Marvel Champions: How to Play + Basic Walkthrough

Ok, so maybe you have been interested in Marvel Champions for a while, but couldn't land a copy. Or you just heard about it. Or you have had it sitting on the shelf and haven't quite figured it out. Well, I'm here to help. I've been enjoying the game and I know that there seems to be a large amount of confusion from folks trying to learn to play the game, so I'm here to try and help. This is a bit longer than normal, but stick with me here.

I'm here to tell you all - its pretty easy to get started. The rules and "getting started" book are pretty good, but I'm going to walk through it for you and show you how to play true solo and give you some insight into the basics of playing the game.

First, what is Marvel Champions? Marvel Champions is a cooperative card game in Fantasy Flight Games' line of "Living Card Games" (LCGs). Unlike a Collectible Card Game or CCG (like Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, etc), an LCG simply means that FFG plans to release a steady stream of content (ie expansions) for this game. There are still a lot of unknowns about coming material, but currently none of the additional content is required to play and enjoy the game - you can pick and choose parts if you desire to expand your game set. In fact, the game you get out of the box is ready to play for multiple players.

You may have heard this is a deck building game or a customizable deck building game. Yes, there is some flexibility available to customize your hero deck, but it is also quite a bit more rigid than a more traditional deck building game (see - Arkham Horror: The Card Game). Setting up decks to play (fun decks at that), take less than a minute (as you'll see shortly) - if you have ever played Smash Up!, it is exactly that simple - take a couple sets of cards and you have your deck. No having to fish out 30 individual and different cards from a stack of hundreds.

Getting Started

A couple of general notes. In typical FFG LCG fashion, if a card text breaks the rules of the game, the card text is "correct". You can save yourself a lot of overthinking things by doing exactly (and ONLY) what it says on a card. Don't interpret. If you are unsure, check the rules, but most of the time, the straight forward thing is the right thing. Next, any time you see the silhouette of a person next to another symbol, it basically mean "for each hero". So if you see 2(silhouette), it means 2 per hero.

First we have to pick the bad guy. We are going to use the Rhino because he is truly the starter bad guy of the game. There should be three (3) cards for the villain as seen here.

In a normal game, you will have to beat two versions of the villain. Card I then card II in standard play OR card II then card III in expert mode. HERE, we are going to play in a suggested variant - beginner mode, meaning we will only play against one card, version I!

Put the card(s) you will be using on the table and the remaining card(s) back in the box.

Encounter Deck

Next, we have to build the villain encounter deck. First, look for a card that says "Main Scheme" - it'll be two sided (1A and 1B). Rhino only has the one scheme card, but as you play against other villains, you'll find they will have multiple steps (cards) to their schemes, so find ALL the "Main Scheme" cards for your villain.

On side 1A of the Main Scheme card, you'll find instructions on which sets of cards to include in the encounter deck. Rhino's scheme card (Titled "The Break-In!") says Rhino and Standard encounter sets (*note - there is an EXPERT encounter set, so the "Standard" set is simply the name of one of the card sets). It also says to use one modular encounter set and it recommends the Bomb Scare set (the base game comes with multiple modular encounter sets so that you can replay a villain with different cards).

All sets are labeled with the name of the set each card belongs to on the bottom (in a black bar) of the card (under the text box on the card). So, find these three sets of cards:

• Rhino encounter cards
• Standard encounter cards
• Bomb Scare encounter cards

After collecting those sets, we have one more card we need to add (for this game's setup). Each hero has a card (their obligation) that goes into the villain deck. With more than one hero, you'd add the obligatory card from each of the heroes you are playing. Since we are doing true solo (only one hero), we just have one card to add. 

For this walk-through, I'm going to play as the She-Hulk. Her obligation card is called Legal Work. Add this single card to the three sets of encounter cards listed above and shuffle those cards. You have now made the encounter deck. Set this (face down) near the other Rhino cards.

*Note! There are 5 other cards included with the She-Hulk set that are not part of your hero deck. Each hero has a nemesis which is represented by a small set of cards that may eventually become part of the encounter deck, but to start the game, they are simply set aside.

That's it! The encounter deck is now ready to be shuffled up. All you have to do now is turn over the Main Scheme card to side 1B and follow any instructions you find there. Rhino doesn't have any additional setup, so we are almost done. Grab that really big hit tracker and dial in the amount of damage the Rhino can take. On the bottom of the Rhino I card in the black stripe (in really tiny print) it says a number of hit points. Set the dials to match this number. This is the amount of damage we are going to have to deal to the Rhino in order take him out (and in our case, win). Now we are ready to setup our hero deck.

Hero Deck

Each hero comes with a two sided hero card and their own deck of cards which is augmented with two additional card sets:

• An Aspect set of cards
• A standard set of general cards.

For the She-Hulk, we are going to use the Aggression Aspect set (red). Mix the aggression set, the She-Hulk hero card set and a standard set and we have built our deck (leave out the two sided hero card). Shuffle that sucker up.

Place the hero card on the Alter Ego side (in our case, the Jennifer Walters side) in front of you. Your hero always begins the game with the Alter Ego side up. Next, grab a hit counter for yourself (one of the little ones - ok, does it really matter which you use? Not in the least!) and set your initial hit points (your starting hit points are in the same place on your hero card as the villain's hit points were on his - at the bottom of the card in the black strip (in tiny print)). She-Hulk starts with a nice high 15 hit points! Lastly, on the card, next to the hit points, it will tell you your starting hand size (six(6)). **NOTE: heroes all have different hand sizes AND the hand size will be different depending on which side of the card you are playing during the game. 

Draw your first six cards from your shuffled up hero deck. Look over the cards and make your first choice of the game! From your starting hand of cards, you may discard any number of cards and draw replacement cards (this is called your mulligan). You can discard zero cards or all of them. In order to make a decision on what to keep or discard, we have to explain the hero card information. 

Here are my initial six cards drawn. In the upper left of the cards is a number. That number is the cost to play the card. Your currency in this game are the cards themselves (similar to Race for the Galaxy). In the lower left of the cards is a symbol. Some cards require you to spend a specific type of card (based on that symbol). For the big number on the upper left, you can use any type as long as you spend the appropriate number of symbols - not cards. This is important because a few cards are going to have two (2) symbols on them.

For example, if these cards were my hand and I wanted to play the Uppercut card, I would pay cards such that I totaled at least three symbols (again that cost is not symbol specific). I (having only single symbol cards) would choose three cards to discard in order to pay for the Uppercut card. If I had two cards that each had two symbols on them, I could pay with just the two cards. It is ok to overpay, but you lose the extra "resources" - oh well.

Some of the cards you'll have are one time use cards (such as Uppercut here), some of them augment your hero (such as the Superhuman Strength card) either for a limited time, or ongoing once played. Some, such as Tac Team, support your hero for a specific number of uses.

As a draw, these are not bad cards - there are some good cards here to put a hurt on a bad guy and some cards to really spread damage around - that being said, it would take a few turns for there to even possibly be a couple of minions helping Rhino, so the Ground Stomp card isn't a great starting card. Chase Them Down is another decent card if there is a bunch of guys to fight, but less exciting as a starting card. Superhuman Strength is a reasonable upgrade, though only a one time use. That one use does stun the target (stun will negate an enemy's next attack), so it is a good way to slow down a bad guy. Tac Team is a good support card that can be used three times. Rather than dig for cards, I'm going to keep all of these with the intent to play the Tac Team card and after my next draw, I may try to get Superhuman Strength in play. I'll use the rest as payment.

Finally, after settling on a hand of cards, follow any setup instructions on your character's card. Jennifer Walters has no setup instructions for us (Black Panther, for example, does have instructions).

Jen does have a couple of things to note. On the left of her card is "5 REC" - this indicates that when on this side of the card, you may recover 5 hit points of damage (up to your max hit points(15)). In order to use this recover ability, you must "exhaust" the card by turning the card 90 degrees (you cannot use this ability if the card is in the exhausted state - anytime a card is exhausted, you cannot use the card until it has been reset to its normal, upright state). She also has an Interrupt ability (I Object!) which is used at a specific time (as indicated by the text). *Note, this interrupt will happen regardless of if your hero card is exhausted.

On the She-Hulk side, there are three numbers on the left side. The first (1 THW) means you can exhaust She-Hulk to "thwart" (this means remove threat). The red number (3 ATK) means that you can exhaust She-Hulk to attack, causing three (3) points of damage to one target. The last number in green (2 DEF) means that you can exhaust She-Hulk to defend against an attack by a bad guy and reduce the amount of damage you would receive by two (2). Again, you can only do one of these if She-Hulk has not been exhausted already. Finally, the text on her card indicates that when you switch from Jennifer Walters to She-Hulk, you can deal two (2) damage to an enemy (any enemy). This is not an "attack" nor does it require you to exhaust the card. This happens even if the card was exhausted when you made the switch.

How do I switch and why do I want to switch?

Simple. Once per turn (on your turn) you may flip your hero card to the other side. If exhausted, the card stays exhausted. Ok. We are now ready to get started. We'll cover more terms and the flow of the game as we go.

Let's Play! Hero Turn

The heroes start. You can take as many actions as you are able or willing to take. If you were playing with more heroes, each hero takes and completes their turn, followed by the next. Players decide on the order.

What can I do?

Your choices will vary depending on the cards you have in play and the cards you have in your hand.

• You can play a card or cards from your hand, paying the cost as described above. 
• You can activate some of the cards you have already played - for example, if I had played the Tac Team, I could activate the card to use one of its uses (it has three uses) and do two damage to an enemy. 
• You can use one of your hero activations to remove threat from a scheme, or attack a bad guy - as long as your hero is ready. If the hero is exhausted, you cannot use their standard abilities.
• You can flip your hero card (once per turn)

You are not required to use or activate any cards you have in play. You can of course, activate them all if you like (assuming they are ready and/or you can pay any cost that might be required).

For my first turn, I'm going to put the Tac Team in play in front of me on the table. The card says to add three counters. Each time I use the card, I'll remove a counter. When all three counters are gone, the card is removed to my discard pile. I can only activate the Tac Team on my turn and after I do (and spend the counter) I have to exhaust the card (meaning I can't use it until it is back to its ready state). I want to put the Tac Team in play to help me fend off any minion guys that might try and bother me. The cost is three (3) to play this and since all my current cards have only one resource symbol, I pick three cards to pay with - I'm using the two Chase Them Down cards and the Ground Stomp card.  

I no longer have enough resources to pay for either of the remain two cards in my hand, so I'm done playing cards. I did NOT have to play cards first, but by playing the Tac Team now, I have the option to use them before my first turn is over.

I'm at full strength, so I don't need Jennifer's recover ability, so I flip her card to the She-Hulk side. The card text tells me that after I change to She-Hulk I deal 2 damage to an enemy. The only guy to hit is Rhino, so I deal him to damage and change his dials from 15 to 13!  

Seems like I'm going to need to punch him a few more times, so I have She-Hulk attack Rhino. I exhaust the hero card to show I'm using her ability. The attack is three(3) and I don't have any other cards or things that modify this yet, so the Rhino takes another three damage dropping him from 13 to 10 (this guy is a sissy boy)!

I could have the Tac Team attack him as well, but they have limited uses, so I choose not to use them yet. So I can't play more cards, my hero is exhausted and I don't want to use my played card. I'm done for the round. If there were other heroes, each would also take their turn (one at a time).

End of Hero Phase

Once each hero has taken their actions and declared they are done, all players do the following:

• Ready any of their cards that were exhausted
• Draw cards until the number of cards in hand matches the number listed on the current side of their hero card

For She-Hulk, this number is four(4)! Recall, Jennifer's side of the hero card lets you draw to six (6) cards, so while She-Hulk gets to really pummel the bad guy, my cards in hand options are going to be reduced. I draw two more card from the top of my deck to bring my current hand up to four cards. At this point, all my cards are active/ready.

One of the two cards I drew was Tigra! This Avenger is an Ally card and I mention her because I intend to play her on my next turn. You'll see her card again in a bit.

Villain Turn

Once all the heroes have completed their turn, have reset their exhausted cards back to their ready state, and drawn their cards, the bad guys come to play. The bad guy turns and the things that happen are pretty easy to execute. There is a little bit here to read, but that is because there are (sort of) two different things that can happen based on what side your hero card is currently on when the bad guys act. I'll sum it up after and you'll soon see that this is all pretty easy.

#1 - Add Threat

Add a threat token(s) to the villain's Main Scheme. The scheme card here shows us that we are to add one(1) threat token per hero to the scheme. We know this because the Acceleration Icon (the symbol immediately above the Starting Threat number shows us "+1(per player)" - remember, that little silhouette means per player. Since we have only a single hero, we add only a single threat token.

The number in the upper left (Target Threat) tells us that when the number of threat tokens on the scheme is equal to or greater than seven(7) threat tokens per hero, this phase of the villain's scheme is complete and we go to the next card in the scheme. When the last card in the scheme is complete, the hero(es) lose. Since we have only one hero, if we get to seven total tokens on this card, we lose.

*Note, it is possible through various cards that get played, for the threat to become accelerated. If an acceleration happens, it means during this part of the game, you simply increase the number of threat that is added.

#2 - The Villain (and minions) Attacks OR Schemes VS EACH Hero

The villain (and any minions that have engaged the hero) will (each) do the same action against each hero. The action is based on which side of the card each hero is on. 

Villain Schemes - Hero is on the Alter Ego side

When your hero is on the Alter Ego side, the villain isn't being confronted directly, so the villain and minions advance the main scheme by adding threat tokens to the scheme.

Villain Attacks - Hero is on the Hero side

When your hero is on their heroic side, the villain is being confronted by the hero and the villain and minions attack the hero, trying to knock them out by dealing damage.

The Process for Attack/Scheming

The process is essentially the same regardless of whether you are being attacked or the scheme is advancing - you simply have to use the appropriate value from the bad guy card and either add threat to the scheme or reduce hit points on your hero. When being attacked, you will have an option of defending, otherwise the process is basically the same.

First, draw the top card of the encounter deck without looking at it. This is a potential boost card for the villain's action.

If your hero card is on the hero side and you are being attacked, you may defend, which is described below. You must declare a defense before the reveal of the boost card. After deciding if you are defending against the attack, proceed.

Turn over the boost card and look at the bottom right part of the card (ignore everything else about the card). There may be boost icons, a star icon or nothing.

If there is nothing, discard the encounter card.

If there are one or more boost icons, for each symbol, add one(1) additional threat or attack, then discard the encounter card.

If there is a Star Icon, you will need to read the card text to know what the effect might be, then discard the encounter card unless the instructions tell you otherwise.

If you are in Alter Ego form, the villain's SCH value + any boost is the total number of threat tokens that are added to the main scheme.

If you are being attacked, the villian's ATK value + any boost is the total amount of damage that is going to be done.

Defending

If you are being attacked, you may have the option to defend against any attack. Before the attack is resolved (for the villain, before their boost is revealed), you may commit one of your allies to defend your hero or if your hero is ready (ie NOT exhausted) the hero may defend themselves. 

Exhaust the defender and subtract the defender's DEF value (if any) from the total amount of damage that the attacker is doing. The remaining damage (if any) is subtracted from the defender's hit points. If an ally takes more damage than they have hit points, that ally is then discarded. If your hero takes the damage and they are reduced to zero or less hit points, you are knocked out of the game. *Note, if you are playing with multiple heroes, another hero can also defend you if that hero is not exhausted.

Minions Attack/Scheme

Now repeat the same process WITHOUT a boost card for each minion that is engaged with your hero. You can defend against minion attacks if there are ready allies (or a hero is ready).

Since I am in She-Hulk form, The Rhino will be attacking me. I draw a card (not revealing it yet). I'm at full health and I really want to have an action available to me later, so I decide not to use She-Hulk's defense to defend against the attack. The boost card is revealed - Legal Work! Now, since this is a the boost card, the only thing we look at is the bottom right part of the card where there are two boost symbols.

Rhino I has an ATK of 2, so his total attack against me is now four (4). As I am not defending, I slide my health dial back from 15 to 11.

The Legal Work card is then discarded - the card effect(s) do not happen and (in some ways) I luck out at having the She-Hulk's obligation card dismissed right off the bat. Sure, it caused the Rhino's attack to basically do twice as much damage, but She-Hulk is tough, she can handle it. There are no minions to attack me, so this phase is done.

#3 - Encounters

Now, each hero will receive one encounter card from the encounter deck and then resolve all encounters they have received. It is possible for card and game effects to deal heroes additional encounter cards. When this happens, the encounter card remains in the player's tableau until this phase. Each hero will reveal each encounter (and resolve it) one card at a time until all of a hero's encounters are resolved, and then this is repeated for the other heroes. If a card has surge it means that after finishing the resolution of that card, the same hero will draw and resolve another encounter card.

• If a minion is revealed, that minion engages with the hero that was dealt the card. The "engagement" simply means that when they are on the table, a minion is associated with a specific hero. Each minion is different, be sure to read the text on the card. (That's it, you are done. The attack phase already happened, so unless the card text tells you to do something special, engaging the hero is all that happens when a minion is revealed).
• If the card is an attachment follow the instructions on the card and the card become attached to the villain.
• When the card is of the treachery type, follow the instructions on the card, then discard the card to the encounter deck discard pile.

The last type of card you'll see is a side scheme. When you get one of these, put the card near the main scheme and follow the instructions on the card.

Unlike the main scheme, a side scheme enters play with threat tokens on the card. The scheme stays in play until all of the threat is all removed from the scheme, at which point the side scheme is then discarded. Be sure to read the card and follow any setup instructions on the card. The above card starts with two threat tokens plus additional tokens per player.

This description of the icons that may appear on the scheme cards is from the rules book and is pretty well described here, but I wanted to point out a gotcha. 

Acceleration and Hazard are NOT per hero - unless followed by that silhouette that looks like a person. If you read the text here, Hazard says "an additional encounter card" (ie one extra) card is dealt. If there are multiple effects that are adding cards (ie two schemes that have a Hazard icon), then the additional cards are distributed to the heroes. 

This is one of those things where you have to pay attention to when you see icons - make sure you aren't making the game too easy or too hard.

I draw my encounter card for the She-Hulk and received the Explosion card. I look at it and it says "If Bomb Scare is in play...". I have nothing that says "Bomb Scare" anywhere, so I read on to see what to do when Bomb Scare is not in play. The card says if no Bomb Scare, the card gains surge (which again, just means draw another encounter card).  

Into the discard pile goes the Explosion card. The next card that is revealed is called Advance. It is a simple treachery card that says - "The Villain schemes". This means just what it says, I do the same process I would do normally during the Villain turn when he schemes (ie he's going to draw a boost card and then use his SCH value to add threat tokens to his main scheme).

The boost card drawn is the Bomb Scare scheme - which doesn't mean a thing. We only look at the boost icons and see that the card has two boost symbols. The Rhino, not being a criminal mastermind only has a SCH value of one (1), so with his boost, his scheme total is three. Three additional threat tokens are added to the main scheme (ack! Rhino now has 4 total threat on the scheme - he only needs 7 to defeat me) and all the encounter cards that were drawn are placed into the discard pile.

With the Encounters all taken care of, the bad guys are done and we start the cycle over again.

Continuing Play

Ok, after one complete cycle of play, you should have a fair idea of what the game play is like:

• Each hero takes turn, one after another.
• All heroes reset their exhausted cards then draw to their specified hand size.
• Add threat to main scheme
• Villain and minions [attack or scheme] against each hero
• Encounter cards are drawn
• Encounter cards are revealed and resolved, one at a time, hero by hero.
• Repeat until one side wins

Let's see if I can finish off the Rhino. Time for round number 2.

As I said earlier, I've decided to play Tigra (maybe just punching the crap out of Rhino wins me the game, but I wanted to cover Allies here before we are done.

Since I have exactly three other single resource cards in my hand, I spend all of my cards to bring Tigra in play. The number on the right (the "3" attached to the text field) is the number of wounds/hits this card can take before you have to discard it from play. Otherwise it acts a lot like a mini hero card that you control when your main hero acts.

One thing to note about this (and I think most of the Ally cards) under their THW and ATK there is a little star. That means that after using this Ally and fulling resolving the attack or thwart action, this card takes one hit/wound.

With no more cards to play I have to decide how to proceed. I ultimately decide to use Tigra and She-Hulk for their thwart abilities. I exhaust each and remove one threat for each of them (they each have thwart ability of THW 1) from the main scheme. I also then add a damage counter to Tigra. This brings down the total threat on the main scheme to only two threat.

The only thing left that I can do is use my Tac Team. I remove a counter from the card, exhaust the card, and then cause two damage to Rhino bringing him from 10 to 8 hit points.

Since I'm finished, I reset my three cards to a ready state and draw a hand of four new cards.

Back to the bad guys.

First, I add one threat to the main scheme. The count is now 3 total threat on the main scheme.

Next, Rhino is going to attack my hero. I want to be able to attack on the next hero turn (or thwart if I have to), so I elect not to defend so my hero is not exhausted. The revealed boost card has a single boost symbol on it, so the Rhino's attack total is three and She-Hulk drops three hit points from 11 down to 8.

Next, I have to draw an encounter card. I draw Caught Off Guard. It says I have to discard a support or upgrade card. This is one of those times where I wish the card text would have put the word support in bold so that players knew it meant a "keyword". Support is specifically a type of card.

I don't have any upgrade cards in play (upgrade is another specific type of card that will have a label of "Upgrade" on it), but the Tac Team has a label on it that says Support, so off to the discard pile they go.

If I hadn't had the Tac Team to discard, the encounter card would have gained surge and I would have had to draw another card

And that's it for the bad guys in round two!

Back to She-Hulk. Time to go on the offensive and take a can of whoop-ass to the Rhino.

One of the cards I drew in my new hand is the excellent One-Two Punch. This card lets me make a basic attack with She-Hulk, and then you can play this Event card to ready her for action again - meaning I can get in two She-Hulk actions.

First I use Tigra to attack the Rhino. She has ATK of two, doing two damage to the bad guy bringing him from 8 hit points down to 6. Tigra also takes a point of damage, reducing her to 1 remaining hit point. I exhaust her card after using her.

Now I use She-Hulk to do a standard attack. Her attack is a nice powerful ATK 3, reducing the Rhino's remaining hit points by half and leaving him at 3 hit points. I exhaust She-Hulk's card after using her.

This is the time for the One-Two Punch. I play the card and use one of the other cards from my hand to pay the cost of one (1). Since I just performed a basic attack, this card lets me ready She-Hulk.

Since she is NOT exhausted, she is ready to perform any action and I have her attack Rhino again. The second punch has the same result - three damage. That reduces the Rhino to zero hit points and I have defeated the Rhino I card. Since I was only doing a beginner run here, I am done and have won the scenario.

If I had been playing in normal mode, I'd remove the Rhino I card from the game and followed any instructions on the Rhino II card then continued.

I hope that if you've been interested in playing, or had trouble getting started, that this was helpful.

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Session Report for AH: TCG - Night of the Zealot: The Midnight Masks

Our new friend, Lita Chandler (the house burner from the first episode) tells us that Arkham has been infiltrated by a number of cultist who are planning something bad at midnight. We need to search them out and expose them and figure out their plans - before midnight.

Roland started with his special .38 revolver, in the central part of Arkham. My options were pretty much anywhere, so I decided to have Roland head to Eastown. Roland found clues and was joined by his buddy the Beat Cop.

Roland then moved on to the Downtown area. Before he could investigate anything, a Winged Terror thing grabbed him and dumped him back in central Arkham. Since he had enough clues, I exposed a cultist - Herman Collins. Herman worked in the graveyard, so Roland headed that way next.

The graveyard would not be friendly to me. Instead of waiting, Roland rushed right down, which meant that Herman engaged and began attacking him. In the midst of beating Henry into submission (by shooting him), Roland saw or did something which meant he was going to have to cover up a crime (the coverup meant that I needed to expend at least three clues to cover it up - each clue left on the card would cost me sanity at the end of the game).

And of course while I was trying to find more clues in the graveyard, a heavy fog rolled in, making the task all the more difficult. I eventually found all the clues and decided to head north (surprisingly to Northtown).

As I was busy trying to finish covering up whatever happened in the graveyard by getting clues in Northtown, a Night Gaunt showed up to harass Roland. Roland wasn't in any shape to deal with it (mentally) and decided to pack it in with having only exposed the one cultist.

After the game. I swapped out a card to bring in another First Aid card. Roland is going into the next scenario starting with two mental dings and hopefully I can find one and get to a point where Roland can last more than a couple turns. Until next time...

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Session Report for AH: TCG - Night of the Zealot: The Gathering

Fair warning! I plan to describe things that may be spoilers to the story so if you are interested in playing the game and want to be surprised, both of you should stop reading right now.

Ok, the base game box comes with a single three chapter campaign called Night of the Zealot. I have dug out my copy of the game and am planning to play it pure solo - one investigator only. I have decided to simply use Roland (one of the two suggested starter investigators). After putting together the suggested started set of cards for Roland, I went looking for a trusty phone app to use. Lo and behold there is an app on iOS (there may be on other platforms, I don't know) called Arkham Cards and the app is great! Not only will it help you with your deck composition, it will help you setup your campaign chapters, track your deck changes, and act as a draw bag - and it is free! Total score!

Ok, so I setup and played the game. I moved from the first location to the next, then to a third spot, a monster popped and killed me. The End.

Seriously.

Ok, I don't think I did it right. I didn't use the knife card I had correctly (though not sure that would have changed the result). Sometimes luck is not on your side. So I mulligan'd. So that is what we are going to report on.

The game starts out with Roland in his study, when suddenly the room warps and the door disappears.  What to do now? The obvious answer is get some cards in play and investigate this room. I put a knife in play (now that I know what I'm doing) and a guard dog - he returns 1 damage when he is hurt, so so that should help against the bad things that are going to appear (but didn't until the end).

The Mythos cards (you draw one each turn and it is basically, some kind of test or foe or some crap each time) for the first couple turns were tests and I eeked by them and got out of the study and was dumped into the hallway. Yeah, dumped - the house is all kinds of weird now and warped and crazy.

Since this was a replay, I figured I'd just stick to my original plan - see, there were three locations I could go to (sort of) from the hallway: basement, attic, or the parlor. Except that the parlor was blocked off, so I had originally picked the basement. So off to the basement I went again. Last game, I got popped by a bad monster right away. This time I was prepared.

No monsters...

Roland found two clues in the basement thanks to some card help and the Mythos cards only damaged his sanity a little and added threat the the villain's scheme (sorry wrong game) added doom to the agendas (which advanced me to the second part of the agenda very quickly). Now, I needed three clues to advance the act and since I only had two, Roland needed to go find somewhere else to get some more.

In AH: TCG, there are a series of ACT cards and AGENDA cards - you want to move the ACT along, it means your investigation is progressing; the AGENDA cards you don't want to advance, because it typically means that whatever bad is going on is progressing despite your efforts.

Ok, so Roland got out of the basement and headed to the attic, which was no big deal at all. He grabbed a clue up there and headed back to the hallway to remove whatever barrier was blocking the parlor. Things were going really well to this point, and about what I'd have expected from the first champter of the intro campaign. Apparently, removing the barrier was not a good idea. I mean, I had to do it story wise, but it was bad.

As I advanced the act into the third act (and last part), removing the barrier revealed that there was someone in my parlor and she had created the barrier. The barrier was keeping bad things out and keeping more bad things from escaping.

By removing the barrier, I gave this Ghoul Priest (who just suddenly appeared) access to the room. He showed up and we started fighting. He pummeled me (and my dog) and I realized that I couldn't last another turn, and might not have many options. I had to roll the dice (so to speak) and went for an evade (running away like Brave Sir Robin) - something Roland is not great at. SOMEHOW, I managed to actually dodge this crazy guy and ran into the parlor, leaving the Ghoul Priest in the hallway like a stupefied Wile E Coyote.

The reprieve gave me a chance to use the bandages I had and to get my buddy the beat cop into play. When the Ghoul Priest recovered and chased me down (I was only in the next room), I was ready for him. Between the damage the dog had given him, me throwing my knife at him (it must have been like a Crocodile Dundee sized knife), and the beat cop giving him a beating, I managed to defeat the Ghoul Priest, which ended the last act.

The crazy lady that had been in the parlor creating the barrier said we needed to burn my house down. I agreed and we did (and she joined my deck for our next adventure). A much more satisfying turn of events.

As a result of the game, I had earned a ton of experience, which means I was able to upgrade and replace a number of cards. Since I got a new ally and since you can only have one in play at a time, I dumped a beat cop (though I did decide to replace him with another dog). One of the research guys I had in my deck was really only decent for digging for TOMES in my deck (of which I have two iffy ones), so I dumped him to grab a shotgun card! I also decided to put another .45 in my deck and a spare ammo card to help with all the guns I have available. I upgrade my magnifying glass as well.

I'm going to have to keep an eye on the cards I get in play since you can only have so many in play of various types (ie I have two hands, I can't have a shotgun and a magnifying glass and a flashlight), but I like my upgrade choices. Since Roland is the only investigator, I aimed to make sure he could stomp bad guys AND find the clues. We'll see how the next game goes...

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One is the Loneliest Number...

I don't consider myself a solo gamer. What do I mean by a solo gamer? Someone who buys games with the intent to play them solo. Games that don't have a way to play with only one player are often passed over by a solo gamer, not to say that they won't buy games at other counts, but that one player mode is pretty important to a solo gamer.

Don't get me wrong. I own and have purchased games that play solo. I have and do play some of my games solo - I'm going to cover those in a minute. That being said, I think the number of games I have purchased with the intent to play solo is two. One of those, I purchased in the last month - Marvel Champions. The other is Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Turns out they have a lot in common.

Generally speaking, I don't love playing boardgames solo. Generally speaking, I play boardgames because I like playing games with my friends and family. Generally speaking, I'd rather play an average game asynchronously online if I can't sit down with friends to play a game. Generally speaking, if I want to play a game solo, I'd rather pull out my iPad and play one of the many app versions I have against the AI.

I play boardgames because I like the mental puzzle of doing well at a game and I enjoy the challenge of trying to do better than my friends. I enjoy the banter at the table and I enjoy the conversations that have nothing to do with the game we are playing. Boardgames are a social thing.

Now, I understand that some folks have trouble finding other players to game with. Maybe they are deeply introverted. Maybe the people they like to play with are very busy and the meetup times are really rare or don't match up. Whatever the reason, I'm not knocking people playing solo games.

But honestly, I don't get much satisfaction out of playing a game using some automata system. I don't enjoy playing a game to see if I can figure out some super efficient pattern that will let me score more points than the previous time I played. The games I do play solo tend to tell a story and that is what keeps me interested, not my personal efficiency at a game or scenario. I think this is why I tend not to really enjoy playing co-op games as well. Co-op games that tell a really good story, like Eldritch Horror, I can enjoy. Something like Pandemic? That's just a multiplayer solo efficiency game where one player takes on the Alpha role and leads the others (I don't need to play a game where I'm told what I should be doing the whole time and neither do I want to do that to/for the other players).

So why bring this up at all? COVID-19.

Like a lot of people, I'm trying to find things to do to keep my mind active and keep from going stir crazy. I've been playing lots of online games. I'm doing lots of reading (and like a lot of people, lots of watching TV). There seems to be a limit to each of those things that I can do before I don't want to do them anymore, so I've been turning to boardgames. As I said above, the ones I'm willing to play solo tend to be games that tell me a story, so here are the ones that I've am willing to play and why.

Shockingly, Descent makes the list. I played Dungeons and Dragons as a young child and fantasy has always been something I really enjoy. Anyone that reads this blog (all three of you) knows that I have been painting my Descent collection. Because of all that effort, I almost feel an obligation to break this out from time to time and play. Because of the Road to Legend app, it is very easy to break out and start playing when I need a quick dungeon crawl fix. I also have a set of automated monster cards so that I can run through the official campaigns. Now, I know that I said that I'm not interested in play automata systems, but this isn't a game that you score - its a story game and you win or lose. Yeah, the story is meagre at times, but there is still a story and a fantasy adventure to be had here, so I don't mind playing at all.

That is a lot of tentacles to try and shoot off

Eldritch Horror is the first of the two Lovecraftian games on my list. I'm not sure what the pull is here for me - I wasn't a huge fan of the genre growing up and I don't have a huge horror interest, nor an interest in the occult. However, for whatever the reason, the stories have some sort of satisfying appeal to me. FFG produced a number of games before EH came out, and it shows in how well done EH is - and I don't just mean in production values (which it has). The stories the game tells are interesting, and despite a large randomized component to it, it all feels coherent. Now, a large portion of the story is designed to be coherent, but after numerous plays, I love that each time I play it still feels new, even replaying against the same bad guys (again, all while telling a coherent story - something I don't think the Arkham Horror 2nd edition game did). I don't tend to play this a lot because it takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot to set it up, a long while to play it, and then tear it all back down. I usually love it, but it definitely isn't my go to when I have 90 minutes to blow before bed.

I am a comic nerd. I used to buy comics in my youth - not to collect, but because I loved the stories and characters. Marvel was always my preference over DC, though I read both. So it is no surprise that Marvel Legendary is on my list. Not only does the game feature the characters from the comics, the actual Mastermind schemes are straight from a lot of the major storylines from over the years. Legendary lets you create your own team ups. Want to play the X-Men taking on Dr. Doom?  Go ahead - he might even have been the mastermind behind the Legacy Virus! If that doesn't mean anything to you, then you won't quite understand why I love this game. Don't get me wrong, this is not just a game I love because of the theme. There is a great great game here. When they re-skinned the game for the app version on my iPad, I fell in love with it all over, because the core of the game was so well done. The fact that the tabletop game has a Marvel theme just puts it way over the top for me. Yes, there is a score that is kept, but on the table, playing solo, all that matters is beating the Mastermind's scheme.

This is a recent COVID-19 acquisition. I heard there was a Marvel based LCG from FFG that had recently come out. Recently enough that I hadn't yet missed a bunch of content (like the next game on the list...). Again, I'm a comic nerd. So despite learning that there isn't (yet) a real campaign and that it doesn't seem to be setting up quite like their other LCG lines, I pulled the trigger and grabbed this. What I have found (so far) is something like Arkham Horror: The Card Game for Dummies (with a Marvel Comics skin). And that's ok - I don't mean that in a bad way. It is faster to setup and play than Legendary and still scratches that comic story itch. And yeah it kinda feels like I'm directing/creating my own comic story. I don't know if the leadership at FFG aimed for a lower barrier to the game just to widen the target audience or if this will eventually go down their normal LCG path, but I've decided I don't care and I'm enjoying it for what it is.

I guess he didn't kill all the tentacles on the first box cover

The last game on my list of solo games is Arkham Horror: The Card Game (another LCG). When this was first released, I was interested, but not sure. At the time, I really had no desire to play solo games - I could just get together with friends and play something and I had EH to scratch this particular itch (though due to the time commitment, we still didn't play as much as I'd have liked). Some friends told me they had tried AH: TCG and liked it and I should check it out. So I did.

I tried playing the first scenario. It was ok, but still I just wasn't into playing solo games. Fast forward to two summers ago. One of the other PBM guys LOVES this game. His enthusiasm gets me to pull it back out and try again. Yeah, this isn't a bad game and, it scratches an itch like EH, but without the same amount of work. But, after a couple plays, I don't go back - for two reasons. One, I just don't play solo that much. The other is: the game is on like the third season already at that point. Trying to find all the chapter packs is not cheap nor easy. So I kinda give up on it.

Fast forward again, to a couple days ago. FFG must be starting a reprint of the original cycle, because the first chapter pack for the Dunwich Cycle (the first "season") was available on Amazon - for the regular price. So, I grab my box, pull out the rules and spend a few minutes starting over with the instructions.

The whole time I'm sitting there reading them, I'm like - yeah, ok, that is pretty much just like Marvel Champions, but:

• Instead of a hero deck (built with a set of aspect cards and some filler), I have an investigator and I have to go find a bazillion separate cards to build the deck.
• Instead of a villain deck (built with the villain cards and a side threat set of cards), I have a scenario deck, that I have to build from a number of sets of cards
• Instead of villain plot cards, I have an agenda deck (more or less similar)
• Instead of a bad guy I beat up directly, there is an "act deck" with varying ways of advancing the story along
• Instead of just taking my turn, then the bad guy does their routine, and back and forth, there is going to be a map that lays out and I place my investigator and move. And there are skills and other complicated stuff (semi-complicated, maybe just complicated comparatively speaking).

Hey! I was right! Marvel Champions is seriously just AH: TCG, but simplified and with a different theme. People want to play these games, but not all that many people want to spend the time building and tweaking decks for a co-op or solo game. They want to mash together some cards and play the story. And yeah, I totally get that. I don't know how they are going to figure out a campaign for Marvel Champions. Maybe it'll be lightly tied together (at best) so that they don't overly complicate what that game currently is all about.

The fact that AH:TCG is MORE is fine with me, because I know from previous plays that the extra work is going to mean a good narrative, and that's why I'm willing to go back and give it another try. And if I don't feel like exploring all the cards and tweaking my deck, I won't. Or I'll go play Marvel Champions. 

Maybe, this will all be over sooner rather than later (I truly hope so, but I also doubt it very much) and I'll abandon these games because life will return (or maybe I'll have discovered something else I really enjoy). In the meantime, if you are looking for some good options for playing at a table for one, there are some games out that with good narratives if you want to give them a shot. 

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More Online Games I'm Playing

COVID-19 may have us all stuck at home - no game nights with friends, no gaming conventions, and no trips to our FLGS. That doesn't mean (despite the meme) that WE can't play - it just means we might need to play some online games.

I recently talked about the online games I'm playing. Here I am again to talk about some new games I've added to my catalog of choices since the last time. After all, variety is the spice of life.

Marco Polo is a game that I tried once (face-to-face) five years ago. I thought it was a clever game and wanted to see it some more, but never got another chance to play it. I recently got asked if I was interested in a game on yucata.de, so I reviewed the rules and am working through a couple games now. I like games where you roll dice and then use them (like Troyes) and this one is interesting, I just wanted to play it a few more times to grok the value of doing things. Right now, I'm just starting to understand the game past the mechanics. I'll have to get a few more games under my belt to see if I'm approaching things in ways that make sense.

My friend Nathan has been bored lately and looking for different games to try. He has been throwing me invites to pretty much everything he knows. This is one of the ones he sent - Attika. Attika is an older port of an older Euro game where players are drawing tiles and trying to build all their tiles. Each player has the exact same set of buildings and the goal is to build your tiles so that your starting point touches another players' starting point OR to build all your tiles. With two players, there is a fair bit of luck of the draw - builds can chain off each other, but you need to have the early part of the chain first. You also need resources to build, which comes from random card draws. All in all, a decent little game, but probably best with four players.

Madeira is one of those heavy thick euros. I played a burst of this in 2014 and then never got it to the table again because of the weight. When I first joined Boardgamearena.com (BGA) - I was excited to see it there - all I needed was to find some opponents and review the crazy rules. Ok, the rules are not crazy - in fact, each little bit of the game is pretty straightforward, there is just a fair bit of it and seeing how it interconnects and moves is what makes the game so heavy.

I found a decent video explanation that was under an hour (and was a little slow - it could have been 40 minutes). In fact, I watched only 30 min (fast forwarding through parts, so 30 min was more like 20). As the rules went on, I recalled enough of the game to jump in. We haven't progressed too far into the game, but I remember almost immediately what I like about the game - its deep, with a fair amount of moving parts, but it feels tactical. You pickup different scoring goals through the game and for the most part, choose which ones you'll score at score time. This lets you build up a little for the end game blitz of points, but also lets you tailor your play for rounds when you get bad rolls, or other players are after the same actions as you. The order the actions are done in (and whether they are even going to be available to you) is random each round and can be at the mercy of your dice, so being able to act tactically is important.

Once you've played this, it makes sense, but that first game might take you until halfway before you can grok what's happening. There are always those - "oh yeah! This is important because to do that you have to have this and to get this, I have to do this first!" things that you just don't get from rules.

Literally, Teotihuacan: City of Gods is a new game to me. Eric B from the Punchboard Media team posted a note that this game was the deal of the day on Gamenerdz.com a while back, so I jumped. I had seen this on the table a year ago at the AZ Game Fair, and and had been intrigued since. Then, when I went to look on BGG for a rules video, I found that a developer had recently finished the BETA Alpha version of the game on BGA! The developer was giving out invites to play/test before the game is released. I was super excited and sent a PM straight away. The rules by Rodney video is well done and gave me enough to get started.

Sort of - as we started playing, I know the rules and actions, but have no clue if what I'm doing is a waste. What should I be concentrating on? Did I do something stupid? I keep having to "waste a turn" getting cocoa - what the heck? I mean, I get it, the first game is a learning game when nobody knows the rules, but at least at the table, there is table talk and (usually) we talk about what worked for them and didn't and so on. Harder to do online. I feel like I started to make headway (when the game was almost over), but after my second play (where I made a small error at the end which cost me the game), the shine might be off this for me.

The game itself (at the table) is very pretty - really nice to look at. And busy - there is a lot to try and see. But after a couple of plays, I'm not sure any of us playing can see the value in trying to score certain ways. Certainly, we are not experts at this game with a combined two plays each, but none of us that played are inexperienced either. We all tried different things over the two games and decided that the paths to victory we limited despite all the ways to score points. I want to like this game, it just doesn't feel as robust as other similarly heavy games.

Again, this is still in testing on BGA, but should be out soon I'd think.

Out of nowhere I got asked if I wanted to learn and play another new game. Sure, why not? Hey look! It is a Kramer and Kielsing game. The rules didn't look too bad, so away we go. It has a kind of cool rotating market deal and it didn't take long to see this is a lightweight Euro (it feels like that particular category is harder to stick on games these days). This feels like a gateway game level euro - the rules seem very straightforward and the gameplay is right in line with other gateway games: very limited choice of actions each turn - do simple thing A or simple thing B. Even with the expansion setup, the game isn't too much more complex. Also, whatever my approach has been to the game so far appears to be reasonable. I won the first (basic) game and won (by a good amount) in the second game we played with the expansion. I like this one enough to want to play it some more.

Scythe was part of a recent HumbleBundle sale that I got in on. I got a load of games for essentially what it would have cost me to purchase Scythe alone. A bunch of us got together live to play (and learn/re-learn) the game. I had previously only played live once four years ago and hadn't played on the app yet either. I should have re-read the rules before playing as I showed quite poorly, but it was fun and I was glad to get a refresher.  Scythe is about $15 US (give or take - the price seems to vary a bit and you can get the software in bundles etc) and available on Mac or Windows platforms. I had heard that a version for tablets was coming, but that was quite a while ago and I've heard no news since.

Regardless, there seems to be quite a bit of online play for this still, so if you enjoy the game, you should check out this implementation (though I highly recommend you play against AI until you have the interface down - there is no undo to actions, which is probably my only real negative with the app). To be fair, I have this complaint with a number of online games as well.

Lords of Waterdeep is one of the best, straightforward worker placement games you can find (especially when you throw in the expansions). The app version is also excellent and plays cross-platform. Async games are a little slow - you place a worker, take the action and you're done. Really, that's true of a lot of games, but turns are so fast here that it feels a little like you aren't ever doing anything. That being said, the game is still great fun and good enough that an occasional play of it with a buddy or two is worth it.

There you have it, some more games I have re-learned and some more new games too! I'm trying to keep things interesting during the COVID quarantine. I hope you are all staying safe, for yourselves and everyone else out there! Play some games - at the table, or at your computer/tablet/phone. Make some new gaming friends and learn some new tricks! Until next time...

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Marvel Champions - Black Panther vs Klaw

Yeah, this duffus. If you don't know Klaw from the Marvel Comics (not the guy from the MCU), this is the guy. He looks like a dud. He started out as a Fantastic Four villain and the basic premise is that he was a physicist who was transformed into solid sound. He was a regular opponent of The FF, Black Panther and others. Because of his association to the Black Panther, I choose to pit the two of them in my first Marvel Champions game away from the starting villain.

My friend Eric B had warned me that Klaw was a step up in difficulty from the Rhino. I felt comfortable with the ease to which I had dispatched the Rhino over and over and felt ready for a new (real) challenge.

I went ahead and used Black Panther with the Protection aspect and a minor tweak to the standard cards. Klaw fit with the Masters of Evil, so I used them with Klaw.

You know what? There is a decent game in here. Klaw was no cake walk. He is stubbornly resilient. At first, neither of us were making much headway (which as I discovered, is bad for the hero). The Black Widow joined my cause, and I got out a Med Team to keep her going - she helped keep the threat down while I was dinking at Klaw or whatever minion was bugging me. But then I stupidly switched over to my alter-ego and his scheme jumped to part two.

The Masters of Evil side scheme came out, which ups the threat.

I ran through my deck of cards, and when I drew an encounter (that is the penalty for running through your deck) I ended up with two minions stuck on me. Then the bad guy encounter cards ran through, which ups the threat earned each round.

Suddenly I needed to both knock out a lot of threat on the main scheme AND knock out the stupid Masters of Evil scheme so that the threat increase would go away. I couldn't do it all fast enough - the cards I was drawing just weren't what I needed when I needed them and I lost.

But you know what? I didn't feel overwhelmed. I felt like this was a close game and the bad guys won this round. If I had cake-walked through the game, I would have been disappointed. Klaw also actually felt different than the Rhino. The villain decks give you some flavor for that villain, and they did a good job with the powers and the way that things happen. For such a simple game, there are interesting choices to make and a decent story in each scenario. excited to go back to the game again for a rematch.

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More Marvel Champions

In my ongoing exploration of Marvel Champions (solo), I played a couple more games. I wanted to get an idea of what the other hero and aspects decks were like, so I have kept to the starter scenario setup - yep, all my plays have been against the standard Rhino (I&II) setup. Spider-man and She-Hulk have had their shot, so time for some others to step into the arena.

First up was the King of Wakanda, The Black Panther. I went with the suggested pairing for him - Protection and found that he had no trouble at all with Rhino. While not the power house that is the She-Hulk, the Black Panther (with some help from a tough Luke Cage, and a couple Med Teams) were more than able to hold off the scheme and baddies until I had enough upgrades to unleash on him. In fact, the Black Panther armor transfers damage from you, to a bad guy, which is both a nice heal and attack that lets you get rid of the one of bad guys and whittle the arch villain down.

Next up was Tony Stark. Iron Man takes a turn or two (or three or four) to build up. I got an early Stark Tower in play, which let me pull a tech card out of the discard pile - essentially letting me use a tech to pay for other cards, then pull it back into my hand. Because of this, I quickly got a suit built and after that, the Rhino didn't stand a chance. Iron Man could really struggle if you don't get the cards you need early on, because the scheme can really build up on you, but if you can get some ally help to keep the scheme level down, Iron Man can really go to town.

Hey look! I organized my game.

Despite how easy the Rhino villain/setup is to beat, it works really well for getting a taste for how the hero decks should work. I still haven't played Captain Marvel, but I'm ready to move on and give Klaw and some other cards a go. Not quite sure what hero/aspect combo I'm going to give a whirl, but I may just have to give Black Panther the first crack at Klaw (its only appropriate).

So far I'm impressed how varied the heroes and the aspects actually feel. Each really has a different and to be honest, straightforward (once you know) approach to playing. I'm surprised how well this plays solo (it not only has interesting choices so far, but has been entertaining as well).

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Is Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2nd ed) For Me?

For whatever reason, I've been seeing a number of posts in different boardgame groups about whether someone should get into or try out Descent: Journeys in the Dark. Now, I'm a fan, so this isn't really a review. I am going to talk quite a bit about the game, so if this somehow helps you decide that the game is for you (or not your cup of tea) then great! I'll try and tell you what it is (and what I don't think it is) and why I enjoy it. I'm also going to use this as an excuse to show off my set of painted figures...

First off (since I already mentioned it), there are a lot of models/figures in the game. What you see above are all of the monster figures and all of the heroes that come in just the base game (as also mentioned, the above figures have all been painted by yours truly - if you buy the game, they come unpainted). Nine sets of monsters and eight different heroes come packed into the original set. And for those that want more, there is a LOT more. There are small expansions and large expansions. There are expansions that are nothing more than additional monsters and heroes to add more variety to whatever you currently own. Some monsters and heroes sets are more interesting than others (which is of course, subjective). But with the ENORMOUS library of expansions to choose from, you should be able to find something you like.

Assuming of course that what you are looking for is a fantasy dungeon crawler. Descent is exactly that - a fantasy based game set in FFG's Runebound universe of heroes and monsters. A scenario is setup (either for one simple session, or as part of a longer campaign of linked scenarios) and played and typically takes a couple minutes to setup (and tear down), and then will take roughly 90 minutes to play. Sometimes it might be faster, sometimes it can take longer, but this is a reasonable ballpark (this is considerably different from the first edition of the game, where scenarios were a multi-hour affair). Some scenarios have one team racing to get past the other side, some are target specific (keep this guy alive or knock that guy out kind of deals). Some are just stay alive long enough to claim victory.

As with many games of this style, combat and skill checks are done with dice. Descent has a number of custom 6-sided dice in various colors and depending on your skills, bonuses, and equipment, you roll a number of whatever dice you are supposed to roll to determine the outcome. If that sounds like every other dungeon crawler game you've ever played, well, Descent doesn't try to be something different, it just tries to do what it does really well - provide you with variety.

Let's start with the heroes. There are essentially 4 major archetypes (fighter, mage, thief, and healer to phrase it in a way most folks with any fantasy experience will understand). After selecting a character, you receive a card with that character's stats. Then you select their "class". Each archetype has a variety of "classes". Each class is a set of cards. The cards have some starting equipment as well  as set of skills and upgrades that can enhance your character as they earn experience (which can happen in some scenarios, but more often between scenarios in an ongoing campaign). The base set comes with a few classes for each type and the big and small box expansions have more types as well. One particular character can play quite differently depending on the class you choose as well as what upgrades you take.

But wait, how does it play? Well, the original, traditional version of the game is one (the Overlord) vs many (the heroes). And to keep it interesting for the Overlord, the Overlord also picks a class from the bad guy stuff. Their set of cards allow you abilities to thwart the heroes in a variety of different ways (which I can't describe, because I NEVER play this way). The Overlord also gains experience, so the "growth" happens for both sides. Each side takes turns - the heroes trying to thwart the Overlord, and vice-versa until one side achieves the scenario goal.

Wait, I never play that way, so how do I play? A few years back, FFG introduces an app (available on mobile/tablet devices as well as Mac/Windows machines) called Road to Legend. Road to Legend automates the Overlord side, making the game a co-op/solo game. You tell the app which expansions you own, and it provides a number of different campaigns for you to play through which incorporate your materials. And for those that don't have time (nor desire) to play multiple scenarios, the game has an option called The Delve, which is a randomly generated dungeon crawl. No real story, just a set of rooms strung together with monsters and traps to work through/around.

And if you are thinking the app replaces the game, it does not. It is nothing more than AI for your monster encounters and some additional story guiding. You still have to have the game and all of its glorious cards, counters, and bits to play the game.

What else might be interesting about the game? Well, during and after a scenario, your standard dungeon crawl stuff happens - which is to say that sometime you find stuff (equipment) and sometime you can visit a village store and find upgraded weapons and armor (and other fun stuff) for your characters. So not only do you expand your character's skill sets, but their equipment. And is there stacks of equipment... One thing FFG likes to do is print cards for their games, and Descent is no slouch. You'll find stacks of equipment cards in two sets (one is a little more advanced than the other and is meant for later on in a full campaign). There are also travel cards, which provide a little bit of extra flavor to the game and provide a story for getting from point A to point B.

So there you go. Is Descent for you? Well...

• Do you want a game with lots of variety (even if I only ever own the base game)? - yes, there is a good bit of variety even if you just have the base set. You can replay the same adventures with different characters and different skills and experience different monsters as well.
• Does it ever feel like the same thing? Sure, sometimes it does. If you only have the base game, it will eventually start to feel similar, even with different hero combinations and monsters, but if you get a little bit more (and that is a damn slippery slope, I know) - the variety amps up a lot.
• Do you have to play with a DM/bad guy/Overlord? Nope. The Road to Legend app is FREE and  while there is some in app content you can pay for, there is plenty that is free (seriously, a good amount to use is free).
• Do you have to use the Road to Legend app to play? Not all all, in fact, you don't have to use the app to play solo either. To play co-op or solo without the app, you have a couple of options. There are a couple of really good solo systems the community has built like RAMV. There are also a couple of Print on Demand co-op scenarios from FFG that more or less give you almost the same experience as the Road to Legend app, but in card form.
• Is there a strong story here? Strong? No. The narrative is a lot more loose. I mean, the campaigns have some overarching story, but to be honest, the story is not tight. You get a couple of paragraphs that setup each scenario (and how it ties to what you are about to do) and one or two more at the end of each. The gaps are left up to your imagination.
• Does this have a role playing (D&D) kind of vibe? Not so much. It is a tactical fantasy game of heroes vs monsters. It is a dungeon crawl with a loose story as fluff between scenarios.
• I've played Warhammer Quest - is this like that? Yes, but WAY WAY MORE. WHQ basically felt like the same thing every single quest. Same monsters, same hallways, same heroes. This is WHQ on steroids with a couple double espressos.
• Do I have to get expansions? Nope, the game is good out of the box, it just gets more interesting each time you add more. 
• Do you need it all? Nope, at a certain point, there are diminishing returns. If you play a lot, you'll want the added variety, but if you don't, you can be plenty happy with the base set and maybe one or two expansions.

I hope that helps. If you are interested in seeing all the stuff I've painted so far, check out some of my previous posts over the last couple years and see my list here.

Be sure to check us out at PunchBoard Media!