Banquet for Fools: A Party-Based Adventure

The Vollings have been shunned by the deities and have turned to paganism to survive. Despite this, they remain resilient and industrious. One lord has taken on the challenge of settling an abandoned island, risking the dangers of a cursed land in hopes of farming a valuable spice found only on its hillsides. His venture is a success, but trouble soon arises from all sides. As he prepares to defend his fields from a jealous neighbor, he receives word that the inhabitants of one of his farm holds have disappeared without a trace. With limited options, he calls upon four volunteers to venture across the island and investigate this mystery.

Explore the Island of Invimona

Embark on an open-world adventure with four generated companions as you explore the island of Invimona. Each companion has unique dialogue options and interactions with NPCs, and their relationships will develop over the course of your journey. You will also have a pack-boro to carry a boat and extra items, allowing you to hike and portage around the island's rivers and sea. Visit towns to gather clues and stock up on unique items.

Skills and Character Advancement

Equip your companions with a variety of skills to overcome the challenges of your adventure. Choose from weapons, armor, pagan spells, animal binding, music, and rogue abilities, and level them up through experience or by purchasing training from individuals you meet on the island. As you use certain skills more frequently, they will become more powerful with each level up. You also have the freedom to distribute three stat points into any skill you wish to pursue.

Intercessions and Pagan Spells

Though the Vollings have turned to paganism, their ancient deities still listen through their likeness in stone. By asking for intercessions from these beings, you can create custom holy items tailored to their favor. However, these boons come with a required donation and completion of a quest to prove your worthiness. Choose your statues wisely, as these beings are competitive and may grant more powerful versions of their blessings as you advance. You can also learn unique spell effects from different Vol trees and create custom spells by etching your rune in blood. As you grow in power, you can create more powerful variants of these spells.

Rogue Abilities and Field Kits

As a guard, you must know when to uphold the law, when to bend it, and when breaking it is the best course of action. You can steal items from shops, but at the risk of not being able to purchase them again. Getting caught is also a possibility, so be aware of your surroundings and the schedules of guards and merchants. Committing crimes will also accrue a price on your head, and the villagers will treat you accordingly. You can pay off your bounty, but stunned criminals will only stay stunned for so long, so you must reach a fort or village to report them for a reward. You can also use a field kit to resupply your party with arrows, darts, and elyxirs while away from shops during hikes.

Guard Duties and Combat

The Pavura has requested that criminals be shipped off to Exile Island instead of being executed. As a guard, you can choose to kill or stun your enemies, each with their own consequences. Killing hostile combatants may result in them being resurrected as ghosts, while stunning them will knock them out for 24 hours. You can also choose to attack with your entire party or switch between them during combat. The game features pausable real-time combat, allowing you to strategize and use critical attacks to weaken enemies for follow-up attacks. You can also use your field kit to create various projectiles, such as arrows, darts, and elyxirs, to use in combat.

Early Access and Serpent in the Staglands Import

Banquet for Fools is currently in Early Access, with plans to release updates and patches based on player feedback and suggestions. The game is feature complete, with dozens of unique creatures, five playable races, and over 100 items. You can also import data from Serpent in the Staglands, a game set in the same world, to help shape the world of Vol with your past experiences.

• OS *: Windows Vista 64-bit or newer
  
• Processor: Intel Core i3-2100T @ 2.50 GHz / AMD Phenom II X3 B73
  
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
  
• Graphics: DirectX 11 Compatible
  
• Storage: 10 GB available space
  
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card
  
• Additional Notes: Through early access the disk space requirement will increase up to 50 GB

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or newer
  
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.10 GHz / AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
  
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
  
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
  
• Storage: 10 GB available space
  
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card