What Is This Relic Knights?

[ElectricPaladin]

Against my better judgment, I've allowed a friend of mine to get my excited about this "Relic Knights" thing that I missed out on. Luckily, Kickstarters produce products, so there's no reason I can't just wait for the game to be released like everyone else and buy it then. The thing is, I don't get to see my friend very often, and I'm curious about this game... So, I want you to teach me.

Help me get pumped about this upcoming game. What's the gameplay going to be like? What are the factions and which should I pick? Why should I be excited that I know someone who's already into it, so I have a built-in opponent when the game finally comes out?

Thanks in advance. I'll be watching this thread and posting more information about my actual playstyle and preferences as time goes on.

[DarkDesigner]

Alright EP, sorry I haven't replied to this thread earlier. I'll give you as much of a low-down as I can but keep in mind I'm not particularly rules minded so this will mostly be storyline as I understand it and aesthetics. I'll go through the Relic Knights universe in general, then each faction.

The Relic Knights Universe
Ok, so the universe is set in the future, and humans have colonised large swathes of the galaxy. There are other alien races who have some small representation but the main non-human race is the Noh empire (more about them later). Everything was hunky dory and everyone was going about undertaking their lives in the nefarious or chivalrous way they so wished, until the darkspace calamity happened. Now, I don't know exactly what this means, but it seems to be a big deal. It also seems to have an effect on hero level characters, making them want to cosplay as iconic anime characters and join an entirely different faction.

The other unique thing about the world is the cyphers. These cute little pokemon-esque sidekicks appear to characters when they reach a certain level of reknown, aiding them in their quests to find their own relics to become - wait for it - relic knights. Now I seem to remember reading somewhere that the cyphers could be connected to the darkspace bleeding into reality, but don't quote me on that.

You know I've realised there is actually a lot that I don't know about the backstory, so I'm going to have to make an effort to read up on it and get back to you - when the site is back up anyhow.

About the factions. There are 6 of them, each inhabiting a space on the colour wheel depending on the sort of esper (magic) that they use. Most abilities use their main colour esper, although often it'll also need to be powered with a little esper of the colour either side. Oh yeah, gameplay uses cards instead of dice, a bit like Malifaux, with each card showing a major esper and one of it's adjacent minor espers. There are also 'irresistable force' and 'misspell' type cards (they're called something else though - possibly prism and void).

And on to the factions.

Shattered Sword Paladins (blue)
The SSP are aesthetically inspired by a very fantasy anime look, with shining robots in the style of Gundams providing the sci-fi link. They are true knights, seeking honour and to defeat mankind's enemies. If I had to take a stab at their play style I would guess that they are the all-rounder faction. They have average sized units armed with guns and swords, robot/mobile suit units and specialists called 'purifiers'. They are quite hero based, having only 3 unit types that I know of and the rest are named characters. I think the Austrician may be an alien 'thunder cat' type character, though SP haven't gone into his background yet.

Black Diamond Corporation (purple)
The BD are your evil mercenary faction. They look like the alliance troopers from Firefly, backed up with drone tanks, huge giant robots (seriously, it's almost twice as big as the relic knights models), and terminator suits. Their anime inspiration is definitely Ghost in the Shell/Black Lagoon/any evil corporation in anything ever. They are definitely the shooty army, and consist of many faceless minions (an impressive 5 unit types going by the Kickstarter). The few characters they do have are specialists such as One Shot with her massive cannon relic, Leopold Magnus who looks like a manga Sauron and Sofia Drake, leader of the black dragons (who wasn't in the KS).

Noh Empire (red)
The Noh are the second most common alien race in the galaxy. Their aesthetics are informed from Japanese oni or ogres, with a very traditional oriental feel to them. They are bigger than humans, meaning of course that you field less of them, so think sci-fi Ogre Kingdoms and you won't be far wrong. They have 3/4 unit types, depending on whether the Serpent Priestess is her name or occupation. Much of the galaxy see them as evil demons, but they're just trying to establish a foothold in their corner of it (albeit in a mindless and bloodythirsty way).

Star Nebula Corsairs (orange)
The SNC are pirates and cut-throats, informed by a certain popular pirate movie franchise and Pirates of Darkwater if you remember that. They also definitely draw more than a little influence from The Slayers. Play-style I would guess is very close quarters and personal, and they have a high number of characters, though still manage the average of 3 unit types (again, unless 'Blowhard' isn't her chosen career... actually nickname or job it still sounds wrong). They're probably your lovable rogue characters, fighting with their own warped idea of honour. They also have the only other definite alien character in the game so far, in the form of a giant frying pan-wielding four-armed cat. They even have their own Noh who disagrees with the way the rest of his race are behaving. So he became a pirate.

The Doctrine (yellow)
The Doctrine are a school of wizards and make barely any effort to disguise their main inspiration. Yes, you guessed it, Negima. Joking aside, they borrow from every school-type anime going including the popular British movie franchise, but actually manage to have a very cool and original identity. They are the most character heavy faction with an impressive 6 named characters (at present), but they do have stone and ethereal guardians accompanying them into battle as well as their basic school pupil units. Being magic users I would guess they are weak in combat but hella-nasty from afar or out of direct line of sight.

Cerci Speed Circuit (green)[B]
Finally for the main factions there is the CNC. They are on the face of it just girl-racers, speed junkies who compete in F-Zero style races in an arena full of adoring fans. But behind the scenes they are gangsters and smugglers who keep their own brand of law on their home-planet (I'm sure there are some innocent nice ones if you don't like this side of them). They are very much based on futuristic racing games, backed up by pit crew and heavy load lifters and even Pace makers as well as their main units. They are actually not that character centred, but the few they do have are pretty cool, including a sniper who is in charge of making sure fans don't get in the way of the races. Playstyle is definitely going to be whizzing around the battlefield on jetbikes, picking enemies off with speed rather than strength.

[B]Void and Prismatic characters
Ok, so background wise we don't know a lot about the Void characters, except that they are somehow linked to the Darkspace Calamity and more than eager for it to spread and engulf everything. The Void Knight is Sephiroth on an angel from Evangelion, and the Void Herald I'm not too sure on but is definitely very FF as well. They've been kept deliberately neutral in their aesthetic as they can be taken to lead any 1 out of BD, Noh and SNC (as far as we know you cannot mix and match, they're mercenaries who will work for anyone, but that doesn't mean the others will suddenly resolve their differences!).

The Prismatic characters on the other hand fight for the good of all life in the universe, trying to push back the darkspace. The Prismatic Knight is Candy, Soda Pop's trademark character who has appeared in all of their games to date in one form or another. Candy is usually affiliated with CNC but when she finds her Relic she will fight the good fight with SSP or Doctrine as well (again, that doesn't mean they'll be buddies with each other). The Prismatic herald is Cordelia Clean, a maid-bot who has become sentient and set out to make a life for herself among the stars (think Kryten with boobs and you're more or less there). I actually think both the prismatics are very CNC in style, but I think they would look pretty good alongside the others as well if they're painted right.

Anyway, that's all for now. If I find that I've misinformed you about any aspect I'll be sure to comment again. Let me know if you want me to expand on anything, and where possible I will!