Mythical monsters – a colossal new addition to DestinyQuest
With each new book in the series, I try and introduce some new concepts and game mechanics to keep things feeling fresh and exciting. For the upcoming Wrath of Ragnarok, the highly anticipated sequel to The Raiders of Dune Sea, the biggest new addition is mythical monsters!
Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Mike, we have fought dragons, elemental lords and even archdemons set on taking over the world. What threat could these possibly hold to make us even raise an eyebrow? Well, heroes you are in for a fun treat.
With the mythical monsters, I wanted to really create true ‘raid-style encounters’ which you might be used to if you play online games like World of Warcraft. The idea of a raid boss is that they usually move through various phases, and in each phase you are battling to lower their health while strategically dealing with their abilities and managing your health and consumables. The idea is that they test your strategy and hero build.
So, how does that translate to a pen and paper game. Well, if you have played Raiders of Dune Sea you will have already experienced the dungeon delves that require you to battle through multiple encounters to reach a ‘safe point’ and grab some loot. Mythical monsters are sort of a bite-sized chunk of that, in that they will present various combat phases. In each phase you need to whittle down their damage so you can move onto the next phase.
In each phase, you get your abilities restored – so they can be used again, but your health and other attributes carry over from one phase to the next, requiring careful management of stats to ensure you can survive.
What makes mythical monsters extra special is that they all have very unique mechanics, many of which involve visual player aids (illustrations) to manage new game concepts, combat positioning, the monster’s abilities and other cool environmental/scenario effects that play a part. So each combat will feel unique and exciting, and push what can be possible with a pen and paper gamebook.
Don’t worry, these encounters will be balanced to cater for all levels. They may be a little tough, but will be designed so that even the average player, with a bit of practice, can smash through and gain that epic loot.
The Wrath of Ragnarok will be coming to Kickstarter in February 2023. Keep that in your diary and I’ll share more info soon.
Happy (mythical) adventuring
MJW