Fable

A narrative-driven roguelike deckbuilder built in Godot 4.

Story choices shape gameplay. A passion system shifts characters between dual personalities, changing available cards and combat strategy mid-run. Inspired by Slay the Spire's combat loop, Fable layers narrative weight on top of tight deckbuilding mechanics.

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Combat

Play cards, apply status effects, manage energy and block — a full turn of Fable's combat system.

Map

Procedural branching map — combat, elite, rest, shop, event, mystery, and boss nodes across a 3-act structure.

Shop

The Chronicler's Bazaar — buy cards, acquire relics, and thin your deck.

Screenshots

Turn-based card combat with energy, status effects, and enemy intents	Procedural branching map with combat, elite, shop, rest, event, and boss nodes
Dual-personality characters with primary and secondary builds	Title screen

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Systems

• Combat Engine -- Turn-based card combat with energy, block, draw/discard/exhaust piles, status effects, and multi-enemy encounters. Cards are composed from modular effects (damage, block, draw, status, heal, energy, passion).

• Passion System -- A 0-100 meter with 5 tiers (Blazing / Inspired / Steady / Wavering / Hollow). Passion shifts characters between primary and secondary personalities, affecting card rewards, zone penalties, and combat identity. Enemies can target passion with demoralization attacks.

• Procedural Map -- Slay the Spire-style branching node maps generated per act. Node types: combat, elite, rest, shop, event, mystery, and boss. 3-act structure with unique bosses and scaling difficulty.

• Card Reward Economy -- Tier-based card distribution. Passion level determines the split between personality-specific and generic card offers. 34+ cards across generic, primary, and secondary pools with Common / Uncommon / Rare tiers.

• Relics & Shop -- 18 relics with trigger-based activation (combat start, turn start, combat end, on pickup). Shop sells cards and relics, and offers deck thinning.

• Narrative Events -- 8 branching events with choices that affect HP, gold, cards, relics, and passion. Events validate affordability and handle edge cases (death from HP loss, insufficient gold).

• Card Upgrades -- Rest sites offer heal or upgrade. Upgrades use per-card override effects or generic stat boosts. Preview shows before/after stats.

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Architecture

scenes/
  combat/        Combat scene -- card hand, enemy panels, pile viewers, combat log
  map/           Procedural map with node navigation and run stats
  shop/          Card and relic purchasing, deck thinning
  rest/           Heal or upgrade a card
  event/          Narrative choices with branching outcomes
  reward/         Post-combat card and relic selection
  act/            Act transitions and victory screen
  character_select/
  title/
  settings/
  splash/
  game_over/

scripts/
  autoloads/     Events (signal bus), RngManager, RunManager, AudioManager,
                 SceneTransition, PauseMenu
  core/          CardData, CombatEngine, PassionState, CombatantStats,
                 PileManager, MapGenerator, CardPool, RelicPool, EventPool,
                 EnemyData, StatusEffects
  core/effects/  Composable card effects -- DamageEffect, BlockEffect,
                 DrawEffect, PassionEffect, StatusApplyEffect, HealEffect,
                 EnergyEffect

docs/            Game design doc, architecture rationale, implementation guide

Key Patterns

• Composable effects -- Cards are arrays of CardEffect subclasses. A card can deal damage, apply a status, and draw cards in a single play. Enemy moves reuse the same effect system.

• Signal bus -- Events autoload with typed signals organized by domain. Decouples combat, UI, and state management.

• Three-layer state -- RunManager (persistent run data), CombatantStats (per-combatant HP/block/statuses), CombatEngine (battle state machine and turn flow).

• Deterministic RNG -- RngManager maintains separate seeded tracks for deck shuffling, enemy behavior, loot generation, events, and map generation. Runs are reproducible from a seed.

• Combat state machine -- CombatEngine manages turn phases (player turn, enemy turn, win/loss checks) with status effect tick timing (start-of-turn vs end-of-turn).

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Running the Project

1. Install Godot 4.4
2. Clone the repository
3. Open the project in the Godot editor (project.godot)
4. Press F5 or click Play

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Status

Early development -- core scaffolding.

The full gameplay loop is functional: title > character select > map navigation > combat > rewards > shop > rest > events > boss > act transitions > victory. One playable character (Emo Hybrid Caster) with 34+ cards, 18 relics, and 8 narrative events. Audio, visual polish, and UX are in place.

Still ahead: two additional characters, narrative content (visual novel segments, realm configuration), balance tuning, perks system UI, and real art/audio assets.

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License

MIT