Thorgal: Update #20 – That was a busy weekend!

I hope you had a blast this weekend. I, myself, went to the movies to watch Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among Thieves and had a blast. But the weekend is over, we are back after the weekend, and we have a ton of new content for you and for Thorgal: The Board Game.

Stretch goals

First of all, the quest, the adventure, and the poll for the stretch goal is over. You shaped the game as you like it, we had over 900 voters in the poll, which is a pretty awesome number! The chosen one is Frigg’s cat – your new pet ally! Frigg’s cat adds special rules in the Area where he is present and adds a nice twist to the game.

Then, on Saturday, we had another small surprise for you, and we added a small gift – a custom wooden First Player marker with the classic illustration from the Thorgal comic.

And then, on Sunday we added something pretty epic – an additional scenario. This is 9th scenario in the box! Here is a short description:

The bloody games begin, in which the life of the gladiators is not only a plaything for the powerful, but also a source of power for the enchanted walls of the labyrinth and its ruthless rulers.

The ninth scenario of Thorgal throws the heroes onto the arena of a magical labyrinth. Players start in different teams of gladiators with one command: to kill in order to survive! Each defeated gladiator, each drop of blood spilled, is a sacrifice to the ancient menhirs, whose power is consumed by the three Masters of the Labyrinth. The players’ task is to break this ancient circle of death. The path to this goal leads through the search for a hidden exit from the labyrinth, the destruction of the enchanted menhirs, and the defeat of the powerful Masters in mortal combat.

The scenario comes with 4 new Action cards, 8 special Gladiator cards, another amazing map in the Atlas of Adventures, and of course dozens of new paragraphs in the Book of Tales.

And on top of that, today we are adding 8 additional Items to the Items deck. All of them with original illustrations from Thorgal comic books. These cards add to the replayability of the game with a wider range of items players can craft.

FAQ

As for what is happening in the campaign, two very important pieces of news.

Can I see the gameplay?

First of all, we published the full gameplay of the first scenario. It starts with an explanation of the rules, and then we play two-player variant of the first scenario in the game. Players picked Thorgal and Kriss as their characters and tried to defeat evil Torkan. Take a look:

How’s the production schedule?

Today we are also sharing with you our plan for the timeline of production of the game. Please, keep in mind this is an estimated plan and might change, although after many campaigns already created by us, we feel we are able to provide you a good estimation of the process.

Meet the Team

Today I’d like you to meet Damian, our production manager. He is fully responsible for talking with manufacturers, for product samples, for quotations, and decisions on what paper and thickness the game is made of, and all other details of the physical product. Damian has been with Portal Games for over 5 years now, and he has a great experience in his field.

Damian’s favorite board game of all time is Star Wars: Rebellion, and his favorite Portal Games game is Detective! Besides board games, Damian plays football and is a member of the official fan club of FC Barcelona!

Rules

When we play, we often have our own hero. Oh, of course, I know that we don’t embody any hero when playing Age of Steam, Ticket to Ride, or Catan. In Euro games, even when their theme suggests that we are someone, whether in Barrage (the company director) or Pillars of the Earth (the cathedral builder), it is basically an illustration, two sentences in the rulebook, and that’s it. Level I immersion!

It is more interesting in hybrid games, like Robinson Crusoe – everyone has their own hero, has their special abilities, and even has hit points! Still, there is no talk of role-playing or embodying, but players certainly feel the asymmetry and that they are playing someone. Let’s call this level II immersion in the role.

Going one step further in the direction of adventure games, here we play full-fledged, whether it’s Massive Darkness or Death May Die, we have our character cards, we have statistics, we have our figures, this is level III immersion here!

And the last one on the scale of embodying heroes, RPG games, whether it’s D&D, Call of Cthulhu, or any other – the player hero is the axis and foundation of the whole game. This is full immersion, this is level IV, the highest.

In the game of Thorgal, player heroes would fall somewhere between levels II and III on the immersion scale. If I were to vote, I would give it a 2.7.

Regarding what describes our hero and how it differs from the other characters in the game, firstly, there are Combat dice and Journey tiles. This is the first element of hero diversity, some characters are better fighters, and others are better explorers, not only do they differ in their starting levels of these attributes, but also in their development path – for the experience gained in the game, they will ultimately achieve different levels in these abilities. Additionally, by gaining higher levels of Journey, they will unlock unique permanent perks for themselves.

Heroes also differ in their starting items, although this will quickly be able to be unified as one of the actions in the game is Craft. Soon players can create new equipment, and although, for example, only one of them started the game with a bow, soon all the others will be able to arm themselves. Each hero also starts with a different set of starting resources – one of them will start with more knowledge of the area (Gossip), another with a big purse (Ore), and another with more knowledge of local myths and legends (Ancient Knowledge).

Heroes also differ from each other in their abilities. Each of them has one distinctive ability related to playing action cards. For example, Thorgal, as a persistent and unyielding person, ignores the rule that when performing an action, you must move your pawn to a different action. Kriss can cheat, so if she wants, she can use bonuses from pawns located to the right of her pawn – these are purely mechanical abilities, but nicely linked to the hero’s theme and story. Using these abilities is free, but once an ability is used, resources must be spent to unlock it again. Using them at the right moment is often crucial to a positive scenario outcome.

The last element is the Wound area – here, heroes do not differ in the number of hit points but in the shape of the entire area – in the first or second game, these nuances will be difficult to detect. Still, with each subsequent game, players will discover that the shape of this board significantly impacts the ability to survive battles and dangers!

This is how immersion at level 2.7 looks like! It is not a role-playing game, we don’t have a character sheet, a series of abilities, or different skills, but there are a few interesting, simple solutions that will make the gameplay with Kriss and Arricia different from the gameplay of Thorgal with Jolan, it will have a different vibe and atmosphere.

Wow, that was a lot of information.
Come back tommorow, we are preparing something special!

Ignacy

Learn more about Thorgal: https://gamefound.com/projects/portalgames/thorgal-the-board-game