Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Draco Magi


Cartoona begins shipping next week, Gnomes: The Great Sweeping of Ammowan is available for purchase, and Battle For Souls is currently taking up 90% of our time as we work to get it to print.

So what's next for Robert Burke Games?

Well, we have secured a license for some of the most amazing dragon artwork I have ever seen by the talented Kerem Beyit. Kerem is a world class artist whose clients include Wizards of the Coast, Paizo Publishing,  Blizzard, Disney, Sony, Lucasarts, and many more.

We also have a basic outline of gameplay mechanics, and the over-arching theme. The tentative title is "Draco Magi". I'm designing and developing the game with Richard Launius.

The story goes something like this...

Margus, the powerful and benevolent leader of the Draco Magi has passed into the next world after an extended illness, and the land is now gripped with uncertainty.  As the laws of the Draco Magi dictate, only one of his four remaining apprentices can rise to the position of "Dragon King".

Upon Margus' death, the wizard-lock on the succession strongbox of each apprentice completely dissipates in three days time. Inside these boxes each apprentice will find the last piece of knowledge required to become the Dragon King. But only one can claim the title. The rest will remain apprentices. For these Magi, the unofficial title whispered under the breath of the people is "Novitius Eterna" or "Forever a Novice".

Inside each box is a scroll, and each scroll holds a different "Spell of Succession" that may only be executed with the correct combination of five rare gems. These magically imbued gems only appear in sets of three during times of succession and must be collected by dragons at the command of each apprentice. The apprentice that is first to collect the gems needed to complete their Spell of Succession becomes Dragon King.

On each new day, five dragons arrive at the tower of each apprentice waiting for their commands. The first dragon to be commanded by each apprentice must fly low, in plain sight of all. But once this scout dragon locates the three gems, each of the remaining dragons may fly above the clouds, only to reveal themselves at the last moment.

There are 10 types of dragon that may appear at your tower each day:

Four Chromatic Dragons:
Purple
Red
Black
Green

Four Metallic Dragons:
Brass
Bronze
Silver
Gold

Two Special Dragons:
Battle
Polar

Each type of dragon can defeat one of the other types, but also can be defeated by their specific opposing dragon. Pairs are more powerful, and no more that two dragons may be sent by any single apprentice for any one gem. Battle dragons and Polar dragons are rare and have unique powers that can be helpful if deployed correctly.

Each apprentice may keep the gems they need for succession a secret, or reveal them to the other apprentices to gain a unique and helpful power.

File under: tactical, resource gathering, resource management, auctioning, bluffing

Look for the Kickstarter around the January 2014.