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Crimes in History: H. H. Holmes' Murder Castle

Created by Seth & Brandt @ Blueprint Gaming Concepts

NOTE: Please scroll to the bottom of this page or click view item to select your product item. Missed your chance to back this Kickstarter game?! Now's your chance to pre-order and take advantage of the unlocked stretch goals that will be included in your late pledge. A game of backstabbing and thrilling absurdities! Collect evidence and battle each other across a sprawling castle for 2-6 players. The 2nd Story expansion broadens the number of players to 1-7! Read more about the game and campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sethcooper/crimes-in-history-h-h-holmes-murder-castle More Information: https://www.blueprintgamingconcepts.com/h-h-holmes-murder-castle Every game copy will receive a printed rulebook written in the English language. A web based rulebook translation is planned for German and French. Game copies are currently in route to the US and will be available to ship to customers by late January.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Prototype Virtual Tour (Part 2) & Updated Timeline
over 3 years ago – Sun, Oct 25, 2020 at 07:40:41 AM

Hey everyone! We apologize for "going dark" for a bit, but we had to resolve all of our remaining manufacturing tasks, meet with our fulfillment partner to progress next steps as soon as possible, and have been working to reassess the timeline as we mentioned in our last update. 


Our timeline is going to need to adjust by about a month because of delays for ports backing up (as a result of COVID-19) and the December holiday season. We do believe the below revised timeline will be accurate and includes an extra 7-10 days of contingency based on the timelines provided by our fulfillment partner. 


  1. Games Depart Manufacturer: By November 12, 2020 
  2. Inventory Arrival: By December 21-24, 2020
  3. Games Received at Shipping Warehouse: December 31, 2020
  4. All Backers Received Game Copies / Kickstarter Rewards: By January 28, 2021          

- Australia/Asia Backers: By January 13, 2021

- Europe: By January 20, 2021

- US: By January 28, 2021


Now for some good news, our manufacturer is completing the order this week and will be working on packing the pallets of games to prepare for shipment and there is a chance they can ship all inventory out by November 5 to start the 6-7 week sea voyage to the fulfillment center. All of our paperwork for fulfillment and customs have also been completed.


As a result of the delay, we have opened up pre-orders again for a very limited period which will end on Friday, November 13th, 2020 (how appropriate?!) and this won't impact any existing orders. If you know of anyone else interested, they can visit our pre-order site here.
 

Once this limited period of pre-orders ends, the best chance for others to obtain a copy are through 1) our friendly local game store retailers which can be viewed here or 2) by completing a form located here and we will notify people when our game is available for purchase on Cool Stuff Inc.


Thank you very much for everyone's patience and understanding and we hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! We'll keep you updated with any new updates or images received in the shipping process. 


Remaining Prototype Virtual Tour:

Group of Minis
Group of Minis with Room Tile Background
Evidence Bag

Note: We know there is a smudge in the printing but have seen samples from the manufacturing run and there are no smudges on those. This was an issue we were working with the manufacturer to correct. 


Fake Evidence Bag (The 2nd Story Expansion)
Laboratory Shelf with Potion Cutout Tokens (The 2nd Story Expansion)
Hidden Bookcase Pathways, Trapdoors and Landing Zones, and (The 2nd Story Expansion) Deathtraps and Landing Zones
Whitechapel Suite Cutouts
The 2nd Story Expansion Remaining Cutouts
Remaining Group of Cutouts

Final Reminder to Lock Shipping Addresses by Monday, October 5, 2020
over 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 02, 2020 at 10:41:30 AM

This is it! We’re finally working with our fulfillment vendor to prepare for shipping! We want to ensure we are ready to begin shipping as soon as the bulk order from the manufacturer is received at the fulfillment vendor's shipping warehouse.


This means you have until this Monday, October 5, 2020 to update your shipping address in your BackerKit survey. 


Shipping Addresses: If your shipping address has changed since you completed the BackerKit survey and you need to update your address, or you would like to confirm your shipping address is accurate, you can do so by logging into our BackerKit project page at murdercastle.backerkit.com or by clicking the link in your survey email. We all make mistakes, so please be very careful that you provide the correct address because this is where your game will be shipped to.


We are still on track and are currently aiming to ship the game with the revised timeline of mid-December - early January. 


Thanks in advance!

Prototype Virtual Tour
over 3 years ago – Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 10:27:02 PM

Hi everyone. We are still working on the revised timeline but below is a 60-photo and caption virtual tour of our final production prototype from the components received. We should be receiving the rest of the components within the next week and will publish photos once those components are received. We hope you enjoy!

Front box cover for the base game with The 2nd Story Expansion included. Also, did you notice the knife design in the U of Murder and the A of Castle?
Front box cover comparison with Villainous
Front box cover comparison with Terraforming Mars
Front box cover comparison with Jaws
Box side with continuation of the Murder Castle address at 63rd and Wallace in Chicago
Box side with Lola, Jonah, Adeline, Jeremiah, Abraham, and Hoyt
Box side with tribute to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the world's first Ferris wheel
Box side standing up with Holmes
Closeup of the exterior of Murder Castle on the front box cover
Closeup of the exterior of Murder Castle on the front box cover with Holmes lurking in the background
Open up the box and you can see the printed rulebook and a flyer for Holly Carden's puzzles
Remove the printed rulebook and flyer to get a sense of what the game will look like packed up once all components are punched out from the punchboards and cards are removed from the plastic wrap
If you have The 2nd Story Expansion, remove the Holmes' Control Panel and you will see the protective cover for the character miniatures and the skeleton key
Remove the protective cover and you will see the skeleton key and the character minis (we are still waiting to receive the minis from the manufacturer)
Remove the evidence boards and you will see the other components including the upgraded Ferris wheel
Remove the evidence board pillars and character cutouts and you will see the Holmes' Action Cards / Automa deck on the far right that are included with The 2nd Story Expansion
The key to the castle!
Skeleton key closeup
Skeleton key and evidence cube
Upgraded Ferris wheel with evidence cubes
Holmes character cutout with plastic stand
Action tile backside with the Explore the Castle action tile
In rare cases, you may have explored all rooms. If that occurs, flip over the Explore the Castle action tile to reveal the new Explore the Room action.
All action tiles front side
Evidence boards which include 1.) Placeholders (over Holmes) to place your selected Action Tile(s) and 2.) 3 placeholders on the top of the Evidence Board to hold your 3 Event Cards
Backside of the evidence boards
Thickness of all 6 evidence boards
Evidence board with pillar, evidence cubes, and Holmes' Strikes! cubes
All room tiles and cards included as a part of the base game and The 2nd Story Expansion
Starting game setup
Back of room tiles and brick walls
Room tiles
Our Kickstarter campaign backers unlocked these 3 new rooms for all game copies
The Whitechapel Suite closeup
Ale Pub closeup
The Atrium closeup
The 2nd Story Expansion rooms and extra brick wall
Room tiles with The 2nd Story token and lock cutouts
Standard multiplayer overview cards will help new players understand the game flow of each round
Evidence setup cards
Backside closeup of the evidence setup cards
Holmes' movement cards
More Holmes' movement cards
Event cards
Peephole event card closeup
Ambush event card closeup
Player dexterity event card closeup. The A symbol designates which event cards are used for Automa (1-player).
Gas fixtures event card closeup
Holmes' control panel (used by a player playing as Holmes as a part of The 2nd Story Expansion)
Holmes' control panel with cubes to unlock actions
Backside of Holmes' control panel
Holmes' control panel with 1 special ability for Holmes to select each game
After Holmes secretly selects the special ability, it is placed face down to connect next to the Holmes' control panel
The Holmes' control panel allows Holmes to unlock Holmes' action cards to place face down on the action tiles
Castle junction cards display objectives on the front side for players to work together when wanting to combat Holmes
The backside of the castle junction cards provides an action for players to combat Holmes
Evidence destruction cards are used in Automa or Play as Holmes and evidence cubes are removed from the room Holmes occupies
Back of the box
Thanks for checking out the photos!

Kickstarter Delivery and Locking Shipping Address Delay
over 3 years ago – Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 01:27:30 AM

All, 

We hope everyone is doing well! We have received the final prototype from our manufacturer and will be posting pictures for everyone to view in our next Kickstarter update which will be published within the next week and will also include more details regarding an updated timeline.

However, in the interim, we have been working with the manufacturer on estimated timelines and are doing everything within our power to stay on track for this project. Unfortunately, we are at the point where we are now solely relying on our manufacturing partner. While we are still waiting to be updated by our manufacturer on adjusted timelines, we know they are working to resolve 1 remaining component issue. In addition, the manufacturer was backed up a bit from other manufacturing projects placed on hold from the first wave of COVID-19. Prior to this campaign, we had spent significant time researching the board game industry and Kickstarter release timelines and no longer believe there is a path to deliver the game to backers by the end of October 2020 as we had hoped. We also made a promise to all of you during our campaign to be as transparent as possible with you throughout the process and want to honor that promise by updating you now. 

While we have seen a few Kickstarters deliver on-time, a delay can vary between 3-12 months. We believe we do have a path to deliver the game to you between December 10, 2020 and January 7, 2021 (so essentially a 6-10 week delay). We are working with our partners to work ahead as much as possible and we'd like to have the games in the mail to avoid any possible impacts from the US holiday mail rush that is at the end of December - if it is avoidable. 

We had previously mentioned that the locking of shipping addresses would take place on September 21, 2020. Due to delivery delay, we are rescheduling the locking of shipment addresses in BackerKit until October 5, 2020. Please make sure your shipment addresses includes the address where you will want the game shipped to between December 10, 2020 - January 7, 2021.  We will send out a reminder a few days before October 5, 2020 also.

Because of the delays, our manufacturer has upgraded a few additional components to backers at no cost to us. We will expand on this further in the next update.  Also, the box is impressive measuring at 12.5" x 12.5" x 3.5", but does fit into the IKEA Kallax Shelving Units for those that use this for their storage solution for board games or puzzles. We haven't mentioned this prior, but the box will include an insert to help organize the components. 

We thank you in advance for your patience and we are really excited to get this game in everyone's hands as soon as possible. 

Locking your shipment addresses on September 21, 2020!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Sep 01, 2020 at 06:47:48 AM

While we await our final production prototype and estimated manufacturing timelines from our manufacturer,  we want to make sure that we have the most accurate addresses for all backers, late pledges, and pre-orders. We will be locking your shipment addresses on September 21, 2020. This will help to speed up the fulfillment process once our fulfillment partner receives our bulk manufacturer order. 

Shipping Addresses: If your shipping address has changed since you completed the BackerKit survey and you need to update your address, or you would like to confirm your shipping address is accurate, you can do so by logging into our BackerKit project page at murdercastle.backerkit.com or by clicking the link in your survey email. We all make mistakes, so please be very careful that you provide the correct address because this is where your game will be shipped to.

  • Everyone receives the game(s) they ordered at the address they provide.
  • Shipping addresses will be locked in 21 days.  We will do this on our end within the BackerKit system. All you need to do is confirm your shipping address is accurate within BackerKit by September 21, 2020. 
  • Our final reminder for you to lock the addresses will be distributed 48 hours prior to the deadline (September 19, 2020).

Thanks and stay safe!

- Seth & Brandt