Taelmoor is live
Taelmoor is an app-driven dungeon crawler game for 1 to 6 players. Gameplay mostly consists of scanning QR codes through the app. The campaign has launched on Kickstarter, and will last for 30 days. However, the game only ships to the US, UK, Canada, AU, and NZ.
To start the game, you first choose one of the scenarios offered in the app and pick one or more characters to play (it is recommended to play with at least two characters). Each character has a class, of which there are six in total, and comes with their own combat deck. They start with a 10 card deck, but the deck may be enriched with more powerful cards when leveling up. The app will instruct you on how to set up the scenario.
Each character performs an Exploration on their turn. You can inspect elements highlighted in the app, interact with them, move from one room to another (but you may be ambushed along the way), use an item (by scanning the QR code for both the item and the target), or simply pass. You may also engage in dialogue with app-driven NPC. Beware though, as some of your choices may lead to your death, but you will always be able to re-start at a previous point and choose differently.
You may encounter enemies, in which case combat begins. First, enemies declare their attacks, a process that is entirely handled by the app. Then, all characters draw five cards from their deck and select one simultaneously by scanning it with the app. Cards feature four pieces of information: the speed; the damage it deals; the armor it grants the characters (armor soaks up all damage until broken); and the target (a specific location, an enemy that dealt damage to you earlier in the round, etc.). All cards (and enemy actions) are then resolved in speed order, highest to lowest. So, you may end up targeting an enemy which is no longer here or be too late to upgrade your armor. Then, players draw cards to refill their hand to 5, shuffling the discard back into a deck if necessary. Combat goes on until all enemies or all players are defeated.
At the end of the combat, if players are victorious, they regain their full health and level up. This will grant them new abilities as specified on their character card and will allow them to choose a new card to add to their deck for future fights. If all players are defeated though, then the game is over, but they may restart at a former point prior to the fight if they wish so, to re-enact the fight or try to dodge it entirely.