Pencil First Games will produce Keith Matejka’s Skulk Hollow board game, releasing in October, 2019.

Skulk Hollow is an asymmetric tactical combat game set in a fantasy world inhabited by the anthropomorphic Foxen.  The Foxen heroes must defend their homes and people from enormous creatures known as Guardians, who in turn seek to cleanse the world they have created from the perceived corruption of the Foxen.  In the game, one player controls only a single Guardian, while their opponent controls a team of Foxen heroes and nobles.

The conflict is fought over two separate game boards, one representing the lands of Skulk Hollow and the other representing the body of the Guardian itself, which the Foxen can climb to pursue their goals.  Action is controlled through the use of dual-purpose cards that are used either for movement or to gain access to special abilities.  In the end, the player who can eliminate their opponent’s forces wins the game.

Skulk Hollow will feature artwork by Dustin Foust and includes 1 main game board, 4 Guardian boards, 15 power cubes, 15 wooden heart tokens, 3 handicap tokens, 10 wooden Foxen meeples, 4 50mm tall Guardian meeples, 5 decks of cards, 5 player mats, and 9 additional tokens.  The game is intended for 2 players, ages 8 and up, and takes about half an hour to play.  MSRP has not yet been set, but is projected to be between $44.99 and $49.99.

Pencil First is funding the production of Skulk Hollow through a Kickstarter campaign that has attracted $120,660 in pledged support from 2,455 backers (an average of $49.15 per backer), easily bypassing the project’s goal of $20,000.  Backer fulfillment is scheduled for next October (December for the game’s French language version), with release into the trade to follow.