Stoneshard’s mercenary heroes may be out to battle across the land, but that doesn’t mean their minds are impenetrable fortresses. Players will have to take care of their mental well being, dealing with phobias and mental issues, just as they would illnesses and wounds, if they hope to succeed.
Players will begin their quest to bring peace (or chaos) to the kingdom of Aldor with a single mercenary, choosing a starting race and fighting style to create one of multiple types of classes. These will give players their starting abilities, but they aren’t tied down to these classes for the course of the game. Players can find mentors in the game’s world who can teach them abilities from other classes, developing healing ninjas or magical barbarians.
As players fight through Stoneshard’s dangerous world, any wrong move can lead to permanent death. Monsters aren’t the only thing that will kill players, as they’ll need to manage thirst, hunger, broken bones, poisonings, and more afflictions to keep breathing. Not only this, but characters can have various mental challenges like phobias, which can affect how the player interacts with NPCs or make drastic changes to stats based on certain conditions.
Players won’t have to go it alone, as they can acquire followers through saving people in dungeons, paying them, or stumbling across eager allies in the field. These followers will help the player in various ways, but they can make difficulties for the player as well. Each has their own stats and personalities, and some may clash with others, or respond poorly should the player fail and objective, creating new challenges within the player’s own safe haven.
Stoneshard is currently raising development funding on Kickstarter, with a Prologue demo available through the campaign site.
