SplatterCatGaming checked out Heretic Operative:

Heretic Operative - Tabletop Occult Board Game!

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Heretic Operative Gameplay with Splat! Let's Play Heretic Operative and check out a board game where you'll resist the forces of chaos and attempt to save the world from their corrupted influence!

Heretic Operative has been released on Steam to a 10% launch discount.

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Launch day!

19 Feb @ 5:15am - Xemu

We are live! Heretic Operative will be -10% off for the first week as a launch discount.

Check out the game and please let us know what you think by leaving a review!

Come chat about the game here on our Discord server:

https://discord.gg/KfjK973

But of course we're not done with Heretic Operative at launch. We look forward to applying your feedback to the game on both balance and bug patches, as well as adding more new Adventures, Operatives, and more.

[...]

Magic is a sin. It corrupts everything it touches.

Those who use magic are branded as “Heretics” by the church, and heresy is punishable by death.

At the fringes of civilization, the mages of the Cultus Arcanum give themselves freely over to the Corruption – performing dark rituals to let loose untold nightmares upon the world.

It will take a powerful heretic to preserve the spark of magic against both the Church and the Cult.

You are that Heretic Operative.

• Control a secret society dedicated to using magic for the benefit of the world, at a time when all mages are considered “heretics” to be hunted by the Templars.
  
• Master over 50 different spells to overcome challenges in and out of combat. But be wary of the Corruption that accompanies magic. The more powerful you become, the greater the risk of losing control.
  
• Fight enemy cultists, zealous templars, and ravenous monsters through a unique dice-based combat system. Employ mercenaries, devastating spells, and powerful artifacts to prevail.
  
• Explore the Northern Reach, where the frayed edges of the Empire are under constant threat. From vast museums in the city of Ione, to the farms in the countryside, to ruined temples of ancient gods, to camps of raiding Orcs, every location offers unique challenges.
  
• Make contact with other Heretic Operatives and recruit townsfolk to spread your Heretical influence and stop the diabolical Cultus Arcanum.
  
• Encounter more than 270 different adventure cards, full of challenging decisions that change the way your story unfolds. Will you risk your life and mission to save innocents from a burning building or live with the stain on your soul from abandoning them? Will you stand your ground against the Orcs for honor’s sake or be more prudent and flee? Do you bother to learn all of the verses in the Elven Song of Greeting or is now the time to take a stand against ridiculous Elven ceremony?
  
• More than 7 playable Operatives (and counting), 6 different story decks, and 4 enemy cults, means your story plays out differently each time. Use different strategies and wisely deploy your resources to defeat the most challenging combinations.

Heretic Operative intertwines deep gameplay with a dynamic story to create an innovative and original experience: a unique fusion of strategy, RPG, and board game mechanics.

RPGamer interviewed the devs of the upcoming strategy RPG Heretic Operative:

Heretic Operative Interview

C Prompt Games is a new studio founded by industry veterans Ian Fischer and Robert Fermier, who previous worked together at Ensemble Studios and Robot Entertainment. They just recently announced C Prompt Games’ first title Heretic Operative, which they describe as a narrative strategy RPG, and it will be available early 2019 on Steam. Ian and Robert were kind enough to take the time to answer several of our questions about their upcoming game.

Johnathan Stringer (RPGamer): What is the goal and vision of C Prompt Games? Is there a back story into the studio’s creation?

Ian Fischer and Robert Fermier (C Prompt Games): Ian and I have worked together for years and we share similar perspectives on design. Among these, we are motivated by system-based design and emergence in games. We feel the best stories in games are the ones that players make for themselves as they play, and we like to think about how to best deliver those experiences. That is not something that everyone understands or enjoys and our time working in larger teams let us experience some of the problems you can have trying to get unique designs to retain their uniqueness in that environment. We started C Prompt to create a place that was about making games that focus on strategy, systems, and deep, player-created narrative.

JS: What is Heretic Operative? Can you give us a high level description of the game? What are some of the design and gameplay highlights that sets it apart, and what is the planned release date and platform?

IA/RF: In terms of gameplay, Heretic Operative is a “narrative strategy RPG” — which basically means that it takes story and character elements of an RPG, and merges them the resource management and structure of a board game.

You play as the leader of a band of Heretics — a secret society of magic users in a world where magic has been outlawed by the Church. Magic is being used to bring about huge disasters by a rival group of mages called the Cultus Arcanum (or just “the Cult”). Caught between these two warring factions, the Heretics have to find a way to save the world while being hunted by both sides.

Turns play out fairly differently based on a player’s strategy (and how well things have been going with that strategy). In general, you think a lot about locations. There are different places on the map and every place has a certain character, which is produced by the kinds of adventures likely at the location and the kinds of actions that can be taken there. So, first, you are thinking about the skills your operative has (or operatives have if you have been recruiting) and how they can be put to use. Are you trying to build up your ability in magic and learn new spells? You might want to try to get into the Elven Archive. Do you have an agent with high corruption that you are worried about losing? If you can get them to the Desolate Isle, there are a lot of options there for cleansing. Are you trying to gear up a bit more? There are shops in the Museum District, but you are likely to run into Templars from the Church there, so make sure you are sending an operative with high social skill, who can talk his way out of the situations he’s likely to get into.
[...]

There have been a number of design diaries for Heretic Operative that explain how the game works.

Mechanics #1 – Story Decks

In every game of Heretic Operative, there is a primary crisis or disaster you are trying to avert.  During game setup, you pick which of these challenges you want to face by selecting the “Story Deck” you will be using.  The Story Deck has two main components – the individual “chapters” of the story (which are in a fixed order) and the story “events” that can happen along the way (which are drawn semi-randomly).

Each chapter represents progress in the overall progression of the story, and has requirements that you must meet in order to advance to the next chapter.  For example, you might need to collect a certain amount of Lore to conduct arcane research, or get an Operative to a specific location on the map. Events are triggered by increasing Cult activity, and in most cases represent some new additional problem you will need to face.

[...]

Mechanics #2 – Cult Decks

The primary foes of the Heretics are the Cult – magic users who have given themselves fully over to Corruption.  While the Story Deck determines what you must do to achieve victory, the Cult Deck determines which Cult you will be facing and trying to bring about your defeat.   

There are 4 different Cults to fight against in Heretic Operative (with more planned for the future).  Each Cult has a set of powerful Cult cards to use against you, as well as unique Cultist abilities and innate powers that can completely change up how you have to fight.  If the Storm Cult floods out all the roads or the Serpent Cult sacrifices the population of a town, you’ll have to adjust your plans to respond to the threat.

[...]

Mechanics Blog #3 – Operatives

The final piece of initial game setup is choosing your Starting Operative – who you start the game as.  Each of the 7 starting Operatives has a different set of stats and abilities, and each can approach the challenges of the game utilizing their own unique strengths. 

Will you play as a master of spycraft, able to operate in the shadows to evade (or assassinate) the agents of Cult?  Or will you play as a fallen noble with powerful family connections in the Capital – at least as long as they can remain free from the gaze of the Inquisition?

[...]

Mechanics #4 – Turn Structure

So… what actually happens during the turn when playing Heretic Operative? 

First off, you take your actions – you have two Action Points (AP) to spend doing things like moving, researching spells, and using special abilities.   During your action phase you can also do things that don’t require AP, like spending Influence to grow the Heretic network of Operatives and Townsfolk.  This is the main phase of the game.

Once you are done taking actions, you must encounter an Adventure card in every location where you have an Operative present.   These adventures require you to make difficult choices, like whether to risk exposure to save innocents in danger, or how to best avoid a Church Templar that is on your trail. Each location has a unique set of Adventure cards.   There are around 270 encounters currently in the game, and we plan to add even more as post-release content, so the mix of encounters you will face can be very different from game to game.

[...]

Mechanics #5 – Resources

There are five primary resources that you need to manage in Heretic Operative.  These show the overall position and capabilities of the Heretics as a whole – in fact almost all of them represent abstract concepts instead of traditional materials. 

Lore – Deep arcane secrets, esoteric knowledge, and rare magical insight.   Used for researching new spells from spellbooks and casting powerful rituals.   Gain Lore by researching ancient tomes and forbidden knowledge.

Gold – Material wealth such as coins, gems, or rare trade goods.  Used to purchase items from merchants or hire Mercenary Banners.  Gain Gold through hard work and adventure opportunities, or recruit townsfolk to provide a more reliable Gold income.

[...]

Mechanics #6 – Influence & Townsfolk

While you must have mastery over all the resources in Heretic Operative to succeed, one resource in particular is vital to managing the growth of the Heretic organization – your Influence.  Influence is spent primarily to bring new recruits into the Heretics, to convince them to risk life and liberty to both keep magic alive and stop the Cult.

Every Location on the map has a set of unique “Townsfolk”, who represent people of particular skill or position who might be persuaded to join the Heretics.  There are over 50 of these characters to recruit, and understanding which ones are most important to accomplishing your strategic goals is very important to mastering the hardest challenges in the game.  When you are first learning the game it’s easy to focus on just the Townsfolk in the starting, easy-to-reach areas.

[...]

Heretic Operative is a strategy RPG due to release February 18th which is being made by the lead designer of Age of Empires 2 Ian M. Fischer, and the lead programmer of System Shock 2 Rob Fermier.

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Magic is a sin. It corrupts everything it touches.

Those who use magic are branded as “Heretics” by the church, and heresy is punishable by death.

At the fringes of civilization, the mages of the Cultus Arcanum give themselves freely over to the Corruption – performing dark rituals to let loose untold nightmares upon the world.

It will take a powerful heretic to preserve the spark of magic against both the Church and the Cult.

You are that Heretic Operative.

• Control a secret society dedicated to using magic for the benefit of the world, at a time when all mages are considered “heretics” to be hunted by the Templars.
  
• Master over 50 different spells to overcome challenges in and out of combat. But be wary of the Corruption that accompanies magic. The more powerful you become, the greater the risk of losing control.
  
• Fight enemy cultists, zealous templars, and ravenous monsters through a unique dice-based combat system. Employ mercenaries, devastating spells, and powerful artifacts to prevail.
  
• Explore the Northern Reach, where the frayed edges of the Empire are under constant threat. From vast museums in the city of Ione, to the farms in the countryside, to ruined temples of ancient gods, to camps of raiding Orcs, every location offers unique challenges.
  
• Make contact with other Heretic Operatives and recruit townsfolk to spread your Heretical influence and stop the diabolical Cultus Arcanum.
  
• Encounter more than 270 different adventure cards, full of challenging decisions that change the way your story unfolds. Will you risk your life and mission to save innocents from a burning building or live with the stain on your soul from abandoning them? Will you stand your ground against the Orcs for honor’s sake or be more prudent and flee? Do you bother to learn all of the verses in the Elven Song of Greeting or is now the time to take a stand against ridiculous Elven ceremony?
  
• More than 7 playable Operatives (and counting), 6 different story decks, and 4 enemy cults, means your story plays out differently each time. Use different strategies and wisely deploy your resources to defeat the most challenging combinations.

Heretic Operative intertwines deep gameplay with a dynamic story to create an innovative and original experience: a unique fusion of strategy, RPG, and board game mechanics.