Final wave 1 shipping update!
about 4 years ago
– Sat, Oct 24, 2020 at 11:36:36 PM
Hello! What a glorious day it is! I know it is a glorious day because I don't have five roofers banging away above me today. Let me tell you, that can severely disrupt your work flow, as I found out yesterday. But today it was raining, so I got a lovely break from the incessant noise. I'm sure they'll be back tomorrow though...
Anyway, you probably didn't come here to learn about my issues with disruptive noises. (Or maybe you did?) Let's talk about how all wave 1 shipments have now been sent out! Yay! This includes all wave 1. wave 1.5, and Forgotten Circles shipments in all countries.
To be perfectly clear, because I know there is a lot of understandable confusion around the waves, if you ordered any wave 1 product (Gloomhaven, Forgotten Circles, Gloomhaven Digital, Gloomhaven Solo Scenarios, Gloomhaven Removable Stickers, Forgotten Circles Removable Stickers, Metal Coins, or Gloomhaven Metal Pins), either on its own or part of a bundle, and completed your pledge in BackerKit, those products should now be in your possession, or, at the very least, on their way to you with tracking details.
The only exception to this is if you ordered metal coins and no other wave 1 products, those are being sent to you in wave 2.
With all that said, if you think you should have received a wave 1 product and didn't, first, make sure you completed the pledge manager, then, if everything is in order on BackerKit, please reach out to [email protected], and we'll get the issue straightened out.
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And that's all I have for this update! It is an important milestone!
Scenario work continues to be arduous, but I'm continuing to make progress. Right now I am trying to get through a first pass on all guest designs and contest submission winners, getting the maps laid out and the special rules written out in a consistent format. Once that is done, I'll be reaching out to all the authors for their approval of any tweaks I made, and then we'll be in a good position to begin filling out the structure of the scenario books.
This is a monumental task, but, like I said, it is progressing, give or take the shooting of a nail gun above my head. So I'll be back next week, where I'll see what other cool elements of the game and the work we are doing I can tell you about!
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But, before I go, on a non-Frosthaven-related note, if you live in the US:
VOTE
That's it. The election is Nov. 3, less than two weeks away, and you can go to vote.org to easily find the best way to make sure your voice is heard. Thanks!
Masteries and other progress
about 4 years ago
– Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 01:13:07 AM
Hello! As always, it has been a busy week for me and Cephalofair Games working on Frosthaven. There is a lot left to do, but we are making good progress!
First of all, an update on EU and rest of the world shipping: As of today most orders containing copies of games have shipped, with smaller accessory orders wrapping up through next week. Fulfillment Europe anticipates having all orders shipped by Wednesday, so if you haven't received your shipping notification yet, please know it's right around the corner!
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Next I wanted to share with you another cool thing we have been working on: Masteries.
This is a small addition to each character class that gives players a bit more challenge. Essentially, each character has two "masteries" written on their character sheet under their perks. These are interesting/difficult objectives that the player can complete within a single scenario if they work for it.
These will be more difficult than a 2-check battle goal, unique to that specific character, and may not be achievable until the character reaches a higher power level, like around level 5 or 6. The hope is that these will also, in a small way, communicate to players what that class is capable of, as the masteries will be about leaning into that character's strengths.
The exact masteries for each class are still in development, but, for instance, the Necromancer may have a mastery than says "Have six summon abilities in your active area at the same time."
When you achieve the mastery, you'll receive a one-time reward of 15 experience - nothing fancy or unique, as we don't want these to feel mandatory, but just something that is cool and fulfilling to achieve. Think of them like video game achievements. Something to build and shoot for, if you are into that sort of thing, just to spice up the play a little bit. Also, some of them may not be achievable without certain sets of higher-level ability cards, and we don't want players to feel like they missed out on something important if they don't take specific cards.
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Other progress of note:
I've spent most of the last week working on scenarios - mostly cleaning up and organizing guest design scenarios. As I said last week, we're looking at around 140 total scenarios, so there is a lot to do here. I'll likely be at this a while.
Josh has laid out the main punch boards, and we are at 19! That may still change a bit one way or the other, but I think it is safe to say this will definitely be bigger than Gloomhaven (which had 18).
We have 3D prints of all the miniatures from the factory, and they are fantastic. There are a couple minor adjustments to be made, but we are almost ready to head into the actual molding process.
And that is it! Some interesting Gloomhaven news will be dropping on Oct. 20, but Price won't let me talk about it yet, so keep your ear to the ground for that. And make sure to have a good weekend! Until next time!
Event resolution
about 4 years ago
– Sun, Oct 11, 2020 at 03:50:06 AM
Hello! There's not much to update you on this week, but let's start with fulfillment for the EU and rest of the world, which is all we have left for wave 1.
EU/Rest of the World: Fulfillment Europe continued shipping out a large amount of packages this week, putting us at around 50% shipped. They are still doing their best to get through their multiple large projects, so we anticipate shipping to continue through next week, and there will be another update then.
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The only other major item to talk about is resolving last week's event. The comments seemed pretty evenly split on the two choices, so that shows us we are on the right track! Be sure to read the event from last week's update before reading below:
Outcome A:
Against the warnings of the superstitious dockworkers, you carefully pry open the crate. The interior is lacquered and totally clean, as though someone had soaped and scrubbed the inside with a fine brush. A small, cracked egg sits at the center. You're not sure what it would have hatched into, but it is clear this one didn't survive.
Add Outpost Card #103
Outcome B:
You do not know what occurred here, but it is clear what needs to be done. You toss a burning rag onto the deck from the safety of the dock and push the ship back out to sea. It burns as the winds carry it into the bay, eventually disintegrating below the waves.
The dockworkers thank you for handling the matter, and there's a general air of relief.
Gain 2 Morale. Add Outpost Card #104
What is on event cards 103 and 104? You will just have to find that out on your own!
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Development on the game continues to progress ever forward. At this point, I believe we've got all the scenarios mapped out, and we are sitting at a total of 140 (thought that number could still change a little bit depending on how things play out).
I've also made a lot of progress on items this week, and the crafting system is looking more fleshed out and quite exciting! I've had the base collection of items ready for a long time, but I've been making more high-end craftable items, and it is fun coming up with different ways different potions, items, and resources can be combined to create cool and powerful new stuff!
But that's about it from me. I hope you have a good weekend, and I'll see you next week!
A closer look at events
about 4 years ago
– Mon, Oct 05, 2020 at 02:21:33 AM
Hello! It has been a week (and quite a week at that!), so I am here once again to give you updates on what is going on. You know the drill.
What I have for you today is some small fulfillment updates for wave 1/1.5, and then we'll talk more about events. Let's get to the fulfillment first!
AU/NZ: Aetherworks gave us word that everything was successfully picked/packed/pulled this week and shipments are resolving through the Labour Day weekend. If you haven't received a final tracking/shipping notification by Tuesday following the Monday holiday, you can reach out to [email protected]. That's a wrap on Australian fulfillment, so thank you Aetherworks!
EU/Rest of the World: Fulfillment Europe is in full swing and has already completed a large portion of fulfillment. However, due to a backlog 3 otherlarge projects delayed from earlier this year due to COVID, they understandably have their hands full. Shipments will be continuing through next week, and we'll provide an update next Friday. Thank you for your patience, and thanks to Fulfillment Europe for their commitment to keeping things moving!
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Before we get to events, I did finally have an update on the Drive Thru Diviner Cards. We received the new proofs, they looked, good, and so the listing is once again live with all the color variation issues fixed!
If you have contacted us at [email protected] for a replacement deck, they are in the process of being produced in a special run and will be shipped at no charge. You will receive a tracking notification from Cephalofair in the coming weeks.
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All right, so what I'm going to do now is turn the update over to Satire Productions, who has been working diligently to make events in Frosthaven different and better than before:
Hey, I'm Alexander JL Theoharis, one of the folks from Satire Productions, who, along with Zac Cohn and Joe Homes, are working on the events for Frosthaven. If you've played Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, you've already seen some of our style and stuff—we put together most of the events for that game.
In base Gloomhaven, events were a nugget of narrative between game play. They'd sometimes have a sprinkling of lore or grant a fun item or scenario, but largely they came down to a choice: Do Option A, or Do Option B. There were some fun twists on the mechanic in the form of cards that would cycle back into your deck, and a few cards that looked similar but had drastically different results.
Ultimately though, events in Gloomhaven were a bit of a coin toss—pick something and hope you guessed the "good" option.
In Frosthaven we're taking a different approach: we want each event to be a little taste of narrative or mechanical candy that surprises and delights. Here are five big changes we've made to events:
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Down with Repetition! Drawing new content is way more satisfying than seeing recycled content for the third time. Instead, the vast majority of cards in Frosthaven are one-and-done: regardless of which choice you make, the decision is permanent, and the card is removed from your game. (There are so few cycle cards we've even ditched the "remove this card" symbol from events—the default is now removing them!) That's not to say there aren't any cards that cycle back into your deck, but we made sure the handful of cycle-cards we're including stand the test of being drawn more than once. Many have novel mechanics to make drawing them more interesting, and some events have discoverable ways to alter or even remove them. From a design perspective, this means that we needed to write a lot more events—and we mean a lot—to make sure you have enough to get through the game with plenty to spare. There are more words on event cards in Frosthaven than are in most novels. Apologies to your postal carrier.
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The Trait System. In Gloomhaven, having a particular class in your party at the right time could let you get a better result in an event. Frosthaven puts that system on steroids with Traits: rather than checking against a single class, you're checking to see if your party has the attributes needed to make a difference. Every character class has three Traits assigned to it, but having a trait isn't always a good thing. Being Intimidating may be great when trying to shake down a lowlife who owes you money, but could be a problem when the Vermling village you're trying to save runs screaming at the sight of you. Traits alter the narrative to better reflect your party, which means your party has a bigger impact on your world's story.
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Seasonal Changes. Events in Frosthaven are separated by location (Outpost or Road) and season (Summer or Winter). The events you experience on the Road in Winter are different than those you'd experience in Summer. Summertime will give you a chance to explore and rebuild, and Winter will force you to hunker down and prepare for battle as Frosthaven's foes come knocking. Each of the five event decks have distinct "feel", and some opportunities will only be available when appropriate. Oh, did I say five decks? Whoops. I wonder what that fifth one is for…
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Meaty Choices. Gone are events asking you whether you want to engage with something interesting or ignore it. Event choices in Frosthaven are designed to get your group talking around the table and excited about making a decision. I won't spoil the fun here, but our hope is you'll be surprised by the depth of your impacts on the outpost of Frosthaven and your campaign. If half the people at your table are adamantly championing Option A, and half are pounding their fists on the table for Option B, we've done our jobs right—good luck on your future arguments.
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Lots of Surprises. We're pushing the envelope on what an event is. New lore, new mechanics, and a lot of delightful things I desperately want to tell you about but want you to discover on your own. Some things will make you flip a card and exclaim, "What?!" in the best possible way. Some things you won't notice unless you played a particular way, or played a second time. But overall, we're putting a lot of care into the narrative glue between scenarios and we can't wait to share it with you.
It wouldn't be a post about events if we didn't share one, so below you'll find an event card we think you'll like. If you're spoiler-averse, skip down to the next section, but otherwise, read on and let us know which choice your party would make—we'll reveal the outcome in the next update.
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Winter Outpost Card:
Creaking into harbor comes a derelict ship with shredded sails. It butts up against the shore then starts listing back into open water, leaving the dockworkers to scramble to catch it before it drifts off again. Yelling from the safety of the dock has met no reply, and the dockworkers are superstitious of "The Ghost Lurker," an ethereal monster that pillages ships and leaves them to drift into rocky cliffsides. You're called in to board and get to the bottom of this.
The ship itself is totally unoccupied. The beds are made. A rotting, untouched meal is set in the galley. One of the rowboats is missing, but a ship of this size would need both to safely evacuate the crew. The page in the Captain's log that would detail the last hours of the ship has been torn out, and instead there is a hastily-scrawled note in shaky block letters: "BURN IT." Most unusually, the ship's entire supply of lamp-oil has been spilled over the decks.
The cargo manifesto shows eight crates of unknown origin being brought to the Capitol, which only raises more questions. A look below decks shows just one crate on board, sealed with black tar on all sides. Trying to move the crate reveals that it has been bolted down to the hull.
Option A: Open the crate.
Option B: Set fire to the ship.
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Isaac here. I hope that was illuminating! Let us know what you think should happen in the comments, and next week we'll reveal both outcomes. Until then, have a good week and stay safe!
Class icons
about 4 years ago
– Sat, Sep 26, 2020 at 04:02:25 AM
Hello! I got tired of writing "shipping update" in the title, but guess what! We still have shipping updates! These should conclude next week, but for now, lets get to those real quick. If your region is not on the list, it means it's already complete (see last week's update).
US: We did it! US fulfillment of non-wave 2 product is complete! Thanks to D6 Fulfillment for making quick work of our largest fulfillment region!
AU/NZ: I know I said this was finished last week, but I do have a quick amendment. Aetherworks let us know they still have a small number of orders shipping next week, so please let us know at [email protected] if you have any concerns/questions in the meantime!
EU/Rest of the World: We saw fulfillment begin later than anticipated this week, so expect shipping notifications to carry over into next week for our EU+Rest of the World backers. Thank you for your continued patience!
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All right, so what I have for you this week is updated character icons! Based on your feedback in this previous update, Josh went back and did significant work on all the icons, simplifying the overall shapes and thickening lines to bring them closer in concept to the icons in the original Gloomhaven. Of course, a lot of those icons are super-simple, and basic shapes can only get us so far, so these icons are still, on average, more complex than the Gloomhaven ones. But I think it is a nice, happy medium between where they were and where most of the Gloomhaven icons are.
So, without further ado, here they are, with the starting six on top, and the other 11 locked classes underneath.
So, for instance, you can see this simplifying approach by looking at the previous version (right) of the Blinkblade icon along side the new one (left).
You'll probably be able to match most of the new locked icons to the old ones (though we did also throw in the icon for the 17th class as well), but I hope we can agree that these new ones are a nice improvement. We still welcome feedback, of course, but I think these icons are pretty close to being set.
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Other than that, I have a quick Diviner cards update, because this is the saga that never ends. Drive Thru Cards' graphic director was out all last week, but they have the new files and things look good digitally. We'll have a new proof arriving next week, and if that looks good, we will green light it again.
And a follow-up to last week's news of the Gloomhaven comic book. You can now pre-order Fallen Lion here. And note that Alexandr is working on an alternate cover for the issue that I am sure will be fantastic.
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Next week, we'll be diving deep into the event system with Satire, the event developers, but for now, that's all I've got. Have a good weekend!
