Okay, so I’ve introduced you to our Savage Planet, now let’s talk about the Legacies…
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Legacies are individuals who are hired to run your Citadel. They are the gears and cogs that bring more Iridium into your stockpile. Iridium, or “shards,” is the currency of Fantos, the Savage Planet. We think of it a little like the spice melange in Dune. Fantos inhabitants use Iridium as food, fuel, building material, and some even say the shards are an aphrodisiac. So it’s a desirable commodity.
Legacies are the hired leaders that harvest the Iridium mine fields, declare war, defend your riches, vie for tribute, and look out for your best interests. Each Legacy is a unique snowflake possessing its own personal strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities.
In our The Fate of Fantos card game, players are assigned a Citadel located on the Savage Planet, and they attempt to run them in ways that gain the favor of Zodraz, the Cosmic Warden. They do this by hiring Legacies to work for their Citadels. Once hired, players task the Legacies to different actions depending on the roll of a die and/or the decisions of other players.
Legacies are also the only game characters allowed to play cards from their Citadel’s hands. Each Citadel holds a hand of 5 cards made up of bonuses, buffs, and disruptions, which Legacies can use to alter the course of the game in different ways.
I’ll get into more information about the specifics of these cards another time, promise. But, for now, let’s discuss some game mechanics…
Each Citadel starts the game with a stockpile of Iridium, and they can use the shards to hire Legacies out of a randomly drawn pool.
Each Legacy has a Hiring Cost, which is indicated in the top right corner of each card. So, let’s say I want to hire The Alchemist out of the current Legacy Pool. He’s going to cost my Citadel 5 Iridium shards. So I take 5 out of my Citadel’s stockpile, and I place them on top of the Alchemist card, which I have placed face up in front of me.
You might be wondering why I put the shards on top of the card? This is one of the things about the game that I really like. The Iridium on top of The Alchemist represents 2 things: (1) the shards are now his, which he can use to pay the costs of cards played from his Citadel’s hand, and (2) they represent his Hit Points. So, if The Alchemist chooses to play a card from the Citadel’s hand, you would discard the proper amount of Iridium shards from The Alchemist to pay the cost of playing the card from your hand. Discarded shards are placed into The Trove. (This is name we have given to the mine fields where Legacies go to harvest Iridium—it’s simply a big pile of Iridium tokens on the game table—The Trove sounds better.)
Defeat in war may also cause a Legacy to lose shards, which are also placed back into The Trove. Additionally, events and trials that may occur during the course of a game can reduce a Legacy’s shard count. If a Legacy runs out of shards, that card must then be discarded. So, a Legacy’s Iridium shards signify its buying power and its health, which all begins with its hiring cost.
Let’s look at the bottom of a Legacy card now. The first icon in the bottom left corner signifies the card’s Phase Condition—every Legacy character possesses one, and it tells the Citadel when the character’s unique ability can be used—and the other icons and numbers represent the stats this Legacy can contribute to three different types of Fantos Actions: Harvest, War, and Tribute. (I’ll go into how these different actions work at another time, but it’s important to know that the icons aren’t just for decoration.)
Finally, let’s discuss the Ability of the Legacy, which is described by the text on the card. Abilities are different for every single character, and can really add a boost to your Citadel that can also create problems for others. So, it’s important to read them closely and look for opportunities to to use them wisely throughout the game. All of the Abilities are activated in different ways: some are passive, some have cost, and others require you to task the Legacy to do it.
At this point you may be wondering what “task” the Legacy even means, right? Well, Citadels have to Task their Legacies in order to get them to do stuff. They don’t just magically read your mind and know what needs to be done. They must be Tasked. This is where Darth’s idea for a “Game of Middle Managers” comes into play. But, I’m unable to go into this right now, as I myself am being “Tasked” at the moment; family beckons!
So, I’ll go over Tasking and Un-Tasking Legacies next time, when I become Un-Tasked.
Until then, be sure to play some games and make some mischief.
-Travis Watkins, Leader of The Imps
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Savage Planet: The Fate of Fantos is now in the playtesting phase. If you would like to join our growing group of playtesters, please contact us on Facebook or send us an Email with answers to the following questions.
- Your experience as a playtester.
- The average size of your gaming group on any given game night.
- What types of games you typically tend to enjoy the most.
- Your physical location.
- The days with blocks of time that you are usually free to play.
