Development Log
Anything and everything about the Fated Seas game I am currently developing and maybe some older ideas/concepts that were floating around before and which may come back again in the future (Underworld & Horticultist).
Carbuncle
One of the few "cutesy" foes in the game, the Carbuncle is another creature from folklore. There have been quite a few takes on this animal in fantasy literature and video games, but this one fits the mechanics of the creature in the game, as at the beginning of the 3rd round, this slippery little bugger scampers off into the bushes along with the precious gem embedded in it's forehead.
The Abúhukü
One of my personal favorite foes for the game, the Abúhukü, or Blood Sucker is a horrifying creature from South American folklore. This creature was clearly the inspiration for the Predator (of movie fame). Just read what this thing does to it's unfortunate victims:
Sneaking into villages under cover of darkness to attack peaceful sleepers, they cut a small hole in the back of the skull and suck out the blood and vital fluids. Even if one survives an abúhukü attack, they may still sicken and die, wracked with intense fever and painful rashes. Curiously, abühuwa do not attack infants or very young children; rather, they will often abduct them and attempt to raise them as their own.
I feel like Brenda really captured the creepiness of this creature in her illustration - it was great fun watching this one come together from the concept art to the final artwork.
Underworld Playtest Log - 11/14/19
I had the opportunity to playtest the game with my old gamer group in Ohio yesterday and we all had a great time. The group played the following adventurers:
Firebrand - Gunnar (ended game with 105 Gold Crowns)
Peacekeeper - Dave (ended game with 70 Gold Crowns)
Treasure Hunter - Megan (ended game with 115 Gold Crowns)
Austringer - Bill (ended game with 160 Gold Crowns)
Both the Peacekeeper and the Austringer received Wounds during the game. The Austringer’s was cured by the Firebrand, the Peacekeeper returned to town with a Ruptured Organ.
Here are some of the changes coming out of this playtest.
Treasure Rewards: The active player draws 1 treasure for each Adventurer, chooses one, and then passes the three to the left (clockwise). Basically, a drafting mechanic for choosing rewards allows players to get treasures that may be more useful to them (like the Antichthon Orb).
Look at some of the terminology on the player cards regarding Ally. Perhaps change it to Hero or some other word.
Treasure Card idea: Potent Spirits - Reduce X Stress or Remove a Wound
Consider adding ‘Kickers’ to some Adventurer abilities:
Example: Reduce Stress by 2 to increase damage of this attack by 2.
Firebrand - Zealous Strike: damage felt low compared to other abilities.
I checked the spreadsheet and it had been increased from 1 + weapon damage to 2 + weapon damage, so I just forgot to update the card to reflect this.
Night Hatchet : This foe card needs updated with new targeting dice mechanic. Also need to change Erratic Strike from a d4 to a d6. (I don’t want d4 dice to be used in the game any longer).
Spore Hunter idea: Consider making it immune to Bleed?
Spore Hunter on the prowl
Spore Hunter art is complete! If you’ve played The Last of Us, I think you get an idea of how dangerous these foes can be.
Spore Hunter concepts
Brenda has begun working on the Spore Hunter. Love the concepts so far.
I also forgot to post the final image of the Spider Monkey.
Eek! A Spider Monkey!
Alchemist Starting Gear
The Alchemist starting gear is done! Very pleased with how this artwork turned out from Jake.
The ravenous jungle...
The jungle surrounding the colony is incredibly dangerous and full of hungry creatures - including the foliage itself! Beware the Mannikins!
Playtest Log - 9/21/19
Our heroes against the Hellmouth and his minions!
We played a 4 player game on Saturday. This was the first time playing for two of the players. Our party composition was:
Knight-Errant
Peacekeeper
Firebrand
Austringer
We played the introductory Expedition and completed it in about 2.5 hours (lots of socializing/kid interruptions), but it felt like the pacing was fine.
Action Items
An observation was made that it felt like rank 4 was very safe for the players. Many foes just can’t target rank 4 - including the big boss for this Expedition, the Night Hatchet. We talked about it at length for a bit - I think it comes down to the imperfect AI targeting rules still in place. A suggestion was made to use custom dice for targeting, which I really liked. I’m going to try something like this:
3 or 4 different colored dice have different target distributions on them. Each foe’s attack shows one or more of these colored dice. When they take their action, you look at the foe position to still determine which ability they use. From there you look at which colored dice you roll to be the target for the ability. Some dice are more focused on the front ranks and others can hit the whole party. This should add some interesting randomness to the game, with spikiness coming from more “focused” colored dice. It also allows me to do multi-strike, like a foe’s attack has 1 Green Die and 1 Yellow Die for the targets.
Take The Initiative was not as meaningful this session. We very rarely swapped numbers after the first round of combat. There was one moment where we realized we should have swapped, but it wasn’t disastrous to the experience.
Critical damage - I’d like to try +1 DAMAGE/+1 STRESS on a critical hit instead of just +2 DAMAGE
The Firebrand got 1 Wound during the game, but then promptly removed it with her healing ability.
Everyone used their powers - both the Knight-Errant and the Firebrand were forced to use theirs fairly early in the expedition.
Colony Changes
Dock
Focused it all around the Exchanging and Buying of Colony resources
Wagon
New Idea: Sell potions or add more provisions to the deck
Increases Relic value when sold by +5/+10/+20
Beware the Iron Devil
Holy warriors of the tusked creatures native to this land and blessed with the ability to manifest bestial features during battle. The holiest and most powerful of these warriors is rumored to be an enormous armorclad obsidian behemoth and stalks the jungle in search of intruders.
A Decapitator stalks these woods!
A native of the surrounding jungle, these tusked and monstrous humanoids wield enormous hooked blades and hunt for the flesh of man.
Filed to: UNDERWORLD
A Hellmouth approaches
One of the Hellmouth pieces is complete! Exceptionally pleased with this one.
Armor and Armaments
The armor and weapons used by the adventurers are incredibly important to their survival against the foes of the jungle, ruins and catacombs. Here are just a few samples of some of the weapons and armor for the Knight-Errant and the Firebrand.
All of these were created by the talented Jake Young
Concepts for the Hellmouth
This is a foe in the game that I feel encapsulates the tone and style of the board game and illustrates the risks taken when exploring an inhospitable and dangerous land. Unfortunate explorers that get lost in the jungle fall prey to a dangerous foe. Possessed by a parasitic worm, these explorers now only exist to serve the parasite’s desire to reproduce and infect more living creatures. This very evil and intelligent worm can communicate, but the language is alien to all and ends up just being disturbing to hear.
Brenda Rodriguez is creating the art for the foes in the game (check out her chilling Tempest Witch) and she’s done an amazing job capturing the feel and essence of this foe in these three concepts. It was very difficult to choose between them and I can’t wait to see the end result.
Playtest Notes from 7/25/19
My friend Jason came over and we played a 2 player game of Underworld. He chose the Knight-Errant and the Firebrand and I played the Treasure Hunter and Austringer. We both completely forgot to use our Hero Powers for the game. This made this run through the game feel pretty grim. My Austringer ended up with a Madness (Sadistic) and Jason’s Firebrand was wounded during the game. Had we both remembered to use our powers, neither would have happened… so balance is probably just right.
Changelog/Action Items:
Text that says “Foe heals +1” is confusing - perhaps shorten to Self Heals +1 or just simply Heals +1
Change Worm Tongue name to Hellmouth. Rename primary attack from Hellmouth to Worm Tongue
At the beginning of combat, all players can use 1 item (like a potion, or item ability) before combat rounds begin.
When a hero gets a wound, that takes them out of the combat. They recover half their Health at the end of the combat and come back into play.
On a TPK, the players lose half their gained Colony Resources and the Expedition ends.
Should probably considering disallowing Big Foes to be Stunned. It is too easy for the players to “stunlock” them rendering the fights much easier. Consider making Stuns reduce their Speed by 10 instead.
Armor Decisions
The starting armor decisions are weak and need to be re-evaluated. +1 Protection is still the “correct” choice. Need to consider other options for the +Max Health choices. Some ideas:
Increase Max Health values
Stress “Armor”
Regenerate After Battle
Add Utility effects to +Health Armor decisions (I like this one the most)
Our heroes are locked in an epic struggle with the Hellmouth and friends…
A Tempest Witch appears!
Brenda Rodriguez is an amazing freelance artist working on the foes for Underworld. This is her first completed work for the game - the Tempest Witch! I couldn’t be happier with the results.
You can see more of her work here: https://brenrodri.artstation.com/
Firebrand Robes and Plate
One of the artists I have commissioned to do armor and weapons for came through this week with a really nice depiction of the Firebrand Robes and Plate starter equipment.
Ethereal Document discovered!
Underworld now has a home in the darkest recesses of the internet. Not much is here currently, but I endeavor to use this space to document my design process and experience as I move forward with the development of the game.
Thanks for reading,
Jason