BEDLAM Long & Bloody

Overview
The black plague has swept across a neo-feudalistic world, relentlessly killing almost half the human population. The plague still lingers, and many human minds have been twisted by the horrors they’ve seen and the corruption of the land. It is the Age of Intolerance, and a global inquisition is underway to eradicate all heretics and nonbelievers. The enforcers of this inquisition believe that a lack of faith is the reason the world has become ill, when in truth it was their sinister leadership who engineered a viral pathogen that infected all of humanity. Superstition and paranoid whispers are commonplace, and few folks emerge during the day out of fear of sickness and death. An evil, vile darkness now blankets the land and humanity is on the brink of extinction. The dormant virus, called the blood curse by the common folk, must be cured to prevent all humans from going mad again and killing each other off. It is up to a small party of mercenaries to quest forward and destroy the very heart of darkness to save the world from madness and eternal damnation.

Setting
The game takes place on our world roughly two thousand years from now. Several world wars have reduced a once glorious globe-spanning empire to rubble. Most of the planet has become irradiated and inhospitable, known as the Cursed Lands. In the last war with the machines, all of humanity was infected by an insidious blood virus that remained dormant until every last human had contracted it. Then, on a day that came to be known as the Culling of Madness, everyone simultaneously was overcome with delirium as the virus activated. In one day, half of humanity killed itself off in a fit of madness and unchecked insanity. This is a dark future alternate universe set in a techno-medieval time period where the world has been ravaged by an ongoing inquisition, a maddening blood virus, and a looming, all-consuming plague. 

Narrative
A party of mercenaries must quest to seek and destroy the source of a vile evil spreading across the world that is corrupting humanity. The last remnants of humanity fight on for some semblance of a civilization and hope to find a cure to the madness caused by the blood virus. The few remaining forces of good have unified under a common belief that the Stygian Empire is responsible in some way for the blood virus, and that if the Dark Citadel can be breached, a cure to the virus and the madness consuming humanity can be found. The Stygian Empire is on the march, seeking to conquer the shattered kingdom of Elyria. In one last ditch effort, a call to arms is sent out to any hero who would stand against the darkness and fight to find a cure to the virus. Will you answer the call to save humanity?

Release Date
2027

Players
1-4 players co-op campaign.

Character Progression
Play as one of eight heroes: Barbarian, Mage, Rogue, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Necromancer, or Monk.

Heroes gain experience levels 0-10 by completing quests in the Prologue, Acts I, II, and III.

24+ unique ability cards per hero.

Goals
The party must journey forth from their home base to complete quests to cleanse the land and gain hordes of treasure and loot.

The party must journey to a lair to defeat the act boss in order to complete an act.

The party must complete all acts in order to journey to the final lair, the Dark Citadel, in search of a cure to the blood virus.

Challenges
The party will encounter numerous enemies, hazards, circumstances, and bosses they must work together to defeat and overcome.

There are three acts to the game, each with their unique biomes, difficulty, and challenges.

Challenge is presented by enemies and their combat abilities, party members can die, bleed over time, and gain negative traits the players must figure out how to remedy or work around.

Bleeding over time attracts more monsters over time. If the party doesn’t remedy bleeding characters, the scent of blood is picked up by nearby enemies. Eventually, these enemies will hunt down the party and ambush the party or join an existing battle.

Game Mechanics
2.5D Dungeon & Open World Map Exploration, Turn-based Combat, Deckbuilding, Resource Management.

Genre
Card Battler, Dungeon Crawler, Roguelite.

Soundtrack
Original heavy metal & dark synth soundtrack.

Additional Game Modes
Hardcore Mode: greater risks and greater rewards with hero permadeath.