The tabletop game that helps kids on the autism spectrum build confidence and social skills, one dragon at a time.
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Hello Everyone,
I know that everyone is anxious to get their hands on the digital pre-release material. I can assure all of you that we’re working hard on writing and editing Critical Core each week. As we continue to develop more on the material, I want to continue to share more pieces of our game that make me really excited. Today I’m going to be sharing the base design for the modules.
With Critical Core our goal was to give people tools that reflect how we create custom games at Game to Grow. The goal is to have enough plot and details so that the game master feels prepared, while still leaving a lot of pieces of the world and story open for the players and game master to fill in collaboratively.
This means that it looks a little different from normal modules. The story itself is broken into encounters, story beats with categories; role-playing, combat, and exploration. We’ve talked in previous updates about the DOTS system that helps you to outline the purpose of each encounter, each module encounter is created using these DOTS.
You can see that the outline is a two page spread. It is designed to maximize the space that is given without having to turn pages to find the information that you need.
A good way to think about it is that each encounter gives you some read-aloud text to get you started, then leaves it up to the game master to run the encounter, then gives you some read-aloud text to move you to the next piece of plot. All of this is designed to give the maximum amount of tools to the game master while still making it clear that there is space to improvise and adapt to the input and needs of the players at the table.
The other thing that you might notice as you look over this is the blue text at the bottom. Blue text sections are specifically designed to guide therapists or professionals through using the encounter to help build on specific skills. We wanted to make sure that the modules were playable by anyone, but also still give guidance to those who are using the game for intentional therapeutic growth. So you can use the blue text if you're confident and qualified to do so, or you can ignore it without impacting the joy and fun of the game.
I’ll also point you toward the things on the right hand page in the black bar section. All of these are specifically placed to be ways to adjust or expand the encounter in front of you. Either additional tips and tricks for the GM to use, or ways for you to adjust the length and challenge of this specific encounter. You could run the encounter without ever reading or using these pieces, but if you are finding that you need to make some of those adjustments, we’ve given you some more tools there to help you do so with confidence.
I’m really excited about this format for a lot of reasons. Obviously this speaks to us at Game to Grow since it is designed with our style of game mastering in mind, but I’m also excited because it creates a template that we may be able to hand over to others so that they can create their own storylines and modules in a similar format; a goal that we have for the future of Critical Core after the physical product is released.
Thank you everyone, again, for your support and patience. I know that you’re anxious to get the game into your hands, and we feel the same way. Your excitement about the game means the world to us, and I can’t wait to hear your stories from the table.
Warmly,
Adam Johns,
Game to Grow Executive Director
Hello Everyone,
I have some more information about Critical Core development for you, as well as some great inside scoop about the druid character.
First, I’m sure you’re all waiting on the Critical Core digital beta. We’re still working very hard to get the material into your hands. Delays that we’re seeing are due to continued opportunities to make improvements to the material, which then often requires restructuring and some rewriting to make it work correctly. We’re closer than we’ve ever been to getting the digital beta into your hands, and the delays that we’ve had so far have resulted in tremendous improvements and polish in the mechanics and design of the game.
When we release the digital materials, we’ll be providing you with a couple of surveys to provide feedback and some instructions on how to use them. This will give us the best possible opportunity to incorporate any errors that you can find that we may have missed in all of our editing passes. We’ll also be launching a Discord server so that you can connect with the game designers and, more importantly, with each other about your experiences with the Critical Core Beta. Kickstarter is a fine place for comments, but this will give everyone a much more fluid way to discuss their experiences with Critical Core.
Since some people may have missed it. I’ve included a link to our recorded Q&A video from the previous update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7JdpIZgpWM&feature=emb_title
Now let’s take a close look at the druid character sheet, and some of the changes that I’m excited to talk with you about.
First and foremost, it is important to keep in mind that we’ve based a lot of the basic mechanics of Critical Core on the 5th edition SRD ruleset. However, if you’re familiar with 5th edition, I’m sure you’ll notice a lot of significant differences with some of the druid’s abilities, and game rules. Each time a change was made to the rules of the game, our goal was to make the rules and Critical Core more accessible to new players and game masters. With the character sheet we’ve aimed at a design that is more self-contained that requires as little referencing of other books or guides as possible while playing your character.
As for the druid specifically, I want to point you to the druid’s shapeshift ability, named Beast Shape.
One challenge that we’ve had in the Game to Grow groups with the 5th edition shapeshift is that it requires a long list of beast creatures which each have their own stat block. This makes the beast list feel “complete” and many players are hesitant to be creative in the selection of their beast shapeshift. In addition, when a player wants to shapeshift into something that isn’t on the list, new game masters sometimes struggle with how best to make that work within the given rules.
In Critical Core, we wanted to make sure that Beast Shape is more flexible and easier for new game masters and players. So when a player’s character shapeshifts they select one of three sizes of creatures: Small, Medium, and Large, and then select a specific Primal Aspect to apply to the creature that they are changing into. These give the player both flexibility and some interesting new strategies to their selection.
We, also, wanted shapeshifting to be more frequent and natural for the druid. We want druids to be able to shapeshift as much as they want without restriction, but needed to make sure that shapeshifting so often doesn’t grant an overly powerful mechanic to the character. So we made Beast Shape usable as often as you like but balanced the forms and mechanics to help make sure it isn’t overpowered.
Lastly, we wanted the druid to be more of a benefit to the team while in shapeshifted form, so we created a new ability called Bestial Presence. This allows the druid to extend their Primal Aspect bonus to a teammate in the middle of combat. This can be a great way to give a teammate an extra attack, some bonus movement speed, or additional defense that may help prevent an attack from hitting them. This becomes even more tactical and useful at level 4, when the druid can select 2 different Primal Aspects for their form.
I’m excited about all of the characters in Critical Core, but the druid was one of my very first characters that I played, and has always held a special place in my heart. Personally I think the druid is the character I would be most excited to play in a Critical Core game.
Once again, thank you everyone for all of your support and patience. I promise that you’ll have a chance to see all of the hard work that we’ve put into Critical Core very soon with the digital pre-release materials.
Warmly,
Adam Johns
Game to Grow Executive Director
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.