Legends Untold

Post UKGE 2018 update part 2. Read ASAP if you are going to Origins please
almost 6 years ago – Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 10:07:12 PM

Hey guys,
in this update I will focus on world building and some future products we are considering for the Legends Untold franchise.

Most importantly - Legends Untold is being demoed by The Game Steward at Origins this week. The intention is that the game will be demoed to both Man vs Meeple and Brawling Brothers. In addition it will be on BGG Livestream at 11am EST on Sunday 17 June. If you want to see or demo the game please get in touch with The Game Steward directly.

I intend to focus on delivery schedules and completion of the Novice Rank content (your games) in part 3. I've deliberately done it this way and put the summary of this update at the top (thanks for the suggestion guys) as I know that not everyone is interested in the lore of our game. That is totally fine by us, Legends is meant to be fun, end of story. Use the game as you will, we are delighted you are on board with the project because you like the game in its own right.

world building
Many of you have bought into the greater Legends Untold concept - the launching of a world - Mor Nadar, that we can escape to after school/studies/work or whatever and have some fun for a while. When we launched Legends Untold we showed you a tiny bit of that world, the northern lands known as the Cold Lands to the Brethren Dwarves who are the master scribes, historians and cartographers of Mor Nadar.  As a helpful conceit the Brethren formally speak a dialect called Ash Tongue, which by amazing coincidence reads and sounds like contemporary British English.

Legends Untold takes place shortly after the Treaty of the Peoples where the Newcomers have conquered most of Sax Land and Dun Mordhain has been declared a free city (if you can afford to get in - to be clear, at Novice Rank you can't). Outside Dun Mordhain there are lands in all directions and we shared with you a map which ended at the edge of the Warm Lands in the South. We told you that is where the Gnimshka came from who marched north to the Siege of Dun Mordhain and halted the Newcomer Conquest.

So what does this mysterious south look like? At UKGE we unveiled a map of the equatorial region of the world. Lovingly created over months with a fantasy cartographer to show you Mor Nadar approximately 4,000 years before the Newcomer Conquest and several thousand miles to the south of Dun Mordhain. 

If you look at the map from the Kickstarter Campaign you can see reference to the Warm Lands at the bottom of the map. Here is an excerpt from our new map which continues to the south of that map. Note the strong ridge of mountains to the south called Gnimshkenka - this is 'First Gnim' the first of a number of large mountain territories ruled by the Gnimshka. To the north of this lies the lands of the Arsaidh, a neolithic star gazing people spread across vast lands. The Arsaidh will meet their own fate (to be revealed in due course) however the intention is that they will play a major role in the Apprentice Rank content within the Ancient Crypts Environment millennia later.

Why have we done this?

This is where the franchise part kicks in. Set thousands of years before Legends Untold, IG's second title Lord of the Horde is the first game in a planned 'Origin Series' which invites gamers to discover the rich world of Nor Nadar. Long before the Age of Man the Brethren Dwarves ruled a mighty empire stretching thousands of leagues in all directions. From the newly conquered Silverlands in the east to the ancient Ashlands in the west, for centuries the eight Brethen Realms had enjoyed peace and wealth under the wise rule of the Feathered Empress sitting atop her throne in Kor Cragrush.

Until now... Thousands of Orcs have marched from their traditional homelands, forced north by the nightmare of The Sundering. The Shamans have led these tribes in search of a new home. A great many of the Orackhee have died in the unforgiving heat of the Burning Mesa. But now, finally, the scouts have reported a new land that can be settled. A land of plenty. The Brethren Realms.

Lord of the Horde is a competitive game for 2-5 players, age 14+ with a 1 hour playtime. The game uses card drafting, hand management and diceless combat to recreate the titanic struggle between the Brethren Dwarf Empire and the Orackee Horde. Players take the role of a War Champion from one of the Greater Orc Tribes. Each Champion must secure the loyalty of rival tribes, building their warband over a course of a year. To thrive a Champion must scout, duel and conquer their way to glory, securing the blessings of the Shamans to become Lord of the Horde.

OK that is enough about Lord of the Horde (LOTH) for now. So what does this mean for the Legends game that you have backed?  This is our way of showing you why there are so few Brethren and Orackhee left in the north during the time of the Newcomer Conquest. The Brethren are a race in their twilight years but they are ancient and remember the events all those years ago. This is why the Brethren have settled with their allies the Celti in, around, and underneath Dun Mordhain.  This is why we have a planned Apprentice Rank Environment called the Brethren Works which asks you to adventure in the mines, halls and wonders of this truly ancient race who left their empire in the south thousands of years ago and have rebuilt it (in part) beneath Dun Mordhain.

Other Products

When we were at UKGE we showed off some other ideas we are working on to understand if people liked them and what interest there may be in them.  Like you we are gamers and so we have put together ideas which we think are cool and may be of interest to some of you.

Adventure Mats

All of the Location cards that we commission are produced at A3 scale to ensure a high resolution on your cards.  Something we use the art for ourselves is to create cool A3 sized adventure mats for our roleplaying and skirmish games. Here is a mockup to give you an idea of the product (it deliberately says XX because we have no idea if you guys like the idea!)

On the RPG aid side of things we are also considering launching an RPG visual aid using the images from the novice set but shown at a good size without all the icons covering them.  Our thinking is that when you are playing your own game and you say 'you come across an old wooden door' to your players, when you receive the inevitable 'got a picture?' request you can say 'why yes I do, here courtesy of IG!'

Here is a mock up of a page to show you what I mean:

And what about those miniatures you saw?
I will apologise right now by saying I am not great at photography, I have tried to do the sculptor and miniature painter justice but please accept the limitations of my inability to photograph things well!

This is us pursuing a childhood dream guys. Make a world, share it, get a cool map, maybe even make a miniature? We commissioned the female Neophyte, she is by far our most popular character when we are at conventions. For now she sits proudly in my exhibition case at home keeping an eye on the project and making sure we stay on track. We commisioned a 28mm and a 100mm collectors version of this miniature. If you want to know more please let me know in the comments section.

I want to conclude that the above ideas are in the pipeline and we welcome any thoughts or interest you may have in them.  Right now though our absolute focus is on getting this game to you. I will get back to the 'state of play' on your games in Update 3.

I really do hope that some of you get to play the game at Origins.
In the meantime best wishes to you all.

Cheers
IG

Post UKGE 2018 update (part 1)
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Jun 08, 2018 at 12:20:15 AM

Hey guys, we're back!

We survived our third UKGE.

Before I do anything else I want to offer up some thanks:

To our amazing demo staff (Adam, Chris, Eoghann, Frank, Jon and Mark) for running endless demos all weekend.

To the eight significant others that let team IG get our geek on for the weekend.

To Mark C-H and Mark D-T for building and painting the diorama.

To Matt, Simon and Jason for modelling, sculpting and painting our first IG miniatures.  

To Peter for crafting such an awesome map and helping us share our world with everyone.

To Hugh for painting the 15mm minis ( yes somebody did ask if you were a pro painter) and the billion and one other things you did over the four days.

To our whole team of artists and our Art Director Scott for producing some outstanding work under demanding deadlines.

And lastly to all of you who popped round to say hi, demo the game and to give us your time. It is wonderful to meet so many of you, some new faces and some familiar.

Game Feedback:Legends was extremely popular, the stand was mobbed on all three days. I have canvassed all of our team, to our knowledge every single person who saw the game and the size and quality of it compared to the original product was very happy. I encourage any Backers who attended the event to comment with their thoughts on this.

Impressions on the Pre-Production sample:The game is heavier than we thought it would be, we were taken aback ourselves! When I showed the original card sized box we took to the Wyvern's Lair (the same size as the one Ricky Royal showed on his video) compared to what you are getting now it really is quite a difference in size and weight - please see the photo below:

Component Quality: Everything was as we expected it on the card front, the tokens were nice and solid. The books were very pleasing, the A5 format is exactly what I wanted, very easy to pick up and put down but still big enough to give you good diagrams.

Usability of Rules:Three brave souls very kindly agreed to take an unpunched box and teach themselves the game using the Walkthrough Scenario from the Weeping Caves Campaign Book. I am told that the initial bit was a bit dry as it explained some necessary concepts but once you got to start rolling the dice it became a lot of fun. Importantly I don't remember any rules queries from that session. The time taken to add that introductory scenario is worth it if it gets you guys playing the game more quickly.

I want to thank Andrew J, Dave B and Adrian (Humble) for their help with these pictures.

Promos:
I met a lot of Backers and I personally shook their hand and said 'thank you for backing, I'm sorry we're late.' I offer that over the internet to the rest of you.

We want to look after you and that is why we are giving you all one final gift:

the UKGE 17/18 Promo Adventure.

Some of you will remember last year that we created four promo cards using the NEC as a set of environments. The tweaks that we made to the game in final testing after UKGE2017 meant that these cards would have needed a bit of annotation to make them work. To sort that out we have reprinted all of them in the new format for you. In addition, we have added three Loot cards which are very special to us:

The Goblin Queen's Feather - that particular connection is a surprise for a later date. The False Jade Statue - this is us foreshadowing the introduction of Cultures in Legends. This statue comes from the Jade Lands far away from Dun Mordhain across the Jade Sea (please see the map phot below)
The Baby Molog - because so many of us love the Molog, some day I hope we will make a fluffy Molog, it has to be done!

On top of this we have added two more adventures which take place at the Great Diversion, one called the Missing Sax and one called Appeasing the Spirits. The former helps bridge between the Caves Campaign and the Apprentice content, the latter helps bridge between the Sewers Campaign and the Apprentice content. We wanted to give you more playing time and a chance to really use the promo cards from last year properly.

Every Caves Set in the initial production run will include the Expo 2017/18 promo deck as a gift from us. You do not need to do anything to receive it.

Apprentice Set: I will caveat this entire section by saying that nothing is set in stone for the Apprentice rank, these are just our plans, everything is subject to change but a sneak peek is always fun to share. We showed off some of our Novice Adventurers and their Apprentice Rank Upgrades: The Forgehand may well turn into the Ironhand. The Evicted Noble into the Agent, The Labourer into the Smith, The Neophyte into the Aspirant etc. Here is an example of the Evicted Noble in comparison to the Agent.  

Here is an example of the Smith - a potential direction for the Labourer:

 You'll note that each of the pictures shows subtle yet important upgrades. These guys are still reluctant heroes but their trips through the Weeping Caves and Great Sewers has given them some stuff and made them a bit more world weary. Mechanically speaking the changes I would point out are:  

Improved Attributes, a second Speciality, and a new icon in the top left which is a Culture icon (we use this to represent language, customs, etiquette, history and so forth of a given culture in Mor Nadar). So here we have two heroes with the Sax icon (this is a placeholder icon). The Culture icon would be used to interact with Encounters in the Apprentice Rank.

Talking of Cultures we did reveal a world first - the potential to play a non human in Legends Untold for the first time. I have mentioned before that in our world the most feared race are the Gnimshka. They are wise, cunning, know the secret of gem cutting and can martial their mighty armies supported by terrifying Waradgers. Without the intervention of the Gnimshka the Newcomers would never have been repulsed at the Battle of Dun Mordhain and our adventurers would probably still be serfs. The most fun part of this gig is being able to share or vision with you all, to build a world together. Here is our first Gnimshka character, she is a Stone Scout and follows the path of the Gem Cutter. We will share more of this at a later date but for now I thought you may want to meet the Gnimshka at last.

I'd also draw your attention to the Apprentice Rank Brethren Works cards. Note that these are an evolution not a wholesale change to the system. In due course you will have learned how to play the Novice Rank and all the rules with it, these add more options and ways of playing the game. For example you can see in the Elevator card the concept of a Link Card, a card you draw to link between depth levels. Your depth in a given environment determines what different challenges you will meet. Note the mine cart track motif and the new environment icons (placeholder) for Gems and Resources which will let you do new and interesting things depending on your talents and equipment.

OK I am acutely aware that I can be guilty of overly long updates so I am going to write up the rest of the update in Part 2 where I will cover off:
Worldbuilding, potential future releases and the state of play regarding manufacturing and getting the game to you. I will finish by saying that it is looking like October 2018 to get the games to you, that is what I said at UKGE and that is what our planning schedule supports. I will however get the detail behind that to you, to support this.

I will get Part 2 up over the weekend hopefully guys.

In the meantime I hope you liked the update and would ask any of the Backers who saw the game at the Expo to come forward and share your thoughts on what you saw with your fellow Backers. 

Best wishes to you and your families from everyone at IG.

UKGE photos
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Jun 04, 2018 at 12:09:02 AM

 Hey guys just some super quick photos from UKGE I wanted to share using my mobile phone. We were able to get these whilst we were setting up.

It's going great, people are loving the game. I will get a proper update up next week when I am at a PC.

Cheers

IG

The Samples have arrived!
almost 6 years ago – Thu, May 31, 2018 at 01:15:50 AM

I'm pleased to say the samples got here via Tokyo, Paris and Glasgow.

We can show you the game at UKGE folks!

I'm packing up for UKGE just now so the photos are really quick but I wanted you all to see them first.

Here it is, 4 years of our life - here is our baby!

 For those who are going we shall see you at UKGE.  I won't have access to a PC until I return home but we will get a post UKGE update out to you all after the convention.

Best wishes to you all!

IG

Caves Samples have been produced, photos on this post
almost 6 years ago – Tue, May 29, 2018 at 01:19:47 AM

Hey guys, I am pleased to say that 20 sample production copies of the Caves set have been manufactured and are in transit. The games, albeit in small quantity, have now finally been made! The sample copies have been produced using a full litho print run (so that we can see the quality of everything) and have been made for a number of reasons:

1) To avoid the digital proofing process, which saves us one month.

2) So that those who can attend UKGE can play and see the actual copies.

For those that can't we will of course share a full update regarding UKGE.

There are two reasons that we have not gone to full production yet:

1) We want that final chance to spot any errors, this may seem like overkill to some but I assure you it is not. In fact, unfortunately, I can see a tiny error based on the photographs below which a backer has pointed out. This can be very easily fixed after UKGE.

2) The upgraded insert is still in the design process, it needs to be completed before we can run the full production run.

Here are some photographs below of the samples:

Timelines:

We need to see the samples and find any errors that we can. I hope that these would be absolutely minimal (I'm a bit gutted one sneaked through). If that is the case then I will confirm our full production run in short order and get the games made.

Fulfilment can be confirmed after UKGE. I have been doing some due diligence in this area and people have voiced positive and negative opinions about a number of fulfilment houses. From the diligence I have done there is no clear cut best solution. I will be doing more diligence at UKGE.

For the Expo itself we are at Stand 1-J20. We have our biggest stand ever (nearly half as big again as last year). We will be showing off:  

The Legends Untold Novice Caves Set - fingers crossed it arrives in time!  

 An introductory demo for Legends Untold Apprentice Rank content.

Lord of the Horde, our second title which is the first in a planned Origins Series range which explains the world of Mor Nadar.  

I will put a much bigger update up about these just after UKGE.

I would like to offer genuine thanks to Stefan here. He has reminded me that updates and news should come to Backers on Kickstarter first, and Facebook, BGG etc. second. It is all too easy with your mobile to share images to Facebook, much easier than using Kickstarter (that I know of anyway). I have been waiting on a shipping confirmation for about a week, my heart sank last night when I saw that Fedex have now moved the time so that the copies may not arrive in time for UKGE. I am doing everything I can to make sure those copies get to the NEC somehow but when you are under pressure to get news out there the quickest route is definitely Facebook. However, Stefan is right, you guys backed the game, so you should get the news first. Thanks Stefan.  

I hope that you enjoy seeing the samples above and that we can meet as many of you as possible at UKGE.  

Cheers IG