Welcome to another weekly update from Riftweaver for Tales of Fablecraft. We have some fun info to share with you this week, Mages! 🧙
Today, we’ll showcase some of the animated battlemaps we’ve been cooking up. We’ll also show off a new GM-focused feature that will allow you to set the exact scene you want without breaking immersion. Finally, we need your help to stress test Fablecraft’s servers, and we’ll reward you with a dice skin for doing it.
Let’s begin.
From illustration to animation
Earlier this year, we started the fun process of taking our beautifully hand-drawn battlemaps and giving them life with animation. We’re showing off four of those animated battlemaps; but, let it be known that these are only the beginning.
A quick note: Players always have the choice to disable animations on story scenes and battlemaps. Just click the options tool in the top-middle of the screen.
We’ll start with the Docks battlemap set in the Coral Coasts region of Mythas. This map has a night variant, too.
What adventure would be complete without a stop at a bustling tavern? This Tavern battlemap features three variants: summer (seen below), winter, and ocean.
The Village Square below is also region-agnostic, and it has winter and summer variants set both at day and at night.
Finally, the Mountain Impasse in the Highlands region features a narrow bridge and a seemingly bottomless drop that you can totally convince your GM to utilize with a nice shove and a Might check.
A wise word on battlemap animation from Greg
Greg Platt, our Senior Motion Graphics Designer, has been working hard to animate our battlemaps and make your adventures through Mythas more dynamic.
“I love being able to breathe life into these beautiful illustrations to create a more immersive experience for the players,” Greg told us.
“What I enjoy most is that each one is like a little puzzle to figure out, with different challenges each time. For the Docks, how do we make the water feel realistic without causing too much motion sickness? How can I draw from my experience growing up in the Northeast to create a blustery winter village scene? What little creatures and insects would be buzzing around in Mythas?”
“These scenes are ripe for storytelling opportunities.”
Drag and drop meets night and day
If you’ve run a session or two in Fablecraft (the demo’s available now!), then you know how easy it is to drag and drop batlemaps and story scenes as you build your narrative.
Currently, if you want to take a fight to the Rooted Terrain battlemap at night, for example, you need to take a couple of steps. You have to drag the battlemap onto the stage. It defaults to day, and that means your players will see you switch it to night.
Now, we're building a feature that lets you decide on variants as you drag and drop. It’s easier to show than tell, so check it out below.
The GMs on our team love this feature, and we hope you do, too.
Uncle Dill wants you for a Fablecraft stress test!
What about that stress test?
Okay, Mages! We need your help here, and we’re offering these fancy Galaxy Dice as a reward.
We’re looking to test concurrent server load, and we’d like to have as many players as possible log on during a 30-minute window. That window will be from 1:30pm to 2:00pm EDT on June 2nd, 2024.
We’ll share more details about this stress test, including exactly what you need to do, across our platforms over the next week, but please mark your calendars! Don’t worry—it’ll be easy to get those sweet Galaxy Dice once you make it online during the set time.
That’s it for this week’s news! Next week, we’ll show off the combat arena mode that’s coming to the demo in its next major update.
Until then, you can always chat with other players, find your next party, and hang out with the Riftweaver team on our Discord.
See you next week!