Posted in: Comics, san diego comic con | Tagged: Bengal, Comics, entertainment, sdcc

Bengal Plays With Cards At SDCC With Joe Madureira, Mahmud Asrar, Marguerite Sauvage, Claire Wendling, Enrique Fernandez And Kim Jeong Gi

Published Sat, 27 Jun 2015 10:00:40 -0500

Last updated Mon, 06 Jul 2015 07:18:02 -0500

We already reckon Bengal will be the new Wolverine artist for Marvel.

Well, he is a bit busy. First he has the release at San Diego Comic Con of The World of Cassyno from Magnetic Press, a world of dark fantasy, magic, and games of chance.

Far from just another deck of playing cards, this set is as much a gallery of high-end character design and concept artwork as it is the fantastic setting for numerous stories of deep mythology, magical intrigue, and medieval espionage, between four unique kingdoms. Featuring additional original artwork by illustration titans Joe Madureira, Mahmud Asrar, Marguerite Sauvage, Claire Wendling, Enrique Fernandez, and Kim Jeong Gi.

Each card, in addition to its number and suit, is an individual, fully-realized character within the four Houses of an original fantasy universe, The World of Cassyno, with each house based on the four suits in a standard deck. These houses have intricate interwoven backstories, political agendas, and access to four very unique magical energies. And each character's strength and weakness adds an entirely new level of balance and complexity to both the world and the deck itself. The campaign offers a supplementary World Book exploring the dark fantasy setting, illustrated by Bengal and a host of talented friends, as well as several card games set within the world itself, like Alice in Wonderland meets Game of Thrones.

We ran an article on the Kickstarter last year, which produced a Bleeding Cool Kickstarter reward Joker card for anyone who donated money and mentioned the website. And here is is, again, courtesy of Bengal.

The World of Cassyno is a complete, original fantasy world filled with rich mythology, deep history, and political intrigue. Still recovering from the dark days of the century-long War of Nine, each remaining House has established itself as a solvent kingdom, each vying to prosper… and in some cases conquer. Hidden agendas, secret alliances, crippling insecurities, and explosive revelations are all seeded within the World Book, ready to blossom and unfold in explosive rounds of gameplay as well as ancillary fiction created by and for the fans themselves.

The supplementary World Book features a number of card games that can be played with the deck itself, incorporating the characters and lore in a way that gives exciting narrative to an otherwise abstract set of rules. From discard games to combat games to conquering and collection games, the World book offers a number of different styles to choose from, many of which are based around the characters and their their specific talents, enabling a wide strategic variety. Or, you can just as easily use The World of Cassyno deck to play a game of Poker, Hearts, Solitaire, or your favorite regular card game!