What Is Oathen?

An Oathen game in progress on a table

Oathen is an eleven time award winning battle arena tabletop game inspired by Norse mythology and esports, games such as Overwatch, Hearthstone, MOBAs like League of Legends, and other battle arena titles. It has taken Best Tabletop Game at DreamHack, the largest esports convention in the world, at its Denver, Atlanta, Austin, and Dallas events and at DreamHack Winter in Sweden, plus the Denver Indie Game Expo's Best Tabletop Game and Audience Choice awards. Oathen has been in development since October 2013, and has a growing private playtesting group of 150+ players from around the world. You can join the beta online right now.

Reviews

"Oathen has intriguing ideas and a strong, timely theme."Mike Fehlauer, Vice President of Penny Arcade / PAX
"Oathen is, perhaps, the best game I've played in my life. Unlimited replayability, unique characters that play as individuals rather than canned actions with different pictures, diverse and changeable arena tiles that create a different experience. I've logged hundreds of hours helping to playtest this game and have never once had a game play out like another."Brennan McCue, Head Playtester

Heroes

Oathen will launch with six heroes to play as: Eldheim the Firemage, Nyxa the Assassin, Bravus the Berserker, Isolda the Icemage, Sgrian the Reaper, and Quinn the Marksman. Each one has their own deck of 20 unique abilities that are specific to them. This gives the heroes their own specialized play style, strengths and weaknesses.

But wait, there's more! Over the last half decade that Oathen has been in development, I have created four expansions (with a fifth being worked on) that are ready to launch depending on the success of the Kickstarter. This gives you access to a total of 36 characters that are fully designed and tested up to at least 500 hours each, including healers, tanks, support classes, and damage dealers near and far. Players that are part of our beta play testing group will have access to these characters prior to their release.

Melee Damage Dealers

Berserker, Assassin, Reaper, Gladiator, Shaman, Warden, Keeper, Timebender, Warsworn, Harlequin

Ranged Damage Dealers

Firemage, Icemage, Marksman, Trickster, Trapper, Whisper, Stormer, Deathspeaker, Binder, Chaos

Tanks

Guardian, Brawler, Shapeshifter, Bloodfiend, Alchemist, Forcemage, Shadow, Warmachine

Healers

Paladin, Druid, Faithful, Bard, Necromancer, Gambler, Ranger, Crimson

Meet the launch six →

The Arena

In the middle of the game space is the arena, which is a spread of tiles formed in a 5×5 grid (for 2 players) or 6×6 (for 3-6 players). Each tile contains an environmental effect on the back that introduces traps, treasures, neutral locations, and beneficial effects to the combat. These tiles start off hidden until a hero enters that space, in which case they are revealed for the rest of the match. Sometimes, you can find a location that helps you in combat (such as the Tower Armory, which increases your damage by 1) or a negative effect tile (like a Pit Trap, which causes you to gain a stunned condition). Learning how to make use of these arena locations can give you an edge in your match.

The base box of Oathen includes 54 arena locations, making the environment an ever changing beast. You will encounter locations in different positions than the last time that you played, or even discover locations that weren't used in your last three matches. With expansions, the total number of arena locations increases to 95.

Oathen Lore and Universe

Oathen has been created with an expansive universe inspired by Norse mythology. Over 35 different locations from around the Midlands are included in the base box of Oathen. As you fight through the arena and explore its stretches, you learn more about the world that your hero lives in. Join one of the warring factions of the godborn in team vs. team modes, dive into the background stories of the heroes and why they've come to the arena, and read about the history of the realms through our information archives (coming soon!).

Or don't! The knowledge is there for the taking, and each expansion will teach you more about the universe and stories of those who live in it. But knowing the lore is not required to play and enjoy the game.

Meet the Legends · The Grand Library

What Sets Oathen Apart?

The game is controlled by a Cooldown Track, which is a game board with card slots that range from 5 down to 1. At the end of each round, the abilities that you played are moved onto this track. Each round all of the cards on the track shift to the next lowest cooldown slot until they make their way back into your deck for use again. Every ability in the game has a cooldown value based on a formula for its strength, with your heavy hitting abilities being a cooldown 4 or 5, and your quick actions being 1, 2, or even 0 (it's placed back in the deck immediately at the end of the round).

With this Cooldown system in place, there is no drawing or deck building, you have full access to all of your abilities every single round unless they are on cooldown. You don't have situations like in some popular card games where your draw is terrible and you have to work around it. Combat in Oathen is meant to be fluid, thematic, and engaging. So if you want to perform Death From Above as the Berserker into that poor Icemage over there, BE the Berserker! Play Death From Above.

There are several different card types in the game, allowing you to use free actions even if it's not your turn, combo cards to enhance your attacks, and passive abilities like armor and weapons that last throughout the round. There is also a logic based priority system in place so that any interactions between cards have a smooth, easy to understand flow of events.

Learning how to play Oathen only takes 8-10 minutes, and it's great for players of all skill levels. Your turn order card provides 95% of everything that you need to know in order to hit the ground running. However, the dynamic card interactions, arena environmental effects, and multiple character options makes Oathen into a game that's hard to master. Replayability is extremely high, this is a game that you will take off the shelf again and again, and you will never feel like you're playing the same game twice.

Game Modes

Oathen also comes with 3-4 different game modes in the base box, and 16 in total through expansions. The characters can be dropped into any of these game modes, and their style of play may change based on what the winning objectives may be.

Game modes in the base box include:

* Ring of Valdis will be an unlockable game mode during the Kickstarter. While there's a strong chance that we can add this to the base box, it may not reach its goal and could be pushed into a later expansion.

In future seasons of Oathen, you can also enjoy:

How to Play Oathen

Everything that you need to know in order to play Oathen can be found in the Oathen rulebook, but the best way to learn is to watch our quick instruction videos and jump into a live game at play.oathen.gg. If you encounter any situation where you need further details, the rulebook serves as a deeper guide for your questions. How to Play Oathen →

Play Oathen

Join the beta online at play.oathen.gg, and join our Oathen Discord chat where you can find players for games.

Thank you for joining me in this adventure.