I know this is a bit late, but I opened up my kick-started of TG last night.
There’s…alot there.
So, I set up the game, and immediately cane afoul of what I think will either make or break this game for a new player.
I refer to the rules, specifically the explanations.
The rules explanations are some of the worst I’ve ever come across.
Instructions given are goddamed annoying and I have spent bout 2 hrs on Board Game Geek getting clarification.
To put that in perspective, we played this game for a total of maybe 4 hrs…so half of that of me scratching my head over instructions and at one point drifting embarrassingly close to a hissy fit.
For example, see if you can decipher, on first reading and with no searching, the rule for upgrading an attribute.
I can’t upload the pdf here.
Also, some things that are actually very simple have needlessly complicated instructions, such as how to set up your combat and diplomacy decks.
And regarding those 2 sets of cards, some genius decided the only marker, to help you classify them, would be a 25mm (millimetre!) Mark of colour referred to as a “banner” to see which your initial 15 cards are.
Seriously, they could very easily have printed the back of those cards in the colours of the character.
Spirit island has 4 start cards per spirit and you can find then in a matter of seconds.
This…
ANYWAY,
Once the irritation subsided, the actual game is fun.
It is not something like Mage Knight and the closest I’ve played to it is Gloomhaven, which I now miss.
It is more like those choose your own adventure books except …well bigger, and more entertaining, and you get to move people around.
I’ve seen some people complain about the combat and diplomacy systems, which are basically the same system with different cards and at first I found it confusing.
But after about 3 encounters I got how the system worked and I actually like it.
I got my arse handed to me on one occasion by “an angry mob” before I realised I could just run away.
Anyway, now that I’ve (mostly) gotten past the poor rules writing, I am.actually going to play the game again, and am.looking forward to it, tonight.