CryptRat
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2014
- Messages
- 3,565
Hi people,
The game is available here with info, a link to a demo and another to the manual. For more info Gragt made a review for the codex.
This first post will contain many boring explanations about mechanisms, but further updates should be spared.
Let's begin. We'll play in default difficulty and in Ironman mode. In theory I'd like to make 2 or 3 runs to show different classes ; but maybe one run until I die will already be long enough.
There's no real difference between the missions. The goal is to become stronger by facing a series of events spread into the manor and then to finally look for confront the threat within the given time.
The game takes the form of a board game where you're moving from tile to tile looking for events, and each event will be associated with a challenge to face, sometimes with various solutions, requiring to pass diverse stat checks resolved through a card minigame where you'll be able to use various bonuses and tricks.
Character creation :
The different bonuses mentioned in the sheet above are determined at random so I'll detail them after the game begins.
We also have to choose a Bone. Bones are 6-sided dices that you need to use some cards. With my class I need the Bone of Wands but also already own it ; I'll choose the Bone of Pentacles which is required to cast spells (not sure I'll ever get to use it).
Now about the stats :
Let's start the game and take a look at what we got :
"Quick off the Mark" is the bonus I've chosen during character creation, 1 is its current level, 4 is its max level.
Let's talk about the Bones :
Let's see what else we got with our class :
OK, let's start walking :
We walk from tile to tile. Let's reach the door to the left, open it and enter the corridor.
We triggered a gas trap.
First event, the gas trap :
Let's see how this works.
Here the trap is already triggered, whatever we choose will consist in moving to evade the trap ; it's a physical task, so Cups are the main attribute in both cases. The level of difficulty of the challenge is 8, and we have 2 cups which reduce it to 6.
Now there are two possible solutions :
Now let's see how the resolution of events works ; the events resolve via a card minigame :
There are 6 "Tricks" (= cards to reveal, and related with our number of wands here) and we get 4 "cards" in hand (here related with our number of cups).
We will reveal the different Trick cards and if we have cards of the same color in our hand then we have to cover the revealed with our card.
To gain points you must cover the card with a stronger card. then you earn the points of the two cards (the covering and the covered cards ; the numbers give 1 point, and the faces give more points, page = 2 points, knight = 3 points, queen = 4 , king = 5).
Putting a face on a lower face will often suffice to pass a challenge. But, as much important as passing the challenge, we want to score a lot of points, it's what will determine our rewards. (And even when we fail, some points are welcomed not to face a too horrible fate with a lot of negative rewards).
Let's go, 5 of cups on the 6, 8 of cups and we don't have any cup anymore, queen of wands on the 2 (which gives 4+1=5 points).
Now it's time to remember we have a card to use for evading trap challenges, our precious Candle.
It's free and it's exactly what we're needing, we can increase the value of our 5 to beat the 6.
Let's roll the dice and make a Wand check by the way, we just need to obtain less than 4 (our number of wands) to succeed then any score will work (a 6 would beat a 6).
3, nice.
Now our 8 beat the 6, which adds 1+1=2 points.
We won, but let's continue, we want more points.
OK, 11, that's good.
That's the reward screen, we won so we'll get positive rewards :
We gain one HP (physical challenges affect health while mental ones affect sanity) and two experience points.
Good time to see how experience works then.
This is the screen where we'll distribute experience :
We only have one skill card yet, our Professor card. The 3 first choices we have there are determined by our class.
We can gain one wand, one pentacle, or one edge for mental challenges similar to the one we already have. Note that we choose the edge we gain this time, it's not randomly determined as at the beginning of the game. I've got two points so I will immediately use them to get a wand.
It unlocked a new option, +1 wand again which costs 3 XPs this time.
The "Add Skill Card" choice is to choose a sub-class which will translate in a new card similar to the professor card. We can have up to 3 cards, and if we live long enough we will certainly have 3 cards.
Let's go on.
The polar bear (or the first interesting thing) :
First option : attacking it physically, since it's a possessed stuff after all so there's something to hit :
Notice the target score of 10 with only 4 cards to fit and 4 in hand, we don't wanna do that, hitting things is not our thing, we're more cerebral.
Second option : We can flee, and for a purely physical threat we would maybe have chosen this option. It's generally very easy to flee (and it is, here).
The important point is that this bear would not follow us, because it's not a random encounter.
Third option : trying to banish him with sorcery ; so far we're not good at that, it requires pentacles.
Fourth option : the psychic duel, and that's exactly what we're good at. Level is 7 with 4 Tricks and 7 Draws, that should work, and anyway if it doesn't work then we should at least not fail too hard, which is important.
Let's go for the fourth option.
Well, we failed. Let's see if we're damaged.
That's OK.
We can try again ; the important thing to notice here, is the '5' Tricks (it was previsouly 4), your Tricks and Draws raise up to 5 each time you fail, but you mustn't try any other option, or they go back to their original values.
It worked.
Let's stop for now. Once again sorry for the boring explanations and for detailing everything (and btw sorry for the typo mistakes), the only important thing to notice is that the game is deep.
Don't worry, by now I'll mostly talk about the events and rarely about the mechanisms ; we will gain some new cards but that's all. The game will speak a lot by itself and I'll just have to explain my choices.
The game is available here with info, a link to a demo and another to the manual. For more info Gragt made a review for the codex.
This first post will contain many boring explanations about mechanisms, but further updates should be spared.
Let's begin. We'll play in default difficulty and in Ironman mode. In theory I'd like to make 2 or 3 runs to show different classes ; but maybe one run until I die will already be long enough.
The game takes the form of a board game where you're moving from tile to tile looking for events, and each event will be associated with a challenge to face, sometimes with various solutions, requiring to pass diverse stat checks resolved through a card minigame where you'll be able to use various bonuses and tricks.
Character creation :
The character has HPs and Sanity points (if one of those reaches 0 it's game over) and 4 stats :
- Swords determine our ability in physical combat
- Cups determine our ability to face physical (speed, endurance) challenges like evading a trap
- Wands concerns mental challenges, like deciphering texts or puzzling mechanisms, resisting horror and communicating with spirits
- pentacles are used for arcane challenges like casting spells and resisting spells
His main stat is wands and he begins with bonuses to deal with mental challenges. He will easily communicate with the spirits, especially to get quests from them. He will also be able to fight the spirits during spiritual duels.
The different bonuses mentioned in the sheet above are determined at random so I'll detail them after the game begins.
We also have to choose a Bone. Bones are 6-sided dices that you need to use some cards. With my class I need the Bone of Wands but also already own it ; I'll choose the Bone of Pentacles which is required to cast spells (not sure I'll ever get to use it).
Now we need to choose an additionnal starting edge, which is a passive bonus.
I choose a bonus for "flee, evade or hide challenge", because sometimes we'll have no choice but to avoid traps or to flee and we're not good at that.
Now about the stats :
Every stat will be used to some extent, and each upgrade costs more than the previous one and so min/maxing at this point is too costly. After upgrading my stats I have got 3 remaining points that I put into health because due to its class (and by correlation due to its 3+1=4 wand points) our character shouldn't be worried about its sanity.
Let's start the game and take a look at what we got :
Let's take a look at the character sheet and the different bonuses we got.
"Quick off the Mark" is the bonus I've chosen during character creation, 1 is its current level, 4 is its max level.
The second one, which comes with our class, is as intended a bonus for "puzzle, lore or perception challenge" :
These bonuses are passive and will be used anytime we'll face an appropriate challenge.
Let's talk about the Bones :
As stated before, these are 6 sided-dices that you need to use some cards you own ; typically you need a pentacle bone to cast spells.
Let's see what else we got with our class :
OK, a candle and a Mental Dexterity card, these two cards don't give any passive bonus but will have to be used during challenges.
The candle is used during "Evade Trap" challenge, and doesn't cost any resource. (You may notice that it requires a Wand bone, which is the one which comes with our class).
As its name suggests, Mental Dexterity is used during mental challenge, and requires to spend some courage (each time we gain some courage, we will be able to recharge this card with it).
OK, let's start walking :
We walk from tile to tile. Let's reach the door to the left, open it and enter the corridor.
We triggered a gas trap.
That's what every event looks like. Here we have got two choices, materialized by the two icons on the bottom of the sheet.
Let's see how this works.
Here the trap is already triggered, whatever we choose will consist in moving to evade the trap ; it's a physical task, so Cups are the main attribute in both cases. The level of difficulty of the challenge is 8, and we have 2 cups which reduce it to 6.
Now there are two possible solutions :
The first solution consists in being quick enough to evade the trap so it uses swords as secondary attributes, while the second one consists in figuring out how it worked (maybe a little late I conceide) then to reach a safe place and uses wand as second attribute ; we'll be better at trying the second one, figuring out stuff is our thing.
Now let's see how the resolution of events works ; the events resolve via a card minigame :
There are 6 "Tricks" (= cards to reveal, and related with our number of wands here) and we get 4 "cards" in hand (here related with our number of cups).
We will reveal the different Trick cards and if we have cards of the same color in our hand then we have to cover the revealed with our card.
To gain points you must cover the card with a stronger card. then you earn the points of the two cards (the covering and the covered cards ; the numbers give 1 point, and the faces give more points, page = 2 points, knight = 3 points, queen = 4 , king = 5).
Putting a face on a lower face will often suffice to pass a challenge. But, as much important as passing the challenge, we want to score a lot of points, it's what will determine our rewards. (And even when we fail, some points are welcomed not to face a too horrible fate with a lot of negative rewards).
Let's go, 5 of cups on the 6, 8 of cups and we don't have any cup anymore, queen of wands on the 2 (which gives 4+1=5 points).
Now it's time to remember we have a card to use for evading trap challenges, our precious Candle.
It's free and it's exactly what we're needing, we can increase the value of our 5 to beat the 6.
Let's roll the dice and make a Wand check by the way, we just need to obtain less than 4 (our number of wands) to succeed then any score will work (a 6 would beat a 6).
3, nice.
Now our 8 beat the 6, which adds 1+1=2 points.
We won, but let's continue, we want more points.
OK, 11, that's good.
That's the reward screen, we won so we'll get positive rewards :
We gain one HP (physical challenges affect health while mental ones affect sanity) and two experience points.
Good time to see how experience works then.
This is the screen where we'll distribute experience :
We only have one skill card yet, our Professor card. The 3 first choices we have there are determined by our class.
We can gain one wand, one pentacle, or one edge for mental challenges similar to the one we already have. Note that we choose the edge we gain this time, it's not randomly determined as at the beginning of the game. I've got two points so I will immediately use them to get a wand.
It unlocked a new option, +1 wand again which costs 3 XPs this time.
The "Add Skill Card" choice is to choose a sub-class which will translate in a new card similar to the professor card. We can have up to 3 cards, and if we live long enough we will certainly have 3 cards.
Let's go on.
The "?" icon indicates that there's an event on the adjacent case. Let's go.
The polar bear (or the first interesting thing) :
A ghost possessing a decorative bear, and like with any scary thing in the game, first thing to do is to pass a sanity test. Note that our professor is not easily impressed and these sanity tests should never be a big problem for him.
There's not that much to gain from these, this sanity point we're gaining here is not that bad :
Now let's go with the real issue, it's our first encounter so I'll detail the different choices we have.
First option : attacking it physically, since it's a possessed stuff after all so there's something to hit :
Notice the target score of 10 with only 4 cards to fit and 4 in hand, we don't wanna do that, hitting things is not our thing, we're more cerebral.
Second option : We can flee, and for a purely physical threat we would maybe have chosen this option. It's generally very easy to flee (and it is, here).
The important point is that this bear would not follow us, because it's not a random encounter.
Third option : trying to banish him with sorcery ; so far we're not good at that, it requires pentacles.
Fourth option : the psychic duel, and that's exactly what we're good at. Level is 7 with 4 Tricks and 7 Draws, that should work, and anyway if it doesn't work then we should at least not fail too hard, which is important.
Let's go for the fourth option.
Well, we failed. Let's see if we're damaged.
That's OK.
We can try again ; the important thing to notice here, is the '5' Tricks (it was previsouly 4), your Tricks and Draws raise up to 5 each time you fail, but you mustn't try any other option, or they go back to their original values.
It worked.
Let's stop for now. Once again sorry for the boring explanations and for detailing everything (and btw sorry for the typo mistakes), the only important thing to notice is that the game is deep.
Don't worry, by now I'll mostly talk about the events and rarely about the mechanisms ; we will gain some new cards but that's all. The game will speak a lot by itself and I'll just have to explain my choices.