Hello fans of KeyForge!

We're hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with KeyForge developers Danny Schaefer, Aaron Haltom, and Tyler Parrott on April 16—streamed live on our Twitch channel at 1:00 PM Central Time.

Whether you've got questions about the KeyForge universe, designing the world's only Unique Deck Game, or what might be coming with Mass Mutation, now's the chance to ask! We'll be drawing questions from the posts below, as well as live questions from the chat stream during the show.

Post your questions below, and we hope to see you there!

Hello,
As a fan of Keyforge in these isolated times I am asking a question that many of us are asking. Will there be an Official Digital Keyforge implementation. An app, online version or something?

Can you even comment that you don't have plans for that etc. You must have thought of the digital implementation, right?

-Jan

Can you go into your playtesting process for KeyForge?

As there are a lot of questions around the wording, phrasing, persisting/lasting effects, etc of cards and abilities, it raises the inevitable question of What limitations are there for the editors/product teams when defining these cards that leads to such confusion? Are there translation/localisation issues that require a card to read a certain way? Was something missed in playtesting?

Was so excited for World's! And so bummed when it was cancelled 😭 . I know large event gatherings are a no go for the foreseeable future, but are there thoughts to host this later in the year (maybe in the fall), or to simply wait till next year and combine them, or another idea... ??? I know you won't have specifics, because its really hard to plan any events right now, but if you could give us some hope by casting some light into the darkness (even a magic missle) I would gratefully appreciate it!

In the rulebook, the winning condition is "The first player to gather three keys is able to unlock a Vault and win the game." (Emphasis added.) This reads to imply, regardless of how the keys are acquired, three keys must be simultaneously "gathered" to unlock the vault and win the game.

The language on cards like The Red Baron, Heart of the Forest, Hugger-Mugger, Mushroom Man, and Dr. Escotera implies a 'current state of keys forged by a player or opponent.'

Where as cards like Bronze Key Imp, Silver Key Imp, Gold Key Imp, Furtive Investors, and (a stretch but also) Sample Collection do not specifically call out the current state of keys, but are more focused on a numerical value of key(s) forged.

Loosely using the term "replacement effect" - the "replacement effect" of unforging a key, or not maintaining a memory of a quantity of keys forged is not clear. And it is too easy to assume the implication of this second set of cards is that there are only three keys that can ever be forged. At the end of most games, it's easy to look back and make comments like "Steve earned ### aember, good enough to forge 3+ keys." By the same token, a commentary about "Jenna forged 4 keys to win that game" crops up - especially - in games with Key Hammer.

What is/should be players' expectations (or plans for future explicit rules) of differentiating the 'current state' vs 'memory of things-that-happened-this-game?'

I can try to answer this question with "the writers of COTA cards and AOA cards had a changing of the guard" but to see some of this language repeated in World's Collide (assumed same 'guard' as AOA) convinces me this will be a question cropping up with future releases of Keyforge expansions.

After being engaged with this game for at least a year, some of us have accumulated a library of decks that will go unplayed. What advice, recommendations, expectations, or even FFG-backed programmes are there related to what players should be doing with their unplayed, unused, or never-will-be-used decks? Do we throw them in recycling lorry or send them back to FFG? What would be your advice to or what programmes will you put in place for players facing this situation?

How are the relationship(s) between publisher/distributor/local-game-store going to affect the availability of current Keyforge sets and Mass Mutation (release date notwithstanding)?

Are "lock outs" intended to be a deliberate part of the game? ("Lock out" being defined as a player uses any combination of cards to prevent their opponent from calling house(s) that force a player to effectively do nothing during step 2 and beyond of their turn.)

If such a dynamic was intentional, what was the reasoning behind making this effect a possibility?

If such a dynamic was unintentional, what are the product teams doing to prevent this effect from happening in games?

Pandemic notwithstanding, will Store Championship (and above) -level events be green lighted for the same level of frequency as in late 2019? What is the Organized Play team doing to support regional and local participation (of both venues/game-stores and players) in these events?

With Vault Warrior on the horizon, what steps is the Organized Play team making (or product teams making) to proactively squash cheating?

Additionally, what is the rule/policy/expectation around performance enhancing drugs (and if necessary, at what levels of play will such rules/policies apply)?

As a player in the community it seems to me that a lot of cool ideas that people or even FFG want to try are limited to the ability of GEM software. I would love to play an adaptive tournament at my locals for a chainbound event and I was wondering if there is any talks about doing a mass change to GEM at all?

If you couldn't answer the question above I'd love to know if there are talks of creating an OFFICIAL online keyforge thing especially with the Virus stuff going on.

AND IF YOU COULDN'T ANSWER THAT ONE. Then I'd love to know if and WHAT cards were changed significantly from their original design to the actual release of the card like say if something had to be toned down for release or bumped up?

In the most recent Crucible Cast, a rules clarification was made that said in the case of Tendrils of Pain , the damage was dealt in two different "waves"; The first wave would deal 1 damage, any creatures that were destroyed would get resolved, then a second wave of damage would happen that could result in more destruction.

How does that ruling mesh with the rule for Damage , which says that "If multiple creatures are damaged by a single effect, that damage is dealt simultaneously." and the previous ruling for Positron Bolt where it was clarified that all of the damage from Positron Bolt was done simultaneously? (See attachment for reference)

How does a card like Lethal Distraction work now? Previously, when you would do damage to a creature, you would add 2 damage to the damage applied. With the new explanation, it would seem that it should be interpreted that Lethal Distraction can in fact trigger itself. Is that correct?

What is the current plan for dealing with the backlog of rules questions in the KF Rules inbox? Does the development team have any ideas for making the process of getting rules clarifications simpler or more streamlined? The current model of "Submit your questions, we'll answer them on a Crucible Cast" is admittedly better than "We'll answer questions through various social media channels or emails to individuals and hope that people disseminate the information adequately", but it would seem that there is still some room for improvement.

On 4/3/2020 at 8:16 PM, Cloggin said:

Are "lock outs" intended to be a deliberate part of the game? ("Lock out" being defined as a player uses any combination of cards to prevent their opponent from calling house(s) that force a player to effectively do nothing during step 2 and beyond of their turn.)

If such a dynamic was intentional, what was the reasoning behind making this effect a possibility?

If such a dynamic was unintentional, what are the product teams doing to prevent this effect from happening in games?

To add to this, is the Keyforge team doing anything to address the niche situations that can lead to an infinite loop of constant abilities being triggered and therefore none of the current rules (like the rule of six) halt the loop?

The simplest example of this would be if I have King of the Crag in play and my opponent has a 1 power Self-Bolstering Automata and another Logos creature, I can then play Experimental Therapy on the SBA. At that point, the SBA has more damage (0) than power (-1) so it is destroyed, but my opponent has another creature in play so the replacement effect in the destroyed ability activates but the "if you do" section doesn't (it wasn't fully healed) so it doesn't get two +1 power counters. At that point, the SBA has more damage (0) than power (-1) so it is destroyed ...

Are there going to be more new houses released in future sets? I'm looking forward to seeing more of the Aquans and more of the creatures with the three-eyed skull in the Pile of Skulls.

CCP Games has created a player advocacy group to represent the players of Eve Online as Stakeholders in the game's development. (More details about this arrangement can be found at https://community.eveonline.com/community/csm/ ) This group of players does more than just playtest the game, they are also able to give the developers feedback about how the player base would react to new features well before the developers invest time in prototyping the feature. This has worked well for them and it's something that I'd like to see more companies implement.

Assuming that the logistics of how to setup a player advocacy group can be worked out, is this model something that the Keyforge development team would be interested in implementing?

How diverse is the Keyforge development team? Does the Keyforge development team seek out feed back from groups that aren't represented on the team?

Historically, there hasn't been a lot of diversity among game designers, and I'd like to see that change.

Are you working on an official online version and if so is there a timetable for it being announced?

Are there rainbows on the Crucible? If so, will we ever get to see an over-the-rainbow version of any of the characters that are already in the game?

" It is said that if you travel far enough across the Crucible, you will eventually meet yourself." - Mimicry

If you did meet another version of yourself on the Crucible, what would you talk about?

House Mars will come back some day, right?

Hello FFG!

1) For me, cards that allow too much card draw (for example: Library Access and Martian Generosity) are the most imbalanced cards in the game. Are the designers aware of this? The players using these cards can proactively just set up a huge combo turn where they can repeatedly draw cards without any decent punishment or counter from the opposing player who has none of them. I'm afraid these kind of decks will always beat any decks from future sets if left unchecked. What do the Keyforge designers think about this?

2) Brobnar has been the one of the worst houses of Keyforge ever since the first set, Call of the Archons. How will FFG improve this house in the future?

3) Same question as above, but for house Mars.

4) Does FFG have any plans to develop a Keyforge program or app for online play?

what are some favorite gameplay designs that got cut?

How’s the future of the game looking so far?

Obviously current events have put a massive dent in OP with logical consequences in sales, so we can only hope that things will pick up again once OP can resume regular events.

But how were the numbers prior to that? How do you actually measure the success of the game and get the resources you need from FFG to support its development and growth?