After a long period of anticipation, gamers can finally experience the early access version of Book of Travels, a self-described “Tiny Multiplayer Online RPG” set in the ambient, painted fantasy land of Braided Shore. Book of Travels, as an exploration-focused MMO, is designed to have a non-linear, emergent narrative that lets players go anywhere and do anything; the following in-game locations, however, are key, must-visit places for players who want their new characters to be well-equipped, well-provisioned, and prepared to face the game’s many challenges.
Might and Delight, the Swedish game studio behind Book of Travels’ release, built its reputation creating video games such as Meadow, Tiny Echo, and the Shelter franchise. The illustrated graphics of these particular video games clearly had a big influence on the visuals of Book of Travels, which at times resemble a living watercolor painting players can move their characters through.
Braided Shore, the setting of the Book of Travels Early Access, is a fantasy land seemingly inspired by several different sources. The Arcadian countrysides and steam-powered vehicles players can encounter on their wanderings bear a close resemblance to the movies of Studio Ghibli. The swords and lamellar armor players can equip resemble the panoplies of Sengoku-era Japan military forces. The strange spirits haunting the wild places of Braided Shore seem to pay homage the old, dark faerie stories told across Europe, while the magical teas and spell knots players can prepare seem to homage humble, subtle paradigms of folk magic practiced by the lower classes throughout history.
When creating a Book of Travels character, players can choose to “drop” their Traveler off in different parts of the Early Access region, each part corresponding to a different Cardinal direction. Each starting area will have different NPCs, different quests, different secrets, and different places to go, but there are still key locations newly-made Travelers will want to visit if they want to properly tackle the game’s more intricate challenges.
Book of Travels New Player Destination #1: The Nearest Settlement
After a Book of Travels player creates a character, picking their starting location, and enters one of the early access servers, their Traveler wakes up in an open field with just a few low-value items, a Bruised and Battered condition from sleeping in the rough, and a shepherd NPC standing over them who gives them directions to the nearest settlement. One possible settlement players might visit is Crossing, a town at the heart of the Book of Travels early access world, filled with vendor NPCs, a central shrine, and interesting quest lines to pursue. (An important note: Book of Travels currently doesn’t have any in-game journal that automatically keeps track of quest events, so taking screenshots and jotting down notes in the world map will greatly help players keep track of important details.)
The most important location in Crossing for new players, however, is the keeper of the local Tea House, who will heal a new character’s negative condition, stitch them a new shirt, and give them a hearty meal to take on the road. They’ll also give the PC a directions to a place where many other Travelers flock – a destination that happens to contain the closest equivalent in Book of Travels early access to a starting quest.
Book of Travels New Player Destination #2: The Temple of Bat Saha
North of the town of Crossing, on an island near the north coast of Braided Shore, there’s a town called Bat Saha, filled with several colorful NPCs and a few tantalizing story hooks for players to pursue. Bat Saha also happens to contain a temple with a roaming temple guardian NPC. By interacting with this NPC and completing the basic task they offer, players can receive an extra Life Petal.
Life Petals are fundamentally identical in function to the “Extra Lives” mechanic seen in classic arcade games of the 1980s and 1990s. If a player’s character dies fighting a bandit or dark spirit, or passes out from hunger, they can get back up by consuming a single life petal; if they’ve run out of life petals, then their character will die permanently and their data will be lost. A PC in Book of Travels can carry three Life Petals at most, and start the game with two Life Petals in stock. For this reason alone, visiting the Temple of Bat Saha at the start of a Book of Travels play-through gives PCs a massive boost in survivability, letting players take more chances and more freely explore dangerous areas.
Book of Travels Player Destination #3: The Fishing Village of Myr
To survive, player characters in the Book of Travels Early Access need to find and consume different types of food. The rate at which Book of Travels PCs starve isn’t quite so onerous as the starvation mechanics of games like Gauntlet or Don’t Starve Together, but it is something players need to keep track of. Outside of buying meals from vendors or scavenging food in the wilderness, the most reliable way players can acquire nourishment for themselves and friends is by catching fish in ponds, lakes, and coastlines.
For this reason, gamers starting a new Book of Travels play-through should visit the Fishing Village of Myr soon after getting an extra Life Petal from Bat Saha – or even visit Myr first if they’re not planning to test out Book of Travels’ combat. Here, they’ll be able to barter with a local good merchant, trading objects with them into order to learn the Fishing Skill. (A player’s character need to be Level 2 at minimum in order to learn this skill, but they can easily gain go from Level 1 to 2 by exploring and examining objects in their surroundings.) Once their PC learns this Fishing skill, players will be able to cast lines from a fishing rod into any of the bodies of water found across the Early Access world, reeling in fish to eat and the occasional piece of junk to sell or use.
