Tabletop Game / Here To Slay

Aww what a cute little kitty....OH S*** it has knives!

Here to Slay is a 2-6 player card game by Unstable Games, the creators of Unstable Unicorns. Players compete to be the first to assemble a party of six Heroes with different types, or to slay 3 monsters.

The game was originally funded through Kickstarter, with numerous exclusive cards and accessories provided to backers.

There are five types of regular cards:

• Hero Cards: Come in 11 classes. Each has a unique activated ability.
  • Fighter: Bears. Symbol is a red hammer.
  • Wizard: Rabbits and Jackalopes. Symbol is a purple staff.
  • Ranger: Foxes. Symbol is a green bow and arrow.
  • Bard: Squirrels. Symbol is an orange lute.
  • Guardian: Unicorns and Winged Unicorns. Symbol is a yellow shield.
  • Thief: Cats and Bakeneko. Symbol is two blue daggers.
  • Sorcerer: Dragons. Kickstarter Exclusive. Symbol is a black flame.
  • Warrior: Wolves. Symbol is a grey-blue sword.
  • Druid: Deer. Symbol is a turquoise flower.
  • Berserker: Lions. Symbol is an orange axe.
  • Necromancer: Dogs. Symbol is a pink set of bones on fire.
• Magic Cards: Cards with a one-time effect.
• Item Cards: Cards that can be attached to Heroes and add new effects or abilities.
  • Cursed Item Cards: Items that provide a negative effect to the equipped hero. Meant to be played on opponents heroes.
• Modifier Cards: Can be used to affect die rolls.
• Challenge Cards: Cards that can interfere with other players' actions.

There are two types of oversized cards:

• Party Leader Cards: Indestructible cards that provide a unique ability.
• Monster Cards: Neutral cards that can be attacked by any player. Once they are slain they give that player a new ability.

Base sets include:

• Here To Slay: Standard Edition: The Standard Base Set
• Here To Slay: Kickstarter Exclusive Edition: The Base Set, but with 24 additional Kickstarter Exclusive cards and a Dice Tower.

Expansions include:

• Monster Expansion Pack: Contains 13 Monster cards. Kickstarter Exclusive.
• Dragon Sorcerer Expansion Pack: Contains 15 Dragon Sorcerer related cards. Kickstarter Exclusive.
• Warriors and Druids: Adds Wolf Warriors and Deer Druids to the game.
• Berserkers and Necromancers: Adds Lion Berserkers and Dog Necromancers to the game.

Accessories include:

• Play Mats featuring each of the party leaders. Kickstarter Exclusive.
• Standees featuring each of the party leaders. Kickstarter Exclusive.
• Meeples representing each of the class animals and colours.
• Extra Dice based on each of the class colours.
• Card Sleeves featuring the Here to Slay logo.

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This card game provides examples of:

• Animal Facial Hair: Beary Wise, Plundering Puma, Wise Shield, Hopper, Whiskers, Bearserker, and Hoodwink all feature facial hair.
• Asian Fox Spirit: The ranger party leader, The Divine Arrow, is a four-tailed fox.
• Badass Adorable: Most of the heroes, although the bears and lions lean more toward purely badass.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: The wizards are all rabbits.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: All the thief heroes are cats.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Each class has its own color:
  • Guardians (unicorns) are yellow
  • Thieves (cats) are blue
  • Fighters (bears) are red
  • Rangers (foxes) are green
  • Bards (squirrels) are orange
  • Wizards (rabbits) are purple
  • Sorcerers (dragons) are black
  • Warriors (wolves) are grey-blue
  • Druids (deer) are turquoise
  • Berserkers (lions) are orange
  • Necromancers (dogs) are pink
• Fantasy Character Classes: Heroes come in eleven different classes, plus the Unstable Unicorn, which has no class, and the three multi-class heroes.
• Fearsome Critters of American Folklore: The wizard party leader is a Jackalope.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Most of the heroes only have a few articles of clothing.
• Joke Character: Napping Nibbles' ability is simply "do nothing". Its only use it to fill a Bard slot or be sacraficed.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Druids are unique in that their effects activate when you roll below a certain threshold rather than above it.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: All of the multiclass party leaders:
  • The Shadow Defender (Guardian/Thief) is a cat with a unicorn horn.
  • The Brutal Bow (Fighter/Ranger) is a fox with the stature of a bear.
  • The Mystical Maestro (Wizard/Bard) is a squirrel with rabbit ears
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: The ranger (four-tailed fox) and thief (twin-tailed cat) party leaders.
• My Little Phony: Like with Unstable Unicorns, there is no direct Shout-Out to My Little Pony, but the game clearly uses this trope with its colorful unicorns.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Most of the animals are slightly anthropomorphized, and are portrayed as bipeds, but unicorns and deer remain quadrupedal.
• Official Game Variant:
  • The meeples are not mentioned in the game rules, but the Kickstarter FAQ page suggests some potential uses.
  • Since adding classes from the expansion makes it easier to collect a party of six different types of heroes, the designer suggests removing a base class for each expansion class added as a house rule.
• One-Man Band: The Mystical Maestro. His wand is a conductor baton and he is surrounded by several magically conjured instruments.
• Powerful, but Inaccurate: Berserkers on average have some of the most destructive effects in the game, yet also have the highest roll requirements on average.
• Prestigious Player Title: The rules dub the winner "The best adventurer and monster slayer in the entire world", but only until the next time you play.
• Punny Name: Several heroes:
  • Bearserker
  • Bad Axe
  • Beary Wise
  • Kit Napper
  • Mellow Dee
• Quirky Bard: While there are no universal rules connecting hero abilities to their class, most classes have a general "theme" in their functionality (i.e. thieves usually steal cards from other players, rangers collect information and draw from the deck, etc.) Bard abilities tend to be a grab bag of situational effects, like swapping your hand with another player, swapping itself with another player's hero, or doing nothing.

• Shout-Out:
  • The Unstable Unicorn party leader is a reference to their first game.
  • Meowzio is a reference to Ezio from Assassin's Creed
  • Smooth Mimimeow
  • Shurikitty wears a hitai-ate similar to that worn by Naruto
• Support Party Member: Guardians focus almost exclusively on passive buffs, such as adding bonuses to rolls or making you immune to challenges.
• Wind Is Green: The art for Winds of Change features a green tornado.
• Winged Unicorn: The Protecting Horn, the guardian party leader.