CEPHALOFAIR DESIGNER DIARY ISSUE 9: GLOOMHAVEN RPG
Greetings Mercenaries!
It’s time for the July update… in the middle of August. Yeah, I know it’s been a minute, but better late than never, am I right? I wanted to wait until after Gencon so I could talk about how that went, but I got sick at the tail end of the convention and spent all last week recovering.
But! That gave the game enough time that I can report some pretty amazing news! The entire text of the RPG (sans a small item appendix) is finished with editing and on to layout! With the full edited text of the draft complete, graphic design becomes the new hotness. I’m sure I’ll share some images of what that looks like in the coming months.
We’ve been through several small tweaks over the course of writing and design that happens over the life of any brand new RPG. We might make extremely tiny changes, such as to a number here or a line there, during proofing. Usually, once the text is fully edited, we try to make as few changes as possible so as to not introduce any unintentional errors (this means all errors are in fact intentional!). Layout always feels like the home stretch because I’m not going to be making any large text changes beyond this point. While we’re still playtesting and ensuring mechanical structural integrity, the game part is DONE.
Which is great, because we've been getting stellar feedback from fans who have had a chance to interact with the RPG at conventions. Our friends at Lurking Fears ran games for us at Origins Game Fair and Gencon, and their players were all having a great time. At Gencon we made characters in the booth, and then ran through a short combat and a short social scenario. People were thrilled to get a chance to look at how easy it is to create an RPG character, which even explaining the game to folks who were entirely unfamiliar only took at most 30 minutes. Everyone had great fun running through both the short combat (eager to start the next round, though I had to shoo them out to invite the next group in) and the social scenario.
Last month I shared some Mindthief Skills with you, and I saw some folks asking about the conversion from hexes to feet. In specific, why 5 ft, why feet at all, and why not just keep using hexes? While we think it’s easiest to run the RPG combat using a hex grid, we didn’t want to limit people’s accessibility and enjoyment if maps and minis just aren’t their thing. We wanted to ensure folks could use the theater of the mind to a certain degree. And while using exact numbers and distances isn’t always easy to think about, it’s far more grounding and narrative than saying 1 or 2 spaces. So we abstract a number and set it to a real life unit of measurement, and we then just say 1 hex = 5 ft. And we chose feet because we’re an American company, and it's the unit of distance we’re most familiar with thinking about.
Finally, some RPG teasers:
Because we made characters at Gencon, I wanted to share the materials folks saw at the convention. I give you both the simplified creation steps handout that Monica helped create, and the demo character sheet that B. Close created, we had for folks.
And speaking of how during character creation you start with choosing your ancestry, I wanted to share an ancestry excerpt that would give you an idea of how we characterize the ancestries and their Skills.
Playing as a Quatryl
Play a quatryl if you want to portray a hyper-intelligent individual who has a penchant for following their impulses and indulging their curiosity. Quatryls might be small in stature, but they are big in personality and presence. Quatryls become mercenaries as a way to make a living, satiate their curiosity, and travel in a semi-nomadic lifestyle.
Fighting Styles
What a quatryl lacks in sheer strength, they more than make up for with ingenuity. No matter what their chosen profession, a quatryl knows how to handle most weapons, especially ones that require gunpowder or flint. Quatryls are cold and calculating in a fight, watching their opponent and waiting for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow. They tend to be fast, and others underestimate their strength and fighting skill, much to their detriment. While some quatryls might be duelists, guards, or other martial professions that give formal combat training, most quatryls learn how to fight the hard way, by getting beaten and then figuring out how to defend themselves. These quatryls aren’t above fighting dirty and employ an arsenal of ready-made gadgetry and weapons to ensure they don’t ever suffer the same fate twice.
Socialization
Beyond a natural curiosity, quatryls tend to be friendly. Some are high-strung and anxious, always needing to be working on a new project or goal to feel normal. Others are easy-going, taking life as it comes at them and treating every new experience with childlike wonder and joy. Sometimes the same quatryl will oscillate between both states, making it hard to relate to others. As mercenaries, quatryls lend their talents as fixers, problem solvers, and sometimes thrill-seekers to their fellows, earning a reputation for often mad-hat enterprises.
Classes
Many quatryls never leave their university, but those who do take their training with them. Many quatryls are tinkerers, using their engineering studies to create new and deadlier weapons to deploy against their enemies, or innovating ways to keep their allies healthy. Quatryls make excellent quartermasters, always keeping stock of the company’s wares and ensuring everything is in proper working order. Quatryls who have taken up the arts tend to be soothsingers, wielding their robust knowledge to read other people. They use this to encourage their allies and demoralize their enemies in equal measure. Quatryls who take an interest in magic tend to be spellweavers, finding the dichotomy between Ice and Fire a satisfying quandary to puzzle over for a lifetime.
Common Names
Quatryls tend to have names associated with their interests. While all quatryls have given names that they use when they are young, they often choose their own names as they get older. Sometimes they append titles to their names to designate their specialties. Other quatryls show a great deal of reverence to the title of Master, Professor, and Magus, even if the quatryl using them has never stepped foot into a higher-degree program.
Examples: Archmaster Trini, Colbert, Dean Hubert, Inventor Olga, Klein, Lord Lightning Brass, Master Clock Smith, Professor Jules, Senior Agriculturalist Prizz, Top Engineer Madrigal, Warden Hall, Xander, Zeze
Ancestry Skills
Quatryls all have above-average intelligence, which they often put toward invention and experimentation. Even those who do not follow the life of an engineer find an affinity for technology and study. Their culture encourages unreserved curiosity, which can lead them to great things and get them into big trouble. They are also smaller in stature than most other ancestries, leading people to view them as weak.
Gain a bonus to Attribute checks when the quatryl uses their Ancestry Skills to study, understand, avoid, activate, or otherwise interact with a piece of technology. Additionally, gain this bonus when they make checks to satisfy their curiosity, come up with a quick solution to a problem, prove someone wrong about them, show off, or surprise someone, especially someone who has underestimated them in some way.
Technological Affinity
Level: 1
Initiative: 42
Primary: Recover up to 2 Expended items. Then you may immediately play a different Skill or Talent to perform one of its actions.
Secondary: Jump up to 25 ft. Then give one adjacent enemy the Wound condition.
Bonus: Advantage, +1
There isn’t a single piece of technology in this world that is foreign to you.
Underestimated
Level: 1
Initiative: 14
Primary: Make a ranged attack 4 on one target within 15 ft. All attacks targeting you this round gain Disadvantage, and you Taunt until the end of the round.
Secondary: Heal yourself for 3, and you Taunt until the end of the round. Whenever you are attacked this round, the attacker gains the Immobilize condition.
Bonus: Advantage, +1
Those who don’t know you would never suspect what you’re capable of.
Quick Thinking
Level: 1
Initiative: 10
Primary: Make a ranged attack 3 with pierce 3 on one target within 15 ft.
Secondary: Gain retaliate 1 until the end of the round. The next enemy that suffers damage from your retaliate this round gains the Pacify condition.
Bonus: Advantage, +1
Your eye for detail shows you all the avenues to success before anyone else.
Until next time!
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CEPHALOFAIR DESIGNER DIARY ISSUE 8: GLOOMHAVEN RPG
