PLAYTESt THIS!

We're going to put up planned changes that we've been playtesting to get extra feedback and make it easier to track changes between versions. We're starting out with a longstanding request from several playtesters.

The Tribal Manifests/ encounter tables make it pretty difficult to complete some Complexes in a single attempt.  We want to keep play 'gritty' but a few of the tribes are very hard to defeat. To adjust for that, and to prepare the way for multiple/ larger Complexes with more Tribes and Monsters, we've been using Quests and Shards while playtesting the Scenarios Pack.

Instead of weakening any of the Tribes we've looked at how to give players a few extra chances to 'power up' during play. Quests and Shards seem to have this effect, as players soon get a handful of extra opportunities to 'shine' during play. When these are spread out around a group of players and contained within a complex the result is that players can 'play a joker'. This makes it easier to deal with Alarms and clusters of Monsters; and is most effective when more than one player uses a Shard at the same time.

Quests

Experienced players and their Adventurers soon start to complete a series of major trials, which can be recognised as Quests. Players and players' Adventurers may choose to display a Shard of pure, crystallised Starlight for each completed Quest:

Collects five seperate Honours.

Participates in the Capture of all of the different types of Complex.

Participates in the Capture of a Complex from all types of Hostile Tribes.
OR
Participates in the Capture of a Complex from all types of Peaceful Tribes.

Participates in the Capture of a Citadel from all types of Hostile Tribes.
OR
Participates in the Capture of a Citadel from all types of Peaceful Tribes.

Defeats all types of Daemon.

Defeats all types of Undead.

Defeats all types of Ancient Monster.

Collects all types of Ancient Enchanted Item.

Participating requires an Adventurer to play a full part in the Capture, including 'playing as part of a team'.

Defeating an opponent involves causing most or all of the Damage to the opponent.

When an Adventurer completes one of these Quests the player can collect a Shard. Players are welcome to display their Shards on websites, in 'sigs', as part of their avatars and so on. This is in recognition of their skill and experience as players.

Each Shard an adventurer gains can be used to give the Adventurer a variety of bonuses and extra skills or powers.

Shards

The benefits of collecting Shards include using them to gain an extra action or move an extra Zone during a Turn. This represents the slight edge that experience and frequent action gives Adventurers who complete a Quest.

The ability to use each Shard is only available once/ Complex:

1 Shard = Move an extra Zone. (This must be taken as part of the unit's Move).

1 Shard = attempt an extra action in a Turn. (This must be taken as a continuance of the unit's action and cannot be combined with the use of a Second Weapon or a Backstab).

A unit with Shards can use up to 3 Shards at once. Doing so allows a single unit to move several Zones in a Turn, or to attempt as many as 3 actions in the same Turn.

Talismans

There is an additional way to gain Shards within the existing rules. If a 12 is rolled on 2D6 when using a Talisman a Share from a Star belonging to the unit using the Talisman is absorbed. This Star forms a Shard that the Adventurer can use like any other.

Constellations

Shards can be used by groups of players to 'form' Constellations. Constellations allow units to influence future events by increasing the likelihood that a particular type of unit, item or event occurs or appears during future gameplay.

Any Constellation can be used to adjust or 'shape' outcomes from the Encounter Manifests, the Local Events Table and the Treasure Tables. Doing so requires the players to Declare the use of a Shard each for every change of a row applied to an outcome. Revised outcomes only add to the roll, so it's not possible to turn a difficult encounter into a significantly easier encounter. A GM is of course able to choose to defer or refuse the use of Shards in this way. Particularly when 'shaping' events may completely change or ruin an adventure.

Alternatively, a GM may offer Adventurers the option to 'shape' events further in advance to allow Adventurers to come across opponents and Campaign Events that they're keen to encounter. It's necessary for the GM to establish a reasonable cost.

For example, if the players wish to visit a Vampires' nest where there would be plenty of opportunities to slay or be slain by Vampires they could each surrender a Shard in exchange for influencing future events. If the players want to go further and visit a Complex containing Vampires and a couple of Ancient Items two Shards each might be a fairer charge.

Ancient Constellations

We've only come across Ancient Constellations while playtesting the Scenarios Pack over the last few weeks:

Forming one of the seven known Ancient Coastal Constellations has a range of effects, which we're playtesting right now:

Serpent:
Octopus: 
Scorpion:
Sea Eagle: 
Bat: 
Stingray: 
Dragon: 

The full details of Shards, Quests and Constellations will be included in the next full update to Treasure. Until then please playtest Quests as your players complete them.

Druids And Druidic Spells

A fourth set of Spells is being added to the game.  Druid is the Title of the Honour for an Adventurer or other unit gaining all of the Druidic Spells. The icon for a Druid is a Torc. There are six spells of which we've 'reserved' four icons so far:

Sickle
Rose
Acorn
Mistletoe

Further details to follow as soon as we've completed and tested the full set.

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