General Suggestions

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Yep! Already planned (so your finger is relaxed and only has to hold one place.)

[Riidi WW]

My suggestion is to hurry and release the full version with the app already!!! It's frustrating me because I just finished ACt 1 and it was super cool, but I'm worried that if I start Act 2 i'll spoil myself for the full book........

[Schwarzbart]

Sorry the App will be released some time next year as the Legate already mentioned as first the book have to be finished bevore the work on the app even starts.

[Legate of Mineta]

Riidi;

 

Yep, what Schwarzbart said, alas.

[Schwarzbart]

Merchants

Yrgulf Stonestock' shop leave me with many questions

1) Is type Bonus something that count as a Equipment Type for Mechanics?

2) Can I equip only one Bonus, each Bonus once or as many Bonus as I have the money for?

3) Is Kroach actual the talent/skill Kroach­-kin?

4) Is Dark Lore actual the talent/skill Dark­-breaker?

5) Is Bardsong the talent/skill Bardsong?

 

Kala Brewer, Apothecary

6) Can Vitality Draught used multiple times for the +5 Defense if the player got enough money?

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Great questions!

 

1) No.

2) As many as you can purchase.

3) Yes.

4) Yes.

5) Yes.

 

6) I think there is only meant to be 1 there, but I'll double check.

[Schwarzbart]

For people having the Taken from the Vault: a Dwarven Armory I think it would be great if you add Reference: Forgecraft to Yrgulf Stonestock's shop for the 220 gold.

And for People having The Deep Market it would be great if you add Reference: Skullduggery to this shop.

For Encounters on the Deep Road the Reference: Pathfinding sound about right for this shop.

This all unless you have other ways planed in this books to get this Skills after the game started.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

You guessed it, the Add-Ons have different ways to get those Skills, as you'll see.

[Leoshi]

Legate I would suggest opening another section for support for Holdfast. Like Academagia and Scheherazade.

 

For extra cleanliness.

[Schwarzbart]

Leoshi lets face it after the book is released there is no easy way to fix any still remaining problems so I don't think a seperate section is needed.

[Legate of Mineta]

Leoshi;

 

I'm afraid what Schwarzbart said is correct. We did consider a support forum for the purposes of help, and answering questions, though. If we do that, we'll open it closer to when Holdfast ships.

[Leoshi]

I feel dumb...

[Legate of Mineta]

Hahaha, nah. We'll still be collecting feedback anyway, in case we do a revised edition in the future, so it's a decent suggestion.

[butterbiscuit88]

Played through Act I already before moseying over here to add feedback.

 

Originally I was going to say "Act I, while fun, felt waaaay too easy as far as gamebooks went. I didn't even get a single Wound!"...then I realized that it was because each healing kit (if I am reading the feedback correctly) marked "healing kit (5)" meant the number of kits AVAILABLE if bought, not the number of USES per kit.

 

D'OH!

 

...basically, I am seconding the feedback on making this distinction more clear in the item list.

 

Also, while I realize cards and references will be available in the final product, I really have to second how essential these will be. Already it can be a pain playing through and flipping between various pdfs to make sure I read the correct info... while the story is good enough (and sends genuine chills up my spine, in some places!) to make this only a mild irritation, I can predict this becoming even more irritating down the line.

 

Finally... I think a couple players have already touched upon this, but there needs to be a few places to make this less... meta-gamey. Example: The guardian challenge, where refusing to pick a number leads to the same option as failing to get a 1. Or when exploring the abandoned beerhall/tavern/whatever you finally decide to call it, and if I choose to skip past investigating the stairs and upper area... I still get a 'sneak peek' at reading ahead and realizing that the roofcrawlers would give me a fight without any sort of real reward.

 

Again, I realize this is a work in progress, currently laid out to make it easy to read and critique, but it really ruins the first-time immersion.

 

And a bit of new (I don't think anyone asked this before... either that, or I missed it! If so, I apologize) critique: when I pick up a 'ruined' item (ex: ruined armor when investigating the living quarters of the Hold, or Ruined Poisoned Gauntlets when the orc statue comes to life) I am not sure if that goes into inventory to be repaired at a later time (when it would then become usable), or if despite the 'ruined' description, I can use them right away. That would make a big difference, and it would be great if you could make that more explicit in the text!

 

Finally... maybe this becomes more relevant in later Acts (as I haven't played them yet), but if you have a Kroach-kin dwarf, it seems very odd to me that there are no other speech options with Lashaya or the rest of the orcs encountered in the massive war party near the end of Act I. (I understand no one is going to stop battling just because a random dwarf yells 'Hey there, I speak your lingo!', but Lashaya OPENED UP with a speech!)

 

So far, really enjoying it though! But I am DEFINITELY also looking forward to the Tin Man app, as I forgot how much set-up a gamebook can really take!

[Schwarzbart]

Huh I also played it so that each healing Kit have 5 uses. Sure I ended the game without a single wound but in some combat I got down to 5 Defense or below and this with Skill 19 and Defense 25.

In one combat I even burned trough 6 Boon dice just to prefent to get a wound.

[butterbiscuit88]

I may have been luckier than I thought with my dice and my kit, then. I started with Skill 20 (great roll!) and Defense 28 (also very good!) and didn't think of how much it affected the flow.

[Schwarzbart]

Yes Skill affect dratical how much damage you get especial in Act 2 and 3 you fight against enemys with Skill 22.

Have a look at the combat table for someone with just skill 11 and see that he get 7 dmg right at the start if he fight this skill 22 oponent!

Even if he have luck at the combat rolls and get 2x +3 ini he is at 18 damage at round 3 while the enemy just got 5 damage.

Now add 1 claw effect at round 3 and weak chars might end already at a wound.

(Beside that you can get the, in my opinion, second best sword of the game right after your first combat if you chosen the right path)

[Legate of Mineta]

Butter;

 

Thanks! You're right about the layout and the cards- the randomness will really help immersion later, but for the moment, we want to make sure the focus is on testing.

 

The ruined items, for the most part, are for the Merchants Add-On, but you can usually sell them for a little bit.

 

The part about Lashaya was raised by another of the Clan, and it's a fair point. There may be a small addition to that sequence for you Kroach-kin.

[Schwarzbart]

And a bit of new (I don't think anyone asked this before... either that, or I missed it! If so, I apologize) critique: when I pick up a 'ruined' item (ex: ruined armor when investigating the living quarters of the Hold, or Ruined Poisoned Gauntlets when the orc statue comes to life) I am not sure if that goes into inventory to be repaired at a later time (when it would then become usable), or if despite the 'ruined' description, I can use them right away. That would make a big difference, and it would be great if you could make that more explicit in the text!

The same is true for all the crafting materials you get in Act II. They have no value assigned and also no use for crafting right now.

[Schwarzbart]

Will there a second Beta round or are you collecting the info from this beta and already put together the final version for the print?

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Only one Round- the final version won't be started until next week, though, to make sure we can collect everything we can.

[CremePudding]

Leoshi lets face it after the book is released there is no easy way to fix any still remaining problems so I don't think a seperate section is needed.

 

Well there's the iOS / Android version, although the patch would still take time and be infrequent.

 

There's one thing I want to ask though - in the actual book, are some of the section still named like the beta? Or are they all numbers?

 

Because some of the titles are really meta-gamey and spolierific. Doesn't stop me from picking them, the titles make things like dealing with the Warholders lacking in uncertainty. The good thing is that it stop people from accidentally killing them. The bad thing is it drove away all tension from the Rallying bit.

[Legate of Mineta]

CP;

 

No, the beta titles are named for convenience- in the actual book, they are just numbers.

[Adrian]

Sorry I've not been adding a lot to this, but while on the topic of section titles.. I hope you don't 'just' give them a number. Or rather, not a 'pure' number.

 

My concern is that it is horribly difficult to look up something like '2' as opposed to '~2~', '0:02' or the likes. - '2' just appears too many places. Page numbers, all twenties, maybe even the occasional dice roll (To be fair this is only really a concern for those reading/playing through Adope Reader or the likes, but even so.)

[Legate of Mineta]

Adrian;

 

I think they will be bracketed, so searching will be much easier.