Back to gaming mode. This time not dCG. It’s tabletop game. The game is called, Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood. This is a 1-4 player tabletop, story driven legacy adventure game with miniatures, dice and cards. The game planned to be shipped for KS backers in December 2020. So expect public release In sometime 2021. Since I myself is new to this genre of game, I am writing this from the digital card gamer perspective.
What is Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood
In short, this is a narrative, 1-4 player cooperative, legacy board game utilizing cards, miniatures and dice in a setting of original dark low fantasy world. The game had successful kickstarter with 11,518 backers and almost $2 million dollar pledge. While kickstarter has been a great funding source for tabletop games, as a new company without any reputation, this is an amazing achievement.
If this is the first time you are reading about the game, you and I unfortunately missed the kickstarter. Furthermore, it is most likely that you’ve also missed the late pledge opportunity, which is closing in couple days on 3/31/2020 as of the time I am writing this.
The game is planned for delivery in 12/2020. Given relatively large number of backers, it is safe to assume once the pre-order shipment is filled, there will be public order option (though miniature option may not be available at that time).
Due to COVID-19 Pandemic, Shadow Bornes made an announcement of reopening pledge manager in June or July today 3/29/2020.
With that in mind we will be reopening the PM in a few months specifically for those who have not completed their pledges yet. We intend to give time for things to settle down for those being affected and will likely reopen the PM in June or July. Just to clarify for those affected, as long as you complete your order during this reopening period it will be included in the first wave of shipments.
Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowborne-games/oathsworn-into-the-deepwood/posts/2791510
I would assume this only applies to those who are kickstarter backer who have not completed their pledge so it won’t apply to new preorder.
Game overview
The game consists of story and encounter parts. In the story part, there are stories to be read with choose your own adventure style consequence. Your choice during the story mode change who you meet (potential ally), what part of story to be told, and of course impact on subsequent battle part (perks or disadvantages). The encounter part use battlefield where four characters (player’s party) goes against enemy creature(s) with each encounter being boss level encounter i.e. no grinding encounters in Oathsworn.
From the card gamer perspective, the battle part can be seen as physical card game with board element. Unlike most TCG/CCG that I generally play, this is not Player vs. Player but rather Player(s) vs. AI. When played as multiplayer, you and your friends will be on the same team. Enemy is played by AI, which means Enemy action is decided automatically based on its specific rule with variance added by card drawn from enemy specific deck at various timings during the encounter.
The player character is enhanced by equipment cards, changes level from story progression, modification tokens. The total play time of the game is advertised as 45+ hours.
Game Mechanics
From the card gamer’s perspective, encounter/battle system is the key interest. Followings are of primary questions I look in the game mechanics.
- How much luck driven the game is? I.e. is there too much randomness?
- Is there enough variation in gameplay style?
- Is there enough strategy and tactics in the game design?
Randomness ~ Dice vs. Cards ~
The combat system itself is a ‘push-your-luck’, ‘exploding’ system. The ‘push-your-luck’ part means that you choose how many dice you roll or cards you draw (called rolling from now on for ease). However, if you ever roll 2 or more blanks, the whole attack misses (there are 2 blanks on each D6). The damage is there for the taking if only you can land the blow…Thankfully there are mechanics in place to help you mitigate those missed attacks such as re-roll tokens. A push-your-luck system like this really allows you to feel like you’re in the action, gripping the haft of your weapon and judging the moment to strike. Each attack is a choice not just a number.
The ‘exploding’ part of the system concerns critical hits. On the dice above you will see the crit symbol surrounding some of the numbers. When you roll a crit, the dice explodes and another dice pops out that can be rolled for free (this new one ignores any misses as it is an extension of the crit dice). If that new dice crits another dice pops out and so on and so on allowing truly epic attacks that can lop off monstrous limbs in a single swing, should the fates be with you…
Source: https://www.shadowborne-games.com/post/welcome-to-the-deepwood-june-2019
Some loves this randomness of Dice and others cannot tolerate. From card gamer perspective, just look as resource/mana screw. If attack is decided by dice roll, one time you may have epic moment and other time, you can completely miss. In fact, this randomness is something Gloomhaven designer Isaac Childres took out by use of card based attack modifier over the dice.
In the Oathsworn, the developers realize players vary in their preference when it comes to use of dice system, so they have given an option to use either dice or dice equivalent card. Here they call might dice or might cards.
Because the might deck consists known number of empty card (or any other card) so one can calculate the chance of miss or epic damage based on what you have drawn previously while still providing some randomness/variance in game play but not to the extreme.
Playstyle Variation
One of main appeal in the strategy card game over traditional strategy game like Chess is variation in fundamental play style. In Oathsworn, each character has unique, completely different play style. This variation is created by means of Oathsworn(character)’s special ability as well as piles of ability cards specific to the class. This is nothing different from Hero or Champion with its specific deck in trading/collectible card games.
Example below show two different Oathsworns with completely different style of play.
The Huntress class’s one of unique mechanics is that she controls two Falcons, which act as movable/controllable tag on enemy or friendly creatures. Tagged creature(s) can subsequently be target of specific ability card.
Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowborne-games/oathsworn-into-the-deepwood/posts/2673747
In the setting of this low fantasy world, Magic requires existing resource. For example, fire spell needs fire source and cannot be create out of nowhere; hence, the witch carries torch and water bottle. To reflect this story setting, Witch’s special ability creates/expands Fire or Water fields each turn, which then allows casting of certain spell (i.e. ability card).
From the game design, this is essentially creating another, special resource to manage if you choose to use Witch. In fact, one can think of this as two elemental resource system that gives self management.
Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowborne-games/oathsworn-into-the-deepwood/posts/2670162
Between these two Oathsworns, you can see how different play style and unique mechanics. Other Oathsworn’s also have their own unique play style. For instance, Ranger class is a token driven class if that’s the style you prefer playing.
Strategy ~ Card game mechanics ~
If I were evaluating PvP card games, I’d specifically look for followings to assess depth of the gameplay, which often (but not always) ties to strategy/tactical depth of the game.
- Resource System
- Interrupt presence (Dynamic Interactive Play vs. Purely Turn Based Play)
- Card Types
Though campaign/coop tabletop card games have completely different design space and therefore above points may not be always applicable. Having said this, Oathsworn actually have all 3 components in some way; hence, it is worth looking.
Dual Resource System ~ Automatic Resource System + Battle Flow System ~
The primary resource system equivalent from the game like Magic the gathering in Oathsworn is called Animus. This is an automatic resource system where every turn you regenerates specific number of Animus e.g. 6 at level one. Animus is what you need to move your character (1 hex/animus) and also each card costs specific Animus.
For example, Batter card below costs 4 Animus to use (left upper corner #).
In these types of games, your hand size is essentially an entire deck. So there is some system to recover those cards back into your hand. Hand size is considered ‘stamina’. So how is Oathsworn deal represent Stamina? This is where they have created second resource system, called Battle flow system. ‘Cooldown’ number is depicted on right upper corner, which is 1 in the case of card above.
The card you have casted is placed on the position around your character based on its ‘Cooldown’ value. So with a Cooldown value of 1, the card will be placed on the left.
These cards won’t move themselves around the board. In order to get that card back into your hand you need to battle flow that card around the board back to zero (0). Once it’s at 0, you may then either pick it up during the refresh phase or battleflow it again back into your hand by some other means.
How do you battleflow cards? There are a number of ways, but the main one is by playing other cards from your hand. As one card is played to a numbered position it ‘battleflows’ all other cards already at that number once around the board towards 0. Quickly, you build up a landscape of potential which, if you can manipulate it in the right way, will let you push those cards around in a smooth motion, eventually returning them to your hand so you can use them again. The feeling is hard to describe but it becomes a mini-game where you not only get to pull off the special ability of the card but also get the double satisfaction of pushing those other, much needed, cards around closer to your hand.
This is design space itself, so beside playing other ability cards to push around other cards, you can have battle flow token, equipment or ability card with text ability to battle flow.
Interrupt
Interrupt system is an ability to counteract other player’s action during other player’s turn. This is a system in the card game to provide dynamic interactive play in comparison to purely/strictly turn based system where no-one but current player can play.
The main complaints against intercept/interrupt system in the games like Magic the Gathering is when one gets interrupted your biggest move turn after turn, it just feels boring rather than fun. Fortunately, against AI this is not a concern.
Oathsworn supports interrupt system by means of two-fold.
The first is by means of the reactive defense. Just before enemy tries to attack i.e. before rolling might dice or taking might card, you can cast a card without any animus from your hand and add defense value indicated at the bottom center of the card i.e. 2 in the card above. This card goes to normal cool down position i.e. 1 for the example above, which triggers normal battle flow. This is the simplest form of intercept during enemy’s turn, specifically to enemy’s attack. This defensive use of ability card gives tactics to your action e.g. should you just use ability card during your character’s turn or save it for anticipated attack from enemy in subsequent phase.
Besides this simple defensive intercept, Oathsworn actually has a real intercept system. Cards with Hand icon represents intercept ability in Oathsworn. These cards may be used when the specific condition written right of the icon is met.
For the card above, Bite can be used after an adjacent enemy rolls damage (which is during enemy’s turn).
Card Types
As a card gamer, I always look for number of card types as it correlates with a variation of play style and depth of game play since each different card type gives a different design space for designer to change game around.
Player character/Oathsworn
In Oathsworn, champion/hero card is represented by Character/Oathsworn itself with each having unique special abilities as mentioned above.
Besides the unique special ability, each Oathsworn have multiple stats/parameters, which can be modified via other cards, event/action in story, change in level etc. These parameters include:
- Health Point
- Defense value
Total damage dealt is calculated by attack divided defense with any ignored) e.g. 10 damage rolled on might dice to 3 defense character equates to 3 HP loss. - Might
This is basically a way to increase baseline attack of the creature. - Animus Regeneration
Furthermore, Oathsworns will have additional modification by means of tokens e.g. battle flow token, re-roll token, upgrade dice token etc.
Ability Cards
Each Oathsworn have a pool of own ability cards, which will grow as the story progresses. During each encounter, you select 7 cards from the pool and throughout the encounter those 7 card will be used. This is different from conventional PvP card game as you are not drawing from deck.
When I first heard this, I felt 7 cards seem a bit too limited in variation of game play but some have more than one action to choose. For instance, Eye Gouge above let you choose either to use as Interrupt ability or spending 3 animus and use as simple attack. Furthermore, each card can be used as defense card.
Equipment Cards
Oathsworn/player characters can be equipped with equipment cards. These card can change character’s stat by means of such as changing might (color of combat dice/card), defense value, giving new ability. The ability may be passive or active with latter being one time use during the encounter.
This is card type is extensive than a single card type as one can be weapon or armor, one vs two hand, and different character can equip only certain types of equipment. So this card type allows customization your character.
Ally cards
Allies are part of story, but when it comes to encounter, they acts as backup in an event of your character is eliminated. During the encounter when Ally replaces the character, they can be considered as a simplified character with stats.
Companion
Although it may be nice if my children can play this with me, my primary play will be a solo. Oathsworn requires always 4 character party but single player controlling all 4 characters may be a bit too much management for some, so they have created a companion system. This is where characters may be replaced by simplified companion cards.
Other way to look at this system is, yet another card type with you control your main character and other characters via means of companion card system. In order to give, customization in companion system, Archetype cards exist.
Enemy
When it comes to enemy, these types game commonly use AI system. In Oathsworn, all encounters are designed as boss fight i.e. no grinding battle. Unlike PvP card game, enemy representation is asymmetrical when compared to player.
For instance, the bosses have parts/location with each location having individual health points. Variance of AI is represented by the its own deck. During boss’s turn, a card is drawn from the deck and that is the action taken by the boss during the turn.
The location system went through some iteration in design, and currently when a location (body part) is heavily damaged i.e. health point of the part becomes 0, it will limit the action of the boss that uses that specific part by means of taking one might card/dice out when making an attack with that body part.
For instance, Tail whip uses tail so if tail location is heavily damaged, Brood Mother rolls one less dice or take one less card. This supposedly usually reduce about a 20-25% in damage output.
Whenever a location is heavily damaged, the boss make immediate reaction i.e. a card from the boss’s deck is immediately drawn and executes even while it is player’s character turn.
There are three action/reaction decks (at least for Broodmother) based on the stage of the boss. This system reflects progressive change of the boss action as the encounter intensifies. For example, the Broodmother changes from Stage I to Stage 2 when 2 locations become heavily damaged.
Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowborne-games/oathsworn-into-the-deepwood/posts/2729413
Battle Field
Since the game uses battle field, there are intrinsic game mechanics associated with the use of battle field. This includes simple/common mechanics of moving creature, ranged attack, area of effect, formation as well as environment effect. Here, it is safe to assume hexes in the battle field are fully utilized design space for game play mechanics.
Formation is relative position of friendly creature affecting others with simple example like below.
An example of environmental effect include Push-back damage with ally hitting obstacle result in extra-damage. Another is a special ability of Ranger class. Trees in the game is considered obstacle that players are not allowed pass through. However, Ranger’s special ability utilize Trees means as a transporting portal.
Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowborne-games/oathsworn-into-the-deepwood/posts/2654133
Other Highlights
Besides the apparent depth of the encounter game mechanics, there are many other components of the Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood appear intriguing. The tabletop had not been my game genre of interest in the past, but as with anything else, once I got a passion to the genre, I immediately started thorough tens of hours of online research. In fact, as of right now the online research is still ongoing process. Amongst several other Legend adventure tabletop games I have encountered during my research, this game stood out for various reasons. Here are lists of other highlights about the game.
Art
As a TCG/CCG fan, arts are inseparable component of the game. The arts in this game are undisputably AAA quality by anyone’s standard. This is in fact what got my attention to the game in first place. If it wasn’t this art quality, I would not have started digging into the intricacy of the game.
Story driven
One of the main emphasis of the Oathsworn in contrast to paradigm of the genre, Gloomhaven is strong emphasis on its story. Even someone like myself who do not read any English novel, the story have an appeal. One of the writer of the game is a NY Times best seller.
There are strong ties between the story and encounter. For example, allies are only there during your encounter part of the game if you’d actually met them based on your choice during the story part. These allies supposedly have their own story arc i.e. more than just a little gimmick. Another example is Oathsworn’s play style are reflected by their character personality/background lores in the story.
During story part, map like above are used. Basically, based on choices we can travel to different part of town and encounter different events.
The map travel is timed with moving from one location to another moving one time counter. So it is not infinite, eventually see all locations type gimmick.
Source: https://www.shadowborne-games.com/post/the-last-moon-september-2019
Not to forget, the setting of the game is important. This is very subjective but my personal preference is a fantasy world over Sci-fi. Oathsworn categorize itself as dark low fantasy. The big name in dark fantasy genre in tabletop is Kingdom Death: Monster, the game which raised jaw-dropping $12 million on Kickstarter. However, the Kingdom death has too much nudity and rather appeared too dark for my taste. In contrast, based on what I have seen so far, Oathsworn appear dark but inline of what I am used.
Solo and Coop
While coop and solo play in this genre is common, the developers have built a ‘companion’ system to add extra-layer of support for solo play. In fact, one of online reviewer stated perhaps ‘companion’ system may allow less experienced/sophisticated player to play this game together e.g. some kids.
Minitures
Many of the tabletop board games appear to emphasize on miniatures at least in the genre of game I am looking at. I have never got into the miniatures in the past but I can see in right game, miniatures can add overall experience of the game itself just like high quality arts in collectable card game do. From what I see, Oathsworn have very high quality minis with interesting swappable armory features.
Companion App
The game has companion app with full narration of the entire game story by one of Game of Throne’s actor. This app also navigates the story mode decision choice. I’d also assume the app will aid tracking some of encounter stat changes.
Missing Features
So what’s missing on this game?
No town building element
From what I researched, many of games in this genre incorporates city/town building element. Oathsworn has no equivalent to this. Perhaps, this may be one major omission for the game of this size.
No crafting system
This is another feature missing in Oathsworn. The Frosthaven, new version of Gloomhaven, will be adding craft system, which is one of new of core game mechanics. So this is certainly a feature enough people looking for.
No experience points
With leveling system, it is natural to think one need to accumulate experience points in order to level up the character. However, Oathsworn elected to use automatic level up system. Basically, as you progress in the story i.e. chapter progresses i.e. after each encounter, all characters levels up automatically.
Since each encounter is boss battle, I think it is fair to have level upgrade after completing them. Furthermore, it takes away tidious extra book keeping, probably not adding significant game play experience.
Only 45 hours of gameplay
It depends on how one looks at it, but 45 hours for entire game play is far from calling biggest game in this genre when it comes to play time. For example, recently completed kickstarter project, Stormsunder claims 100 hours for each expansion with massive 300 hours game play for entire trilogy.
Having said this, the time one spends on grinding for experience points for leveling up or looting for items are not the equivalent as epic boss battle. So if Oathsworn’s game design decision was such that they have intentionally removed all grinding for experience points, looting for items, and just left every unique boss battle encounters then intense, condensed 45 hours can be better than 100 hours in other games.
Conclusion
From the card gamer perspective, Oathsworn appears to have the fundamental game design to provide combination of game variance and depth with strategy and tactics especially with its unique battle flow system. Along with AAA quality arts with immersive story, this game indeed has a potential to be the next Gloomhaven (#1 Boardgamegeek tabletop game).