I like the option of 4 different win conditions, since each one focuses on a different way of playing the game. I like to start by first revealing as many tiles in the middle as possible, so when the boss appears it would take longer for it to advance in it's acts. While doing that, I try to choose which win condition I want to try for, and then mainly focus on going towards what can be done in and towards the city that the win condition is from. While the boss advances though, it may change what happens and one of the other conditions may end up being easier to go after. Depending on how you play, and which characters you use, the subduing and the getting rich win conditions may be the hardest ones to go after until you get used to how everything works in this volume.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

I did not. Main reason why I sold the game.

I like the 4 different win conditions. It seems to me that certain ones of the win conditions are better for certain party configurations. IMO, the goal is to either tailor your party toward one of them or choose the one that has the highest chance of being accomplished by your party.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

For me it complicates the experience without adding anything that benefits the theme and sense of adventure. My laundry list of complaints about this game is quite long. :) Volumes 1 and 2 are much better games because they're more focused, IMO.

Thank you for the video. Still waiting to be delivered. Regarding the win scenarios, do you just pick one at the beginning? Just to add some variation? Hope the designer gets back to you and your able to post a follow up video!

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

You can pursue all win conditions at any time.

I just found out about Hexplore It a few weeks ago! Managed to snag a copy of Valley of the Dead King and it's in transit right now. Trying to find a copy of The Forests of Adrimon, out of stock everywhere, but I will be picking up The Sands of Shurax soon. Really excited to get this on my table, and it will probably be living there. I have been looking for a strong solo RPG hex/dungeon crawl board game for some time and when I saw this, it was exactly what i had in mind.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

I'm sure Adrimon will be back in print. That's my sweet spot. Love that game, so much.

@vexdhex9587

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheDungeonDive I located a copy of Forests of Adrimon, so have that on order now! Just recieved Valley of the Dead King Kickstarter Edition today, it's going to his the table tomorrow.

@69robtaylor

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheDungeonDive we played 5 player forest of adrimon. We spent far too long levelling up, getting stronger. After 7 hours we decided to try defeat adrimon. We slaughtered her easily. Next time we won’t spend such a long time boosting our stats

Looks really good and unique.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

It definitely has a unique feel.

Still waiting for my copy. Love the Hexplore it series.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

I really love Forests of Adrimon.

@jdebarr

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheDungeonDive Me too, I hope I have a different experience with this version then you did. We tend to like the same things and I do appreciate "thinky" games so maybe I will have a different experience then you. I'll let you know as soon as it arrives and I have some time to try it out. Thanks for the video.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

@@jdebarr Sure thing! I"m really expecting to come around on this one, and grow into it. It's just been a bit on the frustrating side getting going.

@z3r0slugfm

3 жыл бұрын

Hang in there

Really feeling your pain with this one as of yesterday. It's not so much analysis paralysis, but every time i turn a card over there is some new rule I have to look up, and looking it up doesn't always help. I probably read the Caravan Encounter section ten times and i'm still not sure exactly who takes the energy drain. Why are the ' -1 to movement' and 'always have to eat 1 food' in the Wastes not on the placard but only in the book? Stuff like that. I'll come back to it, just need a break. I did see they are finally adding artwork to the Encounters in Vol 4.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah. And v4 is also supposed to reel back the complexity. Back the v1 levels from what I hear.

SoS is quite a complex game. No doubt about it. Not really easy to get into it and into a flow at the beginning of the game. Played it now once over the last two days over around 8 hours and I was not able to finish it. Crazy! But I had a lot of fun. The hero levelling is quite cool and I really like the theme and setting. I think SoS is a real KS game. The designer put probably all ideas into it he had :-D. And as far as I can see the expansion gives even more content.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

The theme and setting are pretty great! No doubt.

Have you gotten a chance to get back to the game? I got mine a few days ago and had the same reaction you did. So I watched the Rolling Solo playthrough and just kinda fought through it. After about 5 turns, including 2 caravans and 2 games of Scarabs, I am feeling a lot more comfortable. I almost lost one of my heroes in a boss fight vs. Boss #1 and I also made the mistake of not exploring enough hot tiles (which would have started Act 2 really early in the game), but I am recovering well. I hope to hear more from you about the game because that initial feeling of being lost went away pretty quickly once I got started...

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

I have not. Going to. But it's not going to be pretty. :) I don't like this game. I don't like any of the things they added that make this game different from Forests of Adrimon. For me, they added way too many layers and systems, and it completely takes away from the sense of adventure, because I'm constantly having to remember way too many things. It's probably a good game, just not one that I like. I'm sticking for Adrimon for my Hexplore It fix. :)

Damn you...... My game went back after the closing of the euro tunnel. Now have to wait, but at least no extra charges in January. DHL were too quick to turn back. But thanks for the video.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

I heard about that happening to some people. Sucks! Stay safe and well.

@TheRealDarkSpoon

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheDungeonDive Not too hard though as Waste Knights turned up, and some Bloodborne games have sneaked out to UK backers. So plenty to play over the holidays.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

Can’t wait for Bloodborne!

So I took a flyer on the Kickstarter long ago, because I liked the general idea of it. However, after opening my copy, I was blown away by icon overload. This game seems fiddly as hell. The rulebook reads like a reference manual instead of a conceptual step-by-step that conveys the game flow with examples.., so I went to KZread to see if anyone has done a solid playthrough. The fact that an experienced hexplore it system veteran yourself is stuck and awaiting rules clarifications from the designer is a pretty bad sign. I may just leave it unpunched and see if I can get back what I put into it unless someone comes up with a slick playthrough of the finished product.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

It's rough. Really. Having a hard time with it. Forests of Adrimon didn't suffer from this at all, and I think it's a much better game.

Thanks Daniel. Definitely not a game for me, but I can see what seems cool about it to others. What's up with those cards with the big Exclamation and Plus symbols though? Are those placeholder or work-in-progress cards? That isn't actual retail graphic design is it?

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

It is actual art. I talk a bit about this in my original video for Forests of Adrimon, and how I had to get over that. :).

What are your rules questions? Just curious

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

I'm going to wait until I hear back from the designers before discussing.

I absolutely love desert fantasy as a sub-genre but this looks like icon and keyword overload. Are those keywords on the cards? Man WotC needs to do a Dark Sun boardgame.....

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

This game is not good in my opinion. Way too many systems. Working towards a review soon. The previous volume, Forest of Adrimon is much better.

@johnmiddleton4291

3 жыл бұрын

You conveyed that rather well is this video. If the enthusiasm to play a game never occurs, it doesn't matter what it's other merits or faults might be. I often set up wargames after reading the rules couple of times and play one turn only to leave them sit for weeks untouched. By then my mind has wandered away and it's occupied with something else I'm reading. I do get enjoyment from just that though, so it isn't a bad thing.

The biggest problem with this volume is, that in its core, it is still a simple game. But with this ruleset and that amount of modules the series become complicated which is not a good design choice in general. For example the amount of keywords and their usage is not helpful at all for the flow of the game. "Size matters" is so artificial in its explanation and could have been much more easy to read and to understand. Just improve the card size of the circumstance deck (Tarot), write full sentences and get rid of the whole keywords idea. That would save an amount of pages in the rulebook and it would make learning the game much easier. Just one example. The design of the Caravan Master cards, the handling of the ravager (make an Event Deck for that!) and so many more aspects could have been made so much more easier and elegant. SOS deserves the price for the most uneconomic design of 2020.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

Well said. This game shouldn’t be that hard to learn, but it is.

@dall1786

2 жыл бұрын

If you know how to hexploreit it's not that difficult. Both my daughters 11 and 12 love this game to death and find it quite easy to play. It's not the kind of game you can pull off the shelf and play every couple of months but then again most RPG style games cannot be. I would never recommend this hexploreit to a new players to this system for sure. Any new player should play Valley of the Dead until they know it inside and out before going to SoS. Forest of Adrimon is a completely different system from the original and SOS so be wary of that.

I was very interested in this game, but the persons play through I watched got way to many benefits way to easily at the casino and it rly put me off.

@TheDungeonDive

3 жыл бұрын

He must be luckier than I've been, because I'm finding this game so damn hard! :)

@allfour1

3 жыл бұрын

Don't be fooled by his playthrough, he also rolled way more Hexes than should be humanly possible! This is a tough game.

@dall1786

2 жыл бұрын

@@allfour1 it's not as hard as you think if you understand how the hexploreit design works. Putting together a character is a super important part of the game that shouldn't be just randomly handed out in a few minutes. A seasoned player usually has a build in mind but a new player can easily spend 30+ minutes putting together a character. I have taught the game many times and this is usually the biggest hurdle for new players. The flow of the game is much easier to grasp once shown.

@leadbones

Жыл бұрын

@@dall1786 It's not that complicated. Sometimes you lose to dice rolls, regardless of your party composition, and sometimes you get lucky. Such situations are unrelated to skill or experience.