Calabrion is gone. The Orcs saw to that.
You wake on a wrecked shore with nothing. Whoever rebuilds the capital will become king.
“The Best Casual Board Game to Exist.” — Corey S., Detroit
Medicine · Tier IFighting · Tier I
Tap the card
Every card is two cards.
Draw an event and you are holding a decision, not an outcome.
On one side a filthy beggar asks you for help. Be generous and you might gain a follower and even her secret stash, or botch the encounter and get pneumonia. This is Medicine in the Wilds of Calabrion, and it is dangerous!
Turn it over and the beggar becomes an overconfident thug with thirty health and a bad attitude, and beating him properly pays considerably better than getting beat BY him.
You pick a side before you roll. There are five suits and every single one of them has a fight waiting on the back if you prefer to punch your way through. And let's be honest... Punching is fun.
"You wish to end wars? Win."
—Captain Orellius.
Five ways the wilds of Calabrion will test you
Magic. Treasure. Medicine. Moxie. Social.
Your character is good at some of these and bad at others. Manage your resources to get the best of bad situations.
Magic
Necromancers, unicorns, and fairies, expect the unexpected.
Treasure
Chests, hoards, and what guards them
Medicine
Plague, poison, and people who need you
Moxie
Blizzards, rivers, hunts, cold nights
Social
Strangers, refugees, and new friends
Calabrion was a great nation once. Then the orcs came and took it apart so thoroughly that nothing remains but refugees and monsters.
You and the other survivors of the shipwreck that brought you here washed up on the wild shores of Calabrion with nothing but a character sheet and whatever your hands can carry. Somewhere inland are the ruins of what used to be cities and towns, but they won't be rescuing you now. Instead, you need to rescue them! Gather Resources from the unexplored wilds. Rescue Civilians now scattered and frightened. Battle Monsters to save your life, and maybe even the lost prince of Calabrion.
Every tile you step onto throws something at you. You might marry. You might take in lost children. You might hire soldiers and face down dragons and trolls. You might roll a die and find out just how much you DON'T know about that seemingly innocent girl you just met.
Seven victory points builds the city. The first player to get that many is crowned King of Calabrion.
The map
Nobody has played your board before.
Calabrion is laid out in hexes as you go. Tier I is the gentle country where the problems are small and life is simple. Tier II is where the good cards live and where the bad guys punch back––hard. Tier III is for players who have decided they would rather win than survive. (Just kidding, it only feels that way when you draw one)
Each tile carries its own resources: wood, food, iron, stone, and wool. The deeper you push, the faster you get the resources you need to win, but also the more danger you put yourself in. There is no safe route to seven Victory Points. There is only adventure!
Five playable characters
Pick a style, not a stat.
Every character is good at some things and genuinely bad at others. Choose one and see what they can actually do.
Captain Orellius
The soldier
- Health
- 145
- Fighting
- +3
- Medicine
- 0
- Treasure
- 0
- Moxie
- −2
- Social
- 0
- Magic
- −1
Upgrade any of your Soldiers to the next level for 3 gold.
You may choose not to marry this game. If so, whenever you meet the ring symbol you can hire them as a Level 1 Soldier for 10 gold instead.
“You wish to end wars? Win.”
Lady Iya
The diplomat
- Health
- 85
- Fighting
- −2
- Medicine
- 0
- Treasure
- 0
- Moxie
- 0
- Social
- +4
- Magic
- 0
On your turn you may offer food to another player. If they accept, you gain a Good Deed.
“Why do I give? Because my father taught me that every life is precious.”
Cecil and Bollocks
The thieves
- Health
- 100
- Fighting
- −2
- Medicine
- 0
- Treasure
- +1
- Moxie
- +2
- Social
- +1
- Magic
- +1
Before drawing an event, try to steal a card from anyone on your tile or one beside it. Roll a 4 or better and it’s yours — but they get to move you to any tile of the same tier as the card they lost.
“Wanna know how to make somebody really mad?”
Maruna
The baker, until she isn’t
- Health
- 95
- Fighting
- −1
- Medicine
- +2
- Treasure
- 0
- Moxie
- −2
- Social
- +1
- Magic
- 0
Gain one Food at the start of your turn.
Once per game you may flip this card and become Mar: +2 Fighting, 120 Health, ten damage to every player on your tile whatever the turn, and fifteen health back every turn of your own.
Appo
The friend
- Health
- 130
- Fighting
- −1
- Medicine
- +1
- Treasure
- −3
- Moxie
- −1
- Social
- +1
- Magic
- 0
For each other player on your tile or one beside it, you get +1 to every roll. They get +1 too — including the person about to beat you.
“Nobody laughs like Appo. Nobody eats like Appo. This is why Appo is the best!”
How a turn actually goes
Four phases. One Turn.
Start of turn
Anything your character or your cards generate happens now, before anyone can talk you into a trade.
Move
Explore one tile (unless you get a horse *wink*). Trade with anyone anytime. Spend what you've got. Or stand still, if standing still is clever. But most imprtantly—Draw an Event!
Roll for event
You've got a mess on your hands. What is it? A Raging Wolverine? A dying traveller? Whatever your facing, you've got two options: Deal with the Event, or punch it in the face. Once you've chosen either front or back. roll, and add every stat and item you've earned.
Build and Capacity
Build Calabrion! Then the game checks your health, your children, and your carrying capacity. If you ain't dead, you get another Turn! If you are dead... Better hope you can trade for an Elixir of Life. Otherwise, Well, Calabrion is somebody else's problem.
The point of all this
You are building a Kingdom.
Every stone, every stick, and every fallen piece of gold you drag out of the wilds comes back to Calabrion and becomes something new: a house, a blacksmith, a hospital, and a reason for the refugees to stay. Each building is worth victory points, and seven victory points wins the game.
But it's not all about the sticks and stones. The trials you will undergo in Tier III will shape the very face of Calabrion itself, and the myth of its great founding will be written or forgotten, depending on if you succeed or fail.
People who have actually played it
Nobody here was paid.
These testimonials were freely given after playing King of Calabrion for the first time.
Immediately became my favorite board game. The amount of depth is perfectly balanced, simple enough for kids to play, but complicated enough to keep adults thoroughly engaged.
The Best Casual Board Game to Exist. Ive never had so much fun playing a board game, it has so much depth without being too heady. It gives you the D&D excitement without the laboriousness of needing to create a campaign and have a DM!
As an avid gamer, dnd nerd and board game fan, I didn't know what to expect when playing this game for the first time but I was quite pleased with the overall all game. It has a interesting dynamic of tactics and luck so that truly anyone can win but you won't know till the end. I'm looking forward to all future expansions planed for this game.
‘‘Twas a good game in my opinion, as a guy with at least 150 different board games, this one will be a sure add to my collection in the future!
King of Calabrion is a combination of the exploration of Carcassonne, the resource gathering of Catan, and the skill based adventure of DnD, all seamlessly put together in one game. The variety of quests and unique characters allow for new strategies every game! I can’t wait to play again!
Very fun and strategic experience for a game. Very creativity and each game is different than the last to keep the experience fresh.
Heromail has created an outstanding strategy experience, where every time you play, you get a unique world to explore and exploit on your path to victory. With a myriad of interesting decisions every turn, will you rise to the top of the courts of Caliban?
Although I am not one to usualtl enjoy bored games, this one caught my attention and i was engaged immediately, highly recom
Three ways in
What's in the box.
Real component counts. No rounding up, no “and much more!”
King of Calabrion
The whole game, in one box, made properly.
- 98 item cards
- 30 event cards — 60 playable sides
- 18 fighter cards
- 5 playable characters, with standees and plastic bases
- 5 city cards
- 64 map tiles — 24 Tier I, 23 Tier II, 12 Tier III, 5 starter
- 14 building hexagons — homes, farm, mine, barracks, hospital, university, dock
- 1 printed map board to lay the tiles on
- 72 resource tokens — wood, wool, stone, iron, food
- 66 gold coins — 1s, 5s, 10s and 50s
- 31 victory point gems
- 25 meeples in five colours
- 8 good deed cards
- 6 spindown life counters
- 5 dice
- 4 token boxes
- 1 rulebook — A5, eight pages
What more of us unlocks.
Everything below is designed, costed and waiting. None of it needs a committee — only enough of you.
Skeletons and Necromancers
The Dark Side of fantasy. Your fighters get a second chance! Too bad they're dead now... Maybe you should have bashed that slimy Necromancer when you had the chance.
Three more characters
Abbot Magos, Bishop Cairn and Jonne. The scholar, the necromancer, and the young hero.
Lost children
New tokens, and new rules: when you die, one of the Lost Children you rescued might just decide to become a hero. See if you can continue as Jonne.
The full deck
56 events instead of 30, and 200 items instead of 98. DOUBLE the game. Way more possible encounters, way more immersive.
Proper card boxes
A box for every deck instead of a cover card. Makes the game easier to play and more polished to look at.
The King’s Crate
Not just a game box. A CRATE.
This is gonna be BIG
On the artwork
Over 100 pieces of art.
Not one of them will be generated.
Every card in this game will be made by a person we found, negotiated with, and paid. It is the most expensive decision in the project and the only one we never argued about. You'll be able to tell the difference, and so will we.
How this gets paid for
Two hundred people are going to make this game exist.
AI art is cheap. Human Made art is not. The Order is how we pay for real people to make awesome art.
This is how it works: You fund a game you want to exist, early, while it still matters. In return you get inside the workshop.
The King's Rangers
$15per month
Open membership
- The monthly dispatch, by email — work in progress, cut content, real numbers
- Every card revealed to you before the public
- A vote on real decisions: art directions, event cards, the cover
- Lore, beginning with: "Gallow's March" An original Calabrion short story, written for the Rangers and sent the day you join
- Your name on the permanent Roll of the Order
- The members' room — talk to us directly
- A signed copy of each piece of art you help us commission, delivered to your inbox
- Immediate access to all our Heroforge™ minifigure designs
Recurring monthly charge. Cancel any time.
Knight of the Order of the Raven
$50per month
199 of 200 places remain
Everything in the Rangers, and then:
- A letter every month, in the post. Printed, addressed by hand, numbered
- Your membership number, 1 to 200. Permanent, never reissued
- Your name printed in every Heromail game we make while you are a member
- Name a character in the world of Calabrion: Regular voting from the Knights of the Order decides real-time names within the game and world.
- A copy of King of Calabrion, included (Requires one year of continuous subscription)
- A vote on all kinds of real time decisions, including which stories are told next and which Event Cards are added to the game
- One painted Heroforge™ minifigure per year
Recurring monthly charge. Cancel any time.
This is patronage, not a pre-order and not an investment. You will not own a piece of Heromail and you will not make money from it. Cancel and you keep everything already sent to you, but you are not owed a game. What you get is the access, the credit, and the knowledge that it got made because you were early.
Read the whole offer, including how to cancelBefore the campaign
Be the reason a board game comes to life.
We'll email you once when King of Calabrion launches, and not for any other reason. Early backers get the best price of the campaign and we'd rather that went to people who were here first.
One email at launch. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.
Launching soon