Frayed Knights, New Price

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 28, 2014

The time has come, ladies and gentlemen.

Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon has a new price, both direct and through Desura. Cheaper is good, right?

While the sequel is still a little further off than I expected at this point, this really is all part of my cunning plan to spread this game around far and wide. When the sequel comes out, as many people as possible to have played and loved the original, and be totally ready for more Frayed Knights. Yes, behold the majesty of my plan, for mine is an evil genius! Muhahahah!

If you have not played (and I am constantly surprised by how many new readers I have who aren’t familiar with the game), Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon is something of a love-child between an old-school role-playing game and a sitcom, with many of the somewhat more modern amenities of a 3D indie game that doesn’t have to fit inside 640k anymore. 🙂 Frayed Knights is a little silly on the surface, with a party of misfit adventurers who provide their own little commentary on the story as it evolves. Underneath the surface, though, it is still a pretty “hardcore” old-school, turn-based RPG with tons of items, spells, special abilities (“feats”), puzzles, monsters, and places to explore. It’s got elements of both a parody and love-letter to old-school CRPGs and to tabletop role-playing.

One of the innovations of Frayed Knights is the “drama star” system. When you do something interesting, enjoy a victory, or especially suffer a setback, you gain points towards “drama stars.” The drama stars can be used to provide huge advantages in the game – from massive bonuses to your next task, to restoring your entire party to full health. The trick is that the drama stars are not saved in a normal save game (if you quit and come back, however, you’ll get ’em). The point is to give players who “play through” setbacks and challenges in the game won’t be at a disadvantage against players who prefer to reload and replay the same combat or events over and over again to “get it perfect.”

Along with that perspective of leveling the playing field for certain kinds of gamers, Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon is designed to not require a perfect optimization of your characters in order to succeed. There are a ton of customization opportunities for your characters, and I wanted people to have fun with it, rather than being so worried about picking the “wrong” choice. Experiment!

It’s a big game, representing an average of 30 hours for many people to play through to the conclusion, assuming they hit some or most of the optional content (there are quite a few completely optional quests and dungeons). I really did go overboard with the number of spells and feats in this game (if it’s a mistake, I am taking unbelievably further in the sequel…) It will keep you busy. And challenged. Just because the story is (usually) tongue-in-cheek doesn’t make it a cakewalk.

Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon is also on Steam Greenlight. If you are on Steam, please consider giving it an “upvote” and we’ll see if we can help more people discover this game!

Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon on Steam Greenlight

And hey – if you are still on the fence, there’s even a free demo you can check out at the Frayed Knights site.

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 11 Comments to Read

Lucifer Jones said,

Any tips for building a party? I got stuck in the tower trying to get the skull with my guys all at level 5 and completely unable to get pass the 4 Imp groups. I feel maybe I made bad decisions when leveling.
Rampant Coyote said,

Hah – that’s like a #1 place where people get stuck. 5th level sounds about right (you did complete the Rats of Nom quest already, right? And maybe visited the mines near the tower?), so I’m trying to remember how I usually handled it… But yeah, that and the hobgoblin bunker are usually listed as the places that people have a tough time with.

Did you grab the strategy guide? There are more tips in that than I remember (it’s available from the main FK page).

One of the things about the tower (and a few of the other large dungeons) is that while you may have to re-fight some patrols and random spawns, it’s really expected that you return to the inn, rest up, and then come back once or twice before pushing for the end. Once you’ve unlocked doors and figured your way around, it’s really easier to go back, get actual sleep (instead of catching a breather or drinking potions), and come back than to tough it out.

The imps do like their “Blinding Heat” attacks, so any kind of magical protection you can load up on *before* entering combat would be handy there.

Otherwise – at 5th level you haven’t had too many advancements to optimize or de-optimize your party all that much. A couple points of strength for Arianna and Dirk (assuming you keep them in front) will go a long way.
Lucifer Jones said,

I’ve done the rats and the mine, and scrolled through the guide, but maybe I should look closer for combat tips.

I’ve been stuck there for a year! But I’ll give it another try. I did actually go back to get real sleep before tackling that fight again recently, but I haven’t tried doing anything to actually prepare the party before the combat starts – which makes sense. I haven’t really done that before. I’ve been trying to put the imps to sleep and keep my front line alive at the same time but haven’t won the battle yet with that technique.
Rampant Coyote said,

I don’t know if it’s enough benefit to waste a turn to do it after the battle has already started, but if you can pump up your defenses before the battle (esp. before the battle in front of the skull, since you know it’s gonna happen), it can really help.
Corwin said,

I just want to let new readers know that this game is awesome. Read my review at The Watch if you don’t believe me!! 🙂 It’s one of less than a handful of games I’ve completed 3 times; that’s just how much fun it is. NOW, RC, GET THE SEQUEL FINISHED!! 😀
Lucifer Jones said,

I got the Skull! Thanks for tips, Mr. Coyote. I’m off to the Caves of Anarchy.
Darklord said,

I would upvote it, but I already did so a while back!
jwmeep said,

Yeah me too. It had my vote the moment it landed on greenlight.
Modran said,

Stuck in the Caves of Anarchy for I don’t know how long, even though that Stunning spear was… Stunning :). I remember hating the new slimes or something.
I reaaaaaally have to get back to it. Which means, knowing myself, starting from scratch.
Searching 5 times every few paces did wear me out somewhat, I fear.
Modran said,

(and yeah, upvoted it as soon as it was on greenlight too)

Say, will you tell us one day how the sales went over time, if the price drop changed anything, Desura and (gods willing) Steam?
I always like those kind of articles…
Rampant Coyote said,

As of right now, the price drop did almost nothing in terms of sales. I didn’t really expect it to change much. It’s really more of a thing to get it more within range of some new venues I’m experimenting with.