Greetings, ‘Scapers! Welcome to Part 4 of your Tutorial-Island-style tour of RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg, coming to Kickstarter on May 31.
(In case you missed it, Part 3 covered exploration. Check it out here)!
So, now we’ve got the basics down, it’s time to look at quests: how you get them, how you play them and, most importantly, how you complete them!
Before we get into things, follow the Kickstarter now so you don’t miss the launch!
Mini Reveals: Delrith, Dragon Knight and Capes!
The second campaign in your RuneScape Kingdoms board game, ‘Demon Slayer’ will bring you face-to-face with Delrith!
Delrith has brought Varrock to near-ruin in times past. Now, the dark wizards are attempting to bring him back to start his destruction anew!
The legendary sword, Silverlight, previously brought the demon low and has since been locked away due to its enormous power. Seek out Silverlight, find the dark wizards, and put an end to their dark ritual — before Delrith can be unleashed…
At some point during your game — perhaps after you’ve successfully taken down Delrith? — you’ll find yourself accomplished enough to claim an item of great prestige: Your cape!
And not just a cape, but a whole new costume! Yes, every player avatar has a cosmetically upgraded version to represent you achieving a higher level in the game. The knight’s high level status is shown by their full set of dragon armour, weaponry, and hard-earned fire cape.
But wait, you say. In the video games, players can't wear such awesome armour until much later in the game! And this is true!
But because, canonically, RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg focuses on iconic quests from fairly early in the video games, it didn't feel fair to make you all wait until right at the end of the board game to use your awesome high-level adventurer minis. So, go forth and live your best dragon knight life!
And now, on to quests…
Types of Quest in RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg
by Jamie Perkins (Product Owner)
RuneScape Kingdoms has two types of quest: campaign quests, and side quests.
Campaign quests are the main quests. They’re where you’ll find the storyline of the game, and completing them is the only way to finish a campaign so you can move ahead with your game. (More on this below.)
Side quests are fun and entertaining distractions you can choose to complete along the way. You don’t have to do them, and they (usually) won’t progress your campaign, but they can be a great way to earn experience (XP), coins, and tokens.
Campaigns and Campaign Quests
RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg is a narrative-driven game, which means there’s an overarching storyline you play your way through. That overarching storyline is made up of a series of adventures, called ‘campaigns’, that combine like chapters in a book to form your story.
Each campaign is inspired by a quest from the video games. For example, your first campaign in RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg is ‘Vampyre Slayer’. The second is ‘Demon Slayer’ revealed above. Once you’ve completed one campaign, you’ll move on to the next campaign in the story, taking your equipment and levelled-up skills with you.
Campaigns are broken down into individual campaign quests using a campaign board:
When you play a campaign, you’ll track your progress on a campaign board like this one. Your first campaign quest is to find and speak to Morgan. Once you’ve done that, the campaign quest is complete, and you can move onto the next one: to speak to Dr Harlow.
Each campaign quest will explain how you complete it. Usually, it requires you to go to a certain point on the game board once you’ve trained a particular skill to the required level. Other times you’ll need to collect certain items, and so on.
Remember, this is a cooperative game. Any of you can complete any of the campaign quests and the whole group will advance through the campaign together.
Once you’ve wrapped up all the quests on a campaign board, it’s time to face the boss! Then, when the boss is (fingers crossed) taken out, you’ve completed the campaign and it’s onto the next one!
Side Quests in RuneScape Kingdoms
For every epic tale of adventure in Gielinor, there are countless everyday deeds that make life a little easier for ordinary folk.
You’ll recognise a lot of RuneScape Kingdoms’ side quests from the video games. (Who remembers Goblin Diplomacy and Gertrude’s Cat?). During your turn, you can choose to accept any of the available side quests provided that you’re in the correct region of the game board. For example:
Like campaign quests, side quests will tell you where you need to go, and what you need to do to complete them. They’ll also tell you the quest rewards at the top – for example, 5 crafting experience, 1 cooking experience, and 2 coins. You might even pick up extra items or resources just by doing the quest!
To find Gertrude’s cat, you’ll need to visit the Digsite and take a gathering skill test. If you succeed, the next part of the quest is drawn from the vault deck.
“Wait a second — what’s the vault deck?” I hear you cry. Read on to find out.
The Vault Deck
The vault deck is used for a number of things. It’s a deck of numbered cards that are never shuffled, containing a lot of content you’ve not yet discovered, earned, crafted, or unlocked.
So, in the example of the Gertrude’s Cat side quest, you’re instructed to pull card 12 from the vault deck once you’ve located Fluffs at the Digsite. Let’s take a look at it:
This card is the continuation of the side quest: the next part of this mini storyline. The vault deck allows us to weave narratives in an episodic style, leaving you wondering what’ll happen next. (Don’t forget, we said we’d iterated on some of the original narrative!)
Of course, you could just look through the vault deck if you wanted to, but where’s the fun in that?
When you craft new equipment, meet non-player characters, or play through longer quests, you’ll take cards from the vault deck. You’ll always be told when to take cards from the vault deck, and which ones to grab.
We’ve also used the vault deck to expand certain mechanics. Take the exploration decks, for example. If you complete a quest that makes a permanent change to a region on the game board, you might need to shuffle brand new exploration cards into that area’s deck. In turn, that could cause a whole new series of random occurrences.
The vault deck is the mechanism by which your RuneScape Kingdoms campaigns evolve as you play. Cool, right?
Where to Go Next
That’s all from us for now, ‘Scapers! We’ll be back at the same time next week with Part 5 of the Tabletop Tutorial Island series.
Want to back the game on Kickstarter? Follow the campaign now so you’re ready for launch!
Want to get hyped with other ‘Scapers? Join the dedicated Facebook group for RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg – you can see ALL new reveals here too!
Want to see actual gameplay? We’re making guest appearances on the RuneScape and Old School RuneScape Twitch channels to walk through the game! Catch the VOD for the RuneScape stream here — OSRS stream coming soon!
