I thoroughly enjoyed the last sip of my third coffee cup for the day. I roll up my sleeves and begin typing this week’s dev-log update in the late evening. The riffs from Twisted Sister’s I wanna Rock are helping me set the proper mood and I afford a vague smile acknowledging the moment. It is already mid of January and I am working hard to hit the alpha release of Fabled Lands cRPG in the end of the month. I was able to grab the much-needed rest around the Holidays and recharge my batteries. I must say, quite an important endeavor for an indie developer when about to release their biggest and most ambitious game thus far.
When adapting the massive game world of the Fabled Lands’ gamebooks as a full-blown computer game, there are quite a few challenges to overcome. Many things that work well on paper do not transfer well in the digital medium. Also, it is no longer the 90s and the players’ expectations have risen.
One of the aspects I enjoyed a lot in the original gamebooks was the choice of a profession (a Rogue, Warrior, Troubadour, Mage, Wayfarer or Priest) and the various quests available to those professions (more on that later). However, due to the nature of how combat was conducted, with each side rolling dice and comparing what was essentially the Combat ability, meant that the Warrior profession had an edge. I have seen mentions of this on the Fabled Lands blog and Facebook group that picking a Warrior is kind of selecting “easy” mode while playing as a Mage or a Priest is the outright “hard” mode and requires good knowledge of the meta. Fixing that without changing everything is one kind of challenge. Another is the so called “late game”. I wanted to give more things to grind for to keep earning money and unlocking new content challenging even at later stages of the game.
Enough chit-chat let us dive in!
The shaping of the skills & spells system and how character builds are going to unfold is at its final stages. Still, keep in mind things are bound to change, especially regarding balance, but the concept is pretty much laid out.
In the demo from last year, you could try the hex-based combat firsthand, allowing you to test the starting spells for each profession. Each class has two starting skills at their disposal.
Skills would be divided into two major categories: active skills and passive skills. The active skills are type of actions the players can perform during combat while the passive skills would provide constant bonuses.
Instead of skill trees and distributing points old-school style, learning new skills would happen by acquiring skill books or skill scrolls either through merchants or difficult quest rewards. Once acquired the skill book can be “memorized” and the new skill or spell would go in the character’s “spell book”. The limit for known active spells or skills is 4 while the limit for passive ones is 3. The most powerful combinations will be left to you to theory-craft and discover.
Learning a skill is one thing, using it – another. To do that, the player’s character must meet certain criteria. For example, Animal Companion which summons a bear on the battlefield to fight for your side, would require base Scouting of 6 to use. While this is a starting skill for all Wayfarers, this skill is available to purchase and learn by the other professions as well!
The active skills are divided thematically as are the 6 major professions. For example, Warrior skills rely on brute force, high defenses, quick and deadly engagement, Mages use elemental power at their will through keeping their distance, while, for example, Rogues maneuver the battlefield, utilizing damage over time.
In the world there are hidden places (via quests or other means) for you to increase the base value of your starting abilities. Whether you would choose to increase your profession’s main ability to access more powerful skills in your area of expertise or divert and increase other abilities is up to you to decide.
With the given starting values for all six professions, one can suspect what hybrid classes would be interesting to build. Naturally, Rogues and Wayfarers could gain easier access to Warrior specific skills as they can catch up in Combat while a Troubadour can go the way of the arcane arts or the way of the “sneaky little hobbitses”. Keep in mind that all 6 abilities are key not only for combat skills and spells but for the various ability checks throughout your adventures. Scouting is still needed to find one’s way in the wilderness or Thievery to pick a lock and steal something precious!
Oh, and did I mentioned that any skill learned is carried by your character even after a resurrection deal. Talk about a good investment place to dump those extra Shards (the in-game currency)!
Conclusion
This is part one of the Skills and Spells update. Things get really interesting in part 2 which I will publish next week, where I will talk about the passive skills, what bonuses they provide and give you example synergies one can achieve.
With that I wrap up this dev-log update. Character skill and equipment builds are being introduced to the Fabled Lands. It essentially means more items to buy, more reasons to stash your loot in Town houses, more options so that professions feel better distinguished from one another, but above all, more interesting choices for you to make!