A lot of people who enjoy Fantasy stories love swords. But if you are Matthew Wills, the artist behind Swords Comic, you love swords enough to create a webcomic based entirely around bad jokes about swords, have that webcomic become incredibly popular around the world, and use that popularity to create a complex world with its own fantasy races, geography, Gods and Demons, and epic story arcs. Then you thank your community of fans by creating a Discord, a Patreon, merchandise, and multiple Makeship campaigns featuring Swords Comic characters.
But after you’ve done all that, what do you do next? Create a card game and have it be fully funded on Kickstarter in under 15 minutes, of course!
Cut the Deck is a card game that combines a dueling mechanic with RPG storytelling. You start out by choosing one of eight Heroes, characters that will be very familiar to fans of the comic; or you can choose one of the guest artist Heroes and make things really interesting. Next, you pick a Sword for your Hero to use. Each sword has special abilities that will help you as you duel against opponents. Once your Hero is equipped, it’s time for a battle, which is divided into quick actions called Bouts. In a Bout, both players choose three Moves to play, which resolve in a manner similar to Rock Paper Scissors (but with sword fighting!). Bouts continue until one Hero reaches zero health, and you can change your Sword card between each Bout. Will you be the victor, or the slain?
What really excites me about this game, besides the thought of seeing a bunch of familiar characters and inside jokes, is the sheer number of ways that you can play. You can have a quick one on one battle with a friend, or you can organize a room full of people into a full scale Tournament. You can have a Team vs Team Brawl, or organize a group for a co-op Adventure Mode. There are even Solo Adventures to play, and we all know how important a good Solo Mode has become in the last few years.
As usual, there are multiple reward levels, mostly separated by the number of players you can have, but also including some bonuses. In addition to fundraising tiers, there is also a series of social media side quests that will increase the number of guest artists.
At the Qwest(sic) Kit level, for $35(USD), you get a 72 card Base Deck, a Side “Qwest” deck featuring foil cards illustrated by guest artists, a 25 card Mystery Sword deck, your name in the thank you page of the rulebook, 3 adventure modules in PDF format, and a box to hold it all. This kit allows for games with 1-4 players.
The Heroes of Hiltshire Edition, for $60(USD), allows you to play with up to 8 players. In addition to all the items in the previous tier, you get an Expansion deck (a second copy of the Base Deck), a Mystery Sword deck that is 50 cards instead of 25, a bag of tokens, and 4 Adventures instead of three.
The Kargob: God of Darkness Edition, for $135(USD), allows you to play with up to 12 players by adding an extra set of Move cards in a foil print. There’s also a neoprene playmat and a massive 100 card Mystery Sword deck. Plus a god-level adventure module playable by up to 8 players.
There was also the Pandemonium Tier, already sold out, that allowed 16 backers to invent their own swords to be added to the Mystery Sword Deck.
If you own a game store, you can also choose the Retail tier, for $150(USD), which gives you a 45% discount to buy the game in bulk.
Now we have to talk about the unkindest cut of all, shipping and taxes. Even though Matthew lives in New Zealand, this campaign has made the effort to reduce costs by shipping out of the USA. The estimated shipping and tax costs are as follows:
USA: $11 shipping, 5% tax
Canada: $14 shipping, 5% tax
Europe: $18 shipping, 20% tax
Australia and NZ: $22 shipping, 10% tax
Everywhere Else: $22 shipping, 20% tax
The Swords: Cut the deck campaign on Kickstarter ends on April 12th, 2023.
You can also follow Swords Comic on Instagram at @swordscomic or online at https://swordscomic.com/
