Four Archetypes, Two Alignments

Four Archetypes, Two Alignments
by Chuck Kallenbach, Game Designer

As game designers, it's great for us to get the chance to develop a game for properties like EverQuest and EverQuest II. Of course, our card game can't have all the variety you can find in these two long-standing MMOs.

For Oathbound, our first set, we couldn't include all the classes from both games. It's over forty at my last count!

We decided to use umbrella categories called archetypes, as found in EverQuest II, that include groups of classes within them. As development continued, we found ways to provide cards that allow you to customize your deck to fit your character concept.

The most obvious way is to choose either Light or Shadow to build your deck, which provides a way to further customize your character.

For example, if your main is a Shadowknight, play Fighter cards like Sap Strength and Drain of Blood. If you play a Paladin, stock your Fighter deck with Lay on Hands and Holy Aura.

Other ways to create a personality for your deck include specializing in fire or cold for Mages, and stealth (Rogues) or archery (Rangers) for Scouts. Evil Priests (Inquisitors) can use cards like Wave of Fear, and good Priests (Templars) will make use of cards like Celestial Strike.

We're also excited about the ability to mix and match in the same deck. You can blend classes that exist under the same archetype to create a new kind of character who walks the line between Light and Shadow.

Those of you arriving here from the MMOs may notice missing classes. Where are the open-hand Fighters like Monks and Bruisers? Looking for shape-shifting Priests like Druids and Furies? How about Necromancers and Magicians, the evil Mages? Or Troubadours and Bards, the singing Scouts?

During the early brainstorming days of development, we wrote cards for these classes. Later, we decided to focus on a more limited set, to create the critical mass of cards needed to play an archetype correctly.

Those of you familiar with trading card games will realize that we'll be adding cards for these classes in future expansions. That way we can give each of the new classes enough cards to make them viable for deck building.

In addition, we're planning to add new races for avatar creation with upcoming sets. Norrath is a vast landscape filled with limitless possibilities for our game, and we're anxious to start including more with each expansion set!

Discuss this article in the forums.