Heya all,

I just wanted to introduce a couple of cool class features we've been working on! Some of these we've already shown a preview of in a previous post, some are brand new.

On the Shoulders of Giants
One of the themes of the Menace is legacy. Your moniker isn't just what you're known as, but also a tribute to great fighters that came before, and a way to set the bar for those who come after. As an extension of this theme, we wanted another way to show this cycle of inspiration. At level one, all menaces get our new On the Shoulders of Giants class feature:

We're still working out what bonuses to give for this, but here are some examples:

The Moniker Lives On
As you go on adventures and level up, you become more and more like the famous fighters that came before you. At some point, others start noticing, and start looking at you for inspiration.

At level 7, all menaces gain the The Moniker Lives On feature. If you die and there are no plans to return you to life, one of your retainers takes on the moniker and continues your quests. They have studied everything you've done, and have attentively listend to your tales. You make a new character sheet, with a new ancestry and career, but you keep your menace level, titles, and chosen abilities. The new menace also chooses a On the Shoulders of Giants tale feature that best matches a great deed of late original menace.

You can choose how you want to play this. Does the outside world know there's been a passing of the mantle, or will you try to keep this change a secret? (though it doesn't take an overmind to figure out that a polder arsenal suddenly being hakaan-sized is suspicious...)

At level 10, your deeds are so inspiring, your moniker will never die. You can kill the flesh, but you can't kill the idea. At this point, even if you don't have a retainer, it is revealed that someone you have saved or inspired at some point during your adventures has been studying your actions, your battles, your techniques attentively, and has been dedicating their life to training the same way you have trained. When hearing of your death, they take up your mantle.

We thought this feature would help with the "coolness" gap at high level between martial and magical/psionic classes a lot of TTRPGs suffer from. Sure, we can just up the damage and come up with wild status effects to impose, but we wanted to add a bit of an extra wow-factor, and we thought this is one way of "ascending" in a non-magical way.

Ultimate Techniques
One of the core fantasies of the menace is the idea that your strongest techniques come with a cost. An Ace can extend the distance of their perfect slash in The Lance that Pierces the Heaven, but will be slowed for a while. The Arsenal can use a super specific weapon they brought to disable an enemies signature ability in Special Ammunition, but will need to spend a respite crafting a new one. And the Improviser can dance around the battlefield with Go With the Flow without triggering attacks of opportunity, but the effects end if this flow is broken.

At higher levels, these forbidden techniques and backlashes become even more dangerous. An 8th-level menace can immediately kill an enemy (as long as they're not a solo or leader) with Destroyer of Worlds, but this technique costs them a limb, permanently, and a whole lot of stamina.

But going beyond and paying the price is only one of the fantasies of playing a world-class martial character. Someone who has fought hundreds of battles and has trained for thousands of hours should also be able to slice through foes like butter, and be back home in time for dinner.

That's why at level 6 we introduce the Ultimate Technique. An alternative to forbidden techniques you can use when desperate, but that don't come with a backlash. You chose one of these when you reach level 6:

Additional ultimate techniques unlock at level 8, one for each moniker. We're still working those out and playtesting them:

I hope you enjoyed this (quite long) update post. If you haven't backed the Menace yet: only 4 days remain! The base tier is only €10 (aprox. US$11.31, £8.54), which comes with the whole class and the rivals and kits we talked about in earlier posts. At higher tiers you can also get cool Armament and Field Adventage cards, and even high quality prints of an art piece of your choice we will ship to you! 

And to our backers: thank you for your support ❤️ Without you, the Menace would not be as cool as it is now (in my humble opinion)