Welcome to the official patch notes for Tales of Fablecraft v0.12. Our intention with patch notes (like these and the ones we put together moving forward) is to surface the marquee features in a blog and vlog format before offering the bulleted update rundown you’re probably familiar with.
The largest additions that arrive with Fablecraft v0.12 are Charge and the Galaxy Dice Skin Giveaway we’re hosting as part of an upcoming stress test.
Watch the video for the high-level overview and dig into the nitty gritty with the text below.
Meet Charge, your gateway to dying 💫
If you’ve played lots of Fablecraft before in the closed beta or even the recently launched demo, you’ll immediately notice something new around your character portrait. This gold, notched semi-circle represents Charge, a new, key resource.
What’s Charge and how does it work?
Charge is a requirement for Spellcasting outside of battle.
Spells, listed in the Actions menu, now require Charge in order to activate. Whether you’re looking to apply the Self-care Spell for an HP refresh or Condescend to really prove your point to that poor Timberwolf, it’ll cost one Charge to make it happen.
Your Charge capacity will increase with level-ups, and GMs can add or remove Charge at their discretion.
Separately, as part of this update, we’re adding some different mechanics to Spells. Self-care is our first in this process, as we’re making it easier for players to manage their health outside of battle. With this update, casting Self-care will automatically increase your health, no GM interaction or roll required. We’ll be tweaking Spells like this more down the line, too.
”Right, but you mentioned death?”
Death… yes…
If your HP reaches zero, you’ll be KO’d. Getting knocked out will reduce your Charge by one.
If you’re out of Charge, you enter a state that we’re calling “Spent.” If you’re Spent and you get KO’d, your character will die. It’s up to the GM whether or not to bring you back to life. You could want to let a Mage die forever. It’s your story!
Of course, if you’re the GM, you have the power to make the Charge and its tendrils as brutal or not brutal as you and your party prefer. GMs control Charge and can add or remove however they see fit. Want your players teetering on the edge of doom, you can do that! Want to be more lenient and flexible, you can hand Charge out like candy.
Our intention is to give you the tools to make Fablecraft as challenging as you like.
Tension and consequence
Charge arrives to provide some fresh tension and drama to roleplaying through sessions. With Charge, players now have to think a bit before they utilize a Spell to discern the worth of a trinket, for example. It might not be worth the Charge to see how legit that sea shell necklace really is.
Down the line, Charge will see a bunch of different tweaks and updates. Give it a shot, and let us know what you think on our feedback board!
Get those Galaxy Dice this weekend
In case you missed our earlier posts on Steam, Discord, and Twitter, we’re offering up some free Galaxy Dice just for playing the demo during our stress test.
We’re working to ensure the Fablecraft servers can handle an increased concurrent player count, and we need your help. Simply log into the Fablecraft demo on Steam between 1:30pm and 2:00pm EDT on Sunday, June 2nd, 2024.
The Galaxy Dice will unlock for the account that you’re logged in with, and you’ll get a pop-up once they’ve been added to your collection. It’s as simple as that!
The Complete Tales of Fablecraft v0.12 Patch Notes
Features
- We added the previously described Charge system as a Spell casting resource and penalty for KOs, and that includes a slew of new tutorial tools and menus that you’ll encounter during play.
- We also added a Spent status for characters who run out of Charge.
- Thanks to that Charge and Spent system, we’ve also added the bittersweet release of death for your characters.
- We re-worked the Self-care Spell to be automatic on cast instead of tied to a dice roll. That’s right; healing only costs a single Charge with no risk of epic failure hanging over your head.
- We spent some time making the GM Guide a little bit easier to read and navigate.
- We updated the error message that pops up when you try to begin battle without any bad NPCs on the battlemaps. We’re shocked you tried to get your players to murder each other. Well, maybe we’re not shocked. We’re disappoi-- just kidding, we’re not even disappointed.
- We added speaker highlighting to video and voice chat. Now you’ll know who’s talking as their box lights up when they speak.
- When you click into your inventory, you’ll now get a full view of those beautiful items instead of a small popup. It’s pretty!
- We added main menu details and unlock pop-ups for those Galaxy Dice that you’ll get for participating in the Stress Test on June 2nd between 1:30pm and 2:00pm EDT.
- We reworked the models for the Underwater and Galaxy Dice Skins.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that would prevent Mages from casting Spells and rolling skill checks during inactive combat.
- Fixed a bug that would cause the chat menu to stick on the screen, no matter what you poor Mages tried to do to get rid of it.
- Fixed a bug that would cause the inventory panel to display incorrectly during battle.
- Fixed a bug that would allow players to open multiple pop-ups while selecting between Spells and Skills.
- Fixed a bug that would cause the inventory panel to be blank in some Story Scene sequences.
- Fixed a bug that would prevent players without attached Mages from opening and viewing character sheets.
- Performed visual QA to the GM Guide and demo flow.
- Improved the account creation flow a bit more.
- Fixed various, smaller bugs.
Known Issues
- If you're rejoining a campaign built before the end-of-May release (v0.12), hero Charge will be set to 0 (only on initial entry). You can refill charge manually by right-clicking the hero, or use the bottom-right menu to recharge.
- If you're rejoining a campaign built before the end-of-May release (v0.12), your campaign might show a blank or empty Story Scene / Combat Scene. The GM can select a new environment or battlemap, and the game should resume as normal!
CLOSED BETA PLAYERS: YOU MUST LOG INTO THE DEMO, NOT THE CLOSED BETA, IN ORDER TO EARN YOUR GALAXY DICE. The Stress Test is on June 2nd between 1:30pm and 2:00pm EDT.