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A One-Round Living City Adventure
From the introduction:
A new prince has arisen among the Sahuagin in the deep. The barons of the area have set out with raiding parties to capture humans for slaves, sport, and food to be used in the coronation festivities. All of the raiding parties have been blessed by the god of the deep. One such raiding party has made its way to the coast a few days South of Ravens Bluff. The sahuagin have been raiding the nearby farms and fishermen of the town Arbonne. The adventure starts with the PCs in the marketplace. A fire breaks out at the Laughing Goat Inn and the PCs must handle a number of situations. After the incident, the PCs are proclaimed heros by the merchant community and a feast is given in their honor. During the feast, Justin, a spokesman for the town, approaches the PCs and asks for their help. The rest of the module is spent travelling to Arbonne and then defeating the Sahuagin.
- rich, thematic crafting loop that provides meaningful decisions
- distinct end-of-round interaction that keeps players engaged and competing
- compact 60–90 minute playtime with scalable player count (2–5)
- strong narrative drive and production direction described by the team
- clear sense of progression from prototype to Kickstarter launch
- prototype phase implies possible balance and component adjustments before final release
- complexity might require onboarding for new players to fully grok the crafting and scam mechanics
- goblins exploiting the heroes' loot through crafting and commerce to outpace rivals
- Dragon Reach town with a dungeon above it; goblin merchants operate in the town and deal with heroes returning from the dungeon
- character-driven, light-hearted fantasy with a competitive economic engine
- Liftoff: Get Me Off This Planet
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Crafting — loot, weapons, items obtained from the dungeon are transformed into artifacts through crafting, which are then sold to monsters for profit
- crafting system — loot, weapons, items obtained from the dungeon are transformed into artifacts through crafting, which are then sold to monsters for profit
- end-of-round window and bribery mechanic — rounds end when a goblin signals, and other players can bribe to delay or extend the round, creating tense bidding-style interactions
- reverse worker placement — players (merchants) influence hero movement through shops, not by placing workers but by directing hero decisions and spending resources to extract value
- scam cards — special cards that offer extra actions or disrupt opponents, enabling clever combo plays and strategic timing
- Seasonal cycle — the game progresses through seasons, culminating in an epic boss battle and a winter cooldown, driving long-term planning
- Worker Placement — players (merchants) influence hero movement through shops, not by placing workers but by directing hero decisions and spending resources to extract value
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is Marc's dream game he's been slaving over
- it's just so cool to work this one say this in the right way
- the round ends dynamic... it's just really interesting
- the dynamics around moving the heroes sort of this position of worker placement where you're closing out shops understanding what resources you want to get from them to determine how you're going to craft for the enemies
- it's that sort of light but chunky thematic game fits into that 60 to 90 minutes
- I totally dig it
- it's going to be live on Kickstarter on March 27th