Trudvang Legends Design Diary (Part 2)

Shaping the World: The Legends System 

The initial design team (Fel Barros, Guilherme Goulart and myself) spent a lot of time working out just how we wanted to implement the mechanics of a living world for Trudvang Legends. Where the choices made by heroes in one story have lasting effects on future stories, and the combination of stories played and choices made creates a rich unique tapestry that makes each game feel very different. 

As the Legends system (our fancy name for the storytelling engine behind the game) took shape, it became clear that our perspective on the living world is from three angles: The Story book, The Boards, and Events.

The Book of Sagas

When you sit down to play a session of Trudvang Legends, the first thing you do is choose a story from the Storybook. At the beginning, you will only have one story to choose from, but achieving a heroic ending to that story will unlock others … and each story, depending on the choices you make, has the potential to branch into multiple others.

Once you’ve chosen which story to play, you open the book to that story’s first page and are given your set up instructions and relevant lore text. It’s of vital importance to pay attention to the lore, as it is by design loaded with hints and foreshadowing. It’s one of my favourite features of the game; reading the story really does help you to navigate through difficult choices. Do note, however, that we did throw in a few red herrings here and there, to keep you on your toes!

We’ll go into more detail about the story book and how to use it in a future diary.