From Another Perspective — The World of Kaldur

To me, the most compelling stories are not the ones that are the grandest in scale or have the most at stake. It is not the one with the largest explosions, fastest cars, or the prettiest people. The stories, movies, or games, I find most compelling are the ones that you can look from another perspective. Taking something conventional and changing the angle in which you peer into the story, you may learn things you never knew you never knew.

I found this interesting about the World of Kaldur, as it allows you to play as species that are 1–2 inches tall. I reached out to the creator of the game to ask for his inspiration and motives for creating this game. Alex was happy to insight me with details on the development of the game, the importance on lore, and his views on inclusivity.

About The World of Kaldur:

In this game you play as one of several species of Kaldur; Kobolds, Imps, Clockies, and the Dusty to name a few, trying to survive in the world of man.

The Kaldur only stand 1–2 inches tall at the most, so things the humans can ignore suddenly become much larger problems for the Kaldur! A thunderstorm can become a large flood that threatens to sweep the Kaldur village away! A roach infestation is now a hack-and-slash adventure for you and your friends! A normal walk to the end of the block becomes a 3-day trip guarding a trader and their goods from evil creatures and monsters on the road!

All this, and a magic system with 3 different spell types, and at least 10 spells in each type! Offering each player, the chance to have their own flavor of magic for their Kaldur. There’s also content for all ages, so the family can play together, or the kids, adults, and teens can all have their own separate games! There are almost 80 pages of lore, magic, monsters, animals, and an easy to understand modified FUDGE rules system.

What is your inspiration for the game and the idea?

I was exhausted of Tolkein based fantasy. Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy, but most of the fantasy we have nowadays is just based off of what Tolkein gave us. From Witcher, Game of Thrones, to Dungeons & Dragons, it’s all a bit of a copy paste when it comes to general lore. And I wanted to move past that. So, I took my favorite species from modern fantasy, the Kobold, and started from there.

In a popular fantasy game, Kobolds are “evil monsters” that are basically cannon fodder for low level adventurers. Their lore, while mostly negative, describes them as intelligent trap makers, crafty, and swift… but their stats in games make them out to be dumb, weak, and unwieldy. I love the Kobolds because I saw potential in these underdogs. They’ve become much more popular on Twitter, so it seems others share my love of the tiny lizards. I redid their lore and gave them some new friends and hopefully, this game will give them some overdue justice.

As for the idea? I liked ‘Honey, I shrunk the kids!’, an American comic science fiction film, where an inventor accidentally shrinks children to a quarter of an inch. It provided a new perspective that I find creates for interesting situations (being very small) in what appears to be quite normal a mundane for the normal sized folks. I’m fascinated with the idea of tiny creatures living around us. How they can take things you’ve tossed aside on the ground, like bottle caps, paper clips, and turn them into tools and weapons!

What was your biggest challenge when developing this game?

The biggest challenge was finding the right system and gameplay. I experimented with d20 modern, which is a role-playing game system which are implemented in games like D&D and Pathfinder. However, it didn’t seem quite right. With a d20 system you’re relying on the randomness of just one dice.

I remembered the FUDGE System, a rules-light roleplaying system, that focuses on storytelling rather than combat. I did some experimenting with these rules and eventually, the system that I found that worked best was a modified FUDGE game with 4d6.

For some background, the FUDGE System you play with four six-sided dice, it has two blank sides, that value as nothing, then two “-1” sides and two “+” sides. You can get a value between -4 and +4; then you add a stat modifier or skill modifier. Simple enough. But, when playtesting, I wanted to show how crafty and lucky they were, so I switched to a normal d6. With my d6, only the “1” counts as a -1, and the 6 would explode. This means, if any dice lands on a “6”, you count the +1 it gives you and you can re-roll it to give you another +1! It adds a lot more fun to combat, crafting because it can be unpredictable.

I liked this more than a d20 system because it limits the reliance on randomness. There is a sense of safety with the law of averages, but there is always a chance that it can blow up into something bigger.

How important is lore in The World of Kaldur?

Lore is such an important aspect to this game. It helps create the world the players are in. It helps players become immersed and engaged with the game. It facilitates in roleplaying and the investment the players have for this game. It’s the monsters, the magic, and the history.

For this game, it doesn’t matter if you’ve created the best rules and the best gameplay if the lore is not there and if the world is half built. Players who love to roleplay will not care and will not be immersed. So, I took my time, roughly 2 years, to develop the story behind the species in my world, their habitat and how they interact with each other. I asked myself questions like “where are they most useful?”, “what do they like to eat?”, “what do they do for fun?”, to help create this world. And I loved it.

What type of players would enjoy this game?

I created this game to try to be as inclusive as possible. I feel that any players that love roleplaying could enjoy playing The World of Kaldur. I made sure to sprinkle in many different aspects and flavours into the game, so anyone could have a good time. There are aspects of horror, action, and contraption building.

I made it so people like me part of the LGBTQ and disabled community, have players they that they feel comfortable playing with, in the game. I wanted to avoid having people of those community feel cut out from the rest of the players or are forced to homebrew rules for new characters. You have the option to be gay or bi characters, which I always choose. In this game, you won’t be punished for being different. If you want your character to have a wheelchair, you have that option for you.

Social Media/Website Info for The World of Kaldur:

Link to the game PDF — Here
Twitter — @AlexOsgood1

Article published on www.fourtato.com