By Zbigniew “Zed” Zych, Lead designer and owner of LM Publishing
Image courtesy of Ubisoft
I promised today’s post would again focus on game mechanics and some concepts that ended up in the trash. So, let’s dive in! By the way, don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss the launch of our campaign!
Merits
Since we decided that the traits and skills of Heroes should offer as much integration with the game world as possible, we wanted to add something that would allow every player to emphasize the uniqueness of their character. Enter Merits—special abilities that make a Hero capable of something others cannot, or that make them exceptionally good at something—better than anyone else. This is where we included ideas borrowed from Heroes of Might and Magic 3 under the category of Specialties.
A Hero can, for example, be a unique commander for a specific unit, enhancing it to its best version. They can provide an extra boost to a particular spell, shaping both battle strategies and out-of-battle tactics. But that’s not all—Merits also include abilities that were initially designed with narrow applications, like Ballistics, Artillery, or Luck (which we’ll write more about soon). Additionally, Merits encompass many elements necessary for balancing and diversifying gameplay. For instance:
We wanted to preserve the offensive nature of the Barbarians from Krewlod—Heroes with maxed Attack and zero Defense. However, since Defense attributes are tied to character vitality (more on this later), we introduced a Merit that allows, for example, an Ogre Hero to have high vitality despite their low Defense. Thus, the Warm Blood Merit was born.
Factions, Lineages, and Character Classes
We won’t deny that the wealth of options here is both a blessing and a curse. In other TTRPGs, players can usually choose from 8, 10, or maybe 12 character classes/archetypes as a base to create their unique hero. In HoMM2D20, we wanted to honor that richness.
We’ve introduced eight factions, 14 lineages, and 16 character classes. Of course, not everything can be combined with everything else (just like in the beloved Heroes games), but as you can see, the base options are plentiful.
You’re probably wondering how all of this will fit into the core handbook?
The answer is… it depends. Ideally, we’d include everything from the start, but the game is being funded on Kickstarter. If it’s a big success, all lineages, factions, and classes will make it into the handbook. However, if the campaign is moderately successful, we’ll opt for a basic set of factions. This decision is in your hands! Stretch goal milestones prioritize new character classes, so with a bit of luck, we’ll include them all.
The Story of Two Heroes
Early in development, we wanted to create an extremely detailed system for exploration, economy, and management. Players would gather gold, basic resources (wood and stone), and special resources like crystals, gems, sulfur, etc. Additionally, they would need to conquer new territories, maintain control over them, fend off enemy attacks, and manage the city’s expansion. The tasks piling up for players were immense, and yet they would still need time for planning battles and embarking on adventurous quests. One group of Heroes simply wouldn’t be able to handle all of these challenges… but two groups?
The solution we tested involved each player creating a pair of Heroes at the start of the game—one Hero of Might and one Hero of Magic. This way, one Hero could handle management and economy while the other focused on conquest, with the player switching between them as needed. However, the truth is that, first of all, expecting players (especially new ones) to create two characters was overkill. Secondly, the management and economy mechanics were time-consuming, dominating gameplay and leaving little room for role-playing or “ordinary” adventures.
Now we know that simply packaging the entire management and economic system into more streamlined solutions was the way to go. The idea of playing more than one Hero remains an optional feature for enthusiasts who want to engage in long campaigns.
That’s all for today. In the next post, we’ll delve into battles—the most important element of gameplay and our greatest challenge. Don’t forget to follow the Kickstarter campaign and sign-up for the latest news!
For Erathia! For the Griffins! 😉
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