Warcrow, from the team behind Infinity, rethinks the dungeon crawler

In a role-playing game, initiative — that is, the order in which players and enemies take their turns — is one of the biggest factors in setting the tone, and the stakes, for combat. Traditionally, initiative order takes the form of a list that moves from top to bottom, activating player characters and enemies along the way, then resetting at the “top of the order” on the next turn.

Traditional initiative order is sometimes a bit boring. That’s especially true for a subset of RPGs known as dungeon-crawler board games. The action-oriented games include titles like Diablo. Gloomhaven Legends of the Dark: Descent, It allows for players to easily move from fight to battle. Combat can be high-stakes, and once you’re locked into a fixed initiative order, that can put some players at a disadvantage. Corvus Belli was looking for something different to develop their game. Warcrow Adventures. What they came up with isn’t a list or even a line. It’s a circle, and players actually get a say in where their character falls on the edge of that circle in every round.

“We developed an initiative system for Aristeia, one other game that we published five years ago,” said Alberto Abal, game designer at Corvus Belli. “We knew that it would be more interesting if the initiative wasn’t the same every round, and we wanted something like that in Warcrow.

“We started to work with a simple track that had numbers from one to 20,” he continued. “When you go through the track, then you start again from [position] one. We start to think about this, and then someone said, ‘This is like a circle!’ So we implemented it as a circle.”

Simple changes to the track’s shape can unlock a variety of new gameplay mechanics. The end result is a system where players can directly influence their position on the initiative track by spending power — a limited resource — each turn. For players to change the order of their initiative, they simply need to drop a token to power. Players can control not only their character, but also the initiative order. HowThey attack all the opponents on the board but Where.

“We started to play with this new mechanic, and we developed new mechanics to push and pull the characters around this circle,” Abal said. “It was, I think, one of the key mechanics of the game. Players now are very in touch with the actions panel, where they spend energy and activate their character.”

That’s not the only unusual feature in Warcrow. Like many other new board games, Corvus Belli’s latest effort is driven by an app. Polygon saw an early version and found it to be a lighter touch than other technology. It just kind of exists while the players roll dice or take turns using their miniatures and cards on the table. It was only when I was unlocking new areas of the map or killing monsters that I interacted with, and making important decisions about the story’s outcome, that I engaged directly with the app.

Why an app? Abal said it’s a much more efficient solution than a book filled with numbered narrative chunks, which many games have used over the years. Corvus Belli can also add more text to it than in previous games. Warcrow will contain some 200,000 words when it’s all finished. Although the game only has one path to completion, players may choose from several routes that will lead them there.

“Your choices change the scenarios you play,” Abal said.

Image: Corvus Belli

The World of WarcrowCorvus Belli also made a significant departure from the norm. This is what the Spanish company is most well-known for. InfinityA miniatures skirmish-game with roots in anime or hard science fiction, called “Escape”

“It’s a fantasy game [set in] a new world,” Abal said, “but we have tried to understand many things in our history. We take many of these ideas — for example, how armor works and how armor is built for different troops in our history — in order to design, for example, the weapons or armor for our miniatures.”

Corvus Belli was determined to keep its franchise from falling prey to Tolkienesque fantasies. Abal explained that its vision is influenced by the American Wild West, as well the Spanish Explorer tradition of daring. Hawthorne Point, which is far away from the heart of any in-game kingdom, hosts the action. For generations, the area was covered in mysterious fogs that were menacing and eerie. The mists parted a few years ago and exposed an ancient empire of elves to be plucked. This is the world of WarcrowAllows players to discover this lost nation and search for artifacts or other treasures. Each character arrives at the site for his or her own reason.

Image: Corvus Belli

“All nations now send people — adventurers or mercenaries, these kinds of people,” Abal said, “to take magical items or information about the past.”

Is it possible for these adventurers to come together? Abal said that portion of the story is still being written — the game isn’t due out for quite some time now. Warcrow AdventuresExpected to release in 2023 Kickstarter launched a crowdfunding campaign Oct. 18.