The Knight in Panther Skin

[Jubal]

AKA "yes I thought of another game idea".

Essentially this is a little questing game based on Shota Rustaveli's medieval epic poem "The Knight in Panther Skin". Players will be able to take one of six different characters, and go out exploring from their starting point in Arabia. The game will basically be competitive, but there can be some elements of cooperation involved too. Stay tuned!

[comrade_general]

Will there be any ice wizard caves or THERMAL PODS?

[Jubal]

This isn't a text adventure And no, I am staying at least semi-accurate to things that were in the 12th century myth.

[comrade_general]

Pretty sure ice wizards and thermal pods were central to 12th century myth.

[Jubal]

[citation needed]

[Phoenixguard09]

So in essence this will be similar to Hetairos? (Which I must remember to scan and upload the  illustrations I have done.) :p

Can we get some more info on the characters please?

[Jubal]

It's a lot, lot simpler than Hetairos - more like a 1hr playthrough time, based on a set card deck and with far less flexible/expansive rules. I'll write a rough overview of the mechanics soon



The six playable characters are:

Avtandil
The hero of the work, from Arabia. He's generally a wise and effective hero, not always morally perfect but cunning, persuasive, and a powerful fighter. Also apparently sings really well.

Brief synopsis of his role in the book:

Spoiler

He's the commander of the armies of Arabia, and after encountering Tariel (who ends up killing several of his men) on a hunting expedition, goes in search of him and ultimately ends up joining him on his quest to rescue the beautiful princess Nestan-Darejan. This involves him taking a considerable amount of leave from the Arabian army, which King Rostevan refuses to grant (but of course he goes anyway and they make up at the end). After hearing Tariel's story, he goes to discover the whereabouts of Nestan-Darejan, which Tariel had been unable to do; he succeeds, going to the distant Kingdom of the Seas and discovering that she has been taken to the sorcerer-kingdom of Kadjeti. Along the way he disguises himself as a merchant, fights pirates, gets involved int minor romantic subplots, and all the other things one expects of a medieval epic hero.

Tariel
The titular Knight in Panther's Skin, hailing from India. Possibly the greatest fighter ever, but also impulsive, reckless, and somewhat mentally brittle.

Brief synopsis of his role in the book:

Spoiler

Once a powerful prince and commander of the armies of India, his love for Nestan-Darejan, the King of India's daughter, led him to murder the Prince of Khwarezm who she had been engaged to be forcibly married to. The King of India then ordered the execution of Nestan-Darejan's nursemaid for allowing their dalliance to occur, and the nursemade (who could do magic and was part-Kadji) in turn commanded her slaves to kidnap Nestan-Darejan, who after a few adventures and another near forced marriage ends up imprisoned in the evil sorcerer-nation of Kadjeti, home of the Kadjis. Tariel spent a lot of time wandering the world looking for her before meeting Avtandil, who persuades him not to kill himself in despair and ends up helping him complete the quest.

Nuradin Phridon
(Or just Phridon for short). The ruler of the small city-state of Mulghazanzar. Probably the most sensible and least morally dubious of the three main male characters, a good knight in his own right, and frequently a source of aid for the heroes.

Brief synopsis of his role in the book:

Spoiler

Phridon helps the other two heroes on numerous occasions, initially meeting Tariel during the latter's wanderings, and later Avtandil when he goes to discover the location of Nestan-Darejan. Tariel helps him defeat his treacherous cousins for control of the islands near Mulghazanzar (which they'd agreed to jointly own then tried to ambush and murder Phridon on when he went hunting there). When they first meet he gives Tariel a super-fast horse (basically Shadowfax with a different colour scheme), and at the climax/end of the book he provides the small army (of 300 men) that makes the final assault on the Kadjis' fortress.

Tinatin
Avtandil's love interest and the heir to the throne of Arabia. Kind and wise but cunning enough to be an effective ruler.

Brief synopsis of her role in the book:

Spoiler

Tinatin is a clear mirror of Tamar, the ruling Queen of Georgia when the original poem was written. She sends Avtandil out on his quest to discover who the mysterious Knight in Panther's Skin is, and Avtandil's love for her is repeatedly brought back as a motif throughout the story. She's also an advisor to her elderly father, King Rostevan, who decides despite tradition to appoint his daughter as heir after his death rather than trying to find another male relative (as indeed happened with Tamar).

Asmat
Maidservant to Nestan-Darejan. Perhaps the only person who cares about Nestan-Darejan as much as Tariel does; she's resilient, wise, and used to living for many years in the wilderness as they wander in search of her mistress.

Brief synopsis of her role in the book:

Spoiler

When Tariel sets out to find Nestan-Darejan, he does so with 200 men and Asmat. By the time Avtandil finds him, all of the 200 have either died, run away, stayed in places along the road, etc - the last two were killed in a brutal fight with several giants, whose cave-fort Tariel and Asmat then occupy deep in the hills. Somehow Asmat survives all of this and provides a groundedness and mental toughness that Tariel completely lacks. She introduces Avtandil to Tariel, and keeps Tariel alive whilst Avtandil is away searching for Nestan-Darejan. At the end of the book she is made queen of one-seventh of India.

Phatman
The wife of the head of the merchants in Gulansharo, the City of Flowers. She rather likes having dalliances away from her decidedly unsatisfying husband, but is otherwise generally kind-hearted and helpful to the heroes. Whilst not a magic user herself, she has several slave-magicians.

Brief synopsis of her role in the book:

Spoiler

When Avtandil arrives in Gulansharo, Phatman becomes infatuated with him and seeks to become his lover. He decides to play along to see if he can obtain any useful information, but they are disrupted by the Chachnagir, another lover of Phatman's who has become increasingly possessive and abusive and threatens to expose Phatman's infidelities and use his influence at court to ruin her house and family. Avtandil then hunts down and kills the Chachnagir, and Phatman then reveals that Nestan-Darejan stayed with her before the King of the Seas (and ruler of Gulansharo) tried to take her as a bride for his son, at which point she escaped and disappeared. It is her magic slave who then sneaks into the Kadjis' fortress and discovers where Nestan-Darejan is, as well as transmitting some letters between Nestan and Avtandil.

[Phoenixguard09]

That's all pretty interesting.  Looking forward to finding out more.

[Jubal]

Mechanics

The game has a deck of area cards in different types (plains, sea, hills, forest, special locations), and a deck of quest cards. It has player characters, who have action cubes (types being wisdom, movement, attack, and block).

You always put 7 action cubes down per turn - never more never less. They are not used up - reclaim them at the end of the turn.

Block cubes (black) do nothing, but you're required to play all the ones you have each turn. You start with four and aim to get rid of them.
All other types of cube may be required to complete quests. If you have all the cube types needed to complete a quest, you can complete it as an action.
Additionally:

• Movement cubes let you explore 1 new area tile or move 2 explored area tiles
• Wisdom cubes let you collaborate on quests - for 2 players to collaborate, the difficulty of the quest increases by 2 wisdom cubes, then 4, 8, 16, as the number of players joining in goes up.
• Attack cubes let you draw an extra quest from the deck and place it on a tile.

Then the turn goes like this:

• Select seven cubes and everyone reveals.
• Add a marker to all current quests - when they reach as many markers as their difficulty, they disappear from the map.
• Each player draws a quest and places it. All the quests are numbered and have certain allowed terrain areas, and all the map tiles are numbered likewise. Quests must be placed on the closest numbered valid tile.
• Each player takes a turn to use up all their tokens and explore or do quests.
• End of turn; a different player now goes first.

Once Kadjeti has been explored, the quests start giving negative effects if you can't complete them, though this needs clarification.

Current problems:

• Board feels like it fills up with quests too much
• Working as a 2 person tag team is currently a bit OP
• I don't really like having a die in the game and I'd like to avoid one, but I'm not sure how else to get the late game interesting or have players "gamble" on whether they can complete quests