Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 9, 2007 15:08:47 GMT -5
Quickly: a fun pseudo RPG in the trend of Heroquest. Lots of great bits but can run long.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]
This is a dungeon crawl style board game that has one player take on the role of Overlord (GM) competing against up to four other players who each take on the roles of 1 of 20 heroes. The heroes are attempting to beat one of the 9 included quests and the Overlord is trying to prevent them from doing so.
The game starts with the hero players building their characters. They start by picking 1 of the 20 included characters (generally randomly). These base characters have a set of base stats that include their max heath, max fatigue, armour, speed, number of starting skills, special abilities and strength in each of the three types of combat. The players take these and draw 3 starting skills for their characters from the three skill piles. Which pile they draw from is based on their character's style of play. These skill piles include physical combat skills, magical skill and subterfuge skills. From there the players go shopping with a set amount of starting cash and pick up equipment and potions.
While the heroes build their characters the Overlord randomizes treasure chests and sets out the stat cards for the mobs. The strength of the mobs is set based on the number of players playing, and there is a different set of cards for each number. Once this is laid out the Overlord picks one of the 9 included quests. They are all stand alone, but the story portion works best if played in order the first time. Using the quest log the Overlord builds the map using a set of interlocking tiles that remind me of Space Hulk more then anything else. The overlord finishes set up by putting down the features and mobs in the first room and drawing 3 overlord cards. Once everything is laid out the Overlord reads out the quest start in typical D&D read the shaded box to the players fashion, and the heroes find out what the goal of their quest is.
Play then starts with the Heroes. Each turn Heroes pick from a set of actions. These include running, advancing (move then attack), battling (attack twice with no move), or readying an action (such as dodge, aim, block or rest). Using these actions they explore the dungeon and attempt to complete their quest.
Once the heroes have gone the Overlord turn begins. First he gains a set number of threat tokens (equal to the number of heroes x2, normally) and more overlord cards (2 normally). He uses the threat tokens to play the cards, with many cards requiring a lot of tokens so that the cannot come into play until later in the game or only when the heroes dally too long. He then uses the cards to spawn new monsters in the dungeon (wandering monsters that show up out of line of sight) or play event cards that include curses or traps that hinder or hurt the heroes. Once done playing cards the Overlord moves all the monsters on the map. Generally mobs can only move and attack as an option, but this can be modified by Overlord cards.
Combat is very common and is resolved by unique dice that come with the game. There are three types of attacks: melee, ranged and magic. For each type a hero or monster rolls a set combination of dice. This set is determined by equipment for the heroes and by the stat card for the monsters. Heroes also get to add power dice based on their characters stats. The dice are rolled and a few things are checked. First if an X is rolled the attack missed. If no X is rolled and it's a magic or ranged attack the numbers on the dice are counted, this gives a total that if under the distance between the attacker and defender, results in a miss. If the total number rolled is less then the range it's a hit. Next the number of hearts on the dice are checked, this is the damage of the attack. This is reduced by the hero or mobs defense and results in health loss. Lastly there are 'surges' on the dice. These let heroes power special abilities and lets the overlord collect more threat tokens. Once all that is done if the target has no health left they are dead.
As the heroes explore the dungeon they will run into a mix of terrain that includes rocks that block movement and line of sight, pools that block movement only, and pits that don't block line of sight but cause damage if fallen into. They will also find treasure scattered throughout the dungeon including chests, potions and gold. Chests are the most interesting as they give a random selection of things including draws from random item decks (copper, silver and gold level stuff), give the Overlord threat to cast traps and give the heroes Adventure tokens.
Adventure tokens are what determine who wins the game. The heroes start with a set amount of them based on what quest is being played. Every time a hero dies their group looses a set number of tokens (based on the strength of the character). Every time the Overlord cycles through his Overlord deck, the heroes loose 3 more tokens. Heroes gain tokens by activating glyphs (think town portal from Diablo), killing named Monsters and opening chests. If at any point the heroes run out of adventure tokens they loose the game.
Death in this game is more like a video game then an rpg. When a hero dies, and they will die often, they are returned to 'the town' where they are revived with all health, fatigue, skills and equipment but only half of their money. The only other penalty is the loss of adventure tokens. The heroes then can re-enter the dungeon through any activated glyph (which got me calling them save points).
Misc things: a few things that I missed above. The heroes each have a fatigue rating. This is a set number of fatigue counters that the heroes can exchange for a few things, like taking extra movement actions, or adding power dice to an attack, or activating various special abilities. The monsters in the game have a wide variety of special skills, these include rage, piercing attacks, flying, breath weapons etc. While exploring the dungeon the players will run into 'boss' monsters. These are tougher versions of their normal counterparts that give a 50 gold bonus when defeated. Characters can 'power up' in a few ways. The main way is to accumulate more powerful treasure from the bronze, silver and gold treasure chests. They can also purchase new skills, and train in each of the three types of attacks, giving themselves more power dice in whatever type they choose.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good[/glow]
Typical of Fantasy Flight this game comes with a horde of great, well made components. There are a ton of plastic miniatures. 20 for each character and then a bunch of mobs in white and then a bunch of mobs in red (red = Bosses). The minis are extremely well detailed, and if I had the time I would want to paint all of them. The tiles fit well together and I love the rough edges. The gameplay is excellent and challenging. This defiantly plays more like a competitive boardgame then an rpg where the dm leads you through the story (as I found Heroquest felt). There's no being nice to the heroes and making sure they survive until the end. The quest design is excellent and tells a rather interesting fantasy tale. The progression of complexity of the quests is nice, while still keeping the game balanced no matter what number you choose to play. The amount of work that fantasy flight put in to add replay value is appreciated as each dungeon crawl is different from the last even when doing the same quests. I do thank them for it, it's way better then say the orginal Heroquest, but it's not quite enough (see the bad for details).
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad[/glow]The combat system is a bit too abstract. It makes it very hard to know what is better. Is a weapon with two green dice better then one with 1 yellow and one white? This can be learned but makes it hard to buy equipment an know what's worth keeping. Replay value. Yes FF included 20 different heroes. These there are like 60 of each type of skill and these are randomly determined. Yes there are like 80 of each type of treasure. Yes there are rules for campaign play. But there are only 9 quests included. This could have been easily fixed with a quest generator. Some type of random tables for a random dungeon with a random goal. They managed to do it in Advanced Heroquest and in Space Hulk, I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to do with this. My only other real complaint is that the box says 1 to 2 hours for a game. Now I know the rule for Fantasy Flight games is double that, and it still stands, but why not just put 2 to 4 hours on the box right out. Lastly: this game takes up a ton of room. Not a problem for me, but many people's kitchen tables won't cut it.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow]Errata. I hate the fact that pretty much every game you buy you need to go online and download the latest errata or FAQ. I hate it way more when you do this and find drastic rules changes. There are enough changes to cards in the game, that the first expansion comes with replacement cards. This makes trying to remember what the 'right' rules are can be annoying. You are going to have a hard time sorting this one out due to all the bits. The box was designed for shipping and not storage. Now this is pretty quick to fix with a bunch of zip locked bags, but they get annoying as well. A compartmentalized box would have been very nice. As it stands even after individually bagging everything it takes at least a half an hour just to set up a game before play.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall[/glow]: A great dungeon crawl game. Adds a level of complexity and competition lacking in previous games of the same style (Heroquest, runbound, etc). The components are amazingly well made and details. The price on this one is a bit steep, but in my opinion well worth it due to the production values. The minis alone including 20 detailed character models that would be perfect for any RPG probably justify the cost, and you get a great game as well. Fantasy Flight did a lot to add replay value, and that's great, but it may not be enough to keep me playing the same quest over and over. This isn't a game you all need to own, but if you have a group of players that love to hack, slash and collect the treasure and would like to do it boardgame style I definitely suggest picking this up for the group.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]
This is a dungeon crawl style board game that has one player take on the role of Overlord (GM) competing against up to four other players who each take on the roles of 1 of 20 heroes. The heroes are attempting to beat one of the 9 included quests and the Overlord is trying to prevent them from doing so.
The game starts with the hero players building their characters. They start by picking 1 of the 20 included characters (generally randomly). These base characters have a set of base stats that include their max heath, max fatigue, armour, speed, number of starting skills, special abilities and strength in each of the three types of combat. The players take these and draw 3 starting skills for their characters from the three skill piles. Which pile they draw from is based on their character's style of play. These skill piles include physical combat skills, magical skill and subterfuge skills. From there the players go shopping with a set amount of starting cash and pick up equipment and potions.
While the heroes build their characters the Overlord randomizes treasure chests and sets out the stat cards for the mobs. The strength of the mobs is set based on the number of players playing, and there is a different set of cards for each number. Once this is laid out the Overlord picks one of the 9 included quests. They are all stand alone, but the story portion works best if played in order the first time. Using the quest log the Overlord builds the map using a set of interlocking tiles that remind me of Space Hulk more then anything else. The overlord finishes set up by putting down the features and mobs in the first room and drawing 3 overlord cards. Once everything is laid out the Overlord reads out the quest start in typical D&D read the shaded box to the players fashion, and the heroes find out what the goal of their quest is.
Play then starts with the Heroes. Each turn Heroes pick from a set of actions. These include running, advancing (move then attack), battling (attack twice with no move), or readying an action (such as dodge, aim, block or rest). Using these actions they explore the dungeon and attempt to complete their quest.
Once the heroes have gone the Overlord turn begins. First he gains a set number of threat tokens (equal to the number of heroes x2, normally) and more overlord cards (2 normally). He uses the threat tokens to play the cards, with many cards requiring a lot of tokens so that the cannot come into play until later in the game or only when the heroes dally too long. He then uses the cards to spawn new monsters in the dungeon (wandering monsters that show up out of line of sight) or play event cards that include curses or traps that hinder or hurt the heroes. Once done playing cards the Overlord moves all the monsters on the map. Generally mobs can only move and attack as an option, but this can be modified by Overlord cards.
Combat is very common and is resolved by unique dice that come with the game. There are three types of attacks: melee, ranged and magic. For each type a hero or monster rolls a set combination of dice. This set is determined by equipment for the heroes and by the stat card for the monsters. Heroes also get to add power dice based on their characters stats. The dice are rolled and a few things are checked. First if an X is rolled the attack missed. If no X is rolled and it's a magic or ranged attack the numbers on the dice are counted, this gives a total that if under the distance between the attacker and defender, results in a miss. If the total number rolled is less then the range it's a hit. Next the number of hearts on the dice are checked, this is the damage of the attack. This is reduced by the hero or mobs defense and results in health loss. Lastly there are 'surges' on the dice. These let heroes power special abilities and lets the overlord collect more threat tokens. Once all that is done if the target has no health left they are dead.
As the heroes explore the dungeon they will run into a mix of terrain that includes rocks that block movement and line of sight, pools that block movement only, and pits that don't block line of sight but cause damage if fallen into. They will also find treasure scattered throughout the dungeon including chests, potions and gold. Chests are the most interesting as they give a random selection of things including draws from random item decks (copper, silver and gold level stuff), give the Overlord threat to cast traps and give the heroes Adventure tokens.
Adventure tokens are what determine who wins the game. The heroes start with a set amount of them based on what quest is being played. Every time a hero dies their group looses a set number of tokens (based on the strength of the character). Every time the Overlord cycles through his Overlord deck, the heroes loose 3 more tokens. Heroes gain tokens by activating glyphs (think town portal from Diablo), killing named Monsters and opening chests. If at any point the heroes run out of adventure tokens they loose the game.
Death in this game is more like a video game then an rpg. When a hero dies, and they will die often, they are returned to 'the town' where they are revived with all health, fatigue, skills and equipment but only half of their money. The only other penalty is the loss of adventure tokens. The heroes then can re-enter the dungeon through any activated glyph (which got me calling them save points).
Misc things: a few things that I missed above. The heroes each have a fatigue rating. This is a set number of fatigue counters that the heroes can exchange for a few things, like taking extra movement actions, or adding power dice to an attack, or activating various special abilities. The monsters in the game have a wide variety of special skills, these include rage, piercing attacks, flying, breath weapons etc. While exploring the dungeon the players will run into 'boss' monsters. These are tougher versions of their normal counterparts that give a 50 gold bonus when defeated. Characters can 'power up' in a few ways. The main way is to accumulate more powerful treasure from the bronze, silver and gold treasure chests. They can also purchase new skills, and train in each of the three types of attacks, giving themselves more power dice in whatever type they choose.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good[/glow]
Typical of Fantasy Flight this game comes with a horde of great, well made components. There are a ton of plastic miniatures. 20 for each character and then a bunch of mobs in white and then a bunch of mobs in red (red = Bosses). The minis are extremely well detailed, and if I had the time I would want to paint all of them. The tiles fit well together and I love the rough edges. The gameplay is excellent and challenging. This defiantly plays more like a competitive boardgame then an rpg where the dm leads you through the story (as I found Heroquest felt). There's no being nice to the heroes and making sure they survive until the end. The quest design is excellent and tells a rather interesting fantasy tale. The progression of complexity of the quests is nice, while still keeping the game balanced no matter what number you choose to play. The amount of work that fantasy flight put in to add replay value is appreciated as each dungeon crawl is different from the last even when doing the same quests. I do thank them for it, it's way better then say the orginal Heroquest, but it's not quite enough (see the bad for details).
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad[/glow]The combat system is a bit too abstract. It makes it very hard to know what is better. Is a weapon with two green dice better then one with 1 yellow and one white? This can be learned but makes it hard to buy equipment an know what's worth keeping. Replay value. Yes FF included 20 different heroes. These there are like 60 of each type of skill and these are randomly determined. Yes there are like 80 of each type of treasure. Yes there are rules for campaign play. But there are only 9 quests included. This could have been easily fixed with a quest generator. Some type of random tables for a random dungeon with a random goal. They managed to do it in Advanced Heroquest and in Space Hulk, I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to do with this. My only other real complaint is that the box says 1 to 2 hours for a game. Now I know the rule for Fantasy Flight games is double that, and it still stands, but why not just put 2 to 4 hours on the box right out. Lastly: this game takes up a ton of room. Not a problem for me, but many people's kitchen tables won't cut it.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow]Errata. I hate the fact that pretty much every game you buy you need to go online and download the latest errata or FAQ. I hate it way more when you do this and find drastic rules changes. There are enough changes to cards in the game, that the first expansion comes with replacement cards. This makes trying to remember what the 'right' rules are can be annoying. You are going to have a hard time sorting this one out due to all the bits. The box was designed for shipping and not storage. Now this is pretty quick to fix with a bunch of zip locked bags, but they get annoying as well. A compartmentalized box would have been very nice. As it stands even after individually bagging everything it takes at least a half an hour just to set up a game before play.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall[/glow]: A great dungeon crawl game. Adds a level of complexity and competition lacking in previous games of the same style (Heroquest, runbound, etc). The components are amazingly well made and details. The price on this one is a bit steep, but in my opinion well worth it due to the production values. The minis alone including 20 detailed character models that would be perfect for any RPG probably justify the cost, and you get a great game as well. Fantasy Flight did a lot to add replay value, and that's great, but it may not be enough to keep me playing the same quest over and over. This isn't a game you all need to own, but if you have a group of players that love to hack, slash and collect the treasure and would like to do it boardgame style I definitely suggest picking this up for the group.