Thorgal: Update #19 – Gameplay and weekend plans

Hello backers, today’s update is short, but is full of important information! Let’s go!

Stretch goal

As for the moment of writing this update we have more than 700 of you voting in our stretch goal poll. We really appreciate your engagement and positive feedback on this Quest Stretch goal idea.

If you have not voted yet, remember it is up to you to decide if you want to upgrade Enemy tokens, or if you prefer an additional ally in the game.

You can vote in the poll HERE.

FAQ

How about the gameplay?

We are very happy to present you game play of Thorgal and we are happy to do it in the form of a live stream – that means we are playing and you can be with us in the chat and ask questions and discuss the gameplay. What is more – the special guest of this gameplay is Jan Maurycy, one of the designers of the game!

Here is a link to the gameplay – it is today, on Friday, 2pm CEST.

What is the time schedule for Thorgal?

The game is scheduled for Q1 2024 release. We will publish a schedule of production, transport and more details on Monday.

What’s happening on the weekend?

This weekend our team will take a well deserved break. We won’t be answering questions in the comments, Gosia will take two days off, also the rest of the team will get some rest and prepare for epic Monday.

However! On Saturday we will take a break, from our break to check the results of the Poll and announce the winning Stretch goal!

We also have scheduled a small surprise for you for Sunday, so please, visit us on Sunday too!

And of course, we wish you an awesome weekend!

Meet the team

Today let’s present Jan Maurycy, one of the designers of the game! Jan has been with Portal Games since 2018, he works in dev team as Prototype Hunter and Game Developer. He is responsible for testing prototypes provided by the authors from all around the world.

Jan’s favorite Thorgal book is Arachnea, and he loves the illustrations by Fred Vignaux.

Besides working for Portal Games and playing games, Jan is really into comic books and collects beer caps (he has tons of it, I don’t know how many thousands of them).

Rules

One round, one roll. Fighting is not cutting down a tree, it is not hacking away with an ax at a thick trunk and removing hit points from it blow by blow. It is a jump, a strike, sometimes a parry, sometimes a retreat, but then a strike again.

In solo play, players can enjoy complicated systems and have fun in tactical fights that last many rounds, but here, when three or four players sit at the table, no one wants to watch you fight a pack of wolves for 10 minutes.

On the first note, the first assumption about the fight was: One roll.

Why dice, why roll? Couldn’t the fight be based on cards like in Gloomhaven or Kemet? Couldn’t we come up with something original? Use the bag-building mechanism to learn new blows and draw a specific attack token during the fight? Couldn’t we design a duel board with a simple worker placement mechanism representing specific types of attacks? Players would place their action pawns on specific types of attacks and realize the effects of those spaces…

It was possible. Of course, it was. Unique combat rules in games are barely touched. It is a deposit that hides dozens of ideas yet to be fulfilled and considered by the creators.

So why just roll the dice?

Because we love RPG games. Because we grew up on D&D or Warhammer. Because there is nothing more classic than rolling dice for an attack.

In Thorgal, each opponent is represented by a card. The card has a layout of spaces on it. The spaces have spots that must be hit to defeat them. There are also spots to avoid. And some spots that will provide us with additional bonuses such as Experience Points.

How does the fight look?

You draw an opponent card. You build a dice pool. It depends on what kind of hero you play, how you developed them during the game (details in future updates), what weapon and special equipment you have (details in future updates), and all other additional bonuses.

You take this dice pool and roll. Each die will indicate which token you can draw. You lay the tokens on the opponent’s card.

Lay them out to cover the fields that will allow you to defeat them.Lay them out, being careful not to cover the fields indicating that you are wounded.Lay them out to gain some Experience Points.

One roll. Several tokens. More than a dozen tactical solutions. Will you attack to defeat them, even though you will be wounded? Will you attack accurately, knowing you can’t arrange the tokens to gain experience?

One roll. A lot of tactics.

See you on Monday

Thank you for today! Do not forget to vote in the poll!

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