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I suppose this thread needs a 2018 update... hard to believe this has been in the works since 2015. As I've always stated, we'll never rush a game out the door simply to have another game out there. Our games will only be released when they're truly ready. Don't get me started on Vigrid LOL!
The Chronicle of Kings URL now links to the BGG website game entry. I was initially thinking of putting all info on the ChronicleofKings.com website, but I'm now considering using the BGG entry as the central repository for the game related content and pics.
Last year's Metatopia event was priceless, giving me the design feedback I required to get past my design challenges. From peer feedback, I was in a good position, having to prune the fat, rather than change or add mechanics. Despite that statement, it hasn't been an easy road to cut features and unify mechanics. After many months of sporadic work, I've cleaned up the system to run quick and easy; my goal was for actions to run similarly to "Ticket to Ride" for speed and simplicity. That said, it's still a "big box" game like Descent.
The game still shines the spotlight on your nobles and their lineage, but the board has been redesigned. Instead of the 72 location board, we're down to 25 regions (one-third of the old map) and the map scales based on the number of players. This keep things "too small" like in Small World, forcing player interactions. This is not a game of solitaire! Each game turn is called a generation and players resolve many actions and scenes during that time. This was the focus of Q1 and Q2 of this past year.
Then the came the task of refining the heart of the game- scenes! These are your actions on steroids that allow many players to jump in on the action using complications. If the game slows down, I always want all players to be involved during those times, this way player downtime is mitigated, keeping engagement high.
Single player mode is also working really well with events that make the game board feel alive and dynamic. The events also no longer have their own game phase, but rather trigger on certain rune-die rolls keeping the excitement and unpredictability high.
Another one of my ambitions was a campaign mode that gives the game a Twilight Imperium grandeur. This has started by having 2 ages defined: The Dark Age, and then the Age of Gods. The dark age is the Viking period of 700-850 AD. A period governed by larger than life heroes fighting monsters in a world filled with monsters and the unknown. Monsters drop trophies and those are used to forge unique relics of power. These magical items are hard to get and when you get them, you alter the game in very interesting ways. To combat the darkness, you build shrines to the gods, and this limits monster spawn and movement. When monsters can no longer affect the world, the Age of Darkness ends, and with it, the ability to forge relics. Whatever the players managed to create is what they carry forth into the next age. Now the shrines become the focus of the Age of Gods. This opens the box of god decks that dedicates families to different gods and their agendas. But the threat lies in the spread of the missionaries and monasteries. They threaten to wipe out the old faith and convert your nobles to the White God. Once the gods have been forgotten, that age end and you enter the third phase of the game, the Age of Kings (not yet fully defined). This is the campaign mode that can take 12 hours to play through and could be a Legacy style mechanic.
We've got a wood carver that has been commissioned to create highly stylized figurines for the game. The game will have "minis" but these are not your standard fare, I'll post some pics up soon. They have a style along the lines of the Isle of Lewis chess set.
I have the new game boards shipping to my house this week. I ordered a few since the beta will have other player groups start testing the game on their own. I will setup a print and play along with a game board I will ship to those groups. This will test how robust the rulebook is and gather a wider feedback loop. Then I'll be shipping game kits to youtube game reviewers before we get to the Kickstarter.
Now that we're in BETA I may just make a whole sub-forum for this game.
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