Hollow Knight Relicblade (Relicnail? Hollowblade?)
Hollow Knight Relicblade (Relicnail? Hollowblade?)
A bit of a different post this time, but something I felt like sharing. I realize I never finished the last part of my Nemesis Crown warband analysis, but I do plan on revisiting that sometime in the not too distant future. I've been getting back into Hollow Knight lately, and was inspired to make some custom cards for Relicblade based on the Knight and its equipment. Overall, I'm happy with the results. I'm not sure about balance, but I did try to keep things fair and comparable to the rest of the game. My aim was to work as much as possible within the existing framework of Relicblade, rather than create something that would require new or altered rules in order to play. To this end, I've tried to either stick to using terms and rules from the game, or introduce mechanics that are both relatively intuitive and can be contained entirely within the set of cards. You can download the whole set of cards here.
Before I get into any discussion, I made these cards in GIMP using an excellent set of templates that someone else put in the effort of preparing. If you're interested in making your own, the original files don't seem to be online anymore, but here's a link to them on my Dropbox (this is the character card template, this one is for abilities, and this is what I used for summons, built with components of the others). I used the Trade Winds font (available here). GIMP took a bit of getting used to, but after a bit of Google searching and trial and error, I've found it to be pretty user-friendly even for someone like me who had no meaningful prior experience with this sort of editing software.
Before I get into any discussion, I made these cards in GIMP using an excellent set of templates that someone else put in the effort of preparing. If you're interested in making your own, the original files don't seem to be online anymore, but here's a link to them on my Dropbox (this is the character card template, this one is for abilities, and this is what I used for summons, built with components of the others). I used the Trade Winds font (available here). GIMP took a bit of getting used to, but after a bit of Google searching and trial and error, I've found it to be pretty user-friendly even for someone like me who had no meaningful prior experience with this sort of editing software.
The Knight
For its base stats, 4 AD seemed appropriate for a "hero" character, 3 Move represents the Knight's relatively average swiftness (I had set it at 4, but after reviewing some existing character cards I decided that 3 better reflected the Knight's running speed), and 1 Armor comes from its ability to parry. The Knight has a good amount of health and potential to recover it steadily, while also lacking Critical health boxes. Rather than overpowering it by design, though, I wanted to represent the Knight's overall durability and inability to feel pain, as its performance in Hollow Knight isn't objectively affected by damage. On reflection, I did drop the Knight's health by one box from the original draft. It didn't feel right for the Knight to be as tough as a bear, but five health boxes without a critical box is still plenty tough. I gave the Knight two tags: Knight (for reasons that should be obvious) and Darkness (for the Void that animates it), rooting it in Relicblade by allowing players to stick solely to published cards in modifying the Knight if they wish.
The Knight has a healthy array of upgrade slots: a tactic, a weapon, a spell, and two items, but no potion slot. This can't accurately represent the wide variety of equipment and tactics that a player can earn in Hollow Knight, but my intent was to depict either the Knight at a midpoint in the game, or the Knight as played by someone who relies on certain tactics and equipment more than others. It's certainly possible through Heroic traits to expand the Knight's repertoire. I specifically avoided a potion slot to make healing more challenging and push reliance on Soul Focus, and gave two item slots to represent the Knight's variety of charms. I originally assigned a point value of 30, on the high end for heroes. My justification was the Knight's all-round solid stats, versatile equipment choices, self-heal, and he fact that it would transform when it died. With the changes I made (dropping the Movement and changing the Shade to a summon), I felt that 26 would be more fitting. The Knight is a powerful hero to be sure, but not quite on the same power level as, for example, the Lone Guard Commander.
The nail is the Knight's signature weapon, but there isn't much else to say about it right now. While its profile is identical to a bastard sword, a number of the cards featured in this set modify or depend upon the nail action.
Soul Focus was a bit of a challenge to get right, but I think I've tuned it to where it needs to be. Originally, it was a spell action, and had a x3 repeatable symbol instead of x2. I opted to change it to a special action so that charms (more on those later) and abilities that affect spells wouldn't apply to it, opening up some design space later on. Having Soul Focus be repeatable once instead of twice was a bit of a tough call. In Hollow Knight, the Knight can get three standard Soul Focuses out at a time by expending all its Soul energy, and this originally had me leaning towards x3. However, it's rare that a player has enough time in combat to use Soul Focus three times consecutively, so I justified the drop to x2 with the notion that, in the fray, the Knight can't afford to stand still and focus for that long. I considered increasing the difficulty of Soul Focus beyond 1, but I don't think it's necessary: in Hollow Knight, there isn't really a chance of failing to focus provided you aren't interrupted, and I think those interruptions are better represented by the player's decisions on how to spend AD and the limitation of 2 Soul Focus actions per turn.
Shade Form has also gone through a bit of a transformation. Originally, I intended for the Knight to transform as soon as it becomes Disabled, since there isn't a representation of this condition in Hollow Knight (the Knight is either alive and active, or defeated). After reflecting on my own Relicblade experiences though, I realized that it can be deceptively easy to be Disabled early, and it would feel really bad for the Knight to be destroyed so easily. I think of the Disabled state instead as the Knight being staggered from the second-last blow, and easy to finish off with the last.
I intended Shade Form to give the Knight a second chance of sorts, though one that comes with a stark shift in power. To this end, I had the Knight transform into an entirely new character, the Knight's Shade, after being destroyed. The Shade had worse stats than the Knight, but was a capable character in its own right. Something about this interpretation made me uneasy, though. The Shade in Hollow Knight is an incidental character at best, able to be finished off with a few Nail strokes. I also struggled to come up with abilities beyond the Nail and the sharing of spells, since the Shade doesn't really do all that much. I don't dislike Blink, but it's a bit of a stretch: the Shade only does it in Hollow Knight when the Knight is too far away, so it doesn't seem to be an active ability. On top of that, adding in a second full character after the Knight's death felt difficult to balance: having a few health boxes, the Shade could end up being much more durable than intended, even with its non-heroic recovery.
With all this in mind, I decided to reduce the Shade to a summon, rather than a fully-fledged character. As a summon, any damage will destroy the Shade, and it's restricted from performing special actions and carrying treasure, all of which make it feel much more like a shadow of what the Knight was. The Nail and ability to cast the Knight's spells remain, but in place of Blink the Shade can simply ignore obstacles as it moves, in keeping with its flight and semi-ethereal nature. I think that the key change was restricting the Shade's actions and durability, though: instead of getting a 2 for 1 character, the Knight is instead much closer to a Cleric of Justice with a single-use, slightly more powerful summon.
Spells
Next up are the spells. In terms of overall design, I kept some parallels between the three to make them feel more like three applications of the same ability, rather than three distinct spells. This might seem counterintuitive (variety is the spice of life, after all, and Relicblade is no exception), but I have a good reason for it: digestibility. Rather than bogging players down in the analysis of which spell is objectively better than which other one, I want them to be able to focus on what makes each one unique, and why they might prefer one over the others.
In terms of similarities, each spell has the Darkness tag, costs 4 gold, has 3 uses, difficulty 4, and a +3 damage modifier. Interestingly, this tag means that other Darkness heroes could use them! I decided on three uses since that's how many times the Knight can cast a spell consecutively in Hollow Knight with a full reservoir of Soul, and +3 damage since spells are comparable in damage to a strong Nail hit.
Each spell has its own application that could make it useful to a player, and that I've tried to design in keeping with the spell's representation in Hollow Knight. Vengeful Spirit is fairly unsubtle: a medium-range beam attack that deals moderate damage. It also has the benefit of passing through cover, allowing the Knight to snipe hidden enemies. Howling Wraiths is similar to Vengeful Spirit, but hits all enemies within 2" instead, better suited to a Knight who wants to get up close and personal. These two were easy enough to design, since they're more or less standard combat spells.
Desolate Dive is a different beast, however, and required a bit more tuning. Unlike the other two, this is both a utility and a combat spell. In combat, it's a short-range damage dealer, worse than Vengeful Spirit on paper. However, a few details set it apart from the other spells. First, Desolate Dive can target a point rather than a character. This may not seem like much, but it becomes important soon. The second notable aspect is that Desolate Dive's range is only measured laterally, meaning that the horizontal distance between the caster and the target must be 2" or less, but the vertical distance is irrelevant. This gives the spell effectively infinite range, a dangerous prospect except for the fact that the target must be on the same level as the caster or below them. What turns this into a utility spell is the fact that the caster takes no falling damage when they cast it, allowing them to use it for dealing damage, dropping safely from heights, or both at once!
I did struggle a bit with Desolate Dive's mechanics. It's a tricky spell to get right, especially without stepping on the toes of the other two. Though the spell in Hollow Knight is an area effect, I wanted to differentiate the Relicblade version by reducing this to a beam, making it less similar to Howling Wraiths. I had originally limited its range to 18", but decided that the lateral range measurement was a better option. This way, given the proper circumstances, a player can imitate the feeling of plummeting the Knight into the unknown, possibly landing directly atop an enemy!
For the Void versions, I simply added 2 to the spells' original damage and cost, and kept all other aspects the same. In Hollow Knight, these are more or less simple damage upgrades anyway, so I didn't want to belabour the design too much.
Nail Arts
There's not a lot to say about these three, except that I took a similar approach to the spells: mostly identical features, with a bit to distinguish each one. All three have the same cost of 4 and difficulty of 7, and two of the three have a +4 damage modifier. Great Slash is the least subtle, a simple beam attack with one more point of damage than the other two. Cyclone Slash is a similar deal, trading the extra damage for the ability to hit every enemy within 1". Dash Slash has the most going on of the three, and might be the most powerful: it is a charge 4 attack, and grants the user a bonus AD to dodge afterwards to represent the added mobility from the dash. This might need to be tuned a bit, possibly by lowering the damage to 3, but I'll leave it for now.
Items
The Mothwing Cloak was another challenging card. How does one go about representing a double jump in a game without single vertical jumps? I don't think this is the perfect solution, but it's the one I've come up with for now. Allowing jumps in any direction, and two such jumps without landing, captures the feel of the Monarch Wings' mobility, while the lack of fall damage makes these maneuvers less risky. Since the Knight only has a Move value of 3, this means it can't get a ton of air, but enough to potentially make a difference. The ability to cross gaps in two leaps without a roll is arguably more useful, but jumping could also get the Knight up some shorter ledges. In a game with a lot of verticality, the Mantis Claw is likely a more effective choice, and I'm satisfied with that fact. I didn't want the Monarch Wings to outshine the other mobility options, but to offer an interesting alternative.
The Crystal Heart is another strange one, providing another interpretation of the unlimited-range ability. Rather than restricting this infinity to vertical movement like Desolate Dive, the Crystal Heart has unlimited horizontal range provided two conditions are met: the user must either pick a path with nothing in the way, eliminating its aggressive use, or count on the modest +3 damage modifier disables enemies in the path of the Super Dash. The three-dice minimum investment is meant to be punishing, but for the amount of mobility or the long-range sniping potential the ability provides, I think it's fair. I can imagine players using it to soften up a high-value target before going for the kill, or launching the Knight across the battlefield to get into or out of the action.
Weapons
The Dream Nail was a tough one to adapt into Relicblade, and like many other challenging cards, I'm not 100% sold on the design yet. At first, I gave the Dream Nail a difficulty of 5 and had it grant the attacker two bonus AD, to represent the increased Soul harvested with a hit. The attack would be a high risk, high reward play, potentially granting a profit of 1 AD, but only if the Knight doesn't Focus the attack. I decided to replace this with a refresh of one spell use for a couple of reasons. First, several of the charms I adapted grant bonus AD for various purposes, and I worried about this becoming cumbersome or overpowered as the Knight chains together these bonuses. Second, recovering spell uses still plays into the theme of Soul harvesting, and is therefore in flavour for the weapon. Though it might seem strange for the Knight to have to choose between a Pure Nail and a Dream Nail, think of this as representing a play style preference rather than the Knight literally lacking one or the other.
Charms
I've saved the charms themselves for last, since they're the most populated card group in the set. Rather than go through each individually, I'm going to take a selection of the more unique ones and discuss them below.
Lifeblood Charms
Nail Charms
Damage-Reactive Charms
Several charms also rely on the user taking damage. Though their effects are potent, I decided to keep their cost low, and might even still amend Fury of the Fallen to cost 1. Any effect that depends on losing health is inherently risky for two reasons: the user might die before seeing the benefit, and reactive effects are more difficult to trigger reliably than active effects.
Fury of the Fallen essentially grants the Razor Sharp passive ability, but instead of requiring a Dodge token, the user must have 1 or fewer health boxes remaining. Normally, this effect would be situational at best, possibly not worth taking, but it creates an interesting combo with Joni's Blessing: since Lifeblood health boxes are not counted, Fury of the Fallen is always active if Joni's Blessing is also equipped!
Grubsong and Thorns of Agony are two sides of a coin, the former granting a benefit for taking damage, the latter causing damage in return. I initially wrote Grubsong to grant a bonus AD, then amended it to only grant that AD if the user takes 2 or more damage beforehand, before rewriting it to its current iteration that either grants a bonus AD for Soul Focus or the recovery of a spell use. I wanted to limit the versatility of the bonus AD, since there are a number of other charms that can provide them to their user. I considered using this same effect for the Dream Nail (minus the damage condition), but decided against it partly for variety's sake, and partly because Soul Focus has more direct synergy with Grubsong.
Not much to say about Thorns of Agony. It creates a powerful effect by sapping life with no Defense roll possible, but is once again inherently unreliable since a lucky hit could mean the Knight dies while only dealing a single point of damage in return (a decent trade-off), or without dealing any damage if the attack comes from long range.
Focus Charms
Quick Focus isn't anything particularly earth-shattering, but does allow the Knight to recover 1 health box for free every turn. I'm considering reworking it to increase Soul Focus's repeat to x3 instead, since regaining 1 health per turn might be too powerful, but I'll leave it for now.
The other two charms add additional effects to Soul Focus. Spore Shroom acts like Thorns of Agony, dealing automatic damage to enemies who are too close, but does this proactively instead of reactively making it a more valuable charm if you use Soul Focus a lot. Shape of Unn is a dash-like effect, granting a shorter, 3" burst of movement tied to Soul Focus, but one which can be taken advantage of more often as this action has a x2 standard repeat value.
Summon Charms
Three charms allow the user to summon a number of minor minions to the battlefield (something I feel that we could use a bit more of in Relicblade!). First is the Glowing Womb, which allows the user to summon hatchlings. The womb is limited to three uses, and can only be used once a turn, but the user can have up to three hatchling helpers at once, allowing them to build up a small posse. Importantly, I made the Spawn Hatchling ability a spell, which means it can be recharged by cards such as the Dream Nail and Grubsong to provide a steady stream of hatchlings.
Hatchlings themselves are somewhat unimpressive, with only a single action die, no armour, and the restriction that any damage destroys them. Their move value of 5 makes them fairly quick, however, allowing them to get into combat quickly. The hatchlings' distinguishing feature is their attack, Consuming Burst, which is easy enough to hit (though hatchlings can't Focus with their single AD) and has a respectable +2 damage modifier. What sets this attack apart, however, is that it is dire, ignoring the target's armour, and that it destroys the hatchling if it succeeds. The self-destruction might seem like a drawback, and cause for questioning the overall efficacy of hatchlings, but my intent was never for them to be a sturdy combat character. Instead, think of them as a spell: their single AD can be used to charge and attack, giving an effective range of 6" (1" summoning distance, plus their move), and should it hit, it will likely deal a decent amount of damage since the target can't use its armour. Furthermore, spawning a hatchling costs the user nothing, making the charm essentially a free three-shot attack with the potential to cut down heavily-armoured foes.
Second of the three, the Weaversong charm operates slightly differently to Glowing Womb. Instead of being tied to an action, three weaverlings are spawned automatically at the start of the battle, and respawn one at a time in the Recovery phase if they're destroyed. Weaverlings have similar stats to hatchlings, but move more slowly and can't ignore obstacles in their path. Their attack is also somewhat weaker at a glance, requiring a 4 to hit instead of a 3, and having a damage modifier of +1. It's still Dire, though, and it comes with the added benefit of Charge 4, allowing a weaverling to move an inch further than it normally could to get the attack in. The fact that the user starts with three weaverlings is a mixed blessing, since their little legs mean they'll have a hard time getting into the fight, but if the summoner can deploy close enough to the front lines they can supply a continuous tide of tiny weavers to harass the enemy.
In terms of potential balancing, I'm considering dropping the damage modifier on all three summons by 1. The weaverlings are currently individually about as powerful as a rat swarm, and the hatchlings have serious potential to one-shot their targets. The Grimmchild too, though not as problematic, is a bit on the strong side for a recurrent, free summon. I'll have to play them to figure it out though.
Of course, it's worth mentioning that none of these companions can take damage in Hollow Knight, but my aim here is to adapt, not reproduce. If it detracts from your experience, however, consider damage in a different way: a hatchling taking damage has missed the target, maybe striking something else or being batted away; a weaverling has simply ended up outside of the summoner's vision, and will reappear next to it; and the Grimmchild has been momentarily repelled, but will soon return.
Random-Effect Charms
Most charms offer a static effect, but two give variable benefits dependent upon different factors. The first charm, Flukenest, transforms the Vengeful Spirit spell in Hollow Knight into a cloud of flukes with higher overall damage potential, but the chance that some might miss the target. To represent this in Relicblade, I decided that the charm would reduce the damage modifier of Vengeful Spirit and Shade Soul, but allow the spells to make D3 separate damage rolls. Rolling a 1 would create a strictly worse result than the base spell, representing an unlucky shot where most flukes miss. a 2 or 3 would represent many or all flukes hitting, resulting in more opportunities for damage, though each individual roll is less powerful than a single casting of the basic spell. The Flukenest therefore provides quantity over quality, reducing its effectiveness against high-armor targets, but increasing the effected spells' viability against lightly-armored targets or enemies with stockpiled Dodge tokens: it's not difficult to end up rolling two or three times for damage, and a couple of good damage rolls (especially with Shade Soul) could be enough to shred an enemy, or at least deplete their Dodges so another ally can finish them off.
The Carefree Melody is a defensive effect, providing a chance to ignore hits that increases the more damage you have taken. In Hollow Knight, this chance increases for every single hit suffered since the last time the charm triggered, but I didn't want players to have to track hits. Instead, if the result of a D6 roll plus your missing heath boxes is 7 or greater, all incoming damage is ignored. It's a powerful effect, to be sure, but one that comes with a couple of restrictions. First, it's impossible to trigger Carefree Melody at full health, so you need to have taken at least some damage to use it. Second, since it's a special ability rather than a passive, it can only trigger once per round. The charm is also more useful for characters with higher health totals: a character with only three health boxes has, at most, a two in six chance of the effect triggering, and that's when they're already disabled! Compare that to a six-health character, who only needs to have lost half their health to have the charm trigger 50% of the time, and the gap is clear.
Conclusion
Pictured here is just over half of the original set of Hollow Knight inspired cards I put together, and I'm continuing to work on more of them. I'll be playtesting them when I get the chance, but I don't have a regular gaming group so it's hard to say what kind of time that will take. In the meantime, feel free to print and try them out yourself! I'm eager to see how they stack up in regular games.
I'll post another update here when I've got a bit more to share, but until then here's a teaser of the next set of cards:
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