A mind-shattering story-driven cooperative board game for 1-4 players that is a true horror experience.
Hi guys! I just wanted to let you know that I will be going live soon. If you'd like to tune in, you can find it here:
Today is an update that I've been looking forward to for quite a while. It is the first stab in the faster update tempo that we're trying out, but, more importantly, it is one of my favorite revisions for the updated version of DoM: the malformations.
If you'll recall, in DoM, every wanderer had three alternate versions of his or herself: variations that grew increasingly worse as they progressed. This reflected the inner degradation, turmoil, and torture of the wanderers, and they were called the malformations. I think everyone loved the idea of the malformations, but not necessarily how they worked in practice. They would only show up in one particular chapter (or game), that being the one where their wanderer was the central one. We had a couple of different ideas as to what they would do and how they would do it (sometimes they would even help you to fight the abomination), but always they would, in some way, work to corrupt the central wanderer.
And now, we reach the current iteration of the game. So, what have the malformations become? Well, the basic idea of them corrupting the wanderers is still very much at the core of who they are, but some of the other specifics have changed. For starters, they're not out to help you anymore. But to really get into what they are, we first have to talk about wanderers dying.
A couple of updates ago, I revealed that you could now die three times and return to life, and it was only on your fourth death that you permanently faded away, and the game was lost. But that also doesn't mean there are no consequences to dying those first three times. Now, when you die, your consciousness fragments, splintering into increasingly dark, twisted pieces. Consequently, when you come back, it's not just you who comes back. You also bring a malformation with you. The first time you die would be the first, most normal malformation. Then the second would follow that, and then the final, most twisted malformation would come last.
This means a couple of things right off the bat: first, your malformations can now be in any chapter/game of DoM. And, next, if you're doing poorly enough, then every wanderers' malformations can now be on the board at the same time. How's that for horrifying?
It gets worse, though. You could let that malformation just hang out to hunt you in peace and turn your attention to other pressing things like encounters or the abomination. But, if you let it live, if you don't recapture that piece of your consciousness and restore it to yourself, then it will haunt you forever, and you will never be quite the same.
This is because, if you don't kill the malformation and reabsorb its essence into yourself, then you will gain a Withered status card, which will follow you from game to game and permanently damage one or more of your stats - unless you can find some way to get rid of it, which is no easy task.
Malformations function more like a regular terror now, in that they don't have a "deck" with three different levels/cards in it. (That didn't work very well when the malformations could be in any game, and they weren't as necessary once the malformations weren't attacking the abomination anymore.) That's not to say they're boring now: each will still function very much in its own way, with different actions depending on the situation. (They’ll just be a little easier to manage.) In fact, these malformations are more closely tied to their wanderers and are more dangerous than they've ever been before, which we'll get into below.
There are some very interesting things that tie a malformation to its wanderer now. It starts a little bit more subtly in the first form, as seen with the passive ability for the malformation above. (Essentially, it stops Emily from healing anyone.) But then you get to level three and things get really nasty:
This malformation actively devastates the wanderers who are trying to heal. Even worse, if wanderers are on world shards featuring certain sentience colors, she will suck you directly over to her and rip you to shreds with her giant shears and torture chair. And worst yet, if a wanderer is on the same world shard, she can just out-and-out kill her. Yikes.
Let's take a look at another example. This is Claude's third malformation:
This guy is actively trying to get Claude to commit suicide at the same time it does. It teleports around the board, trying to escape the wanderers while it systematically tries to kill itself - and Claude. What's more, if this thing succeeds, then Claude dies a fourth time - and the game is officially over. These things play for keeps.
In closing, I don't think this change means malformations won’t come out during the main game in other ways. I have no doubt they'll still materialize through encounters or events. But if they do, be sure to kill them before the game ends!
Finally, I still definitely expect malformations to show up in the endings in unique ways. All bets are off in the finales, so it's the perfect place to do something cool with them. (Such as having a wanderer devolve into them, slowly losing control as it happens.)
That's all the DoM news we have for this update. However, I also did want to let you know that Twisted Fables is live now on Kickstarter if you're interested. You can get the core game and one expansion for only $36. (Just as a reminder, this game will take very few resources from DoM development as it only needs to be manufactured and the miniatures tooled at this point. The design work is done.) You can check it out here.
Oh! One other thing! I'm planning to do a live stream this coming Saturday! I'm shooting for 1 pm PST, and I'm hoping to be on YouTube and Facebook. (Should all go according to plan.) It'll be focusing on Twisted Fables, but feel free to come on by with your DoM or DM discussions as well! I'll try to get a little update out with links if I can, but just keep an eye on our YT channel or Facebook otherwise. I'm going to try to start doing those on a semi-regular basis, so there will be more chances for us to connect.
Okay, that's it for this update! Talk to you guys again soon, and have a great week!
Hey everyone! Over the last few updates, we’ve seen some criticism and questions of the game and the changes made to it, and we decided to go ahead and address all of this head-on in an open and frank discussion. We’re going to try to give you a better idea of how the game flows in this update, and also tell you why we implemented many of the changes we did.
This update is another long one. I apologize for that. As you’ll see at the end of this update, that is something we’re going to try to avoid in the future. But for this one, it was necessary. Hopefully, it can help some people out, and at the least, shine some light on a few of our thought processes. Let’s get into it.
One criticism we’ve heard several times recently is that Dawn of Madness wasn’t an actual game during the campaign. Another major one (one that I very much empathize with) is that we’re cutting out people’s favorite features of the game and that it’s hardly the same game anymore. I want to try tackling these two criticisms first.
First of all, Dawn of Madness absolutely was a game during the campaign. Were there parts of it that we weren’t able to finish before the campaign? Yes. Absolutely. But it was a working game. Some would say we rushed it to Kickstarter. I honestly would agree with that, despite all of the delays running up to the launch. (I think the rest of the team would, as well.) But the ugly truth is, if we had waited any longer to launch it, we wouldn’t have been able to continue as a company. (I even floated the idea of pulling a Kingdom Death and running it into January, but we had bills due in January and couldn’t even do that.) So, we were basically forced to launch it then if we wanted to launch it (and our future games) at all.
So, yes, DoM was an actual game when we launched, but there were two problems with it: first of all, we didn’t do a great job of showcasing it (something that still weighs on me.) And, second, there were a lot of features that people just didn’t like. So, we promised you guys a sweeping revision of the game (some of those promises are still viewable on the campaign page.) While we certainly would have still made some changes if we had received largely positive feedback, it would have been nowhere near the overhaul that the game has undergone due to receiving the negative feedback. The changes that we have made are direct results or necessary byproducts of the changes we promised during the campaign.
Now, to be clear, we don’t regret any of these changes. We feel this is a superior game to the first version (which itself was actually just one in a long line of versions.) But I wanted to clarify why we made these changes: it was because of your feedback, not because there was no game there in the first place.
Another thing some have said is that we should have made it clear that DoM was very much a prototype when we launched it. But the thing is, we did. I even specifically mentioned it in the campaign video. In that video, I said that this was an old-school Kickstarter, where you weren’t just supporting a preorder but were actually making a significant difference in a game still taking shape. It has become clear this is no longer what people expect from a Kickstarter, and I very much doubt we will ever do something like this again. (Our next game, Twisted Fables, is almost completely finished, for instance.) But I digress.
In our last update, we got several questions about the change we made to solo play, so now I want to address a few of those.
Q: Is solo play still possible?
A: Absolutely. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear enough about that. Solo play has not gone away, nor will it. All that has changed is the recommended number of wanderers in a solo game.
Q: Have you abandoned solo gamers?
A: Definitely not. A big regret I have from the last update is saying we were working to make this the best multiplayer game we can. While it’s undoubtedly true, I think it also created the feeling that we had forsaken the idea of this as a solo game, which isn’t true.
Q: Would you personally buy Dawn of Madness strictly as a solo game after this change?
A: This is an entirely subjective answer, but, for me, personally, I would say yes. Unequivocally. Honestly, almost every game of DoM that I have played thus far has been by myself. Most of the team is in a different country from me, so there aren’t tons of opportunities for me to be a part of the regular game testing. Of those games I’ve played by myself, my favorite ones were those I played with multiple wanderers. In fact, I don’t think I would ever choose to play with just one wanderer if given a choice. But, as I said, this is pretty subjective, and I can understand that some might think I’m just saying this to make people feel better. (For the record, I’m not.) I completely appreciate the fact that this isn’t the preferred method of play for some people. (As an aside, I think it’s unfortunate that so many of the test games people videoed only played with one wanderer. It’s so much more engaging with more. Once again, though, just my opinion.)
Q: How many stories will you have to focus on when playing with multiple wanderers in a game?
A: Just one. In the previous version, you would have had to complete other wanderers’ memories, but in the current version, that is no longer an issue. Actually, you will get deeper into the central wanderer’s story than you ever would have with one wanderer because there will be more opportunities for encounters, and the varying strengths and weaknesses of the other wanderers will impact the story in cool and varying ways. It won’t detract from the central wanderer’s story at all. On the contrary, it will enhance it. (More on that below.)
Q: Will the components for multiple wanderers overwhelm the available playing area?
A: As I’ve said, I’ve played games with four wanderers, and I don’t think my dining table is much different from a standard table’s size. (Plus, that was in the previous version, which had significantly more components on the table. The new version has a much more consolidated footprint. Just the removal of the conscious realm and the other storybooks saves a lot of space.) In addition, you won’t use all of the components in one game. So, while the number of cards and tokens can seem overwhelming, you will only use a selection of them in any particular game. For those who own our previous game, Deep Madness, I can safely say that if you can fit it, then you should have no problem fitting Dawn of Madness.
Q: Won’t it be much more complicated with multiple wanderers?
A: I won’t deny there is undoubtedly a little added complexity. I suppose whether or not it’s too much will be up to you. However, I think that there are some grey areas that we haven’t been able to cover yet, which might aid you in making this decision for yourself. I will cover this more fully in the “Why Four Wanderers?” section below.
Q: Could you create an AI system for the other wanderers?
A: I’ll be candid here: it would be far easier to manage the other wanderers than to worry about an AI system. If you want to only focus on one wanderer and use the others in a strictly supportive manner, you can do that. And it would be much easier to do this than to worry about any sort of AI system.
Q: Can I really not play with one wanderer anymore?
A: As I said in the last update, while I don’t know if it will be officially supported, I see no reason why you couldn’t - with a couple of caveats. You will definitely lose some of the game’s flavor, and some workarounds will need to be implemented in certain places. I’ll see if it’s something that maybe I can work on with the team, but I can’t promise anything right now. Honestly, I kind of think you’ll end up wanting to just play with all four wanderers. But that’s only my opinion.
When the team initially started thinking about four wanderers, there was some skepticism about it. But, the longer it was considered, the more it made sense. It allowed us to do some things and count on things that we couldn’t otherwise.
When we had four wanderers guaranteed in a game, we could count on multiple wanderers being there to assist with encounters. They would be there to allow for interesting things to happen in finales. They would be there to offer assistance when it was necessary for intense situations. And, on top of that, we could ensure that every wanderer would be there in the finale’s ending.
That opened up new possibilities as well. Here are a few points regarding why we decided to go with four wanderers:
1. While DoM is a game heavily based on stories, its most unique feature is not uncovering a previously laid out story: it’s forging the central wanderer’s story during the game and finale. Different wanderers will develop the story in entirely different ways. Other wanderers are not just supporting the central wanderer: they are bringing their own unique contributions to the central wanderer’s story. Every choice they make could completely change the core of the plot and forge the central wanderer into a different character. This level of customization simply wouldn’t be possible with one wanderer.
For example, in Claude, the detective’s story, the same stories in Claude’s own eyes and the eyes of the other wanderers are different (for reasons we can’t share right now.) Players need to collect information from both perspectives to draw the whole picture. Also, because different wanderers have varied sentience strengths and weaknesses, they will lead the same encounter to different paths.
2. The Otherworld in DoM is about several consciousnesses fusing together, which is a key concept of the Deep Madness world setting. This concept comes through in several ways, but one of the most lasting is the fact that the central wanderer’s finale will permanently affect every wanderer in the game. Each different ending of a specific finale (there are usually at least four of them - on top of the four different finales you get in the main game) will leave a permanent game effect on every wanderer in the game, which will be applied to all future games that wanderer plays in. This could be thought of as a “legacy” aspect of DoM - something we will discuss more in a future update. (And no, DoM is still not a legacy game. You will never destroy a card.) So, the overall experience is really about different wanderers affecting each other, their stories leaving an impact on one another even as they each help to shape those stories.
3. More options mean more fun. The more choices you have in approaching a given situation, the more unique ways you’ll have of tackling it. Having multiple wanderers gives you that, with the ability to have one wanderer fend off the oncoming terror while another delves into an encounter. I can understand how some would feel having multiple wanderers would lower the feelings of isolation and claustrophobia, but this game will be plenty immersive and horrifying even with more wanderers to share the experience. And trust me, for reasons that will become clear when we get to the updates on malformations and abominations, you’ll really want more wanderers to help keep them at bay.
4. Playing with four wanderers doesn’t require as much upkeep or thought as you may think it does. This is what we’ll spend the rest of this section on. As we’ve said several times, we have been working hard to streamline the rules and create a game experience that is smooth to play, so you can get lost in the horror and not the rules.
For the sake of this discussion, I will once again compare DoM to Deep Madness. I apologize if you haven’t played it and have no frame of reference, but, given that many of our backers backed both games, I ask that you roll with me on this. In Deep Madness, the investigators rotated every round. This made you rely on a great deal of strategy and planning, because if you set one investigator to do something important and then that investigator went last in the next turn, then you could be screwed. This was a feature for Deep Madness, not a bug. But for those worried about handling multiple wanderers in Dawn of Madness, I want to contrast it against Dawn’s mental capacity track. The mental capacity track is easy to figure out and predict, without the headaches of anyone rotating for no seemingly good reason. In our playtesting, once we got into the flow of things, everything became very natural. Choices became easy and quick.
Furthermore, managing individual wanderers is not the pain that I think some envision. A lot of the things that would have made those wanderers a chore to manage no longer exist or are very different in the current game. For instance, as we said in our last update, you no longer have to dive into memory encounters in order to upgrade your wanderer. The inner offerings (which are really a part of the new existence upgrade system now rather than a standalone thing - actually, I only call them that because that’s how we referred to them during the campaign) are far more streamlined than they were previously, with many of their abilities being unlocked through upgrading the wanderers throughout the game. (Meaning you don’t have to even think about them if you don’t want to most of the time. But, if you do want to delve in deeper, then they’re there for you and will certainly help you as you progress.) You will gain coda cards for each wanderer as you play through the game, but you would have collected coda cards anyway: It was that one wanderer would have had them versus several wanderers having them. The only other thing to worry about are domains - both the cards and the resources on your dashboard. But the cards are very straightforward, so shouldn’t serve as too much of a problem. Likewise, the resources are not terribly difficult to understand or manage.
Unfortunately, I can talk about this stuff until I’m blue in the face, but it will still all just be words. We’re hoping to get to the point where we have a polished prototype to show you soon so that you can see what we mean rather than just having to envision it for yourself.
Of course, I also realize that for some this update won’t overcome the glaring problem you see with the game. To you, I want to say that I don’t want you to feel like you’re trapped in something you no longer want anything to do with. You never have been, and we won’t start that now. We have not been trying to pull a fast one on you or hide important details from you until it’s too late: We’ve just been trying to make this the best game we can. Of course, I would love it if you gave the game a chance, but I also realize some might feel like that chance has already passed. And that’s fine. Having said that, if you need help managing your pledge, send an email to [email protected] and we’ll help you out as soon as we can.
We have been running into a couple of problems with relaying information for the revised game through updates. First of all, we haven’t been able to get information to people quickly enough to fill in gaps in a timely manner, which I think has left a hanging uncertainty over the game. Second, we’ve been trying to cram too much information into a single update (yes, I realize the irony of that statement, since this update was ludicrously long), leaving some feeling overwhelmed or like we’re trying to bury information that we want people to overlook deep in the update. (Or missing all of the cool stuff because of one negative point that overtakes everything else.) Third, I think there is a danger of people forgetting too much of how the game works or its terms over the long gulfs of time, resulting in some feeling disoriented and unsure about how the game functions.
As I mentioned earlier, ideally, we would have an updated prototype to show you that would answer most (or all) of people’s outstanding questions. But, until that’s ready, we’re going to give something else a try. We’re going to try to publish more frequent and shorter updates to try to get you more information in an easier-to-digest and quicker manner. I can’t guarantee how long this will go on for, or how good we’re going to be about it. But we’ll give it a try and see how it goes. So, expect the next update soon, and then the following one around two weeks after that.
Well, I know that this update hasn’t answered every question or criticism, but hopefully, it has helped somewhat. Have a great day, everyone, and we’ll talk to you again very soon.
Hey there! I hope you've had a great few weeks. Today we have some finished card layouts to show you, and our next deep dive into Dawn of Madness rules! This deep dive is another foundational one, so we won't be getting into the really fun, cool mechanisms today, either. But those wouldn't make as much sense without knowing how the game actually functions. So, with that in mind, let's get into some more of those crunchy details.
First, though, we received some more samples from the factory! These were initially in dozens of tiny pieces that the team had to assemble, so the individual pictures didn't make it in time for this update. But here's a look at all of the assembled miniatures together:
And just to assuage any fears, the miniatures you will receive will be fully assembled. They are made in pieces at the factory and then assembled before they are shipped to you. We just needed to see all of the pieces before the final approval.
Existence - In the previous version, existence was your health. We really liked the thematic ties associated with this, but it was also a little cumbersome and everyone just ended up calling it health anyways. So, we just changed it to health. A bit more boring? Yes. Instantly easier to understand and use in a sentence? Also yes. However, we didn't want to get rid of the idea of existence, and memories ended up not working as they did in the previous version, either. So, it made sense for memory shards and memories to become existence.
Memory Shard Tokens Become Existence Tokens - While memory shards still worked thematically, we preferred the idea that you were slowly collecting the shattered pieces of your existence. So, existence tokens superseded memory shard tokens.
Memory Cards Become Existence Cards - As mentioned above, the idea of piecing together your own memories during the game was cool, but there were some problems with it: it interrupted the flow of the game, required multiple Wanderer storybooks on the table at once, and needed other Wanderers' World Shards on the board (which became an impossibility as we added more World Shards for each Wanderer.) Also, it was really just another kind of encounter, and there are plenty of those already. (In fact, all of the memories we wrote have now been converted to regular encounters.) So, the basic idea of memories was kind of dismantled. When that happened, memory cards no longer made as much sense as they did previously. So now, they are instead called existence cards. You use existence tokens to buy existence cards, which provide useful stat boosts or add new abilities to your Wanderer.
The previous inner offerings system is now tied into these cards as well: for instance, some of Emily's existence cards can grant treatment cards to another Wanderer, such as a Lobotomy or Trepanation. (Sorry/you're welcome, other Wanderer.)
A Closer Look at Existence Cards
Here is a closer look at a couple of existence cards. There are two kinds of these cards: locked and unlocked. The unlocked ones are available from the very start of the game. The locked ones, however, have to be unlocked throughout the chapter. Only after they've been unlocked can they be purchased with existence tokens. (Unlocking more existence cards is another reason you may want to dive back into a Wanderer's storybook.)
I plan on breaking down a lot of DoM's basics for you today. I'm going to cover a wide range of stuff, everything from winning and losing to actions you can take to how co-op works. There are bound to be some things we don't cover in this update, which there are three likely reasons for: either I'm saving it for a later update, I glossed over it for the sake of space, or I forgot to mention it. So, if you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and we'll get to them in another update. First, let's start with winning or losing a Wanderer Stage in DoM!
Winning and Losing the Wanderer Stage
As mentioned previously, each game is now split between the Wanderer Stage and the Finale Stage. To get into the Finale, the total ending points accumulated through encounters for all endings must equal 50. (Except in rare instances, such as those mentioned in the last update where you can be propelled directly into an ending.) You will lose, though, if the 10th game round ends, all Wanderers die at the same time, or one Wanderer dies four times.
Yes, you can now die multiple times in a single game! Death in the Otherworld is not like death in our world: when you fade out of existence, a trace of you always remains. However, that doesn't mean there are no consequences to dying. Actually, the consequences are one of my favorite parts of the revised rules, which we will get into in more detail in another update. You also may notice that failing to kill the Abomination is no longer mentioned in this list. There's a reason for that, which we'll cover when we deep dive into the Abominations in another update.
Once you get into a Finale, you're basically guaranteed a "win." What I mean by that is, you will always get a conclusion, no matter how poorly you do in that Finale. Will it be a good conclusion if you perform terribly? No, almost certainly not. But it'll be a conclusion. Will it be a good conclusion if you play really well? Um… Chances are better?
Wanderer Stage Phases
During the Wanderer Stage, each round is broken up into three distinct phases. Those are the Event Phase, the Action Phase, and the Refresh Phase.
Event Phase
During the Event Phase, the round tracker will advance and direct you to a different entry in the central Wanderer's storybook. These events can change what's going on during the game (sometimes significantly), and will often be directly shaped by your previous actions and choices. For instance, some encounters will only appear if you have done something else previous to that round.
Action Phase
The action phase is where, you guessed it, stuff happens! Wanderers and monsters will use their mental capacity to perform actions, working down the mental capacity track and taking turns until everyone has exhausted all of their available mental capacity for the round, just like we originally mentioned during the campaign. The actions a Wanderer can take are:
Move action - pretty self-explanatory. You can use up to 3 mental capacity to move across up to 3 World Shards.
Attack action - also pretty self-explanatory. Kill you some monsters! (We'll go more in-depth into combat in a later update.)
Encounter action - this is how you get into all those stories and dig into DoM's world. (As well as advance the game, get into the ending, get resources, etc.) So, obviously, it's pretty important. Below is a World Shard with all of its pieces broken down, including where you'll find the initial encounter that's accessible through that World Shard.
In addition to the encounters on World Shards, you can also dive into encounters through encounter cards. You will unlock encounter cards through your choices and actions in the game, like in the previous version. What's different in this version is that you no longer need to pay with domains to get into encounters, because domains are a rarer resource than they were before - which we'll look at briefly in our next action.
Domain action - this is a synthesis of two separate actions from the previous version: drawing a domain card and gaining extra sentience cubes to make new domains. To gain the extra sentience cubes, you will roll dice based on the colors of the sentience icons on your current World Shard. (See the World Shard example above to see the sentience icons.) To gain a domain card, you'll just draw the top domain card off of the deck. You can use the domain action to perform either of these tasks, but you can't do both at the same time. Speaking of changes, domain cards have changed quite a bit in this version of the game. They're now a bit more like an item that you can gain. They can be different types of items (such as a melee weapon), and they can also be part of a set that can unlock new abilities when both cards are in the game. They also still have some of their original domain card aspects as well: Along the bottom of the card are three domains that you can sacrifice this card to use in a pinch. Here's a breakdown of the new domain card:
A domain action can only be taken by a Wanderer once per round, making domains a more precious commodity than they were before. (Don't worry, though: you'll also get domains as rewards throughout the game, such as from encounters.) Another reason to be very careful with your domains is that each one has a very useful special ability which we'll go over in greater depth in another update.
Lastly, some domain cards are unlocked by specific encounters in certain chapters. We'll go into that, too, in more depth later on.
Existence action - this action might cause a little confusion if you didn't read the section on Existence up above, so read that first. You can use an existence action to spend your existence tokens on an existence card, using it to permanently upgrade your Wanderer. (This also doesn't cost any mental capacity. Sweet deal!)
Confrontation action - If you are on the same World Shard as the Abomination, you can perform a confrontation action to attack it. This doesn't cost mental capacity (nor does it cost existence tokens as it did in the previous version.) Instead, it costs something potentially much more valuable: a coda card. As mentioned in a previous update, every coda card (which is a card that you gain after an encounter, giving you increased stats or new abilities) now has a resistance card on the back of it. (Though it's normally just called a coda card now, rather than a resistance card.) When you use a coda card for this, you will flip it over and use its resistance side, then leave it turned over like that for the rest of the game.
When you fight the Abomination, you will roll dice equal to all of the sentience icons on the resistance side of the coda, trying to attack the weakness that is present on the Abomination's current confrontation card. We'll get in-depth with this in the forthcoming Abomination update, but, in the meantime, here's a look at the revised confrontation card as well:
As I said, we'll get into the meat of this card and how it works later on.
Trade action - This is pretty much like it sounds. You can swap domain cards with other Wanderers using this action.
Component actions - Lastly, we have component actions. This isn't any one action, necessarily, but rather any specific action mentioned on a particular component (such as a coda, existence, or domain card.)
Of course, the Wanderers won't be the only ones taking actions and storming across the Otherworld. There will be plenty of monsters doing the same thing. But, for the sake of brevity, we'll cover how they work in another update.
Refresh Phase
The final phase is the refresh phase. In this phase, devour cards will be resolved (if the Abomination is on the board - we'll get to this in another update.) Each Wanderer with a devour token on their World Shard will resolve a devour card. Then, dead Wanderers will (likely) be respawned, working to regain as much health as they can. Following this, mental capacity is restored for everyone, domain rifts are refreshed for monsters (more on this in a later update), and the round tracker is advanced to the next round.
Co-op in DoM
One idea that has persisted with DoM is that this is really a single-player game masquerading as a cooperative multiplayer one. I understand how people could feel that way since everyone is working together through the Central Wanderer's story. I further have no doubt this idea was exacerbated by some of the mechanics mentioned during the campaign that some took issue with, thinking they favored the Central Wanderer to the detriment of the other players. Well, hopefully, this section will help to soothe those fears and help to establish DoM is a thoroughly and viscerally cooperative experience.
First of all, what can other Wanderers not do that only the Central Wanderer can do? The answer is... nothing. Every action is available to every Wanderer in every story you're playing through, from fighting the Abomination to exploring the dark depths of an encounter. In some Finales there are certain things happening to the Central Wanderer and not to the others, but in this case, it normally means the other Wanderers must rally around their struggling ally to save him or her - or band together to defeat him or her.
If you are not actively playing as a team in DoM, then you will all die. If you are not strategizing together on the best way to accomplish your goals (or perhaps one player is stingy with his resources, such as his Codas or Domains) then you will all die. If you are not using your unique abilities or proficiencies to help your friends in a tight spot, then they will die - and then you will as well.
Furthermore, because each Wanderer has different strengths and weaknesses, it means that each one will shape the story differently, pushing it more in one direction or another. The encounters are not written as though you are a detached observer: you see the game through your eyes (which often happen to be fused with the Central Wanderer's twisted mind), and the stakes for you are very real. In fact, you won't be able to get through some obstacles on your own. You'll need your companions to bail you out.
The game revolves around working together, and around figuring out the best way to advance to the finale without being killed permanently. It is about sacrificing so that your teammate can succeed, or banding together to defeat a common adversary, or scrambling to recover health for your fallen comrade so that she doesn't die for a fourth time.
In reading this, you may have started to wonder how playing with a single Wanderer is even possible if there is such a focus on teamwork. And that's where I have some more news that I suspect some people won't be thrilled with, but that is nonetheless necessary for the good of the game. We came to realize that, with so many moving parts and such a reliance on teamwork, it's not really possible to play the game in a balanced way with only one Wanderer - or even a couple of them. As such, the team came to the conclusion that it will be necessary to play with four Wanderers rather than just one. I'm sorry for those of you who were hoping to just play through a chapter with a single Wanderer, particularly since I said during the campaign it would be possible. But playing with four Wanderers is such a more strategic, intense, fast-paced, and, frankly, fun way to play the game, that it is worth the momentary disappointment. Plus, the way they affect each other during the Finales (and the way the Finales affect all of them from that moment on) is a very cool thing that we will go into in much more depth (along with all of the other "permanent" effects and upgrades) in a later update.
Of course, you can still play the game solo. It's just that you will need to play with four Wanderers rather than only one. (I mean, you could still play the game with only one Wanderer. It's your game, after all. But some house-ruling may be necessary, and you might miss out on certain experiences or advantages that you would get playing with four.) Here's how we recommend playing DoM:
This makes the game a bit more like our previous game, Deep Madness, in this regard.
In any case, I hope this isn't a big bummer for you. And I also hope that you can see our commitment to making this game the best multiplayer experience (actually, scratch that - the best experience, period) that we can.
Okay, I think that's more than enough for one update. I think we'll start being able to get into the fun stuff in the next update now that a lot of the basics are out of the way. With that in mind, be sure to stay tuned! I can't wait to tell you about some of the cool stuff that's coming up! Stay safe, my friend, and have a great week!
Hey guys! I hope you've all had a great month. We've got some fresh info for you, so let's get into it!
First of all, we're getting really close to having the rules in a finalized version! We're pretty excited about the changes made to the rules. As mentioned previously, streamlining has been one of our main goals, and we certainly have done that to the rulebook. It went from a Word document approximately 30 pages in length (minus extra stuff like quick references and stories) to around 19. There will still be a few tweaks, but overall we are delighted with how much easier the rulebook is to understand.
This simplifying moves past just the rulebook to the gameplay, too. For instance, setup instructions shed around a page-and-a-half. This change means that Dawn of Madness will be far easier to get to the table, much quicker to set up, and less fiddly with its components. In-game mechanisms have also been significantly refined to make your choices clearer, the terms cleaner, and your experience centered squarely upon the most thematic and nerve-wracking elements.
Since the gameplay mechanics are finally reasonably well nailed down, we thought we'd start up some deep dives again to give you a better idea of how this game will work. We'll start that today by taking a global look at the game, drilling down deeper in future updates. We once again don't have too many pictures for you, unfortunately, but what we have we'll share. Let's get into it!
When we were looking at Dawn of Madness, the piece the team was most excited about was the thematic, narrative experience. So we really honed in on that, bringing everything else (combat, spawning, Wanderer advancement, etc.) into the service of that experience. This mindset helped us to zero in on precisely what Dawn of Madness is (and, honestly, what we always wanted it to be): a terrifying story you shape in a feverish, fluid, and inconstant world. The Otherworld is much more of a living world now: one where the choices you make and how you play will impact not just a set-length campaign, but potentially every future game you play. (Including if you play the same Wanderer again.)
First, the narrative. As we've said all along, the real meat of Dawn of Madness is its story. That's where we're hoping to unsettle you, creep you out, and maybe even scare you. A two-inch-tall miniature's actions might bring tension, but it's the story accompanying that miniature that will truly bring your situation to life.
We wanted to show you a small thumbnail of what one of those stories looks like. This is a super-zoomed-out outline for Emily's rough narrative structure:
What this graphic doesn't show you (at least from this level) is all of the encounters that reference, influence, and trigger each other. It would be almost impossible to make a mindmap of that which looked like anything but a ball of twine. This also doesn't include any of the endings. And, I want to stress, this is for ONE Wanderer. There are three more in the core box!
Up above I made reference to this being a living world. I think it's pretty obvious how that works in a single game since that's something we've talked about since the game launched. But what about outside a single game session, or with the finale? That's what we'll talk about in the rest of this update.
First, let's discuss the relationship between the main game and the finale. In a previous update, we mentioned that now there would be an ending with every Wanderer you played and that the ending would be tied to points that are tracked using the new fancy Round Tracker. We've refined that mechanism a little: The ending is no longer a separate game, but rather another stage of the game. We made this decision because the amount of setup necessary for the finale has been reduced, and now almost all of the components from the main game carry over into it. Honestly, it just made more sense at this point to move directly into it rather than having to break everything down and then set it all back up. This also allows for a little more bleed-through between the finale and the main exploration that weren't quite as easy to pull off before. As such, a game is now broken up into two stages: the Wanderer Stage, and the Finale Stage.
This makes for some interesting things we can do in-game. As an example, there are certain pathways that, if you follow them to their end, will automatically propel you into a particular ending - regardless of how many points you previously had towards that ending. It is, honestly, extremely difficult to pull this off, but it is possible. And, as soon as you trigger this ending, you'll be able to jump right in and see what your actions have wrought.
Once the ending is over, your actions will leave a lasting impact. As we mentioned during the campaign, each of a Wanderer's four finales has four endings of its own, and each one will find things wrapping up differently depending on what you do and how well you do it. You can't "lose", per se, when you get into a finale: no matter what, you'll get an ending that reflects your actions. Even if you all die.
But what about after the game? Well, depending on what ending you get for your finale, you will receive a permanent condition or consequence that will impact your Wanderers and the world for as long as you play the game - for good or ill. (For instance, if, as in the example above, the finale ended with everyone dying, then the consequence would probably be pretty awful.) On a more personal level, it is also possible for your Wanderer to receive conditions that dog you from game to game. One way you get these is to die too many times during the game and to not deal with the consequences of that death. (You can now die up to three times each in the Wanderer phase of the game. If anyone dies a fourth time, though, then the game is lost. Conversely, if you die once in the finale, then you're out for the rest of the game.) I would very much like to tell you what those consequences are, but I'm going to save that for another update as it has to do with another area that deserves its own section: the Malformations.
The Abominations will get their own update, too, as the way they work has changed, as well. But I can confirm that their legacy effects will continue, causing more chaos depending on how you dealt (or failed to deal) with the Abomination during the game.
I'm honestly itching to tell you more of the in-depth mechanics for the game, and this "deep dive" has barely scratched the conceptual surface. But I realize this update is already pretty long, and so I think I'll stop there. Coming up in future updates, though, we'll break pretty much every element of gameplay down into chunks. I can't wait to talk to you about some of them, but that'll have to wait for another day.
If something is unclear now, bear with us. This update was pretty hard to write because I had to keep so much for the separate sections later on. (They just wouldn't have made sense without some explanation, and that explanation would have spoiled a bunch of surprises that really deserve their own spotlight.) The important TL;DR things to take away are:
1) We've focused the game on our favorite element: the narrative. 2) The game is a living, feverish, and inconstant world. 3) Your actions not only impact the game you're playing but leave a lasting ripple across all of your future games. 4) And there's a bunch of info coming up that I can't wait to tell you.
It may be a little while before we can have a finalized rulebook for you to take a look at because layout work is expensive. As such, we need to make sure we have it pretty close to perfect before we put it into a new layout to send out to you. Having said that, we're pushing to get the game to a point where we can create a new demo to show you all, so you can see what Dawn of Madness plays like for yourself. We'll have more information on that in the coming months.
Have a great week, and we'll talk to you again soon! Thanks for being with us, and I hope you're all staying healthy and safe!