Vagrus – The Riven Realms is a narrative strategy-roleplaying game from indie game development studio Lost Pilgrims. Players in Vagrus take charge of a comitatus (an armed travelling company) that can engage in trading and fight as mercenaries, exploring perilous locations for treasures in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world irrevocably scarred by an arcane cataclysm.
Embark on a perilous journey across a realm forsaken by the gods. Accompanied by a hardy crew, you are free to discover this dark fantasy world and its secrets. Manage your caravan, trade exotic goods, and make forays into the badlands to pursue lucrative contracts, track terrible beasts, and explore the mysteries of the realm. Can you conquer The Wasteland?
Vagrus is a dark and mostly desolate continent, where life is cheap and resources are scarce. The narrative changes dynamically depending on the player character, their ambitions, important moral choices, and simply the direction taken in this vast, sandbox world. Different playstyles are encouraged throughout the game. Want to be a trader who carries wares across leagues of deadly wasteland? A cruel mercenary captain who takes on jobs for the highest bidder? Or a plunderer of ancient ruins, seeking forgotten lore and forbidden treasures? You can do all of that and more in Vagrus.
EXPLORE A DARK CONTINENT
A vast continent is yours to explore, filled with unique locations, strange factions, lurking dangers, and a slew of characters to interact with. In order to punish the Empire for their sins a thousand years ago, the Elder Gods manifested themselves in the world, letting loose powers that ended up devastating it. Following this Calamity, the Empire was slow to rebuild and became a dark caricature of its former image. The continent is now a wasteland, riddled with arcane anomalies, twisted monsters and undead.
EXPERIENCE A BRANCHING NARRATIVE
A large selection of long and short stories make up the game’s narrative in the form of events and quests. The choices you make often affect the characters and the world around you. Pick your background from trader, mercenary or explorer; work for factions, follow rumours and trading opportunities; acquire wealth, gain fame, and discover hidden knowledge.
ENGAGE IN TURN-BASED COMBAT
Engage in turn-based, tactical JRPG-style combat that involves your companions and a large variety of enemies, both humanoid and monstrous. Use a wide range of character skills to succeed, as well as your own leadership-related abilities. Positioning and support skills are of paramount importance when your companions struggle against powerful foes.
MANAGE YOUR CREW
Most journeys have to be planned and prepared for carefully, lest they end in disaster. Manage your supplies, morale, cargo and crew effectively to survive. Haul cargo and valuables across the wasteland or take it from others. Your crew of workers, fighters, scouts and slaves must be managed well to optimise their effectiveness. Equip your caravan with upgrades and your companions with magical gear.
ENCOUNTER A COLOURFUL CAST OF CHARACTERS
The player can recruit a wide variety of companions into the caravan to serve in versatile roles, such as scoutmaster, guard captain, quartermaster or navigator. Each character comes with their own combat skills, background stories, and personal quest lines that, when completed, can upgrade them in unforeseen ways. Members of your crew can progress through experience levels to become more potent in and out of combat.
Features:
- Branching narrative in the form of interactive events
- Turn-based, tactical combat
- A vast, hand-crafted, sandbox world to explore
- Digitally hand-painted maps, environments and 2D artwork
- A colourful cast of companions with their own storylines and caravan roles
- Over a hundred different enemies
- Dynamically changing victory conditions and stories
- An elaborate trade system
- Factions you can join or fight against
Planned for release in 2020, Vagrus is currently available as an Alpha build via an Open Access crowdfunding campaign on Fig. Instead of a ‘traditional’ crowdfunding structure, this campaign doesn’t have a specific goal but rather a roadmap with a series of milestones showing planned content. By pledging on Fig, all backers receive immediate access to the Alpha build, and will continue to receive free updates as additional milestones are achieved up until its eventual commercial release.
A short Demo of the first tutorial section, the stand-alone story ‘Pilgrims of the Wasteland’ featuring 1-1.5 hours of playable content, can be downloaded for FREE from itch.io
Vagrus can also be wishlisted on Steam. To learn more about the game and The Riven Realms, visit the Vagrus website.