Sunderfolkis a new turn-based RPG that aims to ease some of the barriers players can face when trying to get into tabletop gaming. The upcoming title, which comes from publisher Dreamhaven’s in-house studio Secret Door, takes players to an underground fantasy universe for an experience that studio head Chris Sigaty says will “transform game night.”Screen Rantrecently attended a hands-on event for the game where, alongside game director Erin Marek, we got to experience over two hours of multiplayer gameplay.
The title comes from a team of seasoned industry veterans: Dreamhaven is the creation of Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime, while Secret Door itself is made up of developers who worked for companies like Riot and Blizzard. The game’s cast is star-studded as well,though it only contains one person, Anjali Bhimani, who’s known for roles ingames likeStray Gods,Apex Legends, andOverwatch. A single voice-over actress serving as the in-game narrator as well as every character is meant to somewhat recreate the dungeon master experience, and Bhimani absolutely delivers in the role.
The six different classes of Sunderlings available to players inSunderfolkareRanger, Bard, Arcanist, Berserker, Pyromancer, and Rogue, each of which with a fitting animal in the role that meshes well with the character. The tank berserker, for example, is a big, strong polar bear, while the arcanist is a mysterious-looking raven. I chose the role of the pyromancing salamander I named Sallymandy and set off alongside the rest of the group - which was filled out by the developer’s bard and fellow writer’s berserker - to begin our missions.
Missions In Sunderfolk
Not Every Encounter Is Simply About Combat
There are five main types of missions inSunderfolk: explore, puzzle, combat, rescue, and survive, some of which I got to try in my preview. They did always involve fighting in some capacity, but the overall focus of them did feel distinct enough between types regardless. The rescue mission came earlier in the session, when my group was tasked with escorting two villagers from the midst of an ogre attack. Because they were frightened, they had to be interacted with in order to start moving, then continued to need protection as they made their way across the map to safety.
The puzzle mission did share some overlap with the rescue, but the puzzling was still clear. My group needed to rescue a kidnapped giant beetle, which necessitated unlocking its cage, then protecting it as it escaped. The twist was that on the beetle’s turn, it would move as many spaces in the direction it was facing until encountering blockage or hazards, meaning the group needed to manage moving it while still protecting it and ourselves from enemies.Our solution wound up being quite amusing because of our party, with the Berserker able to simply throw the beetle towards the exit.
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The exploration mission was one of the more chaotic we embarked on, where we were sent into cobweb-laden caves to retrieve supplies. The area was already filled with spiders, and every time a webbed space was cleared it could mean one of two things: the sought-after supplies, or - more often than not - even more arachnids being uncovered. This one required an even higher amount of coordinated strategy, and my Pyromancer’s fire-spreading moves proved especially useful for web destruction. Though tricky,the unpredictability of this mission was also particularly fun, with lots of colorful exclamations whenever another spider was revealed.
The survival mission was even wilder, based around living through a set number of rounds while keeping a gate intact. We had the help of three caterpillars with different abilities - one that stunned enemies, one that healed, and one that set fires - that we got to name;this incidentally made it much more dramatic when one was killed, which caused our group to yell so loudly PR came in to make sure everything was okay. Between so many enemies, allies, evergrowing fires, and the survival goal completely altering strategy, this was some of the most chaotic fun of the event.
Combat In Sunderfolk
Streamlined But Meaningful Turn-Based Battles
All fighting within these and, of course, combat missions, used the same system, which takes place on a mix of the screen and the player’s phone. Each character has a selection of Skill Cards, amassing a growing arsenal to choose from as they level up; however,players can only select three at a time to be a part of their loadout, necessitating some strategic planning before each encounter. These cards are selected on the player’s phone, and that’s where all movement is controlled as well, through an intuitive, gesture-based system for selecting spaces versus individual taps.
These Skill Cards are multipart, usually with a blend of movement and another main action like an attack or healing, though each piece has the option to be skipped. Each character also has a passive class Skill - for example, Sallymandy gained Firepower that allowed for stronger attacks from passing through spaces with fire, while the bard granted extra movement to characters that switched places with them.Instead of dice,Sunderfolkutilizes Fate cards, which typically either add or subtract from the main Skill value, though some have other balancing, like a -2 card that grants the character strength.
With so much happening over the course of a few hours, the prospect of an entire campaign with friends is very promising.
The Fate deck can be customized as players acquire more over the course of the game, though it must always contain a certain amount of positive, negative, and neutral cards. There are also Trinket Cards, which can grant a small boon once per encounter like temporarily increasing movement, and Weapon Cards, which my group didn’t encounter in our early section of the game, but were told come later on.Turns can be taken in any order each round instead of using initiative, which definitely facilitated much more conversation turn to turn about what our strategy should be.
My fire-loving salamander was quite fun to pilot during the preview. It was nice to have what’s usually relegated to aDungeons & Dragonssubclassavailable from the start, and in the five levels Sallymandy climbed during the playthrough it was clear that the Pyromancer will acquire an engagingly diverse arsenal of Skills over the course of the game that blend attacks with environmental manipulation via fires.All characters have an Ultimate move that requires special recharging:mine involved recovering health via fire, though my group only ever utilized the berserker’s extremely devastating AOE move, which was incredibly satisfying.
Final Thoughts On Sunderfolk
Great Potential For Strategic & Silly Co-Op
Theother main function of the phone controls is to move about the village in-between missions. There are several locations you’re able to visit, like a post office where players can send each other gold and objects - as these aren’t shared between party members - and vendors of things like Fate Cards and Trinkets. Players can level up buildings to give them more features, as well as raise resident relationships, and some are even dateable. I didn’t see too much of this feature during the event, but it does seem like it offers a lot of potential for meaningful progression outside character leveling.
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There isn’t much in the way of character customization outside their decks and gear, but players can somewhat further tailor their experience with difficulty levels. On Balanced, players get three lives, but there are other, harder modes that do things like lower that number, make enemies deadlier, or add timers to encounters. In general,Sunderfolkdoes a good job of facilitating situations that can utilize a number of solutions, and an even better job of promoting player conversation, really capturing many of the same feelings evoked duringgames likeDungeons & Dragons.
In the opening presentation, Sigaty addressed howSunderfolkseeks to overcome three TTRPG hurdles: steep learning curves, too much set up, and the genre not being for everyone. In my handful of hours with the title, it feels like it tackles all three of these, allowing for faster jumping into the fun. Even more importantly,Sunderfolksucceeded at cultivating connective moments. My session had so much laughter, and by the end we’d even developed a few inside jokes - with so much happening over the course of a few hours, the prospect of an entire campaign with friends is very promising.
Sunderfolkwill release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam some time in 2025.Screen Rantattended a special event for the purpose of this preview.
