TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Questions by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
Answers by Chuck Kallenbach, Game Designer for SOE Denver

Creating innovative additions for their massively multiplayer online games has become something of a trademark for the developers at Sony Online Entertainment. The list of features that have been implemented along their entire line of products are too numerous to count, but some notable ideas (both good and bad) include the /pizza command and the entire concept of a raid. However, the implementation of a full blown trading card game into the action of EverQuest and EverQuest II takes the cake. After nearly four months of official release time under their belt, the Legends of Norrath developers have taken the next step in their development and have created a brand new expansion for their recently released game. Dubbed Legends of Norrath: Forsworn, this 250+ card set features a whole slew of new cards and card types, and we sat down with Legends of Norrath game designer Chuck Kallenbach to hear his explanation of the new expansion!

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Ten Ton Hammer: The release of Legends of Norrath: Forsworn comes right on the heels of the release of the full game! Is this a pretty common timeline for collectible card games? Or was the release of Forsworn pushed forward quicker than typical card game expansions?

Chuck Kallenbach: Four months is a fairly typical window between expansions in the TCG business.  This is a little shorter than that, so as to release the new content in time for the holidays.

The development phase for the Forsworn expansion was a bit shorter than normal due to a desire to release before the holidays.

Ten Ton Hammer: The lore behind the storyline of the expansion focuses on a group of very powerful individuals that have given up their oaths to the Seventh Hammer, thus making them the Forsworn. How will these characters be integrated into the game? Will they be units? Or are they the new raid encounter bosses?

Chuck: The Forsworn are first encountered in our story as enemy avatars in the scenarios, but also appear as raid bosses. We’ll be revealing lots more about their backstory in the near future.

Ten Ton Hammer: Speaking of raids, how are these parts of the TCG going to play out? Will players simply take turns fighting against an incredibly strong NPC deck? Or are they each fighting their own individual battles?

Chuck: Players actually get to team up with one another, each bringing their own deck to the game, to battle a very strong NPC deck.  The coordination and community problem-solving when playing together as a team has been one of the highlights of testing and playing the new set.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will it be in the benefit of a raid party to have the archetypal raid set up, meaning one class from each of the four classes: Priest, Scout, Mage, Fighter?

Chuck: It’s not completely straightforward (and I’m sure players will find all kinds of great combos that haven’t been discovered yet), but the builds that are most effective in playtesting have been one of each archetype. However, players are allowed to bring anything they like. Take four Mages to fight Trakanon if you want to, but I doubt you’ll survive.

Ten Ton Hammer: If a player defeats the raid boss, it’s been said that the gamer could then take the role of the raid encounter boss against the other players. This seems like an incredibly cool mechanic. How is it going to work? What will prevent the new “raid boss player” from making it an easy encounter for his friends by playing a poor selection of cards?

Chuck: There are a couple of modes of play – as with the single-player scenarios, you can earn reward cards for completing the raid scenarios against the AI.    One of these reward cards will be a ‘Raid Boss’ avatar that lets you take on teams of players in the casual games lobby.  We’ve got additional raid avatars and entire raid decks that we’ll be giving out to players in some upcoming activities in January, as well.

Ten Ton Hammer: How are the multiplayer fights set up? When you’re playing a one v. one game, you only have two sets of quests to worry about. Will there be four in the 2 vs. 2 scenario? Or will each group have to fight to complete those particular quests?

Chuck: In games with more than two players, there are always three quest locations. A player normally can only reach two of these quests. (In a four-man raid, the wing players can only reach one.) If a player on a team is eliminated, then the remaining players sometimes are able to reach more quests. Depends on where they’re sitting.

Victory in the team 2 vs. 2 game is based on eliminating all the opposing avatars or just one of the players on a team completing four quests. Players still place level tokens and complete quests on an individual basis.

Mages will be receiving a number of new "necromancer" oriented cards.

Ten Ton Hammer: Two new Avatar races are being introduced in Forsworn: the High Elves and the Iksar. Should we expect two new races in every single expansion?

Chuck: We’ve got a plan for the first seven sets that introduces two new races with each one. Who knows how many new races there’ll be in EverQuest and EverQuest II by the time that runs out? We’ll try to catch up and keep things fresh in the meantime.

Ten Ton Hammer: What sort of abilities do the High Elves bring to the table? Will we see any sort of “Power Elf Mage” type combinations like we saw in early release?

Chuck: High Elves are the first created avatars to have game text tied to the Light faction. The most popular one in testing awards extra health to the avatar.

Ten Ton Hammer: What about the Iksar? Are they going to be portrayed as vilely evil as everyone thinks of them?

Chuck: Like their counterparts the High Elves, our new Iksar also have game text tied to a faction, but they’re naturally more Shadow aligned. You’ll find the kind of nasty skullduggery the Iksar are notorious for.

Ten Ton Hammer: Four new keywords are being introduced to the game: Overwhelm, Sentinel, Reinforce, and Mounts. Can you explain these keywords for us? How are they going to impact the general LoN gameplay?

Chuck: Overwhelm adds extra level tokens when you apply an ability at a quest where you have more units. That rewards a player who is focused on both questing and playing lots of units, which is hard to do in a single deck. If you can make that work, then Overwhelm will work for you.

Sentinel is a great new ability that adds +2 defense to a unit when opposing units are played there. It’s a good way to gain valuable time while your opponents wait for it to go away at the end of the turn.

Reinforce lets your unit travel to another quest location where your other unit is beginning combat. The reinforcing unit joins and gets to add its attributes to the battle. In multiplayer games with three quest locations, this keyword really shines.

Mount is a new restriction for the game, and the ones that are in Forsworn provide flexibility for your deck without using up one of your valuable restriction slots. Also new for this set is a Back restriction armor item, and three of the archetypes get Legs armor for the first time.

Ten Ton Hammer: Each new archetype is also getting a wide range of new cards that specifically focus on one of the classes (Fighter gets new Paladin cards, Mage – Necromancer, Priest – Druid, and Scout – Ranger). Why did you decide to start creating specific cards for the archetypes?

Chuck: This was always part of the plan for Legends of Norrath. In fact, many of the cards in this set with the Nature trait were designed for the first set but held back until we could offer them all at once and do a good job for the Druid fans. These “class-based” cards are not restricted like the way we restrict archetypes, they’re just a group of cards with a lot of synergy.

Frogloks are making their first appearance (as units) in the Forsworn expansion.

Ten Ton Hammer: Should we expect more “class specific” cards in each expansion?

Chuck: For a while, anyway. The next set will have cards for Bards and Monks, for example. We still have a few classes to feature after that. There are lots of exciting directions for this game to take based on the years of content available to us from the MMOs.

Ten Ton Hammer: When will the next expansion be?

Chuck: Sometime in the first quarter of the new year.

Ten Ton Hammer: Finally, is there anything else you’d like to tell the Ten Ton Hammer readers? Or things that they should be aware of in the coming months?

Chuck: If you haven’t given Legends of Norrath a try, get a couple of your friends and join up to try the multiplayer formats. They’re something new and different for online TCGs and also a ton of fun to play.

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