What to expect from Term 2

General:

The pace of term 1 was comparatively sedate and domestic, as might be expected for a small village. This was partly driven by a relative lack of information given to players on mechanics like Rites, specifically the different orientations of Rite-Paper, and partly by the relative scarcity of highly impactful materials. Both of these things are changing, with a lot of information given out by Wintering, and resources becoming both more available in general, and having some more impactful materials available for the first time.

From an in-character perspective, the pace of the system will be increasing as changes to the village gather momentum. With the additions of Grim Bay and the Arena, around ¼ of the area of the village has been changed; this has paved the way for more changes to take hold. From an out-of-character perspective, we were worried about getting to the “end” of the mysteries, plot hooks, and resources we’d designed in term 1, but thanks to feedback that’s now shifted – we’re confident we have enough to last the year, so now it’s a race to get through it.

The major way in which both the Village is evolving, and the game itself is evolving, is via incipience cards, many of which have been given out as Wintering results. These allow the Village to change and evolve in a player-driven way. An example is below:

The overall message going into term 2 is – the world of what is possible is bigger than the world of what isn’t, and we’re aiming to provide players the tools to explore that world.

Combat changes:

Feedback about combat had two main themes: diversification/specialisation, and interactives. In terms of interactives, we won’t be in the Buckingham Room this term, which means we’re able to run a limited number of combat encounters. This means encounters can be resolved via combat; this does not mean encounters will come in and directly attack players with a weapon without express consent in advance. (So – don’t expect to have to watch your back 24/7; it’s a new option rather than a new Thing To Keep Track Of.) PvP weapon combat in interactives is still not doable with the restrictions of the room outside duel-type exhibition matches.

In terms of diversification, more options for character archetypes have already been made available to some people via Wintering results, and we expect that others will emerge as a result of the Incipience cards, new Relative cards, Rites, and Poisons. We’re also looking at ways to give more advance warning of the type of enemies players will face on linears – we don’t have a general method yet, but we do already know how we’ll do it for the first linear. By both providing more options for players, and more warning about what to expect, we hope a wider range of combat archetypes will be viable. Given that changing classes happens before the interactive, we’ll also be trying to fit in some ways to do “last minute” class changes. This isn’t ready yet, but we hope to have some options available before linear 2, depending on what players do.

Additionally, people have been using offhand daggers and buckler shields, which is fine but wasn’t listed in the rules on the wiki. We’ve added it: Everyone can also use a weapon up to 24" (typically a dagger) or a buckler up to 15" diameter in the off-hand.

Activity changes:

Some activities were noticeably less impactful than others, and less chosen by players as a result. We’ve made some balance changes to help make these choices more interesting: Brush Griffiths’ Class on Rampaging: Old: You can call DOUBLE with every hit for an encounter. At the end of the encounter, receive a Wound. New addition: You do not receive a Wound for going down in this encounter, only the Wound from Rampaging.

Singalong Night with the Sirens: Old: You can call Would You Kindly snap out of it on an ally, causing any Would You Kindly effects on them to expire. New addition: You can also call Would You Kindly believe what I’m about to tell you, once per encounter.

Hildegard Scott’s Knitting Circle: Old: You can call SUPPRESS on any target you and an ally are both attacking. New (replacing the old effect): Once per encounter, you can call SUPPRESS by hitting the target with a dagger.

On an in-character level, these changes are justified by Brush getting more practice in over winter, the Sirens settling into the village, and Hildegard practicing one-person knitting patterns over the winter, respectively.

What To Do:

If you haven’t submitted a Wintering, we’ll be bringing along some potential choices, along with some Relative cards. You’ll be able to let us know in interactive 1 of term 2 who you Wintered with from among those options, and receive their Relative card. (It is different to any Relative cards they may have given out previously.) Regardless, you can freely choose your Schedule going into this term. This means adding, dropping or changing any number of activities.