approached these RPG elements in its
own unique way.
“There is a sort of levelling-up system,
but it’s not tailored to the same sort of
framework as normal MMOs. It’s based
around skill slots,” Tuchten says. “As you
progress through the game, you’ll get
more empty slots for learned skills you get
from the world. You may have ten skills but
only three slots, and each one takes up a
certain amount of space. For example, a
powerful skill, like the ability to transfer into
an animal, would take up five skill slots.”
Skills are not something you learn
automatically, but through teachings from
the world’s characters. If you want to learn
how to fish, you’ll need to seek out a
fisherman. Same with tea brewing and
knot tying – the two major magical
practices in Book of Travels. Knots hold
short-term magical abilities that when
untied provide a short burst of magic
(such as teleporting to the other side of
a river), whereas teas have long-term
magical properties, but must be carefully
brewed while sitting next to a fire.
Abilities can be heightened with
choices you make in the character
creation process by choosing talents,
backstories, and personality traits. You
can be a carefree traveller who grew up in
the mountains, a historian seeking to
discover Braided Shore’s lost past, or a
mysterious cloaked outlaw with a knack
for the magical arts. It’s refreshing to see a
character creator that puts the focus on
things other than combat ability.
“The biggest thing for me personally is
that we have developed a game design
surrounding roleplaying freedom,”
Tuchten says. “Because of the game’s
open-ended design, you’re not forced to
be a hero, which to us makes the roleplay
aspects so much greater.”QUIET COMPANIONS
One particular mechanic that makes
Might and Delight’s game collection
unique is that they create meaningful
ways of communicating without using any
words or dialogue. Creating
companionship through wordless
interactions has always been a key theme
in Might and Delight’s games: the
unspoken bond between an animalmother and her cubs in the Shelter
games, the friendship between a bear and
a lynx cub in Paws, and Tiny Echo’s silent
spirit delivering mail to a community.
In Book of Travels, NPCs will speak to
you in little dialogue bubbles but you and
your party can only communicate through
symbols and emotes. It’s an idea the
studio explored in their first MMO,
Meadow, where it created some surprising
meaningful player bonds.
You don’t have to buddy up with others
though, Book of Travels lets you be a lone
wolf if you want. You can go off and have
your own adventure, following story leads
and uncovering mysteries on your own.
There is a wealth of lore under Book of
Travels’s fairy-tale surface for players to
dive into – if they so choose. It’s
completely up to you.
One storyline kicks off in one of the
game’s cities, Casa. It acts as the starting
point for adventure when you first begin
the game and it didn’t play out like I
expected. “There’s been a murder in the
city,” Tuchten says. “A mythical creature
called a Sepra, which is what we call the
genies of this world, has been murdered,
and that’s never happened before. There’s
a mystery surrounding how it died and
how it’s affected the politics of the city.”
As serene as Book of Travels world
may seem, Might and Delight wants the
world’s cities to be like the metropolises
of the real world – neither good or bad
but somewhere in the middle.
Settlements are going to be bustling with
activity and are supposed to make the
player feel somewhat overwhelmed.
The world of Braided Shore looks
stunning. It has Might and Delight’s
signature visuals, but this time on a grand
scale. It may look 2D, but there’s plenty of
depth and, as you explore each area,
layers of the scene fade in and out of the
foreground, like a delicate paper theatre.
Book of Travels has taken traditional
aspects of online RPGs and reimagined
them in a very Might and Delight way. And,
from the overwhelming success of the
Kickstarter campaign, both fans and
those not familiar with the studio’s work
have been spellbound by the strange,
whimsical idea of a serene RPG.
It’s not often a game gives you the
opportunity to embody the archetype of a
wanderer, but Might and Delight seems to
be on track with Book of Travels. It’s a
whole world designed for those who want
to let their curiosity guide them, and that’s
pretty special.
Rachel WattsIT HAS MIGHT AND DELIGHT’S
SIGNATURE VISUALS, BUT
THIS TIME ON A GRAND SCALEBook of Travels
PREVIEW
Braided Shore has a painterly
style to its gorgeous visualsStick to the main roads
and paths for safety.