Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a MMORPG set on the planet Telon, a completely flat planet with many islands and vast continents - of which the two continents Thestra and Qalia and the island Kojan are the world the players play in in the release version. Each part of the world has it’s own climate and races. While it’s very cold in Thestra you walk through steppes and deserts on Qalia. This also influences the races that live there. Also you can encounter humans on all three (also they diver in look and feel because of the different climate zones), the rest of the 19 available races are divided over those lands. The dark elves live down in Qalia where as the Orcs have their home on Kojan.
Not all races can be all 17 classes. So you’ll never see a high elf using the dark arts of necromancy but a dark elf has no problem with that. The 17 classes are part of the four main groups: Offensive Fighters, Defensive Fighters, Arcane Casters and Healers to make it easier for the new player to know what a Dread Knight (offensive caster) does for example.
Besides the choice of race and class, you also choose the look of your character at the beginning of the game with the help of a vast array of sliders with which you can adjust nearly everything from body height to eyebrow color. When you’re finished you get in the game.
The gameplay is divided in three trees that influence each other but are completely independent of one another: Adventuring, Crafting and Diplomacy. Each tree has it’s own quests and own items. Theoretically it’s possible to reach the max level in one of them without ever get a level up in the other. Of course this is not very practical and if you want to craft items for yourself you need to harvest the ingredients and this could be very difficult as a level 1 adventurer.
Adventuring is the main tree of the game and as in every other MMORPG you travel through the land, kill enemies, solve quests, get better gear and level up. At each level up you get some skill points you can invest in your character to make him even stronger. The maximum adventuring level is 50.
Crafting comes in three major flavors known as Articifier, Outfitter and Blacksmith. Every profession then breaks down again at level 10 where the Outfitter for example has to choose weather he want’s to be a Tailor or a Leatherworker. The craftingprocess itself is also divided into two categories: Crafting for yourself or Questing. If you want to craft items for yourself, you need to harvest or buy the incredients you need for it. If you only want to solve quests and gain experience you do a “Work Order”. There you get all you need from the quest-giver but you can’t use the items you make. But you get money or special items as a reward.
Diplomacy is the tree for the talker. In a card min-igame you try to outplay your opponent and win the match. The dialogue advances while you play and unfolds not only the overall story but also gives you a hint on what card would be best to play next. But since you’ve only a limited number of card slots, you need to think about what you use in the next parley (that’s what the mini-game is called). If you think more global, you can engage in city diplomacy where you can influence several triggers of a city like “Preparing for War”. If you influence a trigger enough you can start an event. These events give you and everyone else in the area either a buff which can be a temporary new playing card or a buff that raises your crafting skill or you gain access to new quests.
