Tying updates (not stretch goals, updates), to arbitrary “achievements” is bonkers. I understand GtG wanting to support BackerKit by implementing a major test run for their achievements system, but the campaign has been funded 15 times the target goal already. There is nothing left to achieve. One update a day or two, sure, whatever, build excitement. But tying it to (currently) number of backers is ludicrous. Again, 15 times the target goal has already been met.
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BGG and Reddit are not what I would really take into big consideration for whether a Crowdfunded project is a “disaster” or not. However, I agree I’m not a fan of tying updates to achievements as the number of backers is going to be a trickle until we near the last day or two at which point it’s not helpful for keeping excitement. Now maybe it’s too much for those behind the Spirit Island updates but I liked the RCR campaign where Christopher posted an update every weekday while the campaign was active. It had the added bonus of letting Christopher daily address questions.
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As Powerhound alluded, /r/BoardGames and BGG are both “Toxic Fanpeople: the Forum”, and for every one valid complaint they have about ten wrongfully entitled and shortsighted ones. I wouldn’t take either especially seriously.
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This is a case where I think it’s important for us to hold multiple ideas in our heads simultaneously.
Is this campaign successful? For sure, as @Godai pointed out, the funding goals were wildly exceeded almost immediately.
Is this going to negatively affect the perception of Spirit Island as a game, and therefore sales? Prrrrrobably not, but I say that as a not very deep amateur observer. Likewise, I doubt GtG is going to lose many of their fans over this
Is tying the frequency of substantive updates to the number of backers annoying from the perspective of someone trying to decide whether to back? Definitely! I was on the fence before the campaign started, for the reason that I already felt I had more Spirit Island content in hand than I could possibly play. If the new mechanics, new spirits, and new components seem cool enough, I’m more likely to back. If they look like slight variations on existing stuff, I’m less likely. So I’m disappointed that the structure of the campaign did not have much of that information available from the beginning. I’ll be waiting to back…and hoping they switch updates to a straightforward schedule by time.
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Two new Spirits revealed!
Does Ember-Eyed Behemoth remind anyone else of the Dragon-Turtle from Avatar or Great A’Tuin from Discworld?
Unusually for a Moderate Complexity Spirit, Behemoth has only a single Innate Power. However, I suppose that that’s somewhat countered by the fact that it gets to repeat said power when its Incarna is Empowered.
That “Max 1/Game” Growth option is also something new. I can tell that I would definitely have a tough time deciding when to use it in most games. I think that having enough Energy and Card Plays to reliable hit the second level of Behemoth’s Innate might be a good rule of thumb for me, but of course the decision will often be much more complex than that.
All in all, Behemoth looks real nifty. It seems like the perfect proof of concept for Incarna. It is elegant in its simplicity. And seeing how Behemoth uses its Incarna just makes me all the more excited to see what ways the other Incarna Spirits use theirs.
Who are the Servant Cults‽ They’ve been mention extremely briefly on Thunderspeaker’s panel, but nowhere else. Until now, when they’re being mentioned in reference to Hearth-Vigil. All we know is that they were really violent and attacked and poisoned other Dahan? Judging by their name, I wonder if they’re some kind of faction that wants to (or does) worship the Spirits (or maybe just one specific Spirit).
Hearth-Vigil looks like some sort of weird amalgamation of dog, lion, and cow, and I think there might also be some scales or feathers in there? I suppose that the canine features do make sense, what with their connexion to humans.
I, too, think that it’s really cool to have a Spirit that adds 
during Setup. It seems so obvious in hindsight.
Wait, I have a question: are the extra added in all three of Hearth-Vigil’s lands, or just the last two? The first time I read it, I read it as the latter, but now I’m thinking that it’s the former.
Also, Hearth-Vigil starts the game with 1 ENERGY! What‽ This is UNPRECEDENTED. Okay, well, actually, I suppose that there actually is precedent for weird setup instructions, such as one of Sharp Fangs’s 
being able to start the game in a land anywhere on the island with 
, and one of Vengeance’s starting the game destroyed. Very well then. Those who write the unspoken rules are free to break them.
Also, Hearth-Vigil is a Moderate Complexity Spirit with THREE SPECIAL RULES! This too is UNPRECEDENTED! Well, but I suppose that there is precedent for this too, actually. High Complexity Spirits used to also be limited to two Special Rules, but then came along Shroud of Silent Mist and Vengeance as a Burning Plague, so nevermind.
Anyways, now that my mistaken outrage is over with, I want to say that Fortify Heart and Health, Warn of Impending Conflict, and the Presence Track -Gather all seem so obvious in hindsight (not that this takes away from how great and fun they look).
Rooted in the Community and Loyal Guardian are both nice parallels to and twists on Thunderspeaker’s Special Rules.
Overall, whereas Thunderspeaker is focused on guiding the Dahan and telling them when and where to attack, Hearth-Vigil is all about protecting, defending, and empowering them. I think that Eric and the Dev Team have succeeded in making a second Spirit.
Also, here’s just a random bit of speculation: I wonder if any of the Incarna Spirits will have its Incarna switch back and forth between its Unempowered and Empowered sides.
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The biggest takeaway for me is that Hearth-Vigil is a Bull Dog.
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Hearth-Vigil only starts in two lands, and gets an extra Dahan in each of them.
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I am also very 
about the Servant Cults.
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Supposition just occurred to me about the Servant Cults.
- The Servant Cults were Long Ago™️
- They wanted to serve the spirits
- We know there is a spirit who starts the game dying
- The dying spirit was once worshiped by the Servant Cults, and is now struggling to stay alive without their support
Just trying to make a guess based on the clues we have.
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I’m puzzling a little bit over the incarna mechanic.
In some ways, what it grants in terms of gameplay is already the way I think of several of the spirits. Thunderspeaker tends to accumulate masses of and that move about and act together. Volcano Looming High makes silly high stacks of in a very small number of lands. Ocean’s Hungry Grasp and, to a lesser extent, Lure of the Forbidden Wilds (edit: er, I think I got that name wrong…I mean the anglerfish-frog one), also tend to be extremely localized in where their is and therefore where they can act. This got me wondering, could you just write special rules and unique/innate powers governing where goes and how it moves, and achieve basically the same thing as the incarna mechanic? It strikes me that Volcano is nearly almost there, with checks on “X ” for certain effects. It wouldn’t take too much to write powers like, “Gather 3 or more . If you do, blah blah.”
I think the incarna mechanic adds a few things.
- Thematically, the idea that a spirit can have in several places but a single localized manifestation. I’m not sure this feels really different to me than, say, Thunderspeaker, though, because Thunderspeaker is almost always depicted in art as having a clear manifestation and that achieves the thematic effect pretty well.
- A spirit with an incarna can have the incarna available from the start and still start with fully covered tracks, like the Behemoth.
- The particular rules about incarna counting as or not, and not losing the game if the incarna is still on the board. What this means for gameplay is probably highly dependent on specific situations.
I’m hoping that the next few incarna spirits add some effects that really distinguish the mechanic.
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I’m having trouble placing the breed, but I think Great Dane looks closer to me than Bulldog?
That can’t be right, I could’ve sworn that—
Checks Spirit Panel
I stand corrected. Thanks, MindWanderer. I don’t know how, but I read “[Put] 2 [] in the lowest-numbered land with at least 2 ” as “[Put] 1 [] each in the 2 lowest-numbered lands with at least 2 ,” which, in hindsight, does not make a whole lot of sense, as there are only two lands with 2 on each board at game start.
True, but the main difference is that those are tendencies. Thunderspeaker can have several smaller groupings of and , and the Volcano can have multiple shorter pyres.
Another thing is that (in most cases) there is no qualitative difference between 1 and a whole mess of (beyond 
). Sure, there’s a quantitative difference that matters in a few cases, such as Thunderspeaker’s Manifestation of Power and Glory Unique Power Card and Volcano’s Explosive Eruption Innate Power.
That would be Lure of the Deep Wilderness, not Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds.
And yes, the Ocean and the Lure both have limited -placement options, but they can still have in plenty of different lands, whereas an Incarna can only be in one.
Yeah, you only see one Thunderspeaker on all of her cards, but that’s because each card basically represents one action that he’s taking. But Thunderspeaker can play several of those cards at once, and I am sure she can manifest in several different locations more or less simultaneously in order to lead his Dahan allies. Compared to the Behemoth, for instance, who can only have one of its big stompy forms at a time.
Yes, I agree that that is a considerable difference. Most Spirits that like to have many in a single land get something out of adding more of them there.
I am fairly confident that they will. Behemoth was intentional designed as a lower Complexity Incarna Spirit.
No no, the space is important. Bull. Dog.
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Ah, I see what you did there. ; )
I thought it was a terrier, myself. Maybe it appears as a different breed depending on who the observer is? ;D
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Does anyone else find it unusual that the definition of not participating in Ravage is spelt out on Terrifying Rampage? It’s clearly defined elsewhere.
Also, Bargain of Coursing Paths looks real neat. It sets up two permanent lands that can teleport pieces anywhere on the island. It would allow you to easily add anywhere.
Question: If Bargains of Coursing Paths is played by Finder of Paths Unseen, and the Finder then Pushes an Invader into one of the Marked Lands, which then Moves that Invader into an Ocean that’s in play (because of Ocean’s Hungry Grasp), so the Invader then Drowns, is Finder’s Responsibilities to the Dead triggered? What if a different Spirit Pushed the Invader into the Marked Land? What if a different Spirit played Bargains, but Finder Pushed the Invader?
Also, will “Bargains” be defined in the NI rulebook?
Speculation on the Remaining Unrevealed Spirits
Towering Roots of the Jungle is likely to be very defence-focused, judging by its use of Vitality and the description of what its Incarna will do.
I’m still guessing that Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine will be tied to The Void. And just like Many Minds Move as One was partly inspired by the Major Power Card Insatiable Hunger of the Swarm, I wager that Breath of Darkness was partly inspired by and/or hinted at by the Major Draw Towards a Consuming Void. If this hypothesis proves correct, I think it would be cool if Darkness somehow utilised that Power Card’s “reverse elemental thresholds” thing.
I bet that the Darkness will be heavy on 
(I mean, just look at that thing!), but I’m not sure what to mechanically make of “a shadowy figure that slinks through the darkness and sends lone Invaders to the Void.” I suppose by “lone Invaders” they could mean 
, but then this description is starting to sound like Shadows Flicker Like Flame. Speaking of the Shadows, it has an Aspect that grants a Special Rule called “Glimpse of the Shadow Void.” Connexion or coincidence?
The Destroyer is what I’m calling the Spirit that is described as “carving swathes of overwhelming destruction” and seems to look like some sort of headless horse-thing with way too many arms. It honestly looks like a pretty freakish and unnatural abomination, so I’m intrigued to learn about its lore, as well as how its destruction will be different from other Spirits’.
I suspect that the red tokens will be used by this Spirit (by virtue of nothing but colour). The video shows three of them being added to a land, and then a 
and a 
being destroy (or removed). So, perhaps the Destroyer’s gimmick is adding tokens and then somehow triggering them to cause destruction. 3 tokens doing 5 damage seems quite powerful, though, so I imagine they will be somewhat difficult to add.
I believe that The Dying Spirit is the watery-lookin’ one. But what is that red stuff in it? I think it’s either fish . . . or blood. Which would fit with the whole “dying” thing, I suppose. Either way, it looks somewhat similar to River Surges in Sunlight, but they’re both 
Spirits, so that’s to be expected.
I also believe that this Spirit will make use of the blue tokens, which (judging from the video) appear to be double-sided. Said video shows three in a land, a getting destroyed (or removed), two of the tokens flipping, and one getting Pushed to a Wetland. I really don’t know what to make of all that, but it may be a somewhat similar deal to The Destroyer’s tokens.
And lastly, there are two other Spirits — one Incarna and one not — that both look 
-aligned. Beyond that, though, I got nuthin’.
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I’m surprised you’re not all over this tidbit, @fjur :
In Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate Updates - BackerKit /c, we got first-letter and character number hints for spirit names. Care to play Spiridle?
- October 21st — Spirit Reveal: Hearth-Vigil
- October 26th — Spirit Reveal: Breath Of Darkness Down Your Spine
- October 31st — Spirit Reveal: R_________ G___ O_ T__ S__
- November 4th — Spirit Reveal: Towering Roots Of The Jungle
- November 7th — Spirit Reveal: Da____ U_ E__________
- November 11th — Spirit Reveal: W________ V____ K____ D_______
- November 16th — Spirit Reveal: W______ W_____ B_______
Edit: I think the video reveals that the second letter of the spirit name beginning with “D” is “A”
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- October 31st — Spirit Reveal: Refreshing Glow Of The Sun
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Heh. Yeah, I’ve noticed it. Sure, here’s what I got thus far.
Agreed, and it looks like that Spirit is the one that I’ve dubbed the Destroyer in my previous post. Anyways, I’m almost certain that the second word is Up. The first word could be Daemon or Dark__ (-en or -er) or Dreams and the third might be Earthquakes. But no combination of those really make much sense.
Also in the video, it appears that the Dying Spirit begins with a W, which means it’s either “W________ V____ K____ D_______” or “W______ W_____ B_______”. Given the obvious visual nature of the Spirit, it would be logical to assume that starting word is Water, but that’s only 5 letters, whereas both the starting words of those Spirit names are 8 and 7 letters, respectively (which also knocks out watery). However, the second word of that second name is 6 letters long, so it could be Watery. The third word of that name couldn’t be Blood, but it could be Bloodied. The first W-word could be Wailing, though. However, Wailing Watery Bloodied doesn’t make a whole lot of grammatical sense.
“W________ V____ K____ D_______” might be Wracking Voice Kills [Something]. Or perhaps the V-word is Vines or Vibes?
At first blush, I guessed that it was Righteous God of the Sun, but the letter counts don’t work. Glow of the Sun looks promising; I’m not so sure about Refreshing, but I can’t think of anything better.
Unrelatedly, while I was re-watching the video, I decided to see what I could make out on the Dying Spirit’s panel.
Lore:
In years gone . . . a Spirit of . . . the Invaders, too, . . . they built slaughter . . . through the pool . . . the Spirit which . . . longer a Spirit . . . nature and . . .
So, extrapolating from that, there used to be a Spirit of a pool, but then the Invaders built slaughterhouses nearby, which tainted it and damaged/changed the Spirit, thus why it’s dying.
I can also see a “(from the box)” in its Setup, implying its Setup involves adding 
.
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“Dreams Up Earthquakes” sounds quite plausible to me!
The dying spirit could start with “Withering Vines,” but I’m having a hard time coming up with the following ‘K.’ it also doesn’t have much to do with pools.
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Wracked Waters Bleeding
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