A long while ago Teknor was born from many ideas. It was full of vigor, inspiration, holes, and sharp edges. It was gonna be like Dark Souls! And Like Heroquest! And Like Dungeonquest. It was a beast that took many shapes as we tested and tuned, We took parts out and glued things on. Now, after all its trials it has entered a new phase. The core design of Halls of Teknor is set in stone. So now what?
Is it still like Dark Souls? Not really. I initially set out to have a board game version of Dark Souls with dodge rolls, ripostes, and critical damage for striking from the rear. Along the way we could never really intuitively implement doing actions during an opponent’s turn (like the dodge roll) so we took those out. We still have you do more damage when striking from the rear though!
Is it sill like Heroquest? No. This was always more visual thing. But through the months I have started to notice _everyone_ likes to call back to Heroquest and I am now on the lookout for something visually different. I have still not found it.
Is it like Dungeonquest? No. That game is an all time favorite in this house and I intended to use its ‘will you carry your loot one more round?” system but with how long an average room currently takes that system does not shine well anymore.
That exploring item mechanic I talked about in an earlier post? That’s gone too. It required the game to have a lot of cards and a lot of shuffling. The game currently has no more shuffling.
So what remains? A game where a duo of heroes enters a room, fights its monsters. Gets loot coins if they kill them with excess damage. They can choose to use a risky die with more points but more dangers at any time. Set dice aside to use for special actions. Go first in the timeline to beat the robots to the punch at risk of them being stronger. Go last in the timeline to refresh their action cards. And when the room is clear search the room for treasure. And that’s about the version I’ve been testing the last few weeks. It was nice to realise I did not need to chance things for a few sessions. That the core was there. The realisation that Halls of Teknor has entered the next phase is exciting but no really it’s daunting. Because now that we established the core we have to make _everything else_.
The end goal is for this game to be a narrative spicy adventure game where one or two players can go on an adventure as they dive deeper and deeper into the tombs of the cryptical cybergod Teknor. They will get new powers and gear along the way. They will encounter new foes, strange and secret rooms, and mercurial characters who may or may not be on their side. There will be endbosses too.
I wrote out that part because it helps me map things out. If I break the adventure up into three parts and make those all take place on their own dungeon level then I can break up the workload. The first thing I now can do is create that first part. The opening of the story where the heroes enter the dungeon, learn the rules, clear some rooms and meet the first endboss. That I can do.
So that is where Teknor now stands. The mechanics are done and now we can paint the first chapter. This could take weeks! months! This is the fun bit! Hope to see you on the other side.
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