An turn based combat adventure RPG with a unique combat system with no dice rolling ⚔️.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Update #29 - General Update & Boss Deep Dive
almost 3 years ago
– Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 03:03:40 PM
Hello all.
We hope you're all settling well into 2022.
In todays update we're embarking on another boss deep dive, but before we jump into our Boss deep dive, let's give you a quick update on what we've been up to.
Future Proofing Loot Items
We've made a small adjustment to all our loot items, by adding a small 8x8mm square in the top corner. Whilst this little square space will not be used right now, we thought it would be a good idea to place it on all the existing loot items now so that they are not made redundant when future expansions are released incorporating loot item enchantments. These enchantments would see enchanted cubes being placed on loot items to upgrade them.
Small square added in the corner of each loot item
Reference Sheets
We originally intended to have a reference section in the back of the rulebook for each hero and boss. The reference section would include, a more precise description for spells that require it, a tips and tricks section and commonly used conditions section for that particular hero. During our KS campaign many backers reached out to us and asked if we could have these references on separate sheets of paper instead of the rulebook as that would be getting passed around the table frequently during the first few plays. With that in mind we agreed with our backers, so we have been pulling out all these pages from our rulebook and creating new reference sheets. Please see an example of 2 reference sheets below. If there is anything else you would like to see on these, please let us know in the comments below.
Assassin Reference Sheet
Bard Reference Sheet
Pledge Manager
We've been working hard on setting up the pledge manager, which should open this month for all of our backers. We will update you here, but please keep an eye on your emails over the coming weeks for the email from Backerkit.
Boss Deep Dive
Let's move onto the main event, our boss deep-dive. This boss can be found in phase 2 of our fire scenario. Note the fire scenario is only available inside the Fire & Ice or Collectors Edition games.
The Shires crust forms the plated skin of the Tectonic Giant who watches over his domain with a cyclops eye. Experience his volcanic temperament if you dare to challenge him.
Tectonic Giant Static Ability
MoltenPlate : Anytime an enemy attacks you they receive a permanent burn condition. Repeat attacks reapply burn. This burn condition is placed in the permanent column rather than the temporary column. As it's a permanent effect, there is no need to move the condition down a row each turn, instead it deals 1 DMG during each token upkeep. Stating repeat attacks reapply burn will make more sense as we dive into the Tectonic Giants spells below.
Tectonic Giant Boss Abilities
Pre-battle : Let's Play - All incoming damage dealt to you is increased by 50%.
Round 3 : Playtime's Over - Your Let's Play ability above now ends. All outgoing damage you deal is now increased by 50% for the remainder of battle.
<30 HP Unstable Grounds - You hit the ground with a fierce thud, which leaves you with a permanent can't be targeted condition. At the beginning of each round one enemy hero must declare to skip their main phase action in order to distract you. This distraction increases damage dealt to that chosen hero by 2, but temporarily removes the can't be targeted condition from you till the end of that round.
SupportSpells
StatBoost - You gain a +3 buff of your choice for 3 turns. A versatile way to pump up your damage, agility or defence.
Nullify Damage - Grant immune to damage to an ally for 1 turn. Whilst this seems a little lack lust, lets look at pairing it with the next 2 spells.
Third Degree Burns - Whilst you have a cooldown die on Third Degree Burns any damage dealt by a burn condition is increased by 2. Making burn conditions deal 3 DMG per turn instead of their typical 1 DMG.
Note : With the bosses Molten Plate ability heroes are always burning,assuming they have attacked you once. During their token upkeep they would receive 3 DMG and anytime youare attacked your enemies would receive 3 DMG from the burn condition being reapplied to them.
Fire Healing - Whilst there is a cooldown die on Fire Healing you gain 2 HP each time an enemy receives damage from a burn condition.
Attack Spells
Shatter - A single target melee attack that deals 4 damage plus penetrate armour.
Plate Smash - A single target ranged attack that deals 2 damage plus frightens your enemies for 2 turns. This attack has both a strength and intellect modifier. Frightened is a condition that stops you from casting ranged attacks.
Landslide - A melee AOE attack that deals 3 damage to all enemies.
Ground Quake - A ranged AOE attack that deals 8 damage to all enemies, with a chance to add stun to the attack with x1 roll of the conditions die.
Volcanic Crevasse - A ranged fire type elemental spell that deals 5 damage to all enemies, with added knockback, burn and can't be healed for 3 turns. This attack also has a chance to add stun to the attack with x1 roll of the conditions die.
Boss Strategy
- Take advantage of the Let's Play ability by using all of your strongest spells right away.
- Once the Playtime's Over ability kicks in try to reduce incoming damage with Protection, HP regen, Shields etc, as it won't be long before that 50% additional damage from the boss starts to take it's toll.
- During phase 3 when the bosses Unstable Ground ability get's activated, take it in turns to distract the boss. This way all heroes will get a little beat up so the damage can be spread evenly, whilst also not forcing one player to skip multiple turns.
- With lots of AOE attacks that gain 50% more damage after round 3, pets won't be much use in this battle.
Boss Modifications
Easy Mode - Playtime's Over activates on Round 4. Unstable Ground activates at 20 HP. Boss receives a permanent -1 defence.
Standard Mode - N/A
Hard Mode - Unstable Ground ability activates at 40 HP. Boss receives a permanent +1 Strength, +1 Intellect, +2 Defence, +1 Agility and starts at 99 HP.
Elite Mode - Playtime's Over ability activates on Round 2 and now grants you 100% extra damage. Unstable Ground ability activates at 40 HP. Boss receives a permanent +1 Strength, +1 Intellect, +4 Defence, +2 Agility and starts at 99 HP.
And that's a wrap with the Boss Deep Dive
Hero Crafting
We have some blank templates of hero boards, cards and spell mastery boards for anyone that would like to get creating their own Heroes at home. We've had children creating a cowboy, a tigerman and a bounty hunter with their dad fixing up their hero board. Whilst some of our adult community members have come up with an Artificer who creates a great machine, adding to it piece by piece during combat, a Shadow Rogue that lays traps for enemies to fall into and a Ronin Samurai hero that pumps out burst damage. If this is something to get your creative juices flowing, please use this link to access our blank templates : https://tinyurl.com/HeroBoard
Until Next Time
We will be back soon with more updates and deep-dives. We'll be covering our first Dwarven hero next with the Runesmith deep-dive. Until then, have a great start to 2022 and we look forward to bringing you our product to your tables later this year.
- Heroes of the Shire
Update #28 - Hero Deep Dive
almost 3 years ago
– Mon, Jan 03, 2022 at 12:47:51 AM
Hello all.
Happy New Year and welcome to 2022. We've got a great year in store for you guys with lots of updates and fulfilment happening towards the back end of the year :)
Today in our update we're embarking on another hero deep dive, covering our Musketeer. This hero is a high DPS class similar to the Huntress, Assassin and Berserker.
The trigger-happy Musketeer gets her kicks from wreaking havoc on her enemies by showering them with ammunition, for the most part. Her gung-ho attitude makes her a popular ally.
Musketeer Hero Ability
Reload : You must use your reload ability when there is no cooldown die on it. Reload is not a spell. Reloading grants the Musketeer with +2 Strength, -2 Defence & Agility for 1 turn.
SupportSpells
Front Line - Grant +3 Agility and +2 Strength to one ally. This fantastic support spell might even encourage the Musketeer to pass up on some damage in order to greatly benefit an ally on their next turn.
Cry For Help - This spell forces a taunt condition onto an ally. Use this spell wisely as placing an unnecessary taunt condition on an ally with an under prepared party could lead to disaster! However using it to your advantage with darkness could also play an interesting role.
Run For Cover - A single target ally becomes un-targetable for 1 turn and gains +2 HP regen for 3 turns.
Slow Reload - A spell that allows you to use your Reload hero ability resetting any CD die. The next time you reload your buffs last for 3 turns instead of 1.
Quick Reload - A spell that allows you to use your Reload hero ability resetting any CD die. The next time you reload you don't receive -2 Defence.
Attack Spells
Ranged Shot - A ranged attack that deals 5 damage to a single target, with a low cooldown of 2.
Shot Exchange - This nifty attack allows the Musketeer to pass on one of her negative buffs. The Reload ability grants the Musketeer negatives buffs so time this correctly and pass across that -2 Defence or Agility to an enemy.
Close Combat - A melee attack that deals 1 damage plus bleed to a single enemy target.
Charged Shot - A very powerful ranged attack that deals 7 DMG, plus a strength modifier, all with penetrate armour. Penetrate armour is a condition that forces the enemy to defend with only 50% of their defence value.
Explosive Shot - The Musketeers only AOE attack. This ranged attack grants knockback and burn to all enemies, an explosive shot indeed.
Musketeer Spell Mastery
The Musketeer has 3 paths to follow. PortableRest down the left, Fencing in the middle and AdvancedFirearms on the right. Each path gives the Musketeer a different play style as you'll see below in our summaries for each path.
PortableRest
This tree opens up some support plays from the Musketeer, with the Loud Voice ability allowing an ally to cast an attack spell. Gunpowder is a spell that shouldn't be overlooked, turning powerful single target spells into AOE spells is an immensely strong play, which is why Gunpowder has such a low cooldown. This path also unlocks Painkillers, a spell that grants a massive heal to the Musketeer at a high price of reducing all her base stats permanently by 1.
Fencing
Granting the Musketeer 2 new Melee attacks and some powerful abilities like Bleed It Out, this fencing path will be a great way to drain your enemies. Pair this spell mastery path with other heroes like the Blood Mage that benefit from the effects of Bleeding and you'll be on your way to victory.
AdvancedFirearms
This path helps improve your Reload ability, allowing you to cast it more frequently and more effectively, alongside adding a new way to reload. The Healthy Reload ability can put in its fair share of healing during a scenario when many rounds are played out, which takes some of the stress away from the healer to keep the party alive.
And that's a wrap for now guys!
We will be back soon with more updates and deep-dives. We'll cover a boss deep-dive next in-between our last few hero deep-dives. We will also be opening up the pledge manager soon so stay tuned for more on that. Until then, keep the theory crafting coming, we love hearing all your hero ideas and compositions over on Discord. We hope you've all had a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to another fantastic year together.
- Heroes of the Shire
Runesmith deep-dive coming soon
Update #27 - Hero Deep Dive
almost 3 years ago
– Tue, Dec 21, 2021 at 02:17:17 AM
Hello all.
Today in our update we're embarking on another hero deep dive, covering our sought after Engineer hero. This hero as mentioned in an FAQ several weeks ago is a personal favourite of mine :) Stepping away from the action and letting my gadgets do a good portion of the work.
Gizmos and gadgets are this chaps ingenious battle-aids. The Engineer creates everything he requires to support his allies, as well as himself, in combat.
Engineer Hero Ability
The Engineer has a line of text above his hero ability, which states : Use your 'Create Gadget' spell to add gadgets to your ability tab.
GadgetUpkeep : During your Hero upkeep you may upgrade a gadget by placing an upgrade token on it. Place this gadget token on the upgrade section of the card. You may only do one upgrade per hero upkeep. Gadgets require X amount of upgrade tokens to become Up & Running, and once Up & Running further upgrades can improve their functionality. Casting spells from your gadget cards happens in your main phase before you cast a spell for turn. Gadget spells do not count towards your Engineers one spell per turn and you may cast more than one gadget spell per turn.
Note : Passive abilities of gadgets are not active until the gadget is Up & Running.
SupportSpells
Create Gadget - You can add a gadget card to your ability tab and cast another spell. Choosing from any of the gadgets above.
We're aware that CD:1 means the spell will return on the Engineers turn, so why didn't we just put CD:0? Some heroes like the Bard & Scholar are able to increase cooldown die of their enemies, allowing for a little manipulation to slow the Engineer down.
Jump Start - This spell reduces the Engineers cooldown dice by a value of 3 on his next dice upkeep instead of the usual value of 1.
Static Shield - All allies gain a 5 HP shield and +2 electricity damage for 3 turns.
Boost - Target ally gains +2 defence for 2 turns and jumps the turn order next around going first regardless of agility values. With a slow agility of 2, this will be sure to give you 2 turns in a row should you target yourself with this spell.
Demolition Expert - Add the Rocket Launcher to your ability tab. If the Rocket Launcher gadget is already on your ability tab upgrade it instead. Having access to upgrading your gadget during your main phase as well as your hero upkeep is a quick fire way to get your gadget up and running.
Attack Spells
Detonate - You must destroy a gadget in order to cast this spell. A destroyed gadget is NOT permanently destroyed, you can create a new one during your next hero upkeep. To destroy a gadget, remove the card from your ability tab and place it back into your deck of gadgets. This attack deals 2 damage to a single target plus an additional 4 damage if the gadget you destroy is fully upgraded. Note : gadgets being destroyed trigger darkness.
Electroblast - A melee electricity elemental type spell that deals 1 damage to all enemies.
Mortar - A ranged fire elemental type spell that deals 2 damage to all enemies.
Flash Bomb - A ranged light elemental type spell that deals 4 damage to all enemies plus leaves them with a glowing condition.
Lightning Orb - A split spell with the first half reducing an enemy defence by a value of 1. The second half of the spell deals 6 damage plus paralyzes the enemy for 2 turns.
Engineer Spell Mastery
The Engineer has 3 paths to follow. Tinkerer down the left, Outburst in the middle and Electro on the right. Each path gives the Engineer a different play style as you'll see below in our summaries for each path.
Tinkerer
This is the path for the true tinkerer! Upgrading your gadgets quickly and letting them do most of your work is part of the plan here. This play style is supported by unlocking a new spell called buying time which does exactly what it says on the tin, alongside improving your static shield spell.
Outburst
The Engineer being a support hero lacks damage output, so taking your Engineer down the path of Outburst will help alleviate that issue. Explosion is a fantastic way to knockback your enemies whilst immobilising 1 of their spells for 2 turns.
Electro
Shock your enemies by following the electro path! Unlock Overcharge which grants a mighty shield at the cost of paralyzing the ally. This path also contains a buff for all your electricity elemental type spells and a fast way to get the electricity field up and running.
Updating our older boards
You'll notice all damage is represented in red, all healing is represented in green and now all shields are represented in yellow. We will update our older boards with the same colours to ensure consistency throughout our heroes.
And that's a wrap for now guys!
We will be back soon with more updates and deep-dives. Until then, keep theory crafting coming, we love hearing all your hero ideas and compositions over on Discord. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Thank you for all your support this year in helping bring Heroes of the Shire to life.
- Damian
Update #26 - Hero Deep Dive
almost 3 years ago
– Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 03:34:05 AM
Hey all.
Thank you for joining us on this adventure, we can't wait to bring Heroes of the Shire to your table next year. Even though we're working hard behind the scenes to get the game wrapped up and sent off to the manufacturing press, we're still making time to showcase our Heroes in these deep dives. Today we have the Dragon Knight hero for you.
This heavily armoured Knight, uniquely draws on his Dragon training, to temporarily increase his short-term power with his gift of casting fire spells. He’s a fiery character who is capable of dealing consistentdamage.
Dragon Knight Hero Ability
Dragon Aid : You gain +2 Strength and Intellect for 2 turns after casting a Dragon spell. The Dragon spells are the 4 spells in the bottom right called Dragon Rage, Siphon Fire, Dragon Fire & Flame Blast.
SupportSpells
IgniteArmour - Whilst there is a cooldown die on Ignite Armour you and your allies gain HP from burn conditions instead of taking damage. You may also cast another spell right after casting Ignite Armour.
Light 'Em Up - This spell burns everybody including allies. The red and green mixed target means all players. Works perfectly with Ignite Armour.
Knights Pledge - All allies deals 50% more damage on their next attack. A powerhouse of a support spell. Note : Percentages are not added to the attacking numbers, but rather the final amount of damage dealt after the targets have defended. For example 10 DMG plus 50% is not 15 DMG as it may seem. It would be 10 DMG minus the enemies defence of lets say 5. Total of 5 DMG plus 50% would equal 8 DMG. We emphasize this often as it's an easy mistake to make when adding up the damage, and if done in-correct can make a bigimpact on the damage.
Dragon Rage - Whilst you have a CD die on Dragon Rage your attack spells deal an additional 2 damage. This is also a dragon spell which would trigger your Dragon Aid ability.
Siphon Fire - You receive a counterattack condition for 2 turns. Whilst there is a cooldown die on Siphon Fire your counterattack spell changes from your CD:0 spell to Fireball.
Attack Spells
Fireball - A classic RPG spell that no game can be without and our trusty Dragon Knight takes this honour. Fireball is a ranged fire elemental attack that deals 2 damage with an intellect attack modifier.
Burning Strike - A melee attack that deals 5 damage plus an additional 2 damage if the target is holding a burn condition, which shouldn't be hard to pull off.
Rapid Thrust - A melee attack that deals 1 damage plus an agility modifier. This can be a solid DPS spell if imbued with fire in the Dragon Knights spell mastery. Note the agility modifier here, making spells like the Huntresses Horn of Agility even more terrifying.
Dragon Fire - A ranged fire elemental type spell, that deals 3 damage plus burn to all enemies.
Flame Blast - A ranged fire elemental type spell that deals 6 damage plus buffs your fire damage type spells by +1 for 3 turns.
Dragon Knight Spell Mastery
The Dragon Knight has 3 paths to follow. Fire Magic down the left, KnightsPath in the middle and DragonService on the right. Each path gives the Dragon Knight a different play style as you'll see below in our summaries for each path.
Fire Magic
This path helps reduce the Dragon Knights defence in exchange for buffing his Intellect, turning him into a Pyromancer. Following this path will be sure to leave a burn or two on your opponents.
KnightsPath
Flaming Aura gets to shine in this path with the arrival of 2 new melee attacks. Retribution is one fine way to penalise your enemies for attacking you, leaving them feeling nullified after their last strike.
DragonService
With 3 new Dragon spells the Dragon Knight will be sure to have those +2 buffs from his Dragon Aid ability almost permanently. This path helps increase the Dragon Knights survivability with his Dragon Energy ability and did we mention that he can now call upon a Baby Dragon to aid him in battle?
And that's a wrap for now guys!
We will be back soon with more updates and deep-dives. Until then, keep theory crafting coming, we love hearing all your hero ideas and compositions over on Discord.
Thank you for all your support.
Heroes of the Shire
Burn & Taunt Condition Update - Plus Future Deep Dives
almost 3 years ago
– Tue, Dec 14, 2021 at 08:58:09 PM
Hello everyone!
Thanks to you guys we're over that first hurdle which was the crowdfunding stage. Now we move into the final stages of production that we anticipate will take 3 months. We will keep everybody updated along the way as promised. See below some info regarding the updated Burn & Taunt conditions, alongside some information on future deep dives.
Missed Stretch Goal - Added
We were so close to reaching that £90k Stretch Goal that we've decided to include it as an extra thank you to all of our backers. So, our Dragon Knight hero will have a new pet to play with, a Baby Dragon! We will be taking a deep dive into this hero in the coming days so stay tuned.
Burn Token - Update
As you may remember earlier in our campaign we spoke about some changes with our burn and poison condition. Whilst we updated you with the poison conditions, we still had some tests with our burn condition. We can now share with you the updated burn condition and we hope you like the changes.
Old Burn - Target immediately receives 1 damage and an additional 1 damage per token upkeep.
New Burn - Target immediately receives 1 damage and an additional 1 damage per token upkeep, this is now the first phase of burn. Instead of being discarded, burn is now passed to another ally (excludes yourself). The receiving ally places the burn condition on the yellow side up to represent that the burn is on its second course and will finish after this hero has taken all 3 damage. Only the regular flame burn (phase 1) can be passed on, the yellow flame burn (phase 2) can NOT.
Taunt Token - Update
Our old taunt condition allowed AOE (multiple targets) spells to still target the enemy of their choice, as long as the enemy with taunt was included in this selection. This meant single target attacks were forced to target a taunting enemy but AOE attacks could still get round this. Whilst this makes sense thematically as AOE affects hit an area, it made taunt less effective. This is due to lots of heroes and bosses having AOE spells. Thematically a taunting hero is taking all damage and keeping the aggro on them, so we have made the new condition more inclusive of this.
Old Taunt - You must be the target of attack spells.
NewTaunt - You must absorb all effects of a spell on behalf of an ally.
Example 1 : There are 3 players vs 1 boss and the boss casts a spell that deals 8 DMG to all enemies. The hero with the taunt condition must take all 8 DMG for each hero. Each instance of 8 DMG can be defended.
Example 2 : Arena mode 2vs2, the Witch Doctor enemy casts confusion ray that confuses all enemies and reduces their defence. The hero with the taunt condition must take both instances of the confusion ray, meaning they would receive -2 DEF and confused for themselves, then another -2 DEF and confused on behalf of their ally. Whilst confusion can't stack there would only be one confusion token placed, the reduced defence value does stack so this would be the outcome.
These changes make placing a taunt condition a more important part of a teams strategy. This can sometimes be very detrimental to the taunting hero so may not always be wanted, but this can also save a team from nasty damage and conditions, bringing the taunt condition to the place we want it.
Deep Dives
Over the course of our campaign we have completed several deep-dives for our heroes, helping our backers understand all the unique skills and spells each hero has to offer in Heroes of the Shire. Whilst covering many heroes over the 30 days, we haven't covered them all. Our deep-dives won't be coming as frequently as they did during our crowd funder, but rest assured they are still coming and will offer all our backers plenty of opportunity for theory crafting. Our next deep dives will be the Dragon Knight and Engineer heroes.
Adding in all of the Stretch Goals
We will be testing all of the new cards from our Stretch Goals over the coming weeks to ensure they work as intended, from the Event cards to the extra loot items and trash mobs. This might add a few extra weeks to production, but we're pretty confident they won't add anymore.
Follow us on Social Media
If you haven't already, please join us on as many social media platforms as you have access too. Whilst we will always update you here on Kickstarter, using our Discord, Facebook or IG are other great ways to communicate with us and stay updated.
