What’s new

What changed in Talebench, a section per day, newest first.

November 15, 2026

Look → How the game sounds offers Table sounds as a pictured choice: wood, leather and paper for every click, the sounds a new game starts with. · 10 changes

Updates that day: First steps counted once known · Table sounds to pick · Your last matches · Back to your match

Writing

The story map: an arrow that would have cut the corner of a card goes round it.

Look

Look → How the game sounds offers Table sounds as a pictured choice: wood, leather and paper for every click, the sounds a new game starts with.
A new game’s Look opens with its main choices again: More no longer opens by itself because of the game’s sound set.

Playing

A rider’s values name the mount they ride in their breakdown (“Donkey +2”), no longer its ID.

Battles

Play with a friend lists your last five matches of the game: won, lost or played together, and with whom.
Closed the page during a match? Play with a friend offers Back to your match while it runs, also on another device.
Play a duel again and again: its end says the score of the series (“Series: You 2 – 1 Sam”).
Playing in another tab? The tab’s title says “● Your move” when it is your turn. The list of open matches keeps itself current.
Before a match starts, the lobby says how long each move may take.

Help

After a reload First steps no longer says “0 of 7” for a moment: it shows your progress once it is counted.

November 14, 2026

Change your email on the account page: a link goes to the new address, and your old address is told once it switched. · 39 changes

Updates that day: Change your email · Games on other sites, lighter pictures · Play again with a friend · Faces on the fighter select · Every fighter framed alike · Twenty-two fighters and the table sounds · A button that cannot be used says so · Dice that sound real · A friend from the fighter select · Characters keep their look in every mood · More sounds as you play · Fair fights on the fighter select · Choose your fighter

Writing

A character’s or a thing’s picture made from another (a new expression, pose or outfit) keeps its framing, clothes and weapons much better.
Share a published game as an example: other creators find it under Shared by other creators and open a copy of what players get, never your draft.
A route on a world map can lead through a passage on the way, an ambush or a ferryman, before the journey arrives (On the way, full view). Ember Road meets a ferryman at the Ashwater.
The library has the new dice and blow sounds to choose from.
A new change for an option: Play with a friend, for a chosen fight. Dice Duel’s front room has Versus a friend.
Pictures of characters and things made with AI come in a stronger drawn style.
Sound effects made with AI: one take follows your words closely, the other is freer, and a take that comes out almost silent is made again.

Look

Eleven more interface sounds a look can set: picking something, a switch, a tab, a slider, picking up and laying down, “not now”, your move, a link copied, someone joining and a reward. The chip set has its own for each.
A new game is heard from the start: it takes the Table sounds (wood, leather, paper), which Look → Sounds changes or turns off. Games made before keep what they have.
The text in a box that fades from one colour to another is chosen to read at both ends, and the check names the end that reads worse.
A new sound set for the look: table sounds of wood, leather, paper and coins for every interface sound you leave empty, with a Listen button. Dice Duel and Lantern Keeper use it.
The library has the dice sounds of picking up, laying down and sliding a die, and the table sounds one by one.
A battle’s look can give the dice their own sounds (shaken, rolled, landing, picked up, laid down, slid, hovered); each one you leave out keeps the built-in sound.

Playing

Put your published game on itch.io or your own page: Copy embed code and Download for itch.io in the Publish panel.
Pressing a button that cannot be used right now plays the look’s “not now” sound, such as a battle command that waits for something else.
Dice Duel’s fighters are balanced against each other: whoever you pick, every matchup is a fair fight. Each fighter shouts as it is picked.
Published games download less: play statistics load only for games that count plays, and the character creation screen only for games that have one.
Published games load faster: their pictures go to players as WebP, at most 2560 pixels wide, wherever that is smaller than the file you uploaded.
Picking up and laying down a thing in the inventory, and copying a link to play with a friend, have their own sounds.
Games play them where they happen: switches and sliders in the settings, the menu’s tabs, a battle’s target, a place on a map, a battle won with spoils, your move when playing with a friend.
Dice Duel’s Arcade never puts the same foe in front of you twice in a run.
Dice Duel has a front room: an Arcade of five fights and the Dice King, a quick fight, and the tavern’s tables as before. Beat Captain Aldric or the Dice King to fight as them.

Battles

After a match with a friend, Play again opens a new one with the same players and fighters; the other player sees who wants to play again.
Dice Duel: the small pictures on the fighter select show each fighter’s face, all the same size, without names; the card and the mouse still show the whole picture.
Dice Duel: every fighter’s portrait shows the head at the same size and height, the fighters come in a new order each time, and a fighter under the mouse shows the whole picture large.
Dice Duel: thirteen new fighters to choose, among them an ogre, an elf, a goblin priest, a hobbit, a bard, a jester, a viking and a hoplite with a pipe; every fighter is drawn in the same comic style and wins about half of all fights.
Dice Duel sounds new: dice shaken in a cup, rolling across the table and landing, blows on a body, a shield’s block, a parry’s ring and a crushing critical.
On the fighter select of a fight that can be played with a friend, Player 2’s card offers Invite a friend: the link comes up at once, and you both pick your fighters together.
A battle can open on a fighter select, as in an arcade fighting game: the player picks one of the fighters you list, the foe is picked from the rest, and fighters can stay locked until something unlocks them. Set it under Fighters to choose from on an encounter.
In a match, the last 10 seconds of your move are plain to see: the band turns red and you hear it once.
Give up a duel with a friend: the flag beside React asks once, and both screens say who won.
Games without dice battles download less: what the dice show during a fight comes with the dice part of the player only.
A fight played with a friend may set its own time for a move, 15 seconds to 5 minutes (Time for a move, full view). Dice Duel’s duel gives 45 seconds.
Dice tricks work in a match: each player uses their fighter’s own tricks on their own throw, and fighting together, the party answers a foe’s throw as when playing alone.
A fighter select’s small pictures use the character’s portrait frame, the part a dialogue shows as the speaker.
A fighter select can show its fighters in random order (Shuffle on the roster).
A fighter to choose from can be kept out of the foe’s pick while a condition holds, for example the foes already beaten in a run.
Playing with a friend: both of you choose your fighters on the same screen and see each other’s choice as it happens.

Other

Change your email on the account page: a link goes to the new address, and your old address is told once it switched.

November 13, 2026

Playing with a friend: only the player whose move it is gets the controls; the other sees whose move it is and no longer gets buttons that looked like their own turn. · 25 changes

Updates that day: Clearer turns when playing with a friend · Run maps · Things made with random parts · Rules that move the story, and extras · Roles and shaking ways · Values for one chapter · Fade it out

Writing

Run maps: a passage can hold a map made anew for every playthrough, rows of places from the bottom to a goal, where every step closes the paths not taken. Choose the rows and the kinds of places (a fight, a rest, a shop, an event) and what each does; Make three maps shows what players could get. In a passage’s panel, full view.
Things made with random parts: a sword can drop as a Rusty Sword one time and a Keen Sword of the Bear the next. Give a thing groups of parts with their words, how often each comes, its rarity, what it changes and its price; loot and Give a thing draw them when you tick Random parts. Roll ten shows what players would get. Under a thing, full view.
Rules that move the story: as soon as a condition comes true, the story goes to a passage or an ending, wherever the player is — “when Sanity drops to 0, go to Madness”. Once or each time anew, everywhere or in some chapters; the book prints them as a rule for every section. Find them under Every-passage rules (full view).
A line can now be spoken by a role, such as “whoever leads”: the game picks the first of its characters who is in the party or on stage, so a scene works with whoever came along. Set up roles under a character (full view) and pick one as a line’s speaker; {leader.name} names whoever it is.
A value of the game can now be kept in one chapter (Values, full view: Kept in chapter): it starts again whenever the story enters that chapter and is forgotten when it leaves, so helper values no longer need resetting by hand.
A new change, “Fade out”, lets the music, the background sound such as rain or wind, or the weather’s sound fall quiet over a few seconds, or everything at once. Find it under Add change → Sound.
Screen effects on the way now also go on a check’s or a battle’s outcomes; ▶ beside them shows them on a small screen, and the story map marks such a way with ✨.
Play music, Play ambience and Play a sound each have a Volume now; music already playing fades to its new volume. ▶ plays it at that volume.

Look

Extras on the title screen: a gallery of the pictures seen, a music room, chapter select after an ending and the credits on a screen of their own. Each is off until you switch it on in Settings (full view); what players saw and heard is kept across playthroughs.

Playing

Play with a friend has a row of its own in the menu; the lobby closes with Close before a match is made, sits in the middle on a phone, and no longer names a fight “Together” twice.
Players see the whole map above the options, with the places they can reach marked; the options stay the way for keys and screen readers.
The Crystal of Aster has old catacombs under the town square: a new way down every time.
Players see a made thing by its own name everywhere, with its rarity as a word and a coloured mark; the bag frames it, and its card now says what a thing is worth.
In Deepwatch, every Brass Sentinel drops a Deep Blade of its own make.
In the Lantern Keeper, the storm now ends the game wherever it catches you in the lighthouse, and its title screen offers all four extras.
In Deepwatch, whoever leads the four speaks as you go down, and in the Lantern Keeper the tower door shakes the screen when you force it.
In Last Train to Wintermere, Mira notices when you have walked the whole train.
In the Lantern Keeper the storm falls away as you climb the tower, and in Wintermere the snow goes quiet once the compartment door is shut.

Battles

Playing with a friend: only the player whose move it is gets the controls; the other sees whose move it is and no longer gets buttons that looked like their own turn.
A band at the top of the battle says “Your move” in the accent colour or whose move it is, with the time left; the card of the fighter who decides glows, and your own card says “You”.
In a match the shown exchange goes on by itself after a few seconds, and the top bar leaves out Undo, Skip and Auto, which do nothing there.
The gamebook prints a foe’s dice tells, such as “rolls high when wounded”.

Testing and publishing

While you test a game in the editor, + Option under the options adds one in your words (to a new passage named after them), and → beside an option leads it to another passage. Both can be undone, and the game goes on where it was.

Other

The gamebook prints the parts of a made thing as tables to roll on.
Your account page can now sign you out of every game at once, on every device; your saves stay.

November 12, 2026

A fight together can now take up to four players: whoever starts the match chooses how many play, and every ally’s card is named by its player. · 17 changes

Updates that day: Up to four together · Face to face, all of them · Fight together · Games on the home screen, and offline · Go back further, and see what others chose · Your progress on every device, and settings for every player · More room to read on phones · Safer sign-in · Duel a friend

Writing

New for chapters (full view): “After this chapter, show players what others chose”. When the story leaves the chapter, players see each choice they made in it and how many other players took each option. Try it after the night train in Wintermere.
“First steps” opens folded to its progress line once you have begun it, so the editor keeps its room; one press opens it again.

Playing

A published game can be added to a phone’s home screen with its own colours and picture, and it opens again without a network: what was played stays on the device, and a game opened from the home screen keeps all its files.
Going back is on for every new game: players undo choices and step back line by line, now up to fifty choices back, and still after leaving the game and coming back to a save. You can switch it off under Settings.
Signed in, the endings you found, your collections and your settings now follow you to every device, like your saves; what you find on one device joins what you found on another.
New in the settings: “Colours” for red–green and blue–yellow colour blindness (gauges, dice battles and maps then use colours you tell apart, with a shape beside each), and “Keys and buttons” to move any key or gamepad button to the one you like.
The first time someone plays a game, it offers the settings once: text size, colours, keys and more.
On a phone, a story box of a fixed size under the scene’s picture grows into the empty room below it, so a passage reads whole without scrolling inside the box. See it in Wintermere.

Battles

A fight together can now take up to four players: whoever starts the match chooses how many play, and every ally’s card is named by its player. Try “The King’s court” in Dice Duel with three friends.
A dice battle with several fighters on a side now opens with the face-to-face screen too: every foe with its weapons, and each of your party chooses theirs before the throw for who starts. Try “Two Cinder Sprites at once” in Dice Duel.
Two players can now fight side by side against a game’s foes, each on their own device: “Play with a friend” in the menu offers the game’s fights together beside its duels. Try “Together against the Dice King” in Dice Duel.
Play a dice duel with a friend, each on their own device: “Play with a friend” in the game’s menu gives you a link to send; you both press Ready and fight, each seeing your own fighter below. Try it in Dice Duel.
“Play with a friend” now offers a quick match beside each fight, and the game’s open matches anyone may join. Tick “Anyone playing this game may join” to list your own.
In the editor (full view), a fight together says how many players it takes at most.
In the editor (full view), a dice battle can be played with a friend against each other or together against its foes.
In the editor (full view), a dice battle fought turn by turn can be marked “Can be played with a friend”, with the things each player has for the duel.

Other

The sign-in and sign-up forms wait until the page is fully loaded before they send, so a quick press never puts what you typed into the address bar.

November 11, 2026

On the story map, arrows no longer cut across the corners of passages: where a curve would, the arrow goes round at right angles. · 13 changes

Updates that day: The map stays where you move it · Groundwork for duels between two players · A lost battle’s arrow around its passage · Room for every panel · Arrows that keep clear of the passages · A new passage you can always click · A picture for each kind of game · Dungeons in words on a page

Writing

On the story map, arrows no longer cut across the corners of passages: where a curve would, the arrow goes round at right angles. Arrows back to an earlier passage keep clear too, and their words now stand on the arrow itself.
When you start a new project, each kind of game shows a picture from its example: a harbour at night, a night train, a clock shop, a mine, an ash road, a drowned chapel.
Moving the story map right after adding a passage no longer jumps back to the new passage.
When you put a battle in the story, its arrows no longer run back through their own passage to an ending beside it: they go round.
With a passage, Publish and the help open side by side on a laptop, everything fits the window: the passage folds to its tab instead of the help running off the edge.
Publish pressed while your last change is still being saved now shows what blocks it, instead of opening the form.
A picked arrow lies above the others, so its end can always be dragged onto another passage.
Publish works right after a teammate fixes a problem, also when the fix arrived a moment before you pressed it.
A new passage on the story map now always lands clear of the small overview map in the corner, also right after the map fitted itself to the details beside it.

Look

A dungeon told in words in a look that fills the screen, such as the gamebook page, now says what is around you in the story’s own box instead of alone above it.

Playing

In a scene, the list of what you can do here shows a soft edge when there is more to scroll to, and stays pressable above a dialogue box at the bottom.

Battles

The dice battle can now let a person decide for either side, the first step towards playing a duel with a friend. Nothing changes in your games yet.

Help

First steps shows only whole rows; a soft shadow at its foot says more steps lie below.

November 10, 2026

Ctrl+K (or Ctrl+P) now finds anything by name: a passage, a character, a thing, a value, a part of the editor or a command such as Publish or Play. · 30 changes

Updates that day: Go to anything, switches in dungeon walls, and Deepwatch floor by floor · Title screens of their own, and fighters you can see · Point and click, and bigger text on big screens · Pictures fill the screen · Safer saving when working together · The add-on library · Add-ons with a page of their own · Share your kits

Writing

Ctrl+K (or Ctrl+P) now finds anything by name: a passage, a character, a thing, a value, a part of the editor or a command such as Publish or Play.
Dungeons can have switches set into their walls: players press one from the cell in front of it, and the gates you tick open. Deepwatch’s Clockwork Halls hold a gate open with one.
If your connection drops just after a save while a teammate is editing too, the editor now waits until it has their changes before saving yours. If you both changed the same words, you are asked which to keep, instead of theirs being replaced.
Workspace settings → Add-ons → From the library: find add-ons other creators made, see what each may do and its licence, and install one in a click. Every add-on there was checked by Talebench first.
An add-on can now bring a page of its own code, for what its screens cannot show, such as a board to drag on. It runs walled off from the game: no internet, no storage and no way to the game’s page or the player’s account. What it decides goes back to the game like a button press, so saves keep working.
Share a kit you saved in your workspace with everyone: Kits → Share…, with the name shown as its maker. It is checked like a published game first, and you can take it back at any time; games that added it keep their copy.
Inside a project the editor has the whole top of the window: the menu at the right end of its bar holds your projects, the workspace, the language, the view and Log out.
Characters, foes, things, documents and battles show their pictures in their lists.
The dungeon editor marks what stands on a cell with clear icons, and the choices of where an option leads read as plain words.
Zoomed far out, a chapter’s name stands whole above its frame and every card’s title shows in whole lines.
When a teammate fixes a problem while you have the project open, Publish now tries their version instead of waiting for a reload.
On the story map, a selected passage shows ⋯ instead of a bin in its corner: it opens the passage’s menu, where Delete passage is, as a right-click does. The overview in the corner has a frame of its own.
Offer an add-on you made: Offer in the library…, with the name shown as its maker and a licence. You see when it is in the library, or why it was not taken.
Report an add-on in the library that does harm; it is taken down after a look, and games that installed it keep playing.
Adding such an add-on says so first: “shows a page of its own code”.
Kits → Shared by others: search the kits other creators shared, see what each needs and how often it was added, add one to your game, or report it.
Folders in the lists (full view): New folder under the search, an entry’s Folder choice to move it in, and a folder’s menu to rename it, delete it or make a kit of everything in it.
Make a kit… now also works for a collection, in its own area (full view).
Kits made with an older version of Talebench are brought up to date when you import or add them.

Look

Title screens look less alike: a band lays the cover picture from edge to edge across the top, and a title at the left now stands beside its picture on a wide window. Deepwatch and the Dice Duel show the two.
On a wide screen a picture in the story now fills the window behind the text, like a stage, instead of standing small in the column with a blurred copy behind it. Phones are unchanged.
A dialogue box at the bottom of the screen grows its text with the window, so a line on a big screen is as easy to read as on a laptop.
Looks that read like a book or a chat keep their pictures on the page; any look can do so with Keep pictures on the page on wide screens (full view).

Playing

Deepwatch lets you go straight to any of its floors from the yard, with what a party walking down would carry by then.
In a scene with places to click, the picture is the way to play: the same actions wait behind one option, What can I do here?, instead of a long list under the picture.
The endings still to find count only endings the story can reach.
On a phone, the values shown at the top of the game are easier to read.
Hold the space bar, or press and hold the picture on a phone, to see every place you can click, each with its name.

Battles

In a battle shown as a list, every fighter’s picture is about twice as large, so a fight looks like a fight.

Help

The developer pages show how to build a puzzle or minigame of your own as an add-on with its own page.

November 9, 2026

An add-on can have settings of its own: in the full view, Features → Add-ons shows them on its card, and the game uses what you set there. · 17 changes

Updates that day: Add-on settings and new versions · Add-ons for your workspace · Add-on pages in your look · Collections as an add-on · Add-on steps · Pages for add-ons · Add-ons with their own moves · Dice as they fell · Editing together, safely · Editing together, more safely

Writing

An add-on can have settings of its own: in the full view, Features → Add-ons shows them on its card, and the game uses what you set there.
Workspace settings have a new area, Add-ons: upload an add-on file, and Talebench checks it and plays its test story before taking it. Each version is kept as it was uploaded.
Before an add-on joins a game, Features shows what it may do and how much it adds to the download. Moving a game to a newer version of an add-on brings its settings along, and saves made with the older version keep playing.
Add-ons can bring their own pictures, their own checks (Check add-ons in the Problems list) and their own words for the printed book.
In the full view, Features → Add-ons adds one of your workspace’s add-ons to a game at a version you choose. The playtest plays it, and publishing copies it into the game, so later versions change nothing there.
Working with a teammate: after a lost connection or a reload of the project, a change your teammate made to the same text is now shown beside yours with the question which to keep — before, your unsaved words could replace theirs.
Working with a teammate: when you type on while a save of yours is still going out and your teammate changed the same thing meanwhile, Talebench now shows both versions and asks which to keep — before, your edit could replace theirs without asking.

Playing

A save remembers the version of each add-on it was made with, and a game that is older than the save says so instead of loading it wrongly.
A save made while an add-on’s step was waiting now loads back at that step.

Battles

Dice battles: the story log shows each throw’s dice as they fell, a die your weapon or shield raised with its +1 beside it (“2+1”), so the combination it names always matches the dice.

Testing and publishing

An exported replay now carries the game’s add-ons, so it plays back the same run on its own. The book says when it leaves out an add-on’s step.

Help

New developer pages, linked at the bottom of the start page: a guide to writing an add-on, a reference and examples, with Talebench’s kits to download. The help has a new article, Add-ons.

Other

Behind the scenes: an add-on’s pages and steps now take your game’s own buttons and fit a phone’s screen. Nothing changes in your games yet.
Behind the scenes: the collections’ pages in the menu are now drawn from what Collections itself describes, the way add-ons will show theirs. They look and work as before.
Behind the scenes: an add-on can now show a step of its own in the story, waiting until the player goes on. Nothing changes in your games yet.
Behind the scenes: an add-on can now show players a page of its own in the game’s menu, drawn by Talebench in your game’s look. Nothing changes in your games yet.
Behind the scenes: add-ons can now bring changes and events of their own, carried out only by the add-on they belong to. Nothing changes in your games yet.

November 8, 2026

When a foe’s feint, shatter or breakthrough beats your defence, it is stamped across the table with what it did, the broken die cracks and a feint’s moved dice glow, until you press play. · 28 changes

Updates that day: Add-ons prove themselves · Saves know their features · Games know their features · Ready for add-ons · Collections as a module · The next file format · Ready for the next format · A run of five · Five dice, tidied · Blows that land, foes you can read · Five dice · Watch the foe’s feint · Every blow seen · Small phones · Strike means strike · Parries that say it right · Cleaner rows of coins · A play button that asks for the blow · The foe’s tricks in plain sight · Dice that strike · Your press lands the blow

Battles

When a foe’s feint, shatter or breakthrough beats your defence, it is stamped across the table with what it did, the broken die cracks and a feint’s moved dice glow, until you press play.
When you press play, every attack die flies at the defence die it meets and strikes it: held, it shatters there; getting through, it flies on into the foe. The same when the foe attacks you.
In a dice duel every exchange now stands with all dice set until you press play; your press sends the dice home and deals the damage.
With five dice the rules of a dice fight call the run “a run of five”: it needs all five dice in a row.
The words of a feint or shatter no longer cover the foe’s weapon coins.
In a dice duel the blow now lands the moment the first die reaches the struck fighter: the damage, its sound and the cry come with the dice, not after them.
You see how a foe throws again: its first throw lands, the dice it keeps get their lock, the ones it throws again shake and fade, then roll.
A foe’s defence dice slide into the places it chose against your dice, so you see what meets what.
With five dice the hint under your throw names the combinations worth chasing: “One away from four of a kind!” or “… a full house!”.
The standard dice battle now throws five dice, one each for the head, the torso, the hands, the legs and the feet; gloves guard the hands. Two new combinations come with them: the full house (three and two alike) feints, four of a kind shatters a defence die, five of a kind breaks through. A pair alone does nothing more.
A parry now needs the same pips: your defence must show the attacker’s combination with the same faces, a pair of 4s against two 4s. Parries are rarer and turn the whole blow away. Games made before keep their four dice and their parry.
Dice Duel plays every table with five dice, Wren in fencing gloves.
When a foe feints in a dice duel, you now see its dice slide to their new places, and the lane shows them in the order they strike. Its “Feint!” stays on the table until you press Go on.
In a dice duel every blow now plays out on the table: the foe’s attack dice fly at your dice and on into your card, a parried attack is crushed on the defence, and your Strike after a feint or shatter flies too.
On a small phone the top of the dice duel no longer slides under the Log and Rules buttons.
After you choose your own feint or shatter, Strike lands the blow at once; no second press on play.
The Parried! stamp names the combinations as they were thrown: a +1 no longer made it read “a pair beats three of a kind”.
When you attack, the row under your dice no longer repeats your weapon with a coin of 0; your weapons stay in your card.
While an exchange waits for you to strike, the play button glows.
A fighter’s card with weapon coins is a little wider, so a foe’s line stays clear of its tag.

Help

The help on battles describes the five-dice standard: five zones with the hands, the full house and five of a kind, the parry by the same pips.

Other

Behind the scenes: a feature delivered as an add-on now brings a small test story, played twice before it is accepted, so that it always gives the same result.
Behind the scenes: a saved game now notes the versions of the features it was played with, so that a save is never opened by a version of Talebench that cannot understand it.
Behind the scenes: a published game now notes which features it uses and in which version, so that future versions of Talebench keep playing it as it was made.
Behind the scenes: the player can now run game features delivered as separate add-on files, safely shut off from everything else. Nothing changes in your games yet; this prepares features you will be able to add to a game later.
Behind the scenes: collections now run as a module of their own, the first step towards features you can add to a game. Your games play exactly as before.
Behind the scenes: games, saves and progress across playthroughs are now written in the next file format, where collections keep their progress as a module of their own. Everything stored before still loads; nothing changes in your games.
Behind the scenes: games, saves and progress across playthroughs from the next file format can already be read, so that the move to it later loses nothing. Nothing changes in your games.

November 7, 2026

After the dice meet, each attack die plays its part: one the defence holds cracks and falls apart, one that gets through flies on into the foe. · 51 changes

Updates that day: Dice that break or get through · Damage comes last · Armour that stays, parries that add up · Your defence dice move again · Weapons in the fighter’s card · The combination once the dice lie · Who starts, once the dice lie · The feint’s words beside the foe · Nothing covers the foe’s card · A tidier dice duel · The standard fights with the weapons you choose · Combination symbols you can read · The standard for a single fight too · Aggressive swords strike back · Foes of every skill, new voices · What your foe does, plain to see · A coin for every weapon · Face to face, on a screen of its own · A second set in your test states · Dice battles on a phone, again · A clearer face-to-face screen · Dice battles on a phone · Weapon traits while you feint · Fixes in dice battles and on the story map · The standard dice battle

Writing

On the story map, the menu of several picked passages fits the window again when Move to chapter unfolds.
In the editor a worn thing has a Kind and a Hold with the standard presets; the book prints both on its card and the defence’s pair reroll in the rules.

Battles

After the dice meet, each attack die plays its part: one the defence holds cracks and falls apart, one that gets through flies on into the foe. Then the damage. The attack no longer flies before the defence dice are even there.
In a dice duel each fighter’s weapon and shield now sit in its own card, at the right. The rows of coins above and below the lanes show only the armour, each coin over the die it guards.
The throw for who starts tells the result only once every die has landed, on a plaque that belongs to the table: dark wood, a gold rim, gold words.
A foe’s skill now tells: a veteran slips now and then, a trained one more often, a novice makes a player’s mistakes. In Dice Duel each table is a little harder than the one before.
A weapon's trait shows on its coin: before it works as a tag (+1, ↩2) that comes and goes as you move dice, and when it works the coin pops — yours and your foe's, in attack and defence. No more small icons on the dice.
In a dice battle every weapon and shield has a coin of its own beside the armour, painted like it: its +1 as the badge, its kind in the corner. The coin that only said 0 is gone.
Before a dice battle, a screen of its own: your foe above, you below, your weapons as large cards to choose from, a painted VS medallion between you and a Start button. The battle comes in when you start.
While you feint or shatter, each weapon's trait shows on the die it would act on: your axe's bite, your hammer's heavy blow, the foe's sword striking back. Move a die and they move with it.
Dice battles have a standard: four dice aimed at head, torso, legs and feet, a defence for every blow, set die against die by you. Switching dice battles on writes it, and Use the standard (full view) puts it into a game that has dice already.
Once your shield’s +1 is placed, tapping your defence dice swaps them again; tap the shield’s coin to move the +1. A second tap on a chosen die lets it go.
When you attack, the foe’s defence dice land and stand against yours for a moment before the damage is dealt; a feint, a shatter or a breakthrough gets its moment too.
While you attack, the foe’s armour coins keep showing only the armour; the defence dice show their own numbers.
A parry compares the combinations as thrown: a +1 from a weapon or a pair no longer turns a pair into three of a kind.
A 1 you raised with a +1 still shows as a 1 with its +1 in a feint, so you see it still gets through.
When your defence shows a pair, you can still drag your dice to other places while you choose which to throw again; before, they stayed put until you threw again.
The symbol of a lane’s combination (a pair, a run …) appears once its dice have landed, not while they still roll.
While you choose a feint or a shatter, its words stand under the foe’s card, no longer over the foe’s portrait.
A foe’s line on its card, like the Dice King’s, is no longer covered by the “Attacks” or “Defends” tag.
On a phone the Log and Rules buttons no longer sit on a tall foe card.
The face-to-face screen before a duel shows each fighter’s portrait as the fight does, not a small whole figure.
On a wide screen the Log and Rules buttons stand one above the other, clear of the foe’s card.
On a phone the hints button stays on your lane while the dice roll.
The standard dice battle no longer swaps weapons during the fight: you choose them before it starts, face to face. A game can still switch swapping on in its dice rules (full view); games that have it keep it.
Dice Duel: no foe takes up a second set any more, and the weapon rack no longer keeps one for you. The Bouncer and the Grand Champion are tuned to match.
The symbol beside a lane’s dice is drawn anew as small dice with their pips: two in a row for a pair, two above two for two pairs, a stair for a run, a triangle for three of a kind, four alike. They read the same in every look and icon style.
A fight with dice rules of its own now offers “Use the standard” as well (full view): it replaces them with the standard dice battle after you confirm, and one undo brings them back.
An aggressive foe with a sword sets its defence to strike back with its riposte, not only to block. Ysolde in Dice Duel fights so.
Dice Duel’s fighters cry out in voices of their own, a parry rings, and Wren has her own portrait.
Choose the second set to swap to in the equipment screen, beside what you wear.
A foe’s rerolls are shown: its dice as they lay, the kept ones lifted, then the new throw; told in the log too.
A foe’s skill and style can be set on its Fights in the editor.
Foes in dice battles have a skill and a style: a novice makes a player’s mistakes, a master always plays its best; aggressive, cautious or a gambler. In Dice Duel the tavern climbs from a novice to the masters.
Dice Duel's weapons and shields are painted in the same style as the armour.
On a phone, the ? button stands just over your dice at the lane's right end, and the combination symbols sit small on the lanes' left ends: neither covers a die or a coin, also while you defend.
Earlier that day
- On a phone, the symbol of your dice's combination and the ? button stand beside your coins under your lane: in the lane they covered your first and last die.
Before a dice battle, your weapons stand on your side of the face-to-face screen, under your name, and a shield shows a shield.
A pair set under a pair now holds whenever the pairing marks it: a pair whose +1 made another pair of the raised dice was looked for in the wrong place.
An axe's bite stays marked on its column after you defend.
A weapon set of an axe and a hammer shows both on its coin: the hammer small in the corner.
Switching dice battles on no longer warns about swapping weapons before your game has any weapons for them.
A test state can keep a second set of weapons, and the printed book has a line on the sheet to write it in when your dice battles swap weapons.
Weapons by how they are held and what kind they are. Two-handed raises three neighbouring dice, two weapons two dice of your choice, a weapon with a shield one die and the shield three dice of your defence. A sword ripostes, an axe bites into a big hit, a hammer’s blocked 6 still hurts. You place every +1 yourself after the throw: nothing is set for you.
A fight opens face to face: the foe with its stats, weapons and temper, you with the weapons you can take up, each showing whether it deals and takes more or less against this foe. Then Start.
A defence that shows a pair may throw up to two of its other dice again, once.
Swap weapons once a turn: Weapons (W) opens your second set and what you carry, each showing what it deals and takes against this foe. The attack that turn goes without its +1s. Foes swap too, when they are hurt or you are.
A parry is plain to see: before you defend, which combination beats which, and when it happens a Parried! stamp with the reason. The order of the combinations is under Rules.
The combinations hit as hard as they are rare: two pairs shatter a defence die, three of a kind feints, both raise their dice like a pair; no critical any more.
Dice Duel plays the standard at every table, against foes with weapons, tempers and voices of their own; at Captain Aldric’s table you choose your weapons from a rack. Cries are quieter.

Testing and publishing

Where your dice battles swap weapons, a test state can give each hero a second set to swap to: a choice per weapon slot, next to what they wear.
In test runs and the fight check, a hero who swaps weapons really takes up the second set.

November 6, 2026

Dice battles that throw for who starts show it on the table: before the throw, then both sums and who starts. · 16 changes

Updates that day: Who starts, plain to see · Kits kept in your workspace · Kits that bring their bundle · Kits in a demo · Make your own kits · Removing a kit · Kits · Lighter still · Lighter stories · Stories without battles load faster · Start with a bundle · Battles as a module

Writing

Make a kit… can now save a kit in your workspace, where every game of the workspace finds it under Kits → Your workspace’s. Saving it again adds a new version, and games that added it are offered the update.
In the full view, pick passages on the story map and choose Make a kit…: they become a kit with what they use, their ways out become ways to connect, and you export it as a file with its pictures and sounds. Kits → Import a kit… adds such a file to another game.
New under Game: Kits — ready game systems made of content that you add in one step: Reputation, Crafting and Trust to begin with. A kit shows what it brings first; afterwards everything it added is yours to change, and its ways into your story are listed until you connect them.
Features now starts with bundles: RPG, Dungeon crawler, Dice duels and Visual novel. Each adds a whole kind of game in one step, shows what it brings and what your game has already, and one undo takes it all back. Removing a bundle keeps what your story uses and says why.
Make a kit… now also starts from a thing chosen under Things, or from an item of the other lists, with everything it refers to.
A kit can say which bundle it is made for. Adding it to a game without that bundle offers the bundle too, and both are added in one step.
The Lantern Keeper now uses two kits: Talebench’s Reputation (ask around town and help the baker) and one of its own, the harbor bell. Open it as an example to see them under Kits → Added.
A kit you added can be removed again under Kits → Added: it takes away only what it added and you have not changed, and names what stays and why. When Talebench brings a newer version of a kit, you are offered it there, with your own changes kept.
Each bundle’s button in Features names its bundle (“Add RPG”), which also helps screen readers.

Playing

The words of dice battles and dungeons now come only with games that have them, so every other game loads a little less.
A game without a world map, shops or a camp no longer downloads those screens either: stories start a little sooner.
A game without battles no longer downloads the battle screen: stories start a little sooner, especially on phones. Games with battles load it with the rest, as before.

Battles

Dice battles that throw for who starts show it on the table: before the throw, then both sums and who starts. The battle waits for Go on before the first turn.
Each dice lane shows a symbol for the combination its dice make (a pair, two pairs, a run, three or four of a kind). Its tooltip says everything the combination does, a weapon’s part named, e.g. “a pair: its dice +1 each · counts double (Axe)”.
The battle system now works as a module of its own, like every other feature that switches on. Your games and their battles play exactly as before.

Other

The book export loads faster: it no longer fetches the battle engine it never runs.

November 5, 2026

Features now lists what your game uses under In this game, and everything else under Add a module: each module says what it needs and how much it adds to your game’s download. · 40 changes

Updates that day: Checks, documents, levels and equipment as modules · World maps and decks as modules · More features as modules · Modules: only what your game uses · A passage between two · Blows you can hear and see · Dice to throw again, and a real axe · One sword on the coin · Iron plaques and sharp badges · Tips where they belong · Rules and log in the table’s colours · Combinations named beside the dice · A proper dice cup · Dice duels on a phone held sideways · A calmer dice table · New faces at the dice tables · Coins in sight while you choose · The dice duel on a phone held sideways · A feint that re-aims every die · Every 1 counts: the stealth jab

Writing

Features now lists what your game uses under In this game, and everything else under Add a module: each module says what it needs and how much it adds to your game’s download. Adding one switches on what it needs with it.
On the story map you can now put a passage between two connected ones in one step: hover an arrow and click its round +, or select the arrow and choose + Passage between. The option keeps its words, the new passage continues to the next one, the cards below make room, and one Undo takes it back.
In the editor, a battle’s look sets the cry of a hard blow, from how much damage it counts and whether it leaves a blood splash; characters and enemies can have their own cry.
The Hammer and the Flanged Mace in the Dice Duel have their own pictures.
In the Dice Duel, Captain Aldric’s axe now shows an axe instead of a sword, and the picture library has an axe of its own.
In the Dice Duel, Sergeant Brask and the Bouncer now each have a portrait of their own.
A skill can now be a special throw: under Needs a die choose a special throw, pick a ready set (1 · 1 · 2, a pair of ones …) or set each die, and see its chance with one throw and over a turn with the game’s rerolls. A weapon’s form (full view) lists its special throws and makes a new one with one click. The book prints it as its dice instead of “a die of any value”.

Playing

Games without dungeons no longer load the dungeon screen, so they start a little faster.

Battles

A blow that gets through now sounds like a blade on flesh, not on armour. From 6 damage the one hit cries out — their own cry if they have one, a woman’s, a man’s or a beast’s — and a blood splash stays on their portrait for the rest of the fight.
The acting fighter’s frame now breathes slowly instead of blinking, the shield is larger without the stray ring around it, and hovering your other coins shows where it would move.
A die you mark to throw again no longer fades away: it keeps its pips readable under a light veil, with a clear ↻ badge at its corner.
A coin showing your weapon’s own picture no longer draws the table’s painted blade under it as well.
At a dice table, Log and Rules are now iron plaques, and the Attacks and Defends badges are sharp plates in the table’s ember and iron instead of blurred pills.
A weapon that adds nothing to your dice now shows its own picture on your coin with 0 and its rule in the tip, so it no longer looks like an empty slot.
The hints’ scroll sits in the middle of your lane, the coins stand as far from their lanes above as below, and on a phone held sideways your coins stay in view at every moment.
The tip for pairing your defence dice now appears at the dice instead of in the window’s top left corner, and the ? hints are in the dice table’s colours.
At a dice table the fight’s Rules and Log now open in the table’s own look — dark wood under an iron rim — instead of a light card over the dark table.
In a dice duel on a wider screen, a combination’s name (“a pair”) now appears beside the dice instead of on top of the coin above the lane.
Dice thrown face down now lie under a stitched leather cup with a question mark, and their backs no longer peek over its rim. In a feint or shatter on a phone, the defender’s role badge steps aside for the instruction.
On a phone held sideways, a dice duel now fits the screen while you defend: thinner lanes, and your coins with their numbers stay in view.
When a face-down defence is revealed, its combination is now named once instead of twice on top of each other.
In a dice duel, tooltips no longer pop up by themselves when the next button appears under your resting pointer — only when you move over something.
A feint or shatter now fits on a 1280 × 720 screen: its instruction sits over the foot of the foe’s card, and momentum shares the row of the fighter’s statuses.
In a dice battle each blow now sounds once: where the battle’s look has its own hit or miss sound, the dice no longer add theirs on top.
A worn armour piece’s tooltip now reads + like its coin, and long sessions with many dice battles stay light.
While your feint or shatter waits, the coins with the foe’s armour and your own now stay on the table, and the instruction stands clear of them.
While you line up your defence, the shield now moves by its keys (H, T, L, F) as well as by a tap.
On a phone held sideways the whole dice duel now fits the screen, the coins above and below the lanes included, and the Attacks and Defends badges no longer cover the fighters’ names.
A foe’s defence laid face down now lies in the foe’s own lane, and a tooltip no longer opens by itself at the start of each turn.
A feint now lets you set all your dice where you want them: drag a die onto another place, or tap two, as often as you like, and see what gets through at each place before you press Strike.
Once you strike, the table keeps your blow as you made it — your dice in their new places, the broken defence die, what got through at each place — until the next throw.
Your defence dice now roll in from the right, one after another, like a throw.
In a dice duel the tooltips are the table’s own, and armour reads as what it adds to the defence (+3).
In the dice fights with zones a die that falls as 1 now always deals 1 damage, past armour and shield — unless the defence sets a 1 against it. A 1 is worth keeping now, and fewer blows deal nothing. Creators switch it on per fight: “1s always get through”.
Three 1s are the Stealth Strike: Wren spends them for three times their sum, past any armour and defence.
A coin whose piece you do not wear — no weapon, or a zone nothing guards — now shows its piece grey.

Help

The editor shows only what your game uses: the player texts and help articles of modules your game does not use stay folded away until you add them.

Other

Dice checks, documents, levels and equipment now work as modules of their own too. Your games play exactly as before.
World maps and decks now work as modules of their own too, and every module now joins the game in the same few ways. Your games play exactly as before and download a little less.
Collections, shops, camp, and time and weather now work as modules of their own, as dungeons and dice battles already do. Your games play exactly as before; this prepares the way for modules you can add to your games yourself.

November 4, 2026

A one-against-one dice duel now takes the screen while it lasts: it stands still in the window under the top bar, the story’s text steps away until the fight is over, and nothing scrolls. · 29 changes

Updates that day: A table that holds still when you drag · Feint by hand, a shield that counts, throw again your way · Your lane stays while Aldric’s blow lands · Your feint and your shatter are your choice · The rules of each dice fight, one click away · Attack and defence always shown in a dice duel · One Victory! at a time · Die against die, heard · Your dice lane stays while you defend · The duel takes the screen · A dungeon map that shows what you know · A steadier test play · Quieter error reports · One number for a defended blow · A tidier cell panel

Writing

In the dungeon editor, a plain wall, door or one-way line no longer gets a box of its own under a cell’s Walls and doors: only a locked door, a gate or a secret wall does, where there is something to set.

Look

On a wide window each dice table has ornaments beside the duel — chains, dragon wings, gothic iron, rune stones, brass gears or elven vines — and the runes on its crest glow gently (still with Reduce motion).

Playing

Sound captions now stand side by side under the top bar instead of one under the other, so two at once no longer reach into the picture.
A value with a bar shown as a percentage under Stats now also gives the same numbers as the top of the game, for example 6 / 10 · 60 %, measured against the bar’s maximum.
A dungeon’s map that grows as you walk now shows the part you know, large in the middle of the screen, instead of a few small cells in a corner of the whole floor.

Battles

A one-against-one dice duel now takes the screen while it lasts: it stands still in the window under the top bar, the story’s text steps away until the fight is over, and nothing scrolls. The fight’s own lines are in its Log; afterwards the story comes back where it was.
Dragging a die in a dice duel — to aim it or to set your defence — now shows the die under your finger or mouse, and the table no longer jumps.
Momentum now shows in the fighter’s card under the health, and the lane of whoever attacks glows like their card.
A die raised past 6 keeps its pips and shows what was added (+1), never a bare number.
On the iron-and-wood table the centre is a painted iron medallion, and the hints sit behind a small scroll.
When your feint or shatter waits, the dice duel now says so over the lanes, the dice you can tap glow, and the button reads Strike.
While you line up your defence, the numbers under the dice now count each zone’s armour and your shield, and change as soon as you move the shield; your coins stand a little further below them.
Throw again: tap the dice you want to throw again — they fade with a ↻ — and the others stay. Tap none to throw them all.
The centre of the dice table is now a round riveted medallion holding the main button.
In Captain Aldric’s fight your lane no longer disappears after you press Defend: your defence dice stay set against his, with what got through under each, until the next throw.
In a dice duel your feint and your shatter are now yours to choose: once the foe’s defence dice lie against your attack, tap two of your dice to swap them, or tap one of theirs to break it, and see what gets through at each place before you press Strike. Strike with nothing chosen and the blow goes as it lies. Foes still choose on their own.
A dice duel says less: no more lines of words over and under the dice. The hints — what a parry needs, how close you are to a better combination, what your throw would do — wait behind a ? at your lane, and the fighters stand larger, right at their lanes.
On a dice table the coins at the dice now show painted armour — helmet, breastplate, greaves, boots — and a sword for your attack; a shield lies as a small round shield on the zone it guards.
A dice battle has a Rules button beside its log: it opens this fight’s own rules in a dialog — the throw, the zones, the defence, the combinations with their chances, what outplays a defence, momentum and your dice tricks — and only what this fight uses. The log opens in a dialog too, with every line of the fight, and the table no longer moves when either opens.
Captain Aldric’s fight now goes turn by turn: no combination gives a second attack in a row, and Wren fights him without the Fireball.
A dice battle shows your foe’s HP in numbers, like your own.
While you defend, your zones with their armour and shield stay on the table, and the shield now sits as a small tilted chip on its zone, so you still see the zone’s own armour below it.
In a dice duel the attack bonus and the defence now stand at the lanes at every moment of the fight, also when they are zero: what adds nothing shows 0 instead of no coin at all.
After a won battle with a victory screen, the result in the story now waits behind it and shows once you go on, so Victory! no longer stands twice on the screen.
In a dice duel each pair of dice set against each other is now heard as it resolves, column by column: a hard click where the defence holds, a dull thud where the attack gets through, heavier the more it lets through, and then the blow itself. A feint, a shatter and a breakthrough each have a sound of their own.
In a dice duel your own lane no longer disappears for a moment when you throw to defend: your dice stay on the table until the die-against-die pairing takes their place, with Defend beside it.
When a foe defends in a dice duel, the line over the lanes and the line under them now name the same number for your attack.

Testing and publishing

Restarting or loading the test play right after the game saved your place no longer leaves an error behind now and then.

Other

A harmless notice some browsers give while a page resizes is no longer reported as an error, so real errors stand out.

November 3, 2026

When a foe in a dice duel defends die against die, each of its dice now shows under it what your die above got through (or ✕), and the line under the lanes sets your dice against its dice (“19 vs 7: 13 damage”), so you can follow how the damage came. · 16 changes

Updates that day: See how a parried blow’s damage comes · A defence’s total no longer shown as armour · Coins that count right against a defence · A party of four stands two and two · Hit zones in sight from the start · Dungeon words and wide screens · Walls and doors right under What’s here · A dungeon’s check fits the window · A duel’s last blow told right · A dungeon’s floor and ceiling their own · Dungeon cells set in one step · Your gear always in sight, a calmer Fireball

Writing

Make tiles has a Floor and a Ceiling of their own: stone walls over wooden boards under bare dark rock, each with its own material and colours, or as the walls go. An area’s own tiles have them too. Deepwatch’s ossuary now stands on flagstones under black rock.
In the dungeon editor, a selected cell sets what stands on it and around it in one step: What’s here picks a chest, stairs, a way out or any other feature, and Walls and doors has a dropdown for each side (open, wall, door, and in the full view locked doors, secret walls, one-way lines and gates).
In the dungeon editor, a cell’s Walls and doors now stand right under What’s here, so a chest’s or a trap’s form below never pushes them out of view.

Playing

A dungeon’s made words list its ways as a list: “Ways lead north, east, south and west”, not “north and east and south and west”.
On a wide screen a dungeon seen from inside keeps its picture at the top of its panel, the small map in its corner on the picture.
When a trap or a check waits in a dungeon seen from inside, the picture grows a little lower so the whole screen, down to its Map button, stays in a low window; the party keeps its row.

Battles

When a foe in a dice duel defends die against die, each of its dice now shows under it what your die above got through (or ✕), and the line under the lanes sets your dice against its dice (“19 vs 7: 13 damage”), so you can follow how the damage came.
In a dice duel with hit zones, the foe’s zones stand at its lane from the opening and from the start of your turn, before you throw, each coin with its body part’s icon (helmet, armour, legs, boots, or a shield where one stands).
In a one-against-one dice battle the coins at the lanes now stay the whole fight, not only after a blow: whoever’s turn it is shows what their gear adds to the attack, the other side its armour, and every coin carries an icon.
In a dice duel with defence throws, the coins at the lanes show the fighters’ own armour and what they add, never the defence’s total as if it were armour (the Masked Gambler wore a “−9”).
In a dice duel with defence throws, the coins at the lanes no longer show a “−0” for a foe without armour, nor the defence’s share as if the attacker had taken it from their own throw; while you defend, the foe’s attack and your armour stand at the lanes.
In battle, four fighters on a side now stand two and two instead of three in a row with one alone below.
When a foe’s blow ends a dice duel, the line over the lanes now says it is the foe’s turn; it kept the line before it (“Throw for who starts”).
On a drawn dice table the crest steps aside while Skills, Things or More stand in the action lane, instead of peeking out behind them.
A greyed command in a battle says why in words (“Not ready yet”, “Costs too much”).
Dice Duel: Wren’s Fireball needs a turn to gather after each use, and two fights were eased to match.

November 2, 2026

A chapter’s own music · 14 changes

Updates that day: A chapter’s own music · See the defence, hear the commands · The duel says what is left · Skills in the action lane · Dice tricks as coins · The duel stays together · Attack in the middle, tricks on the table · The attack’s damage on its button · Defence throws that fit the screen · The duel’s moment whole on a phone · Your gear at your dice while you aim · A dice duel that holds still

Writing

A chapter can have its own music: set it in the chapter’s dialog (your own file, a tune that comes with Talebench or one made with AI), and it starts whenever the story enters the chapter, without a Play music change in every way in. A passage’s own Play music or its scene’s music still wins. The Crystal of Aster’s Merrowgate and Hollowdeep now use it.

Battles

In a dice battle, when a foe throws to defend against your attack, its dice and what they did now stay until you press Go on (or Enter), so you can see how the damage came about.
The dice duel’s commands make a short, crisp sound when you press them: a blade’s swish for Attack, a cup’s snap for Throw again, a shield’s knock for Hold back and Defend.
On a phone the shield’s hint no longer names keyboard keys.
When you have thrown to defend in a dice duel, the line over the lanes now says to line up your dice and defend, instead of still asking you to throw.
In a dice duel, Skills and the ⋯ menu open as one row in the middle action lane instead of a column that pushed your dice and your card down; Back brings the lane’s buttons back. On a phone, six commands now always stay inside the lane, and a duel no longer slides up out of the window at its first turn.
In a dice duel your dice tricks are round coins next to your circles under your dice: each shows what it does as an icon and how often it is left, its name when you point at it. The duel no longer grows a row for them, so it fits a 1280 × 720 window and a phone with every trick.
On a tall window a dice duel keeps the fighters’ cards right at their dice lanes, the whole duel in the middle of its frame, instead of the cards at the frame’s edges, and the near-miss hint stands right under the sum.
In a dice duel the Attack button stays right over the table’s crest however many commands stand beside it, and dice tricks like Steady Hand look like the table’s coins instead of plain light buttons.
In a dice duel what your attack would do now stands as a small number on the Attack button, red with its damage or grey 0 when it would be blocked, so the line under the dice is shorter. A near miss is still said in words.
A dice duel with defence throws now fits a 1280 × 720 screen at every moment: what gets through each die stands on the lane’s edge, the total in the line under the lanes, and the duel stays at the same place under the top bar at each decision.
On a phone the line over a dice duel’s lanes, who attacks and what to do, now shows whole on two lines instead of being cut off.
In a dice duel with hit zones your lane now shows what your attack adds while you aim, one coin for your strength and one for each worn thing with its picture. The glow of a combination lights its own dice in the aimed order, its name stands above the dice’s +1 badges, and a wide foe like the Wyvern shows whole on its card. In Dice Duel, Strength now counts against the Wyvern.
In a dice duel nothing moves any more between the opening throw and the first turn: the lanes, the buttons and the hero’s card keep their places on a phone and on a large screen, and the line over the lanes says what to do first.

November 1, 2026

New for dice battles with defence throws: Like answers like. · 45 changes

Updates that day: Combinations that shake the table · Five more dice tables · The dice duel fits a laptop window · A dice battle stays in view · Painted boots and gloves · Dice duels: your gear on the table · Dice duels: portraits in frames, the right pair in the right lane · Dice tables: the duel on iron and wood · The real sum under the dice, readable results, the defence’s steps told apart · A dice duel fits a phone · A pair: its two dice count +1 · An action lane between the dice lanes; zones as circles · Dice lanes: the foe’s dice above, yours below, your commands beside them · A run counts as its highest die; the top bar in icons · Your defence thrown once, a quieter dice battle, the Grand Champion · Four zones fit on a phone · Momentum over the dice · The Attack button names the foe, one line says the moment · A pair stops a pair · Dice blows you can hear · A duel reads top to bottom · Four hit zones, die against die · Combinations that beat the defence

Look

A game’s look can now set its dice duels on five more tables: Dragon scale and brimstone, Gothic cathedral and iron, Ancient runic stone, Steampunk and scrap metal, and Elven forest and ironwood. Each brings its own surface, band and crest, and the fighters’ cards, commands and coins take its metal and glow. Their pictures are in the library too.
In a one-against-one dice battle both fighters stand in the same frame as the dice lanes and show a portrait (the character’s portrait frame, else head and shoulders), all the same size whatever the picture.
A game’s look can set the table its dice duels stand on. The first is Iron and wood: oak planks in iron bands with rivets, the commands as iron rims on an iron bar under a crest with glowing runes, the circles as iron coins, in a darkened scene. Dice Duel uses it.

Playing

The top bar shows icons only; their names are the tooltips, so it fits in every language.

Battles

New for dice battles with defence throws: Like answers like. Set your own pair under the attacker’s pair and it holds, whatever the numbers, and the pair’s effects are gone. The attacker’s combination is marked while you pair your dice.
In dice battles every blow that gets through now lands with a thump, louder the more it deals, and a held blow knocks against the guard. Dice Duel plays the sound library’s hit and block on top.
In a dice battle of one against one, the foe stands at the top and your hero at the bottom, the dice between them, so every exchange reads from top to bottom. The buttons stay where they are while the dice land.
Dice battles can aim at four zones: head, torso, legs and feet, one die for each and none set aside. Switch on Four zones in the battle rules; boots can guard the feet.
New dice effects for fights with defence throws: Feint swaps two of your dice once the defence is set, Shatter takes away the defence die that blocks most, Breakthrough lets no defence die count. Choose them for any combination in the battle rules.
A dice combination can now shake the battle and make a phone rumble when the dice show it: a pair a little, a run more, four of a kind most. Set it with Shake the screen under the combination’s colour and sound. In Dice Duel every run shakes the table.
A dice duel fits a 1280 × 720 window with both fighters whole: the round’s line is said once over the dice, the Log sits in the battle’s corner, the cards and the action lane are a little smaller, and the hint to keep dice shows once a battle (then as the dice’s tooltip).
A pair you hold shows its +1 badges at once, and the momentum is a short ⚡+1 beside the moment’s line.
A dice battle could stand above the window with only its last card showing and the page empty below. It now comes back under the top bar when your next move is due.
The circles at the dice lanes are round coins with their number written over them. What you wear shows as coins of its own: each thing that adds to your armour or your attack with its picture (or its slot’s icon: helmet, armour, boots, gloves …) and its +1 or −2; what is your own one plain coin.
In Dice Duel, Wren now wears Road Boots, Leather Gloves and a Sealed Ember: her Armour and Strength are the same as before, part of them now from her gear.
A foe’s pair showed beside your previous throw as if you had one too: an attack now clears the other lane of the exchange before, and a pair’s +1 badges stay once its dice land.
Throw again carries a small die, like the throw for who starts.
In a dice duel an attack shows the target’s armour as a circle in its lane and what the thrower added in the thrower’s, and the line under the lanes the real sum: “14 + 3 − 5 = 12 damage”.
When you set your defence die against die, what gets through shows as a readable badge under each die (✕ held).
Throw to defend is a die and Defend, which sends your dice as set, a shield with a check, so the two steps no longer look alike.
Each exchange starts with the defender’s lane empty: your last attack no longer stands under the foe’s blow as if it were your defence.
On a phone a one-against-one dice battle now fits the screen: smaller fighters’ pictures, the Log beside the round’s line and a shorter preview line.
Dragging a defence die onto another counts the column you drop it over, even a little above or below the lane.
In dice battles a pair no longer cannot be blocked: its two dice count one more each, shown as a +1 badge on the faces they fell on. New dice battles use it, and so do Dice Duel’s fights.
A foe’s attack that waits for your defence shows its dice as they will count (a run turned, a pair raised), so you set your shield and your dice against the real ones.
With hit zones, keeping a die for Throw again marks the die you tapped.
In a one-against-one dice battle all your commands are round buttons in an action lane between the foe’s dice lane and yours; the lanes stay where they are, and the throw for who starts lands in them too.
With hit zones your dice stay in your lane in the zones’ order: drag a die to another zone, tap one to keep it for Throw again. Each zone is a circle at its place showing its armour; the zone and its gear are in the tooltip, and a tap on your own circle moves your shield there.
In a one-against-one dice battle the dice stand in two lanes between the fighters: the foe’s above, yours below. Each side’s dice stay in their lane; your defence lines up under the attack it answers.
Attack, Throw again, Defend, Skills and more are round icons beside your dice; their names are the tooltips.
In dice battles a run now counts as its highest die: 3 · 4 · 5 counts 5 · 5 · 5, and you see the dice turn. New dice battles use it for runs, and so does Dice Duel.
Defending die against die: your defence dice roll once, right under the attack’s dice on the same table, and after Defend they stay as you set them with the outcome under them. They are no longer thrown a second time.
The battle’s lines under the foe are folded into a small Log button in dice battles; the story so far still keeps every line.
On a phone, nothing in a dice battle runs past the screen’s right edge any more.
Dice Duel has a new fight, the Grand Champion, with every dice rule at once: four zones, gear, defence by hand, like answers like, hidden dice, tricks and every combination.
In dice battles with four hit zones the feet were cut off at the right edge of a phone; the four columns now share the screen’s width.
In dice battles your momentum now stands right over your dice, beside the line that says whose turn it is, instead of under the buttons.
In dice battles the Attack button says whom it strikes: “Attack Pip the Cinder Imp”, or the foe you tapped when there are several.
One line over the dice says what is happening: your turn, the foe’s turn, its attack waiting for your defence, its defence against your throw.
Captain Aldric fights with it, on both sides.
The Combinations table of a duel is under ⋯, so nothing but your turn stands under the dice.
With four zones the zones stand side by side, your die against the other’s in each, so you see at a glance how the foe defended your attack.
Captain Aldric now fights on four zones with four defence dice.
Captain Aldric now fights with them: a pair grazes, two pairs feint, three of a kind shatters, four of a kind breaks through. The log tells you when it happens.

Other

The library has painted boots and gloves for things, free to use. In Dice Duel, Wren’s Road Boots and Leather Gloves wear them, on her coins at the dice lanes too.