I was given the opportunity to have a gander at Fable Fortune by Flaming Fowl Studios. I always had a soft spot in my heart for the Fable series despite it’s many twists and turns these past few years. At the heart of the franchise, there will always be some sort of consistent level of whimsy in the fantasy world they created. The fact that Fable Fortune is a card game means the Fable universe can be explored more safely and without the atmosphere of heightened expectations surrounding it.
As you can see from the Kickstarter, we’ll get a card game. The fact that Flaming Fowl Studios had a solid pre-alpha build already available means they’ve put in a lot of work already, and gives us the chance to see their vision for the game up close. But this story took a left turn. Normally, I’d use this opportunity to raise awareness to the game’s Kickstarter campaign. But luckily, Flaming Fowl Studios was able to secure the investment money they needed from an outside source. Mission accomplished, Fable Fortune was happening. But I couldn’t pass up the chance to talk about this game anyway. Instead, this is now the story about how I got good at CCGs (Computer Card Games) for the first time, along with a run-through of the game itself.
The rules of the game are straightforward. You and your opponent both have thirty hit-points, and a deck of cards that summon monsters and creatures from the Fable universe to fight for you in battle. Limited only by the gold in each of your reserves, you play monsters that attack your opponent and his party of thugs in order to deplete your enemy’s hit-points. A card’s gold cost is a solid indicator of how powerful it is. The Fluffy Cat that costs one gold to play only has two strength and one hitpoint, but a Rock Troll that costs eight gold is able to pack a 9 strength punch, with eight hitpoints.
With deck crafting, the primary way to gain new cards is either through winning event battles, or using your earned money on the in-game store to purchase booster packs. These booster packs cost 1000 silver each, and they come with five cards. You also have the ability to craft cards from items and junk you gain from winning battles. If you get several of the same cards from booster packs, you can break them down into materials that you can use toward crafting cards you may not have in your collection yet. There’s a feature where your individual cards gain experience points, and when they level up their wooden foundation in battle turns into a stone one (at level 2), followed by a gold (level 3). It’s entirely cosmetic, and doesn’t change the card’s stats. It mostly serves as a reflection of how much experience you have using a particular card in battle, and that same sort system is in place for the hero cards.
There are six hero cards, each with a unique special ability that’s determined by their morality alignment as a result of completing in-match quests. Different hero-specific cards. (Miracle has potion related stuff) You gain extra gold to spend each turn, alongside your replenished war chest. I played each hero to level 10, in order to get a solid idea of how each of their play styles works out.
- Alchemist: The Miracle potion dealer’s strategy is manipulating a card’s strength and health with potions, making it possible to create some high powered combos. Activating their Concoct power during any turn puts a vial card into your hand.
- Gravedigger: Can summon many units at one time, and has the ability of resurrecting the dead. Her Exhume power summons a 1/1 shambling corpse into battle.
- Knight: The noble Knight can rally the local peasants to his cause, and his strategy is built on strength enhancement. Using his Enrollment power summons a 1/1 Peasant to your side of the field.
- Merchant: It’s all about the gold for the handsome Barter man, and he has access to a more flexible money system than any of the other heroes. This means he can upgrade his unit and spell cards to have better stats. Activating his Haggle power adds an extra gold piece to your hand.
- Prophet: His powers are centered around healing, giving various additional buffs to his cards when he does so. His Restore ability lets you heal characters for 2 hitpoints on demand.
- Shapeshifter: This lass is all about unleashing her wild side, focusing on pure damage dealing, and stunning enemies. Her Rend ability lets you deal 1 damage to any enemy directly.
Hero Powers are part of the key to getting the best edge over your opponent. In a straight-up card duel, you and your opponent are bound to the same confinement of sheer luck that goes into card games. But you have a constant to work with in this equation of changing variables. No matter what cards you draw, you can always take advantage of a hero’s power during your turn. While their attacks (such as the modest 1 damage the Shapeshifter’s rend ability does) appear to only make a dent, it’s all about thinking several turns ahead. A butterfly effect approach. Then when you stack morality and quests on top of that, it gets even more intriguing. Your hero powers change based on the choices you make for completing the in-game quests. Have a Good Alchemist? Your hero power gives you enhanced vials. But if you choose an Evil Alchemist? Your hero power gives you a choice of which vials you want to pick specifically.
The Fable Fortune alpha had several events in place, some of which change the basic card game battle formula with specialized twists and turns.
Training: This mode, which is available in Normal and Hard difficulty variations, pits you against the Guildmaster A.I. in a simple match. It’s designed as a testing area for any custom decks you might arrange, offering a safe opportunity to try out your new load-out in the field. I found it a good way to solidify my understanding of how to play the card game, and you’re awarded XP and money for completing a Training match, which means you really have nothing to lose here.
Fighting Fields (PVP): The vanilla-style PVP mode of Fable Fortune that closely followed the standard rules, as explained in the game’s training and tutorial. Everyone in the Alpha seemed to congregate here mostly, as it appeared to be the only place where you could find a match-up easily. After spending countless hours in the training mode, refining my understanding of the game – it was time for me to graduate to the big leagues. I carefully crafted a custom deck from the assortment of cards I had acquired from the booster packs, then I took the plunge. My first match? I was over-confident. I made some bad calls early on that ended up working against me as the duel progressed. I got my butt kicked. Second match had me making an actual diligent effort to plan my moves. I still lost. But, it was a closer match. I was so close to the taste of sweet victory. I went back to the drawing board and made some changes to my deck, to accommodate some of the maneuvers of my opponents. Finally, I jumped back in for one last game. That’s when I finally won.
Co-Op Challenge (Nostro): This was one of the two modes I enlisted the help of Gameranx’s Ian Cheong to play with me. The set-up of this is me and Ian face off against an AI boss level enemy. In this Graveyard map, we battled against an ancient undead knight named Nostro. Ian could see my cards, and I could see the cards in his hand too. Each of us had the ability to click on the other person’s cards to bring it to that person’s attention, which was a nice touch for strategy. But we couldn’t play out of the other person’s direct hand. When we summoned things to the field, that was shared between the both of us. So I could have Ian’s monsters attack something, and conversely he could send my units into combat as well (Think of it like a Pacific Rim battle. Ian and I were basically working together as if we were in a Jaeger taking down a Kaiju).
To The Max (Special Event): Ian and I took the time to play this game mode too, as for some reason it appears as if there were no other people playing it at the time. It had many of the same rules as the other PVP match-up mode, with a few slight changes. We both had the max amount of gold per turn this time, which meant we could play stronger cards faster during a game.
Find cards with abilities that compliment each other, as it’ll give playing them more of a meaningful purpose. An example of this is a card that summons a trio of shambling corpses to the field. In itself, that action might not go very far during the battle. But if you follow-up by playing a card like Crowd’s Favourite, which has it’s strength boosted based on the number of friendly units in play, it makes those three shambling corpses seem pretty handy. It’s not just about the strength of your cards, it’s about how you use them. The game taught me that even though the odds may look stacked against you, there’s always the possibility to turn the tables for a swift victory.
Ian’s impressions of the game shared a similar sentiment to my own views. As an alpha, Fable Fortune still delivered a concise card game experience. It fulfilled the intent of what Flaming Fowl was trying to do by sharing their vision of the game. There’s the opportunity for a lot of intriguing CCG gameplay twists on the genre to happen. It may not be as established as Hearthstone, but that might be a good thing. It allows the development team try out different tweaks and changes easier, without having to worry as much about a strong negative reaction from players.The quest system and morality choices having an effect on your cards is a standout point of interest. It adds an extra layer of depth, which is a necessity in the case of Fable Fortune‘s circumstances. But even in the Alpha build, Flaming Fowl Studios presents their direction fairly clear. Personally, I got the opportunity to “Git Gud” at CCGs for the first time, and I was able to measure that progress due to the fact that each of the heroes levels up and gains experience. Now I’m at least passable.
