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What is this game?

King of the Mountain is a 2-4 player game inspired by Parcheesi, Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, the Brothers Grimm, and an old board game called The Enchanted Forest that I adored as a kid.

Players take turns trying to maneuver one of their clansmen across a magical kingdom to climb the mountain in the middle of the board, vanquish the Dragon, and seize the Throne—which is when the real fun begins! In too many games (Parcheesi, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit, etc.) the first player to reach the goal—the alleged 'winner'—is rewarded by being unceremoniously booted out of the action, while everyone else (the 'losers') play on, laughing and making merry. Some reward! In King of the Mountain, when you claim the Crown, you will begin a long, ruthless campaign to eliminate the rest of your smirking opponents from the game (think Monopoly, and you just built medieval castles on Boardwalk and Park Place) until you are the last man standing. Long Live the King!

There are goblins and ghosts and giants and monsters roaming the countryside and trolls guarding bridges and a wishing well and a witch’s cottage where you can buy spells and a mercenary camp and buried treasure and a graveyard and ancients ruins and a mysterious unicorn and a big, scary dragon, and, and, and…! Can you catch the unicorn and ride it into the Dark Wood to slay the dragon and steal its gold? Yes! Can you challenge a troll to a duel to take control of the bridge it guards, then charge other players twice as much to cross? Yes! Can you capture a rival clansman, interrogate him in your dungeon to discover the secret entrance to their stronghold, then sneak in with your thieves and rob them blind? Yes! Yes! Yes! Can you demand a trial by combat when somebody tries to execute one of your clansman? Of course you can! Can you climb the mountain, don the Crown, demand all your enemies swear fealty to you, tax them into oblivion, then Declare War on any who oppose you, hire an army of sellswords and march to their stronghold and set up catapults to destroy their castles? I wouldn’t have it any other way! You can do almost anything you can imagine! (Which is probably why the Rulebook is 200+ pages long…)

The Story So Far

The board is done! The Hall of Kings is complete! All 114 Magical Artifacts have been painted! The clansmen are ready to march! The frog potions have been corked—literally! The 200-page Rulebook is coming along nicely! Over 100 Acts of God and Fate & Fortune cards are prepared to print! Dozens and dozens of little wooden game-pieces have been meticulously painted!

Unfortunately, there are still hundreds of game-pieces to produce (Buried Treasure cards, Quest Medallions, the Goblin Bank, Sword & Shield tokens, Bank Loan cards, trolls, the Pawn Shop, Black Plague tiles, Snow, horses, the King of the Dead, watchtowers, keeps, a sun-dial…) Wow, it gives me a headache just thinking about all the work I have left!

When King of the Mountain is finally ready, it is going to be unlike anything you have ever played, and it will be well worth the wait!

What’s Next?

It is going to take another year (at least!) to finish crafting, writing, designing, painting, and printing everything—and then managing to squeeze it all into one box. After that, get ready to play!

As far as publishing or selling King of the Mountain, I am open to the idea, but will cross that bridge when I come to it (assuming there is not a troll standing guard there!)

Videos

Making the Gameboard

The gameboard is finished. It weighs in at close to 30 lbs. When it is unfolded, the kingdom is 32” x 32”… which takes up quite a lot of room on the table. The mountain in the middle is 10” tall with 12 separate levels, topped with a golden throne. There are over 400 spaces on the board, roughly 4 linear feet of sparkling river painstakingly filled with a glossy ‘bar-top’ glaze, and several unique destinations including a Dark Forest, 4 distinct Strongholds, 5 permanent Landmark locations, and dozens of specially-stamped spaces which all play their part.

Click on the thumbnails below for larger images.

Sample Gameplay Photos

I set up the board just to get a sense for how it would look when it all came together, and took some pics. This is how things might look if four players had been going at it for about an hour…