About Tainted Grail Kings of Ruin

Firstly, if you want to know how Tainted Grail plays, I have a number of articles written about it. My review can be found here. But for a quick recap, Tainted Grail is an epic game of dark Arthurian legend. You play not as heroes but people just wanting to survive this twisted land of Avalon. Unfolding story of monsters, kings, and horrors that lie in the weirdness.

Tainted Grail is a survival story driven game that I enjoy a lot Because of the story primarily. The mechanics are solid, I enjoy combat and I enjoy the leveling up a lot. But the story is the selling point of the game. Each campaign, there are three with Kings of Ruin being a fourth, does some interesting and different things with the story and with the mechanics.

Kings of Ruin is going to add in another campaign. But it will add in more than that. The location cards are now different. There are secrets to be read with a red filter lens to hide them. Mainly, though, it’ll be more of what there already is for Tainted Grail.

What Doesn’t Work?

This is interesting to say, because I feel like, what I know of the updated rules with fast travel and other things, it might fix some of the issues. And I haven’t found the game bad at all on story mode. Will this fix all of that, if you don’t like that grind, I doubt it, the game is about that survival to some extent. But it likely will improve it.

What Works or is New?

So a lot of the changes sound interesting to me. In particular, I like that exploring is now free. I’m sure that they upped the cost and how much it asks you to spend energy in the exploration, but being able to explore whenever you want is nice. Though, I wonder how it will affect the replayability of the game. One thing that likely will keep Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon on my shelf is that there is a lot left to explore. Will I explore more in Kings of Ruin?

I also think that reworking diplomacy is interesting, but probably good. I’m not sure if it means that there will be more diplomacy or not, though. That is an area of the game is not utilized as well as it could be. It’s a fun part of the game, but it’s less important than combat. So hopefully reworking the system will mean that they make it as equally important.

It is also interesting ot me to have a pool of skills that are specific to each character in the game. I don’t mind sharing a pool in the base game, but it’s another way to develop more story and connection to the characters. Building up something like that is going to always be appreciated by me anyways.

Who Is It For?

I think that Awaken Realms is targeting two groups here. The first being the people who already like Tainted Grail. I think if you like Tainted Grail, it is an easy back. But the second group is for people the game missed with, but just missed with.

If you didn’t like the game at all, I don’t think a new version even with tweaks will change that for you. But if you enjoyed the exploration and story. But some of the parts of the game, the back and forth across the map or keeping the Menhir lit didn’t work for you as well. This might be a version that will work better for you. And the updated rules might even fix some of your issues in the original game.

Back or Brick Tainted Grail Kings of Ruin

For me, this is an easy Back. I really love Tainted Grail. I think the story is great and the mechanics are a lot of fun. I don’t even mind the game the way it is now, though, I do always recommend playing on story mode. So more story in Avalon, I’m interested in it. Plus, the changes seem interesting as well. I’m not sure it’ll make me like the game more, but they can’t hurt.

How about for you, Is Tainted Grail Kings of Ruin a Back or a Brick?

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There are a contingent of people who believe unless you’ve played the whole game, especially for campaign games, you haven’t played it enough to review it. I clearly am not in that camp. That said, I do want to come back and talk about this game because it is a big campaign game. And one that was successful on Kickstarter. So when people do complete the game, it might show up on the second hand market.

Who Is Tainted Grail For?

I feel like I haven’t covered this too much. Tainted Grail is a massive exploration and survival game. It is a game rich with story but also full of things that are ready to kill you at a moments notice. And that works for me. There is a story mode that helps make the game easier just with two simple tweaks. I’ve played the game on both regular and story mode and both work.

Theme

Why start with all of that, well, because you need some framework on the game. But Tainted Grail is an adult themed, meaning intense situations, descriptions and narrations. So this is not a game for kids. It isn’t adult themed like late night cable but it will get intense.

Story Progression

It’s also not a game for people who are going to get frustrated by running around the map. I call it story progression because I don’t have a better way to say it. But you will go from north to south to east to west and back again during the campaign. You might do that during a single chapter of the game. You see places that you’ve been before. And you’ll do that a number of times lighting the Menhir as you go. So it won’t work for some people retreading ground they’ve already seen.

Survival

Tainted Grail is a survival game. As much as there is story in the game, and there is a lot of great story, there is also a lot of survival. You need to keep the Menhir lit – they basically drive back the wyrdness. You need to fight monsters. The villages aren’t friendly to you. The game, and the world, are trying to kill you. And you always need more. More food, more money, more diplomacy, more combat, better reputation and more magic.

The game is really meant to be difficult. It is meant to make you feel like you need to scrape to survive. The story mode does help mitigate this. That said, if you are the type of player who doesn’t want to worry about that, this game probably won’t work for you.

Being the Heroes

In a lot of board games, you are the heroes. You rush into a room and do better than everyone else. The townsfolk can’t save themselves, but you can save them. Tainted Grail is not that kind of game. From your village, in the game, others left already to try and save you. They are missing. You leave as the B Team to find them. Can you fight, yes. Can you explore, yes. Are you the saviors of the land, maybe?

If you want to be heroic, this game does give you moments. If you want to be the heroes, you might be at times. But this is a grim dark fantasy setting. The amount you are a hero is dulled by the fact no one can truly be. It goes back to the theme, this is a world with dark things happening. But, I like that about the game. You don’t need to be the heroes, you need to help and hopefully survive.

Does The Story Pay Off?

I write this question because for my 2020 and 2019 #1 game of all time, Gloomhaven, the story kind of pays off. It’s a situation where, yes, it pays off, it has an end. But it isn’t the best story out there. For some people, how it pays off is going to be disappointing. Does Tainted Grail follow that game or have a good ending?

Tainted Grail, I feel, gives you a better end to the campaign. The story has an ending point and has a few spots you can end it. Gloomhaven will give you one ending, Tainted Grail will give you several. And the one I have seen was enjoyable. It made sense for what we did with how it ended. And there is a lot of story to be uncovered still and I am curious to find out more.

Would I Play It Again?

Probably, I debated last night if I would. When we had wrapped up the campaign and I was getting ready for bed, I wasn’t sure that I would. But, I do think that I would. I think that I’d tweak the game slightly to play it again.

Now, that might sound surprising, I’d change up a game that I love. I might do that, why, because I want to see more story. We didn’t play with Ailei so I’d likely play her deck. But we also didn’t play with Maggot. So I would play on story mode, I would play true solo, but, I’d play as if I was the whole party. That is just so I can explore more of the story. Or maybe I’d build out each character and swap between them.

If you are concerned that Tainted Grail might not be replayable, don’t be. First, there is a ton of content just in one play through. Probably 50+ hours for just Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and that might be enough time for you. So the value is there. But if you want to play it again, you can. We have a lot of statuses that we didn’t get, that I would love to find.

Final Thoughts on Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

This is up there with some of the best gaming experiences that I’ve had. The story immerses you in the world and you feel the weight of the burden that you carry. That might not be the experience that everyone wants. That might be hard to separate from reality for some people. For me, games give me worlds to explore that I know aren’t my own that I know are a story.

I won’t say where this one ends up on my Top 100 List, it was there last year and I’m going through and doing my list again now. I’ll just say that if you are looking for a very immersive game, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is among the best I’ve ever played.

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The Games

So let’s dive into both of the games a little bit. This might actually come across a bit as my Board Game Battles, because, well, they are battling for my money as to which one I’ll back.

Chronicles of Drunagor

This game is on it’s second crowdfunding over on Gamefound. It previously was on Kickstarter and has met with a lot of love from those playing it. It is an epic dark dungeon crawl game. You fight monsters, race against the darkness and bust down doors. That then gives you more story and adventure that you fight through.

You level up your character as you go and unlock new skills. Chronicles of Drunagor has an interesting action system where you are playing out cubes to activate different things. When you pull them back, you are placing out a black cube which blocks off an action from you. So you need to figure out that puzzle to maximize your actions and then pull back blocking what you won’t need.

Chronicles of Drunagor is really going to be the pure dungeon crawler of the two. And I like that about it because while I do have a number of dungeon crawlers, I haven’t gotten something that is purely that recently.

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread, on the other hand, is going to have more that adventure feel to it. Yes, there is still tactical combat with monsters on a map, but it’s trying to be more of an RPG than Chronicles of Drunagor is. It really is going to have you going across the lands and finding quests, fighting monsters, and more.

You do get to level up your characters, and while these characters are more generic, some of how they work is more unique. The miniatures actually don’t come with a head on them, instead you get to pick the one to put on which gives the player more control over there. And I really like the inventory system. You are placing tiles onto a character board. Those spots are then the different spots monsters can attack.

This also has a very interesting exploration system. You see a lot of it at the world view level as you travel around. But then you can delve deeper into specific locations. And in those locations you can then delve into buildings as well. So it gets down to the point where you are dealing with people and have conversations but also backs way out from that.

The Price Point

So let’s compare the price point and what you get at each price point. Chronicles of Drunagor, for just the base game is going to be $115 plus shipping of $40. So that comes in around $155 for just the base game content which is a lot, more details to come, and compared to Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread, that is $165 with $20 for shipping. So Chronicles of Drunagor is cheaper for the base game by $30.

But that’s clearly not all that’s in determining the value of a game. In fact, that’s going to be a topic that I talk about on Monday on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. When looking at the two, Chronicles of Drunagor definitely has the edge in terms of minis. Arydia isn’t so much a minis focused game. The value there comes from other things. You get a ton of tiles to explore, and just tiles in general.

I would give the edge, however, to Chronicles of Drunagor. Especially since Chronicles of Drunagor is proven to have good resale value, but on the flip side, Chronicles of Drunagor also has way more that you can add onto it. While I say it’s around $155, that’s just for the base game, you could easily push that up to $300+. Assuming now addons, the max for Arydia is going to be $210.

What Draws Me To Them?

I don’t think it should be a surprise, but I love campaign games. Both of these games offer me that. What do I love about campaign games, I like the character progression, I like to figure out that puzzle of how to make my character better and tailor them to my style of play.

I really do think that both of them give a lot of opportunity for that. The question is which one does it better for me. Let’s look at a number of categories to see which one might be better for me.

• Theme
• Mechanics
• Characters
• Character Leveling
• Equipment
• Ease of Play
• Value
• Play Group

Theme

This seems like it should be a tie because they are both fantasy, but they are different types of fantasy. Chronicles of Drunagor is more of a grim dark fantasy setting versus Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread is more of an epic fantasy looking game. I like both types of fantasy but sometimes grim dark turns me off of a game. If the game looks like it’s grim dark for the sake of being edgy, I will call that out. However, I don’t think that Chronicles of Drunagor looks like that. It looks to me like the story is crafted to be grim dark for the sake of the story, not for the sake of being edgy.

Winner: Chronicles of Drunagor

Mechanics

This is going to be another really close one. I think I like the combat mechanics better in Chronicles of Drunagor. The puzzle aspect of how you use skills seems really interesting to me. I like the idea of losing some as you go along, it is actually a bunch like Gloomhaven that way where you’d lose cards as you rested. Here, when you pull stuff back you lose an ability for more of the crawl, or until you rest in a certain way.

On the flip side, while I think that puzzle is more interesting, I think that the exploring, while interesting in Chronicles of Drunagor is cooler in Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread. I like going from a tile to a grid map and then even into buildings. That has more of an RPG feel to it, which is another big difference. Arydia is much more of an RPG, and I love a good story element.

Winner: Slightest of Edges to Chronicles of Drunagor

Characters

The characters, while Arydia gives you more character diversity so you can pick what you want to look like more so, Chronicles of Drunagor seems to give you more diversity in the types (classes) of character you want to play. So I really, of course, like both of these again. But the ability to swap heads on minis in Arydia just so cool and something I haven’t seen before at all.

Winner: Slightest of Edges to Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

Character Leveling

I’m going to stop saying that it’s close because honestly, I wouldn’t be thinking about it so hard if it wasn’t close. But both of these have cool character progression. You unlock more skills and abilities. But I think what will sway me on this is that Chronicles of Drunagor again has that puzzle aspect to it. Now, that said, I feel like I also have a better grasp on Chronicles of Drunagor’s leveling as compared to Arydia. And it does seem like with Arydia there is a lot that you can do to customize your character as well.

Winner: Chronicles of Drunagor

Equipment

This is one that isn’t close. Arydia, I think has the better equipment. Not because it is cooler, though I’m not super familiar with the Chronicles of Drunagor equipment, but because it’s used in multiple ways. Firstly, it is fun to draw it out of a treasure chest to see what you get. But also you are attacked towards certain pieces/areas of the body. So your gloves matter for defense on your hands. And that is not something I’ve really seen before. It makes equipment choices even more tactical as you play.

Winner: Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

Ease of Play

A hard one to pick, not because they are close to being easy to get out to play. Both of these games look like they have a ton of stuff. I don’t think that either of them would be easy to set-up. Also, neither of theme seems like it’ll just be set-up at the start. I won’t know what locations I’m going to delve deeper into for Arydia. And I don’t know what’s behind the doors in Chronicles of Drunagor. That is something that you need to know about both games. Honestly, I don’t think there is a winner here.

Winner: Draw

Value

We’ve talked about value above with the price point. But it’s tough because Chronicles of Drunagor can get really expensive really fast. And value means more than that, which has more value in me getting it played? Do I have a larger group for one game or another one?

Price point wise for what I want from Chronicles of Drunagor, the base game and stretch goal box, plus the expansion, it’d cost more than Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread. And I really think that both are going to hold their value very well. Chronicles of Drunagor because there are a lot of people who are looking for it, and Arydia because there will be and it’s a known designer of Xia: Legeds of the Drift.

Winner: Chronicles of Drunagor (barely)

Play Group

Another close one, I have my campaign group and another person or two I could play a campaign with. My main campaign group I doubt I’d get to it for a while. We are doing Tainted Grail, we want to try Apocrypha, and we have Frosthaven coming. So there is no shortage of campaign games, plus I have Middara and more. Both of them, like I said in ease of play are going to be a lot for a lot of gamers. It has a ton going on. I think I might be more apt to get Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread to the table because it feel closer to an RPG.

Winner: Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

So Which Will I Back?

Honestly, it’s really close. Looking at all the different categories I gave, Chronicles of Drunagor barely wins at 4-3 with one draw in there. I thin that I’m leaning towards Chronicles of Drunagor, even though it is slightly more expensive. It sounds like they are adding in more branching and developing story compared to what it originally had. If they weren’t doing that, I think that Arydia might have a better chance. For my style of gaming, I just think that the puzzle of Chronicles of Drunagor is more interesting. I have one day to decide though when Chronicles of Drunagor will have wrapped up.

Which would you back?

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But like any person, I enjoy certain themes more than others. You can probably guess some of them based off of the games that I talk about the most, but let’s run down my Top 10 favorite themes in board games.

The List

On this list, going back to yesterday’s post, you are going to see some things where you’ll think, that’s theme is a subset of another theme on the list. Some themes, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, for example, are really broad.

10. Fairy Tales

This is a theme that I don’t see enough in games that target adults. Fairy Tales are often used for kids games, and while that’s a great spot for them, let’s not lie, the original fairy tales were messed up stories that didn’t end well. The versions that we know, those aren’t w hat they first at the start. So I love to see that twisted, but maybe closer to the actual theme fairy tale games.

The Grimm Masquerade

So, my example is going to be The Grimm Masquerade. This creates a hidden role game that is actually pretty interesting for me. I don’t love games like Mafia, Werewolf, or the Resistance because they are generally too simple. The Grimm Masquerade is all about figuring out who is what character, but how it is done is really interesting. Mainly because you have a draw a card and either keep it or give it away, and then the other action with your second card. Simple mechanics and fun game play.

9. Exploration

Honestly, I think if I do this again in two years, explorations will be higher on my list. I have mainly played a couple games that use this theme. And you could argue that it’s more of a mechanic, but I am thinking of that Indiana Jones type feel, where you have fantastic things going on, and you are discovering it with the other people at the tables. There are a few other games that dabble in this in another category that comes up. But I like the feeling of going into that new area and not knowing what I might find.

Tainted Grail

Now, Tainted Grail falls into a few other themes coming up here as well, but it works well here. The biggest element of Tainted Grail is diving in and exploring the massive, well written world that Awaken Realms has created. They even have an exploration journal which has so many things that you can do in it, and some many different paths you can go. It is probably impossible to actually find all the different options which is amazing.

8. Zombies

Yes, Zombies get their own theme. There are so many zombie games out there, and I tend to like them. Zombie games fall mainly into two categories. You either are mowing down zombies to get away from them, or you are trying to survive and it’s about the people versus killing zombies. Both are a lot of fun, and I have games with both types. I even have one where you are the zombies, but that one is a bit themeless really with Zombie Dice.

Dead of Winter

No shock which one I picked here, there are a lot of zombie games, but this one I have played the most. This is one where it is about the survivors and trying to make it through the cold of winter and complete your objectives. It’s interesting because it is cooperative with the possibility of a traitor, but it’s not as well. Because each player has a secret objective they need to complete to be part of the winning group. It is an interesting dynamic that works pretty well but won’t be for everyone. It does help simulate what your survivor(s) might care about most.

7. Lovecraftian

So another one that has a darker theme, we’re talking about Lovecraft. Now, this is not like Lovecraft’s books, but more the investigative, pulp, noir, theme that has been put on it by Fantasy Flight Games, mainly, and other companies as well. The main thing that ties it back to Lovecraft is that it uses his monsters to create a more fleshed out world of intrigue, investigation and tentacles.

Mansions of Madness

A few options I could have gone with, there are a ton of games with a Lovecraftian theme because, well, it is a public domain. Don’t have a theme, slap Lovecraft on it. But Mansions of Madness is my favorite. It is taking this city view or world view that some of the other games have and focusing it down to a neighborhood or a mansion. Add in the app which changes things up so you can play the same scenario multiple times and things will vary slightly. Just a nice, deeply thematic game.

6. Detective

Building off of what Lovecraftian themes do with their horror added, I like games where you are the person trying to figure out who done it. I would still even play something like Clue which is one of the first games that did that. But the genre has improved so much over time and you can have Sherlock Holmes, though I haven’t played any of the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective games.

Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

It has Detective in it’s name, it has to be good, right? Well, not really, but it was very good. This takes all of the best parts of those procedural cop shows and drops you into it. You are the one making the decisions, picking up on clues, and trying to solve the case. The base box is amazing, and I have a bunch more stuff to play for it. They are now even doing a spy theme using the same system that I am really excited about.

5. Mythology

Welcome to the second category that Tainted Grail falls into it. But I really like games that can pull from different mythologies, Norse, Greek, Roman, Mayan, and more to create interesting board games. And the idea of playing as the gods or adjacent to the gods is always interesting. Especially because of the different powers the gods have and how that can translate into what you are doing. I also get to learn stuff about mythologies that I might not know much about.

Lords of Hellas

This takes a few things and puts them together. It is a bit like the world of Horizon Zero Dawn where the monsters look like creatures but are machines, and it has a cyber punk element. This game definitely leans more into the mythological side of things as you play different heroes and build towers to the gods. I love the different win conditions and the theme just makes the game that much more compelling.

4. Sci-Fi

Broad category #1, science fiction. There are a few different types, and I tend to prefer space exploration type of Sci-Fi versus weird future worlds. Though, things like Shadowrun are technically Sci-Fi and I like that Cyberpunk theme. However, I really like the grander feel that space exploration has in general. And there are a ton of great board games that fall into the realm of space.

Star Wars: Rebellion

Now this could be consider cheating a little bit because Star Wars could be it’s own theme. But it is also a space game. While you aren’t exploring as much, the empire is exploring planets trying to narrow down where the rebels can be. This feels like the original trilogy as it is cat and mouse. The empire trying to squash the rebel fleets and find their base, and the rebels trying to subvert the empires plan. It is also a big game, probably playing in about three hours or a bit less, if you know what you are doing. Ton of fun, Star Wars in a box.

3. Fantasy

Now, the second to last category that Tainted Grail could fit into, I love fantasy games. Unlike Sci-Fi where I prefer space sci-fi, I like almost any type of fantasy. Whether it’s a grim dark world like Tainted Grail, urban fantasy like The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game, or silly fantasy like Smallworld, I like games that have fantasy in them. There’s just something about slinging spells and fighting dragons or other crazy monsters that is a lot of fun.

Gloomhaven

No surprise what game I am going with here, Gloomhaven is my favorite game of all time. It has you on this massive epic adventure as you try and figure out all that is happening in the lands. But beyond that, the game has amazing card play and really unique fantasy creatures to fight and play as. The amount of world building that went into Gloomhaven is amazing.

2. Superhero

I flipped the last two at the last second, but Superheroes, they are just below my #1, because, well, there are a lot of poor superhero games out there. So this theme will always get me interested whether I’m playing as a superhero or fighting against them. But because DC and Marvel are both very popular in general, that means that there are some poorer games out there. But tell me that a board game has a Marvel theme, I am always going to check it out.

Marvel Champions

A Marvel game, no surprise there. I really like Marvel Champions a lot. It is a great game that they keep on adding more great content for. This is the one that has me playing a hero that I know and love from Marvel and I feel like that hero. If I am playing Spider-Man, I can go in there with a swinging web kick, or I can flip over to Peter Parker, the bad guy won’t fight me, and I can recover. Of course, then the bad guy is scheming until I can get in there again to stop their plans and take them down.

1. Horror

Finally, my number 1, Horror. I love horror in board games. From games where it is a one off scenario to games where it is a full campaign. The grim dark fantasy nature of Tainted Grail makes it also dabble into horror. But Zombie and Lovecraftian games also fall into that category as well. Zombies can be more survival and Lovecraftian can be more investigative, so horror get’s it’s own. I love not knowing what’s around the corner, what horror might be popping up and the feeling of the impending doom if things don’t go well.

Betrayal at House on the Hill

Now, I know this one will be controversial. There are people who do not like this game, I love it. I think that it is really well done and it gives you that feeling of horror movies. You don’t know what is around the next corner, if a good twist happens, you don’t know who is going to be betray you, and you don’t know if you will survive. Is it well balanced, probably not, but I really like the thematic and cinematic feeling it gives me.

What Is Your Favorite Theme?

Let me know in the comments below or over on Twitter what themes in board games you like best. There are a lot of them out there. I could have broken down Fantasy and Sci-Fi more as well. Are there any that you feel are used too much?

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This review is going to talk about how well the game works via Zoom. I plan on doing more in this series, though we might get a few party games lumped together into a single review of the premise of the is similar. For Tainted Grail, though, it is the only big game that I’m playing via Zoom, except for Dungeons and Dragons and people have been playing that digitally for years. So let’s jump into looking at Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

How Do You Make It Work?

So there are a few things that drew me to Tainted Grail as a game that we could play that was big and grandiose over Zoom. I also didn’t want it to be a game that we played digitally. We had played Dice Throne on Table Top Simulator and more games as well there. But the bigger the game, the clunkier it is on TTS.

The first thing to make playing Tainted Grail work was my camera set-up, and even that only kind of worked. The other players can’t always read all the cards or information on the locations, so that is part of what I do, explain what they say. But I have a top down camera that I can show all of the map. I can also Zoom it in for diplomacy and combat on the encounter.

The next thing is getting the players their characters. Since we wrapped up Gloomhaven in person, in a well ventilated area and masked, I just handed off the characters for people to play. That got them their character board, combat and diplomacy cards for the character color and their character. Since then I’ve also handed off the marker for tracking health, and some other sheets and cards that are useful for helping keep track of everything. If I were to do it now I’d hand off the character board, combat and diplomacy cards, a save sheet, some cubes, the health marker, the map, and if you have the Echoes of the Past expansion, the sheet for that. That is what the ideal would be, it sounds like a lot, but it works well.

Then the app is key for the game. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is an adventure game at it’s heart. And there is a massive adventure book. However, there is an app that has most of the adventure book read out in it. So I play the audio and everyone can listen to the narration as it goes along. However, everyone pulls up the app, that way the player who is exploring can see the choices that they have. It makes everything run smoother using that and I don’t have to read as much. I still do need to read the Echoes of the Past story bits thought.

What Works Poorly?

In the game you can team up with other players and do things. You have the option to explore as a group, fight as a group, and more. We don’t do much of that. While, in theory, it sounds great, it is hard to make it work via Zoom. I lay out my combat line, so someone else could work with me, but the other players don’t have a great setup for that. So we need to explain what the open keys are when fighting together. For that reason, we tend to do our own thing, cover more ground, and come together when we need to light an Menhir.

Speaking of Menhir and lighting them, we’ve played through the first two chapters twice now. The reason for that is that remotely, playing not in story mode proved to be too difficult. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is at it’s hard an adventure survival game, and there is emphasis on survival. However, when playing remotely, it is harder to plan as well as we should. Story mode allows us to use fewer resources when lighting the Menhir, it keeps them lit longer, and generally reduces the cost when we do things together. I think in person we might not have played on story mode, but digitally with the extra moving pieces, it’s tricky.

What Works Well?

Honestly, most everything else works well. But let’s talk about the highlights of what really shines. The app is amazing. Tainted Grail wouldn’t have been a game I picked if it wasn’t for the app. There is a lot of reading. And if I were the only one reading, it would be fine, but make it more difficult for the person who has the game. I feel that even if we come back in person before we finish, which I think is very possible, we will still use the app. It makes it that much easier.

The story element works very well as well. Now, I talked about the app already, literally just finished. What I am talking about here is the fact that this is a story heavy game. I feel like for playing via Zoom, you need either a game with lots interaction, quick turns, things like that, or you need something that has a ton of story. With a ton of story, every player stays engaged in the game. And the writing in Tainted Grail, it is not even close, it is the best writing I’ve seen in a board game. Yes, it is fairly dark, but it is extremely well put together and is extremely immersive. Honestly, probably the best part of the game, though, I spent my whole last session generally fighting and healing. But when other players explored, that was great to get the story.

Would I Recommend It For Zoom?

This is tough. With vaccines rolling out and it being fine, per the CDC for vaccinated people to get together in small groups, share meals, and spend time, this one is tough to recommend. I personally would prefer to play it in person, it’d be less book keeping for one person. Now, if you are playing with someone across the country, say both of you have the game, that’d be simpler. If not, there is a lot that you would need to send even with just the player board and cards.

So yes, I think this one works. Most likely it’ll be a bit before some groups of people can play together in person. Or maybe you will play across the country with someone who has the game. This game works well digitally. Having played it solo, it works even smoother when everyone is at the table, I think, but it’ll work well digitally also. The main takeaways when considering it, there are a bunch of pieces to hand off, and the set-up. I won’t way the app, because I’ll use that in person as well.

What is the largest game you have played digitally? Would you try something as big as Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon via Zoom?

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It’s been a couple of weeks, but I’m back again with more Tainted Grail. Last time I had said that I was considering playing ahead to the point where I had lost last time, but I decided that I was going to take more time and head a different direction, so I should play it through on camera.

If you’re not familiar with Tainted Grail, that’s great, and this is a great jumping off point because we’re getting going in Chapter 1 of the story again. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon is a big exploration and story driven game where players take on the roles of citizens of the town of Caunacht. Arev, the person I’m playing, isn’t a hero, but was a mercenary before running away to become a farmer. I’m going out adventuring not because I would be the first choice, but because those who would have been the first choice have gone missing in their expedition to keep the Menhir lit and stop the land from falling into Wyrdness. This is grim dark fantasy setting where everything is out to kill you and most of the things probably can.

I’ve taken on the start of the game a couple of times before but I haven’t made it too far, once due to bad luck, the next time do to rushing through the first chapter. This time I’m spending more time, with Arev, in the first Chapter, so you’ll have to see which way I go and if I can make it through the first chapter.

Last nights beer was Good Behavior form O’Dell. O’Dell makes my favorite beer, St. Lupulin. Good Behavior is their “Crushable” IPA. It is a lower ABV IPA and it certainly makes it nice and drinkable, while still maintaining a good hop profile. Definitely an IPA that I enjoyed a lot and as it gets warmer, between that and St. Lupulin, I have two really good summer beer options from them.

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Bottoms up!

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In Tainted Grail you take on the roles of 1 to 4 characters, these characters aren’t your typical heroes, they are the B-Team. You’re deeply flawed characters with an iffy backstory and something that is a negative for you. When the A-Team, those people from the farmhold of Caunacht who were more skilled and more important than you went missing, you were tasked to find them. It wouldn’t have been that big an issue, but the Wyrdness is starting to take back the land and the Menhir, statues that Arthur and his knights erected to drive back the Wyrdness, are going out. Can you find a way to save the lands of Avalon and keep the Wyrdness at bay, or will it fall? That’s the story of the game, the mechanics for most of the game aren’t that difficult. In it, you spend energy to explore locations move around the lands of Avalon and light the Menhir, but all of this is while you are trying to balance finding the resources you need to keep the Menhir going and fighting off monsters and convince hostile villages and farmholds that you means no harm. And when you fight or do a diplomatic encounter, the game changes. You are now in a tactical card playing phase where you are looking to change together cards to do damage, use abilities on those cards, and most importantly, leave yourself in position where you aren’t taking to much damage. It’s a giant puzzle to figure out as you chain moves together to take out monsters or string words and stories together to convince those doubting people.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is split up into 15 chapters and each chapter can go between half an hour and probably up to two or so hours, maybe even longer as I’m in Chapter 2 and I’ve been playing for an hour and fifteen minutes, but I’m also streaming it (Here on Youtube). I think, if I had hit a couple more ideal battles, I’d be in a much better position, but you can check that out. So there is some luck in how long it takes, do you explore in the right direction, do you not find too difficult encounters, things like that. And I think that there is a little bit of early scaling that might not be quite correctly paced, I’ll talk about that in a second when I talk about some issues. But it really is this massive branching story which is even more impressive. I believe even as early as Chapter 3, depending on what you picked in Chapter 2, the game can branch into different parts of narrative and how you choose to solve everything. So this 30+ hours of game play is replayable as you can pick different paths to take, which ism extremely impressive to me. If I were playing with more than a single character, that would make a difference as well for me. I am really digging that piece of the game.

So, let’s talk about my first negative for the game quickly, and I hinted at it before, I feel like the monsters level slightly too fast. I get that this is a grim dark setting and it’s supposed to be hard. In Chapter 1, you have the first tier of monsters, I’m not going to say level 1 monsters, because some of them are a lot harder than others, in level 2, I added in tier 2 monsters, and maybe because of how I went about the game, I wasn’t able to level up my character as much, but right now I’m running away from 90% of the encounters that I face just to get as little damage as possible. I think either having more tiers of monsters or adding in a partial grouping of tier 2 monsters and encounters, and then finishing adding them in chapter 3 and slowing down that progression a little bit would still keep the game hard, but I’d only be running from 67% of them instead of most of them. And some of that is my fault as well, I am the type of poker player where I want to see the flop at least with almost any hand, and I know that’s not a good strategy, so I often hang in combat for a round and then drop out when I should just know to drop out right away, but I want to see if I can draw that one card that will help me crack the puzzle and win the encounter. This is a minor negative.

My other negative and this one is slightly larger, is that when you die you have to restart the game. If you’re smart, I’m not, you have a nice save sheet that you can use between chapters to save the game and come back, but I’m not smart, and people who are playing multiple chapters at a time are going to have the same issue. I wish that it was an official rule that you have to save between every chapter so that when you die you can restart the chapter. This game is really tough, and if I’m in chapter 8, I don’t want to start again at Chapter 1, even though I’ll know how to rush through it. Or, better yet, I wish that the beginning of each chapter told you how to reset the world, so yes, you might have to reset your character or take a hit to your character, but to be able to have a starting option for each chapter so that you don’t have to replay would be nice, because it would mean that if you are playing through, you’d be able to quickly get into the game again if you die. It could also work if you don’t want to do Chapter 1 again and get to where it branches faster, you’d be able to do that, because Chapter 1 is a bit of a prologue. Now, I just came up with a solution for some of my issues, and I’ll have to go back and implement that for myself, save at the end of every chapter, but it would be nice to have something more official.

Next, I want to talk about some things that others have brought up as negatives. It’s the time that the Menhir are lit and the amount of food that you need. People have claimed, and I can see why, that the game forces you to farm for certain things, you need to farm food so that you can eat every night, not become exhausted, and heal and have your terror go down (eating is good). But you also want to be exploring and doing other things not just farming food. The same with the Menhir. You need some resources, probably magic, so that you are going to need to farm that. One of the characters can produce their own magic, so that’s good for them, but the one that I’m playing actually needs an extra magic because of his flaw, so I need to farm even more magic. But all of that said, neither of those things are negatives for me. First, my character can produce food if I really need it in a pinch, so while it does take up energy to do that so I can’t do as much in terms of exploring and traveling I always have that option. It also is fine, because we knew the game was going to be like that going into it, or if people paid attention to the kickstarter and rules and so many things, it was obvious that this game was going to be tough to survive. The grind is going to be part of it, and I feel like most of the grind isn’t even that grindy, because it is going to drop you into a combat which is such a fun puzzle to try and figure out that it doesn’t just feel like wasted time. Though, as you can see, I think that the encounter level does go a bit fast. Mainly, this piece of the game is very thematic, and the Menhir running down it adds to the stress of the game, and you can do things to play in more of a story mode, and I think there are interesting ways that you could “cheat” if you wanted it to be purely story mode, but that would lose some of the challenge and tension of the game.

But there are so many good things about the game, let’s start with the Exploration Journal. This thing is massive, and it has so much story in it. You feel like you’re always jumping into it, and there are so many options and statuses that come from it, that I don’t think it would ever be possible to get them all or read through all of it in a single game, and I love that. Plus, that then makes it really replayable. It also makes the world really immersive. All of the locations that you can go have a lot of history and depth built into them, and I’ve started running into side quests and things to explore that might create a more interesting story and more history that can be unlocked so that I can fully understand the world. And there are going to be two more expansions to the game, one before and one after the time frame of the base game, so I’m going to unlock the world history. I also can see, because of the amount of exploration how it would be fun to just be the keeper of the book, almost a game master, and lead other people through the journey so they aren’t getting spoiled to.

The encounter system, both combat and diplomatic, I really like as well. I’ve called it a puzzle and it really is. Cards connect on various keys and open up other various keys (I’m going to mainly give combat as the example), and you are trying to chain those together in the best way possible. The first card you play down is always free and doesn’t have to connect to anything, but ideally it does so that it’s not a wasted card, but it might be that you need to put it into play in order to combo something onto it later. Because some cards have a symbol that allows you to chain it together as a bonus move, and you can chain multiple of those together and hopefully in the first round take it out. It’s also a puzzle though because various levels of damage changes how the monsters responds to you. So if you’ve done 0-2 damage to them, they might hit you for one damage, but if you’ve done 6 and they need 7 damage they might run away. So, you won’t want to hit 7 damage, but it might be 6 damage on the monster means you get 3 wounds, so that isn’t ideal, so you’re trying to set-up a combo so that you can rush to the finish from 2 damage. I really enjoy the puzzle nature of it, and diplomacy works similar as well, but now you’re trying to move it up using different skills.

Finally the characters, that’s the last thing I want to talk about. I love how different they are. There are six skills and each character has a different set-up of those skills. That means, that Beor, for example, is great a combat at the start, but horrible at dealing with diplomatic encounters. Arev is a more balanced character. Beyond that, each character has their own unique upgrade cards for combat and diplomacy, now if you’ll see them, who knows, but that allows them to feel more thematically developed in terms of characters. I also like that each type of character, there are four archetypes that will be showing up throughout the base game and expansions, has their own combat and diplomacy for that archetype. Finally, each character has something unique that they can do, an action that is unique only to them. In Arev, that’s that he can always find some food, one food for two actions. But to balance that out they have a weakness as well. Arev’s is that he needs one more magic than required to light a Menhir. If a Menhir doesn’t have a requirement for magic, there’s not a requirement for a single magic because of Arev, that offers your own unique challenges for playing each character and adjusts how you can deal with certain encounters for combat and diplomacy or what options you might choose in exploration.

Overall, you can probably tell that I really like the game. Is it a perfect game, no, there is no such thing as a perfect game, my favorite game of all time, Gloomhaven, isn’t a perfect game. But Tainted Grail is an amazing game. I think that it might not work for someone people because it might be too dark in the story, but I think a lot of people are going to love it, and with it shooting up the lists on BGG, it is clearly being enjoyed by those who have it. The story part works so well, and the mechanics are actually quite simple for how large a game it is. Even if someone doesn’t like the story element of it, they can tune that out if other players love it and just hunt down combat and other encounters for their character. This is a really well done game that looks beautiful on the table.

Overall Grade: A+
Gamer Grade: A+
Casual Grade: B+

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*queue Benny Hill music*

And our adventuring party has arrived.

Should D&D be a serious game, a silly game, or both and how can you keep the tone that you want?

First, I’ll say, there isn’t a right way to play D&D, you can have a serious game in a grim dark fantasy world or you can have a light and fun game where everyone who seems at all bad can be killed off by your roving party of murder hobos and that’s completely fine. But setting a tone and being willing or able to adjust if need be is something important to be able to do.

So with setting the tone, when and how do you do that?

I’m going to go to one of my favorite answers, Session 0. So, before you start playing when you are pitching ideas, you can talk about what sort of story it is going to be, but talk about how serious the game is going to be. It might be that a story with drow fighting a war and being a group infiltrating that, might seem like a time for silly high jinx for players, but you might have meant that as a serious game. Or maybe it’s a decent into the 9 hells, and your demon lord is going to be like Satan from South Park, but the players think it’s going to be very serious. So, in session 0 when pitching things, talk about what sort of fantasy setting it is, and how serious a game it might be or might not be as that might influence how much players like the idea or what type of game that they want to play.

But beyond that, as a DM, you need to be able to adjust the tone as you continue to play. This can be done in a couple of ways. Maybe you start out with a serious game, but the characters keep on doing goofy things or off the wall things and making it more light hearted or less grim dark at least. Then you have to adjust your DMing in one of two ways in game.

The first one is that you can adjust your game to be more light hearted, maybe that is what your players really wanted and they just didn’t want to say that in session 0. This can be tough to do, because your story might be focused in on a more serious setting. So you might not be able to use the whole idea like you had planned for the players. So adjusting might mean setting aside some of that idea for a later game. Or it might be taking what you had planned and making it less grim and serious.

The second option would be to almost double down on the more serious or more light hearted tone. Focus on providing those moments that really enforce the tone that you’re going for, and when the players do something against that tone, if it’s being serious in a lighter situation or goofy in a serious situation, have the NPCs react to what the PCs are doing. This one is tougher to do because you might be pushing against what the players want in a game. So I’d lean towards adjusting with the first option, though, there is a third out of game option that I’d recommend.

The best option, is out of game, and less passive aggressive, and that’s just to ask the players what tone they want. If, for example, you had planned a more serious game, you can ask the players if they want the game to stay serious or if you should adjust the story to more of a lighter game. It might be that they didn’t realize they had shifted into doing lighter and goofier things, especially if that’s how they are used to playing. Now, conversations out of the game can be a bit trickier, especially if you talked about it in session 0. but generally it’ll be what helps your game the most.

But, let’s say that you have a group where you’ve played for several years and always played lighter games, and now you want to play a grim dark game. How do you go about doing that?

If you are used to playing light games without many consequences and without tracking things like arrows, food, etc., it’s going to be a big change. Instead of going for all of it at once, I would slowly build up to it. So start tracking arrows at the start, but keep the players so that they are always ending up in a town before food would be an issue, and just tell them that they are spending a bit of money to reload. And once they figure out that they need to track arrows, then they can start tracking food as well. And the same with theme as well, start with what seems like a more standard quest, you can then start to add in more grim dark elements to it. And the same goes with going from a more serious to a lighter game, go slowly, it’s going to be an adjustment if people only know it one way.

Now, there are going to be other things that you can do to adjust, and there are going to be ways to keep a game on track, such as rewarding role playing that fits the type of game that you want to run. But I’d really say, session 0 is going to be your best friend for planning out the game and I can’t overstate the importance of it.

How do you set tone in your game? Are there certain things you do to describe or set-up the story in such a way to help enforce a tone?

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