Clout, no Clout, more Clout, and Horses

Hi everybody,

Let start with some Clout news. Some not great Clout news.

Clout is essentially on hold for the time being. Right now Hidden City Games only has the staff and resources to support one product and that product is Bella Sara, a horse themed card/web game aimed at younger girls. Say what you like about this, it’s turning out to be a good choice because we’re having trouble keeping Bella Sara on shelves. There’s been a lot of concern that we’ll be dropping Clout in favor of Bella Sara, which is a fair concern, but not what we’re doing. We’ve got two Clout expansions more or less in the can, Clout Marvel Heroes, and the third Clout Fantasy expansion. Assuming Bella Sara is a success, it is our plan to launch Clout Marvel Heroes in the summer, run nationals and worlds as planned, and generally do all things I’ve been planning on doing for the last year. If Bella Sara isn’t a success…well…let’s not go there. =-)

What we are doing:

All organized play programs will be fully supported. In fact, Tuesday December 19th will be the last tournament kit mailing of the year and also the last tournament kit mailing with the current batch of prize chips. That’s right, starting in January I have 7 brand new prize chips for your Clout tournaments (why not 8, well I don’t have a new Pirate chip. It was to be printed with Marvel…sorry!)

Enhanced tournament support for conventions. Part of the ‘belt-tightening’ has our convention scheduled nearly cancelled, but that doesn’t mean we can't support those of you who’d like to attend the shows on our behalf. I’ve got a couple of different Convention kit builds (depending on your needs) and I can send those out to active VDT members upon request. I’ve also got a better system for keeping track of conventions, so I don’t miss any more shipments.

More events like the Turkey Shoot. Without a huge number of new chips for variety, I want to introduce new playing formats that stress different aspects and strategies for Clout. We’ve already got a number of great ideas on the table, and I want to run the next Turkey Shoot style event in February (a groundhog day themed event?). I’m looking for these ideas to come from fans, just like the Turkey Shoot did. If you have a great idea, let me know. It DOESN’T have to be holiday themed. In fact, I’d prefer it not be!

I’m working on all new tournament rules as well as a tournament rulebook, more detailed than the current rulebook with a lot of the clarifications players have been requesting (and a couple of the changes.) I’ll be working on that after the holidays, so expect that to be rolled out late January.

When it rains…it does pour a bit:

While it has nothing to do with what’s going on, I misjudged my demo kit supplies, and as such I don’t have the ability to build and ship any more demo kits (technically I could build one more kit, but it hardly seems worth it.) I only discovered this Tuesday, when I went to build and ship the current kit requests. If you have requested a kit, I won’t be shipping any more until I can print more inserts, again, after the holidays.

If you have questions, concerns, or just want to yell at me for not making Clout the “must produce” game on our schedule, I’m right here.

Merry Christmas!!!
Adam "Wildcard" Conus