Anytime you can cross even a few elements of the role playing Dungeons & Dragons game into the realm of board games, it tends to be a good thing.
Or, at the very least it is a hook to catch the attention of this gaming group.
Call to Adventure is a tabletop game in which players compete to craft the hero with the greatest destiny. “Play cards to build your character, cast runes to face challenges, and choose whether to follow a path of heroism or villainy. The core game mode is a 2-4 player competitive game, but Call to Adventure can also be played solo or cooperatively,” noted the Kickstarter page when this game had nearly 11,000 backers raise just over three-quarters of a million to get the game produced.
Call to Adventure was created by Brotherwise Games, the company that also produced Unearth reviewed in this space previously.
The goal with Call to Adventure was to “design a game based on character-driven fantasy novels and RPGs. In Call to Adventure, facing a childhood rival or meeting your true love can be as important as slaying a dragon,” notes the Kickstarter page.
In terms of fantasy novel connections as part of the Kickstarter, the company announced “collaborations with two New York Times bestselling authors, Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson. The very first expansion to the game -- available as a pledge level within this campaign -- will be set in the world of Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind. When this campaign reached $300,000 in funding, Brandon Sanderson announced that next year we will be releasing Call to Adventure: Stormlight.”
In the case of Rothfuss, he is clearly a board game fan having collaborated on the design and release of Tak, a game originally mentioned in his book. The game is amazing, again as was reviewed here previously.
In Call to Adventure “players compete to create fantasy heroes. On the journey from your humble Origin to your epic Destiny, you will gain Traits, face challenges, and grow in your Abilities. Every player will build a character and tell a story, but only one will become the greatest hero,” details some brief fluff in the rule book.
In Call to Adventure, players face challenges and acquire traits over the course of three Acts. Along the way, each player’s hero will gain Triumph points for victories, Tragedy points for following a darker path, and Experience tokens when they fail.
While points ultimately matter in winning and losing, the cards collected through the course of a game can tell a story for the theatrically inclined. Our little enclave is not so inclined but some will find this game a fine jumping off point for a rather impassioned telling of a tale at game’s end.
In that respect no two games, or at least the stories the games create, will ever be exactly alike.
The game cards do offer excellent art, not unexpected when looking back at Unearth which was also visually stunning.
The use of runes, you throw a handful to accomplish things on every turn, are a neat mechanic, with the access to various runes dependent on the cards you have acquired.
Overall, a solid game that holds the promise of more interesting expansions on the horizon because of the book connections.
A definite add for fantasy fans.
Check it out at www.brotherwisegames.com
Thanks to fellow gamers Trevor Lyons and Adam Daniels for their help in running through this game for review.
