This is it. This year at Tentcon, we’re debuting our game for playtesting! Okay, so that’s not the biggest milestone, but it’s been a few months of effort to get us here. Honestly, it’s been quite a journey. We’ve slain quite a few ideas and experimented a ton with combat, orders, turn order… everything, really.
The process has been both frustrating and fun. Mostly recently, we’ve focused on streamlining systems. We’re trying to cut to the point where units can feel unique in their approach to combat but we haven’t bogged the system down in too much process. This has proven really difficult and is a blog post for another time. For now, let’s talk Tentcon 2026. It’s this Saturday, June 20th, and we’ve put together a fun idea for an initial event.
As our ruleset is intended to be very narratively focused, we decided to do a small, pivotal moment in the game’s history, allowing our players to shape the future of a faction. Les États de Sombreval (The States of Shadow Valley) is a nation of ratkin who, to this point in our timeline, have lived prosperous lives. They’ve expanded constantly for as long as they’ve recorded their history. They’re a classic expansive nation-state, conquering new lands and bringing wealth and luxury to their peoples.
On their border are the elves of the Hollow Crown. The ratkin don’t know them by any official name, but just call them the sorrow elves. They’ve been aware of the elves for hundreds of years, slowly eating away at elven territory and meeting little to no resistance. But we’re telling a story here, so something has to change.
The Fall of Verrance
Verrance was a city on the border between the rats and the elves. It served as a martial outpost, with well trained forces ready to defend the city and eventually move on to capture more former elven territory. The rats weren’t careless, they just weren’t ready. This Tentcon, our players decide the fate of Les États de Sombreval by fighting one key part of the fall of Verrance.
Here’s their actual prompt:
The attack came without herald or warning. At dawn, the banners of the Hollow Crown rose above the outer walls, and by dusk the lower districts of Verrance were burning.
The ratkin defenders know the city cannot be held. The question is no longer whether Verrance will fall, but what will survive its fall. Some urge the evacuation of the old bloodlines, the temple records, and the children of the deep warrens. Others call to forbidden powers, promising strength enough to answer ruin with ruin.
In this scenario, the ratkin defenders may preserve their people by establishing magical wards, or they may embrace a darker salvation by completing the ritual sites. If they achieve neither, the Hollow Crown gain the foothold that will end Les États de Sombreval, and the ratkin will be forced to retreat and form a new future altogether.
In this battle, the players will play the ratkin and defend the city against the invading elves. They cannot win, but they can try to hold off the elves to save civilian lives. Through the battle, the players will have two routes to “victory:”
- Establish three wards toward the edge of the city, repulsing the invaders. This entails moving wards to the front of the board and using actions to charge them.
- Strike a dark deal with the mysterious priesthood. They offer the defeat of your enemy in exchange for a… small ritual. Charge up the three ritual sites on the board.
The scenario is designed such that establishing the wards is more difficult, but implies a brighter future. The ritual will save the civilians just the same, but will have an influence on the future of the people of the Sombreval.
We’ve playtested this and completed it in two hours, including heavy mechanics discussion. I believe we can readily run players through it in the four hour time blocks we have at Tentcon this year, then sit and have a discussion about the game mechanics and their opinions. Our hope is to thoroughly discuss the game’s systems with the players and draw valuable feedback. I have a ton of concerns, because of course I do. Is it too complex? Too easy? Does it feel like the units are actually different? Do we need more of a “Gimmick?” Does the magical nature of the game come through?
As it stands, the ruleset is a midweight bring-your-own-army fantasy ruleset at the warband scale. I feel it does a great job of just… being that. It’s what I wanted Dragon Rampant to be. Just enough to hang your hat on and get out of your way, while providing you the depth needed to model how “agile elves” can, in fact, be different from “agile rats.”
So that’s all to say that I like where the rules are right now, but I absolutely want some critical feedback to help highlight where we need to go.
Small Scale Victory 
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