It's been a busy few months, so I haven't posted a lot, but an Assassin's Creed board game is more than enough to bring me back.
I've written a bit about how badly I've wanted more high quality Assassin's Creed board game titles, and Brotherhood of Venice looks like a dream come true. With high quality miniatures and campaign-style play, this looks like something designed specifically with me in mind.
We currently don't know a ton about the game yet, at least until Spiel later this month. You can expect me to be covering this game more in the future, but for now I wanted to cover some of the features that I would love to see in Brotherhood of Venice.
Stealth, specifically "social stealth", has traditionally been thought of as a core pillar of the franchise. While more recent entries like Origins and Odyssey rely more on traditional stealth such as hiding in bushes and sneaking around walls, "social stealth" is more about hiding in plain sight. Think when Altair hides among the monks in the first game's trailer.
I have no doubt that traditional stealth will be a strong feature in Brotherhood of Venice, especially given Triton Noir's previous experience. But it would be fantastic to see social stealth play a big part as well. Though the game will feature a ton of minis, maybe some missions could also feature one-sided face down tokens that could secretly represent either Assassins/Templars or civilians. This could allow for some intriguing hidden role situations.
It also looks like, at least on this map, that city rooftops and the Venice canals will play a large part in the maps. This seems promising for some rooftop to rooftop fun, but I also hope that we can see different levels of the city, including some interior. Variance in elevation could set up some great plays, particularly the iconic air assassination. Which brings me to...
I've talked a lot about Star Wars: Imperial Assault and Descent: Journeys in the Dark on this blog before, with the latter being a relatively new game for me. One of the things that I really like about Descent over Imperial Assault is the way that player progression is handled. In both games, players can upgrade their gear, but XP is handled much differently: Imperial Assault grants a set of upgradable abilities in a class specific to the hero chosen, while Descent gives players far more creative freedom by letting them mix and match various heroes and classes.
This is something that Ubisoft is already starting to implement in the Assassin's Creed video games, particularly with the more RPG-esque recent entry in Odyssey. Now, various skill trees represent skills that fall into categories of "Warrior", "Hunter", and "Assassin".
Imagine how cool it would be to see this reflected in Brotherhood of Venice!
It's pretty clear that Alessandra has a built in ability for herself, and the level specification in the top right of this card also implies that this ability will scale with her.
But what if you could also spec her specific to a class- maybe rolling with Odyssey's three, plus some others like a "Healer" archetype, some sort of Isu-specialist, or a rich character who can help significantly with the game's base-building mechanics. That would be a level of customization that could make this game insanely replayable, particularly if other expansions added even more hero and class combinations!
Of course, gear is another thing that could allow for significant character customization...
This kind of goes hand-in-hand with player progression and class specifications, but I really hope we get a good variety of gear for upgrades. It would be fantastic to be able to choose a variety of ranged and melee weapons, armor, robes, and other utilities like smoke bombs.
Additionally, big mission rewards like various Pieces of Eden would be incredible. For those who need a refresher, Pieces of Eden (POEs) are relics created by an early "Ancient Aliens" type of civilization far before recorded history. In the Assassin's Creed universe, they act as terrifyingly powerful artifacts that can be used for violence, brainwashing, and other reality-bending abilities.
Unless we get a completely non-canon story it's unlikely that the POEs will be too common in this game, which leads ms to my final hope...
"Canon-friendly" is how I describe the way that Imperial Assault generally handles its campaigns. What that means is that the events in the game don't necessarily influence canon, but they could conceivably still have happened. Think "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead", or for my Star Wars readers, "Tag and Bink".
The events in Brotherhood of Venice don't need to be referenced in future games (though that would be cool). But at the very least, I hope they don't conflict with future games. This is obviously a tough line to walk, especially since the title is already confirmed to contain characters like Lucrezia Borgia, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ezio himself.
The best way to handle something like this is to not make any lasting consequential effects that would alter canon, regardless of the results of a mission. For instance, if Ezio show up at some point and takes damage equal to his health via an attack from a Venetian archer, a mission effect could essentially read:
"Bastardo!" swears the mentor. "I'll meet you back at the den," he says, before limping away from the fight to lick his wounds.
Basically, anything that could prevent huge plot holes that would clash with the existing canon would help this game be meaningful and immersive.
Anyway, I'm totally aware that not of all these ideas are likely to be implemented, but I'm very excited regardless. I think Brotherhood of Venice will be a fantastic entry in the Assassin's Creed multimedia franchise, and I'm really looking forward to playing it.
Stay tuned in the coming months, as it will be featured at Spiel and will soon be getting a live Kickstarter campaign.
May the Force be with you!
I've written a bit about how badly I've wanted more high quality Assassin's Creed board game titles, and Brotherhood of Venice looks like a dream come true. With high quality miniatures and campaign-style play, this looks like something designed specifically with me in mind.
We currently don't know a ton about the game yet, at least until Spiel later this month. You can expect me to be covering this game more in the future, but for now I wanted to cover some of the features that I would love to see in Brotherhood of Venice.
Good Stealth Gameplay
This title is being created by Triton Noir, a company perhaps best known for their V-Commandos series. This seems more than appropriate, since V-Commandos is is notable for being a campaign-style stealth and infiltration game set in the second World War.Stealth, specifically "social stealth", has traditionally been thought of as a core pillar of the franchise. While more recent entries like Origins and Odyssey rely more on traditional stealth such as hiding in bushes and sneaking around walls, "social stealth" is more about hiding in plain sight. Think when Altair hides among the monks in the first game's trailer.
I have no doubt that traditional stealth will be a strong feature in Brotherhood of Venice, especially given Triton Noir's previous experience. But it would be fantastic to see social stealth play a big part as well. Though the game will feature a ton of minis, maybe some missions could also feature one-sided face down tokens that could secretly represent either Assassins/Templars or civilians. This could allow for some intriguing hidden role situations.
Parkour
Another big pillar of the series is navigation, and the signature style of Assassin's Creed is obviously parkour. We haven't seen much close up of the board so far, but this still featured in TheBeastsOfWar's video on Brotherhood of Venice shows that there may indeed be some verticality in the game.It also looks like, at least on this map, that city rooftops and the Venice canals will play a large part in the maps. This seems promising for some rooftop to rooftop fun, but I also hope that we can see different levels of the city, including some interior. Variance in elevation could set up some great plays, particularly the iconic air assassination. Which brings me to...
Engaging Player Progression
We've also a brief glimpse of what player progression could look like via some of the player sheets seen so far, but for the most part we don't know exactly how the systems will work.I've talked a lot about Star Wars: Imperial Assault and Descent: Journeys in the Dark on this blog before, with the latter being a relatively new game for me. One of the things that I really like about Descent over Imperial Assault is the way that player progression is handled. In both games, players can upgrade their gear, but XP is handled much differently: Imperial Assault grants a set of upgradable abilities in a class specific to the hero chosen, while Descent gives players far more creative freedom by letting them mix and match various heroes and classes.
This is something that Ubisoft is already starting to implement in the Assassin's Creed video games, particularly with the more RPG-esque recent entry in Odyssey. Now, various skill trees represent skills that fall into categories of "Warrior", "Hunter", and "Assassin".
Imagine how cool it would be to see this reflected in Brotherhood of Venice!
It's pretty clear that Alessandra has a built in ability for herself, and the level specification in the top right of this card also implies that this ability will scale with her.
But what if you could also spec her specific to a class- maybe rolling with Odyssey's three, plus some others like a "Healer" archetype, some sort of Isu-specialist, or a rich character who can help significantly with the game's base-building mechanics. That would be a level of customization that could make this game insanely replayable, particularly if other expansions added even more hero and class combinations!
Of course, gear is another thing that could allow for significant character customization...
Wide Variety of Gear and Armor
This kind of goes hand-in-hand with player progression and class specifications, but I really hope we get a good variety of gear for upgrades. It would be fantastic to be able to choose a variety of ranged and melee weapons, armor, robes, and other utilities like smoke bombs.
Additionally, big mission rewards like various Pieces of Eden would be incredible. For those who need a refresher, Pieces of Eden (POEs) are relics created by an early "Ancient Aliens" type of civilization far before recorded history. In the Assassin's Creed universe, they act as terrifyingly powerful artifacts that can be used for violence, brainwashing, and other reality-bending abilities.
Unless we get a completely non-canon story it's unlikely that the POEs will be too common in this game, which leads ms to my final hope...
A Canon-Friendly Story
"Canon-friendly" is how I describe the way that Imperial Assault generally handles its campaigns. What that means is that the events in the game don't necessarily influence canon, but they could conceivably still have happened. Think "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead", or for my Star Wars readers, "Tag and Bink".
The events in Brotherhood of Venice don't need to be referenced in future games (though that would be cool). But at the very least, I hope they don't conflict with future games. This is obviously a tough line to walk, especially since the title is already confirmed to contain characters like Lucrezia Borgia, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ezio himself.
The best way to handle something like this is to not make any lasting consequential effects that would alter canon, regardless of the results of a mission. For instance, if Ezio show up at some point and takes damage equal to his health via an attack from a Venetian archer, a mission effect could essentially read:
"Bastardo!" swears the mentor. "I'll meet you back at the den," he says, before limping away from the fight to lick his wounds.
Basically, anything that could prevent huge plot holes that would clash with the existing canon would help this game be meaningful and immersive.
Anyway, I'm totally aware that not of all these ideas are likely to be implemented, but I'm very excited regardless. I think Brotherhood of Venice will be a fantastic entry in the Assassin's Creed multimedia franchise, and I'm really looking forward to playing it.
Stay tuned in the coming months, as it will be featured at Spiel and will soon be getting a live Kickstarter campaign.
May the Force be with you!
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