I’m afraid you’ll have to do without the totes adorbs anime characters if you want to play Legends of Andor. This is strictly Germanic “you will take this seriously, dammit!” fantasy lore.
-Tom
DON’T THINK I WON’T START A RANT!
-Tom
When I saw on the last Patreon video where you had Legends of Andor out, with a number of expansion boxes to the side, I had a feeling you thought this game would be a good one. So much so I’m looking at purchasing it when I next do a board game purchase. And I’m definitely looking forward to reading what you have to write when the times comes Tom as the Magic Realm requesting guy :)
I keep looking at my display cabinets with the solo adventure games I have… Gloomhaven, Mage Knight, Nemo’s War, Pathfinder ACG (all of them), Runebound, Eldritch Horror, Dungeon Alliance, DnD Adventure Systems, Warhammer ACG, Darkest Night, Sword and Sorcery. Should I be convinced to make room for Legends of Andor. I think so!
Okay, wait, isn’t Runebound primarily a head-to-head competitive game with a piddly little solo mode as a module in one of the expansions? Or is there more to it than that?
And Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Systems? Wait a minute, what? Look at all the different modules, going back to 2010! What on earth? How come I’ve never even heard of those?
-Tom
P.S. Ha ha, you own Mage Knight.
Not just Mage Knight, but both expansions. Ok, so the first expansion I think is pretty important, the second one not so… It is criminal that Wizkids didn’t capitalise on the fact that it is extremely popular as a solo game for goodness knows what reason and actually devote time, money and resources into developing a much better solo playable expansion that could magically fix the issues hobbling the game. Given the quality issues surrounding the second expansion though, I guess they stopped caring. And while I say magically fix, I don’t think anything can really fix it beyond a total rewrite. And I’m still trying to work out why it is so popular.
As for Runebound, yes there is an expansion that turns it into a co-operative (hahaha, I mean solo) game. It is called the Unbreakable Bonds expansion and what it does is add team abilities applicable when 2 or more heroes group up. It also changes the scenarios so they have a team victory condition as opposed to head to head. Do I recommend it? No. I discussed it briefly in the Boardgaming 2018 thread - here Boardgaming in 2018!
I’m too forgiving with games, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. But not Runebound. A disappointing purchase. I should be mean and put that as a Patreon request! I’d even foot the bill of the game purchase (base + unbreakable bonds) just to make you sit there and play it, flipping those tokens and resolving combat on those character cards. That’s arsehole Josh speaking right now who had a rough day at work and drinking too much rum to forget. One thing is certain, Runebound still keeps the fantastic quality components I’ve come to expect from Fantasy Flight. That’s about the one good thing.
Nothing special. Play Tomb of Annihilation on Steam. That’s what those games are. If you’re not sinking dozens of hours into Tomb of Annihilation on Steam, don’t bother with the tabletop versions.
“The Last Fantasy Game you ever need” would be a big Get for me.
Is it true that fighting monsters serves mostly to slow you down against the game clock? I’ve seen a lot of complaints about that, although it actually sounds kind of appealing to me.
I could have warned you about Runebound had I known. I playtested expansions for first and second edition and thought it was a terrible game.
I picked up Legacy of Dragonholt in the Amazon sale and hope to try that out with my wife soon. It’s a take on the GM-less systems and is probably a little roleplaying-lite but looked fun.
It’s basically a very robust “Choose your own adventure” book. But it’s a good one.
After The Little Game Master and The ABCs of RPGs were big hits with my girls, I need to find some sort of GM-less games that could work with the 4-6 year old range also.
I can imagine this might bother some people, but this isn’t a Descent style hack-and-slash-and-loot game. You definitely have to kill monsters, but the idea is that if you rile up the monster population, certain things will happen more quickly. Including the end of the game. So a significant part of Legends of Andor is working out which monsters to kill.
Frankly, I think it’s way better than the fixed clock in Mage Knight or the mechanics of exhaustion in Gloomhaven. Through combat, you have complete control over the game clock and managing it is part of winning any given scenario. Your heroes can’t stop an army, but like guerrillas, they can perform surgical strikes.
-Tom
You and me both, brother.
Ah, right, I remember that. That’s probably where I got the idea that Runebound wasn’t really worth including in my burgeoning solitaire collection. It seems to me it’s well known because it’s one of the older games, not necessarily because it’s one of the better games. Like Mage Knight!
Ewww. Okay, that makes those easy to cross off the list. I skimmed through some of the online PDFs for those games and figured they were pretty uninspired.
-Tom
That caught my eye, but my concern is that something like that isn’t going to have much replay value. That’s an important consideration for me. Let us know how it works out for you and your family.
Heh, ABCs of RPGs. That looks just too precious! What a great way to get kids interested in dad’s hobby. That’s good parenting, Mr. Rowe!
-Tom
It has no real replay value. Personally, I don’t mind this - I can get just as many plays out of a game with no replay value but several scenarios to work through as I’ll get out of most infinitely replayable games, because I only have so many gaming sessions and new games come out all the time and even trying to keep up is folly but I do anyway.
Is Legends of Andor the one with no rulebook but everything printed on the board?
I’m ok with low or no replay value for something like this as well. As long as the experience itself is fun then it will have been worth it.
I’d highly recommend those two kid books for anyone hoping to pique some gaming interest in their little ones. The artwork is great and my girls really love them.
No, no, it’s definitely got a rules book. But I’m curious what game you’re thinking of. I don’t think it’s one I’ve seen.
-Tom
Nope, that’s the one. I think there was a design diary or preview about the (relative) lack of a traditional rulebook back when it was first released? So no rulebook was probably a bit drastic. Maybe something about the designer wanting to play it with his children. Can’t find it now, seems like FFG has changed their websites.
Edit:
Here it is: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2012/11/26/a-look-inside-the-legends/
Not as radical as I remembered it, but he wanted it to not be too abstract or rules-heavy. Not sure why I filed it under “No rulebook”. Aha, because they state it a bit down in the interview.
It wouldn’t probably have a ton of replay value.
OTOH, it’s pretty damn long. I’m sure we must’ve put in at least a dozen hours getting through it. I find high fantasy settings pretty dull, in general, so I was ready to move on by the time we got to hour 10 or so anyway.
There is enough material there, though, that I’m sure there are other paths we didn’t take that could provide a slightly different experience.