It's almost hard to believe that it's finally here. After years of delays, changes and drama I finally had my chance to play with my very own copy of Trudvang Legends. I thought I'd put my current thoughts down here now and then possibly provided an updated or more complete review when I have spent more time with the game. This isn't a review, more the rambling thoughts of someone who has just played a game that they have been excited about for the last three years.
So straight out of the packaging and a couple of things strike me. Compared to most projects I have recieved lately, this box is small and not as heavy as I expected. The other thing that struck me is that <PERSON> name is no longer on the box. This was surprising considering how heavily his name was tied to the project in its early staged. I understand that he has moved on from CMON since but I had not realised his role in the creation of this game and it's systems had been so diminished.
Inside the box, the punchboards all push out nicely with the exception of the Point of Interest Board with the 12 windows. After struggling a little with it my advice is to push the large window in slightly first, then remove the small oval piece before taking the large window out entirely. The rule book and saga book are nice and decorated with the same art as the box. The windowed boards seem to be a decent quality. Diving deeper, the cloth bags are of better quality than those found in Massive Darkness 2, you can reach your hand in without much trouble. The cards look nice although I have not examined these in much detail to avoid spoiling myself on game events/ stories. The insert that comes in the box is garbage, it takes up too much space and doesn't make pack up/ pack down any easier (Bloodborne, Cthulhu: DMD and Townsfolk Tussle have the best default insert from the games I own). Finally the minis are your typical CMON quality, good for a mass produced board game, not great when compared to Games Workshop.
First game set up is surprisingly quick and the rulebook does a decent job of walking you through it. I would have preferred a "Getting Started" Booklet or similar to demo the flow of the game but what they have is sufficient (at this point anyway). I choose to play as the bard and rogue. My first difficulty was slotting the initial cards into the boards, the spaces are fairly tight. 304
Applying a little pressure with a fingernail seems to be enough to get the card in place. The first mission is a reasonable intro to the game, without giving too much away you are immediately given choices and parts of that adventure remain a mystery to me. During the course of the adventure I unlock a side quest which gives me some options for my next game. Combat is a bit wonky, possibly because I am playing two handed. The rune drawing mechanic is interesting and having the random card draw each round does make it more dynamic than the static four card loadout that was presented in the Kickstarter, although looking at the class abilties vs. the character specific abilities I'm not sure how different the strecth goal characters are going to feel when they arrive. This is also where the rulebook starts to let me down. It's possible that I missed some explanations but I had to stop play several times to try and work out things like exhaustion, does damage carry over to multiple enemies, the timing of items etc. I think I understand how combat works now but the rules could do this a lot better, and the provided examples are just awful at showing combat basics. The story book itself if fairly easy to navigate and the first Adventure ends up being a fun little quest that only uses about 3-5 zones on the board (although there is nothing stopping you from travelling far and wide there is also little incentive).
For my second play I opt in to the side mission that I picked up. The difficulty here is immediately spiked up with enemies coming at you in larger numbers and as more elite versions. This is also where I experienced my first death. Unlike the "you die, you story ends" ruling in the game explanation on Kickstarter, the penalty for dying is a bit more obscure. It's hard to judge it at the moment as I have not seen how it evolves completely. At first you have a more diluted feat deck but, if you don't achieve certain personal goals (keeping this intentionally obscure for spoilers) the difficulty ramps up slightly for future games. There are a few fun moments in the side quest, a lot of jumping back and forth between cards, points of interest and the saga book. It felt more like a game of DnD, throwing more skill checks, innate abilities for classes and riddles and lore that you can actually use to change the outcome of events. I found this adventure to be quite enjoyable although I was disappointed that the board state did not change much by the end. 884