Call To Adventure

1-4 players, Competitive, Rune Tossing Set Collection

Overview of Gameplay

Call to Adventure has brave players creating an interesting and unique fantasy “life” for themselves. Players will create this legacy by completing certain tasks and card-based adventures and adding those teeny bits of stories to their own player boards. Which in turn not only creates an interesting storyline for your character but also makes them more powerful in the form of adding more runes that you can use to defeat later cards that can be added to your collection.

Your character can also sway into the light or dark, kinda the good and evil aspect, and with that brings about other things. Certain cards can only be acquired if your character is a certain level of good or evil and of course said cards will give certain abilities based on those specs. Once you have acquired a certain number of cards to build up your first of three card sections on your player board you can move right along to part two of your story. This unlocks the second section of cards that you can try to acquire that are stronger. Phase three usually sees you challenging monsters and diabolical creatures as you have grown even more powerful but of course there are challenging adventures awaiting as well.

Once players have achieved the allotted card assignment, they count up their respective destiny points and whoever has the most points wins! But of course, for me this game is ALL about the journey and not the destination. I personally don’t even bother counting up the end points unless I’m doing a solo game.

Components/Game Board

The components are pretty hit or miss here. The player boards are a pretty thin cardboard and are prone to warping. The cards are also pretty thin BUT the story cards are tarot sized which I prefer greatly in this case. There are some little red plastic destiny tokens that are borderline low quality. They are also hard to pick up when flipped over as the angles are super smooth.

On the other hand, the rune tokens are amazing. They have a really nice polished feel to them and the symbols on them are each unique and interesting looking. They have a good weight to them as well and feel great when tossed on the table with their rounded edges. The “clink” sound they make when coming into contact with each other is mesmerizing.

Box/Storage

The box and insert is…ok. There is a plastic insert, which I do appreciate, HOWEVER it doesn’t keep the cards and tokens secure if stored on its side. I hate pulling out a game with an insert and seeing all the cards mixed up and the plastic tokens scattered all about. However the Rune insert is excellent and has a lid that holds all the runes in place.

Visual Appeal /Theme

Now this is where the game just knocks it out of the park. The artwork is STUNNING. Hats off to the artist here because this is some of the most eye-catching artistry I have come across in board gaming. Each card has a unique picture emblazoned across it. This is yet another reason why I like the tarot cards so much in this game, because you get more picture. I mean there is a title for each card basically summing up how your character is growing but the artwork EASILY tells the same story and more. If nothing else pick up this game just to appreciate the little miniature works of art. There are many pieces in here that I wish I could just blow up and make full sized posters they are that good.

As far as the theme it is a pretty generic fantasy story you are living. That said, the WAY you are experiencing it makes it more worthwhile than a typical fantasy game theme. If you tossed in these stories into any other board game, it would be bland. But here, you actually decide HOW you want to evolve your character through these little stories. That makes them feel more personal and interesting.

Rulebook

I had such a hard time with this rule book. The layout is pretty shoddy and there are missed explanations all over the place. For such a simple game to play this rulebook has to be one of the worst I’ve encountered in explaining exactly HOW to play the game. Many a time did I visit the internet to find rules explanations. After I finally got it all down I sat back and was perplexed at how simple this game is and yet how hard it was to learn from those rules.

Player Interaction/Fun Factor

Not much here really in the form of player interaction. I mean yes other players can and will take cards that you were eyeing but really everything you do is going to affect your own character and nothing more. It’s more like who can do these things FIRST and get the points, almost like a random race game. That said, I had a bunch of fun playing this and creating characters and seeing them grow.

Optimal Player Count/Replayability

Personally 1 or 2 players would be ideal. The solo game is fun with you going up against a particular boss creature so you are trying to build up your character a certain way to more easily take them out at game end. At two players you have a bit of competition with the card selections and the end game scoring.

Replayability is good since there are a plethora of different starting cards to choose from to start you on your journey. Not only that but you never see all the cards for each act so each time you play you’re bound to come across new cards that you haven’t seen before.  Solo play is especially replayable as there are a bookoo of different solo bosses to go up against that are all completely different.

The Fuzzy Llama Silver Seal of Distinction

Positive Final Thoughts

Omg the artwork, *drools*, so amazing. That combined with the variety of different cards that can show up lends to some great and fun replayability. Not only that but the game is genuinely FUN as you adventure and make a name for yourself whether for good or evil. The rune casting is also really good!

Negative Final Thoughts

The rulebook needs some work and some of the component quality is questionable. Player interaction at higher player counts suffers as well since players will be focusing on their own characters more than paying any attention to what others might be doing.