Adjoining Adjustments - KF Legends #004
Tweaks to a couple of CotL Legend cards!
Hello there, everyone!
It seems like life wants me to turn this into a biweekly newsletter, instead of a weekly one. As a result, there has only been one “regular” issue in between two “changeloggy” ones. Well, I will still try to publish every Monday from now on. We will see how that goes.
To better align with the newsletter calendar, updates to the format will not be releasing the 1st of the month as previously stated, but on Mondays pertaining to a week with a 1st. This way, the newsletter detailing the changes will come out on the same day instead of waiting until the next week.
Welcome to 1.2
Things are calmer here as the second KF Legends set, Age of Legends (corresponding to the official Age of Ascension), is being developed. However, there are still things that we keep catching and some others that arise precisely because of the new designs being worked upon. These are the 2 cards in the first set Call of the Legends (9.5% of the set) that have changed in version 1.2:
DU57, Dis-Posable (CotL #07) had a text adjustment with absolutely no functional change, stating that the method to randomly choosing its “Destroyed:” ability outcome is to roll a die. This accomplishes two things: first, it holds the player’s hand guiding them all the way through the ability’s resolution. This avoids potential disagreements between players and reduces friction when facing an ability doing something that normal KeyForge does not do, therefore being a critical part of the format’s design. Everything that asks our players for things they are not used to do should be handled with extra care, not left for them to decide.
The other big thing it does is to align the design on this card with the 1.1 (and current) version of Muha, Moon Virtuoso (CotL #20), who is also using the “roll a die” template in its “Play/Action:” ability. This seems minor but will actually be key in creating new design space in which Legend cards can move, setting them (and therefore the format for those who like them) apart from your regular KeyForge experience. In a couple of weeks, this newsletter will go back in greater detail on why is this a big deal when designing games and formats.
Xylbzyx, Hivemind (CotL #08) has suffered a serious but absolutely necessary nerf, losing its capability of multiplying constant abilities by having several friendly creatures with the same power than the constant ability holder. The next newsletter issue will address how Xylbzyx is already quite a problematic card from a design space perspective, and he being able to do that was making future Legend cards with constant abilities very hard to design. The card is now definitely less prone to game-winning combos, but that is probably a good thing. This format should not be doing that in such an easy way, and this card is still quite strong with many abilities (I personally have built around Imps and some cool “Destroyed:” abilities in 2-power creatures, granting some juice out of Xylbzyx even if he’s removed ASAP).
The templating of the ability has also been adjusted to more closely reflect official KeyForge sintaxis. Legend cards being as close as possible to official cards has always been a key part of this format design, trying to make entering it as easy and natural as possible, so using the opportunity to switch it around is just a net win.
Adjusting is Amazing!
It is always a cool thing to reflect on previously released cards and find new ways in which they could be improved, specially if it makes them a better design in the cohesive whole that every Legend card should create. Getting cards from different sets to interact in fun and meaningful ways may sometimes require changing something about them as the project goes on, but it is totally worth it if you can afford it. In our case, being fanmade and aiming for a print-and-play experience allows us to retroactively fit new bits that will result on a much better ecosystem when new cards are dropped. There are always nice aspects to all publishing options and I am very happy to capitalize on these.
Unless things go very differently from what I expect, KF Legends will probably jump from version 1.2 to 2.0 with the release of Age of Legends when entering July. This does not mean that CotL cards are safe from getting iterated upon, but the focus will definitely shift a bit away from them. However, I do expect getting more playtests (ideally of both CotL and AoL combined) during the summer, which could stir things quite a bit and bring some new and surprising twists.
That’s it for this week! See you next Monday, back to pure game design stuff instead of updating!