7 To Midnight & Midnight Showdown Co-op Games —Print Edition

2 games and a comic book full of art, lore, and sneak peeks . . .

This campaign also includes Print-and-Play (PnP) versions of the games and comic.

ADD-ONS

Game Board: $5
All of the animated GIFs of 7 To Midnight on this page display the game on the game board. This game board comes with the Deluxe version of the game, but you can also get it as an Add-on. The poster will be provided in 2 sizes: 18.23" x 16" and A3. 

The poster is completely optional, but for those looking for a beautiful, organized playing area, we're here for you!

A3 Game Board

The game board will also be provided in a different configuration for A3 paper. The A3 version doesn't include the Critter and Item decks — those will be off-board in order to fit that paper size, as shown below:

The poster can be printed at home and assembled, but we recommend printing it on 1 sheet at a local printer, unless you just love being craftsy. We get it. Whatever you want to do. Either way, we also recommend laminating the poster or slipping it under a clear sheet of vinyl/PVC (or plexiglass) available at many hobby and fabric/craft stores.

Second copy of Tales of the Midnight Guardians PDF: $2

Share a copy of this cool mini comic and lore PDF with someone special who loves adorable critters, lore, comic books and/or cute horror as much as you do! 

Get 24 pages of yummy Toonaria universe goodies, including Hero info, secrets of Zumoffa Lord of Night, & sneak peeks at upcoming games! See the Sidekick tier, above, for some thumbnails!

First up is a cool Preview video from Tas at PnP Time! You can check out more of his previews on YouTube. He also has a website for PnP'ers!

Next we have Meet the Midnight Guardians, which reveals part of the story of 7 To Midnight with art and light animation. Check it out!

Learn how to play 7 To Midnight by watching the video, below!

Review: Tas at PnP Time wrote a review of the games HERE!

How to play 7 To Midnight

Zumoffa is cursed and can't eat critters while they sleep. Critters can't sleep if their needs aren't met. As a Midnight Guardian, you alone stand between the innocent critters of Shady Valley and Zumoffa, Lord of Night!

OBJECTIVE
To win the game, you must rescue all of the critters in the Critter deck(s) by Midnight. When Midnight strikes, Zumoffa will eat any remaining critters and escape through the Midnight Gate to freedom (unless you can stop him from escaping in the Midnight Showdown Battle Game). Pick your actions carefully, or you'll run out of time!

Every critter's needs are listed below the image of the critter. Once you collect the items a critter needs, you can use the Rescue action to get them to sleep so Zumoffa can't eat them!

PHASES
The action in 7 To Midnight is split between 2 phases: Rescue Phase and Maze Phase. 

Rescue Phase: Each player takes a turn attempting to rescue as many critters as possible. You get 3 actions to spend on your turn and several options, which you can use in any order, and as many times as you want until you run out of actions. There are also Free actions. The most common actions are Take and Rescue.To save the Dorpa, above, you will need to spend all 3 actions: 1 "Take" action per Item card to collect both the Honeypop and Bedtime Story cards, and your 3rd action to Rescue the little Dorpa, which you do by discarding the items it needs. 

Rescuing a critter triggers an Event: Events include special locations that may help you on your quest, as well as allies and enemies. Each time you rescue a critter an Event is triggered. Flip the top Event card (labeled ?) above the critter you rescue faceup if not already faceup, and resolve if possible. If an Event card can't be resolved, try again the next time you rescue a critter below it. At the end of each turn, Refresh the field for the next guardian.

Refreshing the field: This amounts to drawing cards to fill the gaps in the field, including both the Critter Zone (where the critters are found) and the Item Zone (below the critters). Continuing the example with the Dorpa rescue, there is 1 gap in the Critter Zone and 2 gaps in the Item Zone.Maze Phase: At the end of each round, you must decide which direction to go in the maze: Left, Right, or Straight. Next, flip the top Battle Maze card to see if you are going the right way. Get it wrong, and there will be 2 consequences: Loss of access to an Item card (flipping an Item card facedown, which costs 1 action to flip faceup again so you can Take it), and being forced to discard the top Event card in the matching column. 

Left means the left-most column, right means the right-most, and Straight means the middle column.

Sometimes, you can pick 2 directions, as in the sample, below, since the Godstorm Vision Event card was triggered, which grants 2 guesses after rescuing a critter. If either guess is correct, you avoid the loss of access to an Item card, and get to decide whether to discard the top Event card or not.So, two things are happening above: First, the player picked "Right" as the direction to move in the maze. There is a Tracking token on top of the Maze card to remind you that you get a second guess because of the GodStorm Vision benefit. The player picked "Straight", which is a good thing, because it matches the Maze card that comes out. This means the player moves onward without any consequences. 

In a nutshell, players agree on a single direction and announce it before drawing a Battle Maze card. Using Battle Maze tokens displaying Left, Right and Straight are optional.

Asymmetrical player talents: Each hero has a unique talent. Drake's sidekick-in-training, Dewey, is an optional choice to replace one of the guardians. In Solo play, you will pick 2. In other Game Modes you will pick 1 guardian.

Midnight Showdown is a cooperative game. Even if you were playing 7 To Midnight using one of the variant, competitive Game Modes, everyone joins forces to help take down Zumoffa in this easy-to-learn, but challenging game.

OBJECTIVE
Defeat Zumoffa. If at least 1 guardian is left standing when Zumoffa runs out of health the players win! If all of the guardians fall Zumoffa wins.

HEALTH
Zumoffa is tougher than the Midnight Guardians. When he is nearly down for the count he can sometimes unleash a special attack. If your Health token drops below the lowest bubble on your Health Track, you are out of the game.

ACTIONS
Each guardian performs 1 of 3 actions per turn represented by tokens: Lock (Put a lock on the gate), Rumble (Fight), or Shield (Block). Those actions are compared to the icon on a Battle Maze card to determine the results of both the guardian and Zumoffa. Zumoffa uses the same actions, except Unlock, which he uses instead of Lock, to keep the gate from shutting down.

Cooldown: Once you use an action, it goes into Cooldown (flip the token facedown). You can't use a token in Cooldown for 1 full round.

Free Actions: Each hero also has 3 Free actions: Give, Power, and Rest. Each can be used only once per turn.
Give allows you to share Item cards with other players. 
Power: Use one of your 2 powers by spending an Item card.
Rest: You may choose to rest and draw 1 Item card (to fuel a power) or restore 1 Health. If you do either, Zumoffa also rests & restores 1 Health.

Rest, is a special option that can only be used when Zumoffa counters your Lock action with an Unlock action, or when Zumoffa counters your Shield action with a Shield action. This represents an opportunity for both combatants to take a step back and catch their breath. 

Battle Maze Cards: The Battle Maze cards are used to determine Zumoffa's actions during the Showdown. Only the right-side-up purple boxes on the cards apply. As with 7 to Midnight, you ignore upside-down information.ZUMOFFA'S SPECIAL ACTIONS
The example above demonstrates a special ability Zumoffa has that can be quite powerful at times! Whenever Zumoffa uses an uncountered Unlock action, and there are no locks on the Midnight Gate, he rotates the Battle Maze card and uses the other icon, instead, and then unleashes a Power card!

Regeneration: Before the battle started, Zumoffa created an energy tether to siphon energy off of the Midnight Gate, enabling him to restore 1 Health at the end of any round in which the Gate isn't sealed with 4 locks. It is NOT easy to defeat Zumoffa!

SAMPLE TURN [Yara]
Yara decides to rush over and put a lock on the Midnight Gate. A Battle Maze card is flipped, revealing Rumble. Zumoffa's attack does not stop her from locking the gate, but lowers her Health. If Yara gets hit twice more, she's out of the fight.SAMPLE TURN [Miles]
Miles has a warrior's heart and is very accurate with his Pienado 3,000 rifle (It fires high velocity, enchanted pies). He takes a shot at Zumoffa (a Rumble action). The Lord of Night blocks with a Shield. Normally, that would counter a Rumble attack. 

Miles uses some of his power to trigger "Accuracy", which enables him to bypass the shield and score a hit. Using a power requires expending an Item card, which in Midnight Showdown are used abstractly to represent energy/magic/opportunity.Asymmetrical player powers: Each hero has a unique power that costs 1 Item card to fuel. You will start the game with very few Item cards, but it is possible to get more. If you play Midnight Showdown immediately after finishing 7 To Midnight, you may keep any leftover Item cards you have in hand from that game and gain bonus cards, and use them to play Midnight Showdown. 

Drake's sidekick-in-training, Dewey, is an optional choice to replace one of the guardians. In all Game Modes, 4 guardians (or 3 + Dewey) will be in the fight. Turns are very fast, so running multiple guardians is a breeze.

Click on the header, above, to find the current rules for both 7 To Midnight and Midnight Showdown (provided in the same pdf). The rulebook is not final, but it's very close! The final polish and proofreading passes will be completed shortly.Meet the Midnight Guardians, below, reveals part of the story of 7 To Midnight with art. Check it out!

Wait, what is a Print and Play (PnP) game? 
It is a game that is delivered electronically as digital files (pdfs, typically) that you print out, cut and in some cases glue or laminate. In some PnP games you need to provide your own dice, pencil, etc. Nothing extra is required to play the games in this campaign. 

Okay, but why run a PnP campaign?
While PnP games have a smaller audience, there are many like myself who love them, and enjoy the craft of building them. And there are those (again like myself) who don't have a lot of money to spend on games. You don't have to be artsy to assemble them. 

This campaign is also a way to try out a game before investing money in our upcoming print campaign, and allows you to play much, much sooner than you would be able to with a print campaign. 

The components are not so complex that you have to be an expert to cut them out, so no worries there. Sure, it helps to have corner cutters and punches for the cards and bits, but they aren't required. You don't need to be artsy to print, cut, and assemble PnP games. Just a little patience and time are required. 

Do I need dice or anything else to play these games?
7 To Midnight needs 3 generic tokens for tracking/reminders. Anything smaller than a US quarter will do. It could be nickels, dimes, pennies, meeples or other small tokens from another game, glass stones, like you find in fish tanks — even mini marshmallows!

Well, maybe not mini marshmallows — at least I wouldn't have the self-control to avoid eating them. Just anything small!

What if I have a question about the printing process? 
Most of the process is pretty straightforward, as the files are set up for printing. We are also happy to answer questions, but a terrific Facebook Group for the craft of building Print and Plays that is friendly and has very talented members can be found at Martin's Print and Play Hideaway! 
Martin is amazing at assembling Print and Play games and provides tips and video tutorials.
If you don't own a printer, you can still dive into the fun by taking the pdfs to your local printer. They can also laminate anything you might want, such as the jumbo Player Aid, and such stores have a variety of paper types — most even have cutters and laminators. 

Euro Poker-sized card sleeves (63mm x 88mm) can also be purchased at better hobby stores and online to extend the life of the game if you don't laminate the cards, or to use instead of cardstock cards (just slip an old card between the front and back, if the cards are printed on regular paper and then put the card sandwich into a card sleeve.) 

*****

If you like what we're doing, it's a win-win for everyone to spread the word! That said, we have every intention of running a print campaign one way or another! 7 To Midnight and Midnight Showdown are completely done. We have the review copies in hand. We're actively moving toward the print campaign. Our games are piling up, waiting for their turn in the limelight, so we're fully committed to making it happen!

It costs money just to exist as a company, and also to pay for things like prototypes, conventions, signage, taxes, etc. That's all coming out of QT Games' pocket. Any money we make here will go toward running the print campaign.

We've been doing the legwork — establishing a relationship with a worthy manufacturer, acquiring review copies, researching fulfillment centers, etc. Oh, and by "we" I mean me — Bob Whitely. I'm the one up late at night working hard to create exciting goodies for you to enjoy, and I'm the face of QT Games. 

My wonderful wife, Joan, is my silent, supportive partner. For a company, it just makes sense to me to use "we" for company matters. My decisions affect my wife, and the business is hers, too, but I'm creating for all of us. I can't wait to share Toonaria with you. Each game is a small way of sharing the universe I've spent my life creating!

Wondering about Kickstarter and how to pledge? No worries, here are the basics to becoming a backer:
A. Click on the Reward tier you want to get.
B. Fill in the basics like Country and identifiers.
C. Click the Pledge button and prepare for good times! 

We will deliver your digital goodies electronically shortly after the campaign ends.

Have more questions about the basics? Click on the Header, above, to get the answers straight from Kickstarter.There are many good reasons to back us now. For example . . .
•  You can get the PnP games shortly after the campaign ends. No waiting on production and shipping, or deal with fees like vat and tariffs.
• You get a free game and mini comic/lore book when you choose a tier with 7 To Midnight in it. 
• Backing this campaign helps push forward our other projects, bringing much needed exposure and interest in the universe we've created! You can then dive into the incredible world we've been building — Toonaria, and enjoy the lush stories, the characters, and the art.  
• Your honest feedback helps us make even better games and is appreciated.
• We've successfully delivered 3 Kickstarter campaigns worldwide, so we are comfortable with the process and deliver exceptional products.

If you believe in what we're doing, you can feel good about backing, knowing that you are making a difference, not just getting fun goodies, but that you are also helping an indie realize their dream. Why let the big boys have all the fun?

Together we can do more than we ever could on our own! We appreciate your taking a stand with us and are excited to share Toonaria with you and your friends!

No AI was used in the making of these games and art. There are so many talented people in the world — let's support them! We will continue to support creative individuals (by backing their projects, for example).  

Publisher: QT Games LLC
Game Design: Bob Whitely
Illustrations: Bob Whitely
Graphic design: Bob Whitely
Art & Design Consultation: Haven Whitely
Editing: Eric Engstrom

Do you like what we've been up to? If so, then please consider following us wherever you hang out online. If you share our campaign, we can forge ahead and spend more time on what we do best - creating great dice, art, fiction, and games!

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Take a stand and become a Midnight Guardian! Game 3 in the Lord of Night Series: Midnight Guardians. Everything is set in our sprawling, technomagical Toonaria universe. If you like what we've been up to, we think you'll get a kick out of our upcoming Midnight Guardians Board Game!

Midnight Guardians takes place sixteen years after the events of 7 To Midnight and the Midnight Showdown, and features new twists and turns, different game mechanics, except set collection, which is still present. Zumoffa is back, but in a way you've never seen before, and this time with powerful servants!

The game has been playtested and demoed at cons for several years now and has been well received, thankfully! We will revisit it and polish it up a bit more once we get the first 2 games in the series from this Kickstarter out the door, and look forward to sharing it with more and more of you before long!

Here's a sneak peek at Zumoffa's main servant from the Midnight Guardians Board Game, a colossal, tentacled nightmare from the Shadow Realm known as a Wall of Pain!