The Tainted Grail series (Fall of Avalon and Kings of Ruin, plus the odd expansion here and there) is something I went all in on and received a few months ago. I just got it to my table this past weekend as it was the one 'big box' adventure game I had in my collection that the Solosaurus and BG41 (Board Games For One) group on Facebook voted to hear more about. I had given them about eight or so choices...because of course I did, it's me.
This is a nice, big game where you play as one of four (five with the Kickstarter edition) heroes in a rather dark and dying land, reminiscent of the dark days of Camelot. Lots of creatures, places to investigate, branching story paths, and additional stuff from the add-ons and expansions to make this a pretty fascinating time. The rules are easy to grok but the thing I had challenges with was the combat and diplomacy systems, both of which are card-driven and very heavy on linking icons to generate results. It just takes a bit of getting used to (and perhaps a few videos to watch) before it starts to click.
The game is chapter-driven, and each chapter has a goal, more or less, but with multiple ways of attaining it. Different heroes have different abilities, and some locations and encounters are more suited for some of them than others. The solo game as a single Hero is doable and enjoyable, but you can solo multiple characters if you wish.
I believe there's five total chapters in the Fall of Avalon game. I got through chapter 1 and partly through 2 before I stopped, intending to restart. I was playing the warrior smithy character, Beor, whom is great at combat but not so much at empathy. I want to start it again but this time, play with a second character. The variety of choices means there's a measure of replayability in the game, so there won't be too many spoilers waiting for me.
The map is generated via card play (large Tarot-sized cards), and the map expands by discovering Menhirs, statues that allow exploration in surrounding cards (areas). The Menhirs are limited, though, in that they will stop working after a certain number of turns. The more heroes that play, the less time there is, which is an interesting mechanic. I flubbed a lot through chapter 1 in my explorations, and know I messed up several rules, which are other reasons I want to start it over. The Menhirs are represented by rather large mini figures, about 3" tall each. They're REALLY interesting, but are HUGE and take up way too much space on the cards. It's much more practical to use a d8 or higher die on the card to represent how many turns that Menhir has left. Each Menhir has a 'dial' type coin that inserts into its base, and these coins have numbers along their edges, so you can turn it to represent each passing day. However, the numbers on these dials are really hard to read; they need at least a good wash coat from a dark paint, I think, to make them easier to read. I love the Menhir figures, but they're so damned impractical.
I'll add pictures later to this thread if anyone wants to see, once I restart my campaign - hopefully this weekend. I ordered some Etsy cardholders for the map cards, to make it easier to lay them out; the cardholders snap together and make the map less uneven. One little bump and cards go scattering everywhere; this will mitigate that completely, thankfully. Another reason why I wanted to restart the campaign, lol.
I'll end up doing a Solosaurus episode on this one eventually.
Here's links to the BGG pages for these games:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/264220/tainted-grail-the-fall-of-avalonhttps://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/371486/tainted-grail-kings-of-ruin-gamefound-edition
Topic: Tainted Grail Series (Read 1219 times)