Fablecraft News

Welcome, Mages, to the next major update to Tales of Fablecraft. 🧙

📢 Fablecraft is now available on iPad, with cross-play and cross-platform support. Get it here.

This is v0.20.0, and it delivers a brand new adventure, features requested by our community, and bug fixes galore. As always, you'll find the complete patch notes at the base of this post. Before we get there, we'll share more about Once Upon a Wildwood.

Want a deeper dive into the marquee features packed into this release? You'll find it in last week's edition of Fablecraft Friday, below.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Break the curse. Save the forest. Live happily ever after.[/h2]

When an evil wizard inflicts a curse upon Grimersen Wildwood, it’s up to the party to break the spell. Venture deep into the woods to discover a fairytale like no other, and expect the unexpected in this whimsical-but-deadly adventure!

This adventure is recommended for Level 7 Mages, but encounters can be rebalanced to suit all levels.

Here's what it includes:

• A Game Master Guide that minimizes prep
  
• 8 Animated Environments (1 variant)
  
• 5 Animated Battlemaps (2 variants)
  
• 5 NPCs
  
• 5 Monsters with unique abilities and SFX
  
• 1 Music Track
  
• 1 Soundscape
  
• 1 SFX
  
• 11 Inventory Items
  

Now, how about those patch notes?



[h2]The Complete Tales of Fablecraft v0.20.0 Patch notes[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Tales of Fablecraft is now available on the iPad with cross-play and cross-platform support.
  
• Once Upon a Wildwood, our newest premium five-session adventure, is available in the in-game marketplace and on Steam for $19.99. This adventure includes a complete GMG, new battlemaps, new environments, new NPCs, and new baddies complete with their own combat moves and associated VFX.
  
• We’ve added a suite of safety tools to make adventuring in Mythas more inclusive and accommodating. Players can raise a flag for their GMs whenever they are uncomfortable, block and report other players, and toggle custom content on and off.
  
• GMs will find a link to the TTRPG Safety Toolkit on the campaign creation screen, too, which provides a wealth of open-source resources for setting boundaries and expectations for your group.
  
• Hidden Dice Rolls are now available for players and GMs. A GM can opt to roll secretly, and players won’t see results. Players can also opt to roll privately, but their results will be shared only with the GM (of course, the rolling player will see the results, too).
  
• Feel like flexing the rules a bit for your next adventure? Advanced Campaign Settings are here, and this is only the beginning. With the first wave of Advanced Campaign Settings, GMs can make the following tweaks…
  - Determine the amount of Charge lost when a Mage is defeated in combat
  - Determine how much health is gained with Quick Recharge (25%, 50%, or 75%)
  - Determine if only GMs can wake KO’d Mages
  - Determine if Mages can automatically wake after combat is over
  - Determine if Mages must roll with disadvantage when pent
  - Determine if only miscast spells cost Charge
  
• Consumables can now be stacked in your inventory, so you can carry a bunch of health potions while only occupying a single slot.
  
• We’ve added support for listing Fablecraft adventures and content as DLC on Steam. This enables us to bundle goods for discounts and let players buy adventures for their GMs as gifts.
  
• We also updated the GM Guide selector so that it matches the visual style of the marketplace, making it possible for us to add more adventures and simplify browsing.
  
• While Object of My Affection is still a one-shot, we’ve broken the GM Guide down into three sections for easier navigation during play.
  
• Players can now log into Fablecraft with their Apple accounts on PC, Mac, and iPad.
  
• We’ve updated our terms of service to be more creator-friendly and added an acceptance notification when you fire up the game.
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• You’ll now keep your dice and token skin selections after you log out and back into a campaign in Fablecraft.
  
• Video settings will also persist when you exit and re-enter a campaign instead of vanishing into the void of Mythas.
  
• Music and soundscapes will no longer suddenly stop when you switch to a custom environment, meaning you can maintain the mood.
  
• We fixed a bug that would clear your opening skill (and cause a bunch of other terrible issues) if you moved your token around and then reverted it to your starting position. Now, your opener will play, and you’ll be able to move freely before locking your destination in with an action.
  
• Dragons finally breathe fire (or gems, or whatever) while facing the correct direction instead of upside down, which was really bizarre.
  
• We fixed a bug that caused the Strained status to behave in unexpected ways.
  
• We also renamed “Shield” across the application to “Block,” clearing up confusion about functionality.
  
• Players who exit and re-enter the combat scene will now automatically regain control of their heroes.
  
• The GM Demo will no longer break because you decided to click on the Campaign Notes tool.
  
• We also fixed bugs that would break the Hero Demo when users dismissed roll requests.
  
• We made a slew of general tweaks and fixes that help game and camera resolutions and FPS.
  
• We’ll now auto-enable stereo sound support for players with multichannel setups.
  
• Also, if users try to use unsupported audio devices, we’ll now send them a notification that they’ll need to switch.
  
• Friend chat messages sent an hour or more apart will now show timestamps.
  
• Finally, we made a bunch of visual and text updates across the board for better clarity and readability.
  

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]

• Custom audio is not currently available for iPad; we're looking to add this in a future update!
  
• Character sheet sub-panels may open empty if entered while a hover tooltip is displaying. If this happens to the GM, they will need to restart Fablecraft. If there are three players, the non-GMs can click on each other's avatar to bypass the issue.
  
• Account deletion doesn't fully update for friends of the deleted account. If this happens, friends may need to remove the account from friends lists and campaigns manually.
  
• GMs cannot consume or delete items on behalf of a hero via their character sheet, but they can pass those items to other players.
  
• Some level-up bonuses aren't fully applying at higher levels (Inventor Level 8 doesn't receive their third Spellcraft die, for example). We're looking to address this quickly with a hotfix.
  
• While suffering from poison, you may see a seemingly random MISCAST animation play. This is a bug! You didn't (necessarily) miscast.
  

Greetings, Mages! 🧙‍♂️ Next week’s update is a big one.

[h3]Tales of Fablecraft v0.20.0 will launch on November 19th, 2024. This update includes the new Once Upon a Wildwood adventure, the iPad version of the game, and a slate of incredible new features.[/h3]

We’ll preview the new adventure and those upcoming features in today’s edition of Fablecraft Friday, and we’ll begin with Once Upon a Wildwood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87INwBs1gGk

[h2]Once Upon a Wildwood is almost here[/h2]

Once Upon a Wildwood is our first full, premium five-session adventure since we launched into Early Access in July. It will officially launch with v0.20.0 here on Steam and in our in-game marketplace for $19.99.



Break the curse. Save the forest. Live happily ever after.

When an evil wizard inflicts a curse upon Grimersen Wildwood, it’s up to the party to break the spell. Expect the unexpected in this whimsical-but-deadly fairytale adventure!

We’ll detail the full slate of what’s included in Once Upon a Wildwood next week upon release, but you can expect a complete, new Game Master Guide, animated environments, animated battlemaps, NPCs, monsters, soundscapes, and music.

[h2]DLC available on Steam? Why?[/h2]

That’s right! We’re placing all of our adventures (for starters) on Steam as purchasable DLC.

[h3]Gifts for your GM[/h3]

From the moment we launched into Early Access, we heard from players that they’d like to buy adventures for their GMs. We don’t have this sort of gifting available in-game right now, but getting the adventures up on Steam makes this possible. Of course, this meant engineering a connection between purchases on the Steam marketplace and our in-game marketplace, but that functionality is going live with v0.20.0.

Gifting adventures will soon be possible with Steam DLC.

[h3]An easy way for us to create bundles and offer discounts[/h3]

And! By making the adventures available as DLC on Steam, we can do some interesting stuff with Bundles. That starts with The Adventure Bundle.



The Adventure Bundle offers an 11% discount on the adventures within. This is a Complete the Set bundle, and that means you’ll be able to get that 11% discount on the adventures inside the bundle regardless of how many you already own.

So, for example, if you already own The House in the Manor, you can snag the rest of the adventures in the bundle and take advantage of that 11% discount as well.

We’ll have bundles in our in-game marketplace, too, but they don’t support the complete the set discount functionality available on Steam yet. We plan to bring that feature to our in-game marketplace, but it will take time.

[h2]Hidden Dice Rolls and Advanced Campaign Settings are coming, too[/h2]

Roughly three weeks ago, we shared that v0.20.0 will include many quality-of-life features in addition to the fresh adventure and iPad support. You can learn about those social and safety features here, in case you missed the post.

Today, we’re announcing two more fresh features coming with this update.

[h3]Roll dice, in secret[/h3]

Sometimes, a GM may want to obscure a dice roll from players. Other times, a GM may want a player to make a roll without the rest of the party seeing the results.

With v0.20.0, we’re introducing the ability to hide dice rolls from players.



This works two ways… The GM can roll in complete secret, and players will simply see that a hidden roll occurred without seeing the result. Or, a player can opt to roll in secret, but only they and the GM will see the roll and results.

Our Mage community requested these hidden rolls on our feedback board, so thank you!

[h3]The beginning of Advanced Campaign Settings[/h3]

One of our goals for Fablecraft is to offer a virtual tabletop system that’s as flexible as possible while remaining user-friendly. That can be a challenge.

With v0.20.0, though, we’re introducing Advanced Campaign Settings that open the door for GM and table-specific tweaks and changes. You’ll find the Advanced Campaign Settings menu in the campaign creation and editing screens.



We’ll add more toggles and selectables to the Advanced Campaign Settings menu as we move through Early Access (like friendly fire, for example!), so consider this the first step in our journey.



That’s it for this week’s edition of Fablecraft Friday! We’ll have in-depth patch notes available with the launch of v0.20.0 on November 19th, 2024, so get ready for those.

Have a question? Want to find your next party? Join our Discord.

We’ll see you next week, Mages!

👋

Hello Fable friends, Ross and Cody here, the composers and sound designers of Tales of Fablecraft. We’ve received a lot of questions about how we make the music, so we thought we’d give you a small behind-the-scenes peek into our world. First, a bit about ourselves…



We’re childhood best friends who grew up playing music together, and both became obsessed with the art of recording music. We founded our custom music agency, Upright T-Rex Music, in 2011 and have composed for commercials, short films, exhibitions, and games like Two Dots, Dots & Co, Wavelength, Specimen, and Google I/O.

Now, let’s take a look at one of our recent tracks, the main song for Once Upon a Wildwood.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Here’s the full overview of the track in Ableton Live, our preferred music production software. Each colored bar contains a subgroup composed of many audio tracks, this session has around 130 tracks total.



Here’s what the bass subgroup looks like opened up:



Usually it’s not wise to use that many basses, but we sure do love it.

We use a mixture of real instruments, synthesizers, processed fake instruments, and re-sampling of things we’ve already recorded. We’re always trying to find new ways to make instruments seem less like themselves. The player should feel like the music they’re hearing actually came from another world and era.

One of the most used instruments in Fablecraft is the acoustic guitar. We tend to record a regular acoustic and then layer it with either bass ukulele, tenor guitar, bouzouki, banjolele, or even some mandolin. Combining different acoustic instruments gives it an ambiguous sound, less recognizable than just guitar.



We love synthesizers and use them in everything. They’re often hidden under acoustic instruments, so the song doesn’t feel too “electronic.” Here are a few of our favorite toys:



The tiny Casio keyboard on top of the Mini-Korg is an early consumer sampler meant for kids. It’s great for sound design, or anytime we need a blown-out/lo-fi vibe.



Another obsession is 90s synthesizer rack units (Ross can’t make a track without his trusty JV2080).



One of our most beloved instruments is this 1970s Rhodes electric piano. It uses a real harp inside (just like a piano), but instead of strings, it has small metal rods and is fully electric. Most importantly, it is also Albi’s favorite nap spot.



We love unique sounds that have age and color, so we incorporate vintage effects boxes as much as possible, especially anything that uses tape. Tape echos, spring reverbs, cassette decks, VCRs, you name it.

The gold box here is an early delay unit from 1950s Germany called an Echolette. It’s analog tubes and tape! Below is the last great tape echo ever made: the Roland 501 Space Echo. It has spring reverb and chorus (in stereo!). And above the Echolette is a trusty Memoryman delay pedal, which uses chips instead of tape (but still gets wild).



We’re also huge fans of guitar pedals, and the company Chase Bliss makes the best ones around. We use these on everything!



With percussion, we often record real instruments and then process them for a less recognizable sound. The 1980s MXR pitch shifter rack that allows you to pitch-shift instruments in real-time is a particular favorite.



We play most of the instruments ourselves (well, play them well enough), but for anything extra complicated, we hire outside help. Here’s Ross’s dad recording the bass for the Wildwood track last month:



And here he is working up a part on a Greek bouzouki, a bass mandolin. We love this thing because it sounds so unique.



We hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look into how we make the music for Tales of Fablecraft! Now scram, Albi has to get back to work



- R+C

Welcome, Mages! 🧙‍♂️

This Fablecraft Friday is special. We’re here to announce the release dates for the next full Fablecraft adventure and the launch of the iPad version of our TTRPG. Here’s the best news: they’re dropping on the same day.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So, let’s begin.

[h2]Once Upon a Wildwood and the iPad version of Fablecraft will launch on November 19th, 2024[/h2]

Prepare your parties, Mages! A new adventure and platform are arriving right before the holiday season begins.

Now’s a great time to introduce family and friends to Fablecraft; with a few tablets and laptops, you can easily get a session going in person. Just take care of the ever-changing wildwood.

[h2]What is Once Upon a Wildwood?[/h2]

Once Upon a Wildwood is a fairytale-inspired adventure in a mushroom-corrupted wildwood. Adventurers will scale thorny walls, assist blind mice, kiss slimy frogs, and negotiate with magic doors, all while resisting the effects of The Lull.



Sounds like a thrilling time, doesn’t it? This adventure features beautiful art, battlemaps, monsters, music, and more. It will run the Fablecraft-standard five sessions in length, and it will be available in the in-game marketplace and on Steam as DLC for $19.99 on November 19th, 2024.

We’re working on getting all adventures up on Steam to make them easier to find, purchase, and gift for Steam users, so stay tuned for that as well.

[h2]Prepare for the iPad version of Fablecraft[/h2]

Since Fablecraft’s inception, we’ve been working with multiplatform play in mind. Parties come in all shapes and sizes, and some folks prefer tablets and phones over PCs and laptops (and some prefer plain ol’ pen and paper, which we hope to one day address as well).

On November 19th, 2024, we’ll introduce iPads into the platform mix for Fablecraft.

Fablecraft willl support cross-platform accounts and cross-play functionality. This will remain true for all platforms that play Fablecraft. Some folks will use their tablets and mobile devices for in-person play and keep their remote sessions to their PCs and laptops, and we’re working to make that all as seamless as possible.




Whether you’re dragging and dropping scene changes or taking on a Wildwood Dragon in combat, the touchscreen controls in Fablecraft feel really good. If you own a tablet, we hope you give it a shot. You can pre-register the iPad version of Fablecraft on the App Store now so you’ll be ready for release.

[h2]A quick reminder: grab the Halloween one-shot before it’s gone[/h2]

One last note before we go, Mages. Halloween was yesterday, of course, but you might want to run this spooky one-shot even after all the candy’s been distributed.

Be sure to log in and grab the free Halloween one-shot, A Fright in Fallen Branch before it’s gone for good. We’ll remove the Halloween one-shot from the marketplace with the update that delivers Once Upon a Wildwood. Don’t worry, we won’t be taking it from your libraries if you own it, so get it now.

That’s it for this week’s edition of Fablecraft Friday. Be sure to join our Discord and discover your party for Once Upon a Wildwood.

See you soon!

👋

Greetings, Mages! 🧙‍♂️ It’s Fablecraft Friday!

We’ll start with the news: the iPad version of Tales of Fablecraft is coming soon.

Fablecraft is cross-platform and supports cross-play, so you can hang out in-person or remotely and play Fablecraft with friends on tablets, PCs, and Macs. We’re slated to hit Android tablets next, and we’ll be on mobile in 2025. Mobile will support cross-play, too.

For the iPad owners among us, this launch is surely exciting news. But what about folks who exclusively play on Steam?

We’ve been working to pack the update accompanying the iPad launch with quality-of-life features that will make Fablecraft better regardless of which platform you play on. With this week’s edition of Fablecraft Friday, we’ll preview some of the key quality-of-life features bound for the next major update.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Let’s begin.

[h2]Stackable consumables should help a Mage’s inventory[/h2]

While magic may run rampant in Mythas, any Mage knows that inventory space resists almost all forms of magical roleplay. Your pockets won’t get deeper, and your slots won’t grow in number.

For Mages hoping to stock up on consumables, limited inventory can make it tough to tote multiple Curative Cordials alongside those “important” and “quest-relevant” items you looted from that “magical and powerful” creature.

With the next major update, Fablecraft’s inventory system will support stackable consumables. That means your Curative Cordials can be stacked so they only occupy a single inventory slot regardless of how many you choose to carry.



Take a look at our friend Leaf Needles’ inventory above. He’s holding four Curative Cordials in a stack at this exact moment, denoted by the counter in the lower left corner of the item.

And, because Curative Cordials can be used in battle to heal for 15 HP, you’ll also see the stack of four potions on the action bar.



[h2]Some friends need to be blocked[/h2]

We’re looking to expand the social elements of Fablecraft over time, which means we need more robust social features typical of online platforms with friending and chat capabilities.

One such feature is the ability to block friends. This one’s been requested a few times on our Discord, and we’re glad to deliver it as we welcome in a new platform of potential players and friends.

Go on, then, block that pesky pal.

[h2]Easily accessible social features[/h2]

The last incoming update we want to highlight will make doing social things, including blocking and friending, a bit easier once you’re in a campaign with a party.

With today’s version of Fablecraft, right-clicking on a player’s character portrait only brings up a menu for the GM. For players, right-clicking does nothing, but GMs get a button that lets them edit the health and shields of a player.

With the next major Fablecraft update, all players will get access to a menu when they right-click on a player’s character portrait.



Players will be able to view the selected user’s character sheet, GMs will retain the ability to edit the character’s health and shields, and all users will find the block and report functions in this menu. Finally, if the selected user isn’t already a friend, you’ll be able to befriend them with this menu, too.

[h2]Beware what lives in the shadows of Mythas…[/h2]

We are in the depths of the spooky season, and we wanted to share some more ways to make your Fablecraft sessions a bit more haunting! While you can already grab our free Halloween-inspired one-shot adventure, we will highlight some of our scarier monsters via our socials leading up to Halloween!



Taking a cue from old monster movies you’d grab from your local rental store; we’ll be sharing some of the darker creatures that reside in Mythas. Up first: our ole’ pal, the Bone Collector. 🦴 You can read more about it on our brand new Tumblr blog, where we’ll be sharing lore tidbits & GM resources for the community.



That’s it for this week’s update. As soon as we have the precise release date for the iPad version of Fablecraft and all of the enhancements we’re including with it, we’ll share it with you here and on Discord.

Speaking of Discord, more groups are spinning up every day. If you’re looking for a party of Mages to explore Mythas with, join our Discord and find your group.

👋