Kingdoms Forlorn - par Into The Unknown - livraison janvier 2024

Nouvel article sur le site de Into The Unknown. Et ça donne toujours très envie avec cet univers très personnel et intrigant…

Different Breed of Dungeon Crawler

Of Dragons, Devils and Kings…

A truly tactical dungeon crawler.
A truly co-operative adventure.
A truly narrative-driven board game.
Truly epic!

Kingdoms Forlorn is a solo-operative dungeon delver for 1-4 players with a focus on loot, tactical battles, character building and storytelling. It’s something we’ve been working for more than 2 years now, since before our highly successful Kickstarter campaign for Aeon Trespass: Odyssey. As AT:O nears completion, we thought it high time to reintroduce Kingdoms Forlorn to the wider audience!

In the coming months, I’ll be slowly unveiling the magnificent beast that is Kingdoms Forlorn, and showcasing each and every major theme and concept, as well as highlighting the innovative mechanics we hope will reinvent the somewhat stale genre of ‘dungeon crawler board games’. And of course, along the way, I’ll give you a sneak peek at the exquisite art we’re using to illustrate it: from Monsters, Knights and Kingdoms to Gear, Maps, Saints, UI elements and the next generation of our miniatures!

Ser Sonch and Little Ser, the Scout Monkey

Ser Sonch and Little Ser, the Scout Monkey

The night is dark and foreboding as Ser Sonch rides at full tilt through the countryside. It is as if death itself compels him to haste, though he is not running from it, but giving chase. As he cuts through the thick Starkwaldian forest, whipped mercilessly by heavy branches, nocturnal animals howl all around him, a mournful threnody foreshadowing what awaits him at the end of the road.

He tries to remain hopeful and if hope is found wanting, then resolve will do. Resolve and the calm of a knight at peace with his fate. All these years in the army turned his nerves to steel. He’s used to stressful situations, this one is no different. And yet it is.

If only he can get there in time!

But he never does.

All he sees is a giant winged shadow soar above his estate, consumed in black flames.

Sunken Kingdom

Sunken Kingdom

Different Breed of Dungeon Crawler

Dungeon crawlers have a storied history, letting us live out our fantasies of becoming adventurers, heroes, champions facing unspeakable evil, unravelling nefarious byzantine plots, and delving into the unknown, be it infernal dungeons, murky catacombs, ancient castles or uncharted jungles, and going on epic quests across strange, fantastic lands rich with history and ripe with secrets. P&P role-playing games present us with boundless possibilities of anything our minds can conjure up, while video games can indulge in bombastic spectacle, frantic action and a fully choreographed story. Board game dungeon crawlers of the last decade? They’re somewhere in-between… and seem to be lagging behind!

So imagine this: you’re a unique knight with your own abilities, weapons, upgrade trees and choices, playing a deep, intimate story revolving around you and you alone; those choices decide who you really are and how your story plays out, and also influence the tools and talents available to you. They decide what kind of missions and quest you’ll embark on – and there’s no do-overs!

Now imagine you’re playing solo or in a group of up to 4 friends. The stories scale and intersect, the delves evolve, the combat gets tougher. Imagine that each delve is different, its map made on the fly by your informed decisions and unexpected events that force you to prioritize… yet it still pertains to your individual stories and missions, with unique mechanics and locations.

Ascending the Red Keep

Ascending the Red Keep

Imagine you encounter wandering monsters and oddities, and battle mobs of enemies and giant bosses in tactical combat on a separate board and that those battles are shaped by the choices and encounters you made during the delve.

Imagine your story continues, shaped both by your successes and failures. That your delve involves surprise encounters tailored to the kingdom you’re visiting and that, among all those threads, there are mythologies and secrets to uncover, the world stories if you will that can have a lasting impact on your quests – and all your games going forward!

Eggknight

Eggknight

And let’s be frank: for many dungeon crawlers, mechanics aren’t the priority. Place a handful of monster minis on the table, chuck some dice, add some modifiers, kill some monsters – or spend 3 turns in a row rolling ‘1s’, doing nothing. At Into the Unknown, we strongly believe in elegant, thoughtful mechanics that reward critical thinking and clever plays, with a touch on unpredictability to keep you on your toes. We’ve based many of Kingdom Forlorn’s rules on designs we have been playtesting for years, while others, completely new, will go through a painstaking process of prototyping and iteration.

So, the combat is highly tactical, with strong luck mitigation and involved co-op mechanics, the delves are driven by choices and clever use of abilities. You loot monsters, as well as craft items and gear tailored to your knight, playstyle, quest and kingdom.

And the kicker? Your personal knight story will, sooner or later, come to an end. But your adventures continue in endgame and postgame content with new missions, new levels, new items, and an almost infinite amount of customization.

Ser Sonch

Ser Sonch

Just like with Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, we plan ahead, build worlds that are both expansive in scope and deep in lore, so you can truly immerse yourselves in the experience… and so that they can live for many years to come!

Got all that in your mind? Well, that’s the premise of Kingdoms Forlorn. An uncompromising dark fantasy setting with quick, tactical gameplay and stories you can discover at your own pace… or you can just jump into any kingdom and see what the fortunes have in store for you

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Faut reconnaître qu’ils savent teaser…

J’ai quand même un doute sur un truc, c’est sur le procedurally generated maps.

Je préfère qu’un auteur aie pensé le level design en amont pour nous surprendre/nous éprouver. Là, c’est faire confiance au hasard pour donner un donj’ crédible et j’aime moins (je suis cohérent, en JV je déteste les roguelike procéduraux aussi).

De mémoire c’est aussi un des points qui m’avaient fait refuser de backer Bardsung.

En plus, ça me paraît toujours antinomique avec la promesse de quelque chose de très narratif : tout serait donc écrit et scripté mais pas l’architecture et les rencontres ?

J’ai envie d’être la cible, mais je doute du coup…:thinking:

On va attendre qu’ils expliquentplys en détail tout ça, mais ça a l’air bien bon !

Nouvel article avec plein de jolies illustrations et un render 3D!

Tactical Knight Combat & Dungeon Delving

_header_03.jpg

Of Dragons, Devils and Kings…

A truly tactical dungeon crawler.
A truly co-operative adventure.
A truly narrative-driven board game.
Truly epic

In the coming months, I’ll be slowly unveiling the magnificent beast that is Kingdoms Forlorn, and showcasing each and every major theme and concept, as well as highlighting the innovative mechanics we hope will reinvent the somewhat stale genre of ‘dungeon crawler board games’. And of course, along the way, I’ll give you a sneak peek at the exquisite art we’re using to illustrate it: from Monsters, Knights and Kingdoms to Gear, Maps, Saints, UI elements and the next generation of our miniatures!

Renholder, the Mage Knight

Renholder, the Mage Knight

“Welcome, Noble Ser!” He greets, smirking behind the grey of his whiskers. “Come to share a hand with an old fool?”

“I’m game if you are, friend.”

The cards are dealt, and a few hands play. Some you win, others you lose, all the while you note the gambler giving you just enough of an incentive to keep playing, just enough of a promise of rewards to entice you. Then, suddenly, your fortunes turn, and every hand seems to be against you. Finally, the last coin vanishes from your pouch, although you are not surprised.

“Oh… hard luck, Noble Ser!” The rat-faced man sneers. “Seems like fortune favours me today!”

“One more hand.” You insist. “Perhaps I can wager… this.” You produce a small trinket, a metallic oval, and roll it over the table. The ‘easter egg’ stops right by the pile of coins.

“That, that is… a valuable prize indeed.” He stammers. “I fear I have nothing I could wager to match such a trinket!”

“Oh, I think there is something you could offer…” You lean forward, eyes glinting like steel. “You could tell me about the Night Trade. The eggs. The missing children.”

Battle Board Prototype

Battle Board Prototype

Tactical Knight Combat

From the other Updates you may have guessed we have a love/hate relationship with dungeon crawlers. We love the story-potential, the excitement of venturing Into the Unknown (duh!), the group dynamics and the emergent interactions, we love myths and legends, and roleplaying games and sprawling fantasy sagas.

We don’t like the flat random combat that seems to be a staple of the genre (though there are signs of improvement, thankfully). Chucking dice is fun, but without meaningful decisions, it boils down to luck. It can give you unforgettable moments, but it can also give you 5 turns of not being able to hit that goblin. It can bog the game down, it can feel unfair, it can ruin the best plan and story.

It’s no wonder we used a tactical combat system for Aeon Trespass: Odyssey and that we’re again using one for Kingdoms Forlorn. In fact, the KF system grows from the same Inward Combat Paradigm™ mechanics foundation, though it veers into the exciting and unknown pretty quickly.

Knightscramble

Knightscramble…

Complex AI and BP decks for monsters make a return, we also use a variation of the Escalation system, assuring that each Clash is a nail-biting affair right up to the end! Beyond that, terra incognita! You’ll fight a variety of strange monsters and creatures that bend the boundaries of what is possible in board game boss battlers. You’ll tangle with Mobs of enemies that play in an entirely new way, with rules for Initiative, Crowd Control and Active/Reactive elements. You’ll control a unique character that develops over many levels, based on your choices, including a unique double-sided Knight Ability Deck, which gives you even more control over combat and endless customization possibilities.

And that’s just the start!

Dungeon Delver

What we also don’t like is the shallow, uninteresting exploration. Go forward, draw a random tile, setup enemies, rinse and repeat. Or, the ‘exploration’ already happened, because the scenario always has the same layout – enticing once, then, less so with each new play.

That’s why Kingdoms Forlorn is a Dungeon Delver, not Crawler. We’re doing away with all of that with intelligent procedurally-generated Kingdom maps with tailor-made narrative goals. What this means is that no two quests will be the same, even the same Quest attempted by the same Knight will be completely different. The map of each Kingdom (we’ll have more than one) follows its own rules of generation and movement, and has its own quirks (watch out for those Mushroom Inquisition tunnels!), however, it’s the players’ decision where to go and what to look for. Each of them has set goals they need to achieve, ones that will sometimes align and sometimes may be at odds (though I’d like to stress, this is not a semi-cooperative game, in KF everyone can and should win through teamwork!), but will always lead to a meaningful discussion of what to do next.

Principality of Stone Card Sketches

Principality of Stone Card Sketches

Each Kingdom offers unique dangers and opportunities that will hinder or enhance your traversal and exploration methods. Each Knight can further help his allies with strategic use of Knight Ability cards, the same ones you use during a Clash! Since the Delve can be as lethal as the Boss Clash itself, and it directly influences the difficulty of any Clash that happens throughout your mission, you may be tempted to use everything you’ve got here… but then you’ll be a lot less flexible during the Clashes themselves. There’s a very interesting push-your-luck but conserve resources gameplay here that I think many players will appreciate.

Beyond that? Exploration effects, story encounters that may tie to your personal quest or push forward a metanarrative, hidden numbers and puzzles. There’s really no part of Kingdoms Forlorn that’s rote or that doesn’t offer meaningful decisions or surprises.

Renholder

Renholder

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Je sais pas pourquoi le style graphique de ce plateau me dit quelque chose :slight_smile:

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Ils ont juste repris l’illustration de la boîte de Machina Arcana en mettant tout en gris, en fait… :grin:

Ça a été ma première réaction également :grin:

L’esthétique ressemble vachement a dark souls ! Et c’est pas pour me déplaire :+1::grin:

J’aime beaucoup le style enluminures pour les illustrations des cartes. De manière général la DA fait envie, pressé de voir la campagne.

Le problème restera le même, celui de redonner ou pas de l’argent à une boite qui a fait un KS monstrueux en contenu et n’en aura à ce moment là rien livré, avec juste dans le calendrier la livraison du premier tiers.
Et donc de savoir si ce KS va financer Forlorn ou ATO.

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Oui, moi j’irai probablement de mon monodollar pour suivre et voir comment évolue la livraison du premier avant de plonger…

C’est effectivement un souci.
Après dans les ‹ pour ›, même si j’avais des doutes au début, je trouve que leur communication est plutôt très bonne depuis la fin du KS et donne confiance.

Cette DA !!!

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Ça c’est un appel à nous le localiser en français ça !
Bravo ! :yum::wink:

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Non pas du tout ! C’est trop gros pour nous. On a fait Thunderstone Quest, on a compris ! Je parie que c’est encore un truc narratif avec 200 pages de texte… :woozy_face:

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Si c’est du même acabit que leur premier jeu, c’est encore plus, si ma mémoire est bonne. J’en avais discuté un peu avec eux au début de la campagne, mais une éventuelle traduction n’a jamais dépassé le stade de « projet fou irréalisable ». :wink:

Je suis déjà dehors…

C’est pour ça que @davidbbg est sur le coup, il a l’habitude désormais ! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Quand même, avoir traduit tout Thunderstone Quest, fallait l’oser. Succès ou pas, pour moi il a gagné tout mon respect avec ce pari! (Bon, j’entends bien aussi que pour un éditeur mieux vaut rentrer dans ses frais que dans la légende…).

De mémoire, ils m’avaient annoncé dans les 300 000 mots. Vu le nombre de backers, ce n’était même pas la peine d’envisager ne serait-ce qu’un début d’embryon de solution… :wink:

(D’autant que les jeux narratifs, ça a plus tendance à enfler qu’autre chose ; cf Oathsworn, lui aussi annoncé à 300k, et qui fait au final 400-500k, ce qui semble avoir définitivement condamné leurs ambitions de trad…)

Certes, mais là, c’est clairement plusieurs crans au-dessus. J’imagine bien que TQ n’a pas dû être une partie de plaisir, mais en volume à traduire, ce doit être bien bien moins, normalement.

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Oui, il y a la traduction et la mise en forme aussi, mais aussi le nombre de supports… avec 36 decks de cartes différents, des scénars, du narratif…
Si en effet il y avait un paquet de backers et que l’on pouvait se focaliser dessus pendant 6 mois, je dis pas, mais sinon il vaut mieux en rester à un niveau réaliste.

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