Karol Malota, from the Polish blog Rubaszny Gnom, did an interview with Roberto Di Meglio, one of the authors of Age of Conan Strategy Board Game and Director of R&D of Ares Games, a few days before the end of the Kickstarter campaign to re-launch the game. See below the translation of this interview, originally posted on Rubaszny Gnom in Polish, with questions that may be the same of many Age of Conan players.

Rubaszny Gnom (RG): Why did you decide to run a Kickstarter campaign to re-launch your game?
Roberto Di Meglio (RDM): Age of Conan was "lost" for many years. We designed and published it through Nexus and FFG in 2009, and prepared an expansion, which remained unpublished, when Nexus went bankrupt. FFG also abandoned it, focusing on other lines such as “A Game of Thrones”, “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars”. Reviving a "lost" game is not an easy challenge - as designers (Roberto, Francesco and Marco) we realized we could use Kickstarter to prove to Ares Games and to everybody else that the game could still be a success.

RG: The project raised almost 800% of the funding until now (Nov.7th). How the stretch goals unlocked will impact on the release date of the game?
RDM: We hope not! We added goals which are realistic to achieve in the time frame of the project.

RG: When do you plan to send the first copies of Adventures in Hyboria to the backers?
RDM: We have in our plans to ship in April next year. We added a lot of stretch goals we need to playtest properly, but we think we can do this within the planned schedule.

RG: When the game will be available for all gamers?
RDM: We will ship to backers first, but after that, the game will be also available in stores. Note that a lot of Stretch Goals will not be a part of the retail edition of Adventures in Hyboria. So at the moment at least, the only way to have them is by backing the Kickstarter.

RG: Have you already talked with any European distributors? Do you plan to release the game in other languages?
RDM: We are in touch with all European distributors, but at the moment, there is not a firm plan for publication in languages other than English. However we committed to make the translations of the expansion in PDF to support the existing players, for the moment (as soon as we hit $80K, which is very close at this moment).- Ed.: Confirmed!

RG: What was the major difficulty in the Age of Conan Strategy Board Game project?
RDM: We had to convince a lot of people - Conan Properties, Fantasy Flight Games, Ares Games (I am one of the designers and work there, but I still had to get the project approved). If any of them did not agree, we could not launch the project. Fortunately, they all agreed, in the end!

RG: What are you most proud of in this project?
RDM: Of the great acting of us designers in the video... 🙂 Seriously, I am very proud of our backers. Discovering that there was still a lot of people who like the game after 5 years with no support, it was great!

RG: Any plans for a Limited Edition? A Special Arnold Edition, e.g.? (I think that would be a great…)
RDM: Not at the moment - in the future, who knows?

RG: I never played Age of Conan Strategy Board Game. How difficult is the game to learn?
RDM: It's not a "light" game, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard either! Especially if you've got a friend teaching you the basics. If you played “War of the Ring” before, it's even easier.

RG: How will the expansion Adventures in Hyboria improve the game?
RDM: The big thing with Adventures in Hyboria is that the role of Conan in the game becomes much more interesting, and for all players - not just the Conan player - thanks to the Story cards. It also adds a lot of player interaction, especially in the early game, thanks both to Story Cards and to Spies. I think it really improves a couple of points in the design that some people did not like!

RG: And the last question... What can you can say to Polish board game players?
RDM: Poland is really a great country for board games in these days! From your country, we get some of the best games and game designers. We have published some of our games there, such as” War of the Ring” and “Battle of Five Armies”, we hope that more games from us will be available in the future. And if they do, it will also be thanks to the Rubaszny Gnom readers!

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