TABLETOP GAME REVIEWS

Review #1: The Rune Lords board game by Red Djinn Productions

Review #2: The Anatomical Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors game supplement by 

Review #1:

By Roger Alan Cotton

Everything Board Games

Let’s cut to the chase: You’re here to see if I think The Runelords board game by Red Djinn Productions is a good game, worth backing, and deserving of being added to your already inordinate amount of board games. Right?

The answer to all questions is: Yes. And I’ll tell you why...

As a long-time gamer and board gaming aficionado, I have backed a number of projects that looked good in presentation, but which sometimes fell far short of expectations. The Kickstarter Hype Train is a hard thing to resist jumping on. And many times, at the end of the line, you find yourself in Dudsville wondering why you ever bought a ticket there to begin with.

Without hyperbole, The Runelords is a very good card and board game; worth the ticket to ride (wink). 

This is coming from someone who doesn’t typically enjoy RPG-style Skirmish games. Were I to own this game, it would definitely hit the table many times per month. The replayability comes both from the numerous modes of play (ranging from 1v1 and 2v2 PvP to Cooperative, Adventure, and Solo modes), and from the simple but interesting mechanics incorporated into the game design.

Allow me to cover the main points.

The Runelords is a very visually appealing board game. 

The graphic layouts on the playing cards are both attractive and elegant. While at first glance, there seems to be a lot of information on the cards, every square inch of the layouts are well-thought out and functional. As a result, minimal instruction is needed to understand their functionality and purpose, and the information is ultimately not overwhelming at all. 

The Player Boards are also extremely well done. In addition to being where Hero Cards are placed, along with any attached items, weapons, and armor cards, the player boards are used to track Action Points, and any increases in bonuses gained that improve base attributes such as Movement, Attack Range, and Card Hand Size.

The art is a digitally-painted art style in line with the quality of art found on other professional-level products. This art is on both the playing cards and on their corresponding hero standees which are used to track the position and orientation of characters on the game maps.

The Game Maps themselves differ from mode to mode. In each case, the maps are well illustrated and designed to allow for various tactics during combat.

The game employs custom dice whose faces display symbols that indicate whether attack results are simple, medium, and/or critical hits. These outcome symbols match the same symbols displayed on hero cards, which specify the attack outcomes. 

Finally, the game utilizes simple, double-sided counters as markers placed on character cards to indicate conditions such as burned, crippled, and poisoned.  

The game also uses miniatures of creatures and monsters. I did not use the miniatures in gameplay, so I will not address them in this review.

It is apparent from gameplay that years of design and testing have gone into the development of this product. Consequently, there is no fiddliness in the gameplay.   

Depending on which mode you choose to play, Game Set Up is fairly quick and easy. That alone appeals to me as a busy person. 

You can choose to draft your heroes (in a deck-building mode), or play with pre-built decks. Future expansions will include new heroes with abilities that will synergize with previous characters. Thus, the game allows for interesting deck-building.

The game design provides interesting player agency through thematic action options that allow for engaging strategy. Even non-skirmish players can quickly grasp the objectives and how to achieve them.

This is aided by the visual representations of terrain hexes on the game maps that display color-coded lines. Examples of this include: white lines around hexes that require characters to fly to reach them; blue lines around hexes that  require characters to swim to cross them. Some hexes cannot be crossed through, and those are indicated by solid black lines.

Solid black lines along hex edges not only affect movement, but also visibility. If behind a solid black line, a character is not visible to others. At the same time, that character cannot move through a black-lined hex edge.

I would boil down the gameplay as a combination of thematic combat strategy with puzzle-style problem solving. Add to this elements of RPG character building and adventuring, and you have The Runelords.

The Runelords will be a welcome addition to even an already expansive collection. Whether you are a solo player or playing against one or more players in PvP scenarios, this game will provide you with hours of fun, banter, and strategy. And, that is what we all really want from the games we back on Kickstarter, right? 

Having said all of this, I gladly recommend, without reservation, that you support Red Djinn Productions by backing it today.

Review #2: 

If ever, in a dark and lonely place, you find yourself face-to-face with unspeakable horror, transfixed and unable to turn away from its twisted, seething visage, remain calm. Resist the urge to go insane. Instead, choose to dive deep into the maelstrom of madness, deep into the depths of insanity itself; and peer past the pustules of the horror’s outer skin, deep into the subcutaneous layers underneath. 

There, where no sane person dare look, lie the horror’s pulsing purple viscera. All but you would run gibbering from the sight. You, however, are not like most people. You are different. You are an Investigator. 

You have acquired arcane knowledge and practical wisdom from years of confronting the different. You have come to realize that knowing what makes a horror tick gives you priceless understanding; the understanding that a horror is nothing more than just another living creature. If it lives, you realize, it can be killed.

With that realization comes hope. With that hope comes courage. And, with that courage comes the ability to resist the temptation to succumb to mind-shattering oblivion.

The Anatomical Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors by Petersen Games is a handbook for those courageous few who would learn the physiology of the unspeakable horrors that threaten to destroy humanity. With such knowledge, new methods of confronting and dispatching these horrors may be developed.

Inside the covers of this eldritch source book (written and illustrated by Luis Merio), are fascinating studies of the biology and ecology of thirty-two interdimensional creatures and hybrid organisms. 

Accompanying each horror entry are notes about each creature’s name, physical nature, height, and natural habitat. In addition, the Guide has numerous height and size comparison illustrations that give the reader a sense of the scale between humans and each of the creatures.

Writer Luis Merio has done a very good job of making the unreal seem real. He does this by presenting the book’s information in the form of a field guide. Written in a clinical tone, the “Anatomical Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors” contains detailed and interesting information about each horror.   

At the end of each horror’s entry in the guide, are Explorer Notes. The Guide has stylized hand-drawn illustrations that, along with the explorer notes, give the Guide the feel of a science journal that was written over the course of years. 

The Guide’s primary appeal is its inclusion of dissection illustrations. Each illustration contains diagrammatic callouts that identify different parts of a horror’s anatomy. 

From this information, a Keeper of Arcane Lore could devise numerous diabolical storylines. 

For example: Investigators may need to locate the breeding grounds of a particular horror. So, they turn to the Guide for clues about the location of its natural habitat. Once at the location, the Investigators could carefully extract fluids from a horror’s writhing but harmless offspring. 

The information in the Guide could also be useful to an Investigator with a medical background, who seeks to learn how to extract a particular gland from a specific part of the horror’s anatomy. Once attained, the gland might then be combined with rare herbs and flowers to synthesize a powerful sedative that can be administered via elephant gun to safely subdue a horror. 

The sky’s the limit. Or, perhaps, the abyss is bottomless?

In this regard, the Guide is a great source book for more than just storyline ideas. Keepers can use the information within the Guide to create unique weapons, medicines, and toxins.  

The Anatomical Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors is a useful tool for Keepers and Investigators alike, and is a fascinating addition to the Lovecraftian Horror RPG game world.