I got the chance to get in my first game play of Call To Adventure from Brotherwise Games last night with the Stormlight Archive version in cooperative play. I will eventually come back and play it competitively but I wanted to talk about it some while it is fresh in my mind. This won’t be a full review, I need to play it more. It is more of a first look.

How To Play Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archive

This isn’t the full details, like I said, it’s a first impression. And along with that, I need to try competitive mode still. But the basics of the game generally remains the same. In this game you are building out your heroes grand adventure in three different acts. You cast runes to test your skills and complete challenges to get story elements.

To do this you cast three basic runes that can give you 1 or no points for a check. And you cast runes based off of skills on the card. Those are your standard Dungeons and Dragons stats. So you can cast up to three runes of each type which can give you more points and better points since it is a skill you are good at.

In the cooperative game you are trying to get your characters levelled up to cast runes against Odium at the end of the game. Odium has hit points and you remove them throughout the game in various ways. Mainly if you get cards with radiant symbols. But if you fail checks it can also add more onto him. So you all work together to make sure you pass checks and can take out Odium in the end by casting your best runes.

What Doesn’t Work

Right now I think the weakest thing is that the story, while there, could be there more. When I play, I want to really tell a story of what I am doing. And I think that is something the game can encourage. It is almost a backstory generation for an RPG campaign. Especially if you are starting higher than level 1. I also know know that for some people that won’t work, telling more story. But I’d probably implement some story time in my game as the cards really lead you.

The game is also very light. This might be more for whom it is for, but the combination of light game play and the casting of runes, epic fantasy artwork, it feels off slightly. You almost expect the game to be more strategic looking at it, but it is very casual in what it does. And in the competitive version, it will have some take that, which might turn some players off as it doesn’t match the theme that well.

What Works

I enjoyed the cooperative game play quite a lot. I thought that Odium was an interesting villain and while what he does is fairly simple. And you can change him up with one of several cards that you assign to him at the beginning. We played on one that I think is a harder one and managed to win. But that is because we leveraged our cooperation a lot we were able to win.

I also think the game played well as cooperative because had less downtime. This is a lighter game, as I said, so downtime isn’t a major issue. You have a limited number of choices so you pick one and go with it. But in cooperative you help other players. I play a card and it improves your chances of completing your challenge. Competitive it’d be more take that and playing cards on yourself.

The light game play is also nice. Again, it helps with downtime. But it also made it pretty easy to pick up. I think the rules are solid. And I think you could get down to it and get playing fast. More teaching would occur during the game but it is easy enough that you could do that. And because of the great artwork, I think it’s a nice game to draw people in.

Let’s finish with the artwork. It is amazing. It helps that I know the characters. But even if you don’t, the artwork is gorgeous. And it is likely going to make you want to reach the books to find out what everything means. But the qualify of the game is very solid overall. The player board is a bit thin, but cards are nice, runes are nice, and cardboard tokens are nice.

Who Is It For?

This is more of a gateway game than I was expecting. I think that people who are familiar with a few games or a few concepts would be able to pick up this game. I might not pull it out over something like Catan or Ticket to Ride, but it is close to that. And, in all fairness, I might pull it out over them because of how much I’ve played those two.

If you are looking for a highly strategic game, there are elements of strategy. But it is not going to wow you with the strategy in the game. This is more about the artwork and that lighter game play than heavy decision making.

Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archive – First Impressions

I had a good time with the game. I want to try it as a competitive game. But I suspect I will prefer it cooperative. A game like Call to Adventure could rely too much on take that, I think, in competitive mode. And to be trying to set yourself up for that one perfect card or toss and have someone mess with it is not that fun.

I also wonder about staying power for the game. The game is likely to stay in my collection because it’s Stormlight Archive versus it being a highly replayable game. There are elements that change it up, but is it enough. Granted, Brandon Sanderson is writing more books in the series, so it could be one that comes back and works out just fine with another expansion in two years. Overall, it is a fun game that I think is a bit lighter than I’d life if I didn’t love the theme.

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