Hands On: Legends of Norrath: Oathbound

At SOE Fan Faire last week, staff writer Nic Stransky took the opportunity to speak with Associate Producer Kyle Heuer to talk about and try out SOE’s new in-game game within EverQuest and Everquest 2, Legends of Norrath: Oathbound.

Beta testing began yesterday for a new strategy based electronic card game from Sony Online Entertainment. The Legends of Norrath: Oathbound was announced during Sony Online Entertainment’s Fan Faire convention in Las Vegas, NV this past weekend. The MMO Gamer spoke with Associate Producer, Kyle Heuer, during an exclusive preview of the game.

The Legends of Norath: Oathbound is a card game similar to games like Magic: The Gathering, but is themed after the worlds of Everquest and Everquest 2. Players build decks from their electronic binders and play games either solo versus the computer, or as challenges against another player. Games can either be won by completing a quest, or by reducing the opponent’s health to 0. The game can either be played directly from the desktop client, or within either Everquest or Everquest 2 on an integrated game interface. Players can challenge any player from either game, across all servers. Oathbound is intended to be a fun way to interact with players in town or to pass the time while waiting for a group or raid, and also offers unique items as rewards that can be applied to Everquest and Everquest 2 characters.

The digital starter decks will cost $9.99 and booster packs will cost $2.99 according to the press release, and the beta test began yesterday, Wednesday, August 8, 2007. On August 28th, all EverQuest and EverQuest 2 players will receive a complementary starter deck. All Everquest and Everquest 2 players who attended SOE Fan Faire have had their Station accounts flagged as testers for Oathbound and will see a button on their respective game launchers to patch and install the new game. Each tester will receive 55 cards as a starter deck, and each subsequent week they will be given two 15 card booster packs. All of the cards are placed in a convenient electronic binder that is applied to the overall Station account. Any character in either Everquest or Everquest 2 under that Station account can access the binder so players can start a game anywhere any time. After the beta test players will have the option to buy booster packs directly on the Station web site. Also, all testers will get to keep any and all cards they acquire – their binders will not be wiped once the game goes live.

Oathbound offers players the chance to win rare loot cards that can be applied to their Everquest or Everquest 2 characters. Some of the cards are mounts like flying carpets or wargs (wolves), some are equipment for adding style to characters like glowing hands or a fancy cloak, and some are single-use consumables that offer much sought after benefits. There is a mug of beer card that will teleport the character to any home town, or a “Draught of the Versatile” potion which increases achievement experience by 50% for 1 hour. Conversely, there are also rare cards available as drops from boss monsters within Everquest or Everquest 2. Oathbound will initially contain 375 cards, but the demonstration binder I was playing with showed over 1000 cards. SOE Denver’s team of 50 contributing artists created completely original artwork for each individual card.

Cards can be avatars, units, abilities, or items. Each card in the player’s binder, except avatars, can be added to the deck as many times as they wish to increase the chance the card will be drawn in a game. When building a deck the player is required to choose one avatar card and it is recommended that the deck consist of at least 50% ability cards and 1-2% unit cards. The sample deck I looked at had 55% abilities, 45% items, and 1% units. The avatar card determines a player’s base stats, which include Health, Attack, and Defense points. Health determines how much damage a player can take before reaching 0, one of the ways to lose the game. Attack modifies how much extra damage a player can apply to their opponent. Defense sets the damage reduction factor applied every time an opponent attacks. Item cards further modify the avatar’s stats.

Besides those avatars pre-defined by the designers, there is also a custom avatar creator. First players choose their race, their gender, and then their class. I chose a Female Gnome Mage. After that the game offers each class a set of special abilities to choose from. I had the choice of three. “Exert unit” – when an opponent attacks the player can use this to remove a single attacking unit to avoid a large attack. “Draw card” – if the player’s avatar has 1 health they can draw a card. “Immunity” – a player can choose to destroy one of their ability cards and in exchange avoids all attacks for the rest of that single phase.

For my Mage I chose Immunity because this will allow me to counter an opponent with multiple units and possibly save myself from death at least once. Next, I was given the choice of basic character history determining if I want more Attack or more Defense. Then, I further defined my avatar by picking between “Hunter” for more Attack, “Trapper” for more Defense, or “Miner” for more health. Then I was offered one more option dictating how my avatar developed their skills. “Killing enemies” for more Attack, or “Defending others” for more Defense. Finally, I chose my name and saved the card to my binder.

Unit cards also have stats, and can be placed on the battlefield on either the player’s side to defend, or on the opponent’s side to attack. All unit cards in defensive mode must be destroyed before the avatar can be attacked. Each phase, all units in attack mode get to perform an attack, and so the total amount of damage is greatly increased the more units one has out. Ability cards are where the strategy of the game reaches its height. These cards can do attacks, buff or de-buff defense or attack power of the avatar or units, or perform even more unique feats that will change the game making each battle scenario unique.

Game play consists primarily of strategy. At the outset each player draws 6 random cards from their decks, always consisting of at least one unit and at least one ability. If a player is lucky enough to have one of their item cards show up, their avatar is buffed with whatever stats that item offers for the duration of the game. Each phase both players draw 2 cards, and can only have a maximum of 7 cards at the end of the phase. Each phase changes the battlefield, and certain situations allow players to react with their avatar – either defending, attacking, or using a special ability depending on the current state of the game. After building a deck and getting familiar with the flow of the game, the designers expect most games will take less than 10 minutes to complete.

SOE’s Denver team developed a very easy to use interface over the course of the last few years, which is just the presentation layer of a very versatile system that can be used to create card games for any theme and rule set. After being acquired by Sony, the team focused on Oathbound, which is the first of its size to use the system. SOE plans to fully support the game by continuously offering new cards, in-game tournaments, card trading, and more.

The official “The Legends of Norath: Oathbound” companion web site can be found at:
http://legendsofnorrath.station.sony.com/

Special thanks to Associate Producer, Kyle Heuer, for his time.