Solomon Kane

So, as I talked about in that article, Solomon Kane is one of those games that I saw on Kickstarter but then didn’t back and have been regretting it since. The concept of the game is cool, it is based off of a book or graphic novel series about the title character Solomon Kane. What was unique about this game was how it’s a dungeon crawl or adventure type game, but no one plays the title hero Solomon Kane. They all play virtues that are influencing him, so jointly the group all controls Kane and gets him to do what is needed.

So, story time as to how I got the game. I talk about the GloryHoundd channel a lot, and that’s because they are great. They have a discord and a member over there, Fatal will be what we call them, has also been trying to track down Solomon Kane. As soon as it started shipping to backers, it of course hit Ebay as well. They picked it up for some unknown amount of money. Then a few days ago, I get a message on Discord. They have found it again on Ebay and while most pledges seem to be going at $300+ with shipping, this one was at auction for $100 and a buy now with free shipping for $200. So they thought of me and probably wished they had waited themselves, and sent it my way. I of course jumped on it and have it on it’s way now.

Bloodborne

Another big Kickstarter game, but this one I didn’t go onto Ebay or anything like that. In fact, I’m not buying all the Kickstarter bits and bobs, just the base game which has hit retail now. Based off of the video game, this is an adventuring game that will probably have you dying pretty often. But it’s not a massive campaign game, one that can probably be knocked out, at least a story can be over a few sessions or maybe even one long session. While I still love my big campaign games, I also want to play my non-campaign games as well. What I am trying to do is find some epic games, Bloodborne seems like one, where I can play it in a session or two and it’ll feel epic like a campaign game. I want that fun experience in as many games as I can. With 2020, though, most of those experiences were one off or farther between, so I add to my collection to hopefully increase games that can give that to me.

Deep Madness: Epic Monster

Yup, I swung past my friendly local game store, All Systems Go!, again. This time I traded in 12 seasons for South Park. I can find South Park online and I’m not sure when I’d watch it again. I like the s how quite well, but not one I’m going to checkout. So I picked up another epic monster. That gives me three of them now which basically just creates some scenarios where you can play with different monsters and have them behave differently. I’m sure this new one will kill me just as happily as the first ones will kill me.

Now, with that trade, I’m torn on what I’m going to pick up. I still have store credit from Dice Throne Season 1, Dice Throne Adventures, Sword & Sorcery (plus expansions) and those 12 seasons of South Park. There are two things I’m interested in. The first is more Deep Madness, there are two expansions and probably 2 epic monsters there that I haven’t picked up yet. So I could use the store credit for that. Or they have Pitch Car plus 4 expansions there. What tempts me about Pitch Car is that I think it’ll be a good one for the toddler to learn to play eventually. Something that we’ll all enjoy playing as a family, him with friends as he gets older, and even for game nights when we do those in person again.

Which of those two would you get? And which of the things I picked up seems the most interesting?

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Cthulhu: Death May Die

The biggest box of them all is for Death May Die. Now, do I really need another game with a Cthulhu theme, probably not, but is this one I’ve wanted for a while? Yes it is. This game, if it had been at my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) when I had my free game up to $100, I probably would have picked it up over Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea, but I’m happy, because I have both now. Death May Die is different from the Fantasy Flight Arkham Games in that it’s more of a dice chucker. You are getting in there, getting madness and hoping to stop things from falling apart. Original a Kickstarted game from CMON, it was known for having a giant Cthulhu add-on buy, which can’t be used with the game, but looks awesome. I didn’t get that, which I’m fine with, but the base game, I’m excited to try it and most likely go mad and die.

Aeon’s End Expansions

Now for the “get to free shipping” part of the Point or Order, I got two more of the small expansions for Aeon’s End. Now, I’d feel bad about it, but I love the game, and I need to play it way more. The expansions add little tweaks to the game or new content to play with. Between the two expansions, I get two new mages, and three new nemesis to face off against. The only thing that they don’t give you is a better storage solution for when you have everything. I am hoping some day I’ll get it all down to one or two boxes. Aeon’s End is a game that I’ll eventually get most things for but one that I will get them over time, don’t need them all now.

Formula D: Track Expansions

Two track expansions were what I picked up from the garage sale. Now, there were some other interesting games, but I had primarily gone to see if the Battlestar Galactica was there. It was not, and he had sold it for $150, which was more than I’d have paid for it anyways. But, since the person running the sale set times for people to show up, I felt bad about not buying anything. And he had two expansion tracks for Formula D, a dice chucking racing game that I want to play. I got the base game shortly before the pandemic, if I remember correctly. It hasn’t gotten to the table. These tracks give the game more variety, which will be fun.

Deep Madness: Epic Monster

I swung by my FLGS again, and I’ll tell the story below. When I do that, I generally pick up something, though yesterday I dropped off a bunch to sell as well (see Point of Sale Article coming out today as well). But they still have expansions that are hard to find for Deep Madness. You basically have to get them used. As long as they are there, I will slowly pick them up. Do I need more for the game right now, the answer is no. But when will I see them again, who knows. Deep Madness is one that I should play on Malts and Meeples soon. And I think more monsters in a game is never a bad thing, except being bad for my winning percentage.

Dice Throne Adventure Painted Minis Season 1 and 2

Join me for story time. I was browsing Facebook, scrolling through like one does, on Saturday. I’m part of the Minnesota Board Game selling and buying group and I happened to see that someone was selling Dice Throne Adventure for $70. But it wasn’t just Dice Throne Adventure, it had the Season 1 and Season 2 minis for the game characters and the painted ones from the pledge. Are they need for the game, no, but do they look very cool, generally yes. I had wanted to get them during the Dice Throne Adventure Kickstarter, but getting the Treant vs Ninja duel pack, and just the cost of Dice Throne Adventure, I decided I shouldn’t. The two seasons of minis, as an add-on, cost $70. So when I saw them for the same price, plus getting Adventure for $70, it seemed like too good a deal to pass up. I knew I could just turn around and sell or trade the Adventures immediately, and store credit is just easier than selling it myself. So now I am really happy to own those painted minis, will it cause the game to hit the table more, probably not, but will it look cooler when it does, most definitely.

Which of these games looks the most interesting to you? Have you had any awesome purchases recently?

I think I am most excited to get Dice Throne Adventure to the table now with the minis.

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Pros

• Aesthetic
• Quick Game Play
• Price
• Quality of Components
• Pedigree of company
• Theme

Cons

• Two player only
• Collectible Card Game feel

The Page

Roxley knows what they are doing when it comes to Kickstarter, I have Dice Throne Season One, all the duel boxes for season 2, the Treant and Ninja for Season 1, and Dice Throne Adventure from them. Their quality of game is not something that I’m remotely concerned about, and they have my interest every time that they create a Kickstarter.

The art on the page and in the game is just amazing. Manny Trembley, who did Dice Throne as well, is one of my favorite board game artists. He and Damien Mammoliti did an amazing job on the page and on the game creating artwork that really evokes this Mad Max or Warriors almost setting.

And Roxley always does a good job of highlighting their quality as well. The Synth cards are really cool and I want to know what they feel like. Beyond that, having seen their other games, I know that the tokens will be good quality and that box seems really nice. I even like the playmats a lot, though that’s mainly for the artwork versus because I think that the game needs them.

The Game

So, like I said, when Roxley makes something, I’m going to be interested. And I am interested in Radlands because I like how quick the game plays. I’ve watched two playthroughs over on GloryHoundd’s YouTube channel and it plays really quickly both of the times, and the games play out differently through multiple plays.

I put it in a con, but I like that it’s two player, kind of. If it were more than two player the game would take a lot longer to play because there would be more bases to destroy, players would be trying to slow down whomever was in the lead, and things would just kind of pass around and people would have more time to build up defenses and such.

I’m less thrilled with the CCG feel of the game. Now, thankfully it’s not a collectible card game. Everything you need to play the game is in that one box, and while I’m sure they can expand, I wouldn’t imagine that they’d ever consider doing something like Magic: The Gathering. However, the comparison is there a little bit as to how the game plays, and for me, that’s a hard sell. I can tell that the game is balanced and interesting to play from what I have seen in playthroughs, but is it one that I’d play a lot?

Back or Brick

But that was getting into the area to answer to my question down here, is it a Back or a Brick? For me, unfortunately, this game is a Brick. Not because I don’t think it’s a good game, I’m guessing I’d love the game. However, as a two player game that can feel a bit like a CGG, I don’t know when I’d played it, or who I’d play it with. The game would probably hold resale value, but I don’t want to get a game to then just sell it in a couple of years after it’s been sitting on my shelf looking pretty and maybe getting played a couple of times. I highly recommend this game for most people, but I’m not sure I have space for it on my shelf.

How about for you, is this game a back or a brick?

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Tainted Grail Expansions

So, I already have the base game for Tainted Grail and you can find my thoughts on that here. It’s a game that I really enjoy that has a very interesting story. When the pandemic hit, though, that kind of put a lot of gaming for me on the back burner, which is odd because I was playing Tainted Grail solo, then we are moving, so that makes it even trickier to get to the table and stream. So what’s coming exactly.

There’s a big chunk of stuff coming, there are two big box expansions that are basically the time of the first game, so probably 150 hours worth of game play when it’s all said and done, plus a side expansion that you can do after any of the other expansions, plus a mini-character expansion that basically adds more to the characters and you can go through more of a journey with them with getting certain goals done. I’m really excited for more story, but it also might me that even post move, I put my game of this on pause since shipping should be in November and I have more I can stream in the meantime, so I could wait for the character expansion to add to what I already have going on.

I’m also curious to know what the new mechanics will be in the expansions. I know that it adds in new things for both of them which is cool. I also find it interesting that the expansions do not go in chronological order. The first expansion takes place after the base game, but the second expansion takes place before both of them as kind of a prelude for events to come, so I’m going to be curious to see how they can do the branching storyline with that one.

Excitement Meter: 9 of 10

Dice Throne Adventure + Ninja vs Treant

Dice Throne Adventures is a game where you can take the Dice Throne characters you’ve been battling against each other in a tournament on a quest to take down the Emperor who sits on the Dice Throne, but first you need to find your way through the twisted lands and face off against past competitors who have been twisted by the powers of the Emperor.

One of the cool things is that the main mechanics of the game don’t change. You’re still chucking dice in order to attack and put up a defense, but now it’s a cooperative adventure where you’re all working together. You get loot, level up not just your character but your decks as well, which is awesome, and if you can make it through, you’ll get a chance to face off against the Emperor at the end. I like the idea of the leveling up, and while the game doesn’t seem overly complex, I think it’s going to be a fun addition to everything else that I have for Dice Throne, and I have all the other characters.

Well, I have almost all the other characters, I’m missing two, because the Treant, I believe, was in Season 1 of the Kickstarter. The Treant and Ninja give me 16 total characters that I can play between the two seasons in a massive tournament if I want, or I can add them into Dice Throne Adventure as well. I can imagine doing a massive tournament with a few people, go through all 16, and then the final four would end up being taken through Dice Throne Adventures, and that would just be an epic event.

Dice Throne Adventures: Excitement Meter – 7.5 out of 10

Treant vs Ninja: Excitement Meter 8.5 out of 10

So, two more down. Do either of these interest you. My interest level is really high for both, and it sounds like both should be delivering later in the year. I just have to update my mailing address so they get to the right place when they do ship.

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10 – Dead of Winter
The zombies have taken over and you need to find a cure, get enough fuel to move, or one of several more scenarios, but can you trust everyone in your midst? Probably not, and should they fully trust you, probably not. In this game you play as survivors of the zombie apocalypse who are just trying to survive against the horde of zombies in the town, but there might be a traitor in your midst. There’s a sense of adventure in this game as you feel like you’re playing through The Walking Dead or other zombie time story where it is more focused on the survivors and if you can really trust them. Plus, the crossroads cards offer you a lot of tough decisions to make as well, maybe you can save someone and add them to your team, but will there be enough food to feed them? You’ll end up having to make choices like that throughout the game, and often times with no easy answers or right choices for the colony.

9 – Star Wars: Rebellion
A massive around three hours long game, Star Wars: Rebellion pits the rebels against the Empire in a battle for the fate of the galaxy. Taking from the original trilogy, you feel like you’re playing through it but shaping it your own way. Can you crush the rebel fleets and find where there base in hidden? Or will they be able to sow enough descent around the galaxy that the Empire crumbles away. And you get to send major characters out on missions to places, maybe Han Solo will get captured by the Emperor or Darth Vader will lead troops into battle against Admiral Ackbar on Tatooine. You can rewrite the original trilogy in this adventure and you won’t know how the story will end up until you’ve played.

8 – Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game
I was debating about this one on the list, is it really an adventure because it’s fairly abstracted away with trying to solve cases and fight bad guys just by putting tokens on them. But I feel like the puzzly nature of how you have to do that, and the fact it brings me back to the books and series, there is that sense of adventure for me as I get a chance to relive and play through those books myself. And there’s always a struggle to win in this game. Sometimes you can just win without getting into the final confrontation, but that’s extremely rare. Instead, so often you are hoping for a lucky last roll to take out the bad guy, which is thematic to the books, because through sheer stubbornness and sometimes force of will, Harry can prevail, and that’s how it works in the game as well. Less of a grand epic adventure than some, but still a fun one, especially for fans of the series.

7 – The Lost Expedition
Now, this is probably not a game that a lot of people would have thought of when they were thinking of an adventure game. It’s a small game, it’s only cards and very few tokens, and all you’re doing is going on a hike each morning and evening trying to make it to the Lost City of Z. However, there’s a sense of adventure to it as you are all cooperatively trying to play down cards in a way that makes sense without being able to communicate. But then, once the cards are down and your path is ready, you can all discuss as how to best go through it. It always feels like a close game and you have to decide when it’s worth it to sacrifice a guide in order to move ahead or to keep another guide alive. This game isn’t going to give you a big adventure, but it’s a fast adventure in a little package that won’t break the bank.

6 – Arkham Horror: The Card Game
The first of a couple of Fantasy Flights Arkham Chronicles games, this one has a very interesting adventure feel from what I’ve played, which admittedly isn’t a ton of it yet, but you get the sense of exploring, just from the first scenario in the first box, a house that is being twisted and warped around you. Then in the second one, you get a chance to run around the town and look for cultists who might just be hiding in the shadows. And all of this builds, so depending on what you do, scenarios or perks you’ve gotten will change, so it feels like a big unfolding adventure. And I like that it doesn’t come in a massive box, it’s just cards with a few tokens and you can have an epic adventure.

5 – T.I.M.E. Stories
This one is interesting because there’s a smaller level of adventure in the game since each scenario is it’s own mystery or puzzle to solve, but it always feels like something new as you unpack what’s going on. You could be in a mental hospital at the start where a time incursion is about to happen or maybe a town that has been quarantined for some reason or in ancient Egypt. While you might know where your adventure is going to take you, you don’t know how it’s going to unfold or what body you’re going to be put into. I really enjoy this as an escape room type of engine where you have to figure out the puzzle in the box, but it’s not as straight forward as a lot of the Unlock and Exit style games are, because why they might be fairly consistent in what they do, T.I.M.E. Stories is not.

4 – Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
I need to play more of this adventure, but what I’ve played thus far has been great. There is just so much story happening, and it gives you a different sense of adventure because it adds in such a strong survival element as well. So not only are you going out into the land of Avalon and searching for ways to keep the land from falling into the Wyrdness, you have to figure out when to fight, when to run away, what path you want to go, the fact that there’s a branching story in a game that is so long and so big is pretty amazing. It’s also a really good solo experience. When a game offers you so many choices as to where to go, what to explore there, what you might run into, who you can help and side mysteries that you might want to check out as well, it’s very much an adventure game, and it’s one of the best I’ve come across.

3 – Betrayal At House on the Hill
Now, I know this game isn’t for everyone, but I love it. And for me it’s a great adventure game because I get to see what horror film I’m in. Am I going to be the final one standing in the end or the person who betrays everyone else. Will I have to play chess with death or maybe it’ll be the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I never know. Plus, I get to explore the house and have it unfold before me, and I never know in what room the haunt might happen, so I can basically always play a new scenario. I have Betrayal Legacy waiting for me at some point in time coming up here when we can start to get together in groups again, because I want to have the adventure of playing through a house year after year and watch the house change and unfold a new adventure. Now, I know that this game isn’t for some because it’s not always the most balanced, but I like that aspect as it works well in a horror setting because some horror movie monsters are just better than the college students.

2 – Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition
Adventure games don’t have to be on a super grand globe trotting scale, they can be in a small town or even in a mansion that is full of madness. But you’re unfolding a story and a mystery that gives me a sense of adventure because playing a scenario once, I don’t know what is going to happen and where cultists might show up or what my main goal is even sometimes. As the game unfolds that and explains it to you and as you unravel the mysteries, it just makes a great gaming adventure experience. And even if you play a scenario once, because of the app, you can go back and play it again and things might end the same, but the house will be set-up differently and there will be still be some adventure to the game. Mansions of Madness just really gives you that immersive experience of exploring and solving a puzzle/mystery unlike so many other games.

1 – Gloomhaven
I believe that this was left off someone’s list on the Dice Tower top 10, because it didn’t have enough exploring, though, I feel like Forgotten Circles expansion definitely has more of that feel. But I would argue that there is a sense of exploring through the story as you complete the various dungeons and you unlock more story and more places to go. Plus, even though you’re a mercenary team who keeps retiring, you still feel the progression of story and adventure that I’m looking for and love in a game. It has that RPG-lite feel to it with leveling up your characters and getting better at what you can do, so the whole thing feels like you’re taking those characters on epic adventures. While the mechanics for combat can be a bit crunchy as you figure out what tops and bottoms of cards to use and what order to play them in, the whole thing just works really well for me.

Now, I could have gone with more as well, Sword & Sorcery just missed the list. The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth or Lord of the Rings board game would work as well. Even something like Pandemic Legacy I considered for the list, but that one doesn’t give me as much sense of adventure. And I have more adventure games waiting for me to play, Apocrypha, Folklore: The Affliction, Aeon’s End Legacy and more are waiting for me to give into, plus more coming in the mail at some point in time like Oathsworn, Dice Throne Adventure (it says it in it’s name) or Frosthaven next year. So clearly I love these big epic sort of games.

How about you, what are some of your favorite adventure games? Are there any on the list that I should checkout?

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