The Backstory

In the beginning there was darkness, all-encompassing, complete darkness. A black hole that hungered to consume everything. This darkness is called Demogargano. But there was also light, glimmering and blinding, known to man as God. Existing separate from each other until by chance, or fate, they collided stealing energy from each other creating a new existence. Life blossomed, evolved, and thrived. Like two sides of a coin the light and dark coexisted and influenced man. As time went by the light created Hell as a means to quarantine evil caused by the darkness. Lucifer’s fight with God and his ultimate exile resulted in his right to rule Hell.

Lucifer enjoyed his rule for a millennia until he started to sense the rise in darkness and the existence of Demogargano. After having visons of Demogargano he experienced fear for the first time and left the Golden Bastille in Hell to go into hiding. With his absences many saw the opportunity to seize the power of Hell and three factions were formed. The order of the Devil lead by Belial, seeks to preserve Lucifer’s rule for his eventual return, maintaining the power structures as they are. The Council of Hate consists of the armies and legions of hell, military class demons, ruled by Beelzebub. The Council of Hate seeks to bring order to the chaos of Hell no matter the cost, but they also want to destroy Lucifer’s legacy and shift the balance of power. The Horde are the embodiment of chaos and pandemonium. They are ruthless, mindless demons who want to overrun Hell and destroy everything in their path. Astaroth is the only one that can control them and keep their bedlam at bay. Baal, a powerful sorcerer, and second in command of the Horde, turns on Astaroth and casts a spell banishing him to another dimension.

Lilith, the queen of Hell and estranged wife of Lucifer, senses that Astaroth has vanished and she fears the Horde will over run Hell with Baal at the helm. She finds Baal and challenges him to a battle to the death and wins. By doing so she left the Horde with no leaders, in turn granting them greater power and increasing Demogargano’s grip on the world. Lilith could travel through dimensions but she could not sense or locate Astaroth from Baal's spell. In that moment, Demogargano’s presence strengthened and Lilith is seized by the same visions that Lucifer suffered. In effort to preserve Hell and stop Demogargano from destroying everything, she forms the HellBringers. They are a rag tag group of demons, men, creatures, mercenaries, wizards, cyborgs, and the most bad ass pug ever. They are tasked with stopping Demogargano and raising a little hell along the way. (The story continues in HelllBringers #0, which can be found in the Art of Mark May Volume 1)

The Game

HellBringers is a card game stemming from the HellBringers first appearance in comics back in 2015 which can be found in the "The Art of Mark May Volume 1". Since then the universe has grown to not only include a wide range of intriguing and powerful characters. The villains are what make HellBringers unique. Set in deep culture and a plethora of mythologies from around the world, HellBringers brings characters from all walks of existence.

The full 52 card deck comes with 42 characters to introduce you to the HellBringers universe and 10 special weapons cards for multipliers to help you with those BOSS battles! There are 3 ways to play #HellBringers! Gauntlet Mode, Survivor Series Mode, (Both due in August) and the Game Board mode coming in October!

How to play

You need two dice, a paper pad, and something to write with to keep track of hit points. To enhance the hellish experience, 2 skull dice are included with the full game with mat if you buy that reward option. The cards themselves have SILVER FOIL on the front to make everything shiny! Oh....shiny! Fun to look at. Cards have 6 stat categories that make up a character’s total hit points. The game is played by rolling the dice and using total rolls to take off hit points as an attack. There are weapons cards that act as multipliers and every time you roll doubles it means something different. Can you get through the first battle of gauntlet or map mode? Are you ready to bring hell upon your enemies?

Here are the rules for the game!

There are three ways to play HellBringers. Survivor Series (Card deck needed only), Board Game mode, or Gauntlet mode (Card deck needed only)

First take out any card with a 666 or 000 attached to it and put it in separate pile for later. Here are the rules for doubles and the categories for stats.

Rolling Doubles:

1’s Into the Snakes Eyes : Instant kill
2’s Double Deuces: Restart battle (All HP reset)
3’s The Tribus – Attack is 3 times what you roll for the next attack roll.
4’s The Four Highwaymen Cometh – Choose a card from the deck to help you attack for the rest of the battle. This card cannot be attacked by opponent and will be put back in deck after battle. Do not get to keep for future battles.
5’s The Five have Risen – Gain back ALL HP
6’s One More to Summon Him – Roll again , If you can roll a 6 on either dice than you summon Demogargano to fight for you for the rest of the battle.


Stat Categories:

Evil Within
Magic
Durability
Strength
Fighting Ability
Intelligence


All categories are added up for total HP of any character.

Survivor Series mode:

2 players draw 6 cards a piece. One each until 6 are laid out. They then use 2 dice to roll and determine how much an attack has taken of their opponents HP (Health Points). Overall HP is determined by the combined total of the stat categories on the back of the card. The attack is subtracted from that total number until it reaches zero in which case the opponent is defeated. A notepad is suggested to keep up with HP and attack subtractions. In Survivor Series mode you face off 6 vs. 6 and you can choose to attack anyone in the deck for your turn. Once the card for the opponent is eliminated he goes into a defeated card pile. This continues until the player has defeated all of his opponents cards. The player then gets to revive any fallen cards he may have endured as well as the opponents cards and choose any 6 out of them to proceed forward to fight Demogargano. However, before you do that you must first draw a weapon card from the deck of the weapons cards. Weapons cards act as multipliers for attacks which you will need against Demogargano who will vastly out number you in HP. You also now get your 7th member of your team to help you defeat Demogargano. This is where you will roll one dice. If you get a 1 you get the “Bum Jesus” card, if you get a 2 you get the Norgren card, if you get a 3 or 4 you get Attila, and finally, if you get a 5 or 6 you get Astaroth. These cards feature different results. Norgren, Attila, and Astaroth all have 666 in one stat category making their total HP brought to the group a welcome asset and required in order to defeat Demogargano as he has 3 over 666 categories. Bum Jesus who you will receive if you roll a one has a 000 stat category making him able to sacrifice himself in order to defeat Demogargano without even rolling the dice. Meaning if you roll a 1 with the dice you win the game instantly.

The game can be played by two people or by yourself battling yourself to see who goes to fight Demogargano.

Gauntlet Mode:

In Run the Gauntlet mode the game play of HellBringers is the same except that when you and your opponent draw your first cards you instantly battle them. When the opponent’s card is defeated you will then put that card in a separate pile for later. The player then keeps the card with the battle damage of HP that was suffered from the battle. The opponent then draws another card and the battle damaged card from before fights that card. Both players get 6 cards in total and they battle this way until no cards are left for the opponent. The player then chooses 6 cards from his pile and the defeated pile to fight Demogargano and the rules are the same as Survivor Series for the final battle. See above.

Board Game Version:

Players rolls one dice. Player moves spaces until reaching weapons card pick up slots, team builder slots, and also battle zones. Players have the option of killing player and gaining double attack or having player join their team in the battle zones. Weaker players would be a reason you would kill of a player in order to double your attack. At this point you are choosing the bolster your attack rather gain HP of total team. Weapons cards act as modifiers. Team building is the goal of the board along with minor battles before you make it to the end of the game where you fight Demogargano. Unlike the card deck game version, you do not have the option of rolling for a special character at the end. You must make up your team as you go and if you are defeated in battle you have to start over. Game is 1-3 players and you can play by yourself as you just need to roll for the opponent as well during battles. During battles doubles mean the same as in regular card deck versions of the game.

Amazing Contributing Artist

Incredible art from the likes of Mark May, Marat Mychaels, Bob Camp, Chris Giarrusso, Ed Smith, Sean Forney, Steven Pulawa, Ryan Kincaid, Phil Spaulding, Cara Nicole, Brady Overstreet, Rick Lozano, Russ Casseday, and Sara Frazetta (Her first published work, granddaughter of the GOAT Frank Frazetta)! Some of the best artists from the comic industry come together to make one HELL of a card game for you! Pledge now to receive a game with challenging aspects, premium art, and overall fun to bed had! These cards are gonna be collectors items for generations to come!