KickStarter Vagrus: The Riven Realms - post-apocalyptic fantasy caravan master RPG - now with Sunfire & Moonshadow expansion

[Sztaszov]

[Source: Steam Store Page]

FYI: The crowdfunding campaign discount is still available for all RPG Codex members using this link.

Devlog #19 | Passengers (Game Design Post)
29 MAY @ 2:06PM - LOST PILGRIMS

Throughout your journeys as a vagrus, you will come across many people who want to get from one place to another on the broken continent of Xeryn. This might seem trivial but travel over the accursed wastelands of the Empire a perilous venture which makes most people try to avoid it whenever they can.

Those who that do undertake journeys often pay comitati such as yours to take them where they want to be. In-game, this provides an optional source of revenue to help you keep afloat but one that requires you to plan your path ahead considering several factors, including where your passengers wish to go and how long you have to deliver them there.

Passengers are available at mansios (and are randomized) or sometimes in events (where they are specific). You do not only have to feed them on the way but also have to protect them as attacking monster or outlaws can easily slay them. Mind you, some of them can even give you a hand in defending your comitatus (more on that later).

You can see the statistics of passengers related to crew on the Crew Pane, while other information can be observed in your Journal (redesigned to include a Passengers Page).

We feel this system adds another layer to planning and risks during travels in Vagrus, one which also has the potential to tell tiny stories of people who risk a lot by venturing forth with you.

 

[Sztaszov]

[Source: Steam Store Page]

FYI: The crowdfunding campaign discount is still available for all RPG Codex members using this link.

The soundtrack of Vagrus is of key importance in conveying the powerful atmosphere of the setting. Be it foreboding or hauntingly beautiful, the score by George Olah captures the essence of the ravaged world of the Riven Realms perfectly. Even more importantly, the majority of fans and influencers have told us that one of the most important parts of the Vagrus experience for them was the music.

Ever since we started working with George, we usually had him pour over the specific environment artwork and game world descriptions for each theme and together we listened to fantasy music that evokes the feeling we were looking for in that environment. With our tabletop RPG background, we were aiming for ambient, atmospheric music that goes well with each region of the game. Yet it was important for the environment tracks to be non-intrusive not to detract from the reading parts.

You can now get a taste of the main theme of the game above and listen to some other samples as well at our SoundCloud page.

 

[Sztaszov]

[Source: Steam | Twitter]

Devlog #21 - Scouting (Game Design Post)
20 JUN @ 10:56AM - LOST PILGRIMS

At long last, Scouting is making its way into Vagrus. It is a vital feature in navigating and surviving the many wastelands of the continent of Xeryn.

What is Scouting for?
Scouting has two main uses. First, it can give you an indication of what to expect when moving onto specific neighboring nodes on the campaign map. Though these are given in percentages (what are the chances of a fight, and event, or that nothing happens) it still gives a rough idea of risks so that players can make informed choices. Second, Scouting can indicate if there is something fixed on a specific node (either a fixed Event or a Task objective for a faction). This is immensely helpful when looking for something out there in the wilderness with only vague directions to go on.

How do you use Scouting?
You can use Scouting when standing on a node. When you do so, you will have the option to select which neighboring nodes you wish to send scouts to - more than one route costs Resourcefulness for each additional node scouted. Naturally, you'll need scouts to even initiate this action. Scouting costs Movement Points: you have to pay equal to the highest route MP cost. The chance of success for each scouted node depends on how many scouts you send that particular direction and a Scout Master deputy provides further bonuses.

What are the risks of Scouting?
Apart from spending the Movement Points (and potentially Resourcefulness), your scouts have a chance not to return (having fallen prey to one of the many dangers of the wasteland) when you roll a critical failure. This makes spamming Scouting a bad idea, even with a Scoutmaster whose presence reduces the chances of a negative outcome.

Success vs Critical Success
A successfully scouted route provides percentage chances of an Event, combat encounter, or nothing happening. A critical success provides exactly what is going to happen (Event, encounter, nothing) and in case of an event or an encounter, it gives a relative idea of what to expect (obstacles, boon, chance for combat, the challenge rating of a fight, etc).

Scout Master
One of the deputy roles, the Scout Master is extremely useful when it comes to Scouting (as expected). When this role is assigned, it provides flat bonuses to critical success, and reduces the chance of a critical failure. Additionally, you can send scouts to a second node without paying Resourcefulness.

We are very excited to be able to now test Scouting and see how it impacts exploration in the open-world part of the game. We are even more excited to be able to include it in the game builds soon and see how players react.

 

[luj1]

Looks like a Sid Meier game.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Sztaszov]

[Source: Steam devlog post | Twitter]

As we are getting closer and closer to releasing the first playable build of the main campaign of Vagrus, it is perhaps a good time to talk a bit about the differences between the open world campaign and 'Pilgrims of the Wasteland'. The focus of this is going to be narrative design and stories but there are going to be implications on gameplay as well.

Encounters of a Random Kind

One of the most noticeable differences between the standalone story and open world (thought the second part of Pilgrims has this to some extent) is the frequency and importance of random encounters. These Events appear while you are traversing the Riven Realms. The longer it is you haven't come across an Event or encounter, the more likely it is that something will come up.

Part of the encounter Events are unique to each location (regions or sub-regions) while others are more generic and thus can appear in a wide variety of locations. The intent was to give interesting (and dangerous) things to do while en-route to some place and of course, to keep players from becoming careless while 'just traveling'.

There's a Right Place for Everything

Another significant part of Events in the open world part are fixed in location. You can find them by the use of Scouting (or by happening upon them on their node) and interact with them by using the Explore button.

A much more elaborate form of these fixed Events are settlement and point of interest Events. We like to call these persistent Events, though many will disappear upon completing them due to narrative reasons.

Have Anything for Sale?

The aforementioned settlement Events are also mostly persistent; many of these you can repeat again and again, as these represent facilities, shops, tasks you can take, or activities you can do in cities or villages. The selection of these Events gives character and utility to settlements; it also makes players travel between them a lot when certain functions are only accessible (or are only profitable) in certain places.

A Tale for the Ages

The meat and potatoes of content when it comes to Events are of course quests and storylines you can take part of. These are typically started in settlements, though some are accessed through random Events, too. Such storylines come in all sizes and varieties. A certain part of these will be dedicated to Companions' personal questlines. These don't only give backstories to your heroes but are also tied into their progress: Prowess levels 3, 6, and 9 are unlocked by reaching certain points of their questlines.

The impact of quests and stories on the world and the player vary as well but many influence one or the other. Tone also plays into this: Vagrus is low key for the most part but sometimes the player does have an influence on things, for example, in deciding which Trading House wins a rivalry to dominate a settlement. Or if a camp of outlaws get to thrive or be ousted by the Empire.

Challenge Accepted

As you can guess, writing and testing all this complexity is quite a task: the challenge to judge and balance the size and difficulty of Events grows exponentially as more and more content is created. Another tough part is to find the sweet spot of the frequency of random Events, as well as their distribution spatially and even in a timeline (would a story activate only in certain season or at a given point of time?). We have our work cut out for us but the intent is to create a living and changing world that feels dangerous but certainly one you'd want to explore.

We are eager to share the Open world prototype with our Alpha Backers to get feedback about all this and to see what you think of the branching, layered narrative. There are still many things to complete beforehand but we are progressing well, so you can probably expect an announcement about it in the next few months.

The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[Infinitron]

Lots of updates for this game:



https://www.fig.co/campaigns/vagrus-the-riven-realms/updates/945

The New Open Access build is OUT! - Includes Milestone 5
POSTED: 08/08/2019

New Feature: Trade Pricing System
Ever since we came up with the idea of Vagrus, a game where you manage a comitatus, we knew we needed to develop an elaborate, dynamic trade system that would serve as one of the major features of the game and would also aid in fleshing out a living world.

Basic Premises
While trading was always to be one of the main sources of income for the player, we also wanted to avoid creating a pure trading simulator game. It's not that those are not fun for the right people - stories about Gabor dominating the Auction House on our server in World of Warcraft for a period of time still surface in conversations among friends - but because our strengths lie elsewhere. Our unique setting, The Riven Realms, and telling stories with memorable characters was the first and foremost motivation to create Vagrus, so it was also much more likely to excel in that rather than in a simulation - which we knew relatively little of.

For the same reason, our goal was to come up with a game design for trading that supported story-telling and wasn't gonna overshadow it. Hence, trading in Vagrus is just profitable enough to keep you going, to cover the upkeep and consumption of your crew but not much else, making the player look for additional opportunities in the form of Events, carrying passengers and news, or taking on contracts or tasks (a feature we plan to add later on).

Many players highlighted how deep yet consistent the lore and general workings of The Riven Realms felt to them. With a setting so strongly established and transmittable, the challenge of game design is how to integrate other more 'gamey' features into it without breaking immersion too much. With trading, the idea was to create the feel of a natural flow of goods from where they produce them to where others consume those.

The Design
After several prototypes, which either were too complex or too shallow, the one we have been working on implementing into Vagrus during the last few weeks involves quite a number of variants.

Source and Demand
For each settlement, from cities to encampments, we mapped out which goods are created there and whether that was enough for that place. Do they produce a surplus or need a bit more from other sources, or perhaps are completely dependent on the merchants of the realm to bring certain goods to them, or they do not trade at all; we came up with a scale with ten stages describing all kinds of scenarios.

Goods on the Road
If something is not mined, crafted, or produced locally, then it's imported from the closest place where they have a surplus. Of course, no one in their right mind would risk their money - and especially their lives - to carry cargo for the sake of doing good. They do it in hopes of profit, which directly correlates to how distant a location they need to transport those wares from. Towards the right direction that is. In some games, it's enough to carry goods and it's value increases based on how long you have been holding on to them. Not in Vagrus. Players can only make a profit by following the natural commercial flow, from sources of goods to where they are are less available. Carrying cargo between two main sources will result in a net loss if one considers the cost of labor and upkeep.

The Size of Settlements
Of course, commerce is different in a big city than in a small encampment next to a quarry. It impacts the range of goods available on the market, their quantity up for sale, and their prices as well. Cities are generally a bit cheaper since more comitati pass through them, keeping the vital flow of goods running.

Equipment for your comitatus
What you can also buy and sell on the market are the equipment for your comitatus. The probability of finding a certain piece of equipment in a given location is determined based on the size of the settlement mostly but it is also tied to the goods produced there. Like in an encampment near a dig site you are likely to find Mining Tools up for sale.

Conditions
The Riven Realms is a living, breathing world with a grim reality beating down on its inhabitants. Famine, epidemic, oppression, and rebellions are all too known phenomena. Such events affect the market in many ways. A source location suffering from a plague would have less available workforce, leading to the drop of production and ultimately to the rise of prices. Famine in an area means the drop in the number of paying customers and so merchants often drop their prices to be able to make any trade at all.

Time is of the Essence
For the flow of goods to appear even more realistic, we record conditions in time and their effect ripples through the region(s) like a whiplash. The farther the distance between two locations where essential trade occurs (a source and a buyer) the later in time the players will see the prices going up. It may well be that a slave revolt has already been dealt with by the time the price of pottery increases in a place importing that.

The future
Gaining advanced knowledge about an epidemic that stopped, which enables one to sell all their hoarded cargo before the prices on the market drop, can be worth a fortune. Gathering rumors like that would be no small feat but extremely profitable if acted upon.

With the current implementation of our trade system we are not yet adding the generation of rumors about the change in conditions but it is certainly something we would love to add to the game sometime, so you might see it as a future milestone here in our Fig campaign.

Video Demonstration
The short video below demonstrates how the comitatus carries goods from one market to the other trying to make some profit. The quantity and price of goods are calculated based on their source location and the time spent on the road to get to a certain place. Will your comitatus be able to transport them quicker than the market flow to realize a profit?

While these have some impact on the independent story 'Pilgrims of the Wasteland' too, these trade-related features will become even more important pillars in the upcoming Open-World build in which players will be able to explore (and exploit) the first large area of Vagrus - the Southern Jagged Waste, the Plains of Bone, and the plains of Hargad Tuul.

Let us know what you think about the design and how our development progresses, and of course, thank you very much for your continued support!

The Lost Pilgrims Team

PATCH NOTES 0.4.0.
New Features / Content
- The first version of the new Trade Pricing System (including Equipment availability on the settlement Markets) has been implemented
- A dozen+ new goods and equipment added to the game . Not all has the related function, though. Yes, we're purposely teasing you all with 'gives bonus in Crew Combat'. * wink-wink *

Game design changes
- Updated stack sizes for most goods to work better with the new trading system
- Some Market related Tutorial steps changed too
- Rebalanced the Insight flow, both how much perks, etc. cost and how much is gained through events. Very unlike us it happens to be a net positive impact.
- Mortally wounded companions can't be deployed (as originally intended)
- Changing deputy roles is available only during camping (as originally intended)

Bug Fixes ️
- Downed tutorial bug fix
- Removed New Day Autosave bug that sometime broke the event flow
- Fixed the Intro glitch when replayed from the Main Menu
- Fixed various smaller bugs

Coming up next
Now that Trade Pricing System has been deployed, we are moving on to developing Milestone 6: Crew Combat Alpha, while parallel continue to create and test content for the Open-World part of Vagrus.

 

[Sztaszov]

Grand news for Lost Pilgrims Studio - developers of Vagrus - The Riven Realms
[Source: Steam post, Twitter]

We are extremely proud to announce working alongside Chameleon Comix and Ian Livingstone on a City of Thieves graphic novel. Ian has been our hero ever since our little group of friend gathered around one of his books in elementary school. It has been without a shadow of a doubt a key moment in our lives to turn towards table-top roleplaying games, and eventually start our indiegame development studio, Lost Pilgrims. Having this opportunity to work with him is a dream come true and it's even better since we are joining forces with one of those friends huddling around said book. Gyula has been a long time member of our RPG group, played countless hours on our own world, The Riven Realms too, and he now leads this awesome project with his comic books publishing house. Interested in hearing more? Be sure to follow Chameleon Comix and Lost Pilgrims, and meet us at Fighting Fantasy Fest 3 at the end of August.

This is a small project compared to Vagrus but it still feels great that such esteemed author like Ian Livingstone thought us worthy to carry on and support his Fighting Fantasy Universe this way.

 

[Infinitron]

Accepted by GOG: https://af.gog.com/game/vagrus_the_riven_realms?as=1649904300

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/vagrus-the-riven-realms/updates/943

New Milestones, Additional Funding and Platform Announcement
POSTED: 08/29/2019

New Milestones Revealed
It's time we announced some new features and enhancements that our coming down the line for our Backers here on Fig. There are smaller and bigger ones, all leading up to the big release that will be the Open World campaign of Vagrus. Excited? Check out our milestone tracker below and find all the details under the Roadmap tab here on Fig.

Spoiler

Additional Funding Recognized in the Campaign Total Amount
We're excited to share that some of our friends - Gabor's (our CEO) ex-colleagues - elected to pitch in, and so now we have a bit of extra money we can spend on the game, allowing us to bring us much closer to the upcoming milestones. A $10k cash injection you can already see in our campaign total, plus if and when we secure more funding you might see some jumps in the future as well.

'So, why are you tracking external funds as part of the campaign?' - one might ask.

One of the things we liked about Fig's new Open Access model was the idea that our crowdfunding campaign will follow us through our development journey right until the point we release the game, rather than just being a the traditional 30 days sprint. That also brings forth and into the spotlight the fact that crowdfunding alone rarely covers the total cost of producing a game. For reference, games with the scope and quality like Vagrus were typically ball-parked for 0,5-1 million USD by the game industry professionals we talked to.

So, we had two choices:

1. Publish our development milestones with lowered - fake - amounts to allow our community to fund them on its own, while we also rely on invisible other sources.
2. Create the milestones according to their true value and recognize the external funds alongside the Fig Backer pledges, so those together show how we reach our targets.

We believed from the start that the second scenario was not only going to help us to run an open, transparent development but help other crowdfunding campaigns by showing the real costs of game development; and our friends at Fig were in complete agreement. So, that's why the additional funding is calculated thusly.

From Fig: Curious about participating as an investor in Fig Game Shares for Vagrus? You may indicate that interest through the Investment page here!
Laurels All Around

In our endeavor to get Vagrus into the sights of as many cRPG lovers as we can, we applied for featured spots in a number of nearby game shows - successfully! Not only did we get invited to present Vagrus the game itself but our art design and developer pitch has been rewarded as well making it into the official selection of said shows (see above).

That reminds us to bring to your attention the upcoming opportunities to check out Vagrus in person:

• Game Dev Days 2019 in Graz (Austria) on September 6 - 8 [GDD 2019]
• The Strasbourg Fantastic Film Festival in Strasbourg (France) on September 20-22 [FEFFS]
• AdventureX 2019 at The British Library in London (United Kingdom) on November 2-3 [AdvX2019]

...and saving it for last, our 'clickbait' headline:

Platform Announcement: GOG Accepted Vagrus Into Their Portfolio

Back in May when we kicked off our crowdfunding campaign here on Fig we said we were in talks with GOG about potentially publishing Vagrus there. Considering GOG's curated approach with probably the highest standards from within the top gaming platforms, today we are extremely proud and happy to announce that we signed a distribution agreement with GOG for Vagrus - The Riven Realms.

Here's what the GOG's game review team had to say after playing Vagrus:

'Love the beautiful UI, enemy design, extremely well developed lore and worldbuilding. The game is challenging in a good way and maintains a “feeling of oppression” that accompanies the player as he pushes forward.' - GOG.com
Now, time to click that Pledge button if you have not done so yet, then consider sharing this page with your friends so together we can get Vagrus to you sooner, and with even more and better content.

Thanks for your support, know that it means a lot to us and the project!

The Lost Pilgrims Team

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.indiegraze.com/2019/09/07/interview-vagrus-the-riven-realms-dev-team/

Interview: Vagrus: The Riven Realms Dev Team

A post-apocalyptic fantasy RPG, Vagrus: The Riven Realms invites players to lead a traveling company across a dark continent. With crew management, a branching narrative, and turn-based combat as key focus points, I chatted with the Lost Pilgrims Studio devs on their journey to build a forsaken land devastated by a cataclysm. Also, check out the current Fig campaign.

Erik Meyer: As noted above, Vagrus: The Riven Realms brings players into a dark post-apocalyptic fantasy RPG with a branching narrative taking place by way of of events and quests; in some ways, the game feels like a cross between pen-and-paper roleplaying and third-person party-based electronic counterparts (Planescape: Torment meets The Oregon Trail, I say respectfully). Would you agree with that assessment? And what freedoms come with the current play format you’re creating that lead to the kinds of storytelling you’re pursuing?

VTRR: Absolutely. Vagrus came out of our epic tabletop RPG adventures as we have been playing on this home-brew setting, the Riven Realms, for over two decades now; and your examples are spot on. One of our long time Patrons once said ‘.. it’s like all the best elements of the timeless classic Oregon Trail in a much cooler strategy framework.’ The setting and its depth in terms of lore and integrity are what make Vagrus unique, so we have geared everything – the narrative, the music, and even the art style – to help the player get immersed into that. How we present the narrative – with choice and consequence text supported with art pieces to trigger players’ imagination – allows us to unravel the grim nature of this world, how the smallest decisions might lead to the downfall of their companions, perhaps even the whole of the comitatus (‘comitatus’ being the players’ armed traveling company). Factions may like or dislike how the player conducts business, and the morality of choices could very well influence which companions sticks around while others decide to leave the company. On rare occasions, the player’s decisions could seal the fate of Non-Player Characters, or even smaller settlements.

EM: To put it bluntly, the world map is pretty huge, a sprawling continent of spots to visit and have experiences. Given the amount of writing at each location and the kinds of pacing that come with well-put narration, what does your design process look like? How do you keep things balanced, even as you encourage players to roam and explore?

VTRR: The world map is indeed huge, and it only shows one continent, and filling that with content will come gradually. One of the upcoming milestones in our Fig campaign is to release the first region in the main game (the currently available independent story – Pilgrims of the Wasteland – takes place 10 years before the main game in which player’s own comitatus ventures out). That first region with Tor’Zag’s Shelter in its middle will already hold tens of hours of content, and depending on the pace of our crowdfunding campaign, we will keep adding new regions until the game’s release in 2020, and of course we’re hoping its commercial performance will allow us to continue adding content in the form of DLCs.

In terms of design, we motivate the players to set out to the wastelands with a number of mechanics. Events are naturally one, with quests leading to different locations; but also the addition of randomized passengers who want to travel to certain places; rumors that reveal curious points of interest and potential prospects; and of course trade is one of the main sources of income, so players have to keep moving if they want to make some profit.

EM: I’m always curious about the balance between stats and storytelling; management of the attributes of party members and the correlating skills can lead to different outcomes and ways to problem solve, as can leadership decisions at critical narrative junctures, so what unites these things, the numbers and the yarns? How do you see them complementing each other best?

VTRR: Our goal was to give the players options. Many events in the game offer multiple ways to complete them – which could mean anything between getting something of value out of it or just surviving. With higher perks and successful rolls, the player may be able to avoid confrontations, but not always. There are events that require a capable crew and tactical skills from the player to defeat threatening foes. Players’ decision can sometimes lead to events happening this way or another down the line.

Since we started off as tabletop roleplayers, we opted for a stat-heavy design where the players need to watch out for many things. Be it their caravans’ supplies and upkeep, their equipment, or the skills or gear of the companions.

Spoiler

EM: Given the influence of past titles like Dark Sun, where do you see the post-apocalyptic fantasy genre evolving? What kinds of quirks/nuances come with the stories that can take place in these settings? When it comes to world building, how deep do you drill, and what unique aspects of the continent (history, technology, culture) do you feel resonating with your team?

VTRR: In general, the narrative paints a harsh environment and a cruel society, and so when players roam around the campaign map, they also must feel that struggle. Starving, being hunted by deadly creatures, being cheated by business partners, and just the pure fear of the unknown are all elements we wanted the players to experience while keeping alive their thirst to learn more about the deeper secrets of this world. The toughness of the setting has to be communicated and complemented by gameplay so that it never feels a walk in the park.

As opposed to Dark Sun, where I think there’s a distinct motif of environmental catastrophe and a constant abuse of natural resources, the Riven Realms was irrevocably ruined by a thaumaturgical (or divine) phenomenon, the origin of which is being debated and researched to this day. It is a somewhat more metaphysical and philosophical event, more of a commentary on human nature and our quest to become creators. The focus is on how people live and survive in a hostile, twisted world such as the Riven Realms while trying to remain people.

World building for the setting has been going on for over two decades now. The question is really not how deep we can drill, but how deep we should in a video game. The answer probably varies for different players, so we should try to cater to a wider range of audience without forgetting what we want to convey. Our lead writer has always believed in stories and myths told from multiple perspectives, through various narrators with agendas of their own and that is how the Riven Realms has been built. We want players who are invested in the lore to be able to find hidden treasures similar to how they can pursue prospects with their comitatus.

EM: Tell me about Lost Pilgrims Studio and the way everyone contributes; when you have assets that need to be created or milestones to meet, what does the process of executing plans look like? Who has the final say, and what kinds of things have you had to prune along the way?

VTRR: Two of the founders of Lost Pilgrims Studio have come from the RPG group of friends that played the setting of the Riven Realms. Geri as Dungeon Master has been the one creating the world for the many-many campaigns for the players, with being one Gabor amongst them.

Geri continues to be the steward of the setting as creative lead, working with all the creators, be they narrative contributors or art designers. He is also the lead writer on the project, so many of the events come from him. Gabor had a corporate career managing finances, IT, and project teams; now he is in charge of most things connected to numbers and coordination. A producer in the broader sense with responsibilities ranging from fundraising, through project management to game design. Nobo is the coder on the team with occasional interns to support him. His decades of experience enable him to build robust systems and bespoke tools that allow all contributors to push content into the game without further assistance from him. Szonja joined the team a couple months after its founding, taking the role of lead character artist, then soon became responsible for all UI art asset creation, too. Nowadays, she is into learning the ropes of animation to make her beloved characters look even better and more alive on the screen.

EM: You’ve released the Demo on GameJolt and itch.io, as well as an Alpha build via Fig.co, with a fairly sizeable amount of content, so let’s talk about that process and what responses have been like. For many indie devs, putting content out to create interest and get feedback has become essential, but what kinds of reactions have stood out on your end, and how have you tuned your process as a result? How do you see pen-and-paper enthusiasts responding to your work as opposed to newbie gamers?

VTRR: Yes, we also felt that we needed to get out there and get some feedback on the game so we released a demo to a number of indie game portals, for free. As Vagrus is a narrative-heavy RPG-strategy game, the level of quality and polish had to be much higher than it is say for a platformer or shooter indie game. Players are not going to re-read hours of narrative with each change, so we aimed for a ‘decisive’ first experience. It took us a year to get there but looking back on it, it was a sound decision. We got an overwhelming positive response across the board, not only within the TTRPG and CRPG fan communities but new gamers as well. With a growing follower base, we felt ready to launch our crowdfunding campaign at fig.co/vagrus, which brought in hundreds of Backers who now enjoy playing the Alpha build releases one after the other as we develop new features and content.

We are very proud to have gathered a number of laurels with Vagrus already from game shows like Dreamhack, GameDevDays, and even the Strasbourg Film Festival, where we have been selected into a pool of 12 games exhibited to their visitors. We have also just announced that GOG has accepted Vagrus into its portfolio, which, given their high standards, reflects very well on us.

EM: At a time when so many games focus on more-and-more realism in visual assets, I appreciate the art direction; in-game screens remind me of storyteller screens, and even combat animations strike me as simple, reminiscent of cardboard cutouts moved left or right in a puppet show. The quality of the 2d work, along with its consistency, creates a compelling tone. What philosophy directs layout choices, and in the world of 2d design, what do you see as key elements of characters, buttons, and information presentation?

VTRR: To align with the setting, we choose a more realistic – less cartoony – comic book design for the companions and enemies. We assessed our capabilities as a new studio and what we could deliver with high quality; we felt that the western JRPG style would be a great match. The success of Darkest Dungeon revitalizing the genre was a factor too – there’s no denying that. We delivered a strong Alpha version of the combat but we are not stopping there. Companion idle animations are something we have just started to work on, and we are going to tweak a number of things to make the companion combat even more dynamic and impactful.

EM: Unlike many games, your work has its roots in 20 years of roleplaying sessions, so I’m curious about how you see those decades honing and polishing the stories you’re telling. This is your baby, so which parts of the process showed up years ago, and which things are fairly new? Do you feel the many years have brought about great stories or a great process/world through which to tell stories?

VTRR: While we have kept adding to it, the setting itself was already well-developed even a decade ago in terms of cultures, history, key events, and characters. With every new campaign we played, we added granularity and a great number of player and non-player characters. Truth be told, sometimes that is actually a burden, as we feel those stories so close to us that we would consider that as the ‘canon’ of the setting. Thus, we decided to set Vagrus in a time period in which we have not played a campaign before. We still have dozens of intersections with younger versions or forebearers of characters appearing in Vagrus one way or another but we don’t feel we are stepping on our own feet all the time when it comes to set events.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

New Milestones Revealed
It's time we announced some new features and enhancements that our coming down the line for our Backers here on Fig. There are smaller and bigger ones, all leading up to the big release that will be the Open World campaign of Vagrus. Excited? Check out our milestone tracker below and find all the details under the Roadmap tab here on Fig.

the funding is so slow but they're almost at that next milestone now

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Can’t believe I’m only just seeing this. Backed.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

They knocked down another milestone on the roadmap yesterday. Next up is chart exploration:

Milestone 10 — Chart Exploration

Description

Chart Unlockables: Exploration is a main theme in the game and we would like to enhance that in various ways. One thing we planned from the beginning was that the player would not know where all the settlements and points of interest were to start with but unlock them over time.

To achieve that we are going to reveal locations only when the player hears about them through Rumors or Codex entries. This will be only applied to the Open World campaign assuming that the vagrus in the Pilgrims of the Wasteland has seen most locations during his life.

Another change to support it will be the players receiving Insight for discovering new Regions and Point of Interests during their travels. This mechanic will also be applied for the Pilgrims of the Wasteland part of the game.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

They keep on wining! Another one bites the dust. Next up is Companion Select during Events:

Milestone 11 — New Feature: Companion Select during Events

Description

Companion Selection: Situations where a vagrus can not take the whole of their comitatus but just a select few appear throughout our Events. This new feature will allow us to prompt the player to select which Companions they take with themselves. That will mean having only them in a combat situation, getting only their perk bonuses, and of course risking only their lives. Especially in the upcoming Open World campaign of Vagrus where there will be more Companions available, this creates a lot of tense situations.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Additional milestones:

New Open Access build is OUT! - Includes FIVE Milestone Deliveries
The Story Behind the Patch
We have had a busy two months: we got through a Unity upgrade (always fun), overhauled how we store and calculate stats in the game (Property System), added character idle animations, while of course continued to spend significant time with promoting Vagrus through various channels. A good example of this is when we showcased the game in Graz (AT) at GameDevDaysGraz. It was an amazing event, and the greatest moment of course was when RPG dev legend Josh Sawyer came to our table and played the game himself.

As the lead designer of many great RPG titles (Neverwinter Nights 2, Pillars of Eternity I-II, Fallout: New Vegas), Josh is a role model for us and his works are very important sources of inspiration, so him playing Vagrus and talking about RPGs was a dream come true. Our team was beaming when he joined us for a team photo, too.

Need a little help
Oh, before jumping into the details of the patch, we would like to ask you guys to lend us a hand with something. We use a tool called Airtable and we outgrew their free plan so we need to pay for it in hard coin (~hundred bucks/year/user) going forward. They have a referral program, though, which grants us $10 credit for each new sign-up coming through our: referral link (it costs you nothing).

We do believe it's a great tool that you may even make use of but that is not actually needed, just to register in case you wanted to help with footing the bill this way; which also means we, instead, can spend that money on even more and better content. Yay! Thanks in advance!

Spoiler

So what's new in this Open Access build?
New Feature: Character Idle Animations
For the last few months, Szonja has been busy animating our idle characters after we had finally managed to settle on a process. There are still a few of things to smooth out - like identical enemies to move out of sync - but finally the first set of animated characters have now been added to our Pilgrims of the Wasteland story. We decided to have two distinct types of idle combat animations. One is a very simple 'breathing' anim that is the default one for characters, going in an endless loop. The other is a more pronounced movement that sometimes breaks up the more monotonous breathing one. A good example is when Sedarias' eyes lighten up or when a Scortaur raises himself up (see gif below). We are also using the latter type for character activations in combat.

New Feature: Enduring Effects
What are these? Well, in short and to put it simply, these are all buffs and debuffs that last for several in-game days or are permanent (usually until removed somehow). They come in a variety of types and can be used for a lot of things to enhance gameplay and aid the narrative. Apart from the simple distinction of positive and negative effects (that aid and hinder the player, respectively) we identify a number of parameters that set Enduring Effects (EEs) apart into neat little categories.

Leader: This type of EE affects your character, the vagrus. Typically, it'll modify stats like Resourcefulness, or alter Perks your character might have. A good example is Inspiration, which raises the maximum Resourcefulness temporarily, or Blessing of Bal Ur Kaal, which raises the level of social Perks like Charismatic, Con, and Persuade.

Crew: EEs of this kind affect your crew and only your crew (meaning they don't affect Companions for example or your character). Crew-related stats are typically altered by these, such as Vigor or Morale. Examples include Favor of Irafons, which gives MP to your comitatus, or Hangover, which lowers maximum Vigor for a day.

Companion: This type of EE affects a specific Companion or all of them. Since these characters have a wide range of abilities, combat skills, and Perks, these EEs tend to be complicated more often than not. The Blessing of Sergorod, for example, gives a Companion some Accuracy and Critical Hit boosts, while the Wrath of Sergorod makes it so that enemies are more accurate and score criticals more often against your cursed Companion.

Comitatus: EEs that effect your whole comitatus can be more complex, modifying a wider variety of stats and mechanics. They tend to have a Companion-related EE counterpart that is automatically assigned when the parent EE is assigned. Black Rot, for instance, is a dreadful disease that is very contagious. When your comitatus receives this EE, it is transferred to all Companions currently in your employ as well - and keeps killing your crew and Companions until you can rid yourself of the horrid sickness. Disdain of Ahskul affects the whole comitatus, making it more common that Undead show up as random encounters as well as buffing Undead type enemies against you.

New Feature: Random Passengers
Throughout your journeys as a vagrus, you will come across many people who want to get from one place to another on the broken continent of Xeryn. This might seem trivial but travel over the accursed wastelands of the Empire a perilous venture that makes most people try to avoid it whenever they can. Those who do undertake journeys often pay comitati such as yours to take them where they want to be. In-game, this provides an optional source of revenue to help you keep afloat but one that requires you to plan your path ahead considering several factors, including where your passengers wish to go and how long you have to deliver them there.

Passengers are available at mansios (and are randomized) or sometimes in events (where they are specific). You do not only have to feed them on the way but also have to protect them as attacking monsters or outlaws can easily slay them. Mind you, some of them can even give you a hand in defending your comitatus in crew combat (coming soon).

You can see the statistics of passengers related to crew on the Crew Pane, while other information can be observed in your Journal (redesigned to include a Passengers Page).

New Feature: Workforce Mechanics
Workforce is a fairly hidden stat that measures the complete work output of your comitatus. There are a lot of tasks to be done around a venture like yours in the game, and your workforce has to meet the requirements. These include feeding and tending to beasts and mounts, logistical tasks (such as loading or setting camp), cooking, and much more. This is represented by each type of crew member generating a certain amount of 'workforce need'.

To meet this requirement, your workers and slaves generate 'workforce' (with sometimes passengers potentially adding to the mix as well). Ideally, the workforce generated is enough to cover your needs but this can change fairly rapidly out in the wasteland. For one, low Morale and Obedience - a stat we will tell you more about next week - affect workforce and also by losing crew you lose workforce directly.

When you fail to produce enough workforce, bad things start to happen:

• Understaffed (lower workforce than the requirement) applies Movement Point penalties.
• Severely understaffed (workforce below 50% of the requirement) applies severe Movement Point penalties.

Note that we are planning to give more visibility to how your workforce and workforce need numbers come together, and so a user interface update coming in a subsequent build will make this feature truly complete.

New Content: Extended Narration
It has taken much longer than expected to reach Charles - the voice of Agos the Wanderer - due to some personal matters as well as his change of career. We are happy to share that now we have all the narration recorded for Agos through-out Pilgrims of the Wasteland, and even for the beginning of the main game as he leaves your comitatus after sharing his story. We plan to make a few minor sound editing changes to these new recordings but wanted to delay this build no further, so we will do that in a subsequent iteration only. When playing the PotW story, it gives so much to it already that we think you will like this a lot. Also, here's a shout-out for Charles' new focus as he instructs singers on how to become more confident. Check out and sign up to support his Patreon page if you are interested.

So, with that happy image of Charles, let's recap everything in our Patch notes.

Patch Notes 0.4.5
Behind the Scenes

• Upgraded to Unity 2019.2 - enabling the efficient animation of character variations
• Property system implemented - allowing us to add a whole heap of mechanics later on

New Features

• Companion Combat Idle Animations added (some may not be final)
• Enduring Effects system used for Sergorod's Blessing and Mushroom Rot in Pilgrims of the Wasteland (& many more to come in the main campaign)
• Crew Pane UI update to accommodate adding Enduring Effects (more changes will come with MS 14.)
• Random Passengers now appear (sometimes) in the settlement mansios
• Random Settlement conditions also added but will only come into play in the main campaign ️
• Workforce Mechanics now requires you to have enough workers/slaves to tend to your comitatus. Otherwise, your Movement gets severely hindered.
• Goods tooltips now show some useful price info

New / Updated Content

• Narration voice over through-out the complete Pilgrims of the Wasteland story
• An additional random event on the wasteland ️

Bug Fixes ️

• Inspire leader skill now grants its buff immediately (as intended)
• Re-engineered how Movement Points are calculated (players should not notice much other than it now calculates correctly)
• Tutorial box tweaks for 16:10 screens
• Passenger count indicated properly even if they come through events
• Various small equipment effect fixes
• Nodes in reachable distance update correctly while scouting
• Enemy character sheet is available only during the player's turns

Coming up next

• Milestone 6 — Crew combat ️
• Milestone 10 — Chart Exploration ️
• Milestone 11 — Companion Select during Events ‍‍
• Milestone 13 — Hidden Stash and Smuggling Contraband
• Milestone 14 — Unrest and Obedience Mechanics

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Please stop making Darkest Dugeons.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Darth Canoli]

Wow, watching a 50 seconds video of someone selecting some characters to go into battle bored me to death already.

Why the hell didn't they allow to just click the characters in the first part in order to select them and then randomly (or better through formation settings) fill the battle formation, total net gain = 30 seconds (times how many combats you'll have to suffer through)

It smells like incompetence.

 

[Sztaszov]

Wow, watching a 50 seconds video of someone selecting some characters to go into battle bored me to death already.

Why the hell didn't they allow to just click the characters in the first part in order to select them and then randomly (or better through formation settings) fill the battle formation, total net gain = 30 seconds (times how many combats you'll have to suffer through)

It smells like incompetence.

Yeah, well. Using this case for the video might not have been the best idea as it is kinda misleading.

Just to clarify:

• There is no companion select before combats in general. (=you only have the second selection) Interesting idea about the formation deploy, though. We will think about adding that perhaps in the future.
• The companion select functionality that the video was meant to demonstrate is for situations like:
  • You need to select which - say two - companions you are taking to a negotiation with a leader of the Loaders' Guild (aka mob).
  • Who you're sending into a deep dark tunnel to investigate where it leads.
  • etc.

We're using companion select in the story when it is not realistic that you and your whole crew attend to the task at hand. Instead, you need to select your - hopefully - most suitable companions for that, considering that

• you only get the bonuses (perks, gear, etc) of the companions selected;
• they are the ones put in harm's way in case the thing goes south.

In any case, the good thing about running an Open Alpha Access campaign is that we have the chance to gather insights from our players, and like-minded communities like RPGCodex. So keep them coming, we may get disheartened for a moment (like I did yesterday reading this) but then realize how useful it is to get feedback and ideas (like formation deploy) early in the development rather than facing that after the final release.

So thanks again, cheers,
Sztaszov

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Chaosdwarft]

God I love this forum keep finding more awesome games. Where can I give you my money to buy this intriguing game?