Dragonwatt Games Newsletter - June 2021
By Derek Conrad

Hello again! I hope you're doing well!

In April, I shared some new ideas about Rise of the Gods' core mechanisms. This month, I'll expand on them a little more and why I think they matter to the game.

There's also a lot of buzz going around about returning to "normalcy" here in the Pacific NW. While I don't think we can count our chickens just yet, I do have a few tentative hopes about the rest of this year that have me feeling really optimistic.

This post will be fairly short, though, so let's get on with it!

Rise of the Gods News

NARROWING THE FOCUS

The last changes I made affected how summoning works and reduced the number of shrines from three to two. Continuing off of these developments, I'm also testing the location of the shrines, too.

As you know, the shrines have normally been located back in each player's sanctuary. However, to reinforce the game's theme of "reawakening the gods" and to encourage more player interaction, I'm moving the shrines to the outlands. And instead of each player having their own, the two shrines are now shared.

How does this reinforce the theme? Well, canonically, the titular gods have receded from the world and their presence is rarely felt anymore. As the game's story opens, a giant titan has been freed from its ancient prison, prompting the general populace to seek out the holy sites of old to gain guidance and help from the gods once more. By putting the shrines in the outlands, I'm trying to reproduce the storyline that players have to find the shrines and leave offerings there to please the gods (hence why offerings make your godsend more powerful).

So then what about player interaction? Now that the shrines are in the neutral outlands, they're more susceptible to being removed, destroyed, stolen, etc by the opponent by virtue of inhabiting a common space with other players' cards. I don't plan to make these effects too prevalent, but you can expect to see things such as followers destroying enemy offerings when they're summoned to the outlands, or even effects on offerings themselves that hinder enemy offerings stored at the same shrine.

Okay so the shrines have been moved to the outlands and are shared between players. But why does it matter whether you choose to put your offerings at one place or the other?

It all ties back to your godsend effect. Before, I was designing the godsends to all behave independently of each other, giving the player a choice between three distinct effects. But I think that may be too strong from game-to-game, considering these are abilities you always have access to if you put in the work. So now, the amount of offerings you store at each shrine contribute small bonuses to a single, well-defined effect unique to each god.

I'm still working on these, but I should have more to share about them in the next update!

Event News

With more and more good news on the horizon these days, I've been able to start planning how to "reintroduce" this game to the real world. If you live in the Pacific NW, game stores such as Mox are bringing back in-person events, and conventions are setting actual dates as they return to the area.

After the events of last year were canceled, then re-scheduled only to be canceled again, I'm not placing any bets yet. However, once local conventions actually start the registration process, I plan to attend them with a renewed prototype of the game. And that also means I'm seriously considering re-starting a crowdfunding campaign by the end of the year to piggyback off any publicity I can generate at the conventions.

I'll be sure to announce my plans well in advance, so keep an eye on this newsletter in the coming months if you're (still) hoping to see this game get made!

WRAP UP 🏁

Thanks a lot for reading!

As always, I love to hear your feedback, so send any comments or suggestions to me at derekconrad@dragonwattgames.com!

Take care,
- Derek