When Paradox Interactive first announced Salem at the Paradox Interactive 2011 Convention, the game's concept was a little difficult to grasp. On the surface, Salem looks like Farmville dressed up for Thanksgiving. But Salem definitely isn't your mom’s Farmville. Creators Fredrik Tolf and Björn Johannessen have created something very different—and far scarier. Maybe even slightly disturbing.
Salem is essentially a crafting-oriented MMORPG set in a mythical 17th century New England. It basically combines elements of Farmville with PvP (player versus player) in a world populated by mythical monsters inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, and William T. Cox’s Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber Woods.
There is tree-chopping, crafting, hunting—not to mention stealing, murdering, cursing, and witch-burning. And when you're dead, you're dead. (That last bit is actually a 'bullet point' on the games spec sheet: "Permanent Death".)
Survival is the name of the game
After arriving in the new world, you have little besides basic skills and (hopefully) some other players that will help you chop wood, build a home, find food, and ultimately work together to help establish an entire town and an economy.
You can potentially do all these things on your own, but without help even simple things such as chopping down a tree take a long time. It took Björn a couple minutes of watching his Avatar chop at a tree before it fell and became a log.
But once you’ve collected some wood, with the appropriate skills you can use it to construct shelter, build a fire, or craft it into other items. You’ll also need to do things like hunt for food and, ideally, work with like-minded players to start a whole new colony and an economy fueled by cooperation and crafting goods. Sound peachy? It gets a little freaky from here on.
Explore and expand...at your peril
As you explore further and further into the mysterious, dark woods, you are enveloped by a thick, oppressive darkness. The farther you wander from civilization, the more monsters you will meet.
The world of Salem may look a little like a ‘cuteified’ Colonial America, but it’s populated with creatures of myth and legend just waiting to eat you. According to Johannessen, Salem’s creatures are heavily inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, and William T. Cox’s Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber Woods—which includes such things as ‘Squonks’ and ‘Hidebehinds’.
Ultimately, in order to expand and grow your character and your civilization, you’ll need to explore new areas and establish a Church, which helps keep the beasties at bay so you can start a new settlement. Just don’t die while doing it. Death is permanent in Salem.
It's all about humor(s)
Salem characters have 4 basic characteristics based upon the Hippocratic notions of the 4 bodily humors. These humors are: Blood, Phlegm, Black Bile, and Yellow Bile.
Despite the gruesome concepts, these 4 very unfunny humors govern your overall health, energy, skills, and combat abilities. Blood represents your health (hit points), Phlegm is your energy (“mana” essentially), Black Bile is basically experience (spent to acquire skills), and Yellow Bile governs your overall combat strength.
For example, chopping trees costs phlegm, and if you take damage from something you’ll lose blood.
If any single humor falls to zero, you will fall unconscious. And if you take damage while you’re unconscious—say, from an angry deer you may have failed to hunt—you will die permanently, and then explore the thrills of rerolling a new character.
Burn witch burn!
Another key area Salem differs from similar games (if there is any game that is truly similar)—aside from the horrors and permanent death and all that—is that PvP (Player versus Player) is an available option. In Salem, you can learn skills that enable you to steal from and/or murder other players.
And yes, you can potentially become a witch and curse other players too. But when you do any of these things, you leave a temporary ‘token’ behind that identifies the perpetrator. This token can in turn be found by other players that have the appropriate skills.
Although the temporary ‘token’ disappears after a while, it can still lead suitably-skilled players to your doorstep, where they might decide to end you and your treacherous ways.
According to Tolf, they can even summon your avatar regardless of whether or not you’re online and kill you. So to answer that burning question in your head, yes there can indeed be witches (or just naughty players) burning in Salem.
Free to play and slay
Salem will be based around Paradox’s new “Paradox Connect” initiative that will be serving as a backbone for virtual currency, achievements, and other aspects of Paradox’s forthcoming F2P (free to play) games. It is presently being targeted for a late Q2 (end of summer) 2011 release.
Whether you love or hate Farmville-esque games, or just have a morbid fascination with the dark, foreboding setting of 17th century fantasy New England (and who doesn’t want to see H.P. Lovecraft introduced into a little Farmville-style game?), it’s hard not to be intrigued by Salem as a concept.
According to Tolf and Johannessen, the precursor to Salem they created (Haven and Hearth) enjoys a passionate user community. If you’d like to learn a little more about Salem’s roots and possibly get an early taste check out HavenandHearth.
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