Taverns Reborn - and a new card game

We're back with an exciting update to the demo, with a big overhaul of taverns (the first of a series of updates) and a brand new card game you can play right now.

As always, a big thanks to the Discord and Steam community for all the bug reports, suggestions, banter, and of course the new sprite artwork over the past few weeks.

Have a good rest of your weekend!

New mini-game: Wheels of War

• A faction-deck card duel you play against tavern regulars - a best-of-3 battle of board power across three lanes (Pasture, Market, Hold). I'll be honest that it was inspired by how fun I found Gwent in The Witcher 3. But this has its very own style and approach - a cheap rip-off this is not! More of a love letter to fans of that game in a game

• Deep enough to chew on: weather, bond, morale, horns, spies, medics, scorch, and one-shot faction leaders - plus immune "hero" cards

• Six faction decks, one tied to each guild; your character fields their guild's deck by default

• Opponents play to their character - beat a sharp merchant for a fat purse, or hustle the tavern drunk for easy coin

• Wager gold on every match: win and you take the stake, lose and you pay it

• Built-in How-to-Play guide (auto-shows your first game, reopen any time with?), full keyboard & controller support with a focused-card readout

• Over 150 collectible playing cards for Wheels of War in the full game, coming in August to early access (I just realised the acronym for it is WoW and I definitely and honestly did not intend that)

Tavern overhaul

• Region-flavoured inns with proper common rooms - bar counter, a central Skyrim-style hearth pit with benches, a second fireplace, and a real table grid

• Hire a room - upstairs is now genuine lodging: enclosed guest rooms with a bed, chest and side table

• Livelier taverns: bards come alive and patrons go about their evening

• A hand-crafted inn in Hearthmere, complete with a reading nook

Fixes & polish

• Time-of-day text no longer vanishes for good after rain (or a road speed-boost) clears - and when space is tight it now keeps the time-of-day word, dropping the day number instead

• Fixed the B key not opening the build menu for some long-time players

• Fixed a quest ("Burning Depths") that could be offered - and rewarded - twice

• Book reader no longer clips the last lines of long paragraphs