Obviously, not everyone that comes across this site has had a chance to play Tales of Illyria. While the site does a great job at describing the mechanics and gameplay this is a great time as any to get you acquainted with the game.
What is Tales of Illyria?
Tales of Illyria is a unique party-based RPG that simulates the experience of a traditional pen and paper role playing game. What sets TOI apart from other games, is the unique gameplay and turn based mechanics. One of our main sources of inspiration when we designed the game was Oregon Trail. Like Oregon Trail, you are on an epic journey, and you must manage all aspects of your party, right down to the supplies you carry.
Your party is subject to all the dangers of pre-modern era travel. The weather, disease, access to food and water, and bandits provide a constant threat to your party and mission. As the party travels, seasons change and so does the world around you.
How Do You Play the Game?
The honest truth is that this is a video game, not a novel or a movie. That means, at some point you need to play it in order to experience the content. Many will wonder how you interact with this game, especially since there is so much text-based content.
It plays like this: You travel between locations on a world map, which includes moving from large cities, to towns all over the countryside. While traveling between locations you are taken to the trail based gameplay. While on the trail, you have a chance to encounter random or story driven events (provided you are in the right area). The events are the driving force in the game. You may encounter enemies, sub-quests, or even player character backstories.
Throughout everything, you must manage your supplies and party health. Food and water are absolutely essential to your survival in the game. Without the proper supplies your party slowly dwindles away, just like what would happen in the real world.
There’s a lot more to the game than what’s been described here, but we don’t want to spoil the fun for you.
What is the Most Prominent Feature?
The story has been crafted by a skilled team of writers and includes more than 275,000 words. If you do the math, that’s over four complete novels worth of content. It’s no secret that there’s a lot of reading involved when it comes to playing this game, but the team is proud of that.
Tales of Illyria certainly won’t be ideal for everyone, but we’d encourage you to at least give it a try. It is a labor of love, and the team has worked tirelessly on fleshing out the world and the game.
We will continue to do so long into the future, and that includes any potential sequels. We hope you enjoy the game as much as we enjoyed developing it.
