Dear All,
Several years ago we made a post here on Dakka-Dakka asking if you, as representatives of the largest and most active tabletop games community, would want another tabletop game in a sci-fi setting.
Within several days we got tons of precious feedback and messages, which made us more than happy. Comparing to many other forums and venues, Dakka-Dakka proved once again to be a bottomless source of information, inspiration and useful insight.
After additional research, and many days of discussions, we decided to give our dream a try. During the two years that followed we drafted several editions of gaming rules, had heated arguments about factions design and fluff, and most importantly – managed to find ways to produce miniatures and other goodies in the
EU thanks to our fruitful partnership with Megalith Games, creators of “Godslayer”. And thus, “
Forge of Destiny” was created by us, an independent group of gamers and designers with 13+ years in tabletop games.
We planned to present our project to you and the world earlier, but then decided to wait for availability of more materials, such as additional arts, sketches, renders and master model shots.
We use 3-D design and 3-D printing for our miniatures, the scale that we chose is 30-34
mm “true” scale and the miniatures are intended for use with 30/40/50/60
mm round lipped bases.
Having played many different games and systems, we decided to create a game that was designed BY players FOR players and WITH players in mind:
• We made it our aim to create a fast, aggressive game that encourages careful planning and is not too favorable towards reckless play;
• The game according to play testing usually takes between 35 and 50 minutes for a session with the 2-player starting set. We try to make this session duration standard for our games;
• The general rule set is approximately 40+ pages long together with all appendices, and is easy to understand;
• Alternating activation system is used, which enables both players to enjoy the game simultaneously;
• Unit cards are used in many ways, including in activation sequences;
• Players use both
d6 dice and regular playing cards for the purposes of game play. The mechanics of playing cards are not related to any used in existing games, such as Malifaux;
• Playing fields/tiles form an important part in the game with various biome-specific rules. For each game the field is laid out by the players semi-randomly, creating unique pcombinations of terrain features;
• Rules favor expansion of playing scale, however small games are as easily played as larger conflicts;
• We invented several new mechanics for list building, unit upgrades and force organization . For example, there are no “point per unit/upgrades” values in
FoD, and army composition is majorly reliant on chosen
HQ units;
• The world is fresh and new, and allows for endless development, inventions and interesting ideas;
• We intend to engage players into decision-making process related to the game’s world, and possibly even to design of miniatures.
We would like to have your feedback for what we have created. So far, the project was well received in our local communities, but it was yet to be presented to an audience as experienced and numerous as Dakka Dakka.
http://www.newdestinygames.com/ - the website. It is currently in the process of being prepared, we will let you know when it is fully functional =)
https://www.facebook.com/ForgeOfDestiny/ - our Facebook page. Right now it is the main source of information for the game =) We try to post something every day! It has fluff, arts, renders, we already made more than 30 publications and plan to keep the same pace!
Have a good day and thank you for all of your valuable opinions and ideas!
Best regards,
Forge of Destiny team.
UPDATE #1: GAME MECHANICS SUMMARY
Hope this helps with some of the questions that you may have!
Thank you =)
About the
FoD game mechanics.
Forge of Destiny game mechanics was developed with several core principles in mind: 1) importance of thorough planning and quick improvisation; 2) ability to bluff and recognize enemy deception; 3) skillful battlefield maneuvers and maximal involvement of Players in the gameplay.
Planning in
FoD is divided into two steps: 1) pre-battle army building and 2) in-game tactical decisions. Army building revolves around choosing a Commanding (
HQ) Model/Unit that leads troopers into battle and partially determines what units and upgrades could be chosen by the Player.
During the battle at the beginning of each turn Players determine activation sequences of their armies and issue Orders to their Units. Orders determine what actions the Units will perform during their activation, so Players have to carefully analyze what’s going to happen on the battlefield and plan ahead. Even though it is possible to issue up to two Orders to a single Unit, the number of available Orders is quite limited and is usually just enough to give one Order per each available Unit. If a Unit was somehow left without Orders, it won’t (usually) idly wait for its doom, but will act according to its individual preferences (so a bloodthirsty Unit may run forward to the nearest enemy to engage it in melee, and troopers with affinity for shooting are likely to perform ranged attacks from afar or rush to cover). Nevertheless, the exact reaction will be determined by a dice roll, so without direct Orders a well placed ranged Unit may opt to retreat instead of fighting, breaking a cunning tactical scheme.
Improvisation is needed both to counter enemy moves and minimize effects of various weather conditions specific to each battlefield, such as if visibility conditions suddenly deteriorate or the activation order is completely changed.
Bluffing and counterbluffing will help Players literally hold cards up their sleeves, since usually upgrades remain hidden from enemy until their first use. Making the enemy think that a Unit is armed with deadly equipment or, on the contrary, is completely harmless may seriously mess us the foe’s plans. Of course, if the enemy does not have a bluff of his own!
FoD battlefield is divided into squares that integrate various types of cover and terrain features, including elevation, all this without the need to purchase additional terrain all while enjoying its tactical aspects. An ability to control vantage points of battlefield and skilful maneuver through terrain is a key to dominating the battlefield and ultimate tactical supremacy. Moreover battlefields belong to different climatic zones with specific terrain, landscape and weather conditions that provide players with a wide variety of gameplay set-ups that makes each
FoD game different.
Gameplay flow is designed to minimize periods of inactivity of each player that can be substantial in some tabletop wargames. In
FoD Players alternate in activating their Units which keeps both Players interested in what is happening on the battlefield. Besides, some abilities can be performed out of activations to further increase the influence of the currently inactive player on what´s happening on the table.
