Fablecraft News

📢 Hey everyone! We would like to make a quick announcement at the top of this update. The Streaming Embargo on Tales of Fablecraft will lift on May 1, 2024. We can't wait to see some of you running sessions out in the wild.

In this week's update, we will be spotlighting one of Tales of Fablecraft's incredible artists, Linda Lithén. We got a chance to see some of Linda's latest work in a previous update. This week, we'll talk to Linda herself and learn more about her creative process!

Name: Linda Lithén
Socials: artstation.com/darantha Location: Sweden
Artistic superpower: The tasty little details.
Interests beyond painting: Gaming and writing, also baking / cooking to satisfy the stomach’s needs.
Couldn't live without: Tea. I run on it, much to my dentist’s chagrin.
Favorite ice cream flavor: I like fruit flavours, like lemon or banana. Or something w/ chocolate chips in it.

Our Creative Director, Darci Manley, gives a more in depth look at the art brief process and the joys of working with Linda. You can peek behind the scenes of the design work in this week's video update!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Linda Lithén has many artistic superpowers, which makes it tough to pick what we are most in awe of. It could be her gorgeous and intricate details (a hallmark of any Linda creation). Or perhaps it’s the speed at which she can take a brief to final picture (seriously, she’s FAST).

It might be the fantastical creatures she often adds to her character designs (everything is better with an animal buddy!). And then of course there’s the vibrancy and storytelling she brings to anything she designs. Luckily we don’t have to choose! Players will have the opportunity to meet many of Linda’s NPC characters and play as several of them as well.



[h3]Can you tell us a bit about how you came to be a professional artist?[/h3]

LINDA: It took a couple of years after college, but it was either continuing to kick around at unemployment busywork events while trying to compete with all recent graduates for low-paying jobs, or just registering as my own business owner.





LINDA: I did some smaller jobs for self publishing authors and a few Power Rangers comic covers early on, but when Critical Role published their first book together with Wizards of the Coast, they brought in a lot of artists from the CR community, and that’s how I managed to sort of wedge my foot in the door. A lot of ADs seemed to find me through my Critical Role fanart at first. So, to be honest I think I was just in the right place at the right time.



[h3]Who are your biggest artistic influences?[/h3]

LINDA: I don’t know if I can name specific artists as general media. I remember trying to mimic the W.I.T.C.H. covers and media when I was young, and one of my childhood memories is lying on the bed in our caravan during summer vacation, copying the drawings in the Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos manual. Warcraft remained a fairly big influence as I played WoW during my teens, along with other anime influences like One Piece and Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy.



[h3]What are your main sources of inspiration?[/h3]

LINDA: My fellow artists keep me pushing myself, haha. Got to learn to live with that “Oh man, I could never paint like that” to “Ok time to just try and aim higher with the next painting” emotional swing. But I also get inspiration from games that I play, and I like taking in various art styles as inspiration.



LINDA: For example, I’m currently bouncing between Elden Ring, Genshin Impact, Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV, and I try to follow artists from outside of the TTRPG/MtG fantasy art style bubble so I have something new I can try to parse and feed into my own style.



[h3]Can you walk us through your process when working on Fablecraft artwork, from brief through to final execution?[/h3]

LINDA: The briefs I get are always so great and leave me with a fantastic base to build from, so I usually start with just thinking about what sort of character it’s supposed to be, what the brief says about them and how they live. Then I do some thumbnail sketches with very basic design elements in them and send them off for review.



LINDA: After that one thumbnail has been selected, I do a cleaner sketch of it with basic colours. I am not good at lines, so my sketches are fairly rough, because I just merge them down into the base colours when I start painting.



LINDA: If everything looks good, I will then do a first pass on everything. In cases like the woven grass cloaks for the Longstriders like Delphine here, I will go looking for references like woven baskets and other decorations and work it up to a point where it looks ok and reads well, without getting too bogged down in the details. This is usually the point where we discuss tweaks to the art piece, like if the facial features need to be changed.



Once everything has been worked out and everyone’s happy with how the process image looks, I do a finishing pass and clean up edges and add more details and textures.

[h3]How would you personally define success as an artist?[/h3]

LINDA: I believe success is what you yourself define it as. In a social climate where ‘monetize your hobby’ is so prevalent, I am a ardent believer in that success as a artist can be anything from “I mostly draw my favourite fandom ship for my 200 followers on tumblr” to “I just got hired to work on this high budget show/AAA-game.



[h3]Any advice for aspiring artists out there?[/h3]

LINDA: If you don’t know how something looks, use references. It’s not cheating. And study your fundamentals!



Check out more of Linda’s work on Tales of Fablecraft, join our party on Discord, and Wishlist us on Steam today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2176900/Tales_of_Fablecraft/?utm_source=steam&utm_content=042924-steam-update-linda-lithen

This week we talked to Riftweaver’s Creative Director, Darci Manley, about the design of the starting inventory for our seven classes. Here’s what she had to tell us.

[h2]Seven Bags for Seven Classes [/h2]

We are just beginning to design Fablecraft’s inventory items, and we've tapped the incredible Linda Lithén to bring them to life. Linda has been working with us for two years at this point and is really an expert on what our world looks like, from the people and creatures who live there, to the regions they call home.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

After we settled on our seven classes, the next step was to bring them to life in a way that supported storytelling. We thought it would be fun to design a custom kit, or bag, for each.

We knew the starting items for each class would be very different (and a little bit weird!). We'd need the bags to be physically easy to transport - after all, Mages in Mythas are explorers. They also needed to be roughly the same size to fit seamlessly into the actual game design. We wanted to highlight 2-4 items to reinforce the class personalities. We knew the colors, materials, and contents of each bag needed to reflect our world and lore. And finally, we were determined that each bag would feel equally special and unique.

So, Linda got busy sketching! You can see some of our early exploration and final designs below.



Early exploration for the Performer bag



Variant sketches for the entire collection of class bags

[h2]The Guardian Class[/h2]

Our Guardians are basically a fantasy sheriff without the pistols. These characters tend to be do-gooders and, honestly, a little bit smug about it. The bag is outdoorsy in its color palette by design. We’ve got some elements that look like leaves here as well. The natural world always influences our art direction, so that’s coming into play here. This is also the most traditional bag shape out of the bunch.



You’ve got the shackles there to reinforce the authority of the class, but also, Claire Purcell (Riftweaver’s lead storyteller) came up with this idea of giving our Guardian a “Watchful Eye.” With a successful Might check, you can roll this magical eyeball around a corner or under a door to see what’s going on. It’s so weird and kind of gross and just endlessly hilarious to me!

[h2]The Inventor Class[/h2]

Our Inventor is a magical MacGyver type. This is the kind of character who is going to grab a seashell, a few feathers, and a pile of sand, then create a new gizmo to get themselves out of a pit trap and/or defeat a Tidemaw and/or detect buried treasure.



There are lots of handy tools and schematics in the bag, plus the stitching and shaping of it is just really fun. The goggles were oddly the hardest part of the design. We had to make sure they didn’t read as too steampunk since that’s not the look of our world.

[h2]The Merchant Class[/h2]

I just love this bag. All of the vibrant compartments, woven details, and straps, and the general shape–it’s such a fun interlocking puzzle of potential fun (and sales!). You can think about it as an on-the-go storefront for pretty much anything a player could dream up.



In particular, I love the shell detailing on the scale and the colorful abacus. When you roll a successful Empathy check as a Merchant you can gauge a fair cost during any negotiation. There are so many story hooks for this class!

[h2]The Naturalist Class[/h2]

This bag is so pretty and sweet. When I want to play a character who is going to try and tame every animal they meet (which is most of the time, tbh), this is the class for me.



The bag is basically a herbalism kit that highlights a variety of our regions. The structure is woven from grass from the Long Meadows–this is also where the bioluminescent butterfly comes from. We’ve got a shell from the Coral Coasts and a mushroom from the Wildwoods. The flower is a rare one from the Highlands, and the sickle is handy anywhere you’ll travel in Mythas. The bag sets you up to make any number of herbal concoctions and brews.

[h2]The Performer Class[/h2]

This was the first bag we designed, and it remains my personal favorite. In Fablecraft, a performer can be anything—a singer, tap dancer, mime, or drag queen. If there is a Performer in the adventuring party, you are almost guaranteed to have some dramatic scenarios.



The bag contains this beautiful mask that Linda designed as a cue to our Highlanders. The moon and stars are integral to our world, and I love that these details were included in the bag. If you zoom in, there are even sequins stitched on! The bag of glitter is endlessly entertaining to me. The thing about glitter is that it gets everywhere and is impossible to clean up. When I play a Performer in Fablecraft, I leave a trail of the stuff wherever I go!

[h2]The Rogue Class[/h2]

Ya gotta love a Rogue to add some chaos and thievery into any story. We’ve provided a number of lockpicks and skeleton keys for all of your troublemaking needs, plus a Wanted sign. Cause that’s when you know your thieving career has really taken off. ;)



This bag was kept small and simple, the better to get in and out of sticky situations. Still love the thoughtful stitching and fun colors, though!

[h2]The Sage Class[/h2]

An intellect, are you? One look at this bag confirms it! You’ve got your esoteric scrolls, your quill and ink, some magical crystals, and no doubt a number of dusty old tomes safely packed away as well.



As for that strange glowing cube? We imagine it works just like a magic eight-ball. Shake it and find out the future. Just don’t blame us if the outlook is hazy or if you need to ask again later. Depending on your GM, a successful Academics check may clear things right up!

[h2]The Final Collection[/h2]

With all of our bags, we really leaned into bright colors, which is the approach for most of the Fablecraft artwork we create. If you google “fantasy adventure bag,” you’ll find a lot of brown leather backpacks. Nothing wrong with that, except that it’s been done before. So we tried out something a little more vibrant and fun. Let us know if you have a favorite!



[h2]Wishlist Us On Steam[/h2]

We love hearing from all of you, so please keep the feedback coming! Your support makes a huge difference to an indie game like ours.

Join our party on Discord and Wishlist Tales of Fablecraft on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2176900/Tales_of_Fablecraft/?utm_source=steam&utm_content=steam-update-040224

We’ve officially crossed a pretty cool milestone here on Steam: Tales of Fablecraft now has more than 20,000 Wishlists!

Wishlists help indie studios like ours a lot, so thank you. Your excitement and support for our virtual tabletop RPG means so much to the Riftweaver team. 🧙🎲🍻



Wishlists bring new players, and new players bring a lot of questions. So! We’ve gathered five of your most frequently asked questions here, complete with official answers straight from our team.

Let’s dive in.

[h3]When will Tales of Fablecraft launch?[/h3]

We haven’t announced the official launch date yet, but Fablecraft will launch into Early Access here on Steam sometime this summer (in the Northern Hemisphere!).

[h3]I see there was a closed beta; can I still join?[/h3]

The Fablecraft closed beta officially stopped accepting new participants earlier this year. The good news is that we’re working on a demo that will launch on Steam very soon and will include brand-new content that wasn’t available in the closed beta.

[h3]How many people can play Tales of Fablecraft? Is there a recommended group size?[/h3]

Fablecraft supports groups of up to six people, which means one GM and five players. The recommended group size depends on the scale of your adventure and the spirit of the group. Internally, we tend to run with one GM and four players.

[h3]Tales of Fablecraft is free-to-play, but how will it be monetized?[/h3]

When Tales of Fablecraft launches into Early Access, the complete five-Session Road to the Starfall Festival adventure will be included for free, along with a host of other digital assets to homebrew up a storm.

At launch and beyond, we’ll sell adventures of varying sizes, cosmetics like dice skins and player portraits, and we’ll offer a subscription tier that gives GMs the ability to homebrew their own assets. Homebrew functionality will grow throughout Early Access, but the ultimate vision is for Fablecraft to be as flexible as possible.

We’ve not settled on exact price points for content yet, but we will share those details as soon as we have them.

[h3]Will everyone need to buy adventures to play them or just the GM?[/h3]

Only the GM needs to own the adventure or homebrewed assets to run a session. Players can simply download the free base Fablecraft game to join these sessions.

--

If you have any other questions, come on over to our Discord and fire away!

And if you haven’t already, please Wishlist Fablecraft here on Steam to help us achieve our next milestone moment.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2176900/Tales_of_Fablecraft/

When you build your character in Tales of Fablecraft, you’ll have seven classes to choose from at Early Access launch. Each class was designed like a puzzle piece to fit snugly with others, enabling players to build cohesive and complementary parties.

What are those classes, and how did we select them?

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Heroes Aren’t Born, They’re Made[/h2]



Upon arriving in the world of Mythas, every player character becomes a Mage—a person who discovers that they can wield the magic of the world better than most.

While these characters are magic users, their different classes set them apart and represent their unique magical specialties.

[h2]The Seven Classes of Mythas[/h2]

The seven classes available to players at Early Access are Guardian, Inventor, Merchant, Naturalist, Performer, Rogue, and Sage.

The icons for these classes (featured below) were lovingly designed by another fabulous icon, our Senior Designer, Jaclyn McKay!



Each class is the master of one of our 10 available skills (and yes, there are three more class plans for the future!). These classes also represent archetypal heroes that you might find in many different stories.

Class design is great when you can look at an ensemble cast of characters and easily identify their class and role within a party. Let’s jump in and identify each of the seven unique classes available in Tales of Fablecraft!

[h2]The Guardian Class ⚔️[/h2]

The Guardian class is the embodiment of might. They represent the strong, protecting the weak. They can also represent an authoritative figure within a party, but that depends on how an individual decides to play!



Every Guardian has access to the Imprison spell, which allows them to bind a defeated foe and magically transport them to an appropriate nearby authority.

Players can get creative with this spell and find unique ways to utilize it. Transporting prisoners is one thing, but maybe the Imprison spell can be used to deliver a message in a hurry! How might you use a spell like this?

[h2]The Inventor Class 🛠️[/h2]

Known as the makers of Mythas, Inventors are highly resourceful. When the gears start turning, and a wild new idea is concocted, Inventors cannot be stopped!



Every Inventor can access the Tinker spell, allowing them to fashion a handy object from whatever they have available.

This is a great class for someone who wants to get creative with the roleplaying aspects of tabletop RPGs. What strange items would you combine to make something new and exciting to use on your next adventure?

[h2]The Merchant Class 💰[/h2]

Merchants could sell rocks to a miner and negotiate a fine price! This is a great class for the player who wants to wheel and deal their way through Mythas.



Every Merchant can access the Heart’s Desire spell, which allows them to identify the thing that someone wants most, whether that thing is material or emotional. Imagine the ability to always have “just the thing” for any occasion!

[h2]The Naturalist Class 😻[/h2]

Naturalists nurture the wilderness around them, and although some may prefer plants and animals over people, they help create harmony between the inhabitants of Mythas and the world's natural elements.



Every Naturalist can access the Speak to Nature spell, which allows them to communicate with plants and animals to glean information.

We highly recommend this class to all you animal lovers out there. Who doesn’t want to have a chat with their local Karma Cat?!

[h2]The Performer Class 🎭[/h2]

If you see all the classes and say “that’s cool, but I want to sing, dance, and charm my way through this world," we have good news for you! With the Performer class, you can take on ANY talent to aid you in this endeavor.

Maybe you go for a more traditional bard-like role. Or maybe you set out to become the next great stand-up comedian of Mythas!



Every Performer can access the Center of Attention spell, which allows them to draw the eye of all within earshot. Their audience can’t look away or leave until their performance ends.

If you go the comedian route, you can practice your tight five on party members during downtime; we’re sure they’ll love it!

[h2]The Rogue Class 🤫[/h2]

Ah, Rogues… We love them, we need them, we’re not too sure where they’ve disappeared to now. Naturally stealthy, Rogues have a knack for avoiding the consequences of their actions.



Every Rogue can access the Skulduggery spell, which allows them to make their suspicious or morally ambiguous behavior seem on the level.

What more can we say? These delightful troublemakers would make a fine addition to any party (tragic origin story not included).

[h2]The Sage Class 📚[/h2]

If you want to be the brains of your next adventuring party, the Sage class is for you! Known as the know-it-alls of Mythas, their emphasis is on study and knowledge. They acquire their skills through research and apply what they learn to the world.



Every Sage can access the Condescend spell, which allows them to rant about the minute details of a subject until their target agrees with their point and regrets any words to the contrary!

[h2]Developing The Class System[/h2]

To dive a little deeper into how we built the classes you’ll play in Fablecraft, we chatted with Riftweaver’s Lead Game Designer, Brian Aloisio, about the design process. He shared a lot about our team’s decisions and design philosophy.

When approaching design for our game, the most important thing we remind ourselves is that Fablecraft is for everyone. The guiding light of our systems should always be accessibility for new players.

The first big decision was to separate classes from combat abilities. We wanted the freedom to roleplay as a wide variety of characters without those choices restricting combat.

For example, despite not being a traditional role for them, a Sage can play as a front-line, high-health, melee tank in Fablecraft combat! This is possible because our class and combat styles are on different tracks, allowing for more varied mixing and matching for players.

The next step was tackling our skill system. The kind of skills a roleplaying game puts in front of players implies how the designers want the game to be approached and played. We iterated on our list of skills quite a bit during development to emphasize the themes and ideas we wanted Fablecraft to explore.



Then, it was time to determine what kind of system we wanted. Did we want a class-based system or something more free-form? This is where the guiding principle of accessibility comes into play. While freeform systems can be exciting to an experienced roleplayer, they can also be very confusing and too open-ended for newer players. We felt that expressing archetypal classes would help people get into the roleplaying spirit!

The building blocks of our classes are their primary skill, spells, and secondary skills. Each skill represents an area of excellence that can contribute to a party. Likewise, each class represents an embodiment of that skill directed in ways that are helpful to a party. So the exercise became clear: find the ways the skills help and go from there.

[h2]One More Thing 👀[/h2]

It’s dangerous to go alone, so take this: A sneak peek of what’s coming up in our next weekly update!

Every adventurer needs supplies. We'll examine each class again, but this time, we will look at their starting Inventory and discover what’s in their bags and why.

Below is a beautiful WIP of each class pack, designed by the immensely talented Linda Lithén. We can’t wait to show off more of her incredible artwork next week!



Until then, tell us which class you would like to play in the comments, and Wishlist Tales of Fablecraft on Steam today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2176900/Tales_of_Fablecraft/?utm_source=steam&utm_content=steam-update-041524

[h2]Larger Than Life! 🤩[/h2]

Hello all! Notice anything different about some of your recent creature encounters? Your eyes do not deceive you! 👀



With the release of our latest adventure, Murder on the Tipsy Pearl, Big Monsters have landed in Mythas. Let’s take a look at how they work, how they effect combat, and what makes their inclusion unique for Tales of Fablecraft.

[h2]Whoa There, Tidemaw! 🐙[/h2]

When these colossal creatures land on your battlemap, they can be a huge (pun intended) threat to unsuspecting Mages. Take the Tidemaw, for instance. This sea monster prowls deep coastal waters. It attaches itself to the hulls of boats, and uses its spiked tentacles to pick off crew members, one by one.



A Tidemaw's body occupies a whopping 3x3 set of tiles. In addition to it's sheer size, it has an opener that allows it to summon tentacles which grab players or swat them away. As a GM, you'll have tons of new combo moves you can use when operating this beast. And as players, you'll need to come up with more considered strategies to defeat it.



Watch out for that tentacle hug! 🦑

[h2]Storytelling With Scale📖[/h2]

Another Big Monster we're excited to introduce is the Malevolent Ooze, which occupies a 2x2 square. These shapeless blobs form when cruel wishes are made at a wishing well. Their slimy bodies can fit through small spaces, but their pungent odor is a sure telltale sign that they're lurking nearby.



Malevolent Oozes spit acid and engulf unsuspecting mages into their jellylike mass. They will split into four smaller Malevolent Globs when destroyed. 🐌🐌🐌🐌



Make sure to reserve some health for the Glob's Acid Spritz!

[h2]Big Monsters, Bigger Battles![/h2]

We’re excited for you to mix it up with Big Monsters in your upcoming games. We'll be continuing to drop these bigger baddies in future adventures so stay tuned - the gargantuan size of these creatures will definitely keep you on your toes!

[h2]Would You Rather? 👀[/h2]

And now for a quick hypothetical before we go! You may not currently encounter big cats in Tales of Fablecraft... yet, but which would you prefer to battle!?



Would you rather take on 100 regular sized Karma Cats or 1 BIG KITTY!? Tell us about it in the comments! 😻

[h2]Wishlist Us On Steam! 🌠[/h2]

Be sure to Wishlist Tales of Fablecraft on Steam so that you’re ready to take on these massive monsters when Early Access arrives!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2176900/Tales_of_Fablecraft/?utm_source=steam&utm_content=steam-update-032424