Combat Mechanics and Afflictions
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 12:15:41 AM

You've been Poisoned!

We wanted to add more depth to combat in the 2022 Quest Calendar. We also felt the the 2021 version was missing some important status effects and afflictions that you see in other RPGs.

Simplicity is a big goal of the Quest Calendar, so we made these statuses only affect you, the Hero. We felt it was a good balance to increase complexity, but not so much that combat became cumbersome.

Combat Effects

In many combat encounters (but not all), you may face an enemy that has an additional advantage over you by potentially causing one of the following statuses. (Each status only lasts for the round.)

•  Restrained - Unable to attack and deal damage for the round. Proceed directly to taking damage and hope you have a high defense to ward off some of it.
•  Frightened - Roll your Attack again and take the new result if it is lower.
•  Confused - Roll your Damage again and take the new result if it is lower.
•  Weakened - Take double the damage this round.

You have a chance to avoid these statuses by rolling against one of your traits: Restrained (Dexterity), Frightened (Wisdom), Confused (Intellect), Weakened (Strength). We added reminders to the combat tables when you need to make these rolls. We thought it could help.

There is also one last combat mechanism, but it is a bit special. I'm not sure I should spoil it here since it relates closely to the story.

Ongoing Effects

In addition to having some effects happen in combat, you can get Poisoned and Cursed which persist daily. These can happen in or outside of combat.

•  Poison - At the end of each day, roll d20 + Constitution. If the result is 10 or less, reduce your health by 1.
•  Cursed - For every roll against a trait (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha), roll twice and take the smaller result.

Since these last outside of combat, we added icons to the Hero Pages to help remind you when you are afflicted. Hopefully the icons speak for themselves.

Remedies

We have added these new effects along with a few hero abilities and items that can directly help to overcome them.

•  Poisoned can be removed with Rest and an Antidote.
•  Cursed can be remove with Rest and Holy Water.

Some fun art

Still to come

Character Sheets, maps, and virtue.

Reminder: Cards Charging Today
over 2 years ago – Sat, Aug 21, 2021 at 04:31:35 AM

Just a reminder that your credit cards are being charged today for your 2022 Quest Calendar orders. That includes any post campaign add-ons and shipping (your initial Kickstarter pledge was collected back in April)

If something has changed with your card (expired, number changed, etc.) and the card is no longer valid, BackerKit will reach out to you to have you make updates.

If you specified PayPal as a payment, your payment has already been collected.

Have a Great Weekend and Happy Questing!

Local Pickup, Address Changes
over 2 years ago – Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 01:16:45 AM

A separate email will go out soon from BackerKit to remind you that orders will be locked in 48 hours. 

I wanted to put a reminder in here for anyone in the Colorado Springs, Denver, and Pueblo area, that we will have a Local Pickup Option available if you would like to come to Colorado Springs to pick up your items and meet the creator. 

Local Pickup

When? While the date is not determined yet. It will likely be in November. More details will go out later.

Where? We will be having this at Petrie's Family Games.

How? Backer Kit doesn't make it obvious. To select the local Pickup Option, you must choose "Local Pickup" from the "Country" drop down list when inputting your address on the shipping screen. If you are having issues, reach out to [email protected]

Lost your survey? Go to https://2022-quest-calendar.backerkit.com/

Address Change?

A lot may have happened since March when this project launched. Did you move? We will be sending out an email to have everybody update there address closer to when we ship.  If you want to change your address now, here is how you can:

On Desktop, find an "Edit your order" button in the top right on desktop. Then find your address and click the "Edit Shipping Info".

On Mobile, you have to tap the carrot to expand the "2022 Quest Calendar..." selection at the top. Then tap "View Confirmation". Then scroll down and expand "Shipping Info", then tap "Edit shipping Info"

Charging Cards

In a week, your credit card will be charged. That's August 20th. If something has changed with your card (expired, number changed, etc.) and the card is no longer valid, BackerKit will reach out to you to have you make updates.

If you specified PayPal as a payment, your payment has already been collected.

Locking orders, Charging cards, and Markers
over 2 years ago – Fri, Aug 06, 2021 at 11:49:42 PM

Some important upcoming dates and info on those markers I've been promising.

All current orders will be locked down on August 13th.  We will also close the store for Pre-Orders. This is the last time you can get your 2022 Quest Calendar at this discounted price.

An email will go out from BackerKit telling you you have 48 hours left. After this, you won't be able to make any updates or changes without contacting [email protected]

So please go in now to check your cart and make sure you have everything you wanted to order.

We will re-open up the store for final orders at the end of the year.

A week after the orders are locked, your credit card will be charged. That's August 20th. If something has changed with your card (expired, number changed, etc.) and the card is no longer valid, BackerKit will reach out to you to have you make updates.

If you specified PayPal as a payment, your payment has already been collected. 

We are getting some really cool markers to use this year!

We received feedback that dry-erase markers leave a smudge on the Hero Book when left for a long time, so we began looking at other options. Wet-erase markers are viable and can be used on the Hero Book without smudging, but some are not happy with having to use water or a wet-wipe to erase. If you choose, you can still use dry or wet-erase markers. However, we providing something different this year: 

Someone suggested Frixion markers which is a brand name by Pilot (thanks David, Karen, and Amber) and we found a company that makes the same type of markers/ink. They work extremely well on the Hero Book and wipe away easily without residue.  They even wipe off smudge free after leaving to set for a long time. 

These marks wiped clean after months. Use some water after it sits, though.

They are not wet-erase, but they are not considered dry-erase either (even though they can be wiped away with your finger). They are "heat erasable". This means you can do some cool stuff with them. Check this out.

I plan to use these little guys to create some really cool secret clues in my RPG games with friends. These are similar to the pens available here, but in blue and red only this year: https://www.theshopofmanythings.com/products/elemental-ink-pens

There is still time to add more to your order.

Featured Art

And today, I wanted to show off art from the talented Franmr. He has done some talented work for environmental set pieces such as this:

Game Testing and Pledge Survey Reminders
over 2 years ago – Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 02:44:54 AM

This is a short update because we are working hard to get this project to the printer.

Sorry. Map update to come next time.

Game Testing

Making sure a game is balanced and fun with all the mechanics requires lots of playtesting. We did this manually for 2021 and it was exhausting and time consuming. We also know we missed things. For example, there were some issues with The Thief's combat abilities that some people have mentioned. We addressed some of this in a BGG forum. You might want to check it out if you are playing the Thief.

This year, we took the initiative to build software to help run through hundreds of thousands of play-throughs with each character.  It allows us to make adjustments easily and see how the effects cascade throughout the year. Then we can easily run another several thousand scenarios with the adjustments.

It is pretty impressive, and gives us great info that we wouldn't otherwise see when playtesting manually. We will be evolving this each year and it will save us loads of time in the future. 

Featured Art

Today's Art is brought to you by Ajidwiputra. We love how his art provides a unique and eerie vibe to our monsters. 

Backer Survey Reminders

Please complete your Backerkit survey. Lost yours? Go to https://2022-quest-calendar.backerkit.com/

Apple ID users

I mentioned before that those with Apple Id emails on Kickstarter will have trouble receiving this email. I have reached out to those individuals on Kickstarter in order to get your email address. Please let us know your email.

When will cards be charged?

If you pay via PayPal, funds are collected immediately. If however, you pay via Credit Card, we will not collect payment until mid August. If you have any issues with this, let us know. We can always 

Next

By the next update, everything will be submitted to the printer and we can share with you the character sheets. We also still want to talk about the maps, markers, combat conditions, and virtue.

Until next time,

Happy Questing