The Skinny

De Profundis was designed to allow players to add more content to Claustrophobia without making the game overly complicated. The Trog Master, Croc, just didn’t feel like adding more and more rules to a game that was already running perfectly, so if you know the rules for Claustrophobia, you’ll be ready to love - or hate - De Profundis. Of course, there are lots of new features waiting for you in the catacombs beneath New Jerusalem. If you really can’t stand Claustrophobia, you should stop reading now.

So now that we’ve run off all the trog haters, let’s talk turkey. Or demons. Or demons eating turkey.

In the Box

De Profundis is going to give you four more painted figures (we don’t say ‘pre-painted’ around here, it makes the demons cranky). Two of them are the Siccaria, which are essentially the same figure, but they can be fine-tuned a little to make them unique. Mix it up and create all kinds of possible holy warriors - strong permanent talents, special attacks, and other creative touches make the Siccaria a couple of fun-loving holy men who like to take long walks on the beach and roast demons like overcooked short ribs. Add in two more enraged beasts, and you’ll have enough demons to terrify humanity all over again. Or they can play bridge. Siccaria are great at bridge.

You’ll get 55 new cards, doubling what you already have in the base game, with a little bit more of everything - new talents for the brother redeemer, new demons, new events, new objects and more. Good times for everyone.

De Profundis also includes ten new tiles, all different. That means ten new rooms, with six new types of tiles. The sanctified zone can hurt demons crossing through it, while the demon pit spawns hellish minions even faster and cheaper. The tomb of the ancient warrior will give up various handy objects based on a random card draw. De Profundis offers a wide variety of new places to get killed and eaten by the denizens of the underworld. Bring the kids!

You’ll get more plastic markers, because you just can’t have enough of those.

Finally, you’ll also get a new rulebook (a very short rulebook, which is nice) that contains twelve completely new scenarios. One of them is an adaptation of Croc’s favorite web scenario, but none of these scenarios have been published anywhere before, and they’ll take you from 30 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on whether you have the stomach for the really devious ones. All the scenarios were created by a team of six crack writers, including Croc and folks who have published on the Internet, in Ravage Magazine, and other places.

Now, we know what you might be thinking. You’re thinking that this is material that was originally designed for Claustrophobia and we held it back to have the expansion. Well, that’s just not true. Why do you think it took so long for us to create an expansion? We had to make everything from scratch!

The New Rules

We said we wanted to keep it simple, and here’s the proof - De Profundis has only three new rules. The first one, and the easiest, is that the demon player’s hand size is only three event cards. The new events are so spectacular that letting the demon load up on any more just wouldn’t be fair. Some might say it would be evil.

The second change is the Siccaria. Their skills are permanent, so you won’t need to roll dice or anything. No wonder they’re so good at bridge.

The third change is the introduction of a new beast. The goal was to create a step between the troglodytes and the demon, and Croc wanted these intermediaries to play differently than the original hellish minions. He was, of course, thoroughly successful. The new bad guys costs three TP and have to be controlled by giving them a die. This die is free the first round, but it gets expensive quick. If you don’t feel like paying, your new minion of evil might just sulk in a corner and not do anything at all. That’s a lot like Croc, actually.

If everything goes according to plan, De Profundis will be out in mid-October. It’s going to print in July, which is, you know, now. If we were making a video game, we would call this the gold stage. But it’s not a video game, so we just call it ‘going to print.’

Depending on the scenario, it will take two players from half an hour up to 90 minutes to play De Profundis. If you want to play with four players, well then, you will have to play something else. This is a game for two.

Look for the first Claustrophobia expansion to be available around mid-October 2011. That’s later than we were hoping, but man, painted figures can be a pain. They’re totally worth it, though.