Dearest Travelling Travellers,
As that title suggests, the heart of Book of Travels is about your journey and your stories, threading together as one. Through wandering and roaming your adventures will unfurl, in traversing and trundling your discoveries will enrich them. Mostly this will be done by foot, but respite can be taken on boats and trains, and from time to time magical means might see you travelling in more unexpected ways. Today we’re dipping into these gameplay possibilities, we look forward to your thoughts!
Travel the land on track
A single train track runs around the central basin of Braided Shore in a loop, stopping at the busy city of Kasa and the town of Crossings. Other stations will be open along the way as further areas of the land open up beyond early access. Each station has a warden who you can speak with to find out when the next train leaves, and if you see a train about to leave you’ll be able to call out to the warden to get that extra few seconds to climb aboard. Trains are fairly frequent so if you need a break from walking or just want to take a journey with a fellow Traveller, a scenic ride to Kasa might be just the ticket (ahem). Of course train travel will not take you to the outer wilds and all that lies beyond the middle ways, but it should be a merry treat and might save time if your adventure involves getting to a faraway destination or the need to pick up some supplies in Kasa. And if you're looking for somewhere to stash some items, you'll be able to leave them safely at a tarin master's chest (there's one in the gif just below).
Boat across The Verve
If you want to cross between the western and eastern islands of Braided Shore, you’ll need to cross the great lake known as The Verve, which currently requires travel by boat (no air travel exists in the region as yet). Boats travel regularly from Myr and are a very relaxing way to get to the island of Bat Saha and the north west lands beyond. As with trains, boat stations have wardens who will let you know when the next boat taxi will depart. Travellers can also find abandoned boats around the shores of the region and can be unlocked for use through Endeavours, so these journeys will be for pairs or small groups and will take you to places off the beaten path.
Draisine
Draisines are small carts that require two people to lever them across tracks. We don’t expect draisines to be any use in closing distances since they cover a small area. But if you’d like to meet with a friend and spend a little time spending some energy on a metaphorical mini journey of friendship, these might be the wheels for you. Funded by one of our Kickstarter stretch goals, we are looking forward to finding out how players engage with their draisine mini-travels when early access comes this summer.
Magical means
We’re not going to give too much away here, but for now we can reveal that the magic unlockable in knots and tea might also lead you to magical means involving travel... Shapeshifting can also be explored as a means to taking on the travel abilities of another animal or being, and a Travellers’ Portal, also from our Kickstarter, will allow you to skip the arms in a candle!
That’s all for now, but before signing off I want to thank Nippon Ginko For suggesting this topic on Discord – great idea! If you have ideas for things you’d like to hear more about please do post them below or in Discord In the future we’ll be sharing more about travel, including how distance is measured and how you might acquire skills for navigation and finding folk.
Thanks again for taking time with us! We’d love to hear your thoughts on this and all things travel and RPG so please do drop them below!
Best Wishes
Helen & the Dev Team
Wishlist Book of Travels today:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/
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What is TMORPG?
The T in TMO signals an alternative to the more common industry standard MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) putting 'tiny' in the place of 'massive'. That means fewer meetings, which we think means more magic... Read more here: What is a TMORPG?!
Inspirations for Book of Travels
We’ve been deeply gratified to read all your comments on Kickstarter, Steam and Discord. In particular those that have lead us to books, art and other media that you feel share similarities with our TMORPG. Therefore we’ve dedicated a post to the key inspirations behind Book of Travels.
Read more in this post: Inspirations for Book of Travels!
Revealing the Early Access World
Later this year Book of Travels will be available for Early Access on Steam. In Chapter Zero parts of the Braided Shore will be open, and among the places to visit is the gem of the region – the city of Kasa. Read more here.
Join our Discord
Join our super friendly Discord to exchange ideas on all things Book of Travels as well as art, games and books. Join here.