Dear Travellers (dead and alive alike),
Over the past months, many of you have raised concerns, questions, and frustrations about permadeath (haven't we all?). This is something that we have been discussing a lot internally, sharing much of the same concerns that you all have. Today we want to share some of our thoughts on this topic and how we’d like to evolve it going forward.
Firstly we believe that dying is an essential ingredient in the Book of Travels soup. We don't want to fall into the trap of trivializing dangers and risk, removing the edge from gameplay moments such as combat and survival. Therefore, our current plan is to keep both the life petals and ‘physical death’ but add depth, meaning, and gameplay to the player character’s post-death journey. Here is a spoiler free breakdown of the sequence of events that we are currently considering:
- Life is dependent on your life petals in accordance with original design.
- Characters can die, and seeing someone else die will ignite a special quest regarding mourning and closure.
- Your items will be stored by your grave, collectible only by you.
- Ghost forms can travel the world interacting with other ghosts.
- There is a path to be discovered to get resurrected. A way to gain ‘passage’ back to the land of the living.
Where this will fit into our current update schedule, we have yet to entirely work out, but we will get back to you as soon as we have a better idea. For now, we just wanted to shed some light on our thoughts regarding this important part of the player experience. We hope you like the direction we are headed in with this and that you continue to stay with us on the road ahead! If you are interested in some insight into some of the inhabitants of Braided Shore’s beliefs on life and death, you can read a few tidbits from our vault of lore below:
Life and Death Death is a topic surrounded by much speculation and study in Braided Shore. In the modern mythos, life and death are thought of as being synonymous with land and sea, echoing the stormy, mysterious origins of the Asken settlers that now call Braided Shore their home. The shore between life and death is seen as a realm of passage between the two worlds. Mystics calling themselves “shore walkers'' have dedicated their mortal existence to exploring this uncharted middle-land, risking death, insanity, and perhaps even worse.
In other cultures, such as the Malku Su, death is a completely foreign concept. Malkus believe their race exists as a finite number of eternal spirits. Should their bodies perish, their spirits are carried by lightning to nest with their goddess until a worthy Malku Su family is rewarded with a child. The goddess then chooses one of the nesting spirits to bestow to the newborn, thus perpetuating the journey of the Malku Su Soul. This mysterious circularity has shaped the mentality of the stoic Malku Su for countless generations and drawn awe and wonder from other species.
Until next time,
Jakob, Oliver and the team at Might and Delight
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1783460/Book_of_Travels__Cup_of_Kindness/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1849710/Book_of_Travels__Soundtrack/
Help us bring Braided Shore to life!
Want more info?
Become a Traveller
Sign up on our mailing list for news about our game at www.TMORPG.com.
Unique Stories
When you play Book of Travels there is no linear questline, instead every player will have their own journey and stories to tell. Find out more about how our game design works to make your journey unlike any other...
Revealing the Early Access World
Book of Travels is now available in 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.