Designer's Notes

The game is played by a group of players, one of which will be the Game Master or GM. Groups of three or more generally create the best gameplay experience. Like other tabletop role playing games, the GM acts as a storyteller who beings the setting to life for the players by describing scenes and events, speaking and acting as NPCs the players encounter, as well controlling the flow of the game and the use of the game’s rules.

Groups of players are generally aligned to the same faction and form a warband. Given the nature of the setting, the game is primarily warlike in nature, though there is certainly scope for players to pursue non-violent quests.

The game comes with a companion app that connects the warband with the game world and the multitude of other players within it.

The companion app connects with Pixels dice to enable trustworthy dice rolls to be made when the outcome of these rolls might affect other players and warbands, the players’ faction or the enemy faction, or the world itself.

Solo play might also be supported by the companion app, though this should not be considered a focal feature. Similarly, there is scope for a GM to manage a group that includes players of opposing factions, though these may involve more complex rules and there are other, better ways for players of opposing factions to interact.

Enjoyable multi-player interactions must be founded on the principles of fairness and balance, which requires a degree of structure to the game. On the other hand, a vital aspect of tabletop gaming is allowing freedom of creativity and expression, allowing GMs to weave their own story within the setting.

One of the primary gameplay systems is the concept of Feats. These come in many forms: feats of endurance, feats of wisdom or feats of combat. Feats are the most important objectives for players to accomplish in a story and success or failure might have broad ramifications, both for players and their warband, and for other players and the world at large.

Feats are adjudicated using Pixels dice and the companion app, meaning these interactions with the game world can be trusted, no matter if the player who rolls the dice is at the table beside you or on another continent.

It’s definitely possible to use a server authenticated dice roller within the app that doesn’t require Pixels dice, however using physical dice rather helps keep more of the game in the real world, and connects with the culture and experience for tabletop games. Additionally, partnering with Pixels may offer opportunities to reach a larger initial audience.

By the necessities of a connected game world, any player interaction with far-reaching consequences must have structure and limitations. Letting a player slay hundreds of their factions’ enemies every day would be unfair, unrealistic, and may upset the balance of the world that others also want to play in and enjoy. Therefore, players cannot simply roll dice hundreds of times and expect it to benefit their character!

Much of the storytelling in the game occurs within the format of a quest. Each quest includes a number of feats that must be accomplished in order to complete it, with the quantity and type of feats shaping the style, size and difficulty of that quest. But what quests and their feats don’t do is dictate what happens in the story – that’s where the GM comes in. The feats provide a framework for them to weave an imaginative and compelling story for their players with the game’s setting.

The player and their warband can travel to a location and start a quest that requires three feats of combat, two feats of stealth, another two of agility and one of perception. However it will be the GM who turns that template into a daring night raid into an enemy outpost, where the players take out the outer sentries, cunningly discern the location of the commander’s quarters, and sneak through shadows and leap silently over rooftops to carry out an assassination that helps turn the tides of war.

Some of the biggest and most significant story quests in the setting will come with ready-to-play storylines in the sourcebook and supplements, ensuring it’s easy for a group of players to get a game up and running, no matter how experienced their GM is. The smaller quests dotted around the game world will often be supplied with story hints, a suggested theme or recommended enemy NPCs for players to encounter, but ultimately its is left up to the GM and their imagination to decide how the story unfolds.

Time is another key factor of gameplay. Generally, it’s up to the GM to handle the flow of time and it is natural for the passage of game time to speed up and slow down depending on the players’ current situation. Players may want to experience combat down to each thrust and parry of a bitter struggle, while they are unlikely to enjoy playing through every step, twist and turn of a long day’s walk through the mountains.

In a game where warbands of players all over the world might be spending time around the gaming table on different days and nights, and some more often than others, time within the game world will be flowing at a different rate for each of them. The game has two key systems that maintain balance and parity of experience.

At the macro scale, the game occurs in chapters. A chapter is a period of time within the game where certain forces hold sway, particular locations are significant, and there are specific goals that each faction is intent on as they vie for dominance. Every player and warband in a faction can contribute to these massive, world spanning quests and the outcome as determined by the entire player community will have great implications for the overarching story of the setting. What happens in one chapter will set the scene and shape the game world for the next chapter.

Chapters may take months to play out across the world before that part of the grander story becomes history, and the next chapter begins with a new agenda for the competing factions. Some players and their warbands may choose to spend more or less time playing within each chapter, but they all have the power to sway the fate of the world in their favour.

At the micro end of the scale, players are given action points, which they can use for many different ways of interacting in the game. Movement through the game world requires action points, as does attempting feats, using special abilities, or even simply resting and healing. Action points are a finite resource, with a limit to the maximum number of action points a player may have, plus a set period of time that it takes for players’ action points to recharge.

To create an ideal and fair gaming experience, we must ensure that players won’t have so many action points that they can exploit the game systems and adversely affect others, but also avoid a situation where genuine players find themselves sitting around a gaming table, bored and waiting for their action points to recharge. We will use playtesting to help identify the perfect settings for action point cooldown times and maximums.

It is anticipated that GMs will maintain the majority of control over the flow and timing of games as they create fun and immersive experiences for the players in their group, and they will use the ebb and flow of action point resources as an extra tool to craft their story. The ability to balance action points at a global level means that the majority of well-intentioned players will not be adversely impacted by the actions of a small minority who choose to not play the game correctly.

Realistically, it’s entirely possible for someone to create an account and roll dice without actually playing the game in a role playing setting at all. Though the ability of the person to affect the state of the world to the detriment of others is very limited, and ultimately it’s just going to be them who misses out on the fuller gaming experience!

As action points are required for player travel and movement is managed through the companion app, a player can only be in one place at any one time. The actions they can take, the quests they can start, play and finish and the aspects of the overarching game story that they can influence are all governed by where the player is in the world.

The trifold mechanics of having feats housed within quests, the use of time-bound action points, and location-bound questing opportunities help ensure that the game is played as intended and the impact of abuse on others is minimised.

Other game systems such as daily, weekly and rare quests may also be used to create opportunities to enhance or manage player interactions as needed to best optimise the experience for the broader community.

The game can offer two main ways for players to interact beyond the bounds of their own gaming table. At an overarching game-spanning level, player warbands can contribute to collective goals that can benefit all players in their faction and work against those in the opposing faction. Some players and their warbands may even have their heroic actions made known to all, but otherwise this is a largely anonymous and asynchronous mechanic that doesn’t actually put players face to face with other gaming groups.

At a more personal level, it may be possible for player warbands to band together with other groups of connected players from their faction – or to go head to head in a PvP battle with a warband from the enemy faction. Connected gameplay and adjudicated dice rolls can make this kind of synchronous interaction possible. At this point, it’s less certain whether the companion app could include text or video chat functionality to support these interactions within a managed environment, or whether players should be given an opportunity to meet and connect with each other, but left to arrange their own communication channels – such such Zoom or Google Meet. Or some form of midway point between these two, such as an integration with Discord.