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Hello, my name is Sławek Stępień, and I am the designer of Age of Thieves, an adventure and strategy board game released by Galakta in 2016. Following the game's success, 2017 will see the first expansion called Masters of Disguise along with base games published in German, French, and Spanish. However, you can learn a lot about such things from the official materials; in this short article, I wish to focus on my work on the expansion itself.
The expansion was being developed even before the base game was ready. A very thankful subject, flexible mechanisms, and many possibilities to create interesting solutions resulted in new ideas flooding my head every time I playtested Age of Thieves. More often than not, the question was not how to enrich the gameplay or how to expand a given element of the game, but rather what to choose from the things we already had so that the game would not be overburdened, but more exciting. Everyone who knew the base game well was tempted to add lots of elements to it, so the fact that some people were able to say "Stop!" and keep things in balance turned out to be a true blessing. Certain ideas returned to the drawer to wait for their time, while others were chosen to be highlighted.
The actual work on the first expansion started in January 2017, about two months after the game's premiere. The game's warm welcome and very positive reviews motivated me and the Galakta development team to get to work immediately. The first thing to be decided was the main theme of the expansion. We exchanged tons of ideas, but finally settled with one: If the game is about thieves, stealing, burglaries and such, we should focus even more and expand upon this. A few weeks later, the basics of the Masters of Disguise expansion were set. This way we could return to the streets of Hadria to prove once again that no doors are locked and no treasure safe.
We also wished players to experience even more deeply the vibrant, yet somewhat dark setting of Age of Thieves. Hadria is so much more than the magnificent Emperors' Jewel and the city guard patrolling the streets. Hadria is full of people from various walks of life: law enforcers, women both pious and base, wealthy nobles and stinking poor, artisans and merchants, but most of all, masters of thievery with their unique personalities and motivations.
Therefore, Masters of Disguise introduces two new characters: Julien, Disturbed Actor, who is able to adjust his strategy to every situation, and Delilah, Humble Scavenger, a woman who can make a strange contraption even from rubbish. These characters could not be more different; the actor feels right at home improvising on the stage, while for the scavenger, garbage dumps and gutters offer a plethora of opportunities. When Julien basks in glory of his talent, Delilah is shunned and avoided, left to her cursed traps and mechanisms. Both hale from completely different worlds, yet they are connected to the city where everyone can find their place as long as they are capable and resourceful.
Another new concept we focused on was the burglary. You can enrich the game by using two new game modes: Palace and City Burglaries. With two specialized decks and dedicated burglary mechanisms, every session will be even more strategic and engaging. Additionally, all cards are full of flavor text, making your Hadria adventure both epic and fun.
A third thing worth mentioning here is the Sewers Deck. No longer will you easily "teleport" yourself around the city every time you enter the sewers. From now on, you must be willing to take certain risks as the Undercity is dangerous even for the most cunning of thieves.
Finally, we chose to expand upon the main idea of the game, to change the goal and the gameplay itself, thus enabling players to experience Age of Thieves on a completely new level. In order to do this, we created the first scenario, an alternative game mode giving players a chance to focus on different kinds of tasks — tasks perhaps not as spectacular as stealing the Emperors' Jewel, but no less rewarding and exciting. I am sure that after the Night of Broken Shutters scenario featured in Masters of Disguise that utilizes completely new game components, such as Burglary Markers, many other scenarios will follow, so that every thief will get a chance to use their abilities in many creative ways. Experienced players in particular should think of scenarios as new fields on which to test their wits and knowledge of the game.
To sum up, I just can't wait to lay my hands on the final box of Masters of Disguise. I hope that those past months full of brainstorms and testing will result in a product that will appease your rogue appetites as much as it does mine.
[Editor's note: My apologies to Sławek for not publishing this designer diary prior to SPIEL '17; I ran out of time before I ran out of things to do. —WEM]
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