The Malice of Light | Preview

0:00 Hey gamers, this is Liz Davidson from Beyond Solitire and today I want to have a look at the Malice of Light Adventures. This is a new cooperative game from the Saddler Brothers uh as part of their new imprint uh Twintail Studios. So you may know them from previous work like the Warhammer Adventure Card Game or Heroes of Teranoth. They've more recently been known for some of their releases through Blacklist, so that company went under and kind of dragged them with it for a while. Um but they made some great games, uh including Street Masters, which I really enjoyed. uh Brook City and also Alter Quest. So those are all these games that had these really interesting modular systems and that basically meant that you had a lot of choice between the heroes you were playing, the bosses you were playing and where you were playing against them. And there were things in the games that would reflect all those aspects of your choices. So Mouse of Light uh carries that modular tradition with it, but it is still very different uh from previous games that the Saddlers have done. And that's something that makes me really really excited. So, this is just going to be an overview video of what is interesting about the game. The reason I'm doing that is that one, there's already a ton of gameplay out there. So, Meet Me at the Table, One Stop Co-op Shop, and also um Paul Grogan have all done like extended gameplay of this. The other reason that this is a prototype, and I know from having played on Tabletop Simulator with Brady recently that um the game has evolved considerably, but the bones are still there. So, that's what I want to talk about. So, this is a game that I would call a mini campaign in that it is played across three acts and then you can kind of shuffle it up and do it

1:30 again with variations. You're going to have an act one location or encounter. So, in this case, it'll be the Hollowwood Ravine also printed on this little map. You're going to have an enemy. Uh, in the prototype box, you just have Fendra, but there are going to be other people that you can fight against. And you're also going to have different heroes, uh, that you can choose who have slightly different sets of base abilities, uh, relics, and talents. There are also going to be different minions in the act one and act two decks. So, we're looking at a system where each encounter is going to offer something different with different challenges. So, the Hollowwood Ravine has three schemes that we have to deal with from the boss, from our villain, Fendra. But there are other levels that are harder that have really different sets of schemes that you have to deal with. And so they're going to offer different tactical challenges as you play. So this one as the base is indeed basic. Uh but I played a really interesting one with Brady online where you were basically in a flooding place where you could drown and the stress of that was very enjoyable. Uh even though it was also of course stressful. Each of these scheme cards does something different to the heroes. What's interesting is that they are also physically represented here on the board. And you want to try to deal with the schemes by removing peril from them.

2:48 So they're going to try to gain peril and you're going to try to take it off and eventually get rid of the schemes. Because if these schemes continue to persist throughout your game play, then Fendra, the villain, is going to level up the corresponding scheme that she has in her own deck. So, if we don't deal with the Abyssal Rift, then this First Mother's Card is going to go from a level one first mother's card to a level two and so on. The ultimate goal is to defeat Fendra in act three. But, as you can probably tell, act one and two are about leveling up, trying to mitigate the harm that she's able to do, uh, and dealing with her influence on the world before you confront the boss herself. What also makes this interesting is that death is more forgiving. I mean, there's still consequences in the first two acts. It's only permanent in the third act when you're actually fighting Fendra once and for all. Similarly, you can knock her off the board uh in acts one and two, but she can come back. However, in act three, what's done is done. So, we're going to have to be dealing with the the challenges that this place gives us by drawing these event cards. We're going to have to deal with the schemes that have peril on them here. And it's important to do that because we have to prevent Fendra from having her own cards get upgraded for future pain for us. The other thing that's fun about this game is that as usual, Adam and Brady have really thought a lot about how to make heroes interesting and flexible to play with. Um, so this is Aim's board. I've just set it up for him. Um, each of the heroes is going to have three basic

4:20 abilities that they can level up throughout the game. And the levels are basically how many dice you can roll. So, right now I can roll one dice for each of my main actions I can take. I might be able to roll up to three depending on how many I unlock over the course of time. So, you're always going to have an attack. Some heroes are melee, some are ranged. You're going to be able to explore. Uh, and exploring is basically how you search for cards and clear peril from the schemes. So, you're going to want to explore a lot because you're like figuring out your world and the mysteries and the troubles that inhabit it. And then you have prepare. So, this is how you gain focus and guard sometimes and also how you can refresh cards. So, when you play your cards, they don't always come back right away, but with the prepare action, you're able to do something about that. You're also going to get cards that help you. Uh, so these talent cards are very cool because they are going to do interesting stuff, but you're going to have to exhaust them after you use them. So, you got to choose your timing. You can get them back, but it's not that easy. So, you want to make sure that you're you're using things at the right time to use them. You're also going to end up with these cool relics uh that do something for you. And every hero has their own relics that are going to contribute to their turn. All right, so just give you a better look. Uh on the hero turn, um during your act phase, you can move one area, then you must perform an action.

5:39 So that's one of the three action cards I showed you. And then you may do a ploy. So you can move again, you can heal two and refresh one card, or you can claim a discovery token in your area or draw a search card. So you get some flexibility on your turn to help you figure out what it is that you want to do and what's going to be best for you at the moment. Then on the enemy turn, enemies that are engaged with you, which is the next thing we're going to talk about, will activate. Uh so they're going to try to move towards you, and if they are in range to hurt you, then that's what they'll do. So one of the things that's pretty fun about this game is that the enemies that are engaged with you are not necessarily enemies who are in your area. There are going to be cards that come out of that event deck that cause you to draw minions for each player and you have one that starts with you. So basically Dana has to deal with an Archian witch just from the start of the game and a green neck archer is currently pursuing Afim. So even if the enemies that are pursuing you are not an immediate physical threat to you, they may they may not even be in range to mess with your health, that doesn't mean that they're not dangerous. And this actually leads us to the dice system of this game, which is quite cool. All right. So, let's say that I just want to do a smite action. Let's say that Aam is here and he wants to smite this uh Arcian witch um who is currently annoying Da. He is going to get one die because right now his smite melee attack is a level one attack. So, he cannot roll more dice than one unless there's maybe a relic that'll let him do it or an item. There's also one enemy die that

7:10 gets rolled because right now there's one enemy that is engaged with Abram. So if there were more enemies, you would roll more enemy dice. If you had more unlocks, then you would roll more blue dice. So you could actually end up with a full three to three if you've got all of your skills developed. If you've got your if you've got your attack skill fully developed and you have a bunch of enemies on your tail, then when you roll, you have to resolve your die and you're also resolving the enemy die. And what makes this interesting is that again something the saddlers have been known for is dice that are very flexible in terms of how you use the results and that continues in mouse of light. And I think that that's a really good design choice. I think it's cool. Um so basically on your dice uh sometimes you'll have guard. This is like kind of a fail result but you're going to get your defense up every time you roll that result. So it's not so bad. These little stars are successes or hits. Um so when you take an action and you roll this result that's good. And this is a critical success. And one thing that is generally fun in Saddler games is if you roll a critical success, this counts as a success. And then you can roll the dieice again. So you get another one.

8:14 And they are exploding dice. So if you keep rolling critical successes, you get to keep rolling the dieice. Uh which is an absolute blast. The other thing is that if you end up with more successes than you needed, you're able to add them to your focus. If you end up with fewer successes than you needed to, you know, attack an enemy or do a check, you can choose to spend that focus down to get you where you need to be. So, you are of course always somewhat beholden to roll the dice. But this game gives you some additional resources that you can spend as you please to ensure that you're also able to be smart about how you're playing and it's not just the roll of the dice. On the other hand, uh you have these enemy dice. So sometimes they're blank, sometimes they're claws. And what the claw, what each claw will do is it'll activate one of the enemies that is engaged with you. So with this claw result, this green neck archer is either going to attack us or move. So they could This result activates Fendra, who is the bigger enemy. So she's around two. And so if you roll this one, you have to do the treachery effect that's on the current villain card. So, for example, if this one is the topmost card, Fendra is going to strike you. And if she can't, then she's going to put apparel on the scheme that's closest to her. So, our big enemy is also here getting involved with this.

9:34 I will also note there's some fun tactical puzzles on the board. So, these question marks are basically ways to upgrade your characters. So, you're going to want to go and use your exploration skill to check them out. The schemes are physically represented on the board as well as on the cards. And sometimes they have some spatial effects. So basically until you eliminate this scheme, this is a wall that you can't pass through. Only the dotted lines can normally be passed through. But if you remove the scheme, this becomes permeable. So your your motions become easier if you can get rid of a scheme. But those schemes act differently in different settings. So what you're getting is a bunch of flexibility with your hero that is hopefully going to save you when you get swarmed by too many bad guys. You've got little tactical puzzles on the boards um that you're going to have to figure out to best affect uh in order to achieve your goals of dealing with these schemes and dealing with the fact that you're being chased by a bunch of enemies because it's just going to keep going up and up and up. And you're also going to have to be a bit future forward because Fendra is out there. She's working on her schemes and it's going to be up to you to prevent her from leveling them to a degree that she can really really hurt you. So that is an overview of how Malice of Light works. Uh I think this is a really neat system. I'm really looking forward to playing it in full because I want to see like the little treats that the Saddler brothers have cooked up for us. Um, I know that this game is still in development. It's getting some balancing and uh I am just really really excited to see the final product because I think it's going to be a very good time and it also just makes me happy to see the Stadler brothers back. Uh, they are such a creative team.

11:06 They are really nice people who care a lot about games and who are just so imaginative and I want them in our space. So, I'm really pleased that they are recovering from what happened with their previous publisher and that they are back to offer us something cool and creative and in a world actually of books that Brady Sadler has been writing. He he is also an author and I think that's very cool. So, uh that's the Malice of Light. It will be on Gamefound soon. I'll put the date and link in the show notes. Uh and I think it's definitely worth checking out. It's a great design team who's done really interesting things with cooperative games for years and years and years. and I'm very excited about this next release. So, thanks so much for watching. Uh, and happy gaming everybody.