Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Turn-based strategy (TBS), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Indie, Card & Board GameHand of Fate 2
Hand of Fate 2 Mod Spotlight: Ruben the Claw Troll
Our last spotlight focused on the devilish Crullford Fiend mod, but today's feature is a decidedly gentler experience - Ruben the Claw Troll. The original Ruben mod was an encounter chain focused on spending time with an adorably mischievous baby claw troll. A sweet and elegant exploration of the bonds that form between people and their pets, its designer, Cheeseness, has since adapted it into a separate challenge for ease of consumption. It was easy enough to grab Cheese and ask about the inspiration behind Ruben, as he handles our Linux port and can generally be found making himself useful in our forums or our QA processes.
Cheeseness: I've always found the claw troll cubs depicted in the Fallen Treasure card art to be adorable. I put together some custom emoticons for the Hand of Fate Discord server, which were well received and prompted me to make up a boisterous character to go with their joyous little faces, which drew a little inspiration from a yellow labrador that my Dad got after I moved out of home. He was a good boy with a big heart, who sometimes didn't quite know his own strength or understand how things like doors worked, but always wanted to help and be involved with whatever people were up to. Over the years, he became something of a celebrity, and at one point my Dad received an invite to a function addressed to "Frodo and Henry."
While testing the HoF2 mod tools, I started to put together a Ruben encounter based on one of Frodo's many shenanigans from when he was a puppy - mysteriously showing up with stuffed toys that nobody could work out the origin of.
Why did you decide to make an encounter chain?
Frodo passed away several years ago, and as the first Ruben encounter came together, I realised that there was some value in writing down these stories somewhere before they start to fade from my memory. It was my Dad's birthday in April, and I worked hard to get as many of the encounters playable as I could before then. He got to be the first playtester of the Ruben chain and that was a moving experience for both of us. I've written elsewhere that it's important to make sure that good times and positive memories aren't lost to grief, and making the Ruben chain was part of that for me.
My reasoning for releasing Ruben out as an encounter chain rather than a focused Challenge was a combination of emotional impact and pacing. Our small friends are with us as across significant portions of our lives, and getting to know Ruben one encounter at a time across many runs felt like a better fit for attempting to convey some of what it's like to have a pet in your life. I think this mirrors what we see with the companion chains in Hand of Fate 2, where we get to know Mal, Col, Estrella and Ari over time. With a chain, there's more opportunity for memories to be formed and for players to take a break and reflect on their experiences.
Did you find your design changed when you made the Challenge variant?
From the beginning, I'd always planned to created a companion mod for The Ruben the Claw Troll that allowed playing through the chain as a linear Challenge. Mostly this was to test the mod dependency functionality, but I also think that while it's not the intended experience, it could be a nice way to make the story accessible to reviewers, streamers, anybody who wants to get to know Ruben but doesn't want to play Hand of Fate 2, or players who've already completed the chain and would like to replay it.
From a design perspective, I didn't feel the need to make any deep reaching changes. Most of the changes I made were small things aimed at preventing the Challenge from interfering with chain progress and helping the chain flow more nicely when packed into a short experience. I added some interstitial encounters between each of the main Ruben cards to indicate that time is passing, I also removed the options to skip Ruben encounters, and prevented token unlocks so that the chain's final reward can't be acquired unless you play it properly. The Challenge also doesn't give you an opportunity to get the Eternal Hope blessing...
What were the biggest challenges you encountered while making Ruben?
The Ruben the Claw Troll chain is primarily text/story oriented, and I wanted to find ways to mechanically highlight moments and provide a sense of stakes/rewards without resorting to combat or adding required equipment. I tried to make good use of each of the different gambit types in ways that resonate with what's happening at the time. For a precision gambit that can occur at the beach, I tried to make the pendulum targets give a sense of waves with their movement style, or when trying to rub down a shedding Ruben so that he doesn't track carapace flakes all through the house, difficult chance cards reflect how wriggly and unpredictable that process is.
Writing Ruben was emotionally intense as well, and definitely more draining than most of the other writing I've done in the past couple of years. It was hard (but rewarding) work.
In hindsight, is there anything you'd do differently?
Not really! Aside from not having as much time as I'd have liked to devote to working on card art, I'm pretty happy with how it has all come together.
Is there anything you want to see added to the modding tools, or to Hand of Fate 2 itself?
We've been talking about maybe adding some shortcuts for pendulum target alignment/distribution, and I'd love for us to be able to allow for custom trait, challenge and info prompt icons. Beyond that, reverse centaurs?
What advice would you give to people wanting to get into modding HOF2?
The modding tools can be a bit confusing at first, but they can be a bunch of fun. If you find yourself stuck or want to bounce some ideas around, hop into Discord and have a chat with the modders and developers (including myself) who hang out there.
What's your favorite HoF2 Challenge?
That's a tough question to answer! All of HoF2's Challenges offer a different angle on how Hand of Fate 2's core mechanics can be expressed. As I sit here and look through them, I can't settle on one. I can't even settle on two. I've given up on trying to narrow it down to just three, so I'll let Ruben decide. I love the Sharptooth encounter and used that card's art as a placeholder for the Mayor card in the Ruben chain, so let's go with The Hermit, which constantly has players weighing up the risks and rewards of exploration, presents the Empire as a tangible threat for the first time, and offers some clues for the overarching plot and continuity of Hand of Fate 2.
Thanks, Cheeseness! To spend some time with this gentle creature, head over to the Steam Workshop page and subscribe to Ruben, available as either an encounter chain or a single challenge!
Announcing Outlands & Outsiders DLC for Hand of Fate 2
We are excited to unveil our first premium DLC pack for Hand of Fate 2, Outlands & Outsiders! Venture into the hostile Mournful Wastes in the Mapmaker challenge, earning new equipment and utility encounters! Then enlist the aid of our goblin companion - Hubie the Orphan - and help him grapple with a world-ending prophecy to unlock his true potential.
Outlands & Outsiders launches next week! Check out the store page for regional pricing.
Hand of Fate 2 Mod Spotlight: The Crullford Fiend
If you've wrapped up Hand of Fate 2's campaign mode and want to try an adventure with a sting in its tail, Dargenom's full-length challenge, The Crullford Fiend, might be the mod you're looking for! A self-contained story of demonic possession, The Crullford Fiend tasks players with gathering the ingredients needed to perform an exorcism before a malevolent entity takes over their body. Featuring a plethora of well-written new encounters (as well as new branches for existing utility cards) the Crullford Fiend made quite an impression in the studio upon its release! I caught up with the designer, Dargenom, to find out what led to the creation of his mod.
Dargenom: I drew most of the inspiration from my favorite challenge in the game, the devil. I wanted to emulate all the things I loved about that challenge, while at the same time adding plenty of replayability and putting some unique twists on existing mechanics, such as the campfire encounter no longer being a safe haven.
How did you plan the design of the Crullford Fiend - especially the many card and companion synergies?
My modding philosophy has always been about making things that feel like they could have been in the base game, so from the start, I already had a good idea of how to design the mod. Things like companion-specific dialogue, new interactions for existing encounters and tying the challenge's blessing & curse theme into the rewards all felt very natural and made it onto the to-do list on day one. It wasn't until I was sure of how I wanted each new card in the mod to be that I actually started working in the editor.
What were the biggest challenges you encountered while making the Crullford Fiend?
The biggest challenge for me while working on the mod was figuring out all of the little intricacies and possibilities of the modding tools that aren't touched upon in the documentation. It can be fiddly to figure those things out, especially if you've never worked with unity before, but after some trial and error, I learned what worked and what didn't. Some of the things I found I ended up incorporating into the mod, and I'm looking forward to seeing what other people manage to put together.
In hindsight, is there anything you'd do differently?
One thing I'm kicking myself over is that I made the challenge uncompromisingly difficult for players who haven't completed much of the story mode, as you require a good selection of cards unlocked to stand a fighting chance. What I could have done was make the challenge easier, but include an equipment card that unlocks the harder version of the challenge, much like the empress challenge and encrusted mace.
Is there anything you want to see added to the modding tools, or to Hand of Fate 2 itself?
I'd love to see more options in the modding tools for editing or creating equipment cards. Currently, it doesn't seem possible to pick and match different equipment models and abilities, which is a shame and inhibits some cool ideas. As for Hand of Fate 2 itself, I would like to see a way to sort cards by rarity while deckbuilding, as it's a bit of a hassle to build a deck with brimstone or platinum synergy when you have to scroll through 80+ equipment cards to look at them all.
What advice would you give to people wanting to get into modding HOF2?
Don't be afraid to ask questions! The people at defiant have been super helpful when it comes to answering questions or fixing unity bugs or other problems. They did a great job in helping me get started with the modding tools and I wouldn't have gotten this mod finished if I hadn't asked for help when needed.
Who's your favorite HoF2 companion?
Colbjorn by far, he stuns hordes of enemies, helps you master the bones and has the most badass questline.
And finally, what you do when you're not making HoF2 mods that impress the entire design team at Defiant?
When I'm not modding, I dabble in writing fantasy fiction, amateur game development and playing D&D and boardgames with friends.
Thanks, Dargenom! Make sure you go to the Hand of Fate 2 Steam Workshop and subscribe to The Crullford Fiend!
Patch notes 1.4.4 & 1.4.5
- Fix a bug with endless card picking.
1.4.4
- Fix a translation issue.
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Patch notes 1.4.3
- Reduced numbers of enemies throughout Endless Adventures to reduce combat duration
- Rebalanced brimstone enemies and reduced their health bonus to reduce combat duration
- Added combat difficulty modifiers after each adventures to offset lower difficulty of fewer enemies
- Bug fixes and stability updates
Modding:
- Fixed enumeration of asset bundles in the modding project on linux.
- Fixed more mod dependency issues in the modding editor.
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Patch notes 1.4.2
- Fixed a bug where Knight’s Helm was not being drawn as a Platinum card in Elder’s Gift encounter
- Fixed wrong companion line in Left for Dead encounter in Strength Challenge
- Fixed necromancer reanimation exception bug
- Fixed blocker in Temperance campfire
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Patch notes 1.4.1
- Added Endless Mode adventure end card translated titles.
- Fixed the lighting on the dealer.
- Fixed a bug that prevented hair colour/hood changes at the camp fire when using a gamepad.
- Reduced snare duration slightly and increased the window that Gnomes will fail to snare after the player has been snared.
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Patch notes 1.4.0
- Added Goblin Faction enemies.
- Added two new Goblin Encounters.
- Added new equipment and two equipment upgrades.
- Added Goblin Faction Endless Adventures.
- Updated Snare struggle input to support tapping Defend (note that the previous struggle input of 'rapid movement/waggle stick' is still valid. Struggle input UI can be toggled in the settings menu)
- Updated the zoom level of the 'view map' camera and added ability to pan using movement/left stick inputs
- Loading time optimisations.
- Lots of graphics optimisations.
- Option to remove hit pause.
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Goblins are on the march! New enemy faction joins Hand of Fate 2!
The latest free update for Hand of Fate 2 is live, bringing with it a brand new enemy faction - Mischief, the goblin suit! No longer content with making merry in their underground cities, goblin hunting parties now roam the surface - their goals a mystery, their methods confounding!
The goblins can be found (and fought) throughout the core encounter deck, and all new goblin encounters can be unlocked from the Gnomish Exchange and Goblin Retainer cards. For folks wanting to tangle with their new foes as quickly as possible, these are the cards to add to your deck. Who knows, if you impress the right folks, you may be able to earn yourself a valuable goblin-vanquishing artefact!
Endless Mode also expands today, with a brand new goblin-centric adventure and new adventures for each of the enemy factions, in addition to a raft of bug fixes and balance improvements. So keep an eye on your possessions and watch your opponent's hands closely - with the release of the Goblin Faction DLC, the Dealer is seeing green!
Free Goblin Faction Coming Soon to Hand of Fate 2!
Keep a firm hand on your scabbard and hide your coin-purse, because the goblins will soon be on the march! These pint-sized pranksters are pouring from their underground cities, leaving mischief and mayhem in their wake. What kind of terrible new threats can you expect in our upcoming Goblin Faction DLC?
Goblin Warriors
The foot soldiers in the goblin army, as likely to evade an incoming blow as they are to entrap the player with a debilitating bear hug. Stay on your toes!
The goblin's secret weapon is his Jug o' Courage, a potent brew that, when consumed, gives the tiny beast the strength and mania required to begin his whirlwind morningstar attack. If you see a goblin chugging down in the middle of combat you'll need to interrupt them or you're in for a bad time.
Goblin Hunters
These wiley archers are just as unpredictable as their sword-wielding allies, but they're also able to pepper their opponent (in this case, you) with arrows from afar. Good news! We've added new goblin-arrow deflecting equipment to the game. The bad news is you'll have to kill a bunch of goblins to get it.
Goblin Clips
*Image Stolen*
You've likely met these fellows in the employ of the thieves guild, but they're just as annoying when in the company of fellow goblins. Why did we even bring them up? Ugh. They keep stealing my good daggers.
Witch Doctors
The magic innate to goblins is strange and mostly irritating. Watch for the Witch Doctor's chanting or fall victim to the slowing effects of his stasis spell, and the subsequent explosion of magic energy.
Gnomes
The proud, pugilistic gnomes would prefer to have nothing to do with their ancient enemies, the goblins. So why are they included in this free expansion? And who's that silhouetted goblin standing ominously in the shadows? How curious. At any rate, a gnome by itself is hardly a threat. Unfortunately, you're rarely going to face off against a gnome by itself.
These new goblin enemies will be added into random monster encounters throughout the deck, along with two new utility encounters unlocked through new narrative branches added to Gnomish Exchange and Goblin Retainer. Expect to find goblins in your Hand of Fate 2 decks soon!