Wrapping Up Clout

Hi everybody,

The first thing I want to do is apologize for being absent for the last month. The following letter should have been written and posted over a month ago, but it kept being held up for one reason or another. Despite what the letter says, I have assembled 100 sets of prize chips and will be mailing them out on a first come, first serve basis. The Medallions are done with though. Now that the announcement is made, I can answer your e-mails and requests more effectively. I also have a temp now, which will take care of the ‘don’t have time for anything” problem. Without further ado, on to the bad news…



Back in November when Hidden City Games announced that Clout Marvel Heroes was being put on hold, we optimistically hoped that this was a temporary situation and that we could get the set released as soon as summer 2007. As I think many of you suspected at the time, that wasn’t realistic, though I was confident we could and would make it happen.

About a month ago, I too realized that relaunching Clout in 2007 was something we simply couldn’t manage. Too many things needed to happen to get Clout Marvel Heroes released, and few of them looked likely. At that point I had to decide how to proceed with Clout Organized Play.

Back in November, Organized Play’s purpose was to keep the Clout community alive and vibrant until we could get Clout Marvel Heroes launched. With the enthusiasm I’ve seen from the Venture Team, I have no doubt that we would have succeeded if Clout Marvel Heroes were waiting at the end of the tunnel. Though it breaks my heart to say it, it’s just not going to be, at least not for the foreseeable future. With no new product on the way and no budget for the events I’ve planned for Origins and Gen Con, the primary purpose of Clout Organized Play has disintegrated. It’s time to close up shop.

Starting immediately, no additional Clout tournament kits or support items will be shipped.

I will continue to process reports and award Venture Points until the end of April. I’ll do a final tally of points and let all Venture Team members know how many points they’ve achieved and how many spending points they have remaining. In addition, I’ll catch up with the award chips (CF Scout, Hunter, etc.) and all other obligations we’ve made to the Venture Team. This will be the last mass shipment of these items. Everyone will get all the awards and auction items due to them by the end of April. Venture Team members with more than 100 Venture Points will get special awards in the form of international promo chips.

For those of you with Venture Points to spend, I’ll continue to honor those requests for the remainder of 2007. You’ve earned those points, and I want to give you every opportunity to spend them!

Without a new expansion on the horizon, we felt it would be worse to string you all along and let Clout slowly wither away with substandard support than to wrap things up cleanly now and hope to maintain some goodwill with you folks, the fans and volunteers. If we ever manage to release Clout Marvel Heroes—or some other version of the game—down the road, I hope you’ll think well enough of us that you’ll be willing to give us another chance.

Thank you, and I’m sorry.

Adam “Wildcard” Conus
Organized Play Manager
Hidden City Games