This week, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Critical Role's Darrington Press announced two ෴new RPG systems that will be coming later this year. The first, Illuminated Worlds, is a d6 system designed for shorter campaigns that are driven by🧔 character development, and which should be available to use in a variety of settings. The second, Daggerheart, is for longer campaigns and seems to be more involved.
Even less was revealed of Daggerheart, and it's not as if we have the Bible on Illuminated Worlds to hand either, but my guess is it's probably something of a Pathfinder competitor that will have its own ruleset while being compatible with D&D. The internet - or at least the quiet corner where the nerds sit - has been abuzz about these two systems, and what they mean for the tabletop scene, for Critical Role, and for Dungeons & Dragons, which you'd have to imagine the systems will be compatible with. However, I'm far more interested in the other announcement made at the showcase - Queen By Midnight.
Queen By Midnight is a standalone deck-building board game, not connected especially to the usual Critical Role goings on or role playing adventures at all. It got the most spotlight at the showcase, taking up around half of the seven minute video, opening the show, and coming with visuals and an explanation of the kit. However, I think a lot of people saw it as 'just' a board game. Just a game in a box, like thousands of others on the shelf. It's not going to shift the foundations of the genre the way Illuminated Worlds or Daggerheart will. But I think that's a misreading of the situation.
Firstly, we have no idea how transformative either of the new systems will be. Aside from the fact Illuminated Worlds uses a d6, and one is shorter while one is longer, we know nothing about them. They might stink. I don't think they will, but it's a fair speculation when others are suggesting tabletop gaming may never be the same again. Presumably the Critical Role crew will use both of these systems eventually in their own adventures, and that's promotion no Pathfinder-wannabe on Earth, not even Pathfinder itself, can buy. But there are so many variables that you can't even count them. Queen By Midnight is 'just' a board game, sure. That also means all it has to be is a good board game, and it's successful.
The game looks tailor made for me. The premise is that there are six princesses all vying for the throne, and one of them will be (you guessed it!) queen by midnight. In the showcase, we saw the game pieces in all their glory. Each player has their own deck, mini board, token yadda yadda, but the crown jewel is the clock itself. Sitting in the middle of the table, it turns to face each player when it is their turn and the hands on the clock can be rotated with a cog system, keeping track of the rounds. It even has a chute inside it that acts as a dice tower, not only keeping everything neat and tidy but also just, y'know, it looks cool.
It's the princess angle that is especially charming here, and plugs a major gap in the market. There is a huge playerbase in the tabletop world, so games with female characters are nothing new, but most games where you play as a variety of princesses will be soft, feminine, regal, and entirely driven by aesthetics. While I did just spend a paragraph talking about a cardboard clock, the strategy in the deck-building systems here and the fact it's competitive rather than co-operative feels like a fresh interpretation of a game driven by a female cast.
I'm intrigued by the two new systems, and as a player who has finally taken the plunge into the deep end of Dungeons & Dragons after swimming in🦄 the shadows, any new developments are fascinating. But standalone, play it in a single sitting, have a great time, good old fashioned board games are still my favourite thing to play at the table, and Queen By Midnight is the one I'm most excited for this year.