Fablecraft News

Welcome to v0.15.0/2 of Fablecraft, Mages! 🧙

Before we get into the official patch notes for the release, we wanted to pause and thank you for your feedback and reviews. We appreciate the time and effort it takes to connect with us, whether it’s here on Steam or on our Discord or Feature Upvote site. Your help and presence is much appreciated.

We shared some of this update's marquee elements in the dev blog and vlog we posted earlier this week, but today, you can dig into the update and the patch notes.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Note: We issued and rolled back v0.15.0 during the evening hours of 8/13/24. Today's update includes a fix for the bug introduced with v0.15.0, and that's why it's numbered v0.15.2. The below patch notes remain the same.

Let’s begin!

[h2]The Complete Tales of Fablecraft v0.15.0/2 Patch Notes[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Following your feedback, we’ve made changes to the GM Demo to greatly reduce the amount of railroading advice and, instead, push new GMs to move more dynamically with their players. Give it a shot and let us know how this iteration feels!
  
• GMs can now display inventory items as fullscreen art for the full party with a simple drag and drop.
  
• Players can view fullscreen art for inventory whenever they want, too; just click on the item.
  
• GMs also have a more approachable drag and drop user experience for said inventory items.
  
• We heard the requests! GMs can now use their purchased Token Skins in battle. Dare you to make the Highland Dragon wear the Rainbow Cake Token Skin.
  
• Speaking of the Highland Dragon, we’ve improved ability and movement targeting for large foes.; just a note, we’re doing more work on this process now that will roll into future releases.
  
• We’ve added in lots of updated combat SFX to make battle that much juicier.
  
• We’ve added more voice over work across adventures to give your sessions that much more flavor.
  
• Yes! Several folks have wanted this one internally for a long time. Now, clicking on a token in the turn tracker will actually pan the camera to center that selected token.
  
• You’ll now get a nice notification on the Main Menu when you’re invited to a campaign.
  
• If a player’s taking too long with that chip and/or dip during battle, their token will now flash to signal that it’s their turn to go.
  
• Players with a spotty internet connection will now have their cameras temporarily disabled until the connection health has improved. This is intentional and will save bandwidth and improve gameplay stability.
  
• We’ve made it so scene art now stays centered when the side tray is opened instead of sliding over.
  
• We’ve updated the display name field to signal when there’s an error in the name you choose.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• We’ve improved video stability for players using their webcams.
  
• We’ve also done polish work across video chat, pop-up menus, character sheets, and elsewhere.
  
• We fixed a bug that would cause hero and campaign tiles to annoyingly uncenter! Whew, solved.
  
• You can now use commas in your homebrew asset names, something that was causing errors.
  
• We fixed bugs related to changing scenes while in battlemaps, so go ahead and end that conflict even more gracefully.
  
• We’ve renamed Shields to Block! We found Shields to be a bit confusing functionally, and this change has been made across Fablecraft.
  
• We fixed some bugs connected to battlemap descriptions.
  
• We fixed a super annoying, persistent popup dialogue that happened exclusively to KO’d and dead characters.
  
• We fixed many data bugs related to characters, creatures, and abilities. Thank you for spotting and reporting these!
  
• Players can now delete homebrew portraits via the character sheet.
  

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]

• GMs will not be able to drag inventory from the GM Guide into fullscreen view! This is a bug. The workaround for now is to find the item in your inventory panel and display it that way.
  

Greetings, Mages! 🧙

We’re working on the finishing touches for a new update to Fablecraft that will bring it to v0.15.0. This update offers some new free content and feature changes that our community started asking for at launch.

With today’s dev blog and vlog, we’ll discuss when this update will arrive (roughly) and preview some of the fun changes and additions we have in store.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Let’s begin.

[h2]When’s the update dropping?[/h2]

It can be tricky to nail down exact release timings for updates like these. We’re currently working through the final QA process now, testing the build, and ensuring we didn’t break anything as we added features and made our changes.

If the QA process finds issues, we’ll need to take stock and decide whether they need fixing immediately or can wait until our next release. If QA gives us the thumbs up, then we’ll be able to launch fairly quickly.

The intention is to release v0.15.0 this week, but that could change. We’ll announce the update as soon as it’s live, and we’ll also be sure to share if we need to hold the update a bit.

[h2]Looking for a badass? Meet the Blade Dancer.[/h2]



Introducing a new enemy, the Blade Dancer, beautifully created by artist Justine Cruz. This level four foe will soon be available for all GMs to deploy, for free, in their campaigns in Fablecraft.

Hailing from the Coral Coasts, the Blade Dancer is a formidable foe for Mages level four and lower. Add more Blade Dancers to the encounter, of course, and you’ll make any situation dicey for even the most experienced Mages.

The Blade Dancer is an aggressive addition to the Fablecraft base game, and she rounds out the pack of ambush-ready attackers like the Shadow Bandits and even Rue Nightshade. For GMs looking to change up the story a bit, we made sure that the background behind the Blade Dancer had only hints of the Coral Coasts region. It’s fairly neutral, and that means you can make her hail from just about anywhere in Mythas.

The Blade Dancer boasts two tough attacks. With Twin Blade Dash, GMs will rush towards their opponents–moving through three spaces–and deal 10 damage. When surrounded, GMs can deploy Lethal Dance and deal 6 damage to all adjacent enemies.

[h2]You’re inventory screens are getting a mighty small upgrade[/h2]

We have a few small–yet big–changes coming to the inventory system in Fablecraft.

First, for GMs and players, you can now click on a single item in the inventory screen to see a fullscreen image and description.



For GMs, we’ve made it easier to give inventory to players and make sure the whole party sees what you’re giving them. Simply grab the item, drag it out of the side panel, and either give it to a specific player or share it with everyone as fullscreen art.



Important note: We’re planning even more changes and additions to the inventory system in the coming months, so stay tuned.

[h2]Tweaks made to open up the GM Demo[/h2]

We’ve heard from some seasoned GMs that our GM Demo is too railroady, especially when we indicate that GMs can throw an impossible roll down as a roadblock for their players.

We agree. Quite simply, we had a short amount of time to put the demo together, and what launched into Early Access was, we felt, a decent first draft. We still intend to revise the GM Demo even further, but this update will see some language and scene changes that don’t encourage GMs to railroad their players with impossible rolls.

We’ll say this to the folks who cited this one as a problem: you were right, and we’re working to improve it. Consider the changes made in this update a simple first step on the road to the complete version.

[h2]GMs get custom Battle Tokens[/h2]

Fablecraft was released on July 23rd, 2024. By July 24th, we had multiple GMs in Discord requesting the same thing: they wanted to be able to use their Player Token skins on the foes they controlled in battle.



With v0.15.0, GMs will now be able to select the Token Skin they want to use for NPCs in battle. A note: you can only pick one Token Skin at a time. You won’t be able to apply specific skins to specific foes, at least not at this time.

Want to know even more about what’s changing with this update? Stay tuned for the patch notes that will go live as soon as we push the release button on Steam, hopefully this week.

Until then, find your next party on our Discord.

Welcome, Mages! 🧙

We’re now two weeks past launch and are cooking up new features, fixing bugs, and considering player feedback as we reshape our backlog and roadmap.

We’re also gearing up to launch two collections in the in-game marketplace: The Brawler Collection and the Storyteller Collection. If you’ve spent a few minutes cruising through what’s in the marketplace now, you likely noticed these collections and their ‘Coming Soon’ banners.

Today, we’ll reveal what each collection includes.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Let’s begin.

[h2]What are these collections, and what do they feature?[/h2]

The Storyteller Collection and Brawler Collection each offer GMs a pack of pre-made assets created by fantastic fantasy artists and our VFX and SFX teams. Each collection will help GMs homebrew campaigns and one-shots, and they are both geared towards their own side of roleplay; combat and theatrics.

Here’s what they’re each slated to include, though some of the naming could change for individual items.

[h3]The Brawler Collection[/h3]



For GMs looking to add more melee to their mayhem, the Brawler Collection offers new battlemaps and monsters of all sizes, including three new massive dragons. Here’s the rundown.

Battlemaps

• King of the Hill
  
• Serpent’s Throne
  
• Docks Battlemap
  
• Highlands Underground
  
• Magical Lab
  
• Wildwoods Ruin
  

Monsters

• Coastal Dragon
  
• Woodland Dragon
  
• Meadow Dragon
  
• Glimmerfang
  
• Gloom Harpy
  
• Hydra (Name TBD)
  
• Jewel Beetle
  
• Kelp Horror
  
• Leaper Queen
  
• Shadow Archer
  
• Meadowpede
  
• Rocky Rhino
  
• Rocky Roller
  
• Sovereign Slab
  

[h3]The Storyteller Collection[/h3]



The Storyteller Collection gives GMs more sights and sounds to weave their tapestry and set the scene. Here’s what it includes.

Environments

• Coastal Depths Entrance
  
• Coastal Depths Marketplace
  
• Highlands Village
  
• Highlands Magical Workshop
  
• Highlands Split Path Tunnel Dungeon
  
• Long Meadows Permanent Dwelling
  
• Long Meadows Fortune Teller
  
• Tavern & Inn (4 variants)
  
• Wildwoods Ruin in Clearing
  
• Wildwoods Ceremonial Chamber
  

Music

• Skulk About
  
• Standoff Two
  
• Meandering
  
• A New Beginning
  
• Roll & Rumble
  

Soundscapes

• Deep Underwater
  
• Dangerous Forest
  
• Magical Lab
  
• Fortune Teller
  
• River
  
• Dangerous Alley
  
• Blacksmith
  
• Kitchen
  
• Swamp Ruin
  

[h2]Where are we with these collections now?[/h2]

Almost all of the art, music, and sound effects are in place for each collection. Now, we’re working on VFX, monster balancing, and pricing.

We’re still slated to release these collections soon, but we don’t have a precise release date just yet. A quick glance at the roadmap reveals that we have these slated for Q3 2024 (ending September 30th), and we’re well within that window.

[h2]How much will these collections cost?[/h2]

As of now, we haven’t landed on a final price for these Collections.

What we do know is that the Storyteller Collection will be cheaper than the Brawler Collection. Both Collections represent a lot of work, of course, but the Brawler Collection’s animated battlemaps, new monsters and creatures, and unique VFX and SFX are significantly more expensive to create. As such, it will be more expensive.

We'll let you know once we figure out those final price points and the exact release date.



[h2]Before we go, some community news! 📰 [/h2]

With the launch of Fablecraft, we’ve been working closely with our community to understand how they’d like to utilize our Discord to find groups, chat with devs, deliver feedback, and learn about what’s coming for the game itself.

Join the Fablecraft Discord

Now’s a great time to join Discord, as we’ve rolled out some changes to our party-finding sections. You’ll now find a party chat for individual players looking for groups and a handy event bot for GMs who are hosting upcoming games and looking for players. That scheduling bot helps streamline event creation and automate signups and reminders.

Get in here and get a session going!

We’ll see you next week, Mages. 👋

Well hello, there, Mages! 🧙 Today marks the seventh day since we launched Tales of Fablecraft into Early Access. We figured it was a good time to take a breath, highlight some key feedback, and share some news.

We’ll start with the news! We’ve partnered with StartPlaying.Games–a place with tabletops run by professional GMs–to offer another place for Mages to play Fablecraft with others. The StartPlaying folks even hooked us up with a $10 credit to share with you, our players, so you can jump into that first session and get going.

• Here are the open sessions: bit.ly/StartPlayingFablecraft
• Here’s the $10 credit for first-time users: bit.ly/Fablecraft10

Go on, then, find yourself a session!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Let’s get into the feedback and our plans for the future.

[h2]We spent the week listening and providing player support, then we dropped a hotfix[/h2]

If you’ve been hanging around with us on the Steam forums or in the Discord, then you probably noticed several Fablecraft team members popping in to answer questions and provide support where necessary.

Support meant two things for us: helping players with the actual in-game stuff and discovering and reproducing bugs. That bug hunting helped us put together a hotfix that was deployed on Friday of last week. If you’ve not seen it yet, you can dig into the patch notes for the hotfix here.



[h2]What do players want most?[/h2]

While talking to players directly and reading the feedback submitted to our upvote-able feedback board, we saw several of the same feature requests kick up throughout the week. Here they are…

[h3]More homebrew tools, like NPCs and Battlemaps[/h3]

GMs, almost unanimously, want more tools for homebrewing their own stuff inside Fablecraft. The most requested are NPCs (both characters and monsters) and Battlemaps.

The good news is that these items are already on our roadmap, but all of the feedback might be pushing them up in priority. We’re in the midst of building homebrew Battlemaps now, and that feature is next up on our homebrew release queue. We’ll share more info for homebrew NPCs as we have it, but that feature is coming.



[h3]Homebrewing the Game Master Guide (GMG) itself[/h3]

This one’s a lot harder to deliver, but we’re still planning on it. GMs want to be able to build their own GM Guides, from top-to-bottom. We knew this request would be coming, and we’ve planned for a while now to get it done.

It will likely be one of the last pieces of our broader homebrew system, though! Once everything’s in place, we’ll offer a GMG builder as soon as we can.

We’ve mentioned this a few times across Discord and on Steam, but the long-term goal is to offer a marketplace for creators to sell their art, NPCs, monsters, music, and whole adventures within Fablecraft.

[h3]More pre-made adventures and assets for GMs[/h3]

GMs also expressed wanting more Riftweaver-made Adventures and assets. Those are on the way soon with the Storyteller and Brawler packs alongside a secret one-shot campaign.

We’ll be adding our own pre-made adventures over time, of course, and we’ll build out the lore as we move.

[h3]Enhancing the Fable Dice system[/h3]

Some folks have shared that the Fable Dice system doesn’t feel quite as rewarding and “good” as it should, and we completely agree with this. We’ve deployed a strike team (I’m the only one who calls it a strike team) on the Fable Dice system to do a little enhancement magic.

They have some interesting ideas cooking, and we’ll share them with you as soon as we can. If you look at the roadmap, these dice improvements are slated for late-Q3 or Q4 of this year.



[h3]Finding people to play with[/h3]

Players want other folks to run sessions with; not surprising, that’s how tabletop gaming works.

Matchmaking is a very large feature that will likely come later in Early Access, but it is on our roadmap. In the meantime, we’re looking at more means to help players find groups in Discord and on platforms like StartPlaying.

If you’re looking for a party, we really encourage you to pop into the Discord and put the LFG sign up!

[h3]More Combat Arena content[/h3]

Mages also signaled enjoying the single-player Combat Arena and its brief story. We’ve heard that folks liked getting more lore out of the Fablecraft universe while having a chance to understand combat mechanics.

The Combat Arena experience in-game right now is pretty close to a first draft. The long-term plans for it are to expand and offer more experiences as Fablecraft grows. It’s not as high-priority as the multiplayer content, but we really enjoy it, too, and want to grow the mode as much as we can.

That’s it for this week’s update, Mages! Thanks for being a part of Fablecraft, and we’ll see you soon.

In the meantime, share Fablecraft with your regular party or join our Discord to find a new one.

👋

Hello, Mages! 🧙 We just pushed a hotfix, bringing Fablecraft to v0.14.3.

We put this hotfix together thanks, almost entirely, to the feedback you provided at launch across Steam, Discord, and the feedback board. We appreciate your time spent sharing thoughts and bugs, and we’re working to improve Fablecraft based on your feedback and our vision throughout Early Access.

Another thank you, too, for your patience! Early Access launches come with bugs and in-progress features, and we appreciate you being here at the beginning of our journey. You are shaping the development of Fablecraft.

With that, here’s what’s been patched in the hotfix!

[h3]Major Fixes[/h3]

• Some players who launched Fablecraft were met with a flashing screen (the opposite of party time). This was a weird bit of leftover player preferences from the demo and closed beta stored in the registry, and we’ve fixed it. You may see your in-game preferences reset, but they’ll stick once you configure them again!
  
• GMs quickly noticed that their Dice Skins were not working in combat. That’s been fixed. Use those Galaxy Dice to kill your friends, GMs, we dare you.
  
• One reviewer pointed out that, hilariously, if a player changed their player image during combat, every single token on the board changed to that image as well. This has been fixed.
  
• New players discovered a frustrating bug: Fablecraft adjusted Windows system-level microphone settings, setting it to 50% the first time the game boots. This has been fixed, and we’re sorry for the confusion.
  
• We fixed a bug that would cause fullscreen NPC art to lock in place while using the GM Guide, giving GMs a real headache.
  
• Some parties in our Discord found a bug that would cause the game to crash if they kicked a player. We’ve fixed that one because of those reports. Thank you!
  
• Finally, we added a “this is Early Access” message to the home screen. We found that some players didn’t know that and assumed that the version of Fablecraft they’re playing today is the same one they’ll be playing a year from now. It’s not, so please pardon our dust!
  

[h3]Minor Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that made unlocking the Glass Jaw achievement difficult.
  
• We made it so the Coral Coast Dice Skin no longer obstructs the two-Spark dice face.
  
• There was some ugly, not Fablecraft-y font on the level cap message. That's been fixed.
  
• We fixed the positioning of some of the dialogue boxes that appeared in hard-to-read places during the Combat Arena.
  
• We fixed a silly typo in Dill Tallgrass's handwritten contract, turning 'excort' into 'escort.'