Darkleaf Gambit | Reignite Your Chessboard's Magic

Darkleaf Gambit | Reignite Your Chessboard's Magic

Transform your most beloved chessboard into the mythical forest of Haggedorn in this 2-player game of risk and cunning.

54,774 USD
of 10,000 USD Goal
660
Backers
Contact Creator View on Kickstarter

Darkleaf Gambit is an entirely new game for your chess set! Perfect for quick, intense duels that blend classic charm and modern, asymmetric mechanics. Whether played on a family heirloom or a steal from the local thrift store, Darkleaf Gambit reignites the magic in your chessboard. Bring your keen mind for strategy, but otherwise no chess experience is required to play Darkleaf Gambit.

#1: Choose Your Clan

Take control of one of six clans, each inviting its own distinct style of play and unique path to victory. No two units move alike or possess the same abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. And with six to choose from, that amounts to 15 possible matchups and high replayability.

#2: The Setup

Gather six dice, one mighty clan board, and assign Fate Chips to their skills. Configure your units around Haggedorn (that mythical forest, commonly mistaken for a chessboard) as depicted on the clan guide.

#3: Roll a Die & Execute

Gameplay is turn-based and begins with a roll of the die, which powers and limits every action. Will you hunt with the Huldra’s ranged attack or hazard a close confrontation with The Murg? Push your opponent into the void on the Ferrymen’s wave, or reclaim the Erde’s sacred territories? Transform rival units into Wibo pawns or cast Hexen curses on the ground upon which your rival walks? 

#4: Slot the Die & Acquire Power

End your turn by slotting the rolled die in your clan board to power miracles, relics, auras and laws. Once purchased, miracles produce immediate effects while relics can be saved for later, strategic use. Auras are placed on units and territories, which can have both offensive and defensive impacts. Laws create an advantage for your clan that lasts the remainder of the duel.

#5: Achieve Victory!

The first clan to meet its victory condition wins! With six clans and six different conditions, be wary as your rival’s objective will be different from your own… and not at all easy to thwart.

More ways to learn Darkleaf Gambit

  • Watch the Good Time Society’s How to Game with Becca Scott.
  • Hop into the full digital version of the game on Tabletopia…for free!
  • Delve into the 20-page rulebook with complete clan compendiums.

Just the One Add-On? We’re fans of both types of Kickstarters: the ones where you have oodles of options for shiny tokens and metal upgrades and kickass expansions, and the ones where you can see exactly what you are getting without even scrolling. For this campaign, we’re executing the latter. Darkleaf Gambit is a tightly focused game. Its components are already premium in every way. And the asymmetry was a bear to balance. We thought it would be insincere (and even damaging to the core mechanics) to concoct an expansion or an extra add-on to simply raise more revenue. Every parent says this, but Darkleaf Gambit is perfect just as it is.

How About Stretch Goals? We have some fun things planned that are dependent upon the level of this campaign’s success. These things primarily entail a) extending the game’s Haggedorn's Will mechanic and b) forest conservation. We are thankful to every tree that inspired the mythology behind Darkleaf Gambit, and every tree that will go into manufacturing your games. We’ll discuss these plans with you in the campaign updates rather than building a ladder of stretch goals.

Special thanks goes to all of Darkleaf Gambit's wonderful playtesters (both in the physical realm as well as on Tabletopia), Dalla Croce Studios for 3d modeling support, and In Depth Films for being our videography wingman!  
All UpdatesUpdate #1

Samples Received

2025-11-17 02:51:24

Hello Darkleaf friends and happy November!

Our manufacturer, Eastar, turned around mass production samples earlier this month, and we’re thrilled to see everything coming together! Following the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll give you a quick rundown and let the photos speak for themselves.


  • Standard Dice and Fate Chips: These required no change from initial prototyping, so what you saw during the campaign remains ready for prime time.
  • Box Tray: Do game boxes with deep wells where you dump all the components make you anxious? Us too, which is why we designed an insert that holds everything in its right place. (Cue Radiohead for those who came of age in the 90s.)


  • Kickstarter Edition Dice: What a journey! We’ve gone through 4 iterations, honing colors, ratios of those colors, and overall effect. Our goal was for each die in each set to be one-of-a-kind, and we have (finally, humbly) succeeded. The primary resin is transparent and the production process involves lots and lots (and lots) of polishing, so the light plays and dances and swirls beautifully within these guys. We feel confident you’ll love them!


  • Disposable plastics: Happy to report there are only 3 pieces of disposable plastic: the box’s shrink wrap, a small baggie to hold relic tokens, and a wrap for the fate chips. We can all feel good about environmental impacts on this project.

Finally, the dual-layer boards' linen finish and rounded cutouts are perfectly aligned and gorgeous. When printing prototypes last spring, there’d been a need to dull the colors to eliminate over-saturation with the gloss finish. However, the matte finish requires the opposite: re-saturation and darkening. So the inherently darker boards (such as the Hexen) turned out perfect while the ones using lighter hues require slight modification and a second round of samples to maximize their beauty.



Darkleaf transports you into another world while sitting around your good ole chessboards, and this final adjustment ensures the magic of that transportation happens. We built this inevitability into our initial schedule, so everything is still on track. When we check in next month, production will be underway.

Until the next shuffle,

Jamison (and Jess)









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