Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge Dungeon Crawl (Core Game) 100+ Hours of Play

Product Information

The elements that come into focus are rendered sharply by player-driven selections from rich narrative elements: Should you trust that hooded stranger? Each of Bardsung’s 5 character classes feel unique, and, while they are all trope-adjacent, they feel unique to this type of game. All of these issues could be fixed by simply labeling the pieces 1–20, sides A and B, and drawing more prominent lines on them. Here, the card-based modular elements such as items and spells shine because they allow for high customization in even the most minor elements of the game, offering surprise and consequences to all decisions, big and small. Further altering each play is are the narrative twists and turns offered via the cards that are seeded throughout the Chapters, so even a run through of the same path through the game will have different story beats and discoveries.

The deliberately measured pace of Bardsung moves even more slowly than many other massive campaign games on the market, and your desire to dedicate large amounts of time engrossing yourself in this world will really determine the value that you get back out of it. Chapters take a varied amount of time because they are made up of Nodes (dungeons) that are explored non-linearly.That characteristic should be updated to +4 (the max), as this directly adds to rolls when using those skills. Lay tiles to build the dungeon as you go, choosing your direction from the options at hand to seek loot and avoid threats. A secret so great to even eclipse the greed of the power-hungry duergar clans, and the agenda oftheir cruel monarch. Almost all of the reviews on Board Game Quest are from review copies of a game provided by the publisher. Cold and unforgiving, Duergar Arcanists hold only their own lives dear, and think little of lashing others to death with dangerous and unstable magick.

Its a simple system but it effectively reduces the enemy to a single number, with little significant differentiation between goblins, spiders, bugbears, and duergar, other than their range of attacks. A massive board where it looks like a low-quality image have been blown up to the point of pixelation – what were they thinking? Seasoned soldiers and campaigners all, the Kingsguard are the elites amongst the Duergar, second only to the king himself.

In those moments, Bardsung shines through its intricate interactive mechanics and varied combat, as well as totes more immersive exploration possibilities than nearly every other game I’ve played. The gameplay itself is quick and snappy, and you can quickly jump into the game, start an Encounter and be well on your way. I got Bardsung as a Christmas gift from my wife because my gaming group was coming to an end of our Gloomhaven game. It positions itself as not quite dungeon crawler, not quite combat simulation, not quite open-world explorer, and not quite role-playing game.