The Game · Glinaur

A square-based fantasy MMORPG in the browser, made by one developer.

Pillars

What holds the game up

DECIDEDOne shared world
Every player in the same square-based world, designed for up to about a thousand online at once (a target, not a claim about today).
IN GAMECombat feeds the economy
Monsters drop what crafters need. Only players make endgame gear; gear from NPC shops and quests stops at quality 0.5.
DECIDEDSlow and long
Hundreds of levels. Two experience tracks, combat and lifeskill, that are never summed.
IN GAMENo classes
You become what your schools make you. Time is the only lock; nothing is closed forever.
IN GAMEHard death, fair rules
Novices are protected. Above that, your gear lies in your corpse; your worn gear is protected for you for a while, then it rots.
DECIDEDSolo is never blocked
Parties, clans and trade give bonuses. They are never a requirement.

The loop

What a player actually does

IN GAME1.
Create a character: kindred, background, two traits you choose and an avatar. Then swear the oath at the clay. The choices are permanent.
IN GAME2.
Walk the world square by square. Everyone on a square sees each other, and the map stays dark until you walk it.
IN GAME3.
Take a quest. Quests come from a board in The Market Hall, from a guild and from people in the street, and pay experience and gold.
IN GAME4.
Find something to fight. Monsters wander their region and must be discovered with Perception. Some attack when you step in.
IN GAME5.
Fight. Rounds tick by themselves; your skill lies in how you prepare and when you step in.
IN GAME6.
Flee if it goes wrong. Your rounds become escape attempts, and a success puts you on a random neighbouring square.
IN GAME7.
Take the reward, or lose it. The killing blow takes the experience, gold and loot. Die above the novice level and your things wait in your corpse.
IN GAME8.
Turn gold into progress. Levels come by themselves; gold buys levels in schools and guilds.
IN GAME9.
Keep your gear alive. It wears down and is repaired with the material it is made of.

Combat

Rounds you can follow on a phone

IN GAMERounds, not reflexes
Auto-combat ticks once per second. You step in with spells, potions, abilities or by fleeing. Mobile-friendly by design.
IN GAMEDiscovery
Monsters must be found: each second your Perception rolls against their hide level. What you have not found is never sent to your screen.
IN GAMEThe killing blow owns everything
Combat is open: anyone may join. Whoever lands the final strike takes the experience, gold and loot.
IN GAMETempo
A derived value that sets how many strikes you land per round. Block and parry happen on their own on the hit roll. Almost no gear carries tempo or defence values yet.
IN GAMECritical hits
One die band. Dexterity sets the chance, the source stat sets the power. No cap.
IN GAMEOne strike, one monster
Only area attacks hit several. Being surrounded is dangerous: monsters have one fight, you may have many.
IN GAMEMonsters cast too
Heals, drains and curses from the same catalogue as players, and their mana runs out. Only a few monsters use it so far.
IN GAMEBoosters
Whetstone oil works against monsters only. Boosters never work in PvP.
IN GAMENo logout escape
Leave during a fight and your character stays in it.
IN GAMECompanions fight too
A hired mercenary or a recruited townsperson fights in your fights, protects you by itself in the protect chain, and its killing blow is yours.
IN GAMEPlayers against players
Attack another player on your square and the same rolls apply as against a monster: hit, block, parry, crit. Boosters never count, and spells work only against monsters, so player fights are melee.
IN GAMELawful or Wanted
Your disposition decides what is lawful: outside the city, players of different dispositions may fight. An unlawful attack or kill, looting another player’s corpse, or healing a Wanted player adds time to a Wanted clock with no ceiling, and the clock stops at zero while you are still fighting.

Numbers are placeholders. Between players the attacker’s crit applies as against a monster, but how crits should work in PvP is still an open question. IDEA

Aggro, fleeing and fair play

Aggressive monsters attack when you step onto their square, when they spawn or wander onto yours, and when their fight with someone else ends, unless your combat level is above their limit. IN GAME
A monster has one fight at a time. Anyone may join it, but it never pulls in someone standing outside. You may fight as many monsters as you like. IN GAME
While you flee you do not strike, and the monster keeps hitting. Dexterity sets the chance, and the square you reach may hold aggressive monsters. IN GAME
Nothing unseen can hurt you: a monster that attacks you is seen at once. You can only attack what you have seen, but a monster already in a fight is easy to spot. IN GAME
Where you stand decides who may fight. On The Clay Mound, holy ground, no fight starts at all; in a house nobody fights; in the rest of Mudbury monsters never attack, and the only player you may attack is a Wanted one. IN GAME
Guards and militiamen attack a Wanted player on their square. A guard who does calls for backup, and free guards within a few steps walk the shortest way there. IN GAME

Death

Your gear waits where you fell

IN GAMENovice protection
Low levels die forgivingly.
IN GAMEExperience
Above the threshold, death to a monster costs half the experience toward your next level. Death at another player’s hand costs no combat experience. Levels are never lost.
IN GAMEThe corpse
Equipment, bag and gold stay in your corpse. Your worn gear is protected for you alone for a while; the bag and the gold can be taken by anyone who finds the corpse, but looting another player’s corpse is a crime. When it rots, the gear falls to the ground and the gold is gone.
IN GAMESafe places
The bank and the vault never follow you into death. A room in The Lodging House is a third place to keep things, and its key stays with you when you die.
IN GAMEDeath Ward
An alchemist’s potion gives each worn piece a chance to stay with you.

The fine print

Below the novice threshold, death costs nothing: no experience lost, no corpse, and you return at full health. The threshold is a placeholder. IN GAME
Above it, you wake on The Clay Mound, the city’s central square, to the words “You are shaped anew from the clay”, with almost no health and little mana. Rest and the safe city bring you back. The mound is holy ground where no fight starts, so even a Wanted player is safe there until stepping off. IN GAME
Death Ward gives at most a 50 % chance per worn item (a placeholder value). It is never guaranteed and never covers gold or the bag. IN GAME
The bank and the vault charge no fees. A fee would tax caution. IN GAME
If you die, your companion fights on. The bond breaks, and if it survives it stays where it stood, for anyone to take on. IN GAME

Is it for you?

Before you decide

Drawn from how the game works today and how it is meant to work.

Probably not if

you want real-time action or 3D graphics
you want a finished game (this is an alpha with placeholder content)
you want full PvP today (player fights are built, but melee only, with no reward and no Arena yet)
you dislike losing gear on death
you want to buy power (there is none for sale)

Now, or later?

If you come for	In the game today	Planned
Creating a character, hunting, death and corpses	Built, in Mudbury, the first starting city, with four areas around it, all placeholder content	More cities and areas, and continents beyond the Burnt Coast DECIDED
Schools, abilities and spells	The engine is built. Fourteen schools stand in the city, among them the School of Fire and the two it requires	More schools and levels, added as data DECIDED
Trade	Direct trade between players, and NPC shops	Player shops and an auction house DECIDED
Quests	Four quests in Mudbury, from a quest board, a guild and the townsfolk, with a logbook of your own	Master quests, a tutorial party with NPCs, and conversations that teach lore or lift the fog from an area DECIDED
Companions	Hire a mercenary or talk a townsperson into following you	Tamed beasts, raised undead and summoned creatures through their schools, and pets DECIDED
A home of your own	Rent or buy one of two rooms in The Lodging House	Houses or towers on plots, a lone player’s own small town, and forts that clans build DECIDED
PvP, dispositions, clans and sieges	Player fights, four placeholder dispositions taken at The Tavern, and a Wanted clock. Melee only, and no square is open PvP ground	The disposition track and its rewards, bounties, the Arena and spells in PvP. Clans and sieges are not part of the alpha DECIDED
Playing on a phone	In the browser, mobile-first, with the same layout on phone and desktop	A mobile app, not part of the alpha DECIDED
Playing in your language	Swedish and English	More languages; which ones is open DECIDED

A slow, hard,
shared world.