Erannorth Renaissance News

Hi folks,

Happy new year!

Today's development journal will explore the narrative direction of "Erannorth Renaissance." Picture yourself in 1563, traversing the continent of Elos within the lively and mutable realm of Erannorth. In this mystical place, the remnants of a once-advanced civilization set the stage for a world interweaving intrigue with the supernatural.

Erannorth Renaissance is a narrative-rich, choose-your-own-adventure game where your decisions carve out a unique and evolving story with alternate outcomes. However, whether you pick one of the origin characters or customize your own avatar, you are not playing a blank state character.



Each journey will begin from a common starting point, similar to narrative-driven games like The Witcher and Cyberpunk. The initial setup and a few inherent assumptions about your character are crucial to provide a solid foundation for your story, ensuring the narrative follows a clear direction and intent. But at the end of the day, it's still a game and not a novel. Hence, the main effort is to allow you to experience it your way while immersing you in the story, the world, and its characters.

The continent itself is quite large, and our main campaign story won't be set in its entirety.

Early on, you can choose and dive into an expansive sandbox filled with intricate side quests and clandestine tales or follow the main storyline to uncover the continent's most pivotal secrets. This design empowers you to tailor your journey to be as diverse or focused as you wish, with each route revealing distinct experiences and a deeper understanding of the vast world of Elos.

In the world, tiles can contain stories, locations you can enter, NPCs, and activities.



Romance is also a facet of this world, offering relationships with characters with their preferences and stories. You'll have the choice to make these interactions visible or to disable them entirely. While enabled, romance options are optional and marked to avoid pursuing unwanted storylines. You can also set your preferences on which characters to romance. If you engage, these relationships are designed to provide more than companionship, offer fresh insights, and add layers to your understanding of Elos and its denizens.

Don't like romance? That's the only time you'll know it exists—choosing whether to enable it or not.


When the game ships in Early Access much later this year, it will contain the main story from start to finish and several romantic interests, side activities, etc. Of course, Rome wasn't built in a day. Those familiar with my games will know I follow an iterative process of expanding them, which we'll also follow in Erannorth Renaissance.



During Early Access, one of my primary goals will be to enhance the narrative's depth and permutations, as well as add more illustrations to further immerse you in the story and setting. I want you to feel the weight of the most critical decisions and see the ripples your choices create across Elos. So that your journey is more than a series of events but a personal saga you're crafting with every choice you make.



I can't wait to embark on this journey with you and see the stories you'll tell within the ever-evolving world of Erannorth Renaissance.

Looking forward to shaping this narrative world together.

Hi folks,

In this post, we will be discussing combat. Sometimes, you will find yourself in dangerous situations where defending yourself is the only option. As you move around the world map, you will encounter hostile groups that take their turns after each of your moves and may choose to attack you if they are nearby. However, you can avoid them by maintaining a safe distance or pre-emptively attack them using your Skirmish action. While hostile bands cannot attack you in towns, combat may still occur as part of the story narrative.



Combat is also a very high possibility when exploring ruins, caves, dungeons, and other monster-infested places outside the restraints of the narrative. After all, the game does have an open world, too.

Erannorth Renaissance features a different combat system than its predecessors, which takes place on a tight 5x7 hex grid. The enemies and party are represented by hexagonal tokens, with their Luck attribute determining each character's turn order. Combatants can move on the battlefield, use tactics, or delay their turn once per round. The battles will often be brutal, quick, and unforgiving. But death and reloading aren't necessarily the only outcome of defeat.

Also, you won't be alone. You can meet, recruit, and control a party of additional characters besides your main character. All of whom you can build differently.



Each character starts the game with a set of unique actions that they can perform. You can obtain additional actions by earning perks, acquiring equipment, or trading with other characters. But while you can learn multiple actions, only 12 can be used simultaneously. You can unequip any actions you don't like, even if they are part of your equipment. Choosing these 12 actions thoughtfully is crucial since they cannot be altered during combat.

You can use any actions you have equipped at any time. Still, some have cooldowns that do not reset between encounters, demanding thoughtful use of each ability. Additionally, actions have a specific range, and you'll need a "clear line of sight." Obstacles and barrier tiles can block your actions, emphasizing the importance of positioning on the battlefield. Navigating these obstacles is crucial to use your tactics effectively, making each movement a vital decision.



Actions can combine various effects, such as bleeding, poison, stunning, causing fear, dominating enemies to control them, and elemental damage over time. Other actions can heal, strengthen, or protect characters, weaken opponents, or even summon temporary allies with their own set of tactics.

After defeating all enemies, combat transitions to free-roaming mode, where you can search for loot or explore the battlefield and perhaps have a chance to gather resources.

Erannorth Renaissance's combat system offers a mix of tactical depth, strategic planning, and customization. Whether navigating through enemy lines, planning your next move, or building your party, each decision can shape your path to victory.

That's all for now; if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.

Hi folks,

This first development journal will discuss creating your hero in Erannorth Renaissance; whether it is to customize Eric or Diana's initial traits or create your custom character, the process is similar.

In RPGs, character creation is a critical yet complex phase. Always preceding a complete understanding of the game's mechanics. Traditional RPGs compound this with intricate layers like standard attributes primarily used to derive modifiers.

For Erannorth Renaissance, I wanted character creation to be more intuitive. Aligning your role-play choices with game mechanics and personal playstyles. This streamlined approach allows for a more accessible and engaging character-creation experience without sacrificing long-term depth.

To begin your adventure, a narrative will introduce your character's backstory and initial traits. Your responses to various scenarios will shape your character's strengths, weaknesses, and abilities, making your hero's origin feel personal and unique. There are no right or wrong answers; your choices will determine the type of hero you want to role-play.



There is also the option to skip the narrative character creation and get the LP to assign them to your initial skills manually, which is probably something you'll want to do in future playthroughs.

As you progress, your early decisions will continue to further influence your initial skill set. Eventually, the game will adapt to your playstyle, and you will no longer see choices for skills or attributes that don't align with a character of your skills, tailoring the experience in a broader sense and adding replay value.



Aside from the core narrative you experience, skills and attributes will affect your tactics. Ie. Making them more deadly or efficient to use. Here is how the character sheet looks at the moment (alpha build 0.4.5).



Aside from your perks, your equipment can provide additional tactics. In this case all the 4 tactics Diana has come from her equipment: her Wand and the Grimoire she has equipped.



The four core attributes in Erannorth Renaissance, Might, Intrigue, Esotericism, and Nature, are direct modifiers. Instead of the attribute affecting the skills, it is influenced by them and increases automatically as you increase the respective abilities.

• Might is more than just physical strength. It includes your combat experience, leadership qualities, resilience, and ability to intimidate. Improving your Might requires refining your warfare tactics, asserting your authority, overcoming adversity, and gaining control over others. This attribute represents your ability to use force during battle and when commanding others. Might is derived from Authority, Warfare, Coercion, and Stalwart skills.
  
• Intrigue reflects your proficiency in manipulation, diplomacy, and perception. It encompasses your ability to negotiate, gather intelligence, execute covert operations, and detect deceptions. As you develop and enhance these skills, your capacity for Intrigue increases, enabling you to sway the social and political landscapes in your favor. Intrigue is derived from Diplomacy, Connections, Subterfuge, and Perception skills.
  
• Esotericism measures your proficiency in arcane knowledge, religious mysticism, and secret rituals. It increases as you gain knowledge in alchemy, sacred doctrines, the hidden laws of magic, and ritualistic expertise. A high score in Esotericism indicates a character who is deeply knowledgeable in the mysteries of spirituality and the arcane and can influence both the physical and metaphysical realms. Esotericism is derived from Alchemy, Religion, Occult and Rituals skills.
  
• Nature measures your ability to attune to the natural world and its elemental forces. It considers your survival skills, understanding of the primal essence of the environment, knowledge of herbs, and ability to connect with the most fundamental aspects of life. This attribute reflects your capacity to thrive in various natural settings, harness the power of the environment, and effectively utilize natural remedies. Nature is derived from Survival, Primordial, Herbalism, and Primal skills.
  

As you progress through odd levels (3, 5, 7, etc.), you'll earn Level Up Points (LPs), providing more options to improve specific skills. Investing in Warfare, Perception, Occult, or Survival can tailor your character's development and influence their evolving attributes. These decisions will have a direct impact on your character's abilities.

Erannorth Renaissance features a unique character progression system that is partially classless. This means that although your character begins at the same starting point as others, they can have different outcomes. Your attributes determine the perks you can unlock, allowing you to mix and match archetypes. This system enables you to create any archetype you can imagine, allowing you to customize your character to suit your playstyle. Additionally, your character always starts as a human.

That's all for today. I will dive deeper into various game systems and mechanics in my next journal. Stay tuned, and feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.