Grumpy Gorilla sells Magic: The Gathering, Drunken Monkey Barrell (DMB) 3d dungeon tiles and Rosebyrne Manor.
I first discovered the gaming company when it was known only as DMB. It was UK Games Expo, and their dungeon titles and 3D dungeons were a hot ticket. DMB is now a subbrand of Grumpy Gorilla. I met them again at Tabletop Scotland this week to pick up the exclusive news that their Rosebyrne Manor dungeon-crawling board game will expand into a collectable card game.
In Rosebyrne Manor, players move through a 3d dungeon crawl in an engaging story and tactical combat. Repeated requests from players who wanted a quick and less tabletop-consuming route into the Rosebyrne story persuaded Andy Lawrence to develop the card game.
The card game can be played solo against the scenario deck or, technically, with as many players as you want, but Andy suggested four was the magic number.
Players use character decks to guide their characters through the story. Grumpy Gorilla plans to launch character booster packs of cards. This means that, like Magic the Gathering, where you can curate a deck from your grand collection, players can design characters as specialists, generalists, or something in between. Booster decks will also contain specially marked cards that become potential rewards at the end of a successful scenario and represent characters levelling up.
I asked Andy whether the game owner had to buy all these character boosters or whether players could, and the answer was “either”. It does not matter. You can turn up to a Rosebyrne Manor card game for the first time without any cards, join some veterans, and fit right in.
Therefore, I also asked whether a big spending player could tilt the game balance. I mean, who likes ‘pay to win’? Reassuringly, Andy’s design prevents this.
It will also be possible to buy scenario packs, which means Rosebyrne Manorcard game can become a campaign, a series of adventures all happening in the managed setting of Rosebyrne. Even individual scenarios have different ending cards within their decks, so you don’t know which way the game is heading until you get there. You can play through the same scenario several times, do well each time, and get different outcomes.
I also liked the combat strategy in the card game. Monsters are placed left or right on your character card, which means they are also adjacent to the players next to you. The in-game effect is that those characters next to you might be able to hit the monster or be it by it, whereas someone on the other end of the table would need a ranged weapon.
When is the Rosebyrne Manor card game due out?
It’ll be a while! Sorry.
Grumpy Gorilla has spent the last year with the Rosebyrne Manor board game exclusively available at their stand at conventions and expos. You’ve not been able to buy it from their online store.
Now, with Rosebyrne Manor board game pretty much down to single figures of stock units left, Grumpy Gorilla is only now gearing up for a full-strength production run and even then, there might be a Kickstarter to assist this.
The plan for the Rosebyrne Manor card game is the same. It’s started to demo this week. Tabletop Scotland attendees got the first chance to play it. This demo and playtest period is likely to last an entire year. Thankfully, Grumpy Gorilla spends about three-quarters of the year on the road and has an aggressive event schedule.
The first small batch of retail units will be made in about a year, and Andy predicts the pattern will repeat. That first edition will be exclusive to the Grumpy Gorilla stand for a year before a more extensive production run is made and the game becomes available online.
Grumpy Gorilla will be at the UK Games Expo 2025. Well, that’s the plan.
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