Sword & Sorcery

Played this for the 4th time last night. Replaying the 3rd quest of the campaign with my friend because we failed the first time. My friend is playing as a tank and for the first 2 quests I was a shitty mage that kept dying so last time I switched to an archer. It was a tough decision because I lost everything the mage had gained and was back at level I. I made the right choice though because the character has survived much better and already is caught up to where the shitty mage was. The game has a lot of videogame influences like you build your character with powers that need cool-down periods. I happen to like Action RPG videogames so that kind of stuff is right up my alley. Initially I was worried about the lack of a grid since I also really like grids in dungeon-crawl games. Here you just have rooms with a spot in each designated for drawing line-of-sight from room-to-room. This allows movement to be counted by how many rooms you can move to instead of how many spaces. I feel like this is more realistic to how an Action RPG should play whereas a Tactical RPG does better with a gridded board. It also removes the kbitzing about where to place an enemy since they're either in the room with you or they aren't. There are also a lot of options for the characters but some are clearly better to always pick at the start so I'm not convinced playing the same character twice will really feel that different. Time will tell I guess.
The AI for the monsters is based off Galaxy Defenders, which I've never played. You have a sheet that says, for example, who any Raider will attack first, how Raiders will attack and defend, and any special abilities all Raiders get. Then each individual Raider would also have a card with their hit points, loot they drop, etc. Overall I'd say it works well to give same type monsters common behaviors while allowing for each to also feel unique.
The quests can all be played outside of the campaign as it gives you what you need to make your characters appropriately leveled and equipped if you just want to drop into one of them. I wish more games (I'm looking directly at you Star Wars Imperial Assault) would give this option. I played through the Diablo III story mode twice. Once to experience it on my PS3 and once to unlock adventure mode on my PS4. Sadly I feel this games campaign will be the same despite the variability in quests from character alignment (Good, Neutral, Chaos) based choices for different stuff to happen. I just don't see myself replaying it except if friends want to. Jumping into quests or side-quests as one-off's and trying out different characters I will definitely do. In that way its the same as any other board game I'd pull off the shelf on a game night.
There is a lot of stuff to keep track of for bonuses and penalties but not that bad for anyone who has ever played a dungeon-crawl or RPG-ish board game, imo. Personally for this type of game I prefer that. I want to get +1 for focusing, another +1 for supremacy (outnumbering enemy), another +1 and a critical from one of my powers, yet another +1 because I'm using a quality weapon, and so on. I know some people prefer all that stuff be removed or somehow simplified but personally I want the game to go down to that level of detail. I'm sure I've occasionally forgotten to add a bonus or penalty. However I'm not playing in a tournament environment so that's okay.
This game has a lot going for it and does a great job of emulating an Action RPG dungeon crawl in board game form. It also sets up and plays pretty fast with us knocking out every quest in a couple hours each so far with 2 players. Its also cool that per the storyline all the characters are raised dead so if you die you are still in the game and making decisions and affecting things as a ghost until you can get raised again. I don't know if its the perfect dungeon-crawler that everyone looks for but it scratches all of my itches in that category well enough.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. I have played it twice now, both times with the first scenario. I found it to be rather fiddly, as I think all of the modifiers gets to be a bit much. We also found that having 4 heroes resulted in an interminable slog, while 3 heroes allowed us to cruise down the hall.

If CMON ever decides to send me my Massive Darkness pledge, I suspect Sword & Sorcery may never show its face again.

Finally got my Wave 2 stuff so this KS is completed. I love the Hollywood Armory cards but I'm stumped on a few of them.



Dragon Order Plate = Bram Stoker's Dracula
Gladiator Leather = Gladiator
Gremlin Kings Vest = Labyrinth
Sword of Atlantis = Conan the Barbarian
Kingmaker = Excalibur
Braavos Needle = Game of Thrones
Immortal Blade = Highlander
Glaive = Krull
Deaths Gift = Harry Potter (Elder Wand)
Dark Lord's Maul = Lord of the Rings
Staff of the Grey = Lord of the Rings
Vampire Redeemer = Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Pandora's Bow = ? Is this supposed to be the bow Legolas gets?
Crimson King's Shield = 300
Hidden Blade = Assassins Creed

My friend who owns this has wanted to try it again with 2 players. I suppose it will happen at some point. But as predicted, Massive Darkness shoved this one out of the spotlight due to its more streamlined game play.

I can't believe I'm gonna have to go to BGG to get those cards identified. I'm ashamed of FAT's lack of geek knowledge.

The Hidden Blade is from the Assassin's Creed series. It's a wrist blade that pops out that lets you do stealth take downs on enemies.

Crimson King Shield is from 300.

Gremlin Vest is indeed from Labyrinth.

Pandora’s Bow...hmm.

Vampire axe, that’s odd too.

THE GLAIVE???????????

axe - abe Lincoln vampire hunter?

lj1983 wrote: axe - abe Lincoln vampire hunter?

I thought that too, but I assumed that these were all from well liked, widely watched movies.

First thing I thought of when Barnes was talking energy bow in the other thread, A cartoon from a property some of us might have heard of.

HA! I bet that is what I conflated with Archer to come up with the energy Bow!