Trailer Sneak Peek
The Kickstarter Comes October 8th
The long wait is nearly over, 3 years in development we are happy to say we are on schedule for the kickstarter and will be revealing a swath of information over the next month. Today though we have a special announcement. We have been flicking beads on the abacus for months now and am very happy to say that Day 1 Backers we will be able to pick up the base game with character models and standee encounter's for just $99.
Inside you will be able to experience the full twisting tale of your Free Company and delve a dark fantasy world of ancient horrors, mysteries and unique game mechanics in one of the most ambitious games ever conceived. Navigate the beautiful maps and traverse the worlds first epic novel-sized gamified audiobook narrated by legendary actor James Cosmo (known for Troy, Braveheart and playing Lord Commander Mormont in Game of Thrones).
Prize Draw #3 Winner
Each month there is a chance to win a copy of Oathsworn: Into The Deepwood and this months draw winner is:
Steven Lay
Congratulations Steven we'll be in touch
Prize Draw #4
This month another copy of the game is up for grabs, you don't need to do anything to enter just High 5 your past self for signing up to the Oathsworn Newsletter. We'll be revealing the winner next month
Rolling the Bones
Rolling the Bones is the place you'll find information on the game mechanics that make up Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood. In this issue we're looking at - What is a Twisting Tales Game?
You're probably familiar with Choose Your Own Adventure or Fighting Fantasy books. Both are a subset of the game book genre, a wholly awesome and near ancient art of story telling with audience participation. Oathsworn:Into the Deepwood takes the game book concept and re- roots it in the board game world by integrating mystery unlocks, modern mechanics and cartography, because who doesn't like an ancient map? These come together and make something new called a 'Twisting Tales' game.
Life is gritty and grim in the Deepwood and not much better in the walled cities it surrounds. Here your Oath is your best protection when walking the muddy street. Forever branded onto your wrists the Oathmark is your badge of office, your right of passage and your key to many locks. It instils fear and awe in equal measure and rightly so, because anyone who carries the mark is sworn to the hunt and its presence often signifies, 'here be monsters'.
As a Free Company of Oathsworn, you will often be contracted to a town or city in need of your help, brought in to solve the mystery of why the bodies are piling up. You will dive into a series of Chapters, each with its own unlockable envelopes/boxes, twists, allies, events, items and often new maps and mechanics.
With an option to use either the physical book or the digital app, traversing the map is simple. You are told to place locations tokens on the map at various times during the story, unlocked by your actions. When you wish to travel to that location you move the Free Company marker to that spot and remove the token there, placing it on the time track and going to that location in the story. The time track begins to fill up as the story unfolds, triggering events, story entries and covering up bonuses as you go. The longer your Free Company takes to complete their task the less reward they will receive for completing it so you find yourself in a race against time to find your foe whilst also wanting to gather as much information/boons and buffs as possible to help you in the fight ahead.
Time Track
Oathsworn is made to tell a tale, your tale. It is not a shallow affair or something tacked on to the game, its the beating heart of box. From the earliest days we wanted the story to be great, genuinely great. Not just a mask for mechanics, it needed to be set in a fully-realised world with characters you cared about and events that would excite and surprise. We set out to make a tale in the vein of great fantasy writers that have gone before such as Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson and GRR Martin.
A year was spent building the world and a team of professional writers were brought in to make this a reality. It is hard to explain how much work has gone into a story that you cannot tell people about for risk of spoiling it. I can tell you about the allies you may meet who have their own story arcs that may get cut short by death in the field or the ramifications of old chapters echoing through time but ultimately there is no good way to explain a grand mystery without damaging what makes it exciting. Perhaps this little flow chart of one of the simpler chapters can give you a small sense of the scope.
To cut a long story short, I would love to be able to compare Oathsworn to another game as a point of reference but there is no antecedent games that have tried to write a 200,000 word game book before. This is the first of its kind, an epic novel-sized story, gamified and twisted by your choices, with a visceral combat system to capture those 60 seconds of blade, bone and blood.
Free Company Corner
Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood has an array of characters that can form a Free Company. Each character is thoroughly unique with their own ability decks and special attributes. Each month we are going to look a little closer at these individuals, this month the iron-willed Warden is up.
The Warden
The nightmare of witches both malign or otherwise, the Warden wades into battle under the protection of an unrelenting certainty of purpose. They are the rock on which the waves of darkness will crash, repelled by shield, blade and sheer obstinance. Best known as the jailors of witches they are the strong right arm of the inquisition brought in to deal with malefic sorcery. They achieve this with the aid of the 'Mantle,' a dark iron cuirass known to nullify magical around the wearers. They have been witnessed to wade into torrents of fire and toxic blood to emerge unharmed, bearing down on the caster with collar and chain in hand. Once the witch is shackled and held in proximity to the Warden they find the source of their power locked away from them as surely as is their freedom.
On the field the Warden is a master of battle, inspiring and commanding others whilst holding ground and utilising his chains to drag enemies across the board. With measured blows he weighs his enemies until, judging the perfect moment, he goes in for the kill with abilities like final verdict and heart seeker.
Community Coverage
We've had some fantastic encouragement from the community this month including a bunch more videos. If you have not seen them check these out.
On Table Top - The Art of Oathsworn:Into the Deepwood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC4vTMqdP6k
Battlecast: What Is Oathsworn Into The Deepwood, And Should You Be Excited?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uwjJYbmOZs
Learn to Play Games Gen-con 2019 coverage of Oathsworn into the DeepWood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sGEj2W7aq8
Rob over at Rob's Tabletop World Gencon 2019: Rob Looks at Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=rTGgenS0Q8k
1440p Wallpapers
If you don't have enough Deepwood in your life you might enjoy downloading a wallpaper or two to spruce up the place (no pun intended).
You can find the full resolution 1440p files here
Warden - https://i.imgur.com/6TH1RKv.jpg
Ursus - https://i.imgur.com/yM7xZun.jpg
Ranger - https://i.imgur.com/ol7qAe5.jpg
Exile- https://i.imgur.com/ZwmxUrD.jpg
Deepwood - https://i.imgur.com/S89iOsL.jpg
Fableman's Tales
In an ale-soaked tavern in the fortress city of Bastone, Fableman Tarren is still telling fables for a fleck of iron. If you have any questions on life in the Deepwood, go buy him a round and you might find what you're looking for.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2210850/fableman-tarrens-table
The last moon rises before the Kickstarter begins on October 8th. Its been a long time coming and we hope you're as excited as we are. There will be a swath of videos and reveals over the next month.We hope you will forgive us but we will be doing our next Newsletter one week earlier to coincide with the launch so you can have all the latest information to hand. For now keep one hand on the wire road and one on your sword.