That is definitely not true. I think we can expect that most “special rules” will stay in their own box, but, for instance, the Dahan Expansion will have a whole new suite of rules. And I would expect there to be Dahan Expansion expansions that require the core box, JE, and the Dahan expansion.
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Yeah, I agree. That is essentially what I meant by . . .
I’ve noticed that the Wiki page for this expansion states that it will contain eight spirits. Where was this revealed?
Might have been the State of GTG panel at Gen Con? They talked about some of the details there, but I don’t remember specifics.
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There’s a spirit island podcast too called the Kindred Spirit podcast that has had Eric on it so it’s possible it could’ve been said there too.
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It appears that you are correct, Rabit, according to a poster on BGG:
To quote that poster:
What was announced:
8 new spirits!!! (4 with a brand new mechanic)
1 new adversary (beefy)
A lot of new aspects (some utilizing the new mechanic)
Only a couple major and minor powers (utilizing the new mechanic)
Some new fear, event (and I think blight) cards.All in all they said it is between the size of B&C and JE.
8 new Spirits is a lot more than I anticipated. We just got Jagged Earth (and Promo Pack 2) which gave us a total of 12 new Spirits. I would’ve imagined Eric would slow done a bit. (Not to mention the five new Horizons Spirits, for a total of 13 new ones this year.) (Just to be clear, I’m not complaining about this. : ))
So, it is confirmed that there will be a single “brand new mechanic” in Nature Incarnate. I feel like it is very obvious that it will be some form of the Vitality token (first seen on the 6-player play-mat).
But could 4 Spirits really use a single token in meaningfully different ways? None of the existing tokens are even used by that many Spirits. Wait, no, that’s not true; 
are all used by Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves, Many Minds Move as One, Lure of the Deep Wilderness, and Grinning Trickster Stirs up Trouble. (And 
and 
both come close, with 3 Spirits each.)
Anyhow, of those four who will use the new mechanic, I’d wager that two of them will heavily use it, but in two very different ways, akin to how Sharp Fangs and Many Minds both use differently. And one will use it in a secondary capacity, similar to Trickster’s usage of . And the fourth will really just have it as a little incidental thing on one of its Unique Powers, like how Volcano Looming High can add and with Lava Flows.
I’m very glad that there will be “a lot of new Aspects.” I think that they’re a great mechanic, and it will be fun to see how Eric has changed up familiar Spirits.
And some of the Aspects will feature the new mechanic. Operating on the assumption that Vitality tokens (or something similar) is the new mechanic, I suspect that Vital Strength of the Earth, Keeper of Forbidden Wilds, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, and Stone’s Unyielding Defiance are all likely candidates to receive it via an Aspect.
Of course, there is the possibility that the new mechanic won’t be Vitality-esque, or any kind of token at all. But then, I’m not sure what it would be.
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One of the reasons I don’t play Sharp Fangs much is because I think of it as “Thunderspeaker but for , which is not as good because there are much fewer than 
.” (Many Minds is a much more interesting spirit.) So, the trap here I’d like to see them avoid is to make a Thunderspeaker-but-Vitality, a Forbidden-Wilds-but-Vitality, an Unyielding-Defiance-but-Vitality, etc. A good example of having spirits parallel each other but have unique feels is Lure of the Deep Wilderness, which feels a little like “Ocean but for the interior land,” but comes with a lot of its own play style.
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True, but Sharp Fangs can create , whereas Thunderspeaker can’t create , and can’t get damaged by Invaders like can.
Unrelatedly, I was thinking about what Nature Incarnate will do with , if anything. Well, we know that it will focus on nature, so I thought there might be some Spirit/Aspect/Event/Power that did something like “Replace [X] with ///Vitality,” representing transforming Dahan into parts of the natural world to better defend the island.
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I’m not sure that makes sense. Do the Dahan not live in harmony with, and as part of, nature?
The way I see it, yes, the Dahan are in harmony with nature (of course), but I disagree with them being a part of it. I see humans — including the Dahan and (of course) the Invaders — as being set apart from the natural world, notably by our use of tools.
Of course, this is entirely my own subjective view of how I see the Dahan’s relationship with nature. Which is an admittedly metaphysical relationship to begin with.
I just had an idea for an Aspect that I really want to be in this box: an Aspect for A Shroud of Silent Mists that lets it add 
. Something like this:
Innate Power
Mist-Borne Plagues
Range: 0|Target Land: Any
[Elements] If target land has both yourand damaged Invaders, add 1
And the higher thresholds could do 
, damage, adding to adjacent lands, or repeating it on them.
Anyway, I think that this would be a great reference to Spirit Island’s design history.
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GTG have once again updated the Backerkit page.
(Also, there’s only about three weeks until the launch. EXCITEMENT.)
For one thing, the page now says this:
Nature Incarnate features 8 Spirits, 20 Aspects, new Major Powers, and brand-new mechanics for players to challenge the Invaders head-on.
We already knew the number of Spirits, but I think that the Aspect count is new information? Regardless, there are currently 29 published Spirits — the Base Game’s 8, B&C’s 2, JE’s 10, F&F’s 4, and Horizons’ 5. I find it unlikely, though, that Vital Strength, Shadows, River, or Lightning will be getting more Aspects, which brings the total down to 25. I also think that the B&C and F&F Spirits probably won’t make it, so 19. And Fractured Days and Starlight also seem unlikely, so that leaves us with 17 Spirits that I think will get Aspects. I image the 20 Aspects will get fairly evenly distributed between them.
I also find it very interesting that they only mention Major Powers. This is in contradiction to the info I shared above, but I suppose that this is the more reliable source. This seems to imply that whatever the New Mystery Mechanic is, it will be powerful.
And what does it mean by “brand-new mechanics for players to challenge the Invaders head-on?” Aren’t we already challenging them head on? This is very intriguing. Unless . . . they’re talking about playing as the Dahan? Which would mean that this is The Dahan Expansion.
The Backerkit page also now says this:
Shadows gather, and keening echoes drift through the forests, as bloodied pick and steel break the ground and force what once-was to fight at the forefront of the fray.
This implies only one thing to me: zombies. See Vengeance of the Dead.
Also, the page shows an art that is titled “Wrack with Pain and Grief” (by Nolan Nasser). Now, I’m not sure if this is a Spirit or a Power Card. I’m leaning towards the latter. However, that seems thematically similar to Weep for What is Lost.
They also mention “a brutal side to a familiar Adversary.” So, there’s going to be some sort of variant for an existing Adversary? That’s certainly interesting.
Personally, I don’t think they would be introducing Aspects for the Horizons spirits, given the different markets and the coincident development timelines. And are we even sure that part of their spirit panels are the same dimensions?
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Yes, those are good points. You could very likely be right. However, Eric has said that designing Aspects for Low-Complexity Spirits is significantly easier than designing them for higher complexity Spirits.
They look like they are:
Things that have been officially announced:
- One of the Aspects is for Shadows.
- None of the Aspects are for Horizons of Spirit Island spirits.
- This is not the Dahan expansion.
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Really? Shadows Flicker Like Flame already has the most existing Aspects. That seems a touch unfair.
Yes, that certainly makes sense, given the points raised by @Trajector. Although I do still consider it a missed opportunity. (Perhaps in a future expansion.)
Yeah, that seems logical, but thanks for the confirmation anyway, @MindWanderer. If it were the Dahan expansion, GTG would have certainly advertised it as such. It was just the “challenging Invaders head-on” line that gave me the slightest reason to believe otherwise.
Only two more days until the campaign launches! Get your last predictions in now!
: D
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Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate is now LIVE on Backerkit! 
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Looking forward to the details on that premium token pack, though. 
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I still find it funny the backer kit site was down on launch because of too much traffic.
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