource and stat management system in my opinion. Nearly every action you take has some effect on your goat’s stats, which in turn can affect your own madness (gruff’s analog to mana). That, in turn, allows you to use your ability cards to buff, debuff, defend or sometimes just do annoying things that ruin your opponent’s plan. Each goat brings its own unique toolbox to the game. I have watched games of Gruff slowly
While I love Gruff and have picked up every expansion pack so far, I feel like things really started kicking ass hard with Rage of the Trolls. It added bosses, solo play, and some new things mechanically that I love. I’ve had a chance to playtest this new expansion, and talked to Brent extensively about it and his plans.
Whispers of Madness has new mechanics, new boss types and overall just brings a lot of fresh cool stuff to an already super fun game. On a side note, every expansion has everything you need to play, so Whispers of Madness will be enough for you and your friends to get into this rad game.
So watch the video above, and back this project.