Fellowship’s Dev Team Talks Skipping the RPG Grind, Endless Scalability, and Worldbuilding

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Fellowship is a fresh take on classic RPG dungeon-crawlers, offering a simpler and more accessible experience. This ‘MODA’ – or Multiplayer Online Dungeon Adventure – aims to break away from traditional subscription fees and make RPGs enjoyable for a wider audience.

The role-playing game *Fellowship*, scheduled to launch in October 2025, has been slightly delayed by one week to allow the developers time for final improvements. Instead of creating a vast new world or radically changing the dungeon-crawling genre, *Fellowship* focuses on getting players directly to the enjoyable parts of the game. It aims to eliminate the repetitive tasks often found in online and dungeon-focused games. Game Rant recently spoke with members of the Chief Rebel team – game designers Will Maiden and Isabell Märs, and UX designer Ambjörn Olsson – about *Fellowship* and their vision for the game. This conversation has been shortened and clarified for easier reading.

How Fellowship Skips The MMO Grind

Game Rant notes that a key goal of *Fellowship* is to make dungeon-crawling more accessible to players, something that can be difficult in other role-playing games. The team believes this is an important aspect of their game – but why?

Olsson explained their goal is to attract both experienced dungeon players and newcomers, making dungeons enjoyable for everyone, regardless of skill level.

It’s common to hear people suggest a TV show, but warn you it doesn’t really hit its stride until later seasons. Similarly, the most rewarding parts of many online games often aren’t available until you’ve played for a long time – and sometimes spent a good amount of money, especially with subscription games. This creates a compelling experience, but it requires a significant time and financial commitment to fully enjoy it and become part of the community.

Originally, the main idea behind *Fellowship* was to let more players experience the exciting final stages of the game. It did this by offering a one-time purchase price instead of a subscription, and by providing ready-to-play characters based on popular RPG classes, making it easy to jump right into the action.

We’re aiming for a quick and easy gaming experience, similar to other popular session-based games – you should be able to jump in and play whenever you want. We want to make it simple to play with friends, regardless of how much time either of you has already put into the game. Our goal is to let players immediately have fun, without feeling like they need to grind for hours before they can enjoy the core gameplay. I’ve personally experienced frustration wanting to join friends mid-season in games that require a lot of initial effort, and the thought of catching up feels overwhelming. We want to prevent that feeling and make it easy for everyone to jump in and play.

When we say players can “Jump in and play” immediately, that includes how simple it is to find a group and start a dungeon. With *Fellowship*, we’re always trying to make this easier. For instance, our Quickplay system lets you jump into a dungeon within minutes – you don’t need to apply to groups and worry about being rejected, just press “Play” and go!

Our goal with Fellowship is to give players a fast track to the exciting, challenging content usually reserved for those who have invested a lot of time. We want to avoid that initial feeling of being overwhelmed. Fellowship immediately throws you into the action with a helpful tutorial that gradually increases the difficulty, teaching you the game’s features and adding new elements to keep things interesting.

Game Rant asks: What makes dungeons difficult to get into for players in MMOs? And how does the game *Fellowship* address those challenges?

According to Olsson, Fellowship focuses on a player’s understanding of game mechanics, skill level, hero knowledge, and time spent playing. The game is designed specifically for dungeon runs, allowing players to jump right into the action without lengthy preparation. We want to eliminate the need to spend hours gearing up and learning the ropes before enjoying dungeons – our goal is to get straight to the fun!

Okay, so one of the first things you gotta worry about in most MMOs is just getting strong enough to actually *do* the cool stuff. You spend ages leveling up or grinding for better gear, and honestly, you can’t even touch the real endgame content until you do. Then, on top of that, you need to find a group, which can be a pain. People get really picky about who they play with, always wanting the ‘best’ characters and builds according to some online guide. It can get pretty frustrating!

As a huge fan, I think what really makes this game special is how much it focuses on *knowing* the dungeons. It’s all about learning through practice, repeating sections, and getting better each time. Honestly, I don’t want randomness getting in the way – I want to *master* the game! It’s like learning a role as an actor; you learn the layout, how your character plays, what they’re good at, and what they struggle with, so you can beat each challenge as smoothly as possible. That careful design extends to everything, even the rewards you get for winning.

Fellowship’s Endless Mode

Game Rant is curious about the claim that *Fellowship* is ‘endlessly scalable.’ They wonder how this will actually work in the game, and specifically if the rewards players receive will increase as the difficulty goes up.

Once you complete all the leagues in our “Challenge” mode, you’ll unlock “Endless” mode. In this mode, the quality of items you find will improve for a while, but eventually it will stop scaling. After that, it’ll be up to you to master increasingly difficult levels if you want to climb the leaderboard!

At Märs, our dungeons can grow as challenging as you like – there’s always a path forward. The difficulty is truly limitless; enemies get stronger with each level, and there’s no final, ultimate challenge.

To ensure fair competition among top players on the leaderboard, there’s a limit to how strong your gear can be after completing certain difficult dungeons. This means that while dungeons continue to get harder, your character won’t become more powerful, forcing players to rely on skill and strategy to overcome increasingly challenging encounters.

Game Rant asks: With the game being infinitely scalable, how does that affect the goal of making dungeons easier to jump into for new players, especially when compared to other role-playing games?

In *Fellowship*, players begin with “leagues” – a system designed to teach them how our dungeons work. As they advance through these leagues, they’ll learn new gameplay mechanics and face tougher enemies, ultimately getting ready for Endless mode!

In Märs, the gear you get from dungeons generally matches how hard the dungeon is. Because you can start doing dungeons almost immediately, this means you can always have fun, challenging fights, no matter how powerful your character is.

As you get better equipment and advance in the game, the dungeons will become more difficult. This happens not just because enemies get stronger, but also because they gain new abilities. We want all players, regardless of their level, to find our dungeons both enjoyable and challenging.

We designed the game to have something for everyone, whether you’re a casual player or deeply invested. Many players will likely see the leagues as a way to measure their progress and set goals. For those who just want to jump in and play, Quickplay lets you start adventuring quickly without worrying about complicated systems like difficulty levels or gear. You just pick a hero and learn how to play! When you’re ready for a bigger challenge, you can move into the leagues and start earning better loot. We know some players might find their comfort zone there, but we hope most will enjoy pushing themselves to overcome harder difficulties.

Achieving ‘Unlocking Endless’ is a major accomplishment, and after that, success depends entirely on how skilled the player is. Because loot is limited, players will need to master their characters, learn the dungeons thoroughly, and adapt to the increasingly challenging difficulties. For our most competitive players, this is what *Fellowship* will truly be about.

Fellowship’s World And Heroes

Game Rant wants to know how *Fellowship* handles the classic tank, healer, and damage-dealer roles in its parties. What unique changes or ideas does the game introduce to these familiar roles?

We’re happy with the core principles of the game and don’t want to change what’s already working well, especially for the fundamental dungeon mechanics that players enjoy. Instead, we’re focusing on creating diverse heroes, offering both recognizable and innovative ways to play.

We want every player to find a hero they love, and we know people enjoy playing in different ways. Some prefer healing, others like being incredibly durable, and some focus on maximizing damage over time. We’re working hard to support all these playstyles within the traditional ‘holy trinity’ of tank, healer, and damage dealer. It’s vital to us that each role feels essential to the team. We want to ensure there’s always a meaningful contribution to be made – whether it’s dealing damage, even for tanks, providing crucial healing to survive challenging encounters, or pushing for a quick dungeon clear. Every role has a unique purpose, and we’re constantly adjusting the game to maintain that balance.

Game Rant asks: How deeply will players get to know the characters in *Fellowship*? And why did the developers choose to use pre-made heroes instead of letting players create and customize their own from scratch?

Our game centers around creating compelling heroes, each with unique abilities and playstyles. With *Fellowship*, we aimed to move away from the typical long character progression found in MMOs and Action RPGs. We want players to quickly understand a hero’s strengths and how to play them effectively – similar to how MOBAs allow you to instantly grasp a character’s role and abilities. This ease of access is a core principle of *Fellowship*, but it can be challenging for players who prefer creating characters from scratch and defining their own playstyle.

As we continue developing the game, we plan to add more ways for players to customize their characters. We definitely want people to be able to create a unique version of characters like Tariq or Vigour. However, we avoided making traditional, broad classes like ‘Archer’ or ‘Druid’ because that would have restricted our ability to design compelling and diverse starting experiences for players.

Game Rant is curious about the world of *Fellowship* and how it compares to other fantasy settings. They’re wondering if it will feel unique, or if it will remind players of worlds from similar games.

At Märs, we prioritize fun and believe in creating a world full of possibilities. We aim to build an environment that feels recognizable from popular movies, books, and games – complete with fantastical creatures, magic, and stunning scenery – while still allowing players to create any kind of hero they imagine.

We started creating the game’s world with a lot of exciting ideas, wanting to include everything that inspired us. Because gameplay is our top priority, we made sure not to create rigid rules or lore that would limit our options later on. We didn’t want to box ourselves in, preventing us from adding cool new dungeons, characters, bosses, or abilities in future updates.

The world of *Fellowship* will evolve *with* our players. We’re building the game’s lore as we go, adding new lands, empires, factions, gods, and monsters whenever inspiration strikes. Don’t expect a huge, detailed history from the start – this isn’t a game focused on extensive backstory. We’re more interested in creating a world that grows alongside the community.

Game Rant asked: Could you tell us about the world-building in *Fellowship*, and what the main conflict of the game’s world is?

The monsters are that way, and someone needs to defeat them! We’re leaving the rest of the story up to our creative community to build upon.

Game Rant: What did the team take away from the game’s public playtest during Steam Next Fest?

It’s incredibly validating to see that people actually want to play this game. When you’re deeply focused on a personal project like this, you always worry no one will be interested. But the response was overwhelmingly positive – people told us it was exactly what they’d always hoped for, even if they didn’t realize it.

We really wanted to connect players with each other more easily, so we created a matchmaking system instead of relying on long lists of ‘looking for group’ posts. We’ve spent the summer improving it based on your feedback, making it faster, simpler, and better for progressing through the leagues. The game’s structure is completely different now – we’ve worked hard to make it easy for new players to pick up and enjoy, while still feeling comfortable and familiar for those who have played similar games before.

The basic dungeon experience is still solid, and we’re happy with how it feels. Lately, we’ve been concentrating on improving the overall game structure. Some players were finding ways to maximize their progress very quickly, so we’ve been testing ways to prevent that and ensure a fairer experience for everyone. This involved simplifying some progression options and guiding players more directly.

Game Rant asked the developers about their plans for the first six months of *Fellowship*’s early access period. They also wanted to know roughly how much of the complete game will be playable when early access first launches – what percentage of the full experience will be available from the start?

The length of Early Access will really depend on what our players tell us. We see this as the next phase of getting the game out there and gathering feedback. For the first few months, we’ll be focusing on improvements to make the game more enjoyable and accessible, fixing bugs, and balancing gameplay. Our team is still small, but we’ve worked hard to ensure the game is stable enough for extended playtesting beyond just a few weeks.

We have lots of ideas for future updates, including features like Raids, plus more Heroes and Dungeons to add variety. Customization options for players are also a big focus. The best part about being in Early Access is that we can get feedback from players right away, which means our plans can change based on what the community thinks as we test things like leagues and endless progression. Right now, the game is about 75-80% complete, and we expect to share more specific details about upcoming features in the next few months.

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2025-09-26 13:09