Skald: Against the Black Priory - Now on Kickstarter

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is now on Kickstarter, asking for 70K Norwegian krones, which is 7K+ in Euros and about 8K$. For your pledge you get: "a classic, turn-based RPG, set in a dark and gritty fantasy universe: full of tragic heroes, violent deaths and eldritch horror, with a dark, immersive plot and inspired by legendary titles such as Ultima and the gold box series".

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is a tile and turn based roleplaying game where you lead a party of up to six characters on an epic and perilous quest.

The game features: 

• Vintage graphics using the glorious Commodore 64 color palette
• Complex level-based character development with abilities, skills and features
• Grindless tactical combat
• "Choose-your-own-adventure" system and  dynamic, tree based dialog.

As a party based RPG, SKALD puts heavy emphasis on both roleplaying- and mechanical interaction between party members.

The current leader of the party can be swapped by the push of a button and the skills and abilities of the current leader will influence interactions with the game world. But be warned: Managing the party can be challenging with members having private agendas and motivations.

Combat in SKALD is turn- and menu-based. This leads to fast and grind-less combat (that can be automated). The design emphasis is on having interactions between abilities, tactics and situational circumstances create unique and challenging combat every time.

The game will feature a rich and highly interactive world with both scripted and systemic ways of interacting with the hundreds of NPCs, items, objects and plot points. The game will allow for, and encourage, a large range of player expression and roleplaying. 

Interacting with the world takes place through tree-based dialog, "choose-you-own-adventure sequences", combat, tile-based exploration and interaction with in-game systems. 

SKALD: Against the Black Priory will feature level-based character development with both numerical stats and special abilities. I also intend for roleplaying choices to affect character development by taking a leaf from classics such as Fallout 1 and 2. 

As a game of dark, gritty fantasy, magic is a huge part of the world building. It will play a huge part of the game and designing a system that is both mechanically and narratively appealing is a challenge I can't wait to dig into! More on that down the line. 

The game will release on PC (Windows) first with releases for Mac and handheld devices down the line. NOTE: Backer rewards are PC only. 

Estimated release date is June 2020.

I can't find a Youtube video of the game, so you have the check the one at the link. Matt Barton will have a video up where he hangs out with the developer in two days. Also, one of the characters in the game resembles Matt, which is probably no coincidence.