Endpapers and Ribbon achieved. Next up: Map Board!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 12:17:20 AM

Hey folks,

We've passed £17,500 so the book's been upgraded - both the deluxe and standard versions will now have full-art endpapers and a bookmark ribbon to help you keep your place.

Next up, I've changed things around a bit.

Mysthea: Legends From the Borderlands is a game all about map-drawing. You'll start the game by placing down landmarks around the city and in the nearby borderlands. As you play, and move from flashpoint to flashpoint, you'll change these landmarks and place down Factors representing monster herds, bandit camps, valuable resources and more. So why not help you do that, and do it beautifully?

At £20,000, we'll be making map boards for use with the game. Folding out to an A3 size, this board will have a basic map of the area the game takes place in. And it'll be ready for you to customise, covered in a layer that's friendly for dry-erase markers.

This board will be included for free in all pledges at the £70 tier and above. For those at lower tiers, it'll cost £10 to grab a version for yourself.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

First social stretch goal hit - and a deep dive into Houses!
about 5 years ago – Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 06:15:13 PM

Hey folks,

First up, with 394 backers we’ve crossed over our first social stretch goal! Each book with come with a postcard, showcasing one of the new art pieces we’re commissioning for this game. Next up: online characters sheets, in Google Sheets and Roll20.

Also - following requests from you folks I've added more add ons to the page, if you'd like to pick up some of our previous games!

Dive into Mysthea: Your House

As we go through this campaign, I’ll tell you more about the game. Today, we’re starting with one of the core elements of the game: Houses.

Your House is vitally important to your game of Legends From the Borderlands:

• It’s what you use to make grand, sweeping changes to the world.
• It’s how you influence the factions, Guilds and empires of this world - and how they influence you.
• It’s a constant as time passes by, ever-present while Heroes come and go.

To talk you through what makes a House tick, check out the sheet for A Vassal of Magista. And if you want a look at the actions Houses take to influence the world, check out the free Quickstart.

First, there's the Getting Started box that you'll run through when setting up your game. 

With Stats, you say what your House is good at, and how that flows from their relationship with Montara and the war. For Vassals of Magista, it's all about the technologies used by the Empire and the Kingdom. They decide if the Kingdom wanted to steal the Empire's Arts, if the Kitraen Arts were secret and horrific, or if the Empire was backwards and weak.

With your Traditions you tell the group what your House looks and acts like. Who's their population? What are their aesthetics? How are they governed.

Your Doctrine speaks to your traditions' strengths, and gives you extra resources when certain things happen. Magista Vassals are always seeking new insights, and so their Doctrines determine when they gather Lore. Other Houses can take immediate action when they trigger their Doctrine. For example, Lusman Sects following the doctrine of Sacred Authority get a free Conspire action when they dictate another House's policy.

Next, there's Loyalties. First, you'll choose how much you're controlled by your ancestral Guild.  The more you're under their thumb, the more benefits you gain. As you gain freedom, you'll lose those benefits - until you can turn the tables and force them to help you. For Magista, you get better at research and engineering as your relationship deepens.

You also have loyalties with the other Houses. You'll ask questions of them; whoever volunteers to answer opts into that particular relationship. You'll start Influencing and being Influenced by other Houses, or even allied with them. You'll track them on Influence sheets, like so:

With that, you've finished the bulk of setup. There's the compulsory abilities: your Alliance Move, your Conflict Move and your Core Move. You'll also pick the Assets your character can access, and a special move to round out your House's capabilities. This is your real chance to show how this House operates. Is your Vassal of Magista bio-engineers with Shape the Mortal Clay? Oracles with Piercing Foresight? Master Qoamanipulators with Transform the Material? Or prying spymasters with Break Lesser Minds?

So, that's most of what makes up a House. Orders change things up a little, with no Ancestral Guild to draw on - maybe we'll show you one soon! But the Houses of your Venture are nothing without a city to live in - to rebuild, to explore, to occupy, to become a citizen of.

Next time, we'll talk about the city of Montara, and how you build it together...

Funded!
about 5 years ago – Sun, Mar 17, 2019 at 08:04:40 AM

Well, that's been a fun first day! Thank you to everyone who has joined us so far. I'm so glad that we're going to be able to make this game a reality.

Next up: more art for the book at £15,000, and then upgrades to the book itself at £17,500! And don't forget the social stretch goals - by liking us on facebook, following us on twitter, and retweeting the announcement tweet you can help us work toward unlocking free art postcards, online character sheets and more.

We'll be sending out rules previews in the next few days, too - keep your eyes peeled for the Bitter March QuickStart, once Tabula Games have given us the go-ahead to release it.