Return to the critically-acclaimed world of Oath with expansions that offer players new ways to make the game their own.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Setting the Foundations
25 days ago
– Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 01:27:01 PM
Dear Backers,
I hope you’ve all had a lovely summer. I’m writing to you all today to give you some high level updates about where the design of Oath: New Foundations is and what you can expect from us over the next several months.
First, for new backers, our crowdfunding campaigns tend to follow a similar pattern. After we finish the campaign, we generally “go dark” for a few months. During this period, we try to sort out any remaining questions around the project’s scope and begin to add extra staff to a project. It’s an incredibly busy time, but, paradoxically, we often don’t have much to share. Partly this is because a lot of the work is logistical. We are preparing the title for full-scale studio production, which means drawing up art lists, dividing development tasks, and getting the game ready for wider testing. The other thing we are doing at this time is rapid, experimental iteration. The moment before full studio production is the last time we can try out wholly new ideas, and we try to make the most of this by having little “game jams” on different potential ideas with the knowledge that the vast majority of these ideas won’t bear fruit. This can be a lot of fun and a lot of work, but it’s not interesting to talk about—I promise the saga of my experimental Oath Action Impulse system is considerably more boring than it might sound.
Now, as the leaves begin to turn here in Saint Paul, the project is entering its next stage. We’ve fully defined its scope and every element of the expansion is in internal testing. In terms of overall design content, we are about 70% through all of the new stuff. There are a few outstanding elements that are still in design review, but the plan is to have them reviewed within a few weeks. There is still a lot of work in front of us, but the last few weeks have brought a wonderful calm to the project as it moves into the next step.
Okay, enough schedule chatter! Let’s take a look at the new content.
First, part of the design of the Oath expansion involves a reworking of the core Oath rules. Like Root, we didn’t originally plan on expanding the game, so we’ve had to go into the Law of Oath and rework several areas so that it could harmonize with the new content. Of course a new copy of the expanded and revised law will be included in New Foundations. These revisions have also enabled us to make some improvements to the base game’s cards and allowed us to rework a few mechanisms. Rest assured that any adjusted cards will also be reprinted.
For instance, we’ve expanded the game’s negotiation rules so that now players have a default negotiation minor action that allows them to trade favor and secrets with other players at their location. There are a lot of reasons for this change, but the biggest reason is that it has just felt most in keeping with the spirit of the game. It also allows us to simplify how certain card powers work. Here are two cards (one old, one new) that showcase this new templating.
We’ve also spent a lot of time reworking the campaign rules to make the combat rules a lot easier to understand and to make it more natural for additional combat rules (such as the status of battle plans for imperial allies) to slide into the core structure of the game.
There is also one fairly significant battle alteration that we’ve really enjoyed, but does alter the character of the game a bit. Now, the defenders' dice are rolled in the last step, after the sacrifice of warbands. This means the attacker must commit their force before determining the full strength of the defender. This change was made mostly for thematic reasons. In terms of the narrative, it puts the “punch” of combat at the right moment in gameplay. This is, of course, a disadvantage for attackers as there’s now a much larger chance that warbands will be wasted, but is a major improvement in terms of the game’s own internal logic. As an aside, I should mention that this is a good example of me being sometimes too-guided by a desire for the lowest possible word-count instead of the game’s overall feel. The real issues with Oath’s combat have less to do with its complexity than the places where its complexity sits. It’s the un-intuitive elements that can really add baggage and by attending to some of these questions of “feel” we’ve found that players better internalize the system.
There’s a lot more to talk about on that front, including adjustments to the influence system, the chronicle phases, but we’ll have to save the design conversation for later. There’s a lot of content to get to today! As we talked about during the Kickstarter, Oath’s new content can be broken into a few big categories: lineages, empire, foundations, and solo. Each and every part of the design has received a lot of attention in the months since the campaign. Let’s start with lineages.
This was probably the most-cooked system at the moment we launched the campaign and the changes since have been mostly in the realm of balance. The biggest system-level change has been the reworking of timing windows. For trait cards, maintenance is now checked at the end of the game. For quests, we have a more open structure which can trigger at a variety of points throughout the game.
You’ll also notice a number in a small, circular icon on top-right of the trait card. This is the card’s “legacy” value, which is a meta scoring system we’re using to reward players over multiple games. It doesn’t have any gameplay value, but we’ve found that it can help players get a sense that they are telling a multi-generational story and deepen their relationship with their house/family/clan/color.
Next up we’ve got the empire system. This system has undergone a ton of revision and improvement. The broad structure is still the same. Empires are still associated with a set of 8 tiles, 4 of which are in play at any given moment. Previously some of these tiles had a corrupted side, which would pollute the board with shadow denizens. Now, tiles instead have costs, paid by exhausting other tiles and then the number of tiles exhausted determines how much corruption enters the world. This cleans up the visual language quite a bit and gives us a useful new balancing metric to apply to the tiles.
The whole system of corruption, which was previously handled through shadow denizens, has been replaced with something far more dynamic. Actually, this will properly require a standalone update to talk about in full and we’ll plan on sharing that with you all in next month’s update. The short version is that the site deck itself is now able to hold information and change from game to game. When players encounter something like the Drowned City, some will likely remember the story of its drowning. You might even attempt to drain and restore it in future games!
In terms of the Foundation deck, we now have about 18 modules which can be activated and deactivated by players. There’s some wild stuff in here. Don’t care for kings? Consider abolishing the chancellor! We’ve also got two variants for the Darkest Secret and two for the People’s Favor that offer players very different feeling games but will still be compatible with all of the existing denizens that interact with those cards.
Denizen and edifice design is also continuing along at a good clip. We’ve got over half of the new denizens fully built and tested and about a third of the edifices. The edifices/ruins have gone through a bit of a reworking as well to make sure they fit in more seamlessly with the rest of the New Foundations content. The basic overview is that, rather than be in a separate bank, they are now mixed in with the denizen deck and enter play as regular cards do, but on their ruined side. Then, at the start of a game, certain empire tiles can be used to repair them, bringing their edifice sides into play.
I want to also call out an important detail of the new cards: we’re doing our best to keep the average complexity of the new denizens dramatically lower than the game’s original cards. My design mantra for all of the new game features has been that the most complex parts of Oath have already been designed. This certainly extends to the denizens themselves!
Finally, Liz and Ricky have been hard at work on the new automated opponent, and we’ve been really impressed with their work. The new bot can serve as exile, citizen, or chancellor and is both easier to run than the old bot and a lot more responsive. The bot has entered limited testing and will probably make it out to wider testers within a month. As this milestone is crossed, the team will be turning their attention to making sure the Clockwork Adversaries material can interact with all of the new game features in New Foundations and building a few other surprises as well.
In terms of the game’s overall testing schedule, we’re nearly ready to start digital testing. However, I’m going to hold things off for a few more weeks. The simple reason for this is that between our public testing nights here in Saint Paul and our studio playtests, I’m getting plenty of feedback at the moment and don’t want to stretch the team thin answering comments from dozens of remote testers. We’ll be doing one more testing pass over the next month that should be complete shortly after I return from Essen in mid-October. At that point, as long as we don’t encounter any critical problems, we’ll prepare digital kits and get the game’s wider testing underway. As usual, this wider testing will start invitation-only, but we’ll expand it to anyone interested when we’re ready.
In short, New Foundations is well underway and the studio has been a hive of activity lately. In fact, I’ve hardly mentioned that, while the Oath team has been busy on the expansion, Josh Yearsley and others have been hard at work on a new expansion for Root that will go live in less than a month! If you’d like to follow along with that campaign, you can sign up by clicking the banner below.
What's Next?
From here on out, we should have updates for you all about every 4 to 6 weeks. In the next update, we'll be spotlighting the evolving site deck and sharing some new art. I'm also hoping to post some additional design and development diaries over on BGG. And, when we have our digital kit ready, we are hoping to share some updated gameplay streams in the coming months.
Questions or Other Support Help?
Please email us at [email protected] for any questions or assistance. Please do not use the Kickstarter messaging system to contact us.
Pledge Manager Surveys and Oath Base Game Shipping
4 months ago
– Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 11:11:02 AM
Hi everyone!
Please read the following on what the next steps are now that the funding campaign has ended. We will cover information on how to submit your order for your pledge, use the pledge manager system, and address any other FAQs regarding the campaign.
What’s Next?
The next step for backers is to wait for your Backerkit email invites to gain access to your account. You will have from now until the lockdown date next year to finalize any details pertaining to your order.
What is a Pledge Manager and Why Does It Matter?
Essentially, a pledge manager is how we gather information about your order and where you can:
Review your order information
Manage your shipping address
Add additional items to your order
Pay for shipping, any applicable taxes, and/or add-ons
Please note that outstanding balances will not be charged until the order lockdown date (Current estimate: August 2025).
Important Note on Kickstarter Bonus Items
When accessing your pledge manager surveys, each backer has been issued a copy of the bonus Denizen Deck and the bonus Deluxe Components II and will show when you open your survey like so:
For those who are purchasing multiple pledges for multiple copies, the quantity of Denizen Decks and Deluxe Component II will remain as x1. After we lock and charge for pledges in August 2025, we will manually be updating this number on your surveys to reflect correctly based on the number of Oath New Foundations and Oath Clockwork Adversaries purchased.
Late pledge backers: Upon opening the pre-order/late backer store, you won’t see the Denizen Deck or the Deluxe Components II listed due to our pledge manager limitations. So like our other backers, you’ll see the correct number of Kickstarter bonus items listed on your survey after we lock and charge surveys in August 2025.
The Smoke Test and Survey Emails
Today, we will be starting a "smoke test", where 5% of backers from our campaign will receive their Backerkit survey invites early. After allowing the weekend to address any issues that backers in the smoke test might come across, we will send email invites to the rest of the campaign some time next week.
Backers who are part of the smoke test will receive their survey invite within the next few hours. Please remember to check your spam folders.
If any backers part of the smoke test encounter any issues or erroneous pricing, please let us know at [email protected] and we'll look into it for correction!
“All-In” Backers
For backers in the “All-in” pledge level, once you receive your pledge manager invite, we kindly ask that you complete your survey with your shipping and order information as soon as possible of receiving your invite so that we can coordinate the Oath base game shipping with our fulfillment partners.
We will hand the export of backers for the Oath base game to our fulfillment partners on Friday July 12th, so please ensure your surveys are complete before this date. Any surveys that miss this initial date will be processed in another separate, and later batch. Tracking notices will be emailed directly to the email address on your survey and deliveries are typically within 2-3 weeks from the day you receive your tracking information.
FAQs
If I’m not in the smoke test, when can I expect my survey email?
We expect all backers to receive their invites by July 5th, 2024. If you still have not seen any sign of your survey after Monday July 8th, 2024, please email [email protected] and we can send your survey to you manually. Please remember to check spam folders.
I pledged for the All-In Pledge level. When will I receive my Oath base game?
If your survey is submitted by EOD Friday July 12th, your shipment information will be given to the relevant fulfillment partners on time. We should expect all backers who pledged for the base game to receive their copy typically within 2-3 weeks from the day you receive your tracking information and should be shipping throughout late July 2024 to early August 2024.
Can I add more copies of the Oath base game to my pledge?
Unfortunately, we are not offering the base game through the pledge manager.
To purchase the base game, you can still visit our webstore or your favorite friendly local game store for a copy.
What are the Kickstarter Bonus Items? Are they included in my pledge?
The Kickstarter bonus items offered to backers are the Oath Denizens Deck and the Oath Deluxe Components II and are included with every pledge for free. Additional copies beyond what is issued to your pledge purchased may be purchased at additional cost.
Will I get multiple Kickstarter Bonus Items if I purchase multiple pledges?
Yes! Each pledge of Oath New Foundations and/or Oath Clockwork Adversaries will come with a bonus set of the Kickstarter Bonus Items.
A pledge is considered to be one of the following:
1 x Oath New Foundations only
1 x Oath Clockwork Adversaries only
1 x Oath New Foundations + 1 x Oath Clockwork Adversaries
If I purchase Oath add-ons for the Journal, Deluxe Components I, or the Card Sleeve Pack I, will these ship with my Oath base game?
Unfortunately only the Oath base game is shipping early. All other items offered from this campaign will ship together with the new Oath content in November 2025.
When will you charge for shipping and/or add-ons?
We are currently estimating to charge credit cards for shipping costs and any add-ons in August 2025. The exact date will be specified at least two weeks ahead of time in an official update. But typically, this date is set 3 months before we expect fulfillment to begin, and when surveys will be locked from further editing.
When will surveys be locked down? What does it mean?
When surveys are locked down, you will be prevented from editing the items in your order survey. The current lock down date is set for August 2025. The exact date will be specified at least two weeks ahead of time in an official update.
When is the last day I can change my shipping address?
We will send a 48 hour final address reminder roughly 1-2 months before we plan on starting fulfillment. This is so that we can forward addresses and order information to our shippers for early preparation.
How many copies can I pledge for?
Each backer is limited to a total of 6 copies of each SKU.
Will shipping costs increase if I add extra products?
Yes. Shipping costs increase per added item and will automatically recalculate shipping in your cart based on your order contents before checkout. To review our shipping costs again, you can refer to this link from the campaign page.
Will I be able to switch pledge levels?
Yes! You can switch your pledge level once you receive your survey emails and upon opening your survey for the first time, you can press the “Switch your pledge level” button below the “Get Started!” button. If you need any assistance, please email [email protected] and we can help you change your pledge level manually.
Important Note: You cannot switch to the All-In pledge level containing the Oath base game since it was only an offer during the Kickstarter funding campaign.
Retailers
If you are a retailer, please contact [email protected] instead of our general support email for any questions. Our dedicated sales manager is available to you and will generally respond within 3-5 business days.
Questions or other Support Help?
Please email us at [email protected] for any questions or assistance.
The Grand Finale! - Thank You
4 months ago
– Tue, Jun 18, 2024 at 10:09:33 AM
We are celebrating a new day here at Leder games: 10 campaigns in almost as many years! I still get thrilled each time we get to the finish line. This is a lot of money to be committing to us and far more than we expected when we started this campaign. We would all like to thank you very much for your support.
As Cole pointed out on the stream yesterday, none of this is possible without all of your help. Through your support we are able to continue making games, while getting paid and getting nice things like health insurance. By far though the largest benefit to crowdfunding is that we now get to set the budget for our development around this surplus. We will be able to spend more time and resources than we had planned on this expansion. I am really excited for what is in store for you all.
I would again like to take this opportunity to thank a few people on the project team. Their agility dealing with the short timeline of the project freed up time for the rest of us in the studio to pursue other projects.
Cole Wehrle - Cole has been on multiple streams throughout the project. Streams can be exhausting, after doing a Studio Chat I often do not want to work for the rest of the day. While doing this he has juggled sending out testing kits for Oath. He also put forth the idea of adding the new colors to the deluxe components, a nice little surprise for us all! On top of that he was still around to talk to me about my design work and provide the other things he does for us. Thank you Cole!
Kyle Ferrin - Provided us with more art throughout the project including the two new player colors. The new colors really made me smile. I understand they are not as impactful as the New Foundations, but it filled me with joy, thinking about the new character I could be. I wanted them in the game as soon as I saw them. Thanks Kyle!
Clay Capra and Andrea Francisco - For their work on the Oath expansion long before we got here. Thank you Clay and Andrea!
Megan Ganey - For her work on the campaign graphics. Thank you Megan!
Anne Kinner - For their help with constantly adjusting the quote from the factory so that we knew what our budget would be throughout the project. Thanks Anne!
Matt Martens - Filmed most of the streams and captured some moments from the campaign for the future documentary. Thank you Matt!
Alita Robertson - For putting together the backdrop for the recent Oath and Ahoy streams. As well as provided help with the filming. Thank you Alita!
Brooke Nelson - For helping design the Kickstarter page, maintaining our marketing efforts, and telling me when and where to stand as I go. Thank you Brooke!
Ted Caya - Ted has been providing us with insight into the numbers of the campaign every day. Thanks Ted!
Joshua Yearsley - For providing editing the PNPs on a tight timeline. Thanks you Josh!
Liz Davidson and Ricky Royal - These two have somehow managed to continue to work on the solo mode and figure out everything that it can be while producing videos for the campaign and being active in the comments. Thanks for all your help!
I would also like to call out Andrea Francisco (again!) and Claire Donaghue for staying on top of the support queue and the Kickstarter messages the entire campaign. They supported hundreds of tickets over the past few weeks! Thanks!
In addition I would like to thank everyone else on the Leder Games staff I did not mention.
On top of all of the other good news, I would like to congratulate Liz Davidson for joining the staff at Leder Games. She will be working on solo design with us as well as providing some more editorial support as our new Solo Game Specialist. She will be starting in July but has already been helping with the campaign.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be building our timeline and will do our best to keep you up-to-date on the game’s development. But, for now, we are going to celebrate as a team. We will also be closed tomorrow. If you have any questions please contact [email protected] as usual and we will get back to you when we have returned from our break.
Again I would like to thank you all for supporting Oath: New Foundations and Oath as a line. Have fun, and stay safe!.
Thank you, Patrick Leder
Join Cole for a Design Stream TODAY, and Check Out Some of Our Favorite Oath Fan Creations!
4 months ago
– Mon, Jun 17, 2024 at 09:58:17 AM
Don't Forget! Stream Today at 2PM CDT Set a reminder for later today, June 17th at 2PM CDT, and join Cole for an Oath: New Foundations design stream! We'll be live on our Twitch channel, and Cole will talk about the design process, where the design will focus next, and more! Jot down your questions, and we'll see you in chat!
Fan Celebration Stream! Chaotic and Fun for All On Friday we celebrated Oath with a stream full of fan art, tales, and Chronicles. If you missed it, you can catch it for a few more days on our Twitch channel!
If you miss the VoD, we've collected a number of our favorite entries here for your enjoyment:
Thank you to everyone who sent us their beautiful work. Seeing how Oath inspires creativity beyond the gaming table is incredible!
Surprise Inside! Also: Fan Celebration Stream Tomorrow, Get Your Submissions In!
4 months ago
– Thu, Jun 13, 2024 at 08:28:04 AM
Dear Backers,
We have a surprise for you all. Everyone at Leder Games has been so delighted to see the wider Oath community come out to support the game. While we've got some fun design surprises in store for the coming months, we wanted to find a way to express our gratitude before the campaign was over. To that end, I'm happy to announce that we are adding two new player colors to the Deluxe Components Pack II! This means that all backers will get two additional player colors along with their player boards, free of charge.
We won't officially sanction anything like a 7 or 8 player game (I'd suggest playing two 4 player games instead!), but these colors should help you juggle your lineages more easily and offer additional color choices.
Fan Celebration Stream Tomorrow on Twitch We've been collecting Oath fan art and Chronicle entries throughout the campaign, and we're highlighting our favorites on-stream this Friday!
Join Kyle and Cole for this fun, casual chat on our Twitch channel from 2PM-3PM CDT. Bring your questions!
You still have time to submit YOUR fan art creations or favorite Chronicles for consideration. Get them in before midnight CDT tonight!
Design Story Time with Cole, Monday June 17th The campaign is nearly done, but we're not stopping! Mark your calendar for Monday, June 17th at 2PM CDT and join Cole for a live stream about board game design on our Twitch channel. He'll be talking a bit about what it's like to do design work within the studio and how we're preparing to tackle this project.
Bring your questions, and hang out as we count down to the final hours of the campaign!
Questions or Other Support Help? Please email us at [email protected] for any questions or assistance. Please do not use the Kickstarter messaging system to contact us.
