Skald: Against the Black Priory - Now on Kickstarter

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is now on Kickstarter, asking for 70K Norwegian krones, which is 7K+ in Euros and about 8K$. For your pledge you get: "a classic, turn-based RPG, set in a dark and gritty fantasy universe: full of tragic heroes, violent deaths and eldritch horror, with a dark, immersive plot and inspired by legendary titles such as Ultima and the gold box series".

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is a tile and turn based roleplaying game where you lead a party of up to six characters on an epic and perilous quest.

The game features:

• Vintage graphics using the glorious Commodore 64 color palette
• Complex level-based character development with abilities, skills and features
• Grindless tactical combat
• "Choose-your-own-adventure" system and dynamic, tree based dialog.

As a party based RPG, SKALD puts heavy emphasis on both roleplaying- and mechanical interaction between party members.The current leader of the party can be swapped by the push of a button and the skills and abilities of the current leader will influence interactions with the game world. But be warned: Managing the party can be challenging with members having private agendas and motivations.

Combat in SKALD is turn- and menu-based. This leads to fast and grind-less combat (that can be automated). The design emphasis is on having interactions between abilities, tactics and situational circumstances create unique and challenging combat every time.

The game will feature a rich and highly interactive world with both scripted and systemic ways of interacting with the hundreds of NPCs, items, objects and plot points. The game will allow for, and encourage, a large range of player expression and roleplaying.

Interacting with the world takes place through tree-based dialog, "choose-you-own-adventure sequences", combat, tile-based exploration and interaction with in-game systems.

SKALD: Against the Black Priory will feature level-based character development with both numerical stats and special abilities. I also intend for roleplaying choices to affect character development by taking a leaf from classics such as Fallout 1 and 2.

As a game of dark, gritty fantasy, magic is a huge part of the world building. It will play a huge part of the game and designing a system that is both mechanically and narratively appealing is a challenge I can't wait to dig into! More on that down the line.

The game will release on PC (Windows) first with releases for Mac and handheld devices down the line. NOTE: Backer rewards are PC only.

Estimated release date is June 2020.

I can't find a Youtube video of the game, so you have the check the one at the link. Matt Barton will have a video up where he hangs out with the developer in two days. Also, one of the characters in the game resembles Matt, which is probably no coincidence.

More information.

Something about those kinds of ultima-ish graphics always gets me interested… going to go take a closer look at this one.

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
Something about those kinds of ultima-ish graphics always gets me interested… going to go take a closer look at this one.

For me it is that music, Amiga 500 flashback…

One of the few games I'd back on Kickstarter after a huge while.. I first backed way back an Andrew Plotkin text adventure and then it escalated later quickly.. Last thing I backed I think was Wasteland 2….

Only thing I need to investigate for SKALD is the way it's gonna handle maps, automapping etc etc.. I really do hope on this aspect it strays away from Classic Goldbox and have some quality of life improvements for us too old to bother with handdrawn maps anymore.. If it is already the case, I'm even more happy about it!!

Edit: It seems dungeons are also top-down so I'm already in love with it, good call..

Reached goal and funded as of writing!

Originally Posted by KeepitClean
Only thing I need to investigate for SKALD is the way it's gonna handle maps, automapping etc etc..

Same. I just have zero sense of direction, in real life and in games.

I'd prefer higher fidelity graphics. Mind you I'm not looking for Joxer hair quality; just something a little easier on the eyes on a large monitor.

I'm happy they met their goal, well done folks!

Well that was quick. Of course, his goals weren't very ambitious, but perhaps they didn't need to be.

Backed Also, the hangout video with dev is up on Matt Chat youtube

Hi!

Developer here!

SKALD automaps and displays the minimap on the main GUI :-)

Hey SkaldRPG congratulations on getting funded! I like the look of the mountains of madness stretch goal, especially as you've listed John Carpenter's the Thing as an inspiration. I'm hoping for isolated snowy areas and plenty of paranoia . Good luck with the rest of the campaign.

Originally Posted by KeepitClean
One of the few games I'd back on Kickstarter after a huge while.. I first backed way back an Andrew Plotkin text adventure and then it escalated later quickly.. Last thing I backed I think was Wasteland 2….

Only thing I need to investigate for SKALD is the way it's gonna handle maps, automapping etc etc.. I really do hope on this aspect it strays away from Classic Goldbox and have some quality of life improvements for us too old to bother with handdrawn maps anymore.. If it is already the case, I'm even more happy about it!!

Edit: It seems dungeons are also top-down so I'm already in love with it, good call..

Originally Posted by screeg
Same. I just have zero sense of direction, in real life and in games.

Originally Posted by Pongo
Hey SkaldRPG congratulations on getting funded! I like the look of the mountains of madness stretch goal, especially as you've listed John Carpenter's the Thing as an inspiration. I'm hoping for isolated snowy areas and plenty of paranoia . Good luck with the rest of the campaign.

Thanks a lot! I love playing around with mixing up trope-spaces in fantasy! In particular trying shed some of the judeo-christian, euro-centric medieval motifs that make up so much of traditional fantasy world-building.

Doomed, hubris-fueled expeditions to the cold and dark corners of the world is a cool way of mixing more sci-fi like, post modern tropes in with gritty fantasy!

A very erudite explanation! I'm encouraged by your skill with words. Already backed, now the yearlong wait…

EDIT: just about to make the Mountains of Madness stretch goal!!

Originally Posted by screeg
EDIT: just about to make the Mountains of Madness stretch goal!!

Yup - Mountains of Madness stretch goal now reached. It's good to see this doing well.