On a small hidden island in the Mediterranean, a man stands before a map of the world, and wonders how long any of it will last.

This man is Pelham Locke, the last surviving member of the Lamplighters League, and he knows something few others know: that a long-lost ancient ruin, the bridge between the mundane and the supernatural, the mythical Tower at the End of the World… has been found. And that its discovery may well doom us all.

Because the ones who found the Tower aren't explorers or scholars or scientists. They're a power-hungry secret cult called the Banished Court. The Court's three Scions want the energy source at the Tower's crown: the wellspring of all magic known as the Bright Storm.

The Tower at the End of the World is the bridge between the mundane world and the Bright Storm, the source of all magic.Standing at the top of the Tower, in the eye of the storm, the Scions will possess the ability to remake the world exactly as they see fit.

The Lamplighters League stopped the Banished Court from reaching the Tower once before, in 1916—at the cost of their own lives. Now it's 1932, the Court is ready to try again, and Locke has given up looking for heroes of his fallen comrades' caliber. The best of the best are long gone. He'll have to settle for the best of the worst.[www.paradoxinteractive.com]

Guess what, all you scoundrels, rogues and misfits. This is where you come in…

Today you've got Lead Narrative Designer Jill Scharr here to introduce you to The Race for the Tower.


Week to week, you'll have to decide where your focus belongs. Sabotaging the Court? Strengthening your own team? Or preparing to enter the Tower? Choose wisely… every week, the Court grows closer to victory.

As you study the World Map planning your next move, you'll see three Doomsday Clocks at the top of the screen. These indicate how close the Houses are to being ready to enter the Tower. Each of the three Houses has its own Clock because this is a race. Whichever House wins becomes ascendant and gets to define the future of the world, and none of them want to be written out of the picture. For the Lamplighters, this means there are three opponents, not just one.

The three Houses advance their plans each week, but you can interfere with them by undertaking sabotage missions. Literally sabotage: we're talking steal their resources, destroy their radio networks, and even assassinate their generals. You'll recognize a sabotage mission by the red pips of Threat across the top. If you skip this mission, that Threat will be added to the House's Doomsday Clock and they'll be a little closer to remaking the world. But if you complete your sabotage there, you'll prevent that Threat and additionally reduce the House's Clock a bit.

Each Clock is divided into segments that represent the major stages of their plans. When a segment is completely filled, the House hits a Breakpoint and advances toward the Tower. Their monsters and minions grow stronger and their influence over the world increases. And critically, once a House crosses a Breakpoint, there's no going back. Lamplighter efforts can reduce a Doomsday Clock down to a Breakpoint, but never below one.

House Marteau is one step closer to victory.

The Courts move quickly and the Lamplighters can't sabotage everything, so you'll have to choose your missions carefully. Inevitably, the Doomsday Clocks will tick up.

If any of the three Clocks fills completely and hits the final Breakpoint, that's game over, for you and for the world as you know it. But there's still a ghost of a chance to pull things back: a Last Stand mission you can run to stall them for a short time. The stakes are high, though. Last Stands are difficult, and failure means losing the world.

Each of the Banished Court's three leaders has their own vision of a "perfect world." Lord Strum wants an empire beneath his boot. Lady Nicastro wants to resurrect a monstrous deepsea god and drown the world in His waters. And Trace Marteau—well. He just wants to usher in a future with his name on it.


Imagine, if you will… a world where no one is hungry. No one is tired, or sick, or injured. A world where everyone has a job.

He brought you the Marteau-Mobile. He brought you the Home Radieau. Now, beloved industrialist J.T. Trace Marteau proudly presents… The Hereafter.

The future is here. Get on board… or get out of the way.

Trace Marteau would tell you he's the hero of this story. That his alliance with the power-mad Strum and the fanatical Nicastro is one of necessity only, all part of his double-secret plan to give humanity everything it never knew it desperately needed.

It all started in the 1920s, when Marteau Industries' research and development wing stumbled upon another dimension—a realm of the afterlife they dubbed the Lacuna.

The company quickly realized that by creating portals in and out of the Lacuna, they can move people and supplies across the globe in a matter of seconds. But the technology leaves cracks in the fabric of reality… allowing ghostly Shades to cross back over to the land of the living.

Marteau's Crossroads technology damages the veil between this world and the next… allowing Shades of the dead to slip through the cracks. Trace Marteau doesn't see a problem, though. He sees an opportunity. He'll crack open the barrier between this world and the next, fill the Lacuna's infinite wastes with factories, and secure himself a workforce to operate his assembly lines for life… and for the hereafter.

An endless assembly line of the damned.

So if Trace Marteau and his two fellow Scions have already found the Tower, what's stopping them from making their dreams our reality? Well, it's one thing to stand at the top of the Tower and feel the energies of raw creation raging around you. It's quite another to actually control that energy.

That's why each of the 3 Scions are erecting conduits, hidden all around the world, that will help them channel the Bright Storm into their desired outcome. For Marteau it's . With the full force of the Bright Storm powering their turbines, these massive machines will pulverize the barrier between life and death. No one will live, no one will die. Everyone will work for Marteau Industries.

Dimension Drills breaking the barrier to the Lacuna.So while Locke and the Agents prepare to enter the Tower themselves and stop the Court once and for all, they'll need to sabotage the Court's plans, destroy their conduits, steal their supplies, and disrupt their lines of transit.

Will the Doomsday Clocks reach midnight? Will the Banished Court remake the world to their own design? Will Locke's team of scoundrels succeed against impossible odds?


Only you can answer these questions by adding The Lamplighters League and the Tower at the End of the World to your Wishlist on Steam!

Want to keep the conversation going? People in our alternate take on the 1930s communicated via letters, telegrams and psychic visions, but most of you only have access to two out of the three, so you can drop by the Forum[forum.paradoxplaza.com] or the Discord[discord.gg] to talk to Harebrained Schemes developers and other fans about The Lamplighters League. The bravest among you may even venture to follow us on Twitter.

Forum: JillScharr

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1167750/The_Lamplighters_League/

Hello again! By now I hope you’re starting to get a sense of what The Lamplighters League is all about… You’ve heard about some of the Agents you’ll recruit and send on missions. You’ve learned about Real-time infiltration and takedowns. You’ve read about the Banished Court and their otherworldly monsters, as well as the tools and mechanics you’ll use to fight them.

This is all part of the core experience, and your choices about what Agents you recruit and which ones you choose to upgrade are at the core of how you grow and shape your campaign with your time and investment.

However, all this is just a baseline, the first coat of paint on a set of miniatures you’re building for your adventure. Yet to come are the fine details, the metallic paint and drybrushing… additional choices and systems that make your campaign different each time. These options let you focus on the different strengths of your agent and help you build your own playstyle… And maybe, just maybe you’ll give your agents new capabilities you never expected.

Hi, I’m Patrick Lipo, Lead Designer on The Lamplighters League and with me again is Senior Designer and combat master Campbell Tran. We’re here to talk about the advancement arcs you’ll experience over the course of your search for The Tower at the End of the World.


Let’s start simply… Loot! In addition to the Consumables you can bring on your missions and collect in the field, you may also gain pieces of Equipment as rewards for missions… including armor and special mods for your weapons.

These will increase your combat survivability, but can also enhance your chosen playstyle, whether it is a Speed Suit to give you higher mobility or a Power Talisman for added crit damage. You may even acquire gear during your runs on specific Houses, from fireproof Strum Garments to a poison-inflicting Nicastro Talisman… both of these will come in handy if you face off against a Strum Infernal who wields fire and is weak to Toxic attacks…

Still, there are times where you need items now and you can’t wait to find a mission that will award you what you need. Lucky for you, you’ll have some friends in your corner.
One of the first companions you’ll meet in the course of the story is Captain Nicky Konstantaras, Locke’s personal pilot. His trusty seaplane is a vital lifeline that delivers you to the remotest corners of the globe… and can transport a variety of items back to the hideout.

A skilled smuggler and purveyor of goods, he brings in equipment from locations far and wide. If you give him supplies and he can use them to barter for items and equipment from his sources. This starts with handy items like sterile Bandages and Molotovs, but with the help of other allies in the hideout he can eventually acquire tougher armors, military explosives, unique healing concoctions, and special weapon mods.

He’s basically a one-stop shop that lets you shore up any areas where your capabilities might be lacking. Having trouble with the stress that House Nicastro dishes out against you? Get yourself some Stress Remedies to avoid breaking during your mission. Is Fedir’s movement not fast enough for your needs? Get him a Speed Suit. Gear up!

As the campaign progresses, you will have the opportunity to send extra agents on Search Expeditions to track down new Agents to recruit… but sometimes you will instead locate a new Ally, a non-combatant who (if you can deliver them from the clutches of the Banished Court) will offer support back at the Hideout.

For example, take the Weaponsmith, Danys Belfort. An ingenious inventor with a knack for blending mechanical and alchemical processes, he can make potent use of Aether, a mysterious substance that you can acquire during your team's excursions. Danys and other allies can work this material into useful perks for the League. These upgrades can affect all Agents in your team, and allow you to refine your playstyle: take advantage of your team’s high number of attacks by adding armor shredding, enhance their melee combat capabilities... the more Aether you apply, the more they can create.

Your Allies can also craft Accessories, unique mystical items that you can equip on your Agents to even more potent effect such as the Bombadier’s Brace, a Weaponsmith invention which lets you toss grenades and other offensive items without expending AP. Or keep an Agent flush with ammo with the regenerating capabilities of the Endless Bandolier.

Danys is only one of the Allies you can rescue. The Cartomancer, Madame Mei, is another. A scholar of The Undrawn Hand, Madame Mei will prove instrumental in the effective use of the Lamplighters' most powerful weapon.

By funneling Aether into the Cartomancer's upgrade tree, you can increase the number of cards you will gain, expand the size of your Agents' Tableaus, and improve the variety of cards that you have access to. Madame Mei can also improve the League's mastery of Stress —both resisting its effects, and inflicting it on others.

So to recap, every one of your characters has their own suite of abilities and their own upgrade path. You can also unlock perks and equip gear and consumables from your allies and Captain Nicky. Now, beyond all that you have The Undrawn Hand, your ace in the hole for fine-tuning how you’ll take on the Court.

The Undrawn Hand is a deck of cards that has the uncanny ability to change a person’s fate. It is the signature relic of the Lamplighters, filled with cards that look blank when drawn but show themselves for Lamplighters that tempt fate in service of the fight against evil. With it, you will create builds unique to your friends playing Lamplighters, with opportunities to unlock the most potent of combinations.

If it needed to be said, this is still a classic turn-based tactical game with movement and combat mechanics in the style that you are familiar with. Here’s how the Undrawn Hand comes into play:

When you complete a mission, you will return with new blank cards: some are acquired in the field, and some are granted as perks from the Cartomancer’s upgrades. These cards will reveal their contents to you once they are drawn, after which it’s up to you to choose how to play them on the Tableaus of the Agents who were present in the mission.

These cards have unique properties, rarity and power level, and you can play them (or not play them!) as you will. Some provide special abilities, such as The Shieldmaiden, which allows an agent to target an ally and give them a temporary resistance to damage. Others can fill gaps in an Agent's capabilities. The Rogue, for example, can grant a holdout pistol to any Agent—even a melee character like Ingrid. Cards can grant passive perks as well. See The Changeling, which grants its wielder Invisibility whenever they complete a Sprint movement, or The Sadist, which reduces its Agent's Stress whenever they make an enemy suffer a Stress Break. There are even some Devil’s Bargains in there, such as The Reaper, which heals its wielder on each enemy kill, but also ticks down their health slightly on each turn.

These all feed into playstyles, where you can make your version of Eddie or Celestine your own. Place The Leech on an agent that outputs a lot of attacks in a turn like Eddie, and its ability to inflict bleeding and heal you for each attack will seem that much more enticing. Tired of waiting for your favorite ability's cooldown to elapse? Drop in The Sage to reduce cooldowns on crit (and if you happen to have an Assassination Talisman Weapon Mod to equip, you can pump up your crit chance for an added benefit!)

These cards remain on your Agents’ Tableaus for the duration of the campaign, providing their active or passive effects consistently until overwritten or replaced. Cards can increase in level and potency if you manage to play a duplicate of the same card on top of it, or you can play a new card on top of it, removing the previous one for a payout of Ink. Ink is another mystical currency that can be accumulated from discards and other sources, which can then be used to upgrade cards you already have on your Tableaus.

You can raise your Agent’s card to as high as Level 5, but it can be difficult to build your cards to that level of power! It can take luck, or a lot of focus and a lot of Ink and enhancements from the Cartomancer to get up there. It’ll be even harder to reach those high levels with the rarer cards.

You’ll find that adapting your strategy to the opportunities that present themselves through the Undrawn Hand can lead to unique and unexpected experiences… Plus, when a mission goes south and you think you’re in trouble, often an unexpected combination of Undrawn Hand abilities can get you out. Remember that when a horde of Tidespawn try to close with you, and you realize that combining The Salamander and The Weaver lets you lay down areas of fire and let them burn as you slow them in their tracks.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though! Remember a couple of weeks ago when you were introduced to Stress Breaks? When it happens to an enemy it can be cause for celebration, but when your own Agents break there is a special effect that you should keep in mind.

In these cases your Agent will be dealt a Breaking Card at the end of the mission. A Breaking Card applies a negative effect on your character that lingers as long as it remains on the Agent’s Tableau. Perhaps your Crit Chance is 0 because you drew The Misfortunate. Maybe you gain extra stress if you are attacked while in cover, thanks to The Highwayman.

A Breaking Card is played on that Agent’s Tableau, and it may even cover one of your good cards, negating its effect! When this happens, you’ll have a couple of choices... You can take the Agent out of mission rotation for a couple weeks and let them rest (the Break will disappear after a couple of weeks). Or, if you’d like, you can play through that limitation… adjust your playstyle and adapt! If you complete a mission successfully with a Breaking Card, you will complete a Breakthrough, removing the offending card and granting you a windfall of Ink you can use to upgrade other cards. The choice is yours.

There you have it. With equipment, Allies and the Supplier, you’ll have a number of ways to lay out, plan and advance the campaign in the directions you choose. You can take your destiny in your hands. However, you must heed the voice of fate from the Undrawn Hand… There will be times when you must adapt to new situations as well as times when unexpected luck presents you with an advantage you did not expect. It is in those moments that we hope you will be surprised and delighted by experiences in The Lamplighters League… Each session can be very different from the last, even if you start from the same place. Enjoy.

Want to keep the conversation going? People in our alternate take on the 1930s communicated via letters, telegrams and psychic visions, but most of you only have access to two out of the three, so you can drop by the Forum[forum.paradoxplaza.com] or the Discord[discord.gg] to talk to Harebrained Schemes developers and other fans about The Lamplighters League. The bravest among you may even venture to follow us on Twitter.

Discord: Patrick#5015
Paradox Forum: PatrickLipo


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1167750/The_Lamplighters_League/