An Introduction to Storm of Souls
“The shadow of Deofol still looms over Vigil. Samael has fallen, but his actions have forever scarred the foundation of the realms. His surviving minions are scattered and hidden, plotting evil. Yet, even as the Vigil gathers itself against this remaining enemy, it is beset by a new darkness. Specters now haunt the people of the land, their arrival hinting at a greater threat.
The visitors from Arha say that the afterlife itself is in turmoil. Gatekeeper Kythis, who since Time's Dawn had admitted the damned to their final resting place, stands watch no more. Now, a restless and tormented mass of wills churns beneath all existence, welling up between the worlds.
Where is the Gatekeeper? It was Samael that freed Kythis of his duty. Now he is missing, a rebel godling hidden even from his creators, and not eager to return to his eternal task. In the skies, the constellations twist and turn, protesting his absence.
The children in the capital dream restlessly of an endless beast, outpouring from the clouds, large enough to cast a shadow over all the land. They describe a sky serpent that bellows in a million voices, an extinguisher of realms. Cultists and fanatics are again making sacrifice, foretelling that a reckoning will come. They call it the Storm of Souls.
Vigil is overrun by the first winds of this coming storm of undeath. The call again rises for a hero to unite the realms against the many forces that seek to bury everything in despair. The cult must be put down. Samael's remnants must be destroyed before they encroach. The ghostly tide must be quelled, and the forces of all the worlds must form a coalition, before the reckoning arrives.
The storm looms. Who among you will stand before it?”
Hello everyone! My name is John Fiorillo and I’m happy to announce that this is the first of many Storm of Souls preview articles where the design/development team will be revealing the news in the Ascension story, new set mechanics, and sweet, sweet, new cards!
Why do I get the pleasure of announcing all his cool new stuff, you ask? Fortunately, I got to lead design the set! Since, I’m not the most vocal member of the Ascension team, you might not know me. So let me introduce myself. I’m more of the behind the scenes guy over here at Gary Games. I was the lead developer for both Chronicle of the Godslayer and Return of the Fallen and have been working with Justin Gary since engine development of the game. Luckily for me, with Justin doing such an awesome job with the engine and set designs, it wasn’t hard to deliver a product I’m proud of. If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you also enjoyed those sets as much as we enjoyed making and playing them. (We all really do still get derailed at work taking turns on our iPhones.)
This time around, I got to flex my creative muscles a bit more and design the set, with Justin and an amazing team of developers to help me along the way. There’s a fine line between design and development here and everyone on the team contributes greatly to everything we make. That being said, I’m taking all the credit for everyone’s hard work this time! Woot!
… Except for Eric. I can’t take credit for the beautiful artwork that has really shaped the world of Ascension. He’s back this time around and the art on the cards looks better than ever! A big thanks to Eric for, as always, doing an amazing job!
So… yea… Ascension: Storm of Souls! It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
Let me start by explaining how this set fits into the bigger picture and how we plan on moving forward with this game. This is a standalone expansion, much like Chronicle of the Godslayer. It will have a 100 card center deck, a board, starting decks and always available cards (complete with cool new art). Everything you got with the original game. Each standalone will have one smaller expansion that’s meant to be shuffled into the bigger standalone set before it.
That being said, each and every Ascension card will be playable together and we definitely want to see people creating their own custom center decks, and by doing so, creating a whole new play experience. In fact, we’re planning on posting some suggested builds that we like. We encourage players to do the same.
This part should go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. We have a whole bunch of awesome new cards to see and play with. Fate’s back, too. And we have some old familiar faces, like our friend Emri, here!
But that’s all old news. Here’s what’s new.
TrophyI don’t want to give too much away in the first preview article, but let me tell you this. It’s a new way to get Monster rewards that makes playing heavy power strategies more fun and interesting. It allows you to save a reward until just the right moment. Ever had that Wind Tyrant on the board to defeat only to find there’s nothing there to buy with those 3 runes? Or an Earth Tyrant that you use your whole hand defeating only to draw an Apprentice and a Militia that you can’t really use? Well this is the mechanic for you! Check out Kibler’s next preview article to find out more about trophies.
That’s just one of the new things we have for you in Storm of Souls. We also have a brand new card type called Events!
Events
Events represent a faction’s rise to power. During the time when a faction’s event is the current event their cards are better in some subtle and not so subtle ways. We have some cards that just work better when the event is the current one and some that flat out say they are more powerful at that time.
Again I don’t want to tell you too much more at this time, but there is an entire article coming up about events, also. Check back on the site for the next few weeks leading up to the release of Ascension: Storm of Souls to find out all about the new expansion!
Although, we’ve got lots of new stuff here, we have plenty of cards that are just plain cool. For example…
We wanted to give Mechana a powerful and cool high cost Hero for a change. They have plenty of big, cool, constructs, so why not switch things up and give them a big hero? Here is that card. One of the biggest drawbacks of big heroes is that by the time you get to buy them you only draw them once, or not at all! Not with P.R.I.M.E! As soon as you buy him and he hits the discard pile, you can return him by playing a Mechana Construct. In fact, you can return him every turn if you have a Mechana Construct to play each time. (Don’t forget, you can only ever play it once per turn because it doesn’t go to your discard pile until the end of the turn you play it.) Picking this angel up is definitely pretty great at any point in the game.
There are so many cool, interesting cards and fun new mechanics in the set! I’m excited for everyone to see it. Stay tuned to all the previews to get more information as we get closer to the release date. We’ll have advance copies of the game at Spiel Essen if anyone is going and the full launch will be just in time for the holiday season.
Before I go I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who plays, enjoys the game, and supports us. Without you we wouldn’t be able to do what we do and we appreciate each and every one of you. I sincerely hope you all have as much fun playing the new set as we did and as you had with CotG and ROF before it. Thank you so much.
- John Fiorillo
Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to catch more exclusive previews every day!
原文地址：http://www.ascensiongame.com/news-archive/item/an-introduction-to-storm-of-souls
