This TTRPG-inspired game from former Blizzard devs could ‘transform game night’

Sunderfolk is a new turn-based RPG that aims to reduce some of the barriers players can face when trying to get into tabletop gaming. Coming from publisher Dreamhaven’s in-house studio Secret Door, the upcoming title takes players to an underground fantasy universe for an experience that studio head Chris Sigaty says will “Transform game night.” Screen Rant Recently attended a hands-on event for the game where, alongside game director Erin Marek, we got to experience over two hours of multiplayer gameplay.

The title comes from a team of seasoned industry veterans: Dreamhaven is the creation of Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime, while Secret Door itself is made up of developers who worked for companies like Riot and Blizzard. The game’s cast is also star-studded, Although it contains only one personAnjali Bhimani, who is known for roles in games like Stray Gods, Apex LegendsAnd Overwatch. A single voice-over actress serves as the narrator in the game and each character is meant to somehow recreate the dungeon master experience, and Bhimani absolutely delivers in that role.

The six different classes of Sunderlings available to players in Sunderfolk are Ranger, Bard, Arcanist, Berserker, Pyromancer, and RogueEach of which with a suitable animal in the role that fits well with the character. The Tank Berserker, for example, is a large, powerful polar bear, while the Arcanist is a mysterious-looking raven. I chose the role of the pyromancer salamander I called Salimandi and I set off along with the rest of the group – which was filled out by the developer’s bard and fellow writer’s berserker – to begin our missions.

Missions in Sunderfolk

Not every encounter is simply about combat

There are five main types of missions in Sunderfolk: explore, puzzle, combat, save and survive, some of which I got to try in my preview. They’ve always involved fighting in some capacity, but the overall focus of them has felt distinct enough between types regardless. The rescue mission came earlier in the session, when my group was tasked with escorting two villagers from the midst of an ogre attack. Because they are afraid, they have to be interacted with in order to start moving, then continued to need protection as they made their way across the map to safety.

The puzzle mission has some overlap with the rescue, but the puzzling is still clear. My group had to rescue a kidnapped giant bug, which required unlocking its cage, and then protect it when it escaped. The twist was that on the bug’s turn, it would move as many spaces in the direction it was facing until encountering blockages or hazards, meaning the group needed to manage moving it while still protecting it and itself from enemies. Our solution was quite amusing because of our partyWith the Berserker, you can simply throw the hook to the exit.

The exploration mission was one of the more chaotic we embarked on, where we were sent into cobweb-laden caves to retrieve supplies. The area was already full of spiders, and every time a web site was cleared, it could mean one of two things: the desired item, or – more often than not – more arachnids being discovered. This one required an even higher amount of coordinated strategy, and my pyromancer’s fire-speeding moves proved especially useful for web destruction. Although difficult, The unpredictability of this mission is also especially funWith many colorful exclamations when another spider is revealed.

The survival mission was even wilder, based around surviving through a set of rounds while keeping a portal intact. We had the help of three caterpillars with different abilities, one that stung enemies, one that healed, and one that healed. lit fires – which we took names; By the way, it was much more dramatic when people diedWhich caused our group to scream so loudly. PR came in to make sure everything was okay. Between so many enemies, allies, evergrowing fires and the survival goal completely changing strategy, this was some of the most chaotic fun of the event.

Combat in Sunderfolk

Streamlined but meaningful turn-based battles

All fighting within the and, of course, combat missions, used the same system, which takes place on a mix of the screen and the player’s phone. Each character has a selection of skill cards, amassing a growing arsenal to choose from as they level up; however, Players can only select three at a time to be part of their loadout, which requires some strategic planning before each encounter. The cards are selected on the player’s phone, and this is where all movement is also controlled by an intuitive, gesture-based system for selecting spaces against individual taps.

The skill cards are multipart, usually with a blend of movement and another main action like an attack or healing, although each piece has the option to be skipped. Each character also has a passive class skill – for example, Salimandi gained firepower that allowed for stronger attacks from passing through spaces with fire, while the bard gave extra movement to characters who switched places with them. instead of dice, Sunderfolk Uses fate cardsWhich typically add or subtract from the main skill value, although some have other balancing, like a -2 card that gives the character strength.

The fate deck can be customized as players progress through the game, although it must always contain a certain amount of positive, negative, and neutral cards. There are also trinket cards, which can give a small boon once per encounter like temporarily increasing movement, and weapon cards, which my group didn’t encounter in our early section of the game, but were told to come later. Turns can be taken in any order each round instead of using initiativeWhich definitely facilitated a lot more conversation turning to turn about what our strategy should be.

My fire-loving salamander was quite fun to pilot during the preview. It was nice to have what is usually relegated to a Dungeons & Dragons Subclass available from the beginning, and in the five levels Salimandi climbed during the game, it was clear that the pyromancer will acquire an engaging arsenal of skills during the game that merge attacks with environmental manipulation through fires. All characters have an ultimate move that requires special recharging: Mine involved recovering well through fire, although my group only used the Berserker’s extremely devastating AoE move, which was incredibly satisfying.

Final thoughts on Sunderfolk

Great potential for strategic and strategic co-op

The Another main function of the phone controls is to move the village in-between missions. There are several locations you can visit, like a post office where players can send each other gold and objects – as they are not shared between party members – and vendors of things like fate cards and trinkets. Players can upgrade buildings to give them more features, as well as to raise resident relationships, and some are even dateable. I didn’t see too much of this feature during the event, but it seems like it offers a lot of potential for meaningful progression outside of character leveling.

There isn’t much in the way of character customization outside of their decks and gear, but players can slightly further tailor their experience with difficulty levels. On Balanced, players get three lives, but there are other, harder modes that do things like lower that number, make enemies deadlier, or add timers to encounters. generally, Sunderfolk Does a good job of facilitating situations that could use a number of solutions, and an even better job of promoting player conversation, really capturing many of the same feelings evoked during games like Dungeons & Dragons.

In the opening presentation, Sigaty spoke as Sunderfolk Looking to overcome three TTRPG hurdles: steep learning curves, too much setup, and the genre not being for everyone. In my handful of hours with the title, it feels like it tackles all three of these, allowing for faster jumps into the fun. even more important, Sunderfolk Succeed in cultivating connective moments. My session had so much laughter, and in the end we even developed a few inside jokes – with so much happening in the course of a few hours, the prospect of a whole campaign with friends is very promising.

Source: playsunderfolk / YouTube