Carnevale on Kickstarter – Interview & Artwork Preview

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Interview with David from Vesper-On Games

Zweischneid: Hello David. Many thanks for agreeing on this interview.

David: Hello there! Let’s get started!

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#1 – The Origins of Carnevale

Zweischneid: Ok. First question: Your miniature game Carnevale has been around for one or two years now.

When did you decide that you wanted to create a new miniatures game? How did you get started creating Carnevale?

David: A year and a half, more or less. It came out naturally. We started talking about it and then we came across a cool subject (Venice).

Then we started drawing some concept designs and… maybe quite foolishly… decided to invest in this crazy project!

Zweischneid: Venice is not the first thing most people think about when they talk about Miniature Games. How did you get started on Venice, and the Carnevale di Venezia as a setting for a miniatures game?

David: We started with a bunch of ideas, but they were all very common concepts. They were ideas and settings similar to many other games you have seen.

We wanted to go off the beaten track. We tried to think outside the box. Then a friend suggested Venice.

It was perfect!

XVIII century Venice offers a lot of danger and intrigue just by itself. And the colourful costumes were there most of the time, so there you have a very visual aspect too

Zweischneid: Cool. Have you been to Venice yourself? To the carnival?

David: I’ve been in Venice in a personal level, and then also we went there a couple of times to investigate on the subject. It’s pretty convenient to fly to Venice from Barcelona.

Unfortunately, I have never during the carnival however.

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#2 – The Miniatures of Carnevale

Zweischneid: Your miniatures obviously go a long way to capture the unique style and flavour of XVII century Venice. There are lots of really cool and unique sculpts.

Aside from travelling to Venice, do you do historical research to get the Venetian look right? How do you design your sculpts at Vesper-On Games?

David: Yes, even though the game has to have a strong fantasy theme, we want it to stay grounded on reality.

We are not sculptors ourselves, but writers, game designers and illustrators. We do the concept designs for all the characters and then contact the best sculptors we can find.

Zweischneid: So you focus on designing the game, while the sculpting is done mainly be freelancers?

David: Yes

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#3 – Carnevale – A Narrative Skirmish Game

Zweischneid: To my shame I must admit that I have not yet played a game of Carnevale.

However, I did hear a lot of good things about it. Especially, that it is a very cinematic game, where players can perform a variety of cool stunts. You also call it a “narrative skirmish game” on your Kickstarter-page.

Can you explain that a bit? Can you give an example or two of what makes Carnevale a narrative game?

David: We at Vesper-On Games are big fans of Role playing games and we wanted to have this type of flair in Carnevale.

In the game you can evolve your squad of models with experience. You name all your characters and your games go beyond the casual skirmishes. You literally play adventures with a narrative background.

We tried to make the rules very cinematic for this reason. You can jump from rooftop to rooftop, run on walls, and dive into the canals.

Zweischneid: So there is a campaign system in the Carnevale game, with experience, etc., and you’re newest expansion – Fangs and Crosses – will add a new campaign for players to play?

David: Yes. We will compile all the free stuff that we have on our site, and we’ll add in new adventures and campaigns as well. And if we manage to reach certain Stretch goals, we will have some really cool names designing more adventures for us.

Zweischneid: How do I have to imagine such a campaign, and the adventures?

Is it a set of themed missions with fixed objectives? Is it more a role playing adventure with only the fights played out with the miniatures?

David: It’s a little bit of both. You can go to our website and download the rulebook and some adventures for free. To give you an idea, we start with a background of the adventure before we set up a scenario. The following adventure will later follow up the events of the previous one.

Whoever won the previous game will decide a few new bits on the new adventures.

Zweischneid: How many miniatures do you usually use for a normal game of Carnevale?

David: You can play with a starter set, which comes with five models. From there, you can also add in five to seven more models easily, depending on your faction.

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#4 – Big Cthulhu-style Creatures!

Zweischneid: Ok. Last Question!

Are you planning more large cthulhu-esque monsters like the Morgraur-Rashaar for Fangs and Crosses?

David: Absolutely

Zweischneid: Fantastic. Thanks a lot for the interview David.

David: Thanks a lot for your interest!

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Preview – The Flame That Burns Underwater

As mentioned at the beginning, David was kind enough to let me show off an exclusive preview of a piece of concept art: The Flamer That Burns Underwater!

Enjoy!

Let me know what you think about Carnevale the Miniatures Game?

• Have you tired Carnevale before?
• Are you interested in this game?
• Do you back the current Kickstarter?
• What do you think of the “The Flame That Burns Underwater“?

Leave a comment!

Z.