Explore the mysteries of Mor Nadar in this epic coop adventure with branching episodes!
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Seasons Greetings! LU Liveplay (recorded) link, we need your opinions on a couple of things please!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Dec 28, 2023 at 01:45:20 PM
Seasons Greetings to you all!
For those that celebrate it - Merry Christmas I hope you are all having a wee bit of a rest and enjoying the holiday!
LU Liveplay link
After some initial teething problems I joined Monkeys With Fire for a liveplay of LU where we talk about some of the lore and the characters. We then go on to introduce some of the key concepts. A big thanks to those of you who joined us and thanks for all the questions also! Doing the liveplay was a lot of fun, it's exactly how I would introduce the game at a convention. If you want to watch the show it has been recorded and you can watch it here:
User interface tweak - we need your opinions please
We had a rush on after the last update to get the Core Rulebook proofing finished. I'm pleased to say we are done with it now subject to a few things we would like your opinion on please. During the liveplay it became clear to me that there are some tweaks we can make to the card design interface which I think will make them easier for you all to use, particularly for those that are new to the game or have not played in a while. I will walk you through the problems and proposed solutions here:
#1 Commonality of Keyword usage
If you look at the Foe card below you can see other than the tweaks to the left hand side, and the introduction of the Creature number/Breakpoint symbols to the left and right of the Creature number stats (the 1/0, 2/1 etc), this card reads and works the same as all the other Foes you are used to. The only differences are the new Keyword 'Areten' and the Special Ability 'Impale' (which is particularly nasty by the way folks so try and keep a Ranged Weapon to hand for the Engagement Round).
The intent is that both the Special Rule and the Keyword are easy enough to understand. For those new to the game the Areten are a very important mysterious culture in Mor Nadar that you will learn more about in Deepsorrow.
However we want to adopt this use of Keywords across other card types also as it will mean that you have more flexibility with your Heroes and more opportunities to use them. For example if you find an item that lets you gain some form of bonus when used with a card with the Areten (or indeed any Keyword), the game will be more fun and more immersive if you can use that on many different types of cards.
Our proposal for this prior to the liveplay was to drop the word 'Staged Test' from the title bar which would give us the real estate to add a Keyword. The assumption for this was that not all games tell you the type of card they actually are and if you learn the template (in this case the card has the 'belt buckle stages') you would learn and then know that this has to be a Staged Test.
However it became clear to me that during the liveplay this is just something else to learn that I think we can actually help you with but in a different way. In addition this also helps us solve:
#2 Making the Action lines easier to understand
This is something I have been wanting to tidy up for ages but never found a satsfacroy way to do so...until now! To me it seems odd to have the word 'Basic/Staged/Table' in the title bar and then explain again what happens in the action bar (the section immediately below the narrative text in grey).
We bounced this around at our end and it struck us that we could move the Test type to the action bar (freeing up space for Keywords as per #1 above) AND include it in the action bar rather than rely on you learning/knowing the card templates by style alone.
This is best illustrated by the side by side of the 'Current' (in line with 1st printing Caves and Sewers) and 'Proposed' cards below:
If you look to the 'Proposed' card you can see:
Replacing the 'Staged Test' in the title bar with the Keyword 'Areten' in this case.
Reinserting it (rather than deleting it) in the action bar where it reinforces the following key information:
1 - This is a Staged Test
2 - It is for One Hero (not a Party Test)
3 - It is optional, note the word 'may' because it is a Curiosity not an Encounter.
4 - It works off both Solve (Reason) and Identify (Reason).
5 - Note the updated Set Icon and Card Code in the bottom left and the Caves Environment tab in the bottom right.
Here is another example showing how it would work with a Trial that is a Party Table Test.
Note there is no Keyword here but the User Interface remains the same. The action bar tells you in this case:
1 - This is a Table Test
2 - It is for the whole Party (it is a Party Table Test)
3 - It is compulsory (note the word 'must').
4 - It works off both Climb (Brawn) and Swim (Brawn).
5 - Note the updated Set Icon and Card Codes.
6 - Note the replacement of the old (incorrect) Gnimshka Speciality with the correct Subterranean Speciality.
As we are looking at Party Tests this brings me to:
#3 Tidying up the reminder on Critical Successes on a Party Basic Test
An often forgotten rule in Legends Untold that can make a real difference to your success in a game is the rule for a Critical Success on a Party Basic Test. Here is the excerpt from the new Core Rulebook below:
As with the rules above we bounced this around at our end and think adding a simple icon to these cards (where appropriate) is one less rule to remember which again lets you focus more on having your adventure. With this in mind Morgan came up with this icon to use to represent the Critical Success on a Party Basic Test:
And here you can see it in use on the proposed Lizardkin Hatchery card, which also has the 'Lizardkin' Keyword on it:
Please let us know your thoughts on the proposals above - if you like them we can incorporate them now, tweak the cards and finish the book for sharing. We think these are small but incremental improvements, we'd like to hear your thoughts though before we proceed.
Playtesting credits - help us get your name right in the book please!
For everyone who kindly helped with the playtesting please help us get your name right in the credits. If you can email me at: [email protected] with the name you want us to use that would help us immensely.
For now thanks again to everyone for your support and from us at Inspiring Games we hope you have an amazing New Year when it comes to you!
Cheers
IG
LU Live on TV (again) 8pm UK time tonight
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Dec 04, 2023 at 07:40:06 AM
Hey folks,
the last live play session hosted by Monkeys with Fire ran into some issues and so it is being played again tonight from the start.
I will be joining via voice chat this time around as well to answer any questions anyone has about the game.
Proofing continues - it is definitely taking longer than we hoped and this may impact delivery. For now though we still hope to have the game manufactured prior to CNY next year - if we can.
We are finishing off the core Rules just now so we can share them with you.
In the meantime I thought some of you may be interested in watching David et al. play on his channel.
Cheers
Kev
Proofing update
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Nov 07, 2023 at 12:52:39 PM
Hi folks,
I hope everyone is well - here is a progress update on proofing.
As you know we are delivering a multi product portfolio which makes the proofing process intricate as many parts of the design talk to one another (e.g. if we change something in one set then that may well impact multiple sets).
We knew this would be the case and we had planned for this! What we are doing involves proofing each set by splitting it into components (box, books etc) and card types. Whenever we change a component or card type we double check what that will mean for other sets.
For example with regards to the Weeping Caves Enhanced Edition we are remastering the entire set to bring it into line with the newer sets, this involves 11 Component types and 15 different card types (Basic Tests, Weapon Talents etc).
With LU we always fix the cards first because everything else hangs off the cards (the play guides, the books, even the boxes, they all reference those cards).
I am pleased to say we have now done a first proof of all the cards across all 7 sets (WC, GS, ID, PP, NB1, NB2, NB3).
Our next stage is to proof the other components (the vast majority of time being spent on the books). We can then share books with you for those that want to see them - though I am worried about spoilers so I need to think through what if anything we can share on Deepsorrow).
We will then do a final proof of all the cards and components before sending off to Whatz. I can't confirm exactly when that will be yet as the cards took longer than we hoped, however I hope to be able to share the Core Rulebook within the next week and we will keep working on the Campaign Guides in parallel.
For now I thought you may want to see some of the things that we have changed in the remastering process which be believe will make the game better for all:
Occupation cards
Here you can see the Performer from the Great Sewers Enhanced Edition set. The same card as before but we have added recommended starting cards for a Level 1 Build directly on the card in line with Deepsorrow. Please note this card does not have the new Great Sewers Set icon on it yet (the one shown is the Sewers Environment icon) this will be addressed in the second proof.
Foe cards
A slightly redesigned Foe card, Thuban Asharat no less, whom we introduced in the stretch goals and has pride of place as the 'Enhanced Edition' badge on the new box.
Things to note here:
1 - We dropped the 'Melee or Ranged' word from the Keywords section, this gives us more space to use for potential future cards where we want to describe multiple or longer keywords. We have now placed the Melee or Ranged stance icon below the Alertness Rating as this is more intuitive and the icons matches those on the Talents you will be using in combat. In this case Thuban is Alertness 10 and a Ranged Foe.
2 - Continuing on with the tweaked user interface to the left of the card we have added a vs Melee and vs Ranged box below the Melee/Ranged Foe icon - this helps avoid confusion to show that you always include these icons when you are rolling against the Foe.
3 - We have tweaked the Melee and Ranged Combat Tracks to make it really clear which applies in any situation and the applicable Damage the Foe causes. We did this primarily because a number of people play the game for the first time and can be confused as to why only the Ranged Foes have a Combat Track (the Melee Foes do not require one).
4 - If you look at the Creature number track you will see we have added in little symbols to the left and right of the figures to show # of Creatures and Breakpoint. We think this will just make it that much easier to understand which is the Breakpoint figure when people are trying to remember/learn.
5 - We have introduced a few new Abilities with the new sets one of which is Summon. This is another way for us to keep Foes fresh and interesting, in this case Thuban likes to summon all those rats for you to fight first. You can see the proofing process live in this document where I have marked up 'summon' in the rules section of the card as it should in fact be 'Summon'.
Extra Spacing
We are taking the opportunity to use the extra space we have where we can to improve readability. Here is a first draft of one of the new Booby Trap cards in the WC Enhanced Edition. Note my proofing mark which asks for more space.
Here is the revised version, you can see the same card but much easier to read. Please ignore the Speciality icon at the top, this is for Gnimshka but it should in fact be the Subterranean Speciality. Also don't worry about all the coloured frames and punctuation marks on the card below, this is just me showing you a screenshot from the merged file on InDesign.
New Supply token icon
We introduced a new Supply icon with the new Deepsorrow set to make it look different from the Loot icon used at the top of the Loot cards. You can see it here being applied to one of the new WC EE cards.
Changed Ability
Legends Untold is an ambitious project, it is inevitable that try as we may we will not get everything right first time. This one Talent has bugged me for some time. To be clear it does work, it's just I've always felt that using Cave Brother is quite hard to do as you need an Event to occur to use it. Because of this I usually always use the top two Abilities instead - this lack of balance does not sit well with me! With this in mind we are changing the bottom Ability slightly so that you can use it more situations but it still seems relevant to caving thematically. This is a change for the better but will create a different version of this Talent card. With this in mind we will reissue this card in the Enhanced Edition and give everyone one free copy of it in their upgrade packs so that old and new backers alike benefit from the change.
New Location cards
As part of the Enhanced Editions we are adding 5 more Caves Cards to the WC EE set and 5 more Sewers Cards to the WC Set. This will give you 20 Location cards in each of those sets making for more variety to your adventures. We have worked hard on the design and vision of these to make sure that they fulfil a number of criteria:
They need to fit seamlessly with the original cards.
They need to move the cards forward so that they also work with Deepsorrow.
They give us the opportunity to foreshadow the look of potential sets.
To make this happen we have deliberately added more detail, more verticality, more icons, sometimes they may work a bit differently because of the layout we have chosen.
With this in mind I'm excited to reveal some of the Enhanced Edition Location cards that we have built at this stage:
Above you can see WC-LO16 Winding River. Please note the Card Code, we are renumbering the Card Codes in Deepsorrow as per a previous update and making the EE sets run from 16-20 so that you get a straight run of Caves 1-20 and Sewers 1-20 in those sets. Secondly please note the Weeping Caves Set icon to the left of the Card Code and the original Set icon being used as the Caves Environment icon to the right. Another point I would raise on this card is that the Scouting Difficulty levels are higher, you need to be more careful with your use of Time and Scouting with some of these cards or you may well end up being Careless and end up in the Winding River. How's that for immersion folks? Ahem - apologies I can not escape making Dad Jokes nowadays!
Next up we have WC-LO19 Collapsed Cave. What I wanted to show here is the artist working towards that feeling of looking through the roof rather than an into an open space, so you can see some natural stone and some supporting braces have been added here to give you that sensation. Importantly now that we have more reasons to go through Barriers than in the original sets we wanted to give you that whole 'ooh what were they mining behind there?' sensation. So if you want to go through that Barrier you will unlock both a Treasure Zone and Minerals, and also a Dark Exit which may well be important if you are worried about sneaking up on Foes.
With GS-LO18 Breached mineshaft we are doing a little bit of foreshadowing with the wagon tracks. In particular the story we want to tell here is that you could escape off into the tunnels to the left or play it safe and go ambient in the bottom right. If you are really keen to go through that Barrier and check out the Minerals there is another Exit hiding in the top right you may miss on first glance.
I will finish this section with a look at GS-LO19 Spoil Hepas. If you look at the vertical nature of this Location it has three maybe four levels represented in it. We are using the tweaked Egress Barrier rules to the full on this card, if you want to access those Barrels and the Campsite with their Exits beyond you will need to negotiate the Barriers first.
The Enhanced Edition Locations have been a lot of work for us and the artist. For sure they have taken longer to do by a good few months than we originally hoped. I can confirm we now have one to go Hidden Hollow GS-LO25. I have now seen the first draft, it looks fantastic, I hope this card will be complete very soon.
Personacards
One thing we have done with some of the cards is to add extra descriptive text where possible and appropriate. Note for many of the tests this is not usually possible or desirable as they are already full of data points, however for some of the more simple cards the additional text can just help drive the immersion a little bit further. For example in the case of Althenor and his little dog Tiwu, some descriptive text just helps build the story more when you have the card to hand. I have to say I always smile at the thought of Tiwu joining our reluctant heroes as they try to find a path for their kin into the Weeping Caves.
Please ignore the Set icon shown in this card, it is the wrong one and will be rectified.
Next steps
We need to get the Core Rulebook out to you for proofing, I hope we can do that within a week or so. While you are looking at that we will complete proofing of the other books and components and then share what we can (spoiler comment above applies for the Deepsorrow Campaign Guide). When that is all done we can do a final second proof and get the files off to Whatz.
I apologise for the additional time it is taking for the proofing, I have endeavoured to demonstrate above that we are doing this to make the products the very best they can be for you when they arrive with you. We hope that you like what you see.
Thanks for all of the proofreading offers to date - they are much appreciated!
Best wishes to you all
IG
Very brief update
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Oct 05, 2023 at 01:43:12 AM
Hi folks,
just wanted to let you know that we are currently going through our detailed proofing process at this end before sharing stuff with you.
We are checking every card from every set before sharing to give us the greatest chance of success.
Please bear with us - it is hundreds of cards but it will be worth it when the finished product is made.
We are also tidying up a few things for the Enhanced Editions of the Caves and Sewers like making sure there are recommended started builds on the Occupation cards.
I believe I have now caught up with all outstanding queries, if you have something outstanding please let me know.
