Class Evolution in Rove

Hello Rovers!

Tyvan Grossi here, lead game designer for Addax Games. Today I’d like to discuss class evolution and branching evolution.

From the very beginning we knew Rove was going to take a lot of inspiration from Role Playing Games. There’s a lot of different types of RPGs, in a lot of different mediums, that work to achieve a lot of different goals. I’ve played and enjoyed lots of different RPGs, from horror to high fantasy, from power fantasy to gritty realism, and everything in between. I do have a favorite type of RPG though, ones with crunchy tactical combat.

What more do I have to say? I enjoy games where the GM calls for initiative or one wrong diplomatic roll might thrust you into combat. Bonus points if the combat has narrative weight. Extra credit is earned when that RPG has a tactical map for you to move your characters through.

Now, mix in asymmetric characters with critical choices to make at level up, I’m going to enjoy the game I just know it. The best game you can design is a game you enjoy playing yourself. I knew from the beginning that within Rove you were going to play a singular character throughout the campaign, the classes were going to be asymmetric, and that you’d have critical choices to make when you level up.

Unlocking new skills as you gain levels is a pretty no brainer of an idea. I didn’t want your skills just to gain a +1 to an action value, but that you gain a new skill that lets you play the game in a new way.

We envisioned Rove: Core and Anchorpoint as having a substantive world and story. It was going to take time for the players to explore everything. Having you play the same class with just the occasional skill upgrade wasn’t going to be enough. We wanted a big moment in the middle of the campaign where you got to make a big choice that the player really got to own.

Enter class evolutions. In Anchorpoint, when a Rover reaches level 4, they will get to pick one of two unique class evolutions, each with very unique play styles. In this way class evolutions were inspired by mechanics such as sub classing in Dungeons and Dragons or promoting a unit in Shining Force, if anyone remembers that game.

When a Rover evolves, they gain a new class board with a new special rule, new base cards to build out your hand, and new abilities. All of these new game components help to inform your new class and their area of specialty.

In Rove: Core, we had so many classes that we couldn’t put this decision point in the base game. Players have to buy the Xulc expansion to get all the classes for the fun decision point. This diverging class evolution proved so fun Mike and I had a long discussion in the middle of making Anchorpoint. We knew that 4 classes and 4 evolutions wasn’t going to be enough, each prime class needed a second unique apex evolution. Honestly, the hardest part was figuring out how we were going to fit everything into the smaller box and maintain our low target price, but Mike is a wizard when it comes to physical game design and figured it out.

I also have to give a shout out to Josh. He took on the tremendous responsibility of designing and developing all 12 classes in Rove: Anchorpoint. He was surprised when I told him we needed a second set of evolutions for each class, but he took up the challenge, and let me tell you, the classes he made are a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading this blog post. The next subject we’ll discuss is adversary logic.

-  Ty

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