This update adds gambling, intoxication, crafting, a new profession, jeweler shops, and a pretty massive amount of economy integration behind the scenes.
The Gamblers’ Corner is now open in taverns across the world. Walk into the back room and you’ll find travelers, laborers, mercenaries, and drunks gambling away their bronze pins late into the night.
Depending on the region, different games are played.
Knucklebones
Available almost everywhere.
A fast-paced dice game played with four astragaloi bones over three rounds. Certain throws have names and special significance — the Venus, the Soaring Eagle, the Dog.
If your character has decent Streetwise, you can try loading your rolls to tilt the odds in your favor. Just don’t get caught.
Senet
Found only in Egypt.
The ancient board game of the Nile. Move across thirty squares while trying to avoid dangerous spaces and bad luck. The Waters near the end of the board can still drag you all the way back to the House of Happiness if fortune turns against you.
Omen Betting
Played in Mesopotamia and the Levant.
A priest examines sacrificial entrails and declares three possible outcomes. You place your wager on which fate the gods intend. Characters with strong divine favor gain slightly better odds.
Intoxication
Alcohol now has gameplay effects.
Ale adds mild intoxication, while wine is much stronger. Intoxication fades over time, but while drunk:
Cheat attempts become less reliable
Dialogue becomes more erratic
Some outcomes may become harder to control
Your current intoxication level is displayed on the status bar.
Crafting
Crafting is now fully implemented.
Recipes are organized by skill and material tier, and can be accessed from your outpost workshop. You can filter recipes by crafting discipline, material quality, or show only recipes your character is currently capable of making.
The current crafting skills are:
Carpentry
Masonry
Pottery
Weaving
Leatherworking
Brewing
Smithing
Rope Making
Boat Building
Jewelrymaking
Skills improve naturally through use. The more you craft, the better your efficiency and success become over time.
Companions can also participate in production. Assign a follower to the Worker role and set production orders at your outpost to keep goods flowing while you travel.
Crafting ties directly into the wider economy:
Brewers stock Provision shops
Smiths supply smithies
Potters produce market goods
Jewelers fill luxury stalls
The system is meant to connect production, trade, passive income, and settlement management into one loop rather than exist as a separate mechanic.
New Profession — Artisan
A new starting profession has been added.
Artisans specialize in fine crafted goods such as jewelry, carved stone, seals, beads, and decorative metalwork.
They begin with:
Jewelrymaking — Adequate
Trade — Novice
They also receive bonuses to:
Perception
Agility
Jewelrymaking is now its own full crafting skill and appears throughout the crafting and companion management systems.
Jeweler’s Stalls
Cities can now generate rare jeweler shops.
These are uncommon compared to most shop types, though they appear more frequently in Egypt.
Different cultures generate different styles of jewelers:
Faience workshops in Egypt
Cylinder seal dealers in Babylon
Glass bead houses along the Phoenician coast
These shops carry some of the most expensive goods in the game, but also offer some of the best trade margins for skilled merchants.
As always, old saves remain compatible.
This update touches a lot of systems at once, so there may still be bugs, balance issues, or strange edge cases hiding around the world. If you run into anything odd, please report it — it genuinely helps a lot.