Crafting "To Eternity" scenarios
over 5 years ago
– Sun, Oct 11, 2020 at 02:25:51 AM
Have you wondered what to expect from the new ‘To Eternity’ expansion? Then rest your clanky copper equipment for a moment and listen!
Story-wise, To Eternity is the conclusion of the Machina Arcana saga, soon to span a total of 8 scenarios. No spoilers here, but it's safe to say that your witty explorer brains will at last grasp the existence and being of Machina Arcana. Is there a system behind the madness? Will your bodies and soul hold or warp into the abyss?
I also want to introduce our new co-designer Roland Auer, who joined my team to create memorable game experiences for To Eternity. He's not only a passionate Machina Arcana fan, but also enjoys other co-op board games (e.g. Spirit Island, Fireteam Zero), as well as the occasional pen & paper RPG (DSA, ShadowRun, Paranoia). I'll hand you over here for some sparkling new info on To Eternity!
- Juraj
Greeting explorers! Let's fire up that rusty lantern and shed some light onto To Eternity. Maybe you already own Machina Arcana and trust Juraj's design vision, or maybe you have just joined the league of fellow explorers and are still on the fence about getting the new scenarios. There's a chance that you have seen the gameplay video, but this update will also examine several motivations behind the concepts that we plan to integrate.
Disclaimer: This is work in progress! Juraj and I are in frequent exchange to iterate and polish ideas, especially if playtesting gives us reasons to do so. But we will share the following ideas here because we believe in them.
- Duration & Pace: Machina Arcana used to be a long game. And that can be a good thing if you want to spend the evening crawling through murky dungeons. A longer build-up allows for a stronger release into endgame. However, sometimes a compact movie does the job better than a trilogy marathon. In To Eternity, we'll be reducing playtime per scenario by keeping meaningful experiences while shaving off the more stretched out excess. We aim to reduce chapter durations while increasing chapter intensity.
- Tighter Story: The existing scenarios provide a framework to build a plot across a random selection of maps and monsters. We like that. It comes with high replayability too. At the same time, the story can't reliably ignite distinctive moments that feel like from a great novel. But we'd like that, too. The To Eternity scenarios will occasionally ask you to add specific game elements like monsters and maps to serve a more compelling story, while still retaining random selections to keep Horror ever lurking in the fringes, ready to strike terror when you least expect it.
- More Modularity: Chapter tiles are a completely new element, opening up a range of options both for scenario design and for your own community creations. Located at the backside of some chapter cards, they are scenario-specific map-like elements to extend the playing area. This enables us to deliver both additional playing space and changes in atmosphere while keeping costs low for everyone, as map tiles are both expensive to print and to ship. More importantly, it allows us to anchor the tiles directly into the plot and inject them where the story benefits from them most. Some of you have wondered if the tiles will extend over the game mat borders. They won't, as we'll keep the map scrolling mechanism to let you discard old map tiles and avoid designs that would spread wider than the 2x2 map size. In endgames where we have tiles on multiple map edges, the single map tile plus chapter tiles will stay well within the playing area.
- Easier Handling: Machina Arcana isn't a very fiddly game, but we still have plans to slim it down. More specifically:
- Less shuffling. We heard you, I feel it as well. It can be a bit shuffly at times when you introduce new item levels. At this moment (work in progress!), each scenario starts with item levels 1+2. In Parabiosis, we replace the level 1+2 decks with level 3 at a specific point. No sorting in, no sorting out. Of course, it's a buff to guarantee a level 3 draw. So this would only happen quite late in the game.
- Less spawn & horror rolls. Instead of rolling the dice each spawn and horror phase, the ratings for both just tick down by one each round. That also allows for some interesting new countdown mechanics. It comes at a cost, as the increased player control may result in less tension caused by chancy monster spawns. We're currently exploring how we can still build a solid foundation for drama in the chapters where we need it.
- Health tokens become wound tokens. This rule change will also be for the Core game. When wounding a monster, you deal the token. It will reduce token handling, as low level monsters with 1 health don't need a token at all anymore.
That's the juicy part so far. I also want to state that I've been absorbing both the BGG forums as well as the comments in this campaign. Many great ideas! I can only encourage you to come up with your own creations to enrich the Machina macrocosm. Juraj has always been supportive of fan creations and we enjoy seeing you twisting this game into your own fantastic shape. If anyone is interested, I'd also clean up the GIMP files I used for designing my previous fan scenarios (On Wings Blackened: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2376971/community-scenario-wings-blackened, Blood to Stone: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2377590/community-scenario-blood-stone) to kickstart your own tales.
Ok, I got to run. Cthulhu is knocking.
See you in the Machina,
- Roland
PS: Fiiiiine, I’ll tease my favourite mechanic that we've baked into one chapter! At specific times, explorers need to be adjacent to each other to stay sane. Of course, we've got true solo heroes covered as well, but now I'm spilling too much already … ;)
