Let’s Build Something #7: Fun, Lore, and Shade
Aug 14th, 2012 by Terence Jason Dorman
by special guest Terence Jason Dorman, Awesome Manager of Inspired Writings
Since Ken is extremely busy packing and getting his crew ready to go to Gen Con in a few days, he kindly asked me to fill in for him. As such, I’m going to share my thoughts on a few of the topics that Ken is likely to talk about in the next installment of this series.
Fun
As some of you probably remember, I wrote an article a few months back about how The Spoils is not fun. If you read the article you know that I don’t actually think the Spoils isn’t fun but rather that it doesn’t look fun.
During a recent discussion with Ken, we got on the topic of how The Spoils started as a “Tournament Card Game” and has now shifted to a “Community Card Game.” As such, the tone of the game will certainly feel a slight shift from “competitive” to “fun.”
This obviously doesn’t mean that The Spoils will no longer be a competitive game or that it won’t have tournaments, but instead that tournaments and competitive play will not be the sole purpose of the game. We’ve already seen this shift start with the release of the Epic Ass Promos and Seed 3 Multiplayer cards.
With these new innovations, and more that I’m sure to come, The Spoils will be poised to grow as a game as it can reach new players that aren’t drawn to tournament play but love casual gaming. Anything that can help grow the game is good for it, so I hope players new and old alike can get behind these new additions.
Lore
One of the tools that Ken and other designers will use to increase the “fun factor” of The Spoils is to inject more of the lore into the game. Since I do not design the cards myself, I can’t say with any certainty how this is going to be done, but I expect that it will add extra flavor to the game that players can appreciate on another level.
From the brief talks I’ve had with Ken and Will about the lore of The Spoils, I think players can expect more of the lore to be fleshed out in the flavor text of the cards. This will allow players to experience the lore of the game without it being thrown in their face while also letting them have fun discovering the story for themselves.
Ken has also mentioned to me that gameplay will try to reflect the lore of the world. I don’t know how he plans on doing that as I didn’t ask for details, but I imagine it means that certain cards may receive buffs or rules text based on certain conditions. For all I know this could be completely wrong and Ken has something much different in store for us, but whatever it is I imagine it will be exciting.
Shade of the Devoured Emperor
The last thing Ken wanted me to mention is that Shade of the Devoured Emperor is 99.9% complete and should be going to the printers shortly after Gen Con. This is obviously exciting news as it means we will have more cards to play with and new formats for Limited play. Plus, Shade should be the start of the new set release schedule that Michael and Ken talked about in the past, meaning we shouldn’t see gaps between sets like we did between Second Edition and Seed 3.
For those of you attending Gen Con in two days I will see you there. For those of you missing the Best Four Days in Gaming, be sure to check this Blarg for live event updates and interviews with the players who take down the big prizes.