Stormsunder: Heirs of Ruin

Testing, Starting Equipment Upgrades and New Status Effects
11 months ago – Wed, May 31, 2023 at 01:59:59 PM

Hello, folks!

We’re back with another update on Stormsunder’s development. Testing is the name of the game at the moment, so we thought we’d have a look at some more ways testing has changed Stormsunder from the demo to how the game plays now. We’ll start with Upgrading Starting Equipment and then look at some new positive Status Effects. First, though, let’s talk about where we are at with testing.

State of the Game: Testing Edition

Last update we gave a deadline for testing as September 2023 and that hasn’t changed. The primary focus of this is on hero and encounter balance (primarily the second one), but there are also other aspects that are important as well. We talked last month about looking ahead and making sure the gameplay from Heirs of Ruin continues seamlessly into Bones of the Conquered (and then into A Pharaoh’s Wrath). The change to tests was a direct result of that and we’re still on the lookout for any other issues that might crop up long-term.

Other hot topics at the moment in testing are shops and companions (both together and separately). You unlocked a lot of companions during the campaign and we want to do a better job of distributing them throughout the later acts of HoR. As for shops, we’ll probably cover them in a future update in the next few months as visual aids would probably work better than just text. Suffice to say, they are getting a little more design polish so you’ll want to think twice about letting Wynter use Lucky Strike all the time.

Upgrading Starting Equipment

We talked last month about how trophies are used for heroes to acquire a variety of boons, one of which is to upgrade their starting equipment. Each hero has three pieces of starting equipment (and each can be upgraded once by paying 5 trophies). Here is a look at two of Jaden’s starting equipment (left) and their upgrades (right):

As you can see, the difference is minor, but early on these upgrades will help fill potential gear progression gaps (sometimes you simply can’t find the right weapon/armor/etc for a specific hero). The Bracers of the Bold get a nice Armor upgrade in exchange for trophies while Jaden's Halo improves from adjacent allies to nearby, which is a hefty range increase. Jaden is a support hero through and through, so sharing damage across a room is definitely on-brand.

Let’s look at some of Wynter’s starting equipment/upgrades:

Once again, the upgrades are subtle but impactful. The Pirate's Corset gains 1 armor while Wynter's Flintlock Pistol drops the “Discard 1” part of its On Special skill. Burn is a powerful status effect, so the easier it is to apply the more powerful the entire party will be.

New Status Effects

Four status effects have been added since the demo, all positive. We knew when we made the demo that the positive status effects were on the light side (4 to the 12 negative) and that we wanted to beef that count as we designed the rest of the game. Here are the new tokens with their corresponding descriptions below:

Regenerate - At the beginning of the target's next activation, discard 1 token to heal self for 2.

A small HoT (healing over time), Regenerate can be gained from the Regeneration ability (a Level 6 Thaumaturgy specialization ability card).

Rejuvenate - At the beginning of the target's next activation, discard 1 token to gain 1 Power and draw 1 card.

More prolific than Regenerate (at least as of Heirs of Ruin), Rejuvenate is a great little effect found in multiple places, including the Fel Rejuvenation race card, the Druid’s Draining Blast I & II abilities and even Jaden’s Intercede signature skill.

Aegis – The next time the target is damaged, the caster may assign any amount of the damage to self.

A powerful defensive status effect, Aegis allows heroes with the Rejuvenation specialization to redistribute damage from one hero to themselves.

Reflect - The next attack the target receives is applied to the attacker.

Ah, the classic fantasy version of “stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself…” Reflect can currently be found on the level 2 Druid Barbed Barrier ability. Felheim fans rejoice.

That's all for now! We'll back next month with more info on testing as well as any other Stormsunder-related events and news. Until then, we'll see you in the Storm (where not even Athena's shield can defend against sand getting inside less-than-ideal articles of clothing).

- LSG

Last of Wave 1 PVC, Testing on Tests and State of the Game
12 months ago – Fri, Apr 28, 2023 at 07:56:23 PM

Hello, folks!

We’re back with another update which will include the last of Wave 1’s PVC, a continuation of our milestone experience section from last update, a look at how testing changed… tests and a small rework to our most charismatic of vampires. We’ll also talk about a rough development timeline as we’ve been a bit vague the past couple of updates. Let’s get into it!

State of the Game

All the PVC for Wave 1 is now complete (and approved). This is a huge win for Stormsunder as a whole, but it also means that we (LSG) are the only thing holding Stormsunder back at this point. I’m sure some folks would be happy to see a return of the chart, but I’ll be honest it wouldn’t look a great deal different than the last time we showed it (aside from the minis). While there’s been lots of progress made on the game, it’s primarily been in testing and balance, which was the number I had the least confidence in when we created that silly progress chart. Stormsunder is huge, and I know I’ve harped on this before, but properly testing it has taken a lot of time and will continue to do so until we’re sure it’s legit ready.

All that said, it’s not fair for us to just kick the can down the road update to update without giving backers any frame of reference for where we are at. So, for Stormsunder to hit production, there are three main things that need to be finished: Testing, English printed components and translations. The current plan is to have the testers continue hero combination/encounter testing until September. I’m hoping testing will be finished sooner than that, but we all know how good I’ve been with estimates, so I’m giving some space. Once they are done, it should be 1-2 months (depending on the changes) to finish the English printed components (finalizing/editing/prepress work) as well as prep for translations. Unfortunately, translations will likely take 3-6 months (I would lean closer to the 6, but I honestly have no idea; it’s a lot to go through). Even if we run some of those things concurrently (which we’ll, of course, try to do), I don’t see production starting until the end of the year (and that feels like an absolute best-case scenario).

Trophies

We went over the switch to milestone experience last update, but I kept a piece of it in my back pocket for a future update, so here it is. Trophies are something a hero gets when slaying adversaries (they actually replace the experience on the adversary card). Most adversaries award a single trophy, elites drop 2 and bosses can drop 3 or more. Trophies can be exchanged for four different rewards:

- Before any mission you may exchange 1 trophy for 1 Loot card (drawn from the deck).

- Before any mission you may exchange 2 trophies for a Consumable.

- For upgrading upgradable weapons and starting weapons.

- For crafting hero-specific weapons.

Trophies accomplish a lot of things for Stormsunder, including making early progression a little more even and rewarding heroes for individual moments of slaughter.

Aleksander Updates

Now for some changes that are a lot more recent from our testers: Aleksander’s mini-rework. This actually impacts Aleksandra as well, as we’ve decided to make Vampire’s Bite a little more useful in Heirs of Ruin. If you look at the miniatures that come with HoR, you might notice there aren’t a whole lot of humans and the ones that are there are almost all heroes. That’s okay, because it’s totally believable that Aleksander or Aleksandra might do a little shopping in the home team isle, but it made Vampire’s Bite a lot more situational than it probably should have been. Hence the rework (old on the left):

As you can see, Vampire’s Bite has lost a little damage but is no longer limited to humans (you still get some Health if you bite Adina, though). The lower damage makes the “biting your own people” a little more efficient as well as the healing remains the same.

Next up, Ruthless Assault has been heavily buffed (old on the left). Originally an exploding dice ability, it now has that as well as some extra damage (assuming you roll Specials) as well. As a level 1 ability, Ruthless Assault felt a little underwhelming when dice pools are low. This gives it a little “umph” should the dice gods favor you.

Finally, we also reworked one of Aleksander’s signature skills. The issue with Aleksander overall is it felt like he was in a really weird (and slightly weak) place. Wayward heroes, with their fancy new (newer than the demo, at least) abilities were outpacing Aleksander in both fun and damage. So, we took a measured approach and made Slick Footwork an incredible amount of fun.

Slick Footwork (old on the left) used to be a way for Aleksander to get into melee and get someone else out. It was great when you needed it, but a lot of the times you just didn’t. Now, Aleksander gets to pop in, stab an adversary and then pop back to where he started. It may not seem like a huge change, but it’s a lot of fun and is infinitely more useful than the original version.

Testing in Stormsunder

Some of you have asked what has changed from the rulebook for Stormsunder in the demo and now, so here’s a bone for you folks: Our testers changed stat tests. The way stat tests use to work is that you were informed there was a test, a stat and a specific number that needed to equal or exceed for you to pass. You would roll 2 Fate dice and add the total to your hero’s relevant statistic. It worked fine in testing, but we’ve been doing a lot of looking ahead to Bones of the Conquered and A Pharaoh’s Wrath recently and anywhere power creep might be an issue. The fact is, the further we get into the story, the further the gap between Aleksander’s and Aleksandra’s Charisma is going to be (for example).

The new system is quite simple and even requires less math (bonus!). The two Fate dice remain, but rather than adding it to your stat, you compare your stat to the test requirement. If your stat is lower, you need to roll at least one 6 on one of the Fate dice. If your stat is equal to the test requirement, you need to roll a 5 or a 6 on one of the Fate dice. If your stat is higher, you need to roll a 4, 5 or 6 on one of the two Fate dice. This gives every hero a chance to succeed (shout-out to all you Aleksandra negotiators out there) without diminishing the power of just having better stats.

Some tests may actually require multiple successes (so, two 6’s, if your stat is lower). Some tests have no requirement at all, meaning the hero must test against their own stat (so, 5 or a 6). The system is simpler and much more efficient and given the expanded role tests have had in combat, it’s a pretty great change.

Villains & Civilians Final PVC

Here they are, the last of Wave 1’s PVC. Everything is approved and they all look great. The only issue we had was some inconsistent gluing for Florian Roth, but we’ve addressed that with LongPack.

That’s all for now! We’ll be back next month to give an update of where we are with testing and development in general. Until then, we’ll see you in the Storm (where the only true test is perception).

- LSG

New PVC, PM Finally Closed and the Value of Experience
about 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 24, 2023 at 08:42:38 PM

Hello, folks!

 Today we’re going to look at some more PVC for Wave 1, talk about how game testing and balancing is going and tackle a gameplay question I’ve seen on the unofficial Discord now and then (in none of that order…). But first let’s talk about the Pledge Manager, which is now officially closed.

Pledge Manager Closed for Wave 1

 It took way longer than I wanted or expected it to, but the pledge manager is finally closed for Wave 1. That means no more updates, no more refunds and generally no more worries until we re-open the PM for Wave 2 after Wave 1 fulfillment. There are still a teeny tiny number of backers who didn’t finish their pledges (pay for shipping, etc), but that ended up being less than 1% so it shouldn’t be an issue. If you *are* one of those folks, it’s my understanding that you can still finalize your pledge. If you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected].

State of the Game

 CNY is over and we’re 19 PVC samples richer (see the bottom of this update). That means out of the 36 miniatures remaining for Wave 1, 19 have been approved and only 17 remain. I don’t have an exact timeframe for the final batch (which is 17/18 of the Villains & Civilians box), but I believe it should be sometime in late March / early April.

Since the last update we’ve pretty much locked down solo mode aside from some small tweaks that need further testing. A lot of the current testing (and a great deal of the testing going forward) will be about different combinations of heroes in all acts, complicated by the number of wayward heroes that are currently in the game. It’s painfully slow work, and something we’ve worked on before already, but it’s vital to ensure the game is balanced throughout. We’re essentially done with some of the heroes at least (such as Drustan), which should make things a little easier.

A Matter of Experience

I don’t respond to everything on the unofficial Discord, but I try to keep an eye on things and that’s been especially fruitful when farming for update ideas, such as how exactly Stormsunder handles experience and leveling. It’s best to go back to the beginning, which would be the demo… which didn’t really have experience at all. We explained how it worked in the rulebook, at least partially (you’d get XP based on the adversaries you killed, etc), but the demo covered such a small piece of Stormsunder we never really intended for it to include leveling, aside from showing what the result would look like (the demo had Hero cards for levels 3 & 4 and all the ability/signature skill cards you needed to level).

So, what did we plan to do? Well, we originally wanted to go with classic leveling, where the more you killed, the more levels you gained. We’d throw in story-earned XP here and there, after finishing a challenging quest and the like, but like titles, you’d have to track everything with paper. We knew we had one problem with that, and it looked something like this:

That is all the regular heroes in Stormsunder across all three acts. That means the wayward heroes aren’t even there, so if you add those in, we are talking about *a lot* of heroes to keep track of. While we made sure their ability decks would be easy to maintain (making enough standard cards for each hero, so you didn’t need to borrow from one or the other), there was no way to do that with experience and leveling. Keeping track of individual amounts of experience for the heroes would become a full-time job, not to mention that the game often requires you to bring a specific pair of heroes, meaning that under-leveled characters could become a burden, which also doesn’t sound like much fun. We tried several different solutions including shared leveling (everyone gets the same “party XP,” milestone XP (everyone gets bulk XP at the end of an encounter or event rather than for each kill) and while some were better than others, they all still felt like bookkeeping and not in a rewarding or, in the case of titles, in a “curious” way (what on earth does *that* title mean?).

So, what did we end up with? Well, of all the different methods we tried, milestone XP was the least laborious, so we tweaked that. In traditional RPGs, milestone XP is a way for the game master to not have to worry about the XP any given monster grants and is a more “fluid” way of doling out progression. There’s an even simpler way and it’s basically the same thing except rather than rewarding experience at certain milestones, you award a new level instead. Your players just finish a story arc or long campaign? Grats, you just gained a level. Stormsunder’s campaign book is *very* structured, so this way of leveling has worked out really well and also makes sure players aren't thrown into a situation (an encounter) they have no chance of winning. Unless that’s what is supposed to happen, in which case you should run like REDACTED is telling you to.

So, at key points in the first campaign, you will be told that all the heroes have reached a new level. It’s simple, balanced and most importantly, doesn’t get in the way of fun.

Now, Discord doesn’t have to be the only place to float ides for updates. If you want to know how a specific gameplay element of Stormsunder stands (or even if you already know, but want to know how we got there), just post the suggestion in the comments. No mass card requests (never again...)

Legend of Keepers

I’d be remised if I didn’t mention we’re involved with an active Kickstarter campaign. If you didn’t see the last update or our newsletter, we’re working with Scott Taylor of Art of the Genre, who has fulfilled a staggering 60+ campaigns on the platform. He specializes in RPG writing, 5E specifically, and he’s converted the Legend of Keepers video game by Goblinz Studio into four 5E dungeon adventures where you can play as the heroes, the monsters or against your friends (each choosing a side). It works in a very board game-ish fashion, which may be familiar to those here, while offering the opportunity to roleplay as goblins and you know how we here at Lazy Squire Games feel about goblins (our illustrator is obsessed with them for some reason). 

 
 Our main contribution to the campaign is via a treasure trove of STL miniatures and a new line of 3D printable terrain we’re calling Stonecraft Dungeon. We’ve never offered STLs before, so if you do have a 3D printer (or if the campaign book sounds neat… and it is), you should check the campaign out here.

Stretch Goal PVC Samples (Plus Bonus Ja’Ja)

Here are the latest PVC samples Longpack has sent us. They are quite amazing, though that shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point.

I’m posting this update pretty late and this weekend is completely full of both personal and LSG-related stuff, so while I will most definitely respond to comments, the times will likely be random and intermittent. Anyway, that’s all for now! We’ll be back next month with more news on testing and whatever else pops up that gets us closer to production and (eventually) fulfillment. Until then, we’ll seen you in the Storm (where surviving is the only milestone you should be working towards).

- LSG

PM Closing, Solo Mode, Production/Development & More
about 1 year ago – Wed, Jan 18, 2023 at 12:29:05 PM

Hello, folks!

It’s time for our first update of 2023 and we’re going big or going home (actually we’re going big and I’m staying home… it’s kind of cold). Before we can get into any of it, though, we need to talk about the pledge manager, which closes next week, so…

Pledge Manager Closes Next Week (Week of January 23rd!)

At long last, it’s finally time to close the pledge manager for Stormsunder as we need final numbers for Wave 1 production (LongPack has been asking). What does that mean for you? Well, if you’ve already entered your address and paid for shipping, very little. If you haven’t, please do so as soon as possible. I’ve been very careful not to say a specific date next week for the PM to close, and that’s because there’s a lot of little things we need to do behind the scenes before the trigger is pulled. 

When we launched the pledge manager for Kickstarter backers, BackerKit moved all the folks who late pledged into a new pledge status (it was a weird backend requirement) and that created a mess of things going forward that we need to make sure is reconciled so everyone gets their games. We also have to do another pass for Wild Assent backers to make sure any more recent late pledge folks (who also backed the first Wild Assent campaign) get their freebies, as well as the ones who upgraded to the Nyere get their Wayward Squire related discount.

We also need to charge cards, of course, as well as process any refunds. Speaking of refunds, this is your last chance to jump ship if you think wandering in an apocalyptic sandstorm just isn’t for you. This is also the last time you can make any other changes to your order (upgrading pledges, adding add-ons, etc), so if you want something done with your pledge, please update it as soon as possible (or reach out, if your pledge is locked).

The Case for Pledging Now

This is sort of an extension of the PM section, but I separated it because, well, that section is already long. If you’re reading this update, you already know what Stormsunder is and what we’re trying to accomplish with it, so I won’t try to convince you the game is awesome or go over its many strong points. What I *will* say is that as the game is very late, the material and labor costs we planned for the campaign are a fair bit higher now than they were then. The prices for Wave 2 will almost certainly be higher when we re-open the PM. In addition, if you recall, we pledged to cover VAT cost for whatever EU and UK folks paid for before we closed the PM for Wave 1.

State of the Game

Now that the PM (and its addendum section) are out of the way, let’s talk about where we are at with Stormsunder’s development/production. Beginning with miniatures, at the bottom of this update you will find the final PVC samples for Faeyra, Elise and the 18 miniatures from the Heirs of Ruin terrain box. LongPack has informed us that all the stretch goal minis and one V&C mini (Ja’Ja, I believe) are ready for approval as well and should be shipped to me before the Chinese New Year (CNY) shuts most of China down. That means of the 54 miniatures remaining for Wave 1, 20 are now approved, 17 should be in the mail shortly and 17 will be finished after CNY.

As for testing (which always includes a bit of design/redesign), everyone has returned from the holidays and are back at it. It doesn’t feel like we’ve made an incredible amount of progress, but cards have been updated, heroes nerfed (and buffed, depending on the situation) and we’re generally moving forward. Solo mode has gotten a lot more testing time of late and will continue to do so in the near future, which is serendipitous as we’ll be talking about it further down in this update.

The Status of Wave 2

We’ve been keeping an eye on comments (and Discord, etc) and there seems to be a misconception about Wave 2. Some folks have taken my reluctance to set a fulfillment date for Wave 2 as some sort of “tell” or admission that Wave 2 is in peril or that it will be completed in approximately 10-15 years (or whatever). The reality is I’ve be apprehensive about picking a date because I’ve already been wrong multiple times about Wave 1’s fulfillment, so it seems exceedingly overzealous to be dropping dates for Wave 2 before Wave 1 is at least in production if not in actual fulfillment.

So, what does that mean for Wave 2? If Wave 1 took this long, doesn’t that mean Wave 2 will take longer? Well, the answer is both yes and no. Wave 2 does have more content in sheer pages of the campaign books, but even that (and just about every other part of it) rests firmly on Wave 1’s shoulders. Wave 2 actually has one fewer miniatures than Wave 1, which will be produced faster than Wave 1 as the process between us and LongPack has been ironed out, leading to quicker output.

There are roughly 900 more cards (1880-ish versus 2800-ish) in Wave 2, but a healthy chunk of those are for existing heroes and adversaries (not to mention the Standard and Role cards which are flat-out duplicates), which will make developing them much easier.

Anyway, the point is, Wave 2 builds off of Wave 1 and while currently we are not focused on it, everything we do for Wave 1 cuts down on time needed to develop and produce Wave 2.

Wild Assent, Ravaged Star and All the Other Non-Stormsunder Things

While I’m addressing concerns, another one I’ve seen is the general question of why we’ve done anything else aside from Stormsunder, including the Wild Assent: Lavon Rising campaign and working with MiniWarGaming on Ravaged Star (both the original campaign and the new one). The answer is simple: we’ve had to. The decision for each campaign was slightly different, mind you, but they were all either driven by or helped enable our desire to keep our sculpting team relatively intact. That would only work if we had them making money themselves while we worked on Stormsunder. Since almost all of Stormsunder’s sculpting work was finished in 2020, we began that “keep’em working” idea with a third project that has been sitting in limbo until now, miniatures for an adaptation of the video game, Legend of Keepers (you can see more about that below).

Lavon Rising work started in 2021 in response to the feedback we received for the original game. We were presented with the problem of the game having increased interest due to positive reviews, but not only did we have no copies to sell but also had no capability of producing more as Archon Studio was well into their HIPS investment/production (with no interest in a reprint). Although it was our intent for the new Wild Assent campaign to not interfere with Stormsunder, in hindsight there have been some impacts. We attempted to organize our time in such a way that the two would never meet (some people working on Wild Assent, others working on Stormsunder), but those efforts didn’t always succeed as well as I hoped.

Ravaged Star began in the Summer of 2021, I believe, giving our sculptors an incredible amount of work while, unlike Wild Assent, not interfering much at all with Stormsunder (or even Wild Assent). Partnering with another company took a lot of weight off our shoulders and working with MiniWarGaming has been a great experience overall, and I look forward to working with them well into the future. Now it’s true that Dave and I flew to a Serbia for a week last Summer to design the Ravaged Star game, if memory serves I wasn’t actually needed for anything Stormsunder related at that point (and being able to meet with folks that I work with out there is never a waste of my time anyway).

I think that’s enough discussion on that point, though I’ll reference this conversation when I took how little I actually did for Legend of Keepers (almost nothing) below. Moving along…

Solo Mode – Stormsunder’ing for One

For quite some time I didn’t have much to say about the solo mode for Stormsunder. *I* knew it could be played solo even without special rules as myself and pretty much anyone involved with its design has done it. That said, not everyone wants to deal with 4 decks and 4 hands for their player characters in a game, so I always had an idea in the back of my mind what I wanted to do. We needed to be much further in development (and testing) to be able to adequately test that idea, however.

That’s all behind us now (the further development of the game and the testing of solo mode), so let’s talk about where we started and how we got to what should be the final version. We didn’t want to add more cards (such as “NPC” cards for each hero so you only really controlled one) as that would diminish the fun interactions between heroes, which is one of the reasons Stormsunder is such a great game. So, my original idea was a simple solution: shuffle all four heroes’ decks into one and play a really weird riff on Texas Hold’em.

If you aren’t familiar, Texas Hold’em is a version of Poker where each player has two cards and must complete their hand using three cards from a community pool of five cards. That community pool is the part I wanted to use, where you would draw a hand of cards and then based on that hand choose which hero you want to activate. Maybe you have three of Aleksander’s cards and so it makes sense to use him first. The magic of the system would be that they aren’t actually Aleksander’s cards. He has Standard cards that anyone can use, Vampire and Tarpitt cards Aleksandra can also use and Rogue cards that Wynter, Drustan and Fil’lik can use. Only his Duelist cards (currently) and any Trait cards can only be used by him.

Tarpitt Hold’em ended up working pretty well, actually. We had to make some adjustments, such as increasing the pool of cards (you draw 7 at the beginning of the encounter and up to 4 at the beginning of each hero’s activation) along with some other tweaks, but the game mode accomplishes what we wanted it to do.

We also made it so you selected the hero you wanted to activate before drawing your cards (this helped balance the difficulty of the mode a little better, as well as keeping unfortunate Trait draws still a thing. If you draw one and it’s that hero’s trait, you activate it as normal. Otherwise, you place it with the appropriate hero, and it will automatically activate the next time they do.

A large pool of cards also made discarding cards for way too much power a thing, so we limited that to three per activation. We’ve also added a default way for players to cycle through the deck: A hero can spend 1 AP during their activation to discard two cards and draw two more.

Finally, the last extra rule for solo mode is that once per activation you may store a hero’s card with that hero for later use. Each hero can only have one card at a time. Oh! And you can only use one copy of a card per activation (Legion keyword not-withstanding). No sprinting across the battlefield if you draw multiple Dash cards.

So, that’s it for solo mode. What do you think? If you’re like me, you can always decide to just play the full game normally even if you’re the only one sitting at the table. That said, I’m glad where solo mode is at and I think people are going to really dig it.

Wayward Heroes

We haven’t talked about wayward heroes in quite a while, so I figured we’d do a check-in with an example of how one of them can be used in the game. This is more of a game mechanics section than a story section, so you don’t have to worry about spoilers (they are very light).

So, let’s talk about Drustan, Ranger of Adrasil. Drustan is available to play right at the beginning of the game. That’s not a spoiler, all wayward heroes (technically, *all* heroes) can be played from the beginning of the game if you wish. Just keep in mind that the further down in the game’s story the hero is introduced (speaking specifically of the non-wayward heroes here), the stronger their starting equipment will be. Anyway, the way Stormsunder deals with story is that the game either “knows” a hero is present or it’ll ask you. If the hero is around, they may be referenced or talk, or do whatever. Early in the story, before the party starts growing, it’s pretty straightforward who is there and who isn’t.

Later, as the number of heroes climbs, it starts to get messy on that specific front, so what we did was we selected a certain number of heroes (the most common, being two) that are required for specific locations/quests/etc. This allowed certain heroes to shine in the story while also guaranteeing I had characters to bounce dialogue off each other. It is entirely possible to pick four heroes and play them all the way through the campaign, but it will require extra work on your part (keeping track of which heroes should actually be there, making sure the adversary deck has the right cards, etc), so I wouldn’t recommend it for your first playthrough.

Anyway! Drustan, Ranger of Adrasil. Drustan is looking for someone and he will quickly find that the world he is on is certainly not where he will find them. Drustan isn’t the only hero trying to find their way back home, mind you, but that kind of ventures into that spoiler territory and I said I’d be good (or implied it, at least). So, if you don’t use Drustan at the beginning of the game as I suggested above, how does he join? Well, wayward heroes are not part of the main campaign book. Drustan will never be referenced there, however, the stretch goal campaign book is design in such a way that once you reach a specific haven, you will be able to go on a side quest to add Drustan to your party. This initial quest will show how the party finds Drustan (or he find them) and once complete he will be a functioning member of your party. A later haven will unlock the next part of Drustan’s quest, and so on.

You’ll want to exercise caution with these side quests as doing them all is going to add quite a few heroes to your party’s roster (pat yourself on the back for unlocking so many stretch goals). Anyway, think of the stretch goal book as a reference guide for the heroes who may otherwise be forgotten.

Legend of Keepers 5E Campaign Book

I mentioned above that our sculptors were working on Legend of Keepers miniatures as early as 2020. Well, you can find the fruits of their labor here.

We partnered with Scott Taylor of Art of the Genre to make a 5th edition compatible campaign for the Legend of Keepers video game from Goblinz Studio. Legend of Keepers (the video game) has you tasked with defending dungeons from interloping heroes, so the 5E campaign takes that reverse dungeon idea and tasks players with controlling monsters while the GM controls those pesky heroes. The campaign can also be played in a more traditional way, with the players invading the dungeons rather than defending them.

Scott was a great choice for a partner as he has fulfilled something like 60 crowding campaigns (I don’t believe that is an exaggeration). He’s already written the campaign book and all the sculpts are done, so this will be fulfilled fairly rapidly (almost instantly for the STLs). This campaign also marks our first foray into digital miniatures, something we’ve had requested in, no joking, every single one of our campaigns. The miniatures for Legend of Keepers will only be offered digitally at the moment, so there will be no interference with our other projects. That said, we’re also looking into https://only-games.co/ for folks who don’t have 3D printers, so stay tuned for that.

New PVC Miniatures (& Farewell)

In terms of flat-out words, this update might be our longest one yet, but we’re finally at its end. Please post in the comments if you have any questions about the PM closing, opinions about solo mode and wayward heroes or whatever else is on your mind. Below are the new PVC miniatures including both single-mini box miniatures and the entire Heirs of Ruin terrain box (plus bonus Stormbrush Faeyra). We’ll be back next month with a more modest update to show off the SG PVC miniatures and whatever else is going on in the world of Stormsunder in the shadow of CNY. Until then, we’ll see you in the Storm (maybe don’t talk as much as I do and you might make it out alive).

 - LSG

The Lost Masters (for Wave 1) Have Arrived at Last
over 1 year ago – Sat, Dec 03, 2022 at 05:20:34 AM

Hello, folks!

In this update we check in to see where we are in terms of design and production, take a look at a “new” game component we added ages ago to help with encounter design and also show off the final masters for Wave 1. With the intro out the way, let's get into it.

Production & Design

The updated fulfilment estimate we made earlier this year was for April 2023. As I look at what we have remaining, I firmly believe we are going to go pass that. How far past that is difficult to say, but right now it looks like our best-case scenario for finishing PVC for Wave 1 will be at the end of January, with the CNY interrupting the other pre-production things we need to take care of shortly after. We aren’t just behind on the manufacturer side of things, mind you. What we had hoped was the final round of testing has opened some cracks in the encounters and skills that need to be filled if we don’t want Stormsunder to feel less than satisfying depending on your hero selection (and we don’t want that).

Despite my apprehensions about the deadline, there’s a lot to be positive about going into 2023. While still behind, we’re finally almost done with the miniatures for Wave 1 (with the last of the masters firmly in hand). We’ve also hired more testers to try and shore up the quality of the Heirs of Ruin campaign and the heroes who populate it. Next year is shaping up to be an incredible year, we just need earn it.

We still plan to close the pledge manager the week of January 30th (which means you want to finalize your pledge before then). LongPack is looking for the final production numbers, and we want to give them an answer. This will be the last chance for upgrades, refunds or tweaking, so make sure you don't miss out.

Final Wave 1 Masters (and a Bonus)

As I've said, we finally have the last of the masters for Wave 1. There's also some extra here that were fixed (technical issues, mostly related to soft details). Enjoy:

Finally, we have one PVC correction. It was difficult to see from the front, but Nefetet's face was, well, flattened. We had LongPack go back and take another pass at the mold (as the master did not have this issue) and the results are below. Do you like turntable videos like this? We can't do too many of them (it would kill the update page if nothing else), but if people like them we'll squeeze in more of'em:

If you aren't watching this video on YouTube in 4K, you are missing out.

Stormsunder Component Roundup: Doors & Walls

When Stormsunder's campaign ended we had precious few map layouts fully designed (basically, the demo and a dozen or so others if memory serves). It quickly became apparent that if we wanted to be able to provide a diverse pool of encounters, we needed to add what we were thus far sorely missing: walls. We had been using dead space between tiles to represent things like walls (the edges of the tiles providing plenty of claustrophobic lack of space) but we needed ways to cut off line of sight with greater variety to achieve what we wanted with the very important "You Let Aleksandra Negotiate" part of Stormsunder.

Once walls were a thing, doors were essentially a given. They allowed us to add more tests during combat (without seeming out of place) and generally improving things with no downsides (aside from adding more punchboard to the box). Here's what the walls and doors look like on a map:

That's all for now! We'll back next month with more news about production as well as a more interesting gameplay update than, well, doors. Until then, we'll see you in the Storm (try to not walk into any walls).

- LSG